Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Howdy from Texas

Hello from a long time off and on lurker to your enclave of small-water piscatorial information. I'm a resident of East Texas with access to some family stock tanks that have been under the primary management of Mother Nature and Charles Darwin for the last ten years or so. The primary purpose of all of them is to provide surface water for cattle and wildlife. Fish are a distant second.

I'm a cattle nutritionist by trade and I enjoy the complexities of a big picture, systems-based approach to the management of a biological whole.

Just to make things harder than they need to be, I'm primarily a fly fisherman. Few things in life make me as happy as watching a largemouth bass cause a miniature water-based mushroom cloud under a bug I tied. I also enjoy some spirited light tackle bream busting.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the water I am blessed enough to have access to and some of the fish that have come from it.



The picture below is from late February 2011.


This is a photo from a similar location on the bank in September of 2011.


This is all that was left of the 2-3 acres in September 2011. I assumed that the fishing would be pretty poor, if not non-existent if it ever rained again. The upper right corner of this picture is the spillway of this tank.


It finally did rain again, although no water has gone over the spillway since 2010.


Imagine my surprise in April of 2012 when I caught several of these:


In 2013, the hits still keep on coming.






I look forward to soaking up lots of new knowledge from you folks.

Welcome to the forum! Nice choice of fly rods. From the look of the cork it's not the first time you've used it!

George1 will be wanting to talk to you.

I've got a friend in the Miller Grove area who is also an avid fly fisherman, and one of his ponds is a trophy LMB fly fishing only pond. IIRC the pond record is pushing 12# now.

Dusty, welcome aboard!

George is gonna fall out of his chair when he sees this post.

welcome TxRedRaider! Nice fish!

ps: we hung with ya'll for 2-3 quarters last night, but that was it...was one hot tailgate & game to attend.

Welcome! The RRs could use some quality representation in this forum -
Glad you're no longer a lurker.

I want to give a proper introduction and welcome my buddy Dusty Abney, who as he mentions, is a cattle nutritionist with a strong interest in fly-fishing family stock tanks, with fish being a second priority to the cattle business.

Dusty and I have been virtual friends for a number of years and unable to meet in person until a few weeks ago when our friend Al (FireIsHot) said he was going to correct that problem, We made a trip to Athens and had a ball eaten’ and greeten” and getting acquainted in person. Al and l leaned on Dusty pretty hard to join up and it wasn’t really difficult to persuade him to join PB after tossing around genetics and nutrition talk.

OK, Dusty is a real Cowboy PhD type bovine nutritionist that is associated with a major national feed manufacturer that consults with managers of some of the largest ranches in the country. Being in the animal division, he claim’s no knowledge of fish nutrition but I believe he is just modest.

Our common interest is in fly-fishing and fly tyin’ and have been swapping flies and materials for a number of years, having gained national recognition for his innovative weedless bass bugs. He’s good – the innovator of the UDF Frog weedless bass bug that is the best I have ever used in nasty structure and mean surface cover. Yu can pull that thing through a bob wire fence!

Eric, I just betcha we could get Dusty to tie a few of these bugs for PB conference auction to donate to the SDSU Jesse West fishery foundation.
Scott, Dusty has some your deer hair you brought me, but this season we want some really coarse body hair from the oldest meanest buck you can find.
The coarse body hair is the secret weed guard for the Dusty Bug.

Glad to have you on board my friend and thank you Al for making it happen.
George

Thank you very much for the gracious welcome, folks.

esshup, George is the reason I have both of the Mini Mags. I do my best to be vice president of the Mini Mag fan club. We all know who the president is.

Al, good to virtually see you again. If my schedule ever settles down some, we need to go fishing.

Zep, I'm such a poor athletic fan of my alma mater that I didn't even know there was a game. I'm just happy Leach is gone. If we could just get Spike to come out of retirement...

Kelly, that picture makes my out of shape casting arm itch. If I could just plop an Upside Down Frog a bit to the left of that pad and give it a small twitch...:)

And George...I'm going to have you write up my next resume! How am I supposed to live up to all that?!?

My claims of knowing nothing about fish nutrition are well founded. If you can staple a rumen to a fish, then MAYBE I'd know something about it.

I'd be happy to kick in a few UDFs for charity. Just tell me when, where, and how big a stick to tie them for.

Necessity is the mother of invention.
Take a look a the water primrose in the background - bass haven if you have the nerve to cast a bass bug or lure into this stuff - Dusty UDF bug will swim right on top of this stuff and explosion will follow.


Photo of Dusty bugs:

George/Dusty:

I can only take one buck per year here in Indiana. How 'bout I salt the whole hide and send it down? I can send as many doe hides as you want tho.

I'll be out in Co. for Elk in December, on a cow ony hunt, but if I can place the bullet correctly, that hide is getting tanned hair-on and getting thrown over the back of the couch.

But, if you think some Elk hair would be utilized, I can see about getting some. Just let me know where on the hide it should be taken from.

I might get a buck in Wi., but no telling how old it will be - it's rare to see a buck where we hunt, and it could be a 2 year old. (4 of us average less than a buck per year between all of us)

Scott, haven't done any tyin' with elk but maybe Dusty has?
What we need is the coarse hollow side body hair from a big oldest buck you can kill or acquire from processor.
Whatcha think Dusty?
Texas bucktail has best texture for streamer flies but Northern body hair best for bass bugs.

I like body hair better than belly hair but does have some use.
Beggars can't be choosers - we'll tie 'ya some bugs!
G/

Hey, Texredraider, ever think about a few tufts from some of the old feral Texas hogs. That should make em ride up an over for seedless!

Shelby, I am going to take a shot at your question before it gets cold and Dusty can pile on...
Betcha feral hog bristle would make good conventional weed guards but a weedless "hook point up" fly pattern needs floatation.
Deer body hair, as well as buck tail, is hollow, or cellular might be better terminology - resulting in floatation and hook point up bass bugs.

Dusty's deer hair bass bug is the best weedless bug I have ever fished.
Thanks for your question.
George

Hi George, seriously I have heard that pronghorn hair is super buoyant.
Tom

Yeah Tom, hadn't thought about that - even polar bear....
All those critters need insulated underwear..
Ponds are made for fly fishin'!
G/

Dusty, I'll chime in with a welcome as well. George has told me a lot about you. Hope you try to make it to the next East Texas gathering, last years was a blast!!

Welcome TXRR. Glad you joined in.
Here is the archive on George's flies for PB.



http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92618#Post92618

Here is a sample !!!! George and Brandon (with TFO) did these.






Here's some "sculpted" deer hair bugs - LMB - SMB - WC, tied by george - Mike George that is...









How many PB I & II remember Brandon Powers?
TAMU fisheries biologist – classmate of Todd Overton – expert world class fly fisherman – fly casting instructor – bass bugger extraordinary – heavy hitter with Temple Fork Outfitter.. …He corrected my poor teaching skills and taught Nate , Justin, JHAP and probably some others some advanced casting echniques in the convention center hallway.



Maybe if we can get enough PondBossers signed up for the planned Mini PB N.E. Texas field trip we can intice Brandon to join us?

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=147482

Our friend Brandon just returned from a fly fishing trip to Brazil with the TFO bunch and gave me permission to post his pictures.
The first and foremost photo is Brandon tyin’ a fly for one of THE foremost pioneers in the fishing world – you fly fishermen out there will recognize that Brandon is in GOOD company!



Photos below are a sample of fish varities of fish caught and a smattering of scenery,

Great post Eric!
That should whet Dusty's appetite for participation on PB forum and invitation to attend "planned Mini PB N.E. Texas field trip", as well as all new and "old" members.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=309919&page=3

Our "get-togethers" are fun play days with attendees learning from each other by sharing pond knowledge and experience.
No agendas or seminar type presentations - just fun stuff.
Wives are welcome to serve as "adult supervisors.
George

The primrose in the picture that George referenced is a big part of why I'm so obsessed with weedless bass bugs. The other aquatic plant that I have a love/hate relationship with is American Pondweed. There's quite a lot of that on Lake Athens and it's great cover for the forage species bass love to smash, but it's so terribly fragile that most flies cast into it bring several pounds of vegetation back to the boat with them. The UDF is the best way I've found to fish those two kinds of vegetation...so far.

I think the three key characteristics I'd be looking for in a material for the UDF would be buoyancy, length, and the right mixture of stiffness and flexibility. If all three of those aren't present, the pattern just isn't as effective. The pronghorn has me curious. I've never heard of it being used as a tying material before. What kind of length does the hair have?

I'm all for testing wild pig bristles. Just to be sure we have enough for a test, let's shoot all of them we see.

I've seen Mike George's work on the internet before. He is truly an artist in deerhair. I'd love to get a chance to watch him stack, spin, and pack sometime.

George has bragged on Brandon to me before, but those Peacock Bass pictures leave me even more jealous than I was before.

When is this mythical gathering of which you folks speak? It sounds like my kind of get together. My wife (She With The Red Hair Who Must Be Obeyed, or SWTRHWMBO) would probably pass since she probably needs a break from supervising me.

Dusty I love Primrose, but I usually have enough open water and drought drop, that it stays pretty manageable.

I'm hoping the mythical gathering is late October/early November. Your wife is certainly welcome to come because most of us move so slowly she could manage us from a sedentary position.

Oh I love primrose as a forage habitat, but from a fly flinging perspective it's a nightmare. Once I found a way to fish it with less frustration, I really came to enjoy it. The almost funny thing is, with the low water levels again this year, there is NO primrose in that tank. In fact, there's little to no vegetation in it at all this year. Most of that tank is fairly shallow, with the exception of the dam, so it gets almost completely covered. I have no doubt that it will make a quick recovery with some wet stuff from the sky.