Hello (again) all. I wandered back after another extended absence. I'm glad to see this site is still here!
Been some changes since I was last active on here - COVID, of course but that didn't hamper my fishing much in 2020, if anything I had more time to fish because my business was slow. I also moved the family 2500 miles across country, we left Oregon behind for good and resettled on the far outskirts of Houston. Instead of a cramped little apartment in a not-great neighborhood, we've got just a hair under 3 acres, and a 2400 sq foot home in a rural subdivision with four ponds / small lakes.
In the six months we've been here, I've fished more than I had in the preceding year. I'm also quite thoroughly enjoying fishing for (and catching) bass in 'winter' - despite being born and raised in NW Oregon, I'm 100% over cold, wet, sometimes snowy winters. We had "snow" here for a few hours, on one day this year, and a handful of mornings that dipped into the low 30's (but it was 55-60 by mid afternoon on those days) and we've had a lot of 60-80 degree days so far. A guy can really get used to that!
I don't currently have any ultralight fly rods, I sold my UL fly rods to cover some costs during the earlier months of 2020. My lightest rod right now is a 5 weight, and I've been fishing a lot more with my 6, 7, and 10 weight rods. I want to pick up another light rod for the panfish and bass in our ponds at some point.
Right now my light tackle is in the form of spinning rods - which have been quite productive of late! A crappie jig suspended under a float has been killer for largemouths in the last couple weeks.
That last guy wiggled and slipped out of my hand, hence the grass.
I had to send this pic to my cousin a week or so back, they were getting snow back in Oregon where we left, and the thermometer on my van said 80 degrees while I was driving up to the pond.
We've also fanagled access to a pond next door to my grandparents home - they used to own it, then sold it to a neighbor. We're trading keeping up with the landscaping around the pond for fishing access. Its full of LMB and assorted panfish.
I've also managed some firsts since moving here - landing new-to-me species of panfish, including Rock Bass (cool little panfish, maybe my favorite of the panfish I've caught out of the neighborhood creek)
I've been enjoying the conventional tackle bassing a lot here, and have landed a few piggies from the ponds, and my son landed his new personal biggest bass a few weeks ago, also on a crappie jig.
The only down side to moving cross country was leaving some loved ones behind, including my cousin who was my fishing partner. My wife will fish with me, and my son will - but they're not all-day, adventurous types. My dad's here, and he loves to fish, but he's also a bit less adventurous, though I'm hoping I can rope him into exploring some Hill Country streams this year. I need to make some new friends and fishing buddies here. I really want to hit up the Hill Country rivers and streams, and some of the lakes over by Austin or San Antonio.