My half English and half Ulster Scot (or Scots-Irish if you prefer) skin has never faired well in the sun. Back when I had to spend most days working outside I would wear long sleeve shirts (along with an undershirt) all summer long.
I used to be able to get a good tan when able to bring it in gently (like on a two-week vacation). The vastly more intense sun and two-day vacations available in the U.S. make this impossible.
Notwithstanding a worklife in an office, Iāve spent a good part of my life outdoors. Iām more likely to have an intelligible conversation in Swahili than I am to have a tan. Aināt happening.
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Iāve developed a tendency to get sun rash rather than tan or burn. Pretty mild, usually just looks like I got into something.
I usually wear long sleeve fishing t-shirts and a hat if Iām outdoors for any period of time.
If Iām fishing there may be a buff involved.
The most impressive tan/burn I get is on the top of my hands from holding the rod and line.
Same here. I did not inherent my motherās Spanish olive skin, rather my fatherās Ulster Scotās. Spending my younger years in the Florida sun is coming back to haunt me. My dermatologist has said āwear sunscreenā¦wear a hatā¦wear sunglasses. Youāre youth has caught up to you.ā
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I just had my first āsunspotā frozen off my cheek by the dermatologist.
I get tan, German/Scotch blood notwithstanding, but i have so many scrapes and scars on my arms (that do not tan) that itās kinda funny looking
TPWD show on PBS this morning had a segment on flyfishing for white bass, in the spring when the white bass run up out of the lakes and into the tributaries to spawn.
They also had a segment on ācrazy antsā, which are apparently not good at all. They kill fire ants, not the other way around.
Iāve had three skin cancers removed via surgery, multiple freezes every year. Advice to young menā¦take care of your skin before itās too late.
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Usually the white bass run starts in February, getting later and later as it moves north. Itās a weird event, and it turns a lot of catch and release fly anglers into meat fishermen. Iāve only fished for them once, a long time ago, and I keep meaning to do it again but never get around to it.
The strangest thing about white bass is that their closest relative is the striped bass, a much larger fish that migrates up and down the Atlantic Coast, from Florida to Canada, and that have been spread to freshwater lakes (including Canyon Lake) and the West Coast. Apparently the best striped bass lake in the country is Lake Texoma. The interesting thing is that striped bass are anadromous, like salmon, and they run up freshwater rivers from the ocean to spawn, just like the white bass run up rivers from freshwater lakes to spawn. In the midwest itās popular to stock freshwater lakes with a hybridized white bass/striped bass called a āwiper.ā
The name is unfortunate. The white bass is the state fish of Oklahoma, which is too much information.
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Fishing for stripers on the lakes is boring as hell, unless you just want to troll around, drink beer, and wait for one of the rods to hit. Itās inshore-offshore fishing
When you hit the white bass run on one of the creeks, itās fun as hell. We usually keep 6 or so of the eating-sized non-females. I like panfish.
Have you ever seen the needlenose gars go upstream to spawn?
No, I didnāt know they went into the streams.
Fishing for stripers inshore is actually great fun. For the big stripers off the New England coast huge balls of baitfish formāitās a bunch of small fish bundled ups as tight as they can get in a 10ā ballāand the stripers come in and destroy them. You throw your fly into the middle of that ball and hope they like you at least as well as they like the real thing. Even if you donāt catch anything, itās an amazing thing to see.
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Yep, thatās how I like yellowfin fishing. Bait balls are fun.
You ever, I assume you have, spot cast for bonefish?
Iāve caught some big stripers in Texoma and also in Lake Whitney. And Possum Kingdom, Iāve heard, is good for stripers but Iāve never fished there. However, it is a mighty fine lake.
When I have fished for stripers on Texoma, we followed the birds who fed off baitfish surfacing to get away from the stripers who were attacking from below. Then we just cast lures into the middle of the feeding frenzy. Hoping, like what Neil said, what youāve cast is more appealing to the striper than the baitfish.
We have a bunch of longnosed gar in the river around here.
Right, you look for the birds. If you ever get into them itās great, Iāve also never had a problem with trolling around and drinking beer.
Itās wild. Theyāll get as far upstream as they can and itās basically a gar orgy. Dozens and dozens and dozens of them up in the shallow sandy areas rolling around.
Ted Williams said he caught 1000 bonefish. Iāve caught some, in the Keys, Cuba, the Bahamas, Belize, Mexico, and Hawaii. They are fun to fish for, but better still they live in places that are just exotic enough to feel like adventure. I have not caught 1000.
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You havenāt caught 1000 yet. Itās good to have goals.
I have minimal interest in catching billfish offshore, but Iād love to catch and release a tarpon.
The turn this thread has taken is making me want to play Red Dead Redemption 2 again.
