Fly fishing on the Lower Laguna Madre

September 2002

One of my sons, David, is an avid and really good fly-fisherman. Earlier this year, he participated in a fund-raising auction and was the winning bidder on two two-person fly fishing trips, one to Oregon and one to Texas. He offered me the opportunity to join him on either or both trips. Since I had been to Oregon last year, I opted for the Texas trip, besides it was much closer for me. So this is the story of the Texas trip.

It began when David and I were supposed to meet up at the Houston airport and travel together on the connecting flight to Harlingen. As it turned out, my flight was late in arriving at Houston, and when I went to the counter for the connecting flight, the attendant said the flight had just left. So I asked for and got a seat on the next flight, departing about 7 hours later. I figured David had made the connecting flight and that I would have to call him when I arrived at Harlingen and have him pick me up at that airport. While I was wandering around the terminal musing over all of this, I ran into David talking on his cell phone. His flight was also late and he had just missed the same connecting flight. So now we were together at least, and we proceeded over to the ticket counter to get seats together on the next flight to Harlingen. We then called the inn and told them of our circumstance and suggested they not wait for us, just leave the key where we could get it and we would see them in the morning. We then sat around for about 7 hours before the late flight was ready. After boarding and arriving at Harlingen, we got a rental car and drove to the inn, arriving there about 1:30 am. The room key with a note was left for us. The note said that breakfast would be moved to 7:30 because of our late arrival. We hit the sack!

The next morning we met Scott and Kathy Sparrow, the owners and operators of the Kingfisher Inn at Arroyo City, Texas. We had a good breakfast with them and then prepared to go fishing.

Before sunrise, the moon was just beginning to set as this picture was taken. This was actually taken the second day when we got an early start. Kathy is standing at the front of the boat, David is standing on the dock next to the boat and Scott is on the boat. The Arroyo River is shown in the background and this river takes us to the Lower Laguna Madre, about a five mile trip from here. Those that are familiar with Spanish will recognize that Laguna Madre means Mother Lagoon (coastal). The Lower Laguna Madre, which is our intended fishing area, is about 300 square miles, roughly 10 miles wide and about 30 miles from one end to the other. The Eastern border of the lagoon is Padre Island, which shields the lagoon from the Gulf of Mexico. The interesting and unusual feature of the Laguna Madre is that about 90% of the 300 square mile area is covered by only about 10 to 12 inches of water, most of it crystal clear. This requires the use of a special boat, one with a low draft and one whose prop will not get hung up because of the low water. Scott has the special boat. It is a fiberglass Curlew boat, a tunnel design made in San Antonio, Texas, and equipped with the ubiquitous 90 hp Yamaha engine. This boat will effortlessly cruise at 40 mph on nothing more than a heavy sweat. These characteristics provide Scott with the capability to safely cover over a hundred miles a day if necessary, to locate the fish in this huge area.

The fishing in this area is accomplished by either one of two methods. One, shown here, is where the fisherman stands on a small platform at the front of the boat while the guide uses a pole to move the boat in search of the target fish. Both the guide and the fisherman look for fish ahead of the boat. It is essential to not only have good eyesight, but also to use Polaroid glasses to reduce the glare coming off the water. When a fish is spotted, the guide will slowly work the boat into a position where the fisherman will have an opportunity to cast the fly slightly ahead of the target fish. This technique requires a lot, and a lot more skill because the fisherman has to be ready at a moment's notice to make a perfect cast in the exact spot, while the boat is moving, the fish is moving and the wind is blowing. Neither of us hooked up with any fish using this method. I think we would have done better if the wind had not been so persistent and if the fish would have been more plentiful, giving us more opportunities to get in some practice. But that was not the case and we didn't do well with this technique. Of course only one at a time can fish in this method, so this method cuts down on our total opportunities to catch fish.

We decided to try the second method, so David and I get in the water and start to stalk the fish. Here is a shot of David and I with our Guide, Scott, as we began to wade fish.

This method proved a little more successful although we didn't catch anything worth taking a picture, we did have some action catching some small specks and reds. The wind was still blowing hard during the entire time and that limited the directions and distances of our casts. A lot of times we would see a good sized fish, but couldn't cast to it because of the direction and force of the wind.

Scott got his wind gauge out to measure the wind speed. Here is the gauge reading 20 mph and we experienced gusts up to 25 mph. In this area, when the wind gets above 15 mph, it causes parallel foam lines to form on the surface. You can see them here as we look downwind under Scott's arm.

Here is a little better shot of the foam lines, again looking down wind.

Here is David relaxing on the back porch area after returning from the day's fishing.

At the end of the day, we enjoy a very good dinner prepared by Kathy, an excellent cook as well as a certified guide. Both Scott and Kathy are the most gracious hosts and they did everything possible to make sure our visit with them was an enjoyable experience. Scott was tireless in his efforts to locate fish, which he did, but the fish were just not as plentiful as they normally are, probably due to the weather conditions. The fish were scattered and we saw only one or so pods, and then only briefly before they disappeared.

If you are looking for a challenge to your fly fishing skills, this is the place to go. When conditions are right, the fish are all over the place, and big ones too. Capts' Kathy or Scott Sparrow can be contacted at Arroyo City, tel 956-748-4350 or their web site at http://www.lagunamadre.net

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