# Annual Sand Bass Run / Rowlett Creek



## Guide Carey Thorn

* Carey Thorn. *

White Bass/ Sand Bass: Are freshwater fish that are migratory in nature, like Salmon. They spend most of their lives in the open-water portions of lakes and reservoirs or river pools. But when water temperatures rise above 50 degrees F, its usually time to catch them.(55 degrees and its usually on fire)) Between *February and May*, white bass migrate up rivers and streams seeking gravel or rocky bottom areas to begin spawning activity. With March being the "Peak Time" @ Rowlett Creek.

Males arrive at the spawning grounds about one month ahead of females and we call them "Scouts" (5-9 inchers). Rather than build nests, white bass spawn in mid-water. As the males and the female move toward the surface of the water, the female releases 62,000 to one million eggs that are rapidly fertilized. During this, you will see a pod of fish come to the surface and boil during spawning. About 10 fish or so, will be in this pod of boiling fish, with one female in between the ruckus. A lot of people will cast to the boiling fish, but usually don't respond to their bait, due to they have one thing on their minds at the moment.

These adhesive, fertilized eggs, sink to the bottom and stick to gravel, boulders, or vegetation. The eggs hatch in two to three days, but because the adult white bass do not protect the eggs, few survive. Those that do, however, grow rapidly to 4 or 5 inches in length by the end of the summer and migrate back to open water to join the adults in the main lake. So when you catch a 5-9 inch Sand Bass, 99% of the time, it was born in the very same creek or river.

White bass can be *easily* confused with striped bass, hybrid striped bass, yellow bass. You might want to study how to tell the difference between a Sand bass and a Hybrid Striper. *If you don't figure this topic out, the game wardens will help you out after giving you a big fine and possibly taking you gear and impounding your vehicle.*Make sure you don't miscount and go over your limit and make sure the fish are 10 inches or over. I _try_ not to keep anything unless its 12 inches and over. The little fish,10-11 inches, just are not worth the time and effort to clean. But, the ball is in your court, keep what you want.

The typical weight of a white bass is between one-half and 2 pounds, though they can grow to 3 or 4 pounds. The world record white bass is 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Most grow to a length of between 10 and 12 inches, though they can reach 17 inches or more. Their life span can be as long as 10 years, however, few survive more than four years. Like many fish, females generally grow large, faster and live longer than males.

White bass are attracted to small, live bait, such as shad, shiners and minnows. They are also more than willing to bite an artificial lure, another reason they are popular with anglers. Such lures as small jigs and crank baits, as well as top water lures, have proven successful. Its not uncommon to catch over 50 to 100 fish per outing, if you have the right gear and you might get your limit of 25 fish within an hour!








-Even Kids Can Do This!!!

*Fish that you will typically see @ Rowlett Creek:*

*Here in Texas, Sand Bass:*

Must be a minimum of 10 inches with 25 fish per person, per day.










*Here in Texas, Hybrid Striper/Striper:*

Must be 18 inches minimum, with 5 fish per person, in any combination.










*Here in Texas, Crappie- Blacks and Whites:*

Must be 10 inches, with 25 fish per person.










*Fishing Tackle I Recommend:*
- 4-6 Pound Fluorocarbon Fishing Line.
- Crank Baits, Jigs, Top Water Lures, and Minnows.
- Polarized Glasses.
- 6-7 Foot Medium Action Rod 
- Spinning Reel
- A Cooler With Ice, To Transport Fish
- Stringer
- Fishing License 
( some people have other opinions )


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Happy client with a nice mag. Fish started to show up for the first time this year. Schools are on the move. So we had to follow them to stay on them. After this rain today, they will be in full swing! Wednesday and thursday should be days you can limit!!!!


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## mrseang

where is rowlette creek or rather how do you get there and is there a park or parking lot to park and walk a creek bank?


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## tx064deer

*hi*



mrseang said:


> where is rowlette creek or rather how do you get there and is there a park or parking lot to park and walk a creek bank?


 Rowlette creek runs into the northeast side of lake Rayhubbard, it is between garland and misquite texas, which is just to the east of dallas. there are alot of axcess points but most have steep banks, but it is fun when the fish are there!! but i wouldnt think the spawn would be started yet because the cold weather will drive them back into the lakes


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## Guide Carey Thorn

North west corner of the lake and it runs through rowlett and garland. It's Dallas county. And once they start their run, they keep coming. Caught them while it was snowing last year and it was 29 outside. Firewheel and centerville are the cross roads. You park at firewheel on the south east corner of the creek. You have to pop the curb. Lots of places to fish all up and down the creek.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Near firewheel mall


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## Guide Carey Thorn

gps at the bottom of the pic. This is the parking area.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Sandbass run is on! Every single hole and rapid produced fish today. limited within 35 minutes. Caught and released well over 100!

For those that dont know where this is, its North of Lake Ray Hubbard. 15 minutes or so from Downtown Dallas. Hybrids should show up within a month! Water temp was 53 in the creek today!


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## Lone Eagle

Thank you, Carey. That was a very fine report on White Bass. There are more than likely a lot of people that did not know what you just put out. I commend you for this and you can bet that if anyone ever asks about a Guide Service up your way that I will refer them to you. Those are some very nice photos. Thank you for those also.


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## Meadowlark

That's a great report Carey. I'm sure it will help a lot of folks enjoy some white bass fishing in that area...and dittos to what LE said.

By the way, let us know when hybrids start showing up...we may have to get up a pilgramige to come see you.


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## Sunbeam

Good info and well worded report. 
Too far north for me to drive over numerous other creeks with white bass but a great report for those "northern Fishermen".
Thanks.


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## bueyescowboy

yea, nice to hear from the fellows up north. I seldom see anything on here about the lakes around Dallas. But I have stopped by a store in Dallas that was full of fishing tackle. So I asked the cashier where the lake was. He told me there was good fishing in the lakes. good post guys.


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## shadslinger

Thanks for the great report, and tell them to stop the rain up there!


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## Boomhauer75

Carey are you still allowed to fish the creek prior to the Garland shooting range? Or have they built houses there? My mom lives 10 minutes away so I will be up that way here in a few weeks and might give the creek a shot. It has been years and I am looking forward to it.

We use to fish there during the run back in high school but closer to the range. Having bullets sing over your head made you think twice!


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## Guide Carey Thorn

lol.... you still have the buck shot going over your head. stay level with the creek when passing the range and you will be fine. the fish are litterally in every pool and rapid. everywhere i threw a jig, produced a sandie. they wanted small jigs, 1/64 oz. every year changes, lure wise. last year it was a Rapala clown color, 2 inch. this year they wont even touch it. mainly jigs under a small cigar bobber are the ticket. yesterday, i outfished my buddy, whom is a guide at texoma. i had 4 lb line and he had 6 lb line. id catch 5 fish to his one. he went back up to the truck and put 4 lb line on his reel and came back down. then it was 1 fish to one fish.... they really dont like any line over 4 lbs. very picky the last couple days. not a lot of females, mostly males at 10-11 inches. the females should show up in less than a week. once that water temp hit 55, it should be great fishing w/ some nice magnum sandies! 60 degrees is usually the magic number for the Hybrids.

Dont get excited yet, but the pic below was a pic from last year, not this year.










on this day, we caught over 40 Hybrids in 4 hours from the bank in 4ft of water! my clients in the pic, limited within 1/2 an hour! that was a great day. but when they run up the creek in late march, they bite the first 2-3 hours and then shut down. then pick back up around 4 pm till dark. i have seen them in 2 ft of water with their backs sticking out of the water like salmon. crazy stuff in this creek. the only problem is, they are building george bush over the creek. they made a crappy dam way upstream of the main places for the run. everytime it floods it breaks the dam and a bunch of water comes rushing down. scared a couple people today that almost got stuck in it..... if yall go there, wear kleets. the banks are slick most of the time.


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## Boomhauer75

Awesome. We use to fish below the range and at the bridge down from Firewheel Mall. The game wardens use to chase us off saying we were too close to the range.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Got in the water about 7am. I casted out to show D Ran how to use the the SSS lure. within 3 seconds, i was hooked up already. handed D Ran the rod and told him to do what i did. he agreed with a smile on his face. instead of fishing for the next 10 minutes, i had to teach him how to throw light line and and a SSS lure. finally he he got it down and started catching fish! :dance2: I love Firewheel! -just saying.....
at 10am the bite shut down, not to a trickle, but to a dead stop! :de:
After an hour i asked him if he wanted some crappie instead...? he agreed and 2-3 minutes or so later, we arrived at the "New Super Secure Secret Location!" ----- J/K, its just a spot that has a lot of crappie in it. i see a lot of people fishing it, too. but its just like the SSSLocation @ White Rock Creek. people pass it up. if they had smaller jigs and 1 oz sassy shads.... they too would nail the crappie. im sure a crappie fisherman will see the hole soon and it wont be long till this spot will be fished out anyways.... by that time the Hybrids should show up. but D Ran learned how to cast every way needed to catch them on his own now. 
the crappie pocket, again, was just like the one at WRC....
- brush and logs upstream
- brush and logs down stream
- sandbar in the middle
- deep pocket conected to the sandbar
- slack water in 25% of the the spot. the other 75% is semi moving water
- the crappie are just stacked up there. only room for 1 person to fit in though.
























Caught a bunch of crappie with the racing stripe. first time i have seen over 5 in the same hole within 20 minutes! pretty cool to see. the stripe goes all the way around the face and under the jaw.
The PM client had it rough.... only saw 2 sandies caught. and one of them was ours at one of the last casts of the day. great thing was my PM client loved crappie. after i figured that out, we just had a crappie trip instead. taught him the techniques for the crappie and he started to get in them. most were 9 inches average..with 3 keepers at 10 inches, threw them back cause some of you know i dont keep them that small...i like the 10.5+.....kept one 12 incher. he learned and had a good time and is excited to hit the sandies -and crappie during the spawn. 









as for the gunrange, you have water rights. if your in the water, you are not on public land... but i do remember a couple times about 5-6ish years ago, i was kicked out of there. and i was way north of the range on the other side of the street.... they dont do that anymore......


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## Guide Carey Thorn

didnt have to guide this morning, so my buddy and i started at 730am. in the time it took to rig my fly rod up and get down where josh was, he already had 6 within 5 minutes. Then it shut down!!! and i had a heck of a time with the ice on my guides. Went all over the creek. behind firewheel mall, miller, the mouth of the creek, bike park, range.....-everywhere, and nothing.... air pressure started to drop about 11-12 or so and then things lit up! if you had the right gear and tactics, im sure you limited by 2 at the latest.

josh (friend)









me


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## Guide Carey Thorn

today was slow as heck. most of these fish were caught at 10 am or so. pressure was droping way to fast.... a steady drop is better. when the pressure steadied, the fish were biting like crazy for 30 minutes. then it was a fish every 10 minutes when it started dropping rapidly, nothing like yesterday afternoon! -Crazy


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## Guide Carey Thorn

fishing was slow till 3 pm....... when the wind died down the fish seemed to like that. then it was on fire again! clients got a two man limit! worked hard today for them, but they also missed over 20. got 2 large mouth...... lost the big one at the bank when he went to lip her. 4 lb+....... the next one was 3ish lbs.......cold and windy with lots of mist.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Limited by 9 am today! no pix, client was a catch and release angler. I never had to touch a fish! He wanted to do everything himself...... pretty relaxed day on my end.

-New report up tomorrow night. I have 2 trips tomorrow so it should be pretty good. only thing is its a full moon i think tonight. the sandies will feed all night and sometimes they dont bite as well due to they are full, lol. so we will see.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

- had a second grader with me today. lol, outfished everyone!!! only took home 6 keepers though. got him off the push button reel and upgraded him to the spinning reel. im sure next time we see him, he will be catching fish on his own! funny to see a 4 ft kid outfish everyone..... HAHA, NanyNany-BooBoo








Second group of guys was a bit better. forgot to take a pic, but i think they left with 10-15? -ish? plus a mess of channel cat fish. figured out where they are chillin out at. never would have guessed they were in this SSSL. one guy had one that was about 6 lbs. nice fishy right there. pretty much a fish every 15 minutes. the spurts of fire only would last about 3 minutes after 4-5 peeps would catch them at the same time, then nothing for awhile again. Wind was coming from the East.... and some say thats a bad day to fish....? but we caught some of them..... Gidzilla was staying for the night bite to see if they picked up at all.....we left right at dark. cancelled my trip tomorrow due to rain. even if it does not rain to much, i dont want my clients falling all over the place before we get to the SSSL ( where ever i choose to fish on the 7 miles of creek that hold fish in every hole.) so tomorrow is work on fish tank day. 
I'll Trade Live Corals for trips too, for peeps that have frags or corals or other saltwater aquarium "things". 
Cant tell yall enough- have your fishing lic on you at all times. they dont care if you leave in the car or not... you will get a ticket! its a headache when you get one of those tickets....


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Report: took my clients a little upstream from firewheel bridge due to the crowds down stream. They litterally caught fish everywhere i told them the fish were holding..... Hot-Dog's and other small jigs were the ticket. at about 830-9 they shut down and only pulled in a fish every 10 minutes or so.....

Hot-Dogs are a jig i tie for the sandies, FYI..... they are not for human consumtion


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## Guide Carey Thorn

hit the water at 930 am. Limited at 10. Adda had 13 when I got there. John l had none till I showed him the light. Easy fishin today. I at least caught 4 limits easy. Every cast I hooked up for an hour. Got bored and picked up some Pei Wei. Hot-dog's were the ticket. I and I'm serious, every cast was a bite or a fish landed. I started tossing them at John L splashing him with the fish, lol, fun stuff....


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Creek was flooded so I hit a SSSL.

gf needed to use the truck so I didn't get my limit to take home, but I got into them good today. Decided an hour before I had to leave, to keep a few, but at the last 15 minutes I kept catching undersized ones on every cast. Found the mother load of drum. But also found where the hybrids are laid up! Biggest was 5.35 lbs. So I guess I'll guide for these too. No need for 2-3 rods. One is plenty. I was fighting two fish at a time at some points. Lost one that had to be 8 plus pounds!

Float trips $150/ six hours!


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## Guide Carey Thorn

talked my clients into going to Lavon Dam to get into the Hybrids instead of sandies at Rowlett Creek.







got in the water at 7am. by 9am they had a limit! but, we threw back the 18's and 19's and just kept the bigger ones.







they had to have caught and released well over 50-60 Hybrids due to they used 8 dozen large minnows and who knows how many small minnows they used when we ran out of large ones. odd thing is, they caught the bigger fish on the smaller minnows!







i had minnows that were smaller than our hooks that were catching huge fish on.... some of these minnows were so small that i dont know why anyone would have purchased them? and i have no clue where they came from. people give me their left over bait all the time, so who knows. 
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at one point about 10 am, i looked behind us and saw the clouds getting darker. looked at doppler on my phone and said, "ok guys fish for ten more minutes and we have to beach the boats." we beached the boats and all hell broke loose with heavy rain and small hail.... we were sittin umder the trees gettin wet still, and the rain lightened up a bit so i decided to get a new shirt out of the truck to get warmer and drier. on my way up the the concrete, underneath the rail road, i walked up on a gentelman laying down under the bridge. i saw him there ten minutes prior during the storm and though he was just laying down out of the way of the rain. but i took a double take at him due to a stream of water was falling on his face from the above rail road bridge. i walked up to him and kneeled down to see what was up. not good. irratic breathing and barely a pulse if any. every 10 seconds or so he would take a gasping breath and pupils were dialated and moving side to side and un-responsive. i called 911 within 20 seconds of walking up to him. while i was on the phone with EMS, he stopped breathing for about 30 seconds. so i rubbed his chest with my knuckle and he started breathing almost normal again. within about 2 minutes after that his eyes dialated back to normal almost and he kinda woke up. for about 2 minutes another gentelman and i tryied to keep him from tring to get up. he started to mumble something and i got out of him that he had fallen..... then he said his chest hurt really bad. then a minute later he was back to unresponsive again. right then the EMS showed up. the officer that was on the call, called me an hour later and told me he did not make it to the hospital. he had suffered a massive heart attack. I have talked with the guy a couple time at the dam before. a couple of the guys from here know him i think. i think they called him "Uncle" with no family relation. my reguards to friends and family for your loss. --->May The Fish God's Be With Him.
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after the rain had stopped, and the terrible inncident happened, i went back to my waiting clients and hit the water again. at any given moment, at least one or even both had a fish on at all times!







--->double bent rods







-Doubles were super common
started to run out of minnows, so i tied up a jig and handed it to one of the guys and taught him how to use it. -He was all smiles within 5 minutes landing a couple 4-5 lbers.







every cast produed a fish, bite, or break-off, or hanging rope.....( one of the guys loved to cast to the rope hanging from the bridge. i told him its not a good fight and it will break you off everytime, but he insisted on casting to a 1/4 inch peice of rope. out of all the places?) caught a couple sandies that we had to check, to make sure they were not Hybrids because they were so big!







----Magnum Sandies
One of the guys was new to fishing and almost every fish was a P.B. (Personal Best) -All in all, this was a great trip and they had a blast. they said their arms hurt,lol, so i did my job!







the water is almost getting warm enough for no waders.... closer time to Crappie time!----but thats another thread.....Good Job Guys! I wish i was the one being guided today..... They looked like little kids at x-mas.








After my clients left, Angler_Josh called to ask what i was doing.... "what do you think i do weather permitting?" i told him i didnt have any afternoon clients and come on down. Got in the water within minutes due to my boats were already down there geared up. Limited in about 45 minutes.
[color:#FF0000]*he would have limited a lot faster, but ya'll know me and my 4 lb line, so it took a bit to get them in, but hearing that drag screaming is what its all about*![/color]


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Report: had the morning off, so i hit the creek for an hour. actually about 45 minutes. same thing, different day.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Sundays clients.


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## bueyescowboy

your having to much fun up that creek and behind the dam. Nice pic of stringers of fish. The sun is coming out more, should make for some nice fishing. Keep up the good work, and send some of them whites down Livingston way......
save some for me


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## Guide Carey Thorn

this creek always has something to fish for in it all year. i even found the channel cats! the sandbass shut down and no bites from them, so i went and caught a few blue gills from a log jam and cut them up and sank them. found the mother load of channel cats to 4 & 5 pounds........but for todays report! - and it was good out there!

Report: yall saw the AM trip with the fly rod..... here is the spinning rod trip that started at 230 pm till about 630pm. 
5+ limits today! well over 200 fish caught on my end.....
the AM trip limited very quickly on the fly rod. he left at 11am to go home cause he had enough. he also said he had more fun doing that then going out on a boat slabing for them..... my next guys didnt get there till 2pm. but before they got there, i went to Firewheel Bridge and tore them up on the fly rod. I caught well over 50 within the 2 hour break i had. then the 3 guys came down and got their 3 man limit (5-6 shy of 75 fish cause they said they had enough fish already, lol. left Kalub to get the rest)







MAGNUM SANDIES!!!!!









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-the morning trip on the Fly Rod:


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Report: killed them on Hot-Dog's too! First clients and I got to a spot and had to leave due to muddy water. went to another SSSL that everyone and there mothers know about, and slaughtered them all day there. drop the clients off at the car and went flyfishing and caught about 50+ . Called Angler_Josh and had him come out and join in the fun. caught over 200 easy till i lost my last Hot-Dog. then it was a fish every 3 casts instead of 1.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Report: slow but steady. A fish was caught every five minutes or so. Caught a few small hybrids as well......

















Doubles were coommon today.










And below is an example of what I do. I teach people that have never fished before. Some of you think sandbass are easy. Well they are very easy if you know how to fish for them...? If you don't, then that's why I'm here. Some of y'all have already spent over $200 in gas, minnows, tackle ( that does not catch anything ), and more stuff.... $125 with me, and you would be catching limits on your own and know how to do it the cheaper and right way. I spend about fourty bucks everytime I go fishing. Add that up with fishless days you have been out. But I love taking the kids out fishing. He caught 23 but missed about 15 or so. Not bad for never picking up a spinning rod before. Baffinbay and derk d were out there as well picking only big ones to put on the stringer.

If y'all are thinking of going fishing over the weekend, look at a weather report first.


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## Guide Carey Thorn

little backwards, but this was from this from yesterday.

Yesterdays pics:



















Today: seeing as how a client no called no showed, I went ahead and fished by myself..... Results below. Now that was the last time. Three times in 8 years not bad, but now I will be doing deposits. Oh well, I had fun anyways










easy pickins..........


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## Guide Carey Thorn

wow, slow day again.... expected it after the cold front that moved in. forgot to take a pic of my first clients due to i got rushed when my second clients arrived early... it was a slow but steady day. SilverKing was tearing them up with Hot-Dogs today! the fish hit pretty much every bait and lure i threw at them but again, it was slow!








here (below) is Atta with his first Gizzard Shad. everyone was snagging them by accident today due to they were so thick....








--------------------------
Now, the pic below is what ****** me off very bad!








the guy with the back pack was standing in the mud and caught about 4 fish. then the guy in front of him, came out of no where and litterally walk right in front of the guy w/ the back pack, directly where he was casting to! i mean right in front of the dude!!! everyone was like ***!!!!!! and of course the little guy didnt say anything to him, but i sure a heck did. the poser, i thought, had a clue -but he didnt. 
he (the poser) came back 15 minutes later w/ 2 other buddies and stood right inbetween my clients, and his other buddy stood "2 ft" to the right of my other client and started casting his lure right in front of my clients face (2 inches from his face), where my client had to duck from getting hooked in the jaw himself (3 times). after i asked them *** they are thinking - they didnt speak english. they just knew how to smile and nod thier heads....
-well in T-Fly's world, that does not happen. (everyone knows they know english) so i had a few words (50-60 of them bad words) i said to them, and kicked them out of "my" creek. i have yet to loose it like that EVER, but this time it was that BAD--- i had to. they got the idea though and moved away. 
there was plenty of room all up and down the creek to fish, but as yall know, the fish are only where i am apparently........ this is the first time i have ever seen something happen like this with Bad Fishing Etiquette! i mean it was BAD! i think Silver King saw the whole thing unfold and fold. ---- Man was i ******....


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## Guide Carey Thorn

my client limited fairly easy today......


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## Guide Carey Thorn

caught another giant gizzard Shad










client found a nice large mouth bass/ released










and of course, they killed them today!!!!


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## Guide Carey Thorn

3-30-2010
Todays report: steady action pretty much all day. took this client out for a Great Day for flyfishing. 20 mile an hour winds =perfect. but thank the Fish Gods he knew how to roll cast! some of ya'll laughed at me when i told you where we were going at the creek today, and, we were going to fly fish there the super woody parts with barely any room to cast in most spots -Never Under Estimate Me!







































They Loved The Hot-Dog Fly
























He ended up catching 40+ fish including a monster 4 ft Alligator Gar i saw sitting on a flat. When he hooked it, it jumped about 5-6 time all the way out of the water doing flips and circles in the air. made everyone around the creek look at what we were into due to the large splashes. i tried to get it on the bank and i almost went in to join it and take a swim.in the end of it, the hook pulled before i could get to her.... Great day on the water today!


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## Guide Carey Thorn

Report: sorry for no reports, i have been looking for good crappie holes on my days off. Yesterday we limited, but no pics due to he was not keeping anything. most fish were 10-12 inches and most of the females have headed back to the lake. all we need is some rain to flood the creek up 6ft at least and the season will start all over again! plus the hybrids should start to get thicker! here is a pic from this morning! they are still in there, just have to know what your doing with your rigs! saw 2 snakes today, 1st ones i have seen all year.... both were banded water snakes, -harmless.


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