I am an avid fisherman, getting rod time whenever I can. My passion is fly fishing, which I do mainly from a kayak. Nancy is my favorite fishing partner, and she is also learning the fine art of fly fishing. Nancy took the photo at the right of me while fly fishing for bluegills early on a springtime morning. Bluegills are a freshwater species that attack a fly with vigor, are strong fighters, and are delicious to eat.

On the Texas coast, my favorite kind of fishing is sight-casting to redfish. This type of fishing is actually a combination of hunting and fishing, and it really gets your adrenaline going. You quietly maneuver your kayak through the marsh, usually in water that is less than a foot deep, and often as shallow as only a few inches. You are searching for redfish that are feeding. While feeding, redfish usually angle themselves with their heads toward the bottom. In shallow water, this makes their tails stick up out of the water. This phenomenon is commonly called "tailing". Also, when redfish are cruising along searching for food, they frequently have part of their bronze-colored back above the surface of the water. Even if they are completely submerged, the often produce a very pronounced disturbance on the surface of the water.

When you spot a fish, you maneuver yourself into a position to gently cast your fly. You must be very quiet while doing so because redfish in shallow water, knowing that they cannot dive for cover, are particularly skittish. You cast your fly with as much accuracy as you can, hoping that it will get the attention of the fish without spooking it. If the fish takes your fly, you are in for quite a fight because the fish are quite large and strong. In the marsh, redfish are typically being 20 to 30 inches long, weigh 4 to 10 pounds, and they can really give a limber 9-foot long fly rod a workout.

In open water, redfish can be much larger with adults averaging 30 to 40 pounds. These fish are commonly called "bull reds". The world record redfish is 94 pounds.

When we are at our "real home" on Anegada, Nancy and I fish almost every day. We catch all kinds of fish there, including snapper, grouper, bonefish, jack, tarpon, barracuda and shark. The picture on the right shows Nancy on the Anegada beach with her first ever saltwater fish - a small snapper.

You cannot seriously fly fish for very long before you find yourself tying your own flies. My favorite fly for most kinds of fish is the spoon fly. I put together a page of complete instructions for tying this fly here.

I keep photo albums of many of our fishing outings on the web. They are:

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