Corpusfishing.com

[Ray]

I went to a 2 day shallow water show in Austin, Texas over the weekend. It was a blast, but if you went to see the kayaks, you were out of luck! There were two; that's all, two, but there were power boats. One that caught my eye was called a flats boat by the salesman. It was one of those pretty big boats (to me at least, but I'm a country boy) with the wrap-around-deck and the console in the middle, plus a 250 hoesepower engine, and cheap! The boat cost just $50,000.00 and you could get the motor for a measly $25,000.00.

It was so tempting I nearly asked him if I could trade him even for my kayaks and ice cooler, but I wouldn't have enought money to buy the gas. Look in the pictures below for the biggest, reddest, fastest looking boat with a 250 horsepower motor you can see or find, and that, friends, is the best, guaranteed-to-bring-home-the-fish, flats boat on the market, according to Honest Abe from Austin, the friendly saleman I met at the show.

There were young people, I mean children and quite a few of them. They were having fun trying to learn flycasting, so that put them ahead of me in that field. I decided to wait on that because I am going to Al Crise's (a renowned flyfisherman) next weekend for two days to see what I can learn.

There were young and middle aged couples; plenty of them, and all seemed to be having fun, interested in fishing, and wanting to fish in places no power boat can go, the flats along the coast. So the weekend was spent discussing all things to do with fish, flats, shallow water, oyster shoals, and not bogging down in deep mud, while the power boat salesmen tried to talk us into buying one of their big rigs.

There were a few old people, too, me, Billie Sandifer (a do-it-his-way, Cree Indian, really friendly surf fishing guru and guide from the Texas Gulf Coast) and Roland Martin (a fishing guru apparently from Luna's part of the world). Turned out Billie was the child in the group at 58, while Roland and I are nearly the same age, me 65, and Roland a few months older at 66, but I'm closing fast. We discussed being old and why it makes it so difficult to go backpacking, kayaking, surf fishing, traveling the world, or at least, Texas (me and Billie) and Florida and the world (Roland), winning fishing tournaments (Roland) and generally having fun and enjoying life (me, Billie and Roland) when everyone expects us to stay home, watch TV and act old. We finally decided what the heck, or something like that, we were going to keep right on going.

Seriously, I really enjoyed meeting Billie. He gave an enjoyable talk on surf fishing, so much so, I want to spend at least a day or two with him. Just have to figure out when. He has a great outlook on life and a unique approach to living it.

I heard a portion of one of Roland Martin's talks; he gave two each day. I had heard several people talk about him, but I had and have no idea exactly who he is or what he does. Apparenly, he fishes alot in Florida and is well known. He really seems like a nice guy.

As luck would have it, we then had lunch together and got to talk about a variety of things. We really are the same age, so that opens several topics and one of them really was about how some people think we should act at 65 and 66. Billie and I had had the same discussion the day before, Saturday. We live in a funny society. Some people expect people our ages to act a certain way, old; when we don't, they aren't sure why not.

A comment the other day here on one of the threads (this was on TexasKayakFisherman) exemplified that when the young man who posted said, at 65, you really have to watch what you do. I thought at the time, I'll have to remember that the next time I'm climbing the mountains in the Big Bend. Roland and Billie had similar thoughts. Enough of that; it looked like each of us was really enjoying ourselves though and all were on the go.

There were multiple seminars and the speakers did a great job. I was impressed with Billie, Capt. Sally and Lefty Ray Chapa (all Gulf Coast guides). Each of them really gave well organized and informative talks. The rooms were they spoke were often full or nearly so, 20 to 25 or 30 people, often standing room only.

Fly fishing and casting seemed to be the topic and major activity of the conference. There were two areas for casting ans lessons, one on each end of the large exhibit room. Everyone was trying. I saw one little boy who couldn't have been more than three who was giving it his all. Like I said, everyone had fun.

Below are some pictures of the festivities. I added captions, but for some reason, they didn't come through when I got the tags from PhotoBucket. Ask questions if you have them and I will try to answer. Going to the show was a blast:




















_________________
Ray

[Ray]

More pictures! If anyone can tell me how to include the captions next time, I would appreciate it! I put one in for nearly every picture for better understanding, but ............

Ray

















_________________
Ray

[ShawnQ]

I would've never guess that Roland Martin was in his 60's...

Sounds like a great show, I should've gone!

Thanks for the report.

SQ

[Ray]

Just found out who Roland Martin is. A friend sent me his website address.

[ShawnQ]

[Ray]

He has four boats he likes to use, a shallow water boat for the Everglades where the channels are only a few feet wide, a bass boat, a large boat for open water, and another I can't remember. No kayaks.

He has a larger combination GPS/depth finder that he moves from boat to boat as he needs to, and he uses it all the time, has all his recorded trails, wherever he has been, on that one unit, a large Lawrance (sp) model. I have heard the combination units have problems; one unit wears out faster than the other, but Roland said he has used the same unit hard for 5 years without a glitch.

On the GPS, he also said that in the Everglades when marking his trails the units today are accurate enought that they will tell you that you are 2 feet off on your trail. When he goes in, the unit is on the opposite side than when he returns because the boat has turned. The GPS tells him that; he and I were amazed that they could be that good. He said years ago, they weren't close.
_________________
Ray

[Fish0157]

Ray,
Do you know who makes those two boats the flat green one with the rods and reels in the back of that like cooler thing, and the one that is a kayak with 2 redfish on the sides.

Thanks
Kevin

[Ray]

Kevin,

This is the small flat "boat":

http://www.flatstalker.com/

I cannot remember who makes the kayak other than they are made one at a time to order, and the maker is in Florida.

Ray
_________________
Ray

[Tyler]

Ray,
You don't know this but you were the vet for my wife's cat in Waco. Her kitty was named Tutu. She was owned by Kelle's parents Salle and Bill Garner. Glad to have you on board. Tutu has been gone for 20 years.