Conrad J. Parsons

Conrad is my 16 month old son. My wife Patty and I call him Papaman. He knows how to say "Shoe", "Whoa", "Cool", "Papa" & "Mama. He walks and runs and can dance a little. He says "Bye-bye" and waves when I put him to bed at night. We play hide and seek, jump on the bed, we read books and play with building blocks. Papaman can put a CD in the CD player and press play. He is growing up way too fast. I hold him as much as I can because someday I won't be able to. He can count "2, 5, 9" and can say "A, B". Pretty cool. He's a good little boy. Sure smiles a lot and likes to wave bye-bye to strangers. Kids have got to be the real treasures in life. Someday he will be a teenager, then an adult. I'll never forget these days and how magical they are.

Crowded

"It's too crowded"! "There were 15 boats on the river today"! "Man, I can't find any water to fish"! "Too many bank anglers"! This is what I hear day to day. Needless to say crowds are a part of fishing. For me, the biggest problem with crowded fishing conditions is the anglers who are complaining. It seemed that the more I listened to people complain, the more crowded it got, and the more I complained. Then, one day I decided to stop listening and stop complaining. I made a point to avoid those who complained. My goal was to start fishing again. Like I used to. An amazing thing happened once I started focusing on a good day of fishing rather than a crowded day of fishing. What happened is I found myself alone on some of the most popular stretches of the Trinity River. The fishing was good. Amazing what an attitude change can do. Then one day my newly found philosophy or paradigm was put to the test. I found myself on a stretch of the Trinity with 12 boats in front of me and countless anglers fishing from the bank. My guests had no idea what they might be in for. I could have described it as my worst nightmare. I was picturing rowing my boat downstream in a hurry to find some water to fish, only to end up at the take out early and without a fish, but I persisted that I would treat this day like any other and fish the river as if I was the one fishing. As we moved down river, people would seem to vanish. One angler said to me as I approached the run he occupied, "it's all yours"and he left. My guests caught 12 steelhead out of that run. By 4:00 PM my guests said they had caught enough and wanted to call it a day. Caught enough on the Trinity? Unbelievable! Patience and a positive mental attitude are your best flies on crowded days on any river. Instead of worrying about everyone else, just relax and at least have or provide a good experience. I guarantee that by the end of the day, everything will have worked out and you and your guests will have had a good day. No regrets!

How many times will I say....rain is good!

Rainy days are good for....fishing the Trinity.

Rain warms the water and raises river levels. Trinity steelhead like water that is 50 degrees or better. Well, I'm not sure if they, the steelhead can like anything, but the catching and releasing of these beautiful fish is better when the water is above 48 degrees. Just so you know, steelhead move up river when enough precipitation causes tributaries to flood and empty into the main stem of the Trinity River. The mud and silt that pours into the Trinity from it's tributaries always coincides with good fishing. Why? Some experts claim the mud and silt signal to the steelhead that the creek they came from as little iddy-biddy fish is ready. In other words, the creek has enough water in it. In addition, the scent of their natal stream is carried to them as a result of the elevated river levels, so they rush upstream in anticipation of completing their purpose. Others add that colored water provides cover for the fish from predators, resulting in a massive movement of steelhead charging upstream. Bottom line, we catch & release more steelhead when it rains on the average. If I were a steelhead, I would want lots of water with some mud mixed in. That way no one can see me. Besides the colored water providing cover, it also contains stuff that I can eat. Some stuff ends up being bugs, small animals, worms...some of it is junk, but it looks good, so I would take a snap at it just to see what it is. Some of the junk floating past me might tick me off. So I will bite it. If I see another steelhead pass me, I might feel some rage building up. Out of aggression, I'll bite anything that swims in front of me, past me, under me, near me. I'm a steelhead and I'm angry, sometimes. All I want to do is spawn and get the hell out of Douglass City. All this activity is going to make me hungry and a cranky. Should I eat?

I still hear arguments about whether or not steelhead eat while in fresh water. You know what? There are days when I wonder if they will ever eat! Then there are days when I know they at least are eating the flies I am throwing at them becuase when they end up in my boat, they have the fly I tied in their beak. What I can tell you is this....they are a hell of allot easier to catch when the water has some color to it. If you want an answer as to whether they eat or not, let's do this; After you catch 10-20 steelhead in a day, then let's decide if they eat or not.

In summary, rain is good. If it's raining I don't want to hear any complaining. The steelhead and I are happiest when it's raining. You should be happy too!