She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have been on the road the past few days along the Texas coast around Rockport and Aransas Pass. Louisiana may grow bigger redfish, but this part of the central Texas coast boasts one of the Gulf’s most productive bay fisheries and makes the pulse of any redfish-chasing fisher quicken at its mention.
We had too much ground to cover in too little time to allow much fishing this run, though we did take a break one scorching afternoon and strolled through the Swan Point Landing fly shop there on the main drag (just down from the HEB) in Rockport.
Much like the cowboys of the old West must have relished the aura, and probably even the smell, of the old time Western saloon, we savor the vibe of the long-standing local fly shop.
This one fit the bill – fairly tight retail space overstocked with everything you’d imagine in a shop – ranging from the requisite vertical rod rack to the packed glass reel display case to a couple of racks of tech shirts to the classic fly displays anchoring the center of the shop.
Stacks of various boat and travel bags, a few verticals packed with essential saltwater tying components, boots on the wall, damned good local fly fishing art and a surprisingly decent book selection.
The smell was even right – that funky mix of tying stuff, new product packaging materials, old pizza from lunch a few hours ago and what was probably dog, though we never confirmed that with a visual sighting.
Even a cooler of cold beer just inside the door.
Hot damn.
