From my dimly-lit perspective, there are few hunting scenes finer than a lovesick turkey strutting and gobbling within ten yards of my shotgun barrel. Down here in balmy Texas they’ll often start their spring strut in early February. And depending on range conditions, weather, and the number of serviceable hens; they may stay haired-up well into May. I can’t imagine the energy and hormones it must take to strut, drum, primp, and gobble 8-10 hours a day for four straight months. By average male comparison, that’s a long time to walk around with a stiffy.

Over the past few weeks I dropped in on a few favorite strutting grounds and collected some new images of spring gobblers in all their finery.  I also got in a quick hunt in South Texas where timely spring rains have launched gobblers into a strutting/breeding fury.

Enjoy the view, and click here if you’d like to peruse my entire turkey archive.

Like an apple on a stick

Wing plumage

Sharp dressed man

Pick up lines

Duped

Tough choice

Don’t grab here until he stops floppin’

Cut into strips, dip in buttermilk, dust with seasoned flour, fry until golden brown

What a difference a year makes. By this point last spring we had gone nearly three months without measurable rain and most Texas rivers were dropping fast. By June we were well into the “drought of record” and by September a good portion of the state was on fire. In my 47 years I’ve never seen Central Texas look as bad as it did before the first significant rains finally fell in October.

Looking around Austin, now, you would never know what we suffered through last summer.  Granted, most of our local lakes are still well below capacity; but the rains have returned, the wildflowers are knee-high, and the rivers are running clear and strong.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to re-aquaint myself with the local bass fishery that was basically absent during 2011. Local guides Shea McClanahan and Alvin Dedeaux have had a great early spring on the Colorado River, below Austin, and I was anxious to check it out. Shea took us on an eight-mile float with both fly and spin gear and we found near-perfect water flows with mobs of healthy largemouths and Guadalupe bass.

In keeping with my ongoing fixation on the view from the waterline, I spent most of the day with my underwater gear and nabbed some cool new scenes for my bass archive. Click here to see the rest of the shoot.

Shea McClanahan and Jody Gibson on the (Texas) Colorado

A Guadalupe bass running off with a crawfish pattern

Serpent orgy

Shea working a hole for “Guads”

Jody with a chunk-o-bass

Popper action

Largemouth on a bubblegum fluke

North of eight pounds (bonafide)

Be free, you dern hawg

For a lot of years I held onto the notion that the overstuffed brown trout in Arkansas’ White River were only catchable with wispy 14-foot leaders and flies too small for those with sausage fingers and failing eyesight. Enter Steve Dally, the Tasmanian transplant guide and fly shop owner who is promoting an entirely different theory.

A few years ago, Steve’s guide crew began toying with the idea that brown trout might be hungry when they finish their fall/winter spawn. Instead of tiny nymphs on 6x during low water times, they started targeting the high water days when the big browns tuck in tight to the banks and use structure to ambush actual food. When he pointed me toward his website and showed me the browns they were catching on stout leaders and six-inch baitfish patterns, I got all fidgety.

Last week, I arrived at Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher with three fellow Texans. Adorning the walls of the shop were framed prints of all the 10-plus browns that they’ve caught during “streamer season”. We didn’t catch a brown worthy of Steve’s hall of honor, but we caught a few good ones, and after three days of pounding the White River banks with 8-weights and flies with appendages, I now fully appreciate the challenge involved in that pursuit. Steve told us going in that it’s not a big numbers game. Go at it hard and you might catch a lifetime fish. I’m not sure if that was the one that freight-trained my fly and wrapped me around a boulder, but I was happy to have briefly tangled with him.

Thanks to Steve and his lovely wife Bec for their great hospitality, and to guides Chad Johnson and Ben Levin for continually rowing upcurrent to retrieve our mis-thrown flies.

Click here to see the entire shoot.

Foggy start on the White River

Steve Dally on the sticks

This thing eats sow bugs like m&m’s

Tantalizing and scintillating

Hooked up

Aggressive youth

Small hen on a flooded bank

Big buck on a flooded bank

Worth every cast

Ozark authenticity

The banjo player was on break

Beats watching Idol

I’m a creature of habit. That serves me well with most things, but not photography. One of the toughest challenges that I have in creating marketable imagery, is overcoming my tendency to shoot the same angles when returning multiple times to a favorite locale.

Last week, my son Blake and I drove down to Rockport for our annual duck hunt with Brad Smythe. I loaded the typical pile of guns, waders, dry bags and camera boxes, and then took a spin through my photo archive from previous coastal duck hunting trips. What I noticed, were several hundred images that didn’t at all convey what duck hunting is all about: mud, water, and cold.

So I tossed my underwater case into the truck and spent the drive down to Rockport pondering how I’d use it.

Besides great hunting with hordes of decoying ducks, I got a kick out of poking delicate electronics into places that I normally wouldn’t. I didn’t get a couple of the shots I was hoping for, but only because Boom the wonderdog had to stay home on our second morning due to extremely low tides, bare paws, and too many oyster bars. But he’s a young pup, and my duck dates with Brad are already rebooked for next year. I’ll get those shots eventually.

To see the rest of this shoot, and others from my duck hunting archive, please click here.

Be Social
It was bound to happen at some point. I’ve just opened a Twitter page where I’ll post daily photos, gear reviews, and other newsworthy oddities. I hope you’ll give it a follow.

At the ramp

Blake at first light

Headwind,  flaps down, gear deployed

Sloshing through the decoys

Bounding Boom

Picking up the spread

Muckity muck

Banded pintail

They do this every day for three months

Rainbow goodness: American Angler magazine

Hey Folks -
Another year is winding down and I’d like to thank all of the companies that license my stock images and hire me to go to cool places and frame scenes and punch buttons. 2011 has been a good year and I’m hoping that our collective climb from the slimy dregs of recession/depression will continue.

Herein you’ll find a small slice of favorite images and collages that were published in 2011. I wish there was room for more, but nobody likes a slow website, so this’ll have to do. Thanks to everyone that promotes my work and puts it into print. I appreciate your business and look forward to working with you all again in 2012, and beyond.

Happy holidays and my best wishes for the New Year!

-TB

Redface: Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine

Texas coast pictorial: Ducks Unlimited magazine

Albie love: Gray’s Sporting Journal

Ad shots: Sportsman Channel

Airborne Bass: Texas Sporting Journal

El Redfish Mundo: Fly Fishing in Salt Waters magazine

Whitetail Buck: JF Griffin Publishing

Poling for stripahs: Fly Fishing in Salt Waters Magazine