riverbilly
Well-known member
Spring is in the air here in central Texas. The trees are starting to put out leaves, the first of the wild flowers are coming up and the fish, well they are getting hungry.
Last weekend was beautiful - highs around 80 degrees, partly sunny and for once the wind wasn't too bad. Me and two friends grabbed the kayaks and hit the river to see what we could find.
It ended up being my best day since starting fly fishing right at a year ago.
Fishing started out good from the beginning now that the water is warming up.
First good fish of the day was a white.
Soon the first good bass.
I came up to a spot that can hold good fish but hadn't all winter. I make the cast and the rod bends over. After a great fight I pull her up.
These were on my new, since Christmas, TFO 5wt.
I figured between Bob and Lefty you can't go wrong.
A sign of Spring -
And the blackberries are blooming -
And the fish were biting -
For this girl I'd switched over to my 8wt so I could throw some articulated stuff I've been tying. This one was a variation of the Circus Peanut.
Here is the veiw from my old beat up kayak. I should get a new one but have too many good memories and it does everything I need.
Here is an interesting bass. It's a Guadalupe bass crossed with the Smallmouth. In the late 70's and early 80's the Texas Parks and Wildlife stocked large numbers of Smallmouth in the rivers and lakes to "improve" our fisheries. Little forethough went into it and it turns out that the Guads and Smallmouths interbreed. Now on my river, the Colorado (Texas Colorado), as most rivers that had Guadalupes there are no true Guads or Smallmouths, just hybrids. They are a very sporty fish, bigger than the true Guads with my biggest being around 19" and lots of 16"ers to fight in the current. They are a beautiful fish.
Towards the end of the day I caught one more nice one in an unsuspecting place. That's the Circus Peanut in her mouth.
Early in the day as we came around a bend and were flushing birds from the trees we had a Bald Eagle fly over about 40 feet above our heads. Latter in the day one flew right over me and I was able to grab the camera from my pocket in just in time.
Just 7-8 years ago you would not have seen one. This year we've had a confirmed nesting site. This kind of thing is really why I go to the river.
Sorry for all the photos, I guess I'm a visual type of person.
No photos of my buddys, they are still conventional fisherman. Maybe not long though, I've finally gotten to the point where I can out fish them with the fly.
It was a great day all around, about 30 fish in 10 hours covering 12 miles.
Thanks for reading,
David
Last weekend was beautiful - highs around 80 degrees, partly sunny and for once the wind wasn't too bad. Me and two friends grabbed the kayaks and hit the river to see what we could find.
It ended up being my best day since starting fly fishing right at a year ago.
Fishing started out good from the beginning now that the water is warming up.
First good fish of the day was a white.
Soon the first good bass.
I came up to a spot that can hold good fish but hadn't all winter. I make the cast and the rod bends over. After a great fight I pull her up.
These were on my new, since Christmas, TFO 5wt.
I figured between Bob and Lefty you can't go wrong.
A sign of Spring -
And the blackberries are blooming -
And the fish were biting -
For this girl I'd switched over to my 8wt so I could throw some articulated stuff I've been tying. This one was a variation of the Circus Peanut.
Here is the veiw from my old beat up kayak. I should get a new one but have too many good memories and it does everything I need.
Here is an interesting bass. It's a Guadalupe bass crossed with the Smallmouth. In the late 70's and early 80's the Texas Parks and Wildlife stocked large numbers of Smallmouth in the rivers and lakes to "improve" our fisheries. Little forethough went into it and it turns out that the Guads and Smallmouths interbreed. Now on my river, the Colorado (Texas Colorado), as most rivers that had Guadalupes there are no true Guads or Smallmouths, just hybrids. They are a very sporty fish, bigger than the true Guads with my biggest being around 19" and lots of 16"ers to fight in the current. They are a beautiful fish.
Towards the end of the day I caught one more nice one in an unsuspecting place. That's the Circus Peanut in her mouth.
Early in the day as we came around a bend and were flushing birds from the trees we had a Bald Eagle fly over about 40 feet above our heads. Latter in the day one flew right over me and I was able to grab the camera from my pocket in just in time.
Just 7-8 years ago you would not have seen one. This year we've had a confirmed nesting site. This kind of thing is really why I go to the river.
Sorry for all the photos, I guess I'm a visual type of person.
No photos of my buddys, they are still conventional fisherman. Maybe not long though, I've finally gotten to the point where I can out fish them with the fly.
It was a great day all around, about 30 fish in 10 hours covering 12 miles.
Thanks for reading,
David
