| Freshwater Guide's Reports |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Monday, 03 March 2008 | |
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Things are going good at fork.
Feb 29 2008
 Celine Adams on the Llano River fishing was on fire today, especially with grasshopper patterns and poppers except for a weird lull in activity between noon and 2 p.m. Celine caught around 50-60 bass (not too bad for her 2nd time ever to fly fish), most of them were Guadalupe bass to 14 inches with some largemouth mixed in, including breaking one off of about 3 pounds. my fault for not putting a heavier tippet. Celine was pretty hard core, fishing the entire time while we melted in the hot Texas sun. i estimate at least 2000 casts were made (a cast every 20 feet X 8 miles @ 5280 feet per mile = 2112 casts). ok, i know that’s a silly statistic, but what the hell. anyway, we finished the day with a yummy meal at Cooper’s BBQ. Float Trip on the Nueces River August 9, 2007 at 11:32 pm • Filed under Texas Fishing So, finally got to get out. rivers are still a bit high, but with the warm temperatures, everything is drying out and stabilizing. this week, i went with my good friend and fellow fishing guide Johnny Quiroz to float the lower Nueces River near Uvalde. this is the section of river that basically transitions from lower hill country into south Texas. we floated roughly 8 miles the first day, then did a ballsy 15 miles the 2nd day. very tiring as the river was flowing 600 cfs. these sections of river were quite broad. the water was GIN CLEAR, you could see the bottom at 12-15 feet in places, it was CRAZEEE clear!! we spent a lot of time casting to dead water. seems the fish only held in pools that carried water year-round, as this area is part of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, so the river runs underground at normal flows. also, the river seemed especially barren due to the combination of damaging floods and severe drought. a lot of pools and runs with bare white rock and no vegetation, not ideal habitat for good fishing…however…. despite only 10% of the river having quality fishable water, it was a gorgeous float. you could see the devastation due to big floods dumping gravel into the river bed (due to excessive clearing of land, erosion of topsoil). but this was the closest thing to a true trout stream i’ve ever seen in texas. we missed several big largemouth in the 4-4.5 pound class (21+ inch fish) due to crappy fishing (break-offs, bad hooksets, etc.). we did manage to hook some nice channel catfish and some chunky Guadalupe bass. there was also an abundance of tilapia, some Rio Grande perch and alligator gar, which is unusual since spotted gar usually dominate in the hill country rivers. all in all it was a fun 2 days of fishing and floating. i really enjoyed the mesquite and brush that is characteristic of south Texas, and all the different types of birds from the usual hill country varieties. the only weird part was the last part of the 2nd day where we transitioned into farmland. the river’s 600 cfs of water suddenly channeled into narrow clay banks that were twisting and turning. 50-yard width of river suddenly turned into 15 feet of raging current with trees covering some spots with only a foot and a half of clearance. luckily Johnny’s a good paddler in front of the canoe and we coordinated well our way out, but needless to say, there were some scary moments. all photos copyright Joey Lin 2007, except the one of me of course, copyright Johnny Quiroz.  
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 04 March 2008 ) |
I am managing to catch quite a few fish each day out though the wind and the rain keep me guessing. If I can locate clear or less muddy water I can usually do pretty good. No really big fish as of yet, some 6's and 7's. Some days the red rattle baits are producing and when the water is clear enough the jerk bait bite is real good. Today we struggled and finally caught some late on flukes. But it was a slow day. Water is still too cold 51-55 degrees. Next month the whole north end of the lake should be full of nesting fish.
