Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day!!

Thank you to all the men and women who serve our country, remember all those who have lost their life fighting for our freedom. Prayers to them all.

The wife and I headed down to the hill country to visit her family this Memorial weekend. We sneaked off and did a little fishing on the San Marcos river and had a good time. We rented a canoe from  Spencer's Canoes and I can't say enough good things about them. They were very polite and informative and made sure everything ran smoothly for us. We floated from Martindale to Staples which is about 5 and a half miles. The upper half of this trip is in pretty quick water while the last half of the trip is in slow water. The river was lined with huge bald cypress and elephant ear plants. There was a lot of fish to be caught and as long as you threw your fly right up next to the bank you would get hit more times then not. We caught lots of nice red breasted sunfish and a mix of small bass and some nice rio grande cichlids. There has to be some monster bass in this river. Everything lines up, there is a ton of bait, including tilapia and the river is spring fed so there is almost always a good flow and stable water temperatures. The best way to fish this river is to have someone paddle you around so you can concentrate on fishing all the key spots. The faster water will push you past a lot of good spots and the wind will blow you off the good spots on the lower section of the trip. Their are a lot of good guides that fish the San Marcos. Give them a call if your interested in a great trip.

The best view on the river

Mister Guadalupe Bass 

One of many nice redbreasted sunfish

A decent Rio 

Broken Bow

My Buddy had his bachelor party up in Broken Bow this weekend. The fishing was good and we had a great time. Ended up catching a lot of nice rainbows and one really good one plus a walleye/saugeye that was a surprise. I have never caught a walleye or saugeye so I cant tell the difference between the species. The bow caught me off guard, I was half half asleep day dreaming when she hit. I was lucky to get a good hookset and she immediately came up to the surface and rolled and I knew I had a good fish. My knees were getting weak and shaking. I was praying the tippit wouldn't break or she wouldn't shake the hook loose. She was head shaking a lot and rolling in the water. There were a lot of rocks she could have tried to wrap me around but didn't, she stayed in the open water. I finally got her in the net. Some people probably look at me like I'm an idiot on the river because I carry a huge net. But my thinking is; when you need a net you need a net. I never understood why people carry some a small 12" or so net. Small fish don't really need to be netted and a big fish isn't going to fit in a small net. Just my thoughts. 

Great Topwater Action

With the cloud cover and light winds on Saturday morning the conditions were perfect to throw some topwater flies. The fish where up in the newly flooded brush and grass from the rains the days before. I caught a lot of nice large mouth on a frog pattern. Is there anything better than watching a bass explode on a topwater fly? My day was cut short due to my rod breaking. I know the TFO BVK 4weight was not the rod of choice for throwing flies to big bass, but since it is a new rod I have been using it a lot and testing its limitations. Trying to keep a bass from diving into a brush pile was its match. Good thing TFO is located just down the street from me and I will get it replaced and put it in the closet till I go trout fishing; a much more suited fish for this rod.

A nice bucketmouth from the morning 

BVK, not a bass rod

 The chosen fly for the morning 

BVK

Don't have any real fishing reports to post, I was to busy this week to do much fishing and the few hours I could sneak in today I didn't even land a fish. I had a few quick releases with the hook pulling, but they were just small bass and not really picture quality. I did buy me a new TFO BVK a couple weeks ago and have fished with it enough now to form an opinion. I got the 10ft 4weight with its primary purpose being used for indicator fishing for trout. The rod weighs in at 2.9 oz and is much lighter than the TFO Professional 10ft 5weight that it was bought to replace. The light weight of the rod will make high sticking all day much easier on the shoulder and with the Ross Evolution 2 it balances out nicely. The problem I had with the Professional 10ft 5weight was due to the weight of the rod and the lack of weight in the reel the rod was very tip heavy and did not balance out in my hand and just felt clumsy. The BVK has a light tip that will be perfect for protecting light tippets in the 6x and 7x range. I put a SA GPX 5weight line on it. While I typically don't like to overline rods I decided the 5weight line because I wanted a heavier line to turn over indicators and double and triple fly rigs with split shot. The 10ft length will make mending much easier at mid to longer rangers as well as setting the hook. The rod cast very nice but is a little slow to cast past 80 ft in most conditions. It does make nice and delicate presentations at close and mid ranges very well, which is what I bought it for and I'm sure TFO designed it for. Overall I am very happy with the BVK and recommend it to anyone looking for a good rod at a reasonable price. TFO is based out Dallas, TX and has one of the best customers service departments in the industry.