At just 2.5 miles the Comal River is the shortest river in Texas. Located in New Braunfels Texas; the Comal begins at Comal Springs in Landa Park and flows 2.5 miles until its joins with the Guadalupe. The River is primarily surrounded by private land. With Landa Park offering the best access to the river. The Comal is gin clear and is like fishing in an aquarium. With that come some difficulties in fooling fish but non the less its a great experience. The river is full of bass, many of them approaching 4-5 lbs, red breasted sunfish, rio grande cichlids, blugill and exotics like tilipia and big plecos. The river is also one of only two rivers to host the fountain darter, a fish now in danger of extinction. The only other river inhabited by the darter is the nearby San Marcos River.
I rigged up the 3 weight this morning with a hopper dropper and made my way down to the edge of the river. As the sun was coming up the water started coming to life with a variety of different fish swimming every which direction. With ultra clear water the fish weren't easy to fool with even the most perfect presentations being rejected. The fish just knew what was real and what wasn't but it is always educational watching how the fish react to different fly patterns and presentations. After a few changes I started getting some looks by adding a heavy enough dropper to sink the hopper pattern I was working. As the hopper was sinking in the water column I would twitch it just enough to draw a few hits from some redbreasted sunfish. The bass had absolutely no interest in it so I switched overto a weight crawfish pattern and fished it directly on the bottom. One thing about clear water bass is they are extremely finicky and not easily fooled. I have found though that they respond to a fly that is crawled and hopped along the bottom. Another benefit of fishing a fly in clear water along the bottom is you can get away with heavier tippet. I believe this is because the tippet does not get silhouetted like it does when you are fishing in the upper portion of the water column where the fish is looking up at the fly.
The best part of the day was watching this huge snapping turtle come swimming by with a bass right on it tail. Literally this spunky 1.5-2 lb bass was taking swipes at this turtles tail. I've seen a lot of snapping turtles while out fishing but never seen a bass following and biting their tail.
For a great source of flies for the Texas Hill Country, check out Matt Bennett Flies.
Big pleco laying on a rock.
Big snapper came swimming by.
A nice Comal River bass.
Check out this gem, a red spotted sunfish.
Pretty cool little fish.
A nice red breasted sunfish.
Casey
ReplyDeleteAll those fish had to be a blast on the 3 wt. I love to fish crystal clear water, out tailrace here is super clear, which makes it a challenge to fish at times. Thanks for sharing