It Could Have Been Worse

As I backed the truck down to the river to unload the yak this morning it was still dark. I hit a soft spot in the sand and almost buried the truck. You have to have 4wheel drive to get to this spot and the truck was in 4high which is typically all I need to get in and out of this trail down to the river. I had already buried the wheels pretty good before I switched to 4low. Once in 4low I was just barely able to crawl out of the sand and back on my way. 

Once I got the yak on the river and made my way down stream to the first hole it was just getting light. On the first cast I hooked up with a nice catfish which would have been perfect eating size if I had a cooler to put him in. Not sure what happened after that but the rest of the morning the fishing was slow. I caught a few small bass and that was it till right before I started making my way back to the truck. I was dead drifting my fly through a run when my line became tight, the fish stayed deep and had plenty of weight to him. I was thinking I had a good striper or possibly a drum by the way he was fighting. I fought the fish up and down the pool I was fishing for a good 10 minutes. He swirled several times on the surface but with the sun in my face and glare on the water I couldn't get a good enough look to determine what I had on the end of my line. I finally got him tired out enough I was able to get him up on a shallow rock bar to beach him and get my hands on what turned out to be a huge grass carp. Not sure how big he was but close to 40" and probably well over 30lbs. He put up a heck of a fight on my TFO TICR 5wt. 

Not a bad way to end the day. It could have been a lot worse if I had to spend the morning digging the truck out with no shovel.

   

Catch and Release; The Misconception

We were expecting some rain here this past weekend so I tied up a "game changer" with a purple body and a chartreuse tail section. I figured this color combo would work really good in the stained/muddy water I was expecting to be fishing in Sunday morning. We really needed the rain, surprisingly the weatherman was wrong on the amount of rain he expected we would be getting. the little bit of rain we did get got soaked up by the drought infected ground. There was no run off and no off colored water. The fly still caught some fish, but I think it was to bright for most fish in the clear water. The white "game changer" was the fly of choice.

I think instead of gold eyes on this fly, a darker eye 

will make the fly a little sharper looking. 

First cast with the new color combo landed 

this cookie cutter largemouth.  

So one of the misconceptions with catch and release fishing is that it is good management practices and will result in more fish and bigger fish. This couldn't be further from the truth. In small ponds or lakes were you have a prolific predator like the largemouth bass, it only takes a few years for them to become over populated. Do you have a favorite fishing pond where you can go and catch handfulls of cookie cutter bass up to 2lbs but nothing bigger. Most likely this pond is over populated and the bass have knocked down the baitfish population. The bass have become stunted because they can't get enough to eat to gain weight and grow. On average it takes 10lbs of consumed baitfish for a bass to gain 1 pound in weight. All it takes is a bad winter or bad drought to knock out a lot of your baitfish and then with a strong bass population it is almost impossible for the baitfish to completely recover in small waters. I had some buddies out over the weekend and the 3 of us caught probably close to 75 bass in just a few hours of fishing, 55 of those were culled from the pond and filleted. This is a private pond and in Texas this practice is perfectly legal and must be done if you want to produce trophy caliber bucketmouths. Between now and next spring I'll be trying to take another 75-100 bass out of this particular pond to properly manage this water for big bass. Catch and release practice is all about catching and releasing the correct fish and there is nothing wrong with putting some fish in the skillet. There is a misconception that bass aren't that good to eat, but if you like bluegill you'll love bass.  

Blast From The Past

I fished the Llano River several years ago. I had a great time and have no idea why I haven't been back, I defiantly need to get back down there soon. Caught lots of Red Breasted Sunfish, Guads and Rios. Make sure to check out Enchanted Rock State Park also, just a short drive from the Llano.

Enchanted Rock State Park

Hooked up while cooling off in the clear water of the Llano.

First Rio

 Gorgeous rock bluffs along the river. 

Lots of doubles on these feisty Red Breasts. 

 Some whitetails getting a drink. 

Its all about the hat. 

More bluffs. 

Early Morning Bass'n

Had a great morning catching bass on the Hawg Tied. It was a beautiful sunrise with the sky reflecting off the water as the sun came up. I tell ya what, you have to have a lot of video to be able to put a decent clip together. With todays filming I was only able to put this short clip together. Enjoy!

Game Changer Fly

So I have been tying several different styles of game changers with different hooks, different material, incorporating rattles, lead eyes, cone heads, and even made some with paddle tails that I cut off some old plastic swim baits. I like them all, but have found that using CCT Body Fur gives the fly great action, the perfect sink rate to imitate a dying/wounded baitfish and gives the fly a nice full look with no gaps between the segments. Not to mention the CCT Body Fur is what the guys over at Flymen Fishing Company are using.

I wanted to throw this out there to anyone that is interested. The below pattern is tied on a #2 Gamakatsu B10 hook, the fly is roughly 4 1/2" to 5" long and is made up of 4 segmented fish spines not including the hook. I have all colors of CCT body fur and can tie them up in any color scheme you would like. I also have an assortment of Prismacolors to produce any specific request like a trout pattern or bluegill pattern. You can request any color tail you would like, white, yellow, chartreuse, you name it.

If you are interested, please email me at 2FlyFish4@gmail.com

Starting at $10 per fly

Thanks Casey 

   

Dog Days of Summer

Its hot and summer is creeping on, we still have about another 3-4 weeks before we get any relief. I do a little bit of fishing during this time frame, but mostly just day dream, reflect on past trips and plan for new ones. Football season is fixing to start and that's great. I'll start refilling the fly box as I sit in front of the TV watching the games on Sunday afternoon.

Went fishing this morning, it was really slow. The fish are feeling the heat and aren't overly active with these long days of the bright sun. I worked an area over pretty hard for a good hour and never got a bite on the clouser. This area always has fish in it. I switched and picked up a Game Changer that I tied on a 60 degree jig hook and put lead eyes on so it would ride hook point up. On the first cast I picked up a decent little smallmouth. But that was it. With no further bites I switched back to the clouser and picked up 3 more small fish, all spotted bass. I called it a day around 10 am and headed home. Fishing will continue to drag until it starts to cool. Once the days start getting shorter the fish will start to feed more.

POC Video

Here is a short video I put together from our trip to Port O'Conner. Enjoy