hill country fishing trump card (long and photo-rich)

[bdhold]

I posted yesterday's results on a fly fishing board, and I know Pitchy and I have talked about Pastor Hagee here before, so I wanted to show off this great time we had yesterday.

I have a couple of places in my back pocket.
Private access to amazing water you never want to abuse, so maybe once a year, maybe every other year, make the phone call and gain access.
Last time was two years ago, when I played this trump card for filming a tv show - it was great.
Yesterday, I took three best friends back to this place - the hill country retreat of a tv preacher. My friend who gets us in produces his video, but couldn't make it, though he made the right calls and gave us the gate code - must make it up to him...


It's an impoundment on an aquifer recharge creek - the water percolates in and out of the limestone for many miles, and downstream from here it completely disappears, until it re-emerges in the coastal plain.
It's stocked with big, educated bass, and is some of the best sight-fishing I know of anywhere.
The top end of the impoundment is wadable on the flagstone, after you get through the quicksand around the banks.

Alex was fishing XUL, extreme ultralight spinning gear built on a 3-wt. fly blank, and he was the first into big bass.



The pod bass here are big - 3 to 5 lbs, and it's the little ones that are solitary. I guess I photographed my first fish of the day, but leaving a pair in the wading water and hiking down to the lower dam with Jimbo, I got into my first pod bass (along with several others), and my best fish of the day.

I was fishing my canon for the long casts, a Japanese inshore fly rod with a sinking line.
When I hook up one of these pod bass, I always say "this one's got shoulders"

she left with plenty of fight

I think Jimbo had the toughest day and later would bust the far bank to finally find his pod bass - sorry I didn't get photos of it...
This place is a spiritual retreat - holy ground. Later in the morning, a gang of kids hiking the lower creek with one of the moms came up to watch us fish, just in time to see Ewell with a nice catfish.

(I guess I did get Jimbo taking Ewell's photo)
and this was from Ewell's perspective

And me doing what I do best - fishing with an audience

never to disappoint - we let the kids release all the fish

Ewell was fishing a gorgeous venerable Phillipson fiberglass rod, and, while it wouldn't have been my choice for this water, he made great use of it with long casts and big fish.

Leaving Jimbo in the bushes, we headed back up to check on Alex's progress. Intrepid wading had put him in the spot Jimbo really wanted, and we watched Alex catch 9 big pod bass in a row, making him the star of the day.


After this we hiked back to the lower dam to extricate Jimbo from his brush bust on the far bank, so we could go to lunch - we were all hearing the chicken fried steak call. Jimbo wanted just 5 more casts from the dam. He doesn't count fish the same way he counts casts, but that's OK, we all caught a few more before we left.
oops, I didn't upload that best photo of Ewell with his last (great) fish of the day, sporting a smile big enough for all of us - maybe I'll get it uploaded tonight.
A great day on holy ground.

Anway, Ewell and I talked leverguns. He has his grandfather's '92 in .44-40, and has been shooting it. We're planning a trip to his cousin's ranch on the Frio Sendero next spring for fishing, shooting and maybe even hog hunting.

[Pitchy]

Man you were in pretty deep in a couple spots, if you`d leaned over to far ya would of took on water.
Pretty neat trip thanks for sharing.

[bdhold]

not me, that was Alex - I didn't wade past mid-thigh - the water was too cold.
I don't need to catch fish that bad.
Alex wasn't wearing waders, btw - that strap is his chest pack - he was wet-wading that deep.
My photos of Alex were long zooms from the bank, cropped and filtered to bring them out of the haze
The time with great friends was the best part, the kids were next, and the photos were next. The fish are gravy.

[Blaine]

[M. M. Wright]

Great fun guys!

[bdhold]

Ewell with his last fish of the day, sporting a smile big enough for all of us.

Jimbo finally found the pod fish from the far bank.


and a photo Jimbo took of me, Alex and Ewell waiting for our CFS at Old Spanish Trail in Bandera - and loving the iced tea


Hobie, I really did put an OT in my thread title - I don't know where it goes...

[KirkD]

Wow! What a day of sheer pleasure!

[Blaine]

I don't know what a Pod Fish is....

[RIHMFIRE]

very nice outing....

[bdhold]

I don't know what a Pod Fish is....

three or five fish, maybe 7 or 8. All about the same size for the competition factor, but cruising together for cooperation - security, and even to corral minnows, but when the feeding starts they can get pretty competitive. When one tenuously follows what looks like food, they all follow, and maybe one or two will sample your offering - right in front of you. If you're lucky, one will dash up and suck it in.
Calling our limestone creek water gin-clear is cliche, but that's what it is, and we have great sight-fishing for river bass.

When you see them in range of your cast, that's when your heart skips a beat. You have to lead the whole pod, because if your cast is too close, or you muff it, the whole pod scatters - I saw that a couple of times yesterday.
Especially blind fishing (long casts on drops), when you're bringing in the fish you hooked up, you'll often see three or four following him in to your feet and even attacking his strange behavior with matching aggression displays.
Redfish on the flats travel in pods. In our tailwater, I've seen redhorse suckers and rainbows, even mixed with smallmouth bass, traveling that way. One day landing a big rainbow, a smallmouth was attacking him the whole time.

[Bill in Oregon]

Nice! Were the steaks as good as the fishing? Love the Hill Country!

[bdhold]

we were hungry enough it didn't matter, but yes, Old Spanish Trail in Bandera is one those small-town iconic restaurants worth the drive just to eat there.
The salad bar was fresh, the steak tender, the gravy perfect, the beans tasted like brisket ends - the biscuits weren't my mom's, but no other biscuits are.

We know every small town iconic restaurant in our turf - we'll drive up to 100 mi to fish, and the meal after the fishing is as important as the fishing.

If you ever fish the Frio Sendero,

the confluece of the Frio and Sabinal,

or Chalk Bluff on the Nueces (that's my dad),

you can't miss Hermann Sons Steak House.
I normally wouldn't recommend a hamburger steak to anyone, but the Pepper Steak at Hermann Sons is to die for, and may be worth the drive from Oregon to Hondo.
http://hermannsonssteakhouse.com/menu.html


We're planning a Frio Sendero trip next spring - Ewell's cousins ended up with their great grandfather's ranch there. It's more than 20 miles from nowhere - 20 miles of dirt road that intersects pavement that's 20 miles from nowhere.
The river disappears into the aquifer, 10 miles upriver, and it comes out again about a mile below the ranch. Between there, the river bed is a gravel sendero. But every quarter mile or so, there is a cold persistent pool loaded with bass and it never gets fished until we show up. It is silly, crazy fish catching. Last time, 3 of us caught 400 bass in one day, and each of us broke off 2 or 3 fish of a lifetime - 10-12-lb bass.



and since I brought up Chalk Bluff, you gotta read this
http://www.chalkbluffpark.com/history1.html (keep clicking on 'more' until the story's through)

[Bill in Oregon]

Great. Now I have a horrible case of "I miss Texas." Not sure when I will get back there, as my daughter graduated from Baylor in May, and now she's in grad school in Ames, Iowa. Oh well, one o' these days I'll make the Dallas Safari Club convention ...

[bdhold]

even from Dallas, it's a 6-7-hour drive to get to the country I was showing.

you just need to figure out how to spend spring and summer in Oregon and fall and winter in s. Texas.

[shooter]

I love the Hill Country. I always enjoy when you post your photos. Sure do miss living down there......maybe I will again one of these days.

[Ji in Hawaii]

Thank you for sharing your experience and photos, looks like great fun! I LOVE using ultralight spinning tackle on bass. What weight fly rod were you using? What type fly?

Private fishing holes are a treasure. I once had private access to the best smallmouth bass fishing waters in the state. I caught several that were bigger than the state record but preferred to release them to let them make more babies. This was on a large cattle ranch the rancher an old paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) friend leased the land from the state. When the lease expired the state took over the land turning it into a wildlife preserve and cutting off all access. This happened while I was away living on Maui, and I was heartbroken when I heard the news especially that the rancher my friend had passed away during my absence. Now all I have are memories though great ones.

[bdhold]

hi Ji, good-looking fish.
I was using an S-glass 6/7-wt. Japanese inshore (light) saltwater rod (IZCH PBEX 8677) with a Teeny T-130 sinking line and size 8 cats whiskers.

I selected the rod for making long casts from the shore. I started the morning at the wading end, though, fishing a WF7F also with cats whiskers.
The fly is very good for cyprinid minnows in clear water. Usually tied in blend colors for the water.
here's my fly pattern
http://www.warmfly.com/smf/index.php?topic=274.0

The impoundment above is kind of an exceptional spot for the hill country, at the western end (and actually while the bass are wild, they are not native to this watershed). Most of the hill country limestone creeks are tight and overhung with cypress - what I call cypress tunnels, and I am really fond of the mid-length, mid-weight fiberglass rods made in the 70s for fishing this water - Phillipson, SA System 5, Cummings


we have an endemic bass that lives only in 3 river systems in the Texas hill country, and the species lives nowhere else in the world

The tv show that I mentioned filming here and a hill country ranch, was about fishing for endemic Guadalupe bass. I call them Texas brook trout, and they actually occupy faster water than most trout species will.

[rjohns94]

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing

[flyfisher66048]

Man, I miss all the great fly fishing in the hill country. Thanks for the great story and pictures.

[Ji in Hawaii]

hi Ji, good-looking fish.
I was using an S-glass 6/7-wt. Japanese inshore (light) saltwater rod (IZCH PBEX 8677) with a Teeny T-130 sinking line and size 8 cats whiskers.

I selected the rod for making long casts from the shore. I started the morning at the wading end, though, fishing a WF7F also with cats whiskers.
The fly is very good for cyprinid minnows in clear water. Usually tied in blend colors for the water.
here's my fly pattern
http://www.warmfly.com/smf/index.php?topic=274.0

That pattern looks similar to some of the flies we use for Bonefish on the flats here. Thanks for the tutorial in the link. I'm sure the Smallmouth in out streams would love them. Curious to see if the Peacock Bass in our lake might be attracted to it. How long os that Japanese rod? I love the action of fiberglass fly rods but they are pretty rare in these parts nowadays. I've been using an old Basspro 5/6 fiberglass fly rod I got 20 years ago but might try my 3 wt just for fun especially when targeting Red Devils which are plentiful, and feisty.
That country you fish looks beautiful, and the Guadalupe Bass sounds like fun on light tackle. I've caught largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass (not counting peacock bass as they are actually cichlids) but the lesser known species not yet. I know Florida has a Suwanee bass which may be doable if I ever visit my sis there.
Thanks for sharing your fishing adventures, always enjoyable to hear about other places and methods.

Red Devil

[bdhold]

hi Ji,
the rod is S-glass, which makes it a little faster than traditional e-glass rods, and the taper is parabolic which makes the tip fast and it the rod loads deep into the blank with double-haul, then shoots out line like a bow. It's like a Sage RPLX, though notably slower than graphite. Pretty amazing how the line keeps zinging through the guides when you shoot. As I said, it's made for light saltwater - inshore flats fishing. Ordered from Japan, and the blank was hand-rolled from scratch on order. Izch is Japanese phonetic for Issac.

My fly tackle collection borders on embarrassing, but I can always point to Mick, who I know has more rods than me - ha.
If you want to see some of my tackle, especially my venerable Phillipsons, you can look here
http://bulldog1935.u.yuku.com/

I know Hawaii and Florida have many feral cichlids, but we have a native cichlid here, the Rio Grande


do you fish the wild trout in Hawaii?

BTW, I wanted to thank everyone on this board not only for your tolerance of this thread, but for all the kind comments. I posted this on the local bass fisher's board and merely got one thumbs-up, and the fiberglass fly rod board, couple of nice comments and a couple of contributions from local friends who also post there. Thanks again for the kind reception.

[Blaine]

hi Ji,
the rod is S-glass, which makes it a little faster than traditional e-glass rods, and the taper is parabolic which makes the tip fast and it the rod loads deep into the blank with double-haul, then shoots out line like a bow. It's like a Sage RPLX, though notably slower than graphite. Pretty amazing how the line keeps zinging through the guides when you shoot. As I said, it's made for light saltwater - inshore flats fishing. Ordered from Japan, and the blank was hand-rolled from scratch on order. Izch is Japanese phonetic for Issac.

My fly tackle collection borders on embarrassing, but I can always point to Mick, who I know has more rods than me - ha.
If you want to see some of my tackle, especially my venerable Phillipsons, you can look here
http://bulldog1935.u.yuku.com/

I know Hawaii and Florida have many feral cichlids, but we have a native cichlid here, the Rio Grande


do you fish the wild trout in Hawaii?

BTW, I wanted to thank everyone on this board not only for your tolerance of this thread, but for all the kind comments. I posted this on the local bass fisher's board and merely got one thumbs-up, and the fiberglass fly rod board, couple of nice comments and a couple of contributions from local friends who also post there. Thanks again for the kind reception.

All this Fly Rod stuff is Greek to me....It's been a good thread!!

[Ji in Hawaii]

hi Ji,

I know Hawaii and Florida have many feral cichlids, but we have a native cichlid here, the Rio Grande


do you fish the wild trout in Hawaii?

I have been an amateur aquariast pretty much my whole life so have been fascinated with fish in general but especially the large cichlid family. I always had a special interest in the Rio Grande Cichlid it being the only native cichlid to the USA. They sell them here in the local pet shops but they are expensive. Your example is outstandingly handsome. The state fish & game department introduced Peacock Bass and Oscars to local waters back in the late 1950s to complement the Largemouth & Smallmouth introductions from prewar times. In the past 25 year the release of other species into our streams and lakes by people tired of taking care of their aquarium fish has really damaged the native ecosystem. Red Devils, Convict Cichlids, and Jaguar Cichlids to name a few have taken over so many local waters ruining some of my favorite old smallmouth streams of the past.


I've fish for Rainbows up in Koke'e on the island of Kaua'i but my last trip there was back in '93 so way overdo for another one. I fished a reservoir with spinning tackle but would love to try the streams with a fly rod. One day.

I've been fly fishing off and on here for about 25 years but not consistently enough to consider myself anything more than a neophyte. I own just one rod of each weight range from 3wt to 12wt but I don't believe I paid more than $100 for even my most expensive Sage or Reddington rod acquiring all on sale at clearance prices. My fly reels and lines too are more entry level purchased either on sale or used on eBay at bargain prices. My favorite fly reels are old Japanese made reels from the '70s. I do enjoy fly fishing and tying my own flies even though purist may cringe at seeing some of the hardware I choose.

[bdhold]

I've kept African cichlids for a long time - almost as long as I've been fly fishing, though not quite.
As far as ichthyology goes, I'm the only person I know who refers to redfish, speckled trout and croaker as scienids.

[Streetstar]

I love the pics !

With my company being based out of Boerne, i almost salivate every time i get a paid-for trip there ! Alas, a company trip meant lots of work last year and i couldnt shake loose with any daylight left , although i squeezed in a couple of early morning rides at Tapatio





I may have to go on my own dime to get some fishing in

[bdhold]

Tapatio is a beautiful place - we drove past it on our way to Tarpley last weekend.

The way my brain works, when I see a vista like this, I see drainages and creek bottoms.
And I will find them.