A bulk of the questions and comments i get here at “die Fische” are usually one of the following;
1) The person is completely new to fly fishing and is wondering the basics “What, when, where, and how?”
2) The person has fished other parts of the world but is new to the Austin area and is wondering the same.
There is a wealth of information already out there, be it in books, magazines, blogs, etc. My goal is going to be to break it all down into bite size nuggets of information that can get you on the water, AND IN THE RIGHT PLACE, quickly so that you can discover why fishing in Austin is so great and not be depressed that you aren’t chasing trout/tarpon/steelhead somewhere else.
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Two of the best spots in Austin for the beginner to get their line wet.
January – March: Head down (from Austin) to the Guadalupe River in Sattler and fish for freshly stocked trout. There are numerous sites where you can pay to play, otherwise you’ll need a membership with the GRTU to obtain access to their private leases
March-April: So many options it’s ridiculous. For beginners i’d recommend practicing your chops on Barton Creek before the crowds hit in the summer. For the experienced angler the striper runs at Colorado state Park, or Reimers Ranch are the local stuff of legend (although i must admit to hitting up neither). All the major waterbodies in Texas are a lot of fun this time of year, cash in your sick days before the summer crowds hit!
May-August: Good luck. It will HAVE to be early mornings or sunset evenings for you on most of the water anywhere near town. This is when i pull out the water craft and start paddling for remote coves or water to “scary” for people to be swimming and getting drunk in.
September-November: Normal heavy rains this time of year make for lots of intense streamer action. For example, the base of the falls at Pedernales a few days after a heavy rain has been one of the highlights of my fishing in Texas. The base of the upper falls at McKinney Falls State Park is also a local hotbed of activity if the rain cooperates. One of the biggest bass i’ve ever caught was in September there…on a 2WT.
December: I work in retail, so this month makes me want to bang my head against oncoming traffic. If you are one of the lucky ones i would suggest starting to familiarize yourself with the Guadalupe and the trout stocking program down there. That or fish big rods, and big flies for some of the biggest bass you will ever catch.
Because you might loose your mind if you don’t tip your toes in the water and stalk sunfish with a 2WT on Barton Creek, or chase massive bass and carp on Town Lake.
Because we can fish year round without suffering frost bite damage.
Because although i post and talk at endless length about all the possibilities for fly fishing here in Texas, i hardly ever see anyone else on the water. It’s a big state with endless possibilities, get out there and enjoy it.
Eric,
Can you please email me some suggestions of affordable ways to learn fly fishing in Austin? Most lessons seem to exceed $100. Thanks!
I can help. Send me email at FlyFishBartonCreek@gmail.com
Don
Hey Nikki,
The best i can tell you right now is to check out the free vevents that Sportsman’s Finest puts on. Or just stop in and talk to Greg, he’s got tons of knowledge and is super friendly. You can check out their schedule of events at:
http://www.sportsmansfinest.com/calendar.cfm
Although I’ve never taken part, i’ve heard great things about Austin Fly Fishers as well. They have regular outings that are open to the public:
http://www.austinflyfishers.com/AFFoutings.html
I’m trying to wrap up the rest of the “Fly Fishing austin 101″ page which also has some basic information:
http://diefische.org/fly-fishing-austin-101/
I’ll try to find some more information for you, but in the mean time if you have any questions let me know and i’ll help you if i can.
-eric
Don’t be frightened by the mystique, Nikki. The technical skills required to cast a fly aren’t very demanding, and you sure don’t need to spend $100 for lessons.
If you know someone who flyfishes, they can teach you the basics in about 10 minutes. If not, practice a while in you front yard or parking lot (no hook, of course!).
- strip out 20ft or so of fly line and just let it loosely coil by your feet (but don’t step in the loop). Then
- sweep you rod back briskly but smoothly to just past vertical (about 1 o’clock, as they say), then forward to about 10 o’clock. Repeat a couple of times to shoot out some 15ft or so of the line you stripped.
Now you’re ready to cast —
1. Back cast: Sweep your rod back briskly but smoothly to 1 o’clock, then …
2. HESITATE long enough for teh line to totally unfurl behind you. The ‘hesitate’ is only a fraction of a heartbeat, but failure to hesitate is the source of pretty near every casting problem.
3. Then push the rod briskly forward, again just past vertical – to about 10 o’clock. The extra line at your feet will whistle out thru the guides on your rod.
4. Retrieve by short strips (pull the line in with your free hand, a couple of inches at a time) until there’s 10-12 ft still extending out from the tip of your rod.
Repeat steps 1-4.
- Practice will make you smoother and more accurate – but don’t worry, even those of us who have been doing it for years – decades – sometimes still look like novices.
- Look behind you. If you want to cast to a target 20 or 30 feet in front of you, you need 20 or 30 feet of clear space behind you, too (no kids, spouses, fishing partners or trees)
- Don’t forget to HESITATE on you backcast
Equipment – Nothing fancy required. You can get a perfectly adequate outfit – rod, reel, line, et al at any of the outdoor stores. Buy a few wooly buggers and bead head nymphs. Learn a simple knot to tie them on with – some good examples on the internet. Don’t worry about the mysteries of ‘tippets’ and ‘leaders’ – about 6 ft of 6lb or 8lb monofilament is all you need to get started.
Where to find the fish, and how to attract them? Those are the tough questions. I’m new to Austin myself and just trying to learn the local tricks. The DIE FISCHE blog is a pretty good place to look for advice.
Good luck, Nikki. Hope you make it down to the river.
Bob
BAM! There you go Nikki!
Thanks Bob for taking the time to share all that great information.
Readers helping readers, I LOVE IT!
Let me also say that there is a wealth of information at the Faulk library in downtown Austin where they have shelf upon shelf of fly-fishing literature, with many of them being instructional books. By far the easiest and clearest to understand is Tom Rosenbauer’s book “The Orvis Guide to Fly-Fishing.
Again, thank you Bob for helping a fellow reader out, that’s awesome!
-Petri Heil,
eric
Access to something that is so satisfying and so much fun ought to be easy.
Thanks so much for the detailed advice all! Eric, I will def check out your links, and Bob, your technical advice is very helpful.
Thanks again!!
Nikki
Thanks so much for everything this blog has to offer! I have been fly-fishing since I was 4 (12 yrs.) and have an absolute passion for it. I’m starting a club at my school this year for it and was planning to take a few buddies down to the pedernales for a day trip to further both their excitement and skill in fly-fishing. I like to read “scouting reports” of different places before I fish them and thanks to the old google this popped up. Thanks for all of the info and great stories. I hope to take advantage of some guadelupes in a few days!
David
Thanks David,
If you are in fact 16 years old (number derived from comment) i kind of feel like a rock star. I’ve apparently got the 16-60 year old demographic covered, and that is FREAKIN AWESOME!
You’re welcome, and i can promise many new maps and reports coming soon as i’m working on a new “layout” for this blog. If you ever need any advice, don’t hesitate to ask, i don’t know a lot but i’ll share any info i can with you.
I was out at Red Bud last evening starting at 6:30 and for my first time there I was pretty pleased. I felt like I was back fishing for trout in Colorado or Northwest Arkansas. A buddy and I landed 5 meager fish but I think I hooked up with a white for a few seconds, and we had a lot of fun. We saw a guy on a paddle board but I couldn’t tell if he was fishing. If it was you, then I guess great minds think alike. I should be back tomorrow as I only fished the “whitewater” section on your map with a 6 wt. and some black wooly buggers and a grey zonker. Thanks for the help I would have been totally blind!
P.S. any one fly that you would take down there?
David
Well, you’ve already had more luck there than i have had there in a long time. Clouser Minnows are a good bet there until around dusk. Around then you’ll probably find that large poppers will be good for bass and small ones for the good size Rio Grande’s that hang out there. Chartreuse and Black seem to work the best.
I know that’s more than one fly, so i guess some good size Wooly’s in olive if i had to choose one. I know that’s not original but there’s a reason that the Wooly is so popular.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
I went back yesterday and while my brother got skunked, I caught 14 nice fish. All were sunfish: redbreast, longear, and one fighsty green. After fishing the white water section with nothing so much as a bite, and seeing nothing but a longnose gar, I took off my clouser (peach and white flash) and put on a black bodied “bream getter” with yellow spots and pink legs. I fished the beds around the middle island along with the columns of the bridge and hydrilla flats. I had forgotten how much fun fishing with poppers or even dry flies can be. I used 6″ strips at a steady pace with a pause after 5 or 6 for a count of 5 seconds (when I was actually thinking hard). I missed several more fish because I was enjoying the wildlife around me (hawks, alligator snapping turtle, and several herons) but had a lot of fun and a lot of success. I also found it interesting this was in the middle of the day. 12:30-4:30, so no problem there. Thanks for the advice I am planning on fishing the slow water under the white water section by the main land and LCRA gate next time I head down there. I may have a new favorite spot! (besides Barton Creek)Thanks again.
Have a good one,
David
If you could hit either Pedernales Falls or McKinney Falls this weekend (assuming there’s not lightning), which would you choose? Thanks.
Hey Michael,
Sorry, just got around to your note, i’m up to my eyeballs with retail/management/holidays.
I would absolutely pick the Pedernales over McKinney right now for many reasons.
- Good flows right now on the Pedernales, and the water clarity at Pedernales State Park should still be good.
- If you’ve never been there, it is incredibly scenic.
- McKinney is in the process of having all of South Austin’s trash flow down into it. It can be really disheartening to go there after a long dry spell followed by rain.
- There are also way more fish still in the Pedernales, especially the Carp and Drum which are a great challenge to fish for.
- Keep in mind the fish can be slow and picky this time of year.
Let us know how it goes.
-die Fische
No worries. Your assessment of Pedernales was dead-on. Thanks for the info. Love your blog. – Michael
You went? If so did you catch anything? If not did you still enjoy it?
Just curious.
-die Fische
Let’s just say I look forward to going back when I have a little more time and a little better sense of what I’m doing
I’m pretty new to streamer fishing, so I think I would stand to gain from some increased confidence in that area. I also think I’d try up closer to the falls next time. Saw a couple of bass downriver from the beach, but mostly it was carp and catfish. Had one little guy – looked like a sunfish of some variety – take a swipe, but that was pretty much the extent of the action for me. Then again, I only really had an hour or so to actually fish.
Eric,
I am a college student in desperate need of a fishing escape this weekend but I am new to Austin fishing spots I saw that you suggested GRTU for this time of the year, but I can’t make it that far for a while. Is there somewhere specific that you suggest (like Barton Creek or McKinney Falls?) or think I should try despite the little rainfall we have received? Also, I would love for it to be a little remote or I could do a little exploring since I am taking my mountain bike.
Hi Ryan,
It sounds like maybe you have a car and a bike? If so I’d recommend Barton Creek. Check out the map on the blog’s map page,
http://diefische.org/austin-ff-introduction/texas-barton-creek-greenbelt/
The section between Lost Creek on the west and Mopac on the east have excellent mountain biking trails and a lot of fishable water. You’re best bet is probably to start at the top of the “Hill of Life” located at the end of Scottish Hills Trail off of Hwy. 360. It’s a decent size hill that’s fun to go down, but remember you’ll have to come back up it at the end of the day. This is by far the easiest access if your unfamiliar with the crazy network of trails in the area. Just follow the main wide, rocky trail to the bottom and then head left or right and look for good holes. The best one is probably the one directly at the bottom of the hill, just below the big falls to your right where everyone will be hanging out. You’ll know your in the right place if your on a gravel bank and see a rope swing across the creek.
Keep in mind there aren’t a lot of fish there right now because almost all of the creek was dry a few months ago. Still, if you’re fishing a lighter rod and want to explore and rid you’re bike on some great trails, it’d be hard to beat Barton Creek.
BTW: If it’s even moderate temperature all this advice will be of value. if it’s cold than the fish will likely be turned off. The trout on the Guadalupe would be a good option if it’s cold…or you could just enjoy exploring Barton Creek and see what happens. Let me know how it goes.
-die Fische
die fische,
So I decided to visit Sportsman’s Finest (who mentioned knowing you) to pick up some things that I needed for a trip to Barton Creek last Friday. While there, I told them of my plans and they recommended that I try the trout fishing in the cold weather. Since I am low on funds and lacking waders, they kindly suggested that i visit Llano, Tx, right beneath the bridge off of 71. And as your recent post mentioned it was bitterly cold but it didn’t keep the rainbows from biting. They were a bit weathered and weren’t easily fooled by my novice nymph fishing, but it still made for a great day and exactly what I needed, thank you for all your help and I plan on trying Barton Creek soon.
-Ryan
Glad to hear it all worked out well! Sportsman’s is a great place to go, the staff there is always more than willing to steer people in the right direction. Many spots i’ve fished have been thanks to those wonderful people.
Hit up Barton Creek in a few weeks when it warms up a little bit and let me know what you think.
Thank you for writing,
die Fische