Die Fische

Okay, enough already. It’s getting to be so a fly-fisher can’t go anywhere but the San Marcos, and not even there if he doesn’t have a car.

Having just one car this week meant that “Family Fun Day” (aka Sunday) was my first chance to get further than a bike ride away from the homestead.  After taking a family vote we all ended up piling in the Element and headed out for the mighty Pedernales River to hike, explore, and possibly fish.  The water flow there had been dropping for days, so i hoped against hope that i’d be able to spot a few fish. No such luck. There is just too much water all over Central Texas right now (what a difference six months can make).  None the less, it was nice to cast some line and try some of my newly invented flies, if for no other reason than to see if they floated.

I have off on Thursday, i should have a car again, and i’m hoping (for the first time in a long time) that it doesn’t rain much between now and then. But just to cover my bases i’ll be heading to the San Marcos. I promise not to do any more dances or say any more prayers under my breath wishing for rain…at least for a while.

Pedernales Falls at 100 CFS.

It seemed like it would never happen, but we’re finally getting some wetness down here in southern Texas.

I spent 7 hours hiking around a couple of the Hill Country rivers yesterday and got drenched the whole entire time. It felt so out of the ordinary after the intense dryness of the last 6 months. It actually felt down right tropical to have  appropriate amounts of water and lots of fresh greenery.

It's Raining!

It might be hard for those you outside of southern Texas to realize what this means, but basically it’s the first rain that’s lasted longer than 15 minutes since at least March if not months before that. MONTHS i repeat, MONTHS…many of them…without any rain that accumulated. One week before the above photo was shot,  the river was about 10 feet wide along this stretch, here it’s easily 50. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. It was wet and muddy everywhere, and yet the hours of hiking were more enjoyable than anything i’ve experienced this year. Even my pruned hands were a delight to observe after hours casting to non feeding fish.

Where are the singing "California Raisins" now?

Plus, the usually tedious two mile hike back to the car even managed to feel adventurous in the middle of a torrential downpour. Here’s to it lasting.

"The Long and Not So Winding Road."

What is the deal? I’m not a great or even good fisherman but i know that i am at least competent. Yet somehow i managed to spend five hours the other day fishing the Pedernales without catching anything.

I realize that fisher people say rather often that they got skunked…but not when they resorted to fishing for Bluegills!

When i say “Hey mate, you’re not going to believe this, but i didn’t catch ANYTHING!” i really mean it.

Yeah, the water is a little cloudy and low, and there WERE a lot of people enjoying themselves upstream and downstream…but come on! Not a Red Breast, Bluegill, Long Ear, or anything. This has been happening more and more at the Pedernales, a hopeful day turning into a failing report card. Unfortunately it just makes my resolve to go back and catch something that much stronger, and around and around  we go on the endless ride of hope / despair.

If anyone has any advice on fishing this river let me know.

In brighter news, my family and i are heading to Colorado Bend State Park tomorrow. I’m hoping that the fishing there might be a little more rewarding, fish count wise that is. I hope it’s good there, i don’t need another difficult obsession.

STAY TUNED!

You know the saying, “April showers bring a lot of silt and confusion for both fish and fisherman.”.

Okay, that’s obviously not the saying, but maybe it should be.  The big rains that soaked the area a couple of weeks ago have made things difficult on the rivers. Almost two weeks ago the Pedernales, which is hands down my favorite place to fish, rose to a staggering 8000 CFS. Mind you that the average flow is between 40-100 CFS, so yeah…there has been a LOT of water moving through lately. Even a week ago the water was still nothing but mud water flowing fiercely over rocks and banks that weeks before were exposed to only sun and air. 

I had hoped that with a few weeks to settle down, the river would once again be fish able. At first i felt rather hopeful since you could see about a foot down into the water, enough i hoped, to get a fly near something that might be interested. I approached a familiar bank and cast upstream with slight trepidation. As i lost my footing on the sandy bank my feet caused enough commotion that i was sure all fish in the vicinity would be heading off for quieter waters. One cast later i caught sight out of the corner of my eye of something tubular and milky colored a few inches from my feet…SPOTTED GAR! For all the time i spend outdoors i’m still FREAKED out by things that are seemingly dangerous regardless of if they actually are or not. Snakes, and Gar top this list. So seeing a gar about 3′ long just a few inches from my feet that are visually obscured by silty water was a little freaky. I fish these waters a lot and have only seen the occasional gar right at dusk. But today i would see them time and time again, probably about 10 different specimens throughout the day, the longest being a staggering four feet long in one of the more remote deep pools. 

While eating lunch on a large boulder in the middle of a deep pool a Largemouth that looked to be about 30″ long leaped straight out of the water topping out a full 3-4 inches above the water before splashing back into the milkiness and disappearing from sight before my 3 WT was even in my hand. I swear i saw a teasing smile on his face that said “Tough day of fishing, eh?”. What a punk.

The day was strangely cool / hot and overcast which tends to make Pedernales SP feel even more rustic and spooky  than it already is. So when i heard the crying of some child in danger wafting pass on the breeze i started to feel the hairs on my back stand up. They were faint and would disappear and reappear as the wind changed direction. After about 20 minutes of debating where the sounds were coming from and what i could do i leapt down from my perch to help the antagonized child. Suddenly on the opposite bank the bleating kid appeared and i remembered, goats roamed these hills. Pan and his consorts were out feeding and showing the young kids the ropes. I bleated wildley and there we stood. Me staring at him, wondering if he was the Greek god of  mountain wilds, rustic music, and hunting. And he staring at me, most likely wondering what the hell i was doing out there on a day that was obviously not meant to be fished.

Instead of sitting around waiting for my new Echo 2WT to show up via “The Man in the Brown Suit” i decided to make the most of my time by, what else, fly fishing. It seemed like a great excuse to reacquaint myself with the Sage 4WT that has provided me with so much enjoyment over the years.

To that affect i headed out into the drab, wet, soppy  blanket that was Thursday in the Hill Country. I’ve been exploring the angling possibilities there for the last couple of years. I have gotten to know the river intimately from the western border down about 3/4 of the way to the eastern limit. It was my goal this day to explore that remaining 25% and see what i might, or might not have been missing. It only turned out to be 2.5 miles but when you are hiking a path and constantly looking for the best place to fish you know that two miles can suddenly seem like 20. During the course of this adventure the highlight had to be a point in the trail where i was on a washed out cliff that was about 20-25 feet high. From that vantage point, i spotted pods of carp and catfish making there slow lackadaisical rounds up and down the deep pools at the base of the cliff. I had no idea that Carp swam in clusters like this until i observed it from my seemingly magical observation tower. The number of fish in the pod correlated to their size, 20 small carp, 15 medium and the show stopper to end all show stoppers (carp related at least) a group of three carp  that were each EASILY three times the size of my leg. Incredible behemoths just taking their sweet time taking out everything in sight. I don’t know for sure, but it seemed odd that after later spending hours fishing this pool, i didn’t see any older sunfish or bass, carp?

Anyway, i’m working on mapping all the pools and was curious if anyone out there has any information or stories to add about this shallow treasure called Pedernales SP that we have in our midst?

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