Once in a lifetime.
Doubting i could meet my friend in San Marcos to fish for some huge bass after a long day if work, i called to say i couldn’t make it in time.
These weren’t his words, but i could tell in his voice that he was thinking…”Are you kidding me, this is a once in a life time chance.”
Man was he right, it was indeed a golden opportunity. After all, it was a chance to fish the headwaters of the San Marcos River, the immaculate Spring Lake. It’s a lake that’s closed to ALL of the public so there is ZERO angling pressure.
Casting on Spring Lake - Photo by Ben Labay
The waters are so crystal clear that spotting a shiny quarter 15 feet underwater is hardly a problem. Schools of bass the size of my leg can be spotted a good 40′ away. To put it bluntly, the place is a black bass mecca. Of course i didn’t know all of this at the time, but something in Ben’s voice seemed to promise all of this and more, if i would get my ass in gear. Once the synapse’s fired and the realization dawned that missing this opportunity would be tantamount to admitting that my fishing was a simple hobby as opposed to a way of thinking and being.
And so it was that i loaded everything i might need into my Element in less than 15 minutes. Kayak, paddles, anchor, rods, reels, flies, etc. in 15 MINUTES! Of course as i hit the interstate and took her up to 75 my kayak wobbled precariously up and down as my mind took a mental inventory of everything in the vehicle. I’m proud to say nothing was left behind.
Ben and a monster bass.
My friend Ben is teaching a class at San Marcos University on fish biology and he needed 12 samples to provide for his students to dissect. Although i’m a catch and releasperson i just could not pass up this opportunity, whatever scruples i may have. The plan was for Ben and his co-worker Robbie to take a small two man boat out while i cruised around in my kayak plying the shallow holes just out of reach of their boat. While i’m sure this would have been a blast, i was delighted equally as much as Ben and Robbie to arrive at the docks and find one of the Aquarena Springs employees, Aaron, willing to troll us around the lake on what was essentially a large flats boat.
Largemouth Bass from Spring Lake.
It’s hard to put into words the amazing adventure that we experienced. Staring down through Gin clear water looking for “the fish” that you wanted to try and fool. Making the cast and watching from far above as the fish either took your fly or lost interest due to ADD. Seeing your size 12 Wooly Bugger stream though water 15′ below you is something every fly fisher should get to experience at least once.
14" Red Breast!
I was the token fly fisher on board since i think i was invited more as entertainment than as an aide in scientific research. Robbie and Ben had spinner bait falling far beyond the reach of my 4 WT, and they easily caught the biggest Largemouth Bass. But it was the slow sink and the lifelike twitches i presented that brought the Red Breast Sunfish out. Within minutes of each other i had caught two of them, both being easily three time the size of any Red Breast i had caught before. And it was just about 30 minutes later that i caught what turned out to be the smallest Large Mouth of the evening even though it was still 6-8 inches larger than anything i had caught to date. I really am not a fan of spin cast fishing, but they did catch some monsters.
For me it’s not usually the size of the fish, but i couldn’t help but stare when one of the others had something half again the size of my bass jumping across the water with such a violent will to live. At the same time it was weird catching fish knowing that they wouldn’t be released to fight again. As the sun set over the cypress and the heron calmed their giant bodies we hit the dock and headed for the truck. It was then that i heard myself say to Ben…
“That seemed like work.”
And he responded.
“That’s because it was.”
Robbie and Aaron holding court.
