ruined my morning

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:44 am

I just didn't feel like catching little fish after this

pretty spot, though

these guys were horsing around a 30-lb. yellow cat on their trotline, but it came off before they could get it in the boat.

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:03 pm

Ron-Nice fish, nice creek. But it looks more like smallmouth than largemouth water. Or is that one of those hybrid Texas critters? What fly and what size tippet? Bad Bob

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:08 pm

It's the "middle" Guadalupe river. I'm pretty sure that's a native (northern) largmouth (19" and pushing 4 lbs).
Pretty good elevation change here, it drops through plunge pools and there's some big wide slow water (the John boat). Wide range of species (caught a few little channel cats this morning).
(On the other side of the dam, we have the southernmost trout tailrace in the country)
White bass at the same spot

endemic Guadalupe spotted bass (15" is a milestone fish for these and the record is 18")

and here's a good one, a hybrid between a largemouth and endemic spotted bass - the fish is bright blue - only caught a few of these and my best is 15"

all from the same plunge pool (well, that spot was upriver in the smallmouth water).
Never caught a smallmouth here. They aren't native, but have been stocked and show up very strong about 40 miles upriver from here.

The rod (up top) is a Fisher 8' 5-wt., 8-lb. tippet.
The fly is a white whistler, marabou, chenille and bead-chain eyes, size 8 hook.
the reel made some nice sounds.

piscesman · Post by **piscesman** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:00 pm

Bob,
One sure way to tell a Large Mouth from a Small Mouth is where the jaw ends to the eye. On a LM the jaw extends beyond the back of the eye. For the SM in front of the eye. Hybrids wouldn't be a true LM or SM due to cross breeding. Sorry to Hi-Jack your post Ron. BTW GREAT spot you're fishing at!
Kim

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:13 pm

the low flows this summer have made the rivers incredible. Most days out were 40 to 50 bass. They're piled up in the bottoms of the pools and especially in the heads where the water is making any noise. The crossing downriver has been his so hard the fish are getting really smart.
Was there with a friend one day when he stood a the top of one chute and caught 7 fish. Next time out he was nearly shut out, though. I handled a dozen bass (including that blue one) by counting down a sinking line and stripping like a madman. The fish would only hit Chernobyl strips that day.

Here's the really pretty water, about 40 miles upriver. I caught six bass out of the second pool.

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:31 am

Yo Ron-Fantastic that you have 40-50 big fish days in such a small creek. Our spring creek native smallies here in Tennsessee are outrageously spooky. If you get a strike from one, write him off for the day. If you hook a fish in a pool the size you pic there, write off any other strikes in that pool the rest of the morning. They somehow communicate danger to all fish in the pool. The water is crystal clear here as well and very shallow. I catch more fish in water less than two feet deep. I also fish almost exclusively on top water foam bug flies that resemble either a grasshopper or locust. I use an Orvis 8 1/2 foot 6 wt. casting a minimun of thirty feet of line-leader (10 foot) and straight upstream into riffles. A real challenge, but rewarding when a 14" SM hits! I need to come fish with you for some of those Texas transplants! Keep on! Bad Bob
PS Going this morning!

Harvey · Post by **Harvey** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:11 am

I am confused! I thought the Largemouth, Smallmouth thing depended on what sex the fish was. Oh well, maybe that is why I haven't had a wife for fourty years! Great pictures, Ron, Keep showin' them. cool-thumb
"H"

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:01 pm

that is actually the Guadalupe River, about 40 miles below the headwater springs - in a drought year.
there's an island, with an oxbow on the left and the channel on the right.
Scads of minnows heating up in the oxbow charge into the cool flow to get some oxygen where the bass are stacked up waiting for them (and me)
Few enough people brave this far from the crossings, so these fish just don't get hit. You catch them right down the hierarchy, first the largest down to the smallest. Then after fishing the head and bottom of the pool, you can look in the tailout for shallow fish - usually looking for damselflies to land - a landing streamer looks just as good.

This wide slow spot is just upriver.
My buddy has a nice shellcracker for around here, BTW.
The dead cypress in the photo above is at the upper left of this photo.

this weekend, we've been invited to fish some private access that doesn't get hit much...

something else to keep in mind is that most of these are "Texas brook trout" - endemic spotted bass - 8 to 12 inches, and I'm fishing them on light glass or cane. The occasional 2-4 lb smallie or largemouth is a bonus.

The best year I ever had was in the fall, and a falling river level, after a major flood in the spring. Trophy bass from all the private-access creeks and game ranches washed into the public water. I had a few 100-bass days and smallies to 4-lbs.

ruined my morning

ruined my morning

Super fish