DocSpotty
04-16-2011, 04:38 PM
Took me a few weeks to get this written. Just weathered my longest no fishing stretch(4 and a half months) in more than 3 decades. It was nice getting out of the snow also, if only for a week. I arrived in Austin, Texas after 9 hours of flying (and one very tired butt) then made a 4 ½ hour drive down to Corpus Christi….boy, did the bed ever feel good that night.
Up early and off with Jay Watkins and we headed out to fish the Laguna Madre for speckled trout and redfish. There was a heavy marine layer and a mild breeze…..water temp was in the low 70’s…..perfect for spring specks. I geared up with 14 lbs. Spiderwire and a fluorocarbon leader and I used a rootbeer saltwater assassin on a 1/8 oz jig head. We cruised along the shoreline of one of the many islands until we saw bait (mullet) moving around…..then we set anchor and hopped in the water to work the shoreline.
My fourth cast hit the water and was immediately inhaled by a very nice redfish…Jay hadn’t even made it off the boat yet:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2476.jpg
From there we experienced the best big speckled trout bite I have ever seen. It’s not like there was one of every cast….but one every 15 minutes and the size was exceptional. Most trips I’ve taken here the average trout caught is probably about 13 to 19 inches with big trout over 20 inches and monsters over 25 inches. Along the shoreline that morning we saw no trout under 20 inches….they were all toads. I was tickled with my first, around 21 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2477.jpg
But then 10 minutes later it was followed by a 25 incher. Then awhile later there was one 24”.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2478.jpg
I was stoked to the max. Jay was also picking up a few nice trout but he was fishing out a bit deeper looking for reds as his son and he were entered in a redfish tournament on the upcoming Saturday.
Caught several “rat” reds (fish under 16 inches or so) with a few nicer reds too. Then it was into another toad speck nearly 25 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2479.jpg
We did keep several trout so I could have some fillets to take home…..they are absolutely delicious….but we released all over 25 inches. Had some more middling sized specks and a few more rat…maybe even “mouse”….reds then into my biggest trout of the day (so far)….a nice 26 inch fish:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2480.jpg
By this time we had been wading down this shoreline for nearly 4 hours and the boat was a good mile behind us. Jay was just walking towards shore to go retrieve the boat when I tied into the mornings’ largest speck…..a beautiful 27”+ fish which jumped and cleared the water 6 times during the fight….wish this one had been on video:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2481.jpg
The fish were getting slower as Jay brought the boat down to me but I tagged one more nice red as he pulled up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2482.jpg
We then fished a few hours above the area we had started earlier and caught several more nice specks….. no pics as I left the camera in the boat. One more shoreline was fished with several respectable, but under 20” trout caught and several little reds. Then we headed into the dock where Jay filleted my keepers…her are a couple of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2484.jpg
Beautiful specks….considering we had released about 6 bigger than either of these.
I discovered, to my damp dismay, that my beloved Simms waders had developed a leak on each side as there was quite a bit of water in them…..probably holed them on my last use in Alaska where I was tromping through a lot of bushes while fishing sheefish. Also my right wrist (the rod holding hand) was just aching everytime I set the hook…..had to ice the thing down for about 30 minutes before going to bed.
The next morning I was up and at them early with Jay’s son…..JayRay. My wrist was so sore, despite much icing that I had to tape it and wear a brace to even hold my fishing rod….man it sucks to get old when you spent most of your youth destroying various parts of your body. We tried some different areas with not as much success as the day before. JayRay managed a few nice specks in the 25” range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2486.jpg
Then I tagged a very nice one 25 plus…..these fish were not nearly as fat as the ones we were catching the day before….but great fish.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2487.jpg
Tagged another one near 25” but JayRay wasn’t around so I had to take my own picture holding her by the tail:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2490.jpg
We scouted around a bit for his upcoming tournament looking for reds in a few different areas. I caught many specks but they were all in the 15 to 18” range. All told it was not nearly as good as the day earlier but it was still great fun. I even managed a nice 20” flounder too:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2491.jpg
My wrist was so sore by the end of the day I could hardly use it, but, hey, there was no blood or bones sticking out of my flesh so fishing was still on.
After coming in I headed back to Austin….pretty drive trough the backroads of Texas……I was icing my wrist down as I drove…..it was killing me. Got a hotel, hit the sack again early and was out like a light.
Saturday morning I was off to an 8 hour dental continuing education lecture titled “Enteral Conscious Sedation and Dental Office Emergencies”, and , yes, it was a snoozer. I had to get up and walk around the back of the lecture hall half the time so I wouldn’t start snoring. At least lunch was good. But, hey, it was a good excuse to take this Texas trip. Sunday I was just going to relax but got antsy and stripped down three of my reels….cleaned and lubed them and respooled line on two of them.
Come Monday morning I was meeting another great guide, Shea McClanahan, to spend a couple of days fishing the Colorado River below Austin. We launched the raft right under a highway bridge on the edge of town. Kind of a rough looking area….I was hoping we wouldn’t find any dead bodies as that would put a serious kink in our fishing time.
I began casting with my favorite LuckyCraft suspending minnow and was rewarded in short order with my first modest bass of the trip:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2497.jpg
How do you like the fashionable swimsuit? My wife just laughed but it was all I could find at Walmart on short notice.
Fishing this stretch can be trying at times….every night they let out a big flow of water from the dam which raises, and dirties, the water about 2 feet (waters some massive rice fields downstream). You have to catch a particular stretch as the water is receding to normal and the water has cleared substantially. Must be confusing for the fish.
There was still some color in the water and the morning was consistent but a bit slow. Caught several more bass as we meandered down the river toward lunch…
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2498.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2499.jpg
Started getting a little better size as the water cleared up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2501.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2502.jpg
By midday I started using Sheas’ favorite bait in here….a weedless 5” hot pink double tail….with no weight. It is just slow twitched and you wait for the giant wallow on the surface or for it to just disappear underwater. It works way better than something that ugly has a right to. It was lunchtime and we stopped for a great chicken tacos with Sheas’ great homemade hot sauce, and a little rest. By now the water was pretty much normal and pretty clear. We started getting into some better sized fish then:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2504.jpg
Shea is a great guide and I could hardly talk him into fishing with me most of the morning…..I told him he didn’t do some fishing in the afternoon I’d get out and walk. I always want a guide fishing with me. It wasn’t long that he was kicking my fanny from water I had already fished….never challenge a man on his home water.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2506.jpg
When he caught the last fish pictured, a spotted bass, he thought it was the biggest spotty he had ever caught on this river. I managed a few more nice bass in the 4 lbs. class in a fabulous stretch we were fishing, then Shea, again throwing right where I had fished, nailed the toad of the trip. She just inhaled his pink floozy and the fight was epic. She immediately cleared the water twice and we both wet our pants with how big she was. Shea couldn’t control her very well in the current with our light gear and then she wrapped him on a large tree branch. At this time, with my usual ineptness, I grabbed the oars to try and make some headway back to the branch and after 15 seconds, or so, Shea had gotten her off the limb….I’m pretty sure whatever I did was a detriment. He was hanging over the raft, rod in the water, to get an angle on the fish and for a guide…..he was EXCITED. Finallty she was angling toward the raft and I grabbed the net….the nice politically correct rubber mesh (to save the fins) but they are always not real deep and I didn’t think she would fit. My first attempt she stiffened and was wider than the net opening so I pulled the net down and away. She got really torqued and took off again. For this, I’m sure Shea was thanking me quietly in the back of his mind…. ;-). After a minute or so she was back and Shea got her head in first and I scooped…what a fish. He let me get a picture due to my fabulous netting:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2507.jpg
What a piggy….on my certified digital scale she went 8lbs. 5 oz…..the biggest largemouth bass Shea had ever caught or seen on this river in all his lifetime. His hands were shaking like a 20 cups of coffee a day caffeine addict. But he does take a great picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2509.jpg
He placed her gently back in the water and after a few seconds of reviving her she took off like a rocket. At this point as a guide Shea was really bemoaning the fact he had caught the large fish but I assured him I was not the least upset, heck I was ecstatic for him. That fish, on his home water, meant much more to him than it would have to me (still didn’t keep me from taking a picture with it…hehe). Maybe its age but I enjoy fishing and catching and seeing anyone else catching too…really do. With his hands a shaking he put the rod down and we started covering some water as we were way behind our timetable for getting out before dark. I managed several more bass as we booked it downstream…..many were smaller, but very rambunctious spotties. Got one last nice largemouth in the 4 lbs. range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2510.jpg
We made it to our take out, mounted up and it was back for a much needed good nights sleep. Had to ice down the bothersome wrist again.
The next morning we moved down river several miles to fish a different stretch of the Colorado River….this one had more spotties in it. Unfortunately, when we got to the river it was still pretty high and the water was definitely not clear. But you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit….naw….my kids don’t buy that either.
The fishing was pretty slow the first few hours but then some fish started moving around:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2511.jpg
There were only a few fish after this one until lunchtime. We stopped to eat something yummy, subs, on a island and then wade fished the backside of it…there’s a great little run of water there. We picked up several little spotties and a few largemouth in this running water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2513.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2514.jpg
This picture was an instructional one to shoe how to make a 1 lbs largemouth look three times its size:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2515.jpg
Finished the day with some very nice spotties and largemouth, the biggest in the 5 lbs class:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2516.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2519.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2520.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2517.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2518.jpg
By this time my right wrist was nearly nonfunctional and I was missing fish simply because the motion of setting the hook was nearly causing me to pass out…..but that made it a sweet pain. We got to the take out, mounted up and headed out. Not too bad….about 65 bass for two days fishing. Shea and I were going to fish half a day the next, as my flight was in the evening, but my wrist was not even workable the next morning. Got to find out what is wrong with the dang thing…..tried to flyfish for about 15 minutes but the pain was excruciating….did manage one mini bass on the fly though. Nice 9 hour flight home and very gratified to have another successful trip.
Fishing is life.
Brian
Took me a few weeks to get this written. Just weathered my longest no fishing stretch(4 and a half months) in more than 3 decades. It was nice getting out of the snow also, if only for a week. I arrived in Austin, Texas after 9 hours of flying (and one very tired butt) then made a 4 ½ hour drive down to Corpus Christi….boy, did the bed ever feel good that night.
Up early and off with Jay Watkins and we headed out to fish the Laguna Madre for speckled trout and redfish. There was a heavy marine layer and a mild breeze…..water temp was in the low 70’s…..perfect for spring specks. I geared up with 14 lbs. Spiderwire and a fluorocarbon leader and I used a rootbeer saltwater assassin on a 1/8 oz jig head. We cruised along the shoreline of one of the many islands until we saw bait (mullet) moving around…..then we set anchor and hopped in the water to work the shoreline.
My fourth cast hit the water and was immediately inhaled by a very nice redfish…Jay hadn’t even made it off the boat yet:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2476.jpg
From there we experienced the best big speckled trout bite I have ever seen. It’s not like there was one of every cast….but one every 15 minutes and the size was exceptional. Most trips I’ve taken here the average trout caught is probably about 13 to 19 inches with big trout over 20 inches and monsters over 25 inches. Along the shoreline that morning we saw no trout under 20 inches….they were all toads. I was tickled with my first, around 21 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2477.jpg
But then 10 minutes later it was followed by a 25 incher. Then awhile later there was one 24”.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2478.jpg
I was stoked to the max. Jay was also picking up a few nice trout but he was fishing out a bit deeper looking for reds as his son and he were entered in a redfish tournament on the upcoming Saturday.
Caught several “rat” reds (fish under 16 inches or so) with a few nicer reds too. Then it was into another toad speck nearly 25 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2479.jpg
We did keep several trout so I could have some fillets to take home…..they are absolutely delicious….but we released all over 25 inches. Had some more middling sized specks and a few more rat…maybe even “mouse”….reds then into my biggest trout of the day (so far)….a nice 26 inch fish:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2480.jpg
By this time we had been wading down this shoreline for nearly 4 hours and the boat was a good mile behind us. Jay was just walking towards shore to go retrieve the boat when I tied into the mornings’ largest speck…..a beautiful 27”+ fish which jumped and cleared the water 6 times during the fight….wish this one had been on video:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2481.jpg
The fish were getting slower as Jay brought the boat down to me but I tagged one more nice red as he pulled up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2482.jpg
We then fished a few hours above the area we had started earlier and caught several more nice specks….. no pics as I left the camera in the boat. One more shoreline was fished with several respectable, but under 20” trout caught and several little reds. Then we headed into the dock where Jay filleted my keepers…her are a couple of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2484.jpg
Beautiful specks….considering we had released about 6 bigger than either of these.
I discovered, to my damp dismay, that my beloved Simms waders had developed a leak on each side as there was quite a bit of water in them…..probably holed them on my last use in Alaska where I was tromping through a lot of bushes while fishing sheefish. Also my right wrist (the rod holding hand) was just aching everytime I set the hook…..had to ice the thing down for about 30 minutes before going to bed.
The next morning I was up and at them early with Jay’s son…..JayRay. My wrist was so sore, despite much icing that I had to tape it and wear a brace to even hold my fishing rod….man it sucks to get old when you spent most of your youth destroying various parts of your body. We tried some different areas with not as much success as the day before. JayRay managed a few nice specks in the 25” range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2486.jpg
Then I tagged a very nice one 25 plus…..these fish were not nearly as fat as the ones we were catching the day before….but great fish.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2487.jpg
Tagged another one near 25” but JayRay wasn’t around so I had to take my own picture holding her by the tail:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2490.jpg
We scouted around a bit for his upcoming tournament looking for reds in a few different areas. I caught many specks but they were all in the 15 to 18” range. All told it was not nearly as good as the day earlier but it was still great fun. I even managed a nice 20” flounder too:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2491.jpg
My wrist was so sore by the end of the day I could hardly use it, but, hey, there was no blood or bones sticking out of my flesh so fishing was still on.
After coming in I headed back to Austin….pretty drive trough the backroads of Texas……I was icing my wrist down as I drove…..it was killing me. Got a hotel, hit the sack again early and was out like a light.
Saturday morning I was off to an 8 hour dental continuing education lecture titled “Enteral Conscious Sedation and Dental Office Emergencies”, and , yes, it was a snoozer. I had to get up and walk around the back of the lecture hall half the time so I wouldn’t start snoring. At least lunch was good. But, hey, it was a good excuse to take this Texas trip. Sunday I was just going to relax but got antsy and stripped down three of my reels….cleaned and lubed them and respooled line on two of them.
Come Monday morning I was meeting another great guide, Shea McClanahan, to spend a couple of days fishing the Colorado River below Austin. We launched the raft right under a highway bridge on the edge of town. Kind of a rough looking area….I was hoping we wouldn’t find any dead bodies as that would put a serious kink in our fishing time.
I began casting with my favorite LuckyCraft suspending minnow and was rewarded in short order with my first modest bass of the trip:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2497.jpg
How do you like the fashionable swimsuit? My wife just laughed but it was all I could find at Walmart on short notice.
Fishing this stretch can be trying at times….every night they let out a big flow of water from the dam which raises, and dirties, the water about 2 feet (waters some massive rice fields downstream). You have to catch a particular stretch as the water is receding to normal and the water has cleared substantially. Must be confusing for the fish.
There was still some color in the water and the morning was consistent but a bit slow. Caught several more bass as we meandered down the river toward lunch…
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2498.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2499.jpg
Started getting a little better size as the water cleared up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2501.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2502.jpg
By midday I started using Sheas’ favorite bait in here….a weedless 5” hot pink double tail….with no weight. It is just slow twitched and you wait for the giant wallow on the surface or for it to just disappear underwater. It works way better than something that ugly has a right to. It was lunchtime and we stopped for a great chicken tacos with Sheas’ great homemade hot sauce, and a little rest. By now the water was pretty much normal and pretty clear. We started getting into some better sized fish then:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2504.jpg
Shea is a great guide and I could hardly talk him into fishing with me most of the morning…..I told him he didn’t do some fishing in the afternoon I’d get out and walk. I always want a guide fishing with me. It wasn’t long that he was kicking my fanny from water I had already fished….never challenge a man on his home water.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2506.jpg
When he caught the last fish pictured, a spotted bass, he thought it was the biggest spotty he had ever caught on this river. I managed a few more nice bass in the 4 lbs. class in a fabulous stretch we were fishing, then Shea, again throwing right where I had fished, nailed the toad of the trip. She just inhaled his pink floozy and the fight was epic. She immediately cleared the water twice and we both wet our pants with how big she was. Shea couldn’t control her very well in the current with our light gear and then she wrapped him on a large tree branch. At this time, with my usual ineptness, I grabbed the oars to try and make some headway back to the branch and after 15 seconds, or so, Shea had gotten her off the limb….I’m pretty sure whatever I did was a detriment. He was hanging over the raft, rod in the water, to get an angle on the fish and for a guide…..he was EXCITED. Finallty she was angling toward the raft and I grabbed the net….the nice politically correct rubber mesh (to save the fins) but they are always not real deep and I didn’t think she would fit. My first attempt she stiffened and was wider than the net opening so I pulled the net down and away. She got really torqued and took off again. For this, I’m sure Shea was thanking me quietly in the back of his mind…. ;-). After a minute or so she was back and Shea got her head in first and I scooped…what a fish. He let me get a picture due to my fabulous netting:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2507.jpg
What a piggy….on my certified digital scale she went 8lbs. 5 oz…..the biggest largemouth bass Shea had ever caught or seen on this river in all his lifetime. His hands were shaking like a 20 cups of coffee a day caffeine addict. But he does take a great picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2509.jpg
He placed her gently back in the water and after a few seconds of reviving her she took off like a rocket. At this point as a guide Shea was really bemoaning the fact he had caught the large fish but I assured him I was not the least upset, heck I was ecstatic for him. That fish, on his home water, meant much more to him than it would have to me (still didn’t keep me from taking a picture with it…hehe). Maybe its age but I enjoy fishing and catching and seeing anyone else catching too…really do. With his hands a shaking he put the rod down and we started covering some water as we were way behind our timetable for getting out before dark. I managed several more bass as we booked it downstream…..many were smaller, but very rambunctious spotties. Got one last nice largemouth in the 4 lbs. range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2510.jpg
We made it to our take out, mounted up and it was back for a much needed good nights sleep. Had to ice down the bothersome wrist again.
The next morning we moved down river several miles to fish a different stretch of the Colorado River….this one had more spotties in it. Unfortunately, when we got to the river it was still pretty high and the water was definitely not clear. But you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit….naw….my kids don’t buy that either.
The fishing was pretty slow the first few hours but then some fish started moving around:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2511.jpg
There were only a few fish after this one until lunchtime. We stopped to eat something yummy, subs, on a island and then wade fished the backside of it…there’s a great little run of water there. We picked up several little spotties and a few largemouth in this running water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2513.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2514.jpg
This picture was an instructional one to shoe how to make a 1 lbs largemouth look three times its size:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2515.jpg
Finished the day with some very nice spotties and largemouth, the biggest in the 5 lbs class:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2516.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2519.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2520.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2517.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2518.jpg
By this time my right wrist was nearly nonfunctional and I was missing fish simply because the motion of setting the hook was nearly causing me to pass out…..but that made it a sweet pain. We got to the take out, mounted up and headed out. Not too bad….about 65 bass for two days fishing. Shea and I were going to fish half a day the next, as my flight was in the evening, but my wrist was not even workable the next morning. Got to find out what is wrong with the dang thing…..tried to flyfish for about 15 minutes but the pain was excruciating….did manage one mini bass on the fly though. Nice 9 hour flight home and very gratified to have another successful trip.
Fishing is life.
Brian
Up early and off with Jay Watkins and we headed out to fish the Laguna Madre for speckled trout and redfish. There was a heavy marine layer and a mild breeze…..water temp was in the low 70’s…..perfect for spring specks. I geared up with 14 lbs. Spiderwire and a fluorocarbon leader and I used a rootbeer saltwater assassin on a 1/8 oz jig head. We cruised along the shoreline of one of the many islands until we saw bait (mullet) moving around…..then we set anchor and hopped in the water to work the shoreline.
My fourth cast hit the water and was immediately inhaled by a very nice redfish…Jay hadn’t even made it off the boat yet:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2476.jpg
From there we experienced the best big speckled trout bite I have ever seen. It’s not like there was one of every cast….but one every 15 minutes and the size was exceptional. Most trips I’ve taken here the average trout caught is probably about 13 to 19 inches with big trout over 20 inches and monsters over 25 inches. Along the shoreline that morning we saw no trout under 20 inches….they were all toads. I was tickled with my first, around 21 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2477.jpg
But then 10 minutes later it was followed by a 25 incher. Then awhile later there was one 24”.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2478.jpg
I was stoked to the max. Jay was also picking up a few nice trout but he was fishing out a bit deeper looking for reds as his son and he were entered in a redfish tournament on the upcoming Saturday.
Caught several “rat” reds (fish under 16 inches or so) with a few nicer reds too. Then it was into another toad speck nearly 25 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2479.jpg
We did keep several trout so I could have some fillets to take home…..they are absolutely delicious….but we released all over 25 inches. Had some more middling sized specks and a few more rat…maybe even “mouse”….reds then into my biggest trout of the day (so far)….a nice 26 inch fish:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2480.jpg
By this time we had been wading down this shoreline for nearly 4 hours and the boat was a good mile behind us. Jay was just walking towards shore to go retrieve the boat when I tied into the mornings’ largest speck…..a beautiful 27”+ fish which jumped and cleared the water 6 times during the fight….wish this one had been on video:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2481.jpg
The fish were getting slower as Jay brought the boat down to me but I tagged one more nice red as he pulled up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2482.jpg
We then fished a few hours above the area we had started earlier and caught several more nice specks….. no pics as I left the camera in the boat. One more shoreline was fished with several respectable, but under 20” trout caught and several little reds. Then we headed into the dock where Jay filleted my keepers…her are a couple of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2484.jpg
Beautiful specks….considering we had released about 6 bigger than either of these.
I discovered, to my damp dismay, that my beloved Simms waders had developed a leak on each side as there was quite a bit of water in them…..probably holed them on my last use in Alaska where I was tromping through a lot of bushes while fishing sheefish. Also my right wrist (the rod holding hand) was just aching everytime I set the hook…..had to ice the thing down for about 30 minutes before going to bed.
The next morning I was up and at them early with Jay’s son…..JayRay. My wrist was so sore, despite much icing that I had to tape it and wear a brace to even hold my fishing rod….man it sucks to get old when you spent most of your youth destroying various parts of your body. We tried some different areas with not as much success as the day before. JayRay managed a few nice specks in the 25” range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2486.jpg
Then I tagged a very nice one 25 plus…..these fish were not nearly as fat as the ones we were catching the day before….but great fish.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2487.jpg
Tagged another one near 25” but JayRay wasn’t around so I had to take my own picture holding her by the tail:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2490.jpg
We scouted around a bit for his upcoming tournament looking for reds in a few different areas. I caught many specks but they were all in the 15 to 18” range. All told it was not nearly as good as the day earlier but it was still great fun. I even managed a nice 20” flounder too:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2491.jpg
My wrist was so sore by the end of the day I could hardly use it, but, hey, there was no blood or bones sticking out of my flesh so fishing was still on.
After coming in I headed back to Austin….pretty drive trough the backroads of Texas……I was icing my wrist down as I drove…..it was killing me. Got a hotel, hit the sack again early and was out like a light.
Saturday morning I was off to an 8 hour dental continuing education lecture titled “Enteral Conscious Sedation and Dental Office Emergencies”, and , yes, it was a snoozer. I had to get up and walk around the back of the lecture hall half the time so I wouldn’t start snoring. At least lunch was good. But, hey, it was a good excuse to take this Texas trip. Sunday I was just going to relax but got antsy and stripped down three of my reels….cleaned and lubed them and respooled line on two of them.
Come Monday morning I was meeting another great guide, Shea McClanahan, to spend a couple of days fishing the Colorado River below Austin. We launched the raft right under a highway bridge on the edge of town. Kind of a rough looking area….I was hoping we wouldn’t find any dead bodies as that would put a serious kink in our fishing time.
I began casting with my favorite LuckyCraft suspending minnow and was rewarded in short order with my first modest bass of the trip:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2497.jpg
How do you like the fashionable swimsuit? My wife just laughed but it was all I could find at Walmart on short notice.
Fishing this stretch can be trying at times….every night they let out a big flow of water from the dam which raises, and dirties, the water about 2 feet (waters some massive rice fields downstream). You have to catch a particular stretch as the water is receding to normal and the water has cleared substantially. Must be confusing for the fish.
There was still some color in the water and the morning was consistent but a bit slow. Caught several more bass as we meandered down the river toward lunch…
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2498.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2499.jpg
Started getting a little better size as the water cleared up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2501.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2502.jpg
By midday I started using Sheas’ favorite bait in here….a weedless 5” hot pink double tail….with no weight. It is just slow twitched and you wait for the giant wallow on the surface or for it to just disappear underwater. It works way better than something that ugly has a right to. It was lunchtime and we stopped for a great chicken tacos with Sheas’ great homemade hot sauce, and a little rest. By now the water was pretty much normal and pretty clear. We started getting into some better sized fish then:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2504.jpg
Shea is a great guide and I could hardly talk him into fishing with me most of the morning…..I told him he didn’t do some fishing in the afternoon I’d get out and walk. I always want a guide fishing with me. It wasn’t long that he was kicking my fanny from water I had already fished….never challenge a man on his home water.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2506.jpg
When he caught the last fish pictured, a spotted bass, he thought it was the biggest spotty he had ever caught on this river. I managed a few more nice bass in the 4 lbs. class in a fabulous stretch we were fishing, then Shea, again throwing right where I had fished, nailed the toad of the trip. She just inhaled his pink floozy and the fight was epic. She immediately cleared the water twice and we both wet our pants with how big she was. Shea couldn’t control her very well in the current with our light gear and then she wrapped him on a large tree branch. At this time, with my usual ineptness, I grabbed the oars to try and make some headway back to the branch and after 15 seconds, or so, Shea had gotten her off the limb….I’m pretty sure whatever I did was a detriment. He was hanging over the raft, rod in the water, to get an angle on the fish and for a guide…..he was EXCITED. Finallty she was angling toward the raft and I grabbed the net….the nice politically correct rubber mesh (to save the fins) but they are always not real deep and I didn’t think she would fit. My first attempt she stiffened and was wider than the net opening so I pulled the net down and away. She got really torqued and took off again. For this, I’m sure Shea was thanking me quietly in the back of his mind…. ;-). After a minute or so she was back and Shea got her head in first and I scooped…what a fish. He let me get a picture due to my fabulous netting:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2507.jpg
What a piggy….on my certified digital scale she went 8lbs. 5 oz…..the biggest largemouth bass Shea had ever caught or seen on this river in all his lifetime. His hands were shaking like a 20 cups of coffee a day caffeine addict. But he does take a great picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2509.jpg
He placed her gently back in the water and after a few seconds of reviving her she took off like a rocket. At this point as a guide Shea was really bemoaning the fact he had caught the large fish but I assured him I was not the least upset, heck I was ecstatic for him. That fish, on his home water, meant much more to him than it would have to me (still didn’t keep me from taking a picture with it…hehe). Maybe its age but I enjoy fishing and catching and seeing anyone else catching too…really do. With his hands a shaking he put the rod down and we started covering some water as we were way behind our timetable for getting out before dark. I managed several more bass as we booked it downstream…..many were smaller, but very rambunctious spotties. Got one last nice largemouth in the 4 lbs. range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2510.jpg
We made it to our take out, mounted up and it was back for a much needed good nights sleep. Had to ice down the bothersome wrist again.
The next morning we moved down river several miles to fish a different stretch of the Colorado River….this one had more spotties in it. Unfortunately, when we got to the river it was still pretty high and the water was definitely not clear. But you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit….naw….my kids don’t buy that either.
The fishing was pretty slow the first few hours but then some fish started moving around:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2511.jpg
There were only a few fish after this one until lunchtime. We stopped to eat something yummy, subs, on a island and then wade fished the backside of it…there’s a great little run of water there. We picked up several little spotties and a few largemouth in this running water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2513.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2514.jpg
This picture was an instructional one to shoe how to make a 1 lbs largemouth look three times its size:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2515.jpg
Finished the day with some very nice spotties and largemouth, the biggest in the 5 lbs class:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2516.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2519.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2520.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2517.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2518.jpg
By this time my right wrist was nearly nonfunctional and I was missing fish simply because the motion of setting the hook was nearly causing me to pass out…..but that made it a sweet pain. We got to the take out, mounted up and headed out. Not too bad….about 65 bass for two days fishing. Shea and I were going to fish half a day the next, as my flight was in the evening, but my wrist was not even workable the next morning. Got to find out what is wrong with the dang thing…..tried to flyfish for about 15 minutes but the pain was excruciating….did manage one mini bass on the fly though. Nice 9 hour flight home and very gratified to have another successful trip.
Fishing is life.
Brian
Took me a few weeks to get this written. Just weathered my longest no fishing stretch(4 and a half months) in more than 3 decades. It was nice getting out of the snow also, if only for a week. I arrived in Austin, Texas after 9 hours of flying (and one very tired butt) then made a 4 ½ hour drive down to Corpus Christi….boy, did the bed ever feel good that night.
Up early and off with Jay Watkins and we headed out to fish the Laguna Madre for speckled trout and redfish. There was a heavy marine layer and a mild breeze…..water temp was in the low 70’s…..perfect for spring specks. I geared up with 14 lbs. Spiderwire and a fluorocarbon leader and I used a rootbeer saltwater assassin on a 1/8 oz jig head. We cruised along the shoreline of one of the many islands until we saw bait (mullet) moving around…..then we set anchor and hopped in the water to work the shoreline.
My fourth cast hit the water and was immediately inhaled by a very nice redfish…Jay hadn’t even made it off the boat yet:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2476.jpg
From there we experienced the best big speckled trout bite I have ever seen. It’s not like there was one of every cast….but one every 15 minutes and the size was exceptional. Most trips I’ve taken here the average trout caught is probably about 13 to 19 inches with big trout over 20 inches and monsters over 25 inches. Along the shoreline that morning we saw no trout under 20 inches….they were all toads. I was tickled with my first, around 21 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2477.jpg
But then 10 minutes later it was followed by a 25 incher. Then awhile later there was one 24”.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2478.jpg
I was stoked to the max. Jay was also picking up a few nice trout but he was fishing out a bit deeper looking for reds as his son and he were entered in a redfish tournament on the upcoming Saturday.
Caught several “rat” reds (fish under 16 inches or so) with a few nicer reds too. Then it was into another toad speck nearly 25 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2479.jpg
We did keep several trout so I could have some fillets to take home…..they are absolutely delicious….but we released all over 25 inches. Had some more middling sized specks and a few more rat…maybe even “mouse”….reds then into my biggest trout of the day (so far)….a nice 26 inch fish:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2480.jpg
By this time we had been wading down this shoreline for nearly 4 hours and the boat was a good mile behind us. Jay was just walking towards shore to go retrieve the boat when I tied into the mornings’ largest speck…..a beautiful 27”+ fish which jumped and cleared the water 6 times during the fight….wish this one had been on video:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2481.jpg
The fish were getting slower as Jay brought the boat down to me but I tagged one more nice red as he pulled up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2482.jpg
We then fished a few hours above the area we had started earlier and caught several more nice specks….. no pics as I left the camera in the boat. One more shoreline was fished with several respectable, but under 20” trout caught and several little reds. Then we headed into the dock where Jay filleted my keepers…her are a couple of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2484.jpg
Beautiful specks….considering we had released about 6 bigger than either of these.
I discovered, to my damp dismay, that my beloved Simms waders had developed a leak on each side as there was quite a bit of water in them…..probably holed them on my last use in Alaska where I was tromping through a lot of bushes while fishing sheefish. Also my right wrist (the rod holding hand) was just aching everytime I set the hook…..had to ice the thing down for about 30 minutes before going to bed.
The next morning I was up and at them early with Jay’s son…..JayRay. My wrist was so sore, despite much icing that I had to tape it and wear a brace to even hold my fishing rod….man it sucks to get old when you spent most of your youth destroying various parts of your body. We tried some different areas with not as much success as the day before. JayRay managed a few nice specks in the 25” range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2486.jpg
Then I tagged a very nice one 25 plus…..these fish were not nearly as fat as the ones we were catching the day before….but great fish.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2487.jpg
Tagged another one near 25” but JayRay wasn’t around so I had to take my own picture holding her by the tail:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2490.jpg
We scouted around a bit for his upcoming tournament looking for reds in a few different areas. I caught many specks but they were all in the 15 to 18” range. All told it was not nearly as good as the day earlier but it was still great fun. I even managed a nice 20” flounder too:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2491.jpg
My wrist was so sore by the end of the day I could hardly use it, but, hey, there was no blood or bones sticking out of my flesh so fishing was still on.
After coming in I headed back to Austin….pretty drive trough the backroads of Texas……I was icing my wrist down as I drove…..it was killing me. Got a hotel, hit the sack again early and was out like a light.
Saturday morning I was off to an 8 hour dental continuing education lecture titled “Enteral Conscious Sedation and Dental Office Emergencies”, and , yes, it was a snoozer. I had to get up and walk around the back of the lecture hall half the time so I wouldn’t start snoring. At least lunch was good. But, hey, it was a good excuse to take this Texas trip. Sunday I was just going to relax but got antsy and stripped down three of my reels….cleaned and lubed them and respooled line on two of them.
Come Monday morning I was meeting another great guide, Shea McClanahan, to spend a couple of days fishing the Colorado River below Austin. We launched the raft right under a highway bridge on the edge of town. Kind of a rough looking area….I was hoping we wouldn’t find any dead bodies as that would put a serious kink in our fishing time.
I began casting with my favorite LuckyCraft suspending minnow and was rewarded in short order with my first modest bass of the trip:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2497.jpg
How do you like the fashionable swimsuit? My wife just laughed but it was all I could find at Walmart on short notice.
Fishing this stretch can be trying at times….every night they let out a big flow of water from the dam which raises, and dirties, the water about 2 feet (waters some massive rice fields downstream). You have to catch a particular stretch as the water is receding to normal and the water has cleared substantially. Must be confusing for the fish.
There was still some color in the water and the morning was consistent but a bit slow. Caught several more bass as we meandered down the river toward lunch…
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2498.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2499.jpg
Started getting a little better size as the water cleared up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2501.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2502.jpg
By midday I started using Sheas’ favorite bait in here….a weedless 5” hot pink double tail….with no weight. It is just slow twitched and you wait for the giant wallow on the surface or for it to just disappear underwater. It works way better than something that ugly has a right to. It was lunchtime and we stopped for a great chicken tacos with Sheas’ great homemade hot sauce, and a little rest. By now the water was pretty much normal and pretty clear. We started getting into some better sized fish then:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2504.jpg
Shea is a great guide and I could hardly talk him into fishing with me most of the morning…..I told him he didn’t do some fishing in the afternoon I’d get out and walk. I always want a guide fishing with me. It wasn’t long that he was kicking my fanny from water I had already fished….never challenge a man on his home water.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2506.jpg
When he caught the last fish pictured, a spotted bass, he thought it was the biggest spotty he had ever caught on this river. I managed a few more nice bass in the 4 lbs. class in a fabulous stretch we were fishing, then Shea, again throwing right where I had fished, nailed the toad of the trip. She just inhaled his pink floozy and the fight was epic. She immediately cleared the water twice and we both wet our pants with how big she was. Shea couldn’t control her very well in the current with our light gear and then she wrapped him on a large tree branch. At this time, with my usual ineptness, I grabbed the oars to try and make some headway back to the branch and after 15 seconds, or so, Shea had gotten her off the limb….I’m pretty sure whatever I did was a detriment. He was hanging over the raft, rod in the water, to get an angle on the fish and for a guide…..he was EXCITED. Finallty she was angling toward the raft and I grabbed the net….the nice politically correct rubber mesh (to save the fins) but they are always not real deep and I didn’t think she would fit. My first attempt she stiffened and was wider than the net opening so I pulled the net down and away. She got really torqued and took off again. For this, I’m sure Shea was thanking me quietly in the back of his mind…. ;-). After a minute or so she was back and Shea got her head in first and I scooped…what a fish. He let me get a picture due to my fabulous netting:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2507.jpg
What a piggy….on my certified digital scale she went 8lbs. 5 oz…..the biggest largemouth bass Shea had ever caught or seen on this river in all his lifetime. His hands were shaking like a 20 cups of coffee a day caffeine addict. But he does take a great picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2509.jpg
He placed her gently back in the water and after a few seconds of reviving her she took off like a rocket. At this point as a guide Shea was really bemoaning the fact he had caught the large fish but I assured him I was not the least upset, heck I was ecstatic for him. That fish, on his home water, meant much more to him than it would have to me (still didn’t keep me from taking a picture with it…hehe). Maybe its age but I enjoy fishing and catching and seeing anyone else catching too…really do. With his hands a shaking he put the rod down and we started covering some water as we were way behind our timetable for getting out before dark. I managed several more bass as we booked it downstream…..many were smaller, but very rambunctious spotties. Got one last nice largemouth in the 4 lbs. range:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2510.jpg
We made it to our take out, mounted up and it was back for a much needed good nights sleep. Had to ice down the bothersome wrist again.
The next morning we moved down river several miles to fish a different stretch of the Colorado River….this one had more spotties in it. Unfortunately, when we got to the river it was still pretty high and the water was definitely not clear. But you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit….naw….my kids don’t buy that either.
The fishing was pretty slow the first few hours but then some fish started moving around:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2511.jpg
There were only a few fish after this one until lunchtime. We stopped to eat something yummy, subs, on a island and then wade fished the backside of it…there’s a great little run of water there. We picked up several little spotties and a few largemouth in this running water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2513.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2514.jpg
This picture was an instructional one to shoe how to make a 1 lbs largemouth look three times its size:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2515.jpg
Finished the day with some very nice spotties and largemouth, the biggest in the 5 lbs class:
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http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2519.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2520.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Texas310/Texas3-2011/IMG_2518.jpg
By this time my right wrist was nearly nonfunctional and I was missing fish simply because the motion of setting the hook was nearly causing me to pass out…..but that made it a sweet pain. We got to the take out, mounted up and headed out. Not too bad….about 65 bass for two days fishing. Shea and I were going to fish half a day the next, as my flight was in the evening, but my wrist was not even workable the next morning. Got to find out what is wrong with the dang thing…..tried to flyfish for about 15 minutes but the pain was excruciating….did manage one mini bass on the fly though. Nice 9 hour flight home and very gratified to have another successful trip.
Fishing is life.
Brian