Bear Creek, Daingerfield, Bob Sandlin and Monticello

WHEW!

This weekend was stuffed to the gills (had to) with fishing and fun.

On saturday Emalie and I took our baby, Pepsi, to the annual Chi-esta in Keller. Our lil pumkin had alot of fun..


While there we broke out Emalie's 4wt and walked along bear creek trying to catch a few small sunfish. I managed to hook a really nice bass but the small popper dislodged from its mouth, I was frustrated and Emalie poked fun at me.




Definetly a place we are going to go back to...

Sunday morning we woke up around 6, got in the car and started driving east to Mt. Pleasant and Daingerfield. The state park is really nice. The lake is a few hundred acres at the most and is a very old impoundment, dating from the 1930s. The water is usually a tea color, though this weeks rain had washed alot of the red clay in, reducing visibility quite a bit. We had alot better luck this weekend than last, no pickerel but a few nice bass.

Caught this fat boy near the paddle boats




The only thing we caught at Bob Sandlin was this turtle, HECK YEA!


We faired much better at lake Monticello. This is a really cool lake with very warm water. It is a cooling lake for a coal fired power plant, Luminate. Monticello is the lake I will be bringing my kayak to this winter! It is stocked with large mouth and coppernose Blue gill. We fished for a couple hours and caught 40+ bluegills on hoppers and poppers.




Nothing like breathing in those heavy metals while catchin gills!

It Begins!

I recently found something new to be obsessed about, as my wife so fondly reminds me.....


I recently purchased a cheap vise and a few tying tools from bass pro and I experimented with tying my own Bully's Blue Gill Spiders and Hum Bugs. The results looked like someone had a seizure playing "cats cradle".

But I still caught fish!


Last night there was a terrible misquito hatch taking off from my favorite pond and the Gills were all surface feeding. I managed to land a few by casting my franken-flies into the feeding frenzy.

Lake Daingerfield

This Saturday we headed out to Lake Daingerfield. It was rainy, cold and we caught a single BlueGill. So we were basically skunked. I did managed to hook a Pickerel, which easily broke my 1x tippit. I think I will go back next weekend with an abraison resistant leader. I was super excited for 5 seconds. I think the Pickerel is my new favorite fish. The few that I observed near the boat ramp were really bad ass.

On our way home last week from Fredricksburg we stopped in Lampasas @ Sulpher Creek and caught some cool fish including a rare Lepomis miniatus, or Red Spotted Sunfish


Emalie was the winner and hooked a really nice Long Ear



Till next time!

Llano River, Big Gulp

Last saturday I woke up early and left Fredricksburg and lil'E still sleeping.

I made my way out west on Highway 10 to Junction, Texas to hit up the Llano River. It rained the entire time I was there, prompting me to keep an eye on the flow of the river, lest I be swept away.

I caught a few small bass right off the bat, and as the day passed I managed to land a few sunfish as well, including one of my goals for the trip: Lepomis auritus, the Red Breasted or Yellow Bellied Sunfish. It was a young specimen, not fully colored yet, but still exciting.




A small backwater area


Small Guadalupe Bass

before heading out I went ontop of the dam and cast into the falls a couple times.

I left with 9 or 10 fish under my belt, not what I would really consider successful, bu better than a knife in the eye!

I returned to Fredricksburg with my head held high in anticipation of the joy to follow my arrival...

Perdernales Falls State Park, Part 1

Well me and lil'E just got back from our trip to Fredricksburg. We partook of much fishing, beer and German-ness.

We headed out on Friday the 2nd and arrived in Johnson city around noon. After getting our bearings we headed to Perdernals Falls State Park. We both agree this is one of the best Texas State Parks. It is beautiful, the fishing is good, and it is easy to find.




Emalie says "thars fish over thar!"

and she was right!
Spotted/Guadalupe Bass

Most of the Bass were around this size



These small Bass behaved more like trout, darting among the rocks and in and out of the current.


A foul-hooked Blue Gill, Sorry Buddy!


Emalie was the first one of us to catch a Rio Grande Cichlid!



Down by the swimming area we did some wading.






All in all Perdernales Falls was a great trip. We ended up with 25 fish total, mostly Bass and Long Ears. I think it would be better in the spring when the fish are on their beds. One thing that we noticed was that there is a preponderance of Carp. We are talking many hundreds in giant schools. While there we also spotted a Black or Small mouth Buffalo, it was hard to tell which from the vantage point. We also spotted a few White Bass in the deeper parts of the current.

Stay tuned for the Llano River