Cool river bass on a hot day

In the last few days the temperatures have been getting up into the high 90s. Today seemed like a good morning to wet wade the San Gabriel for bass and so I headed to one of my favorite spots along the river and paddled upstream.

I noticed that the algae has started to build up in some spots along the river making it tough using some flies. However, I had success with most of the flies I tried today picking up almost a dozen largemouth and Guadalupe bass. Most of the bass preferred any fly with zonker strips and black seemed popular as well.

I didn't go too far upriver given there were bass everywhere. Most all of them fought great for their size. There is something about river bass. Maybe it's the current that makes them hit hard and fight hard compared to their lake and pond brethren.

I enjoyed being out in the kayak and getting to wet wade in the cool river on a hot day for the first time this year. Hopefully, I will be able to get back there next time and try for some carp.

When size counts

I spent a few days in Corpus Christi fishing with my cousin, Captain Garza. We went all over the place from Port Aransas to Yarborough Pass and we barely caught a limit of redfish and half a limit of trout in those two days. However, though we fell short in quantity we made up in spades with quality.

On Wednesday evening we made our way to Yarborough Pass which is located about 15 miles south of the entrance to Padre Island National Seashore. Once through the pass to the Laguna Madre side located just south of Baffin Bay, we set camp and fished until 1:30am. During that time we caught only a handful of fish though they were quite good fish.

The first one I caught was a 28 3/4" speckled trout! This was followed by a slot sized redfish and then an 18" trout. My cousin picked up another large trout at 26 1/2" and then a 20" trout followed to our surprise by an 18" flounder. The last fish to be caught was a 28 1/2" redfish that I tagged since it was just over the slot size.

At about 4am, I woke up to the sound of a dog barking. Now, we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Apparently someone had driven up during the night to fish but nobody approached the camp. I went back to sleep and my cousin didn't.

The next day was really hot and my cousin caught a nice redfish and trout while I caught nothing.

To make a long story short, the rest of the time we simply shot the breeze and reminisced about our youth, music, and the pursuit of more fish in the future. I am very glad I got the opportunity to bring some fish home to cook for Mother's Day tomorrow. While there weren't that many fish caught, they were some big fish supplying plenty of bags of fillets to enjoy. Yep, sometimes size does matter.

Alligator gar washes up on beach

My cousin and his better half went driving down to Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi to do some beach combing and they spotted a four foot alligator on the shore. Interesting since alligator gar normally reside in freshwater lakes, bayous, canals and rivers.

I have heard of folks running into some in brackish or salt water. It is possible that when there is a good amount of rain (as was had recently in the area) that they may move out into the ocean and bays when the salinity levels drop. However, they can't survive there very long.

My cousin indicated the gar was freshly dead. On a side note, for those that haven't eaten gar before, the flesh is white and firm and when fried tastes a lot like chicken breast. The hard part is cutting through the armor plating hide. By the way, my cousin left the fish on the beach.

I think I need to get my son a fly rod

This afternoon I took my son to the pond for an hour of fishing before dinner. I took my 4wt and he took his spinning rod and worms.

We both started catching brim soon after getting there though I caught a few more while he re-baited his hooks with worms. After a while, he asked me for a fly. At first, I told him to stick to the worms. He asked me again so I took out my fly box and let him choose a fly. He chose a white #8 Cypert's mylar minnow. I tied it on and adjusted his float a bit higher. I figured in a few minutes we would be back to the worm hook and worms.

To my surprise, a short time later he hooked a sunfish! This went on several times and some of the brim he caught were pretty good sized! I kept wondering just how he did this. It seemed that his casts were near the fountain in the center of the pond that circulates the water. Near it you get some wave action so apparently the minnow under the float would jig up and down and possibly looked like an injured or dying fish and the big brim couldn't stand it!

Well, after a while we had to leave but I am now seriously considering a fly rod for this boy. If he's willing to try a fly on a spinning rod, I might as well replace the spinning rod with a fly rod and complete the package. I may have to research some fly rods for him and possibly take a trip to Cabela's and see what fly rod combo kits they have in a 5wt.

Passed my CHL test

No fishing today on such as beautiful day because I spent the entire day in a concealed carry handgun course. It was quite interesting. Most of the information came right out of the law book as well as additional information from very well known authors on the subject. Our instructor was a lady and the 14 people were all men but I'm pretty sure this lady could outshoot most of the men. She did a good job with the instruction.

I was a bit nervous about the shooting part of the exam but it went pretty well. A perfect score is 250 and I scored 243 which was about average. There were some 245 and 248 scores but no perfect scores. Everyone shot autos. One guy did have to leave in the middle of his test since he didn't bring sufficient ammo (you needed 50 rounds for the test). I, as well as the teacher and the other students, were dumbfounded. The instructions clearly say what you need to bring and this guy was renewing his license! Other than this, it was somewhat uneventful. They brought in some BBQ from a local restaurant and it was OK though I think I offended my instructor since she thought it was great.

Now I just have to go to the Texas DPS office to get my fingerprints and turn in all the paperwork, pay the application fee and then wait. I hope to get that done before the end of the month.