Longest Sunfish Winner

Eric R. won the longest Sunfish for the day, a Sun Perch, measuring in at 10 5/8”.  He also caught 9 1/5” and 8 ¾” Sunfish the same day.  Congratulations Eric!

Contestant Entries for Longest Sunfish

Trip Summary

Camping night of 4/14/2023

Three Texas Flyfisher’s of Houston (TFF) members spent the night on 4/14. After we ate dinner together in the picnic area, we settled around the fire barrel to visit for a couple of hours. We slept some that night while occassionally being serenaded by bull frog mating calls as well as heard fish splashing as they gulped down a tasty critter. Then early Saturday morning, from 5 to 5:15 am, we heard the rain pitter patter on our tent’s rain flies. Fortunately, D7L was spared the hard rainfall and extensive lightening and thunder that Rosenburg, Richmond, and the rest of Greater Houston received from 4:30 am to 6:00 am, whew! Many of the TFF members told the registration volunteers their drive down longer than normal because of traffic rain delays.    

Morning of 4/15/2023

Registration was held just inside the D7L property from 7 am to 10:30 am. A total of 54 members attended the event including 6 volunteers (Chris S., Michael and Tracy Q., Ozzy C., and David D.) who served as food purchasers, registrars, cooks, and clean up. Russell C. and Puck P. tied and donated over 300 BBBs and Yellow Spider flies. Jim R. provided free flyfish casting instructions by a certified (FFI CI) TFF member, Jim R. A total of 11 members either renewed their membership or were first time TFF members.  We had three RSVP no shows and one non-RSVP who attended on the day of the event. 

Fly fisher women, men and children fished in earnest after registration by kayak, kick boat, or on the lake banks. The skies cleared by mid-morning and it was partly cloudy the rest of the day with 0 to 5 mph winds and temperatures that climbed from 65 to 78°F… , i.e., perfect weather! All the lakes had clear water such that you could sometimes see the fish. TFF members spread out over all the lakes and enjoyed a day of fishing instead of wishing, yay!

Afternoon of 4/15/2023

The volunteer cook rang the lunch bell at noon (a job perk). The covered picnic area had about eight picnic tables and two BBQ grills to accommodate most attendees with the rest using their folding chairs. We enjoyed BBQ hamburgers & hot dogs, chips, cookies and cold drinks. Next year, we will start cooking the hamburgers at 11:15 am instead of 11:40 am on 4/15/2023 because we were unable to serve everyone at noon this year. We skipped onions and tomato slices this year. We heard who had caught the longest Sunfish that morning. Eric R. mentioned his length (10 5/8 inches) and it became the eventual winner by 4 pm. The donated BBBs and Yellow Spiders were successfully used by many hopefully with good success.  Jim R. taught about 8 to 10 people casting lessons that lasted the whole day!  Jim said, “Probably 6 or so were long lessons of hour + and the rest between 15 to 30 minutes long. It was a full day and was a lot of fun: The students all seemed enthusiastic and interested in the learning about and/or improving their casting skills.”

After lunch, the TFF storage tubs were in partial disarray, so the cooks cleaned out the tubs and organized them. By 3:00 pm, the cooks completed all tasks and stowed away the TFF equipment in a truck for its return trip to TFF’s Houston mini-storage. The predicted afternoon rain never happened at D7L, and all were happy about that! The camping tents were folded and put away and by 4:15 pm, most of the attendees went home.

If anyone knows who won the 2022 JSSFS longest Sunfish, please let me know.

2023 JSSFS Event website:  link

All the best, David D., Trip Leader

More Event Photos