MONTHLY MEETINGS: 700-900pm (social hr from 6-7), Last Tues of the month. St. Thomas Presbyterian Church; CONTACT US via email: texasflyfishers@gmail.com WHY JOIN: Dedicated to the promotion of fly fishing education, conservation, and outdoors ethics. Detailed benefits below.
Day 1 Launched to calm winds. Front hit 20 minutes later. Aborted plan “A” and went to plan “B”. Fished the casinos until front passed and wind dropped. Hit 4 spots. We got a handful of trout and reds. Nothing big. Boat ran well and nothing broke. Great day on the water.
Day 2 Fished Jerry’s cove and The Corner. Dead calm start made for a 30+ mph cruise across the bay. Lots of bait working at Jerry’s cove. Waded most of the morning with clear water and intermittent sun. We caught reds, trout to 20″, black drum and a flounder. Flounder will be Saturday’s dinner. Flies that worked were Mohawk Minnow and a Spoonfly. Fished a drain at The Corner, but the tide was still incoming and only a couple of hits, but no fish landed. Nothing broke and no one hurt. A great day on the water. Home now.
This week, May 23-25, TFF members Howard Finley, Robert Cowan, Paul Robertson, and myself traveled to 7 Bluff Cabins and RV Resort on the Frio River in Concan, Texas. This location is in the immediate area of Garner State Park. The primary purpose of the trip was to conduct a site visit for a possible Fresh Water Outing for the club in the Spring of next year. It goes without saying….part of this site visit was to also fish the Frio River!
7 Bluff Cabins and RV Resort is now under a professional management group, and many upgrades, additions, and landscaping have occurred over the last year. It would be very difficult to find a cleaner and more aesthetic resort right on the banks of the Frio River. We noted that the place was incredibly well maintained, and private access to the resort entry was secured by a single-entry gate system. We lodged in Cabin 18 which is a 9 bed/3 bath river front cabin and just steps away from the river. (Standard rate $489 per night). The cabin is bi-level with plenty of sleeping privacy. It has a large kitchen with two refrigerators, 2 coffee brewers, stove, and microwave.
The Frio River is currently at low water levels due to the extended drought of last year. We arrived with the river flowing at about 36 cfs, but by the time that we left, the river had dropped back to about 25 cfs. At these water flow levels; wading is the much-preferred manner of fishing. Robert Cowan and I did float a 5-mile section starting above the resort and taking out at the low water bridge on the resort property. It was a brutal float with lots of portaging, dragging through semi dry sections, over and under low water bridges, and roping down waterfalls. I would never do this float again unless the water flow was in the 45-50 cfs range. Paul and Howard went other directions from the resort, both wading and floating. I think that they had much more enjoyable day!
The Frio River is known for its cool and very clear waters. Fish species are primarily sunfish, bass, and Rio Cichlids, and all were in abundance with a great many of large size. The Rio Cichlids were not as prevalent, but they were some of the largest that any of us have encountered. All four of us caught fish in good numbers. Howard was the bass guru, and Paul was the Cichlid champ. The bass were a little stingy, though. Rod sizes were 3-6 wts with floating lines. A variety of poppers and streamers worked on all species with spiders and Rio Getter being big producers.
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Our general opinion was that this resort/location would make a great club outing venue under two primary conditions; the water flows must be above 40 cfs, and the dates be in the early Spring and well before the start of the heavy tubing season on Memorial Day Weekend.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023, 6:00 – 8:00 pm: For the May monthly meeting of the Texas FlyFishers, we welcome back Clint Barghi. You may remember Clint from his last visit to the FlyFishers back in February 2019 with his presentation of The Moon’s Influence on Feeds and How to Pattern Speckled Trout in their Spring Transition.
Clint is a licensed paddle sport guide with over 25 years of fishing experience along the Texas coast, and over 10 of those years fishing from a kayak. Clint’s angling resume also includes an impressive list of tournament victories over the last 18 years.
Clint’s program will be a discussion covering The Seasonal Movement of Redfish. This past winter, Clint found redfish farther up the rivers than before and, he’ll be talking to us about how far they move in a year and why they move like they do.
The monthly meetings for the Texas FlyFishers are held at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road, Houston, Texas 77055. Set up, social hour and fly tying starts at 5:00 pm and the meeting kicks off at 6:00 pm with the officer reports, upcoming events and outing reports. Clint’s program should kick off around 6:30 pm. You don’t want to be late.
Note to members: If you know someone who is interested in learning more about fly fishing and, you are just interested in socializing with a group of likeminded fly fishers, come to the May 30th monthly meeting. There is no charge for admission and, visitors are as always welcome.
I plan to test out a couple of kick-boats Saturday afternoon, 2023-05-27 (~1400), and fish until dark. If you want to join in, there would be a guest fee, but the fishing should be great!
Five fly fisherman headed out in kayaks to fish B&R flats East. Friday’s contingent consisted of Eric,D., Puck, Phil S., Joe N. and Scott. We encountered light winds mostly sunny skies and clear water. Fishing was challenging with most finding locating fish the difficult factor. 4 of the 5 of us caught fish. Redfish and ladyfish were caught. Puck was high man with 3 reds landed. Puck found them in deeper (2 ft.) water and willing to hit VIP poppers in the afternoon. Scott used a gold spoonful for his reds. Both Phil and Joe utilized electric powered kayaks and were fresh at the end of the fishing. The remainder were tired after 6 miles of paddling.
Pam and Phil Stranahan hosted a BBQ dinner Friday night at their Rockport house. Mike Q. and Mark M. joined us for dinner and Saturday fishing. We all left full or both great food and fishing stories.
Saturday began with high hopes of repeating Fridays pattern of drifting open water and throwing VIP’s. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well. Persistence paid off and reds were caught on spoon flies. The largest red was 24”. Saturday was a calm cloudy day. We were all off the water as when the afternoon rain appeared.
The B&R flats outing is an easy trip with shallow clear water. It is ideal for both beginners and experienced fly fishers. You missed a fun trip. Erik caught his 1st redfish on the fly. Don’t miss the next outing.
Glenn Madden, aka: Prof. Salt, will be guest speaking this Tuesday (May 16th) from 6 pm to 8 pm at the PACK meeting. Glenn has been featured in magazines and is a very well respected angler in the community. He will be talking about how to catch REDFISH from a kayak through conventional means and fly fishing. He will be showing some video footage of him getting right close to these redfish and catching them. Glenn will also explain what baits he uses and much more. As alway, the meetings are FREE to attend. For details, see our home page for location to the meeting. www.pack tx.org
The meeting starts at 6:00 pm and is at:
Trini Mendenhall Community Center 1414 Wirt Rd. Houston, TX 77055 (713) 956-0881
THURSDAY, May 18th @ ORVISHOUSTON 5PM-7PM Join Orvis for a happy hour with Orvis Adventures, Hutch Hutchinson. Evening will include a presentation on what makes Belize a great saltwater destination, the various Belize Bonanzas and schools Orvis offers, as well as a raffle for great Orvis gear including an 8-weight rod. All proceeds will go towards the Guadalupe Bass restoration project SIGN UP
FAF=Fresh Air & Flyfishing. Earlier in the week, Tuesday, I was restless and felt the need for a little FAF. After checking with Judy and the weather report, I decided to head up to the Texas Hill Country—I needed some water around my legs. I checked with a few of my fishing buddies but they either weren’t available or interested. So I decided to head up solo. Tuesday afternoon I packed equipment and supplies, and made a camp site reservation at Cedar Breaks campground on Georgetown Lake. I figured that would give me good access to Brushy Creek and the South San Gabriel. Wednesday morning I headed out, in time to get to Living Waters fly shop in Round Rock by noon and visit with Chris Johnson, the owner, and get the scoop on the fishing in the area. He shared a wealth of knowledge…more than I could absorb.
After setting up camp, I drove over to San Gabriel Park in Georgetown and planned on fishing there. But after checking it out, I really didn’t like the look of the water. So, instead I headed down to Brushy Creek. I figured I had enough time for a couple hours of fishing before I would join a group of fly tiers at Rudy’s BBQ for dinner before their Wednesday fly tying meeting at Living Waters fly shop. It really felt good to get into the water and feel the coolness around my legs. I picked out a spot that looked like it might be productive. I waded out and just stood there awhile as I waited for any fish I had disturbed to settle down. I had my eye or a bubble line that held promise. While waiting I rigged up my fly rod with a Yellow Foam Spider on the top and Rio Bandito dropper. I began catching fish after fish…all sunfish, mostly on the dropper. I was enjoying myself so much that when I looked at my phone to check the time, I had missed the dinner with the guys at Rudy’s. Oh well, the fishing was worth it. But I did leave in time to grab a quick burger and make it to the fly tying session. It was nice to meet a few guys and talk fly tying. Jim Grey was there tying his Llanolope fly. I left after 8:00 and got back to camp in time to enjoy a some time relaxing in my gravity chair before heading to bed.
I started Thursday early. At daybreak I headed over to a cove on the lake (Chris had told me about it) and fished top water for bass for awhile. I had a tied up a top water game changer fly and wanted to see how it performed. Well…the fly did well, but the fish didn’t cooperate. After awhile I headed back to camp for coffee and breakfast. Then, I was off to the Sports Complex on Brushy Creek. Seeing Jim tie his Llanolope fly had inspired me. So I tied on one of those as a hopper and stayed with the Rio Bandito as a dropper. As I was going to be fishing in a stretch of the river with tight cover, I decided to use a 6’ 3wt rod that I had recently built. The weather cooperated—the temperature was pleasant, low humidity, and overcast skies. I’d guess I caught around 40 that morning (mostly on the small size), including two very small bass. Upon leaving I picked up a bag of trash….I just don’t understand why people litter the outdoors. But I often try to do my part and pick up trash.
For lunch, I found a picnic table in some Cedar trees at Champion Park. My standard lunch when out fishing like this is a turkey and cheese wrap, sour cream and onion Pringles, cold apple slices, a few pieces of beef jerky, and a sport drink. Sometime I’ll have a cookie or two to finish it off, but not today.
A pleasant surprise on this trip was all the wildflowers. I really had not expected that. As we say in South Louisiana, lagniappe. There were wildflowers everywhere. I think that the Spring rains brought them out. Earlier in the year it had been bluebonnets. But now it was Indian Blankets, and several other varieties. I found myself rounding a curve or topping a hill and just saying, “Wow!” The trip would have been worth it just to see the hillsides carpeted with wildflowers. They really put on a show! I remember Mary Oliver writing about her dog’s love of wildflowers.
I had a dog who loved flowers. Briskly she went through the fields, yet paused for the honeysuckle or the rose, her dark head and her wet nose touching the face of every one with its petals of silk with its fragrance rising into the air where the bees, their bodies heavy with pollen hovered – and easily she adored every blossom not in the serious careful way that we choose this blossom or that blossom the way we praise or don’t praise – the way we love or don’t love – but the way we long to be – that happy in the heaven of earth – that wild, that loving.
I too love flowers—especially the wildflowers of Texas! So much so, that last fall I planted a small bed of them in our back yard. We are enjoying them immensely.
For the afternoon, I decided to fish a stretch off Hairy Man Road. The spot where I usually park was so overgrown that it was barely visible. The trail I had previously taken to the creek was no more. So I had to bushwhack my way in. The good news, I was thinking…“No one has fished here recently.” I fished up stream and caught a few fish every once in awhile. Then….I cast to a cut under the bank, and a couple of fish almost fought over my fly. I ended up standing in that one spot casting up and down that bank for probably an hour. I’d guess I caught 40 fish in that hole alone. And there were some nice sized ones for a small creek. I caught one small Rio Grande Cichlid, but she had a big heart and put on quite a fight—I enjoyed our visit. The fish must have been bedding up—they hit hard, they were ferocious fighters, and they were fat. Most of them were in the 5 to 7 inch range….good-sized for a small creek. About 30% hit the Llanolope.
I ended up catching around 100 fish Thursday—to say the least, my 6’ 3wt rod got christened well.
Friday morning I woke early, had my coffee and breakfast, and packed up camp. I had decided to fish on the South Fork of the San Gabriel until about noon. Then I wanted to stop by for another quick visit with Chris at Living Waters before heading home—to give a report and purchase a few supplies to support the shop. I entered the water with high expectations. The Llanolope (though it only had one eye left) and Rio Getter had served me well the day before, so I stayed with them. For the first couple of hours I waded upstream and picked up a few fish (all small) here and there. The water was mostly just two shallow. Later in the morning I turned around and headed back down stream. I spotted an overhanging tree that I had not fished earlier. When going upstream I had focused on a big rock on the other side of the creek—and I had picked up a few there. My first cast under the tree resulted in a nice sunfish. I ended up fishing under that tree and downstream to another tree for about an hour and caught 30+ fish there—I had found another hole of bedding fish. Again, they were nice-sized sunfish for a small creek.
About noon, though the fish were still biting, I decided to head home.
It was a good FAF trip. My body was tried, but I felt renewed in my spirit.
“When you go fishing, you’re going to get so much more. You’re going to experience wildlife, whether you meant to or not.”
Jeff Miller, L.L. Bean gear developer
Paul E. Robertson Ph.D., M.Div., ACPE Certified Educator “Retired from work, but not from life.”
