By Tom Strawther

Yesterday, Steve Edwards and I fished the San Marcos River with Ryan Schaper (p. Shopper) owner of Go Outside Expeditions.  We fished from the weir dam at Staples down to the bridge over Tollway 130, with this float of about 7 hours being completely new water to both of us.  The river level was way under normal elevations and flow rates, but the water clarity was rather good.  The weather at 8AM was shirt sleeve cool and became progressively warmer during the afternoon.  Wind was moderate most of the day but enough to keep everybody fairly comfortable.

The bite was steady all day long with 60+ fish brought to the boat.  Most fish were Guadalupe Bass along with a mixture of large mouth bass and sun perch.  Several Guadalupe’s were 1-2 lbs with one fish being approximately 2.5 lbs.  Guadalupe’s are known for being aggressive fighters, and every one caught proved up to their reputation.  It was a little strange, but bright colored, small poppers (Boogle Bugs and Pultz Little Fatty) were the flies of the day.  When we hit a slow spot, we changed out to various streamers but always went back to the poppers.  Steve used a Sage 5wt, and I fished an Orvis 4wt all day.  Both rods fit well with the fishing.

It was just a marvelous day of fishing and floating new water on the San Marcos.  This area is Ryan Schaper’s home water, and his knowledge of the river was tremendous.  We also admired Ryan’s coolness when we had to all get out of the raft and hump it over a strainer log in the river near the bank.  A very, very large cottonmouth had taken up residence under the log and decided not to move away from home.  She reared her big head and eyeballed us the whole time from less than 3 ft away but did not get aggressive and allowed us to quickly exit the area.  It surely got our adrenaline flowing!

I encourage you to book with Ryan if you want to fish with a guide on any of the Hill Country rivers.  His contact info is:

Ryan Schaper

936-443-0337

Ryan.schaper@gooutsideexpedition.com