Salado Creek Fisherman

10/9/2010 Salado Creek

2010-10-09T18:43:00.001-07:00

Hello again. This morning I pretty much hit one of my normal fishing spots and got off to a crappy start. About a month ago my #3 weight rod broke and I put a new tiptop on it thinking I could fish it with a #4- I thought wrong. In my infinite wisdom, lol, I did not bother to cast it out in the yard first- so I had walked down to the creek to find out it was like casting with a broom stick. So I walked back to the car and got my other rod then fished a different part of the creek.

Starting out with a black wooly bugger I was getting few bites, same results with a brown bugger, then I changed to an olive one and the magic started happening. With the olive bugger I caught this nice Rio below on my second cast.

This spot below turned out to be a real honey hole, on my first cast to the shadow on the water further back I saw a nice bass mouth the fly but I didn't get him. Then on practically every cast I got bites, it seemed the Long Ear and greenies wouldn't let that bass have another shot at the fly even if it wanted to. I even caught another Rio in this section of the creek.

Upstream from this honey hole I saw several small bass but only this tiny one got hooked, hopefully I can catch him again when he grows up-to size. These spotted bass seem thrive in the creek and there are several approaching five pounds that I've seen in there but they are wary- guess that's how they got to grow that big. I started using 4lb tippets on this and my trip last week to see if maybe it would help me in getting the larger more wary bass to stike but the jury is still out on the results.
Moving further upstream I got another Rio on the line- they were onto to that olive bugger for sure.
I finished off using a streamer I tied the other day and caught the biggest Long Ear perch of the day, a nice fish.

Tomorrow I'm planning to hit Cibolo Creek with my dad once more, hopefully the fishing will be as good or better than I had today- I'm really hoping to catch a few Guadalupe bass or even just any bass.

10/2-3/2010

2010-10-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Once again this weekend I hit the Salado to fish a stretch of the creek I hadn't fished before. This area mostly has a limestone bottom with some gravel in a few areas with no water deeper than waist level. I started using a steamer I tied this week on a #6 hook but it was a bit big for the fish so I then put on a size 10 wooly bugger and then began hooking up with some perch and a few small spotted bass. I even caught a Warmouth perch, hadn't caught one in about 20 years so it was a bit of a trip. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I didn't get any pics, not to self: always have spare batteries for the camera.

My 7'6" rod was a bit longer than needed on this stretch of the creek and I wound up "choking up" on the rod to give me less rod length in some of my cast to avoid trees. This is prompting me to build up a 6' rod in the near future, I'm looking forward to working on that and may also build up a 6'6" fly/spin rod for my dad as a Christmas gift if I can pull it off in time.

Sunday I hit Blanco River State Park to try and catch some catfish along with my dad and a buddy I grew up with. The water looked great, it looked like a great place for catfish, but they apparently didn't think so- or at least they were not biting this morning. We tried chicken gizzards marinated with garlic, hot dogs, and shrimp to no avail. I managed to catch one perch fishing bottom and another on the fly rod, it was a beautiful day regardless of the fishing and a good time was had.

9/20-25/2010

2010-09-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hello again, this week I went to a training class in Irving, TX. While there I figured I would get in a little fishing at California Crossing park on the Trinity River and hit Northwest Lake park as well. The Trinity River was about 6 feet higher than I saw it 8 months ago during my last training class, this made it very hard to fish so I cut out early. This area has a bunch of drainage canals and I fished the one right behind the hotel with no luck but I did spot a cottonmouth snake.

Wednesday I hit the Northwest Park, there was only one other fisherman at the park and it didn't look like much. Using chicken gizzards marinated in garlic, I caught 4 catfish, they looked to be yellowcats and one was of decent sized. I also managed to catch 2 turtles much to the happiness of some little kids nearby. The kids bugged me about fishing so I let them dap my fly rod in the water and they each caught a small perch. The perch were so hungry they even hit on my strike indicator. I caught a few perch as well on the fly rod.

Plans were for me to fish Salado Creek under 35 in Salado, Tx on the way back and then stop by Living Waters fly shop in the Round Rock area, finishing off hitting Brushy Creek. Class normally finishes early on the last day so that was the plan, unfortunately my son was sick Thursday night and the wife wanted me home so I left early. The boy checked out ok Thursday night so I hit Salado creek here by the house (a different Salado Creek than the one in Salado, TX).

While the banks were muddy from recent rains, the water was pretty clear Friday morning. I used mostly a hopper pattern and had some decent luck with perch and caught 2 Rios:

This morning I hit the creek again, this time fishing more upstream from where I was yesterday. There was less visibility this morning do to some showers yesterday afternoon but it wasn't too bad. Today woolly buggers were what the fish wanted and I managed to catch 2 Rios and several perch. A spotted bass about a foot long hit on my fly but I wasn't quick enough in setting the hook, most fish this morning were timid in hitting the fly. It seemed most hits were on the tail of the bugger so I was unable to set the hook on many of the takes I had. I'm very happy with this rod, it was a cheap fiberglass blank I picked up from eBay for $14 shipped and then put about $30 in components on it, it was also my first attempt in putting a rod together.

The big Rio I caught put a nice bend in that 7'6" #5 rod when it was trying to head for some roots to tangle me up in. All in all it was a great morning.

8/14-15/2010 Salado and Cibolo

2010-08-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hello again, this weekend I got out both mornings hitting the creeks. Saturday I went to Salado hoping to repeat last week's success and used woolly buggers all morning. I only caught one small spotted bass but saw several decent sized ones, they just were not biting. Got a nice Rio on though and several long ear perch as well. This one bass followed a perch I was realling in and then he just watched me for a few minutes. I put the bugger in his face and he tapped at it once or twice then I put the rod tip up to his face, the guy even bit on that, it was a trip.

It was pretty neat seeing in 2 different pools a school of catfish that were about 6 inches long, hopefully they will get to grow up nicely. A red tailed hawk flew nearby also and I could hear it screeching a bit and passing a tree there was a big green praying mantis waiting for dinner to drop by.

Cibolo was nice as usual, again as in the past I took my dad along this Sunday morning. I wanted to give the woolly bugger a try here as well and managed to catch a few perch and one large Rio. I thought I had a good 14-16" bass when the Rio hit from the amount of water it displaced after I set the hook along with the way it fought. It was the largest Rio I have caught in recent memory. After fishing dad and I got some lunch/breakfast from our regular spot, Taco Cabana, hard to beat the cheap and good food there.

7/7-8/2010 Salado

2010-08-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took my son fishing for a bit down at the creek. I don't think he was too enthused as he had expected to go to Cibolo this morning but due to the wife's car having trouble I let her use my car to get to work and we had to stay close to home with the unreliable transportation. The Cibolo is great but it is about 35 miles from the house, Salado is about 2 miles.

The boy just wasn't having any luck and his patience was lost in fast time, he also didn't want to wade fish so we cut the day short. I did manage to catch a nice spotted bass on my 3wt rod but before the trip was over it broke near the tip, luckily this was an unexpensive rod.

This morning I took my South Fork rod down to the creek and fished my way upstream toward the car. The perch were willing on the hopper but little else bit until I switched over to an Olive Bugger- then it got good. On my first cast I saw a nice Rio hit on it but missed the hook, then with a little more patience I caught a nice one. A small bass followed, bit, but missed the hook also. Casting into a pocket I then saw 2 nice bass of about 16" followed by a slightly smaller one, a fish hit but much to my disappointment didn't get hooked. Shortly thereafter I hooked another nice Rio and then downstream in a shallow pool with some lily pads a nice 14" or so spotted bass took the fly. The bass was a beauty, it jumped about 3 times and tried to take me into an overhanging tree but I was able to bring it to hand. The day turned out great and I really needed the stress release after contemplating how I'm going to pay to get the wife's car fixed, ugh.

7/31/2010 Salado Creek

2010-07-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

I had a great day at the old reliable spot today. My Albright #3 fly rod hadn't seen much action so I thought I'd get a little bit of ultra-light fly-fishing in this day. The rod is supposed to be a #3-4 weight but I couldn't fish it with #4 line, it was a
dog (of course this is their cheap Topwater series rod and reel and I got it for a crazy price online). Even with #3 line on the reel this rod is limited to cast of about 45 feet which doesn't work out bad for this kind of fishing.

For me the hopper is about the best creek fishing surface fly I've found, it is my old standby and what I usually use first when on the water. It didn't let me down today either, catching red bellies, greenies, blue gill, a Rio Grande perch, and even a very nice and chunky spotted bass. That bass felt like a five pounder on this rod, it hit the fly with a splash and for the first second I thought I had on a big perch until it started running. Man, what a nice fight that fish put up, and it was shadowed by a slightly smaller bass which followed it up-to within feet of me.

I got pretty lucky with that bass, I found I had a knot in my line and luckily it didn't break off with that fish. After this fish I walked further downstream and fished my way back up a bit catching a few more perch and seeing a nice 4-5 pound bass but he saw me as well. There were some good Texas Persimmons ripe on the walk back so I ate and gathered a few of them, looking forward to going back down there again real soon.

7/24/2010 Cibolo again

2010-07-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this days trip as I only caught one fish. I had decided to take a childhood buddy fishing at Cibolo as we had not been fishing together in probably 22 years, we fished together a bunch when we were kids. Taking a friend here is probably why I didn't catch much and my poor buddy didn't catch anything, it seems to be how it works when you tell some one about a great place and then you take them there, lol.

Well my buddy Mike said he was just happy he hadn't gotten snagged in the Cypress trees this day but wants to go back as, while he saw plenty of good fish, they just didn't seem to be biting today. Of course my father being the old expert he is, caught 10 fish or more.

7/18/2010 Cibolo Creek

2010-07-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

I took my dad down to Cibolo again this weekend, it is one of my dad's favorite places to fish- I have to say I agree with him. Today I took my South Fork #5 fly rod and FlyLogic reel to throw some hoppers and other flies in attempt to catch some bass and perch. The perch were willing but I had no luck with bass this day.

My best luck came with the hopper and foam spider patterns, I did catch one perch on a Cypert style minnow. The creek was not as high as in the past 2 times I went fishing which was a good thing. I really like that South Fork rod, even hand size perch put a nice bend in the rod and it just feels good to cast.

It was refreshing wading in the creek especially in a few holes that came up to my chest. Although my line managed to find plenty of roots and trees to snag in it was a good day. I even snagged into someone's line that they had caught up in a tree and was able to pull mine and their lure free. I had to wonder what that person thought they were going to catch in this creek using a 4/0 hook in a big minnow with braided line, well at least I can rest knowing they probably didn't catch anything and hopefully would not be returning.

Finding beer cans and worm tins is a bit of a downer there, it seems most slobs would not make the effort of walking half a mile to go fishing like that but they did and I picked up after them. Just doesn't seem right walking through such a nice place and finding that crap laying around, it reminds my to try and pack a grocery bag next time to pick that sort of thing up.

6/26/2010 Salado Creek

2010-06-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to give the creek a shot, it turned out to be one of the best days of bass fishing I've had on the creek in years. The first fish to bite were a few nice little perch, both greenies and yellow bellies, then I lost a nice little bass that jumped about a foot out of the water and promptly shook the hook out of it's mouth.

Wading downstream and using a topwater lure, I hooked what a thought was a bass from the pull but it turned out to be a nice Rio Grande perch. Shortly thereafter I caught a small Rio and then lost a few more bass. The bass were doing a pretty good job of shaking the hook out with a leap in the air this morning, I only got 2 bass to hand but hooked 7. This day I was using a small, cheap, Eagle Claw telescopic casting rod with a cheap Shakespear reel on it loaded with 6lb test line- this setup is great on the creek and that Rio and larger bass were a real joy to fight on that little rod.

6/20/2010 Father's Day

2010-06-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

I knew this Father's day I was going to take my dad fishing in Boerne on Cibolo creek and I wanted my stepson to come along. Normally the boy is doing the teenager thing, staying up late, playing games with friends, or spending the night with friends so we don't get to go fishing much. this morning he got up and we picked up my dad to head to the creek. My son hadn't been here before and he was impressed with the beauty of the place.

It wasn't long before I was on a few fish to my son's frustration, to add to it when I was showing him where to cast and watching him I noticed a few crawfish in the water. Putting my rod tip in front of a crayfish, it grabbed onto my lure and wouldn't let go, I was able to grab it and show my son. "Your even catching crawfish, man!" he exclaimed, "I'm going to try that". So he did catch a few crawfish and was going to walk down the creek where we fished earlier giving up on fishing. I told him he would never catch fish if he gave up and that he should cast down the the pool we were fishing earlier.

Well the boy listened and on his first cast caught a very nice foot long Guadalupe bass, he got it up and out of the water before it shook the hook loose. This raised his spirits and he began fishing more, catching a very large perch not long after and another perch before the day was done. It's funny, but him catching fish and seeing him enjoy himself there was the best Father's Day gift I've had in awhile.

My dad had a good day as well, catching a few bass and many perch. I got dad a Crossman 1377 pistol as he had been wanting one for awhile, it is a good little airgun and looks like many neat modifications can be done to it down the road if wanted.

06/13/2010

2010-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

This morning I headed to Cibolo with my dad to do a little fly fishing and brought along my old Martin rod and Ocean City 76 reel. This rod is sentimental as it was the 2nd fly rod I ever got and paid for it myself from a bargain bin in a flea market. It's a good rod and rated for #6 line but it needs to be redone at some point in the future.

Fishing wasn't as good as last weekend but I did catch several perch and some of them were nice and chunky, most bit on a hopper pattern and some were caught on a bead-head bugger. The creek is about a foot and a half higher than it was last year and the swamp springs near the creek are now flowing which is nice.

6/11/2010

2010-06-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

With the wet weather, I haven't done near the amount of fishing I had done last year. Last weekend I went to Salado along John James park with the intention of walking to the back of the part and fish my way upstream. Well even with Deep Woods Off on the bugs were giving me grief on the trail so instead I just fished under the bridge of Ritamin Rd. and a little bit downstream. I was rewarded with several perch and a nice chunky 10-11" spotted bass for the effort.

The next day I hit Cibolo Creek in Boerne and had a great day, in all I caught 4 Guadalupe bass with the biggest one being a fat 13" or so and I also caught a little spotted bass along with many perch. On both of these days I was trying out my portable fishing kit which is made of a cheap Eagle Claw telescoping casting rod and a cheap Shakespear Durango reel with some 6lb line on it. The combo worked well and I caught most fish on a small minnow imitation swimming it in an erratic pattern. This gave me inspiration today to try and tie 2 flies in a minnow pattern to hopefully try out this Sunday- hopefully I'll give an update with pictures.

With the rains lately I've gotten more into recreational shooting with a friend or 2, I even participated in a IDPA pistol shooting competition which was a good time. Hopefully I'll get more fishing and updates put in this summer.

3/27/2010

2010-03-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a wet couple of months and I haven't had many things to update here or I've just forgotten to update the blog with the few trips I've been on. In December I made 2 trips to the Guadalupe for some Trout fishing and caught one around 17" for my efforts. That has been about it, everytime I've had a yearning to go fishing we have had rain- not that I'm complaining as we really needed to get out of this drought.

With this needed rain I expect to have a nice spring/summer on the creeks and hope to get more regular updates.

11/8/09 Flyfishing Salado at Jame's Park

2009-11-12T21:26:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to hit the creek this past weekend and give my 7' Horrocks Ibbotson and fly reel another shot at catching a fish (reel is basically a Medalist clone). This is a nice rod that even though it is short, it can cast to the backing on a good day. I thought that it was a little rough on presentations but I found it was just likely my poor casting that was to blame. Once I relaxed and didn't rush the cast, the fly landed nicely on the water.

Fishing under the Rittimin Road bridge yielded a few small bites, there used to be several Rios and Red Ear perch in this pool but maybe the recent rains had displaced them. Moving downstream I saw a nice foot long bass and decided to get in the creek near that point. Well of course in moving up I spooked a nice 3-4 pound bass and a slightly smaller one, then it started to rain. I guess it just wasn't my day. The creek looked great and the water is at a nice level and was gin clear, I'm hoping I can get another day or 2 of fishing in there before it starts getting cold and I'll turn to fishing for Trout.

11/07/09 Walk at Eisenhower Park

2009-11-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

I had reserved a spot on a nature walk at Eisenhower park this past Saturday, it was supposed to start at 9AM. Well no one showed so I went ahead and walked the perimeter trail around the park and an additional trail for about a 3 mile hike that day. I was hoping to maybe learn about a few native plants in the area and some other interesting information but it wasn't to be I guess. Note to self, next time I reserve a spot I'll make sure I call the day before to ensure they are going to have the walk. It was a shame because Saturday morning was such a great day for a flyfishing trip.

The walk was enjoyable and reminded me I'm still out of shape but I'm working on it. There were a few ripe prickly pears so I went ahead and tried one and found it wasn't as sweet as it looked. Eisenhower park is a nice place to go for a hike but is was more crowded then I cared for.

10/25/09 Cibolo Creek

2009-10-25T10:11:00.001-07:00

Hello again, this morning I hit the Cibolo Nature Center to try and hookup with some Guadalupe bass. My local creek is still muddy and I was figuring the Cibolo would be a little clearer and luckily it was. Taking my Southfork #5 flyrod I hit the creek with some waders on, first time using them this fall. Luckly, for some cheap $25 waders, they are still holding up (Albright has amazing sales sometimes and pretty good equipment as well).

The Guadalupe Bass eluded me but there were plenty of nice red bellied perch willing to hit on a Muddler Minnow and later they hit on a black leech pattern. I got a little bit of Trout practice mending some line and floating a dry fly down a few riffles to catch a few perch as well. One thing is for sure, with all this rain and lack of fishing, my casting has reverted back to being really poor- guess I'll just have work on it.

10/9/09 Lost Maple Primitive Camping

2009-10-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Hello again, this is a late entry but the weekend of the 9th I had reserved a primitive campsite at Lost Maples State Natural Area. With all the rain we had I was afraid that the park would be closed so I called an hour before I planned to leave. Luckily the park was not flooded so I headed out there.

This trip taught me a lot about hiking in camping, namely to pack as light as possible. I had brought moving dolly, stapped my ice chest, tent, backpack, fishing rod, and other items to it and had to haul it in about 2 miles to the camp site- that really sucked. Other backpackers had nothing but their packs and this intrigued me so I asked one young lady from a local college that was there for a backpacking class (what an awesome course to be able to take in college, lol). Other people were simply just using water filtration and getting their water from one of the several creeks in the park- this negated the need for the ice chest. They also packed in dehydrated food- I was living off of beef jerky, mixed nuts, cereal bars, and coffee, lol, but I'm not too hard to please I guess.

I had brought my fly-rod and a packable ultralight spinning reel. That area in the pick was like a wind-tunnel so it was really hard to cast the fly-rod and I didn't have any luck catching fish. Using the ultralight spinning reel with some bait got some bites and the next morning I hooked and broke off what looked to be a nice catfish of about 5 pounds. There were many nice chunky small bass in that water as well but they were not biting.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I hope to do it again soon. The next time I'll use the lessons I learned to pack lighter and have an easier time getting into my camping spot.

9/26/09 Trip to Fredericksburg

2009-10-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late post, been a little lazy the past week or so. That weekend my wife and I met up with her sister her husband to check out Enchanted Rock and enjoy a kid free weekend. I had hoped to get some fishing in but driving into town I saw the Perdanales River was looking like chocolate milk and I had hoped the creek in Ladybird park would be a little nicer. Well I was wrong, the creek was very muddy also and I only managed to catch a small perch.

Enchanted Rock was as pretty and scenic as I remembered it to be and it made the trip all worth while. It sucks getting older, I remember climbing the rock in my late teens and early 20's with little effort but here in my later 30's I was shown how out of shape I've become. Sitting behind a desk these past 2 years at work has taken it's toll, lol. I had hoped to get in more fishing this past weekend (10/03/09) but the rain had the rivers and creeks too high, not that I'm complaining about the rain though.

Hopefully I'll have another update this weekend.

9/20/09 Flyfishing the Creek

2009-09-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today I got a late start but wanted to go for a walk along the creek and get in a little fly-fishing while I was at it. The mosquitoes were out in full force again and even after a healthy coating of Skintastic these guys kept coming. This time I was more prepared and put on some Deep Woods Off lotion I had in my smaller pack to keep them at bay. Fishing wasn't all that great with my late start but I did catch a few greenies and a few red-bellied perch on a hopper pattern.

It was great to see the creek up at a nice volume of water, I was beginning to get afraid that the fish would die off with the drought. My mind was set at ease when I saw a pair of 4-5lb bass together in the shallows, it isn't a great picture but you can see them circled in the picture above. A nice channel catfish around 5lbs was also seen along with a few of his smaller siblings, it was a great morning walk and I'm glad I got out.

9/19/09 A little more about the creek

2009-09-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd add a little more information about Salado creek here. This creek has some history, besides being used by the local native population, some battles for Texas's independence were fought along it's banks- many of which are just a mile or so from my home. Along the creek are 2 markers at the bridge on Austin HWY detailing a massacre of Texas troops by the Mexican army, they were awaiting reinforcements before suffering the attack and only a small few Texans were able to escape with their lives. Posted above here is a marker found along Holbrook Road, the marker details that the last battle to repel a Mexican invasion was fought there. Apparently after the Mexican army had defeated the Texas army upstream they had ran into the men who were set to reinforce the Texans. Luckily the Texans won and were able to stop the advance of the Mexican army that was on it's way to Austin.

This creek is also home to many different fish, there are all kinds of perch (red bellies, long ears, rock bass, greenies, etc...), channel catfish, carp, gar, largemouth bass, Kentucky bass, and Rio Grande perch also roam the stream. Rio Grandes are a fish mostly native to Texas although some are also found in Louisiana as well, they have a pretty color to them and look grey in the water. I have a good picture of a RIO posted above by the other picture of the marker, these are some fiesty fish on the end of the rod but can be very finicky on taking a lure or fly. The creek's geology varies along it's path as well. Along Holbrook road and in some spots upstream it has a limestone bottom but further down it changes to mud or gravel. Well, I guess that's it for now, I'll try to post more soon.

9/19/09 Starting the blog

2009-09-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, I decided to give this blogging a try if for nothing else to log my time spent fishing or outdoors in general. I picked Salado Creek Fisherman as the title as it is a nice little creek close to the house that I frequent. This creek is where I caught my first fish and where I learned how to fish. It has luckily lasted the years and not suffered through the development that it could have being located in a large city. In fact, many of the areas my father and I used to walk and fish have now been turned into parks with some walking trails. This is a little bitter-sweet, as while I like that others may get to enjoy this area as I have, I do sometimes miss having it almost to ourselves. With others having such easy access to the areas though it makes it more likely for people to leave their trash and other debris around.

Well I wanted to add that this morning I had planned to do some wade fly-fishing at the creek in the area of the picture posted above. Rain was the furthest thing from my mind today until I saw that it was coming down this morning and after verifying there was no flash-flood risk I went anyways. A great lesson was learned today though, one I had learned previously but always seem to forget- always have bug spray with you. Now I had bug spray in my other fishing bag but today I brought my vest so I could fit my old camera in it and neglected to bring the bug spray. Well these nasty critters were buzz bombing me big time in a way that Texas mosquitoes seem to be great at and between them and the rain not letting up I was run off of the creek. The rain I could live with, but I'm not going to stand there all morning being a meal to mosquitoes. The good thing about it is I got home and started the page, I hope to have weekly or more frequent updates and will discuss fishing along this creek, Cibolo Creek, and a few other places. The discussion here may not all be fishing related, I may talk about my walk along the creek or other outdoor related things going on. Thank you for looking.