7/31/2010 Salado Creek

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.