6/26/2010 Salado Creek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.