TR: Llano River

[I hope the formatting is OK. I'm posting through Google groups and
it sometimes does some screwy things that don't show up until the
message gets posted.]

ROFFians,

I needed to get some fishing in over Spring Break, as well as
testing my camping setup for my upcoming trip to the Smokies, but I
wanted to avoid the usual drunken hordes. A friend here at work
recommended a place called Llano River Camping (http://
www.llanorivercamping.com/) . Besides being out of the way, it has
the added advantage of being on a stretch of river that maintains
decent flows even during times of drought.

Short version: Camped for a couple of days, the site was
beautiful, got rained and hailed on, the river was muddy, fishing was
tough, but I had a great time.

Long version: On Tuesday I packed up all my gear, and marveled at
how quickly I could fill the back of my mini-SUV. This brought to
mind a universal law of camping. To wit: You need just as much gear
(food excepted) for a three-day camping trip as you do for a two-week
trip.

I arrived at Junction (10 miles from the site) to heavy rain and
ominous clouds. However, by the time I reached the turnoff for the
ranch where the grounds are located, the sun had come out. The sites
themselves were nice; about a dozen well-shaded sites with picnic
tables, fire-rings and even electric plugins. I got one overlooking
the river, high on a ridge facing some red rock cliffs with a nice-
looking pool below, white gravel bars on either side of a bend in the
river and a nice set of riffles upstream. The water itself looked
nice, and was surprisingly clear given the heavy rains in the area
that day and the day before (http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/
llano.jpg).

I immediately started setting up camp, as the weather still looked
threatening. My diligence paid off, as around 5:00 a large storm
front blew through. The rest of the night followed a pattern of heavy
rains, followed by lulls, followed by more rain and even some hail
(http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanohail.jpg). During one of the
lulls, I heard some wild goats calling from on the cliff across the
way (you can barely make them out he http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanogoats.jpg).

Through it all, my tent/tarp setup held, and I was even able to
cook a little dinner under the shelter of the "vestibule" I had
created (this pic was taken the next day: http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanocampsite.jpg).

The next morning I geared up and took off exploring. The water was
slightly offcolor and high, but looked surprisingly good. The river
just looked "fishy" at every turn, and the cliffs were gorgeous:

http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoredcliffs01.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoredcliffs02.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoredcliffs03.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoredcliffs04.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoredcliffs05.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanoboulder.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanohill.jpg

Unfortunately, the fish weren't very cooperative. Early on I got
some action from small sunfish that were rising to a mayfly hatch, and
I had one solid bite later in the day after I switched to a woolly
bugger/leech mutant, but I missed that fish. The rest of the day was
spent flailing the water with various minnow imitations, including one
"bendback that was a close approximation of the minnows I saw in the
river. Unfortunately, only tiny bass seemed interested in that one.

I talked to some other guys at the campgrounds, and they said they
had really good luck fishing for Guadalupe bass early the day before,
but the weather seemed to have put the fish off their feed, as no one
was getting much action that day. Still, I had a great time
exploring, and wound up hiking a couple of miles along the river until
I hit the end of the property, where the river widens out quite a bit
(http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/llanowide.jpg). This area would
probably require some sort of watercraft to fish it, but it looked
like largemouth and catfish territory.

Back to my campsite for an uneventful evening with clear skies and
tons of stars that looked close enough to reach out and grab ahold
of. The next morning it was time to break down camp and head back
home. (Another universal law of camping: Though it seems impossible,
it takes just as long to break down camp as to set it up.)

The end results of the trip: A tent and tarp setup that kept me
bone-dry through pretty hellacious weather, some nice holes to return
to when the water/weather are more cooperative, and the discovery of a
small yet adequate campground that's just far enough out of the way so
that the crazies can't overrun it easily. If you're in the area of
Junction I'd recommend it highly. The managers/part-owners were great
folks and seem genuinely concerned with keeping it a friendly/laid-
back place. (Hell, the guy sat around and drank beer and shot-the-
**** with me for a couple of hours during the storms, and even offered
to put me up in their cabin if I didn't want to stay out during the
stormy weather.)


Chuck Vance (Smokies, here I come)