TR: Exploring my home river (lots of pics; one fish pic)

ROFFians,

Took off early Saturday to do some exploring on the Pedernales. I
got to the park just at sunrise
(http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/sunrise.jpg) and headed down to my
favorite hike-in spot. This time I headed downstream with the plan
being to hike as far as I felt like and then work my way back upstream
to fish any good looking spots I had passed. The first stretch of
water was pretty flat; the river widens out and passes through lots of
cypress trees. Pretty country, but fairly featureless as far as
fishy-looking spots.

After about a half-mile the river banks started to get steeper and
I came to a decent bend with some nice-looking riffles followed by a
couple of pools. This area looked promising, but to get to it, I had
to bushwhack my way along a little cliff and then work my way down a
steep bank. In the process, I found myself in the middle of some
interesting foliage. This area looked like it never got sun; it had
lots of little springs seeping from the rock walls, and ferns all
around (excuse the shoddy focus:
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/ferns01.jpg and
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/ferns02.jpg).

I worked my way down to a little point below a pool at the end of a
nice riffle (http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/riffle01.jpg) and rigged
up. I pulled a couple of small Guadalupes from below/right of the
tree in that pic. They took a #8 Madame X (which seem to work pretty
well for Guadalupes for some reason, even when there's nothing on the
water that comes close to resembling them). There was barely enough
room for a back cast, and after a few tangles I decided to start
moving back upstream.

I stopped and hit each likely looking spot, but for the most part,
I could do little more than roll-cast as the cypress trees were very
thick along the banks. I did run into a marvelous cypress with an odd
depression at its base that looked like a throne and some gorgeous
burls ("knees") around the base:

http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/throne01.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/burl01.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/burl02.jpg
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/burl03.jpg

As I continued working upstream, I spotted some carp crusing along
"clooping" (I think that's what the carp guys call it; you could just
see their snouts rising from underwater as they picked off little
stuff on the surface) underneath the overhanging cypress trees. Some
were probably 4-5 lbs., and I was starting to wish I had a purina fly
or something similar to entice them with. They totally ignored the
offerings I gave them.

Once I got back out of the cypress trees, I basically fished any
feature that looked promising, one of which was this boulder:
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/pedrock.jpg I tossed my woolly bugger
on top of the rock (it's about 8' tall), and pulled it back off so it
would drop straight down right at the base of the rock. One cast and
I hooked up and this time it was a decent fish. He started to bore
down and then made a run away from the rock and gave me a couple of
jumps. He fought like a fish much larger than his actual size, as
Guadalupe bass are prone to do. I even managed to get a shot of him
before I let him go back and get even bigger:
http://uweb.txstate.edu/~cv01/pedbass.jpg

Within 60 seconds after I had released the bass, a couple of
fisherpeople came strolling through to where I was. We exchanged the
usual pleasantries, but when I said I had just released a bass, one
fellow looked at me like I was insane and asked why I would want to do
something like that. I tried to explain that this was a breeding size
fish and that the Pedernales has had a rough go of things with
droughts and floods, etc.

It was obvious that we were speaking two different languages, and
that was proven even more when he proceeded to step right in front of
me and start casting to the rock I was fishing.

Rather than get into some sort of verbal confrontation, I just
picked up my gear and left. That fish I had caught would have put
down any others in the area, plus the guy was chucking a chartreuse
spinnerbait that was about the size of a small bird, and no
self-respecting Guadalupe bass would lift a fin to go after that
monstrosity.

Besides, the swimmers and tubers were starting to show up on the
river. So I packed it up and headed back to the van. The scenery had
been nice, the spots that looked like they should hold fish *did* hold
them, but most of all, I was encouraged because of that last bass I
caught. It means that there are still good fish to be found in that
stretch of the river, and there will be for a while.


Chuck Vance

Conan The Librarian wrote:
ROFFians,

Took off early Saturday to do some exploring on the Pedernales.
snip
Sweet, Chuck. Nice photos, too - I especially liked the cypress burls.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

Conan The Librarian wrote:snipTook off early Saturday to do some exploring on
the Pedernales.

Thanks for the ridealong. You live in a very interesting part of the state.

Big Dale

Tim J. wrote:

snip
Sweet, Chuck. Nice photos, too - I especially liked the cypress burls.

Thanks, Tim (and Big Dale). Woodworking is my first hobby, and I
was thinking of all the cool things I could make with those burls.

Of course, since they prohibit even gathering firewood in the park,
they might not take too kindly to me going out there with a chainsaw and
hacking off parts of their trees. ;-)


Chuck Vance (not that I would do that sort of thing anyway)