Fly Fishing a River

by Marcus Rodriguez

The weather was supposed to be sunny and warm. As I was loading two kick boats into my truck, it certainly appeared like the day was going to be wonderful. Yes, it was cold, but the sun had already burned through the clouds and the birds were chirping. I could feel the heat of the sun soaking into my fleece vest. My wife came out of the house with our fly rods and was excited when she met with the beautiful day. It had been a while since our last fly fishing excursion. We have been so busy with life, that we forgot that it was fly fishing and rivers that had brought us together in the first place. I was looking forward to spending time with my wife and exploring a new river. If we caught a few fish in the meantime, it would be a definite bonus. As usual I was running a "tad" bit late.

"What time are we supposed to meet with Jerry?" my wife called out as she was putting the fly rods into the truck.

"We are supposed to meet at some convenience store at 9 o'clock," I answered. "We are running a couple of minutes late, but we should make up some time as we get on the road." We climbed into the truck and proceeded to head north and west toward the beautiful green hills in the distance.

I had previously made plans with Gerrardo Huerta to fly fish a new stretch of river. He had recently moved within a five minute drive of the river and he kept bombarding me with phone calls and pictures of beautiful scenery and large fish. Finally, I could not stand it any longer and I told him that we had to make a float and soon. Gerrardo is a fellow fishing guide. I have known him for a few years and I have watched as he grew into the sport. Jerry, as I like to call him, has a love of rivers and he is one of the most hard core anglers I have seen. We have made several floats together and most of our trips have been memorable. Our trip on the new river would be no exception.

The clouds seemed to roll in as we pulled up to the river. The wind blew hard upstream and even though it was from the south, it was cold. It looked like it was going to rain, and in some places on the horizon I could see the slant of rain showers flowing from the slate gray sky. We set up our equipment. Jerry would be floating in his kayak and Angela and I would follow in our kick boats. We had decided to hit the river later in the morning as overnight temperatures had been in the high thirties. We figured that the fish would become more active later in the day. The first few hours of fishing were slow as predicted. It was close to an hour before I even caught my first fish. My first fish was a largemouth bass that intercepted a fly that was cast over a brush pile. The pile was in about three feet of water an under a sycamore branch. I cast over the pile and made one strip. I saw the bass, just as he sucked the fly into his mouth. It was after that first fish that everybody started hooking fish more consistently.

Jerry caught the first large bass. I did not see him actually catch the fish, but as I rounded a bend in the river, I saw him standing on the gravel bank admiring his catch. The fish was a Guadalupe Bass. The Guadalupe was one of the largest I had seen in a very long while. Jerry stated that he had cast into an eddy where a riffle flowed into a run. He said that his fly, a zonker crayfish imitation had actually landed over a branch in the water when the fish hit. After a tug of war, Jerry was able to lift the fish over the branch and into the main river channel. Angela was also able to get into the action. I also think that Angela hooked into the largest fish of the day. I heard her yell out that she had a large fish. We were all in a pool and I saw her rod doubled over. Whatever it was, it was large and it fought like a bass. Angela never saw the fish, and her line snapped before she could get up from the boulder strewn depths. All in all it was a great day. The weather was cold, but the fish were active. We caught Guadalupe bass, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Spotted Bass, and bream. It is going to be a great spring and summer.