Frio River - 4/11/2021

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Neumie
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Frio River - 4/11/2021

Post by Neumie »

Another day, another beautiful Hill Country River to fish. Ron reached out to me last week about fishing a favorite hole of his in the South Texas Sendero.

We met at my house a little before 7 before stopping at Delia's for tamales. This was the first time either of us had their tamales and they stood up to their lofty reputation. If any of y'all visit San Antonio I highly recommend stopping, assuming they haven't sold out for the day.

We continued our trip west of San Antonio to the Frio River in the Sendero. We pulled up to river and, although it was flowing, was far less than what Ron had ever seen. This caused vegetation to grow and fill the holes as well as build up sludge on the bottom Ron refers to as "quick sand". We decided to proceed.

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I caught a couple small bluegills and Ron pulled the hook from a nice bass. We only made it about 30 yards down river before it was too difficult to wade. We both have a small fleet of plastic we could have brought, but chose not to.

We didn't have back up plan, so after a breakfast beer and some more tamales while we dried off a little I suggested a crossing on the Frio River about 45 minutes north of where we were. Neither of use prefer fishing this section of Frio for different reasons. Ron prefers to fish there during wet years (becoming less frequent these days) and I avoid it due to the tubing tourism business the community has built. I wagered it was early enough in the year we wouldn't see any, so north we went.

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Upstream the water got deep fairly quickly. Deeper than either of us cared to wet this time of the year. So we turned around and waded south. The waters looked super fishy downstream. However, I only managed one sunfish with a nice bass breaking me off. Ron caught a couple sunfish too. We didn't see many fish of size, but a great variety. As we decided to wrap it up for the day we encountered.....tubers. This is why avoid this river. Anyways, some pictures of the scenery.

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Oh, we caught more than just a few fish today. On the drive out we encountered a moderately speed "high speed" police pursuit. Mildly amusing and we had a good laugh.


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Ron Mc
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Re: Frio River - 4/11/2021

Post by Ron Mc »

Nice photos Josh - I only took 3.
What I really wanted on this trip was to wade up the Sabinal from the confluence to last blue hole coming out of the aquifer.
The lower Frio crossing had flow, but was deeper water than I've seen before. The river discharge has plugged up somewhere below where we could go - right where the bank path ends and before we could step onto gravel, is now quicksand and hydrilla.
What else you gonna call it but quicksand - you probe it, you step onto it, before you get a step, you're sinking, and the more you fight it, the deeper you sink - the movie quicksand doesn't exist, but this stuff is real.

With the numbers and size fish we could see just from the short beaten trail, the close fishy water we couldn't see into, and the wider pond that had formed down toward the mouth of the Sabinal - yeah, we should have brought boats - we would have caught a lot of fig fish.

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The one bass I turned that managed to spit my cats whisker was two of the bass that did the same thing at the uphill crossing.
Very glad Josh had a plan B. it was a very pleasant drive from the coastal plain to the hill country above Garner SP.
His crossing was very much worth exploring.
I did aim the camera once at Josh.
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and snapped the karma photo of this first catch on my new/old Phillipson RW66.
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Adding, we stopped at Hermann Sons Steakhouse in Hondo on the drive home - they've changed, too, they've quadrupled their floorspace, and needed by the traffic that came through while we were there.
But the quality of their food and service has continued the same.
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Re: Frio River - 4/11/2021

Post by Dandydon »

Great informative Frio reports, Josh & Ron! Super photos of our beautiful Texas Hill Country. Sounds like the local food was better than the fishing!

Those freshwater fish are usually small, but a joy to catch in the relaxing, running water. My brother retired to that part of Texas.

Maybe I should try freshwater fishing until the salty brine heats up a bit...

And here's my quick "rowdy tuber" story from about 10 years ago... I was by myself fly-fishing the Guadalupe River outside New Braunfels. A pretty May morning with nobody else around. The Dept. of Wildlife had just stocked those waters with feisty freshwater Trout. Was having a blast and catching several on my black Wooly Boogers flies. I think you had to release everything.

Then the first of about 6 tubers arrived, drunk on beer and yelling at each other while drifting downriver.
The meanest and biggest of the 3 guys thought it was funny to grab my fly-line and destroy my lure.

Big mistake. I'm a Kung Fu warrior. I punctured his tube w/ my pocket knife, and after he swung at me, flattened him underwater. He had a broken nose.

His two male companions apologized for their intoxicated friend while the 3 females laughed their asses off. I'm sure that surly MFer had to pay for his collapsed tube. I've hated the tubing community ever since.

That was my last time fly-fishing, ha ha. Good times.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
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Ron Mc
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Re: Frio River - 4/11/2021

Post by Ron Mc »

We messed up at the lower confluence, by choosing not to bring kayaks.
What used to be a wide gravel run with a series of plunge pools from the crossing down to the confluence is now a stopped-up pond.
No question it is loaded with big bass and cichlids the size of footballs.
We both have little boats that will spin beautifully and cover the water completely.
We need to go back with the right gear.
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