March Competition

[Warthog]

It looks like we have a good bit of rain coming this Friday/Saturday. This usually translates into fast, stained water and tough fishing for a couple days. I'd like to hit a spot that may not be as stained from the rain. Rain jacket and waders and it's on. Does anybody here have a spot they like to fish when the usual rivers become fast and stained from runoff?

[jhb]

Nice catch Zach!

Warthog you know where'd I'd go... but the Comal isn't a bad choice also. Being such a short river and usually all of the surface inflow is happening fast (from asphalt and concrete), it clears up quickly. Being as this river is also the primary source for the Guadalupe (by volume, up to this point), it also helps the Guadalupe clear up quickly into Lake Dunlap. Below here it can be a crap shoot as the coastal plains spread out and agricultural runoff can greatly hinder the clarification process.

[Texjbq85]

I got nothing for the competition, but I'll report my Sunday afternoon outing. Fly Fished Martindale to Staples on the San Marcos, had trouble getting the bass to bite, ended up catching 4 none of which were worth measuring for the competition. All were caught in calm shallow water < 1' deep.

The reason I really didn't target the bass was because the Sunfish were out of control. I have no clue how many I caught because once I switched to small top-water stuff the action was pretty constant. Had some attack the fly from 10 feet away, it really didn't matter how it was worked. Small jerks, no movement, constant dragging, made no difference. Had several launch themselves out of the water with complete reckless abandonment. It's been a while since I've caught them like this and I forgot just how aggressive and hard these guys fight for their size. A 5" bream has the same feel as a 10" bass.

Had a couple bigger but this guy took the award for fight, launched out of the water to take the fly.








Towards the end I saw a blue heron struggling with a fish that was a bit bigger than it could handle. As I approached it flew off either because of me or because it gave up on it's catch. Turned out to be about a 15" Redhorse who meet a pretty violent death.

[skypilot]

Great report Tex. It sounds like you had a fantastic day on the water and lots of good memories. Way to go

[Zackthefisherman]

Nice report Texjbq85! My trip last weekend to the San Marcos River in Fentress was fun but unfortunately the fishing wasn't to great. We were never able to take the kayaks out due to the weather. So my fishing was limited to the bank or wading. We stayed at leisure resort(nice place defiantly recommend) which has tons of river front access. The problem was the bank was so over grown that I was limited to only fishing the little areas that were clear or wading in shallow water. I managed to catch a Redhorse sucker, a turtle and lots of sunfish. One of our friends we were with caught three guads and I lost two that I actually saw and was able to identify. If we would have taken the yaks out I'm sure we would of had better luck because there was so much good looking water that was only accessible from a kayak. All in all it was a great time with family and friends but I'm definitely looking forward to a serious fishing trip on the San Marcos.

[jhb]

Unless Zack can post another bass > 13" or someone else has entries to post it looks like it goes to skypilot again this month with nearly 30" between a Guad and an LMB.

Spawn should be ending in April for sure and with warmer weather trends the bass are going to come out to play. The springtime is a great month for all species. I'm spending a few days near New Braunfels at the end of the month and hope to post some entries this month. See y'all soon

[Zackthefisherman]

Yesterday I was finally able to land a decent sized Guad for this months competition. The banks of the Guadalupe were covered with spawning bass. I tried sight fishing them for a long time but had no luck. So I headed up the Comal where most of the fish are finished with spawning and was able to land around five. I probably could of had a twenty plus fish day with all the missed strikes and fish that got off I had but that's just a part of fishing. The lure of the day was a weightless senko.

That puts my grand total for the month at approximately 32.5 inches.

[skypilot]

Congrats Zach

[jhb]

By the way Zack, not sure if you have the Big Fish Award for the Guadalupe Bass, but that qualifies. Also, it might qualify for the C&R record for the Comal as well.