The Perfect Fly Rod For Central Texas Rivers

The short answer would be a 9 foot 6 weight. But who needs a short answer when we are talking about fly rods, and everyone knows there is no way to cover all your bases with just one rod. So let's dig a little deeper and figure out what fly rod would cover the most water for the average Central Texas angler.   

The 9 foot 6 weight rod would be my first choice for a few reasons. I fish for bass on the Colorado River more than any other local water, and a 6 weight rod allows me to cast larger poppers and streamers that are sometimes required to to catch the larger Colorado River bass. The same rod would work well for nymphing on the Guadalupe River.  The 9 foot length is perfect for mending and a 6 weight will make it easy to cast the multi-fly strike indicator set ups.

If I had to chose another rod it would be an 8.5 or 9 foot 5 weight. The 5 may be a better choice if I spent more time on the Llano River or the San Marcos River.  A 5 weight rod will be lighter and the 8.5 foot length will make it a little easier to cast in tight situations. In the next post I will discuss the most appropriate rods on a river by river basis.

A Night of Friends and Flip-flops

I had a great time as the guest tyer at Sportsman’s Finest (SF) Tuesday night fly tying class. We tied up the infamous Flip-flop Popper designed by All Water Guides’ head guide Alvin Dedeaux. We had a packed house and plenty of nice poppers for everyone’s fly boxes at the end of the night—bass be aware! The Flip-flop Popper is a staple in my bass fly box and accounts for the majority of all bass caught on the fly.  If you want the “recipe” stop by SF and they will set you up with everything you need.

Watch All Water Guides’ Best of 2012 video to see the Flip-flop Popper in action: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10200769969428745

As always, the SF crew—Greg, Stacy, Chuck, Ted, and Lindy—was amazing. The Austin area is fortunate to have a great fly shop that always goes the extra mile for it’s customers and the greater fly fishing community. Thanks again to SF and Greg for the invitation!

Remember folks, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FLY SHOP!

Rigging the Perfect Jet Boat

As anglers, we all have much to learn from the squirrel who collects nuts all summer and fall in preparation for a long winter. Few guides I know have the luxury of taking time off when not guiding. There is always work to be done, but let’s face it, it's all pretty rewarding work. Task often include: patching waders, patching rafts, tying flies, replacing fly line, and working on outboards to name a few. However, there is one task above all that guides love more than any other and that is rigging out a boat.

Well, much like the squirel I spent the better part of two months in between work and family preparing for spring and summer bass fishing. Most of this time was dedicated rigging my 17ft Weldbilt aluminum boat — http://www.backwoodslanding.com — custom designed for a jet drive outboard. No matter what, every guide has his own special way of rigging boats and this was no different. First, it started with trying to make the boat more accommodating for my anglers, which meant adding comfortable seats, leaning bars, padded floor mats, and a new 45QT Yeti cooler to keep everything cool. Next, I added high quality fly rod holders to keep rods safe, a beefy Dierks anchor system, NRS oar locks, and custom Sawyer oars.

Finally, it was time to service my reliable Yamaha 40/30 hp jet drive outboard_she old but she is lightweight and reliable. With a tune-up, new water pump, thermostat, and impeller she is running like a scolded demon—whatever that means. Yep, a guide's boat is part office, part transportation, and part mistress, which means we spend a lot of time with them and we rely on them.

The boat could not have turned out any better—give All Water Guides a call and see the rig in person while catching and releasing trophy river bass on the fly!

FISHING CRAWFISH PATTERNS

As fly anglers we can learn a lot from our bait-castering brethren when it comes to catching bass in early Spring. Fly selection based on crawfish patterns is a must for enticing bass to eat in cold water conditions. Up to 50% of a bass Winter/Spring diet comes from crawfish.

Crawfish patterns fished deep and slow while casting into weeds, brush and heavy cover requires weighted patterns with weed guards. Additionally, the position of the weight (lead eyes, lead wire) is crucial to the "action" of the pattern selected. All of the All Water guides prefer crawfish patterns in red and orange as we seem to see a lot of fish that puke-up real crawfish with this same coloration.

Here is a good article by outdoor writer Gene Mueller on this subject. Remember what works for the pros is alway worth trying for any angler no matter what their skill level. Enjoy the read and happy Spring bassin'!

http://www.genemuellerfishing.com/2011/01/creature-baits-are-all-rage-for-bass.html

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