100° in the Shade — No Problem!

What do you do when it’s 100° in the shade and you’re on summer vacation? Simple, you go fishing! Let’s face it, it’s hot! However, the fish don’t seem to care about the heat. With good hydration and sun protection—including quality SPF 30+ clothing, and the occasional swim break anglers can enjoy themselves on our Hill Country Rivers all summer long. Over the last several weeks the fishing has remained good despite hot weather, rain, and “yo-yo” flows on area rivers. Summer patterns that are getting the job done include poppers, clouser minnows, weighted rubber-legged streamers and crawfish imitations.

Accomplished angler, Alex Butler (pictured) fished with us and put together a respectable mix of fish on both the Colorado and San Marcos rivers. Alex and his wife Lee Ann caught good quantities of quality bass—both Guadalupe and largemouth. An added bonus was a day of surprise catches, which included various sunfish and a monster Rio Grande Cichlid (Cichlasoma cyanoguttatum) that measured 10”.  Alex was able to check off this species (Cichlid) from the TPWD Freshwater Elite Angler Award “big fish” list. After fishing with Alex, it’s not surprising that he holds the Colorado River water body record for a Guadalupe bass on a fly rod.

On another note, with recent research coming from our friends at TPWD and Texas Sate University, everyone at All Water Guides (AWG) is quite confident that the new world record Guadalupe Bass will come out of the Colorado River east of Austin. This was echoed by Texas Parks and Wildlife Aquatic Scientist and avid fly fisherman, Dakus Geeslin who recently shared his expert opinion in response to the latest research on Guadalupe Bass, “This is pretty significant, in fact up until this latest round of genetic analysis, folks including myself believed the Guads east of Austin to be slightly hybridized. ...You guys [AWG] should really latch onto this as an opportunity to put somebody on a world record pure Guadalupe Bass.”

We appreciate the great work and collaboration between Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas State University researchers. Happy to see 100% strain Guadalupe Bass in the Colorado River! For years we have had our share of naysayers who have questioned our catches/photos of huge Guads as “hybrids” or “spotted bass”.  Our intuition has been validated at last! Collectively, the guides at AWG have spent over two decades fishing for Guads on the Colorado River. We love nothing more than sharing our unmatched experience and knowledge with others.

Here is the link to the research mentioned above:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2012.758170

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Alex Butler with a nice largemouth caught on the Colorado River.