Summer Time on the Fly in Central Texas

Shea, JTVZ and Winston have been holding down the fort here in Central Texas while Alvin and Chris are guiding in Colorado again for the summer. JD, who I loving/not so loving only refer to as a bum now, is driving south from bum­ville where he’s been bumming it up for the last 6 or 7 weeks being, well…a bum!

JTVZ recently finished another Texas Water Safari placing 4 th in his ultimate 2­man group and as the 100­-degree weather sets in both Shea and Winston will be heading to Colorado with their families.

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A post Texas Water Safari Poon

Summer time on the fly in Central Texas has been weird. As you all know we had some major flooding in Central Texas and the fishing on the Lower Colorado River has been totally bi­polar. I've joked about this a lot with clients saying I'd love to buy rail car quantities of Prozac and dump it in the river to stabilize the mood of these fish. We’ve experienced days where we couldn't buy a fish and the extreme opposite where we couldn't not catch fish. Frustrating to say the least because there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it.

For really good reasons or none at all, the clarity on the river seems to have been poor all summer. For those who fish with us regularly during this time of year you know the boat rides up river are… run…clear the jet intake…run…clear…run and clear. In years past by this time fly selection was a no brainier, you tie on a big popper and you fish the poor thing till it literally falls apart. This summer it's been different. I've had all my success on big ugly, no fun to cast, bottom dredging, school bus size flies. With the Memorial Day floods, the river was scoured and the banks have all been changed. Although the boat rides up river are a breeze now all that vegetation that is gone (and I'm just speculating here) have put the fish deep without out any cover to sneak up into. We’ve really had to focus on re­learning the river as it’s changed so much which is fun but, here is that word again, frustrating. I've only fished the surface with poppers when we are in the “Throw The Kitchen Sink” at them mode. The silver lining to the frustrating fishing this summer is this: while were we're not catching lots of fish we are catching big fish. It seems on the days that for no good reasons the fish cooperate it’s the big ones that come out to play. Shea and Winston recently did a half­day trip where two 7lb Largemouth were landed along with a handful of 3 and 4 pounders. Also, while fishing with a buddy, Winston put a fish in the boat that probably went 10 pounds and rekindled the “I wonder when someone is going to land the big one” conversation.

The summer thus far has been pretty mild (relatively, it is Central Texas after all) but the 100-degree days are upon us it seems. One thing I've noticed that has made a difference in the "successfulness" of a day (half days to be honest) is the clients that arrive well dressed for the heat seem to do have better days as they don't get fatigued by the heat as quickly. The next silver lining to this "it ain't been great" fishing report is that winter is coming. This fall should be really special on the Lower Colorado River. We've got a lot of lakes up river that are fuller than they have been in years and with that we hope will come lots of cool clear water. We've been waiting years for this and we all feel the fish are as optimistic as we are. So book a trip, dress for success and get comfortable with fishing low and slow, and know that the next strip could be a 10­pound river bass.

See you on the water and as always THANK YOU! All Water Guides has become something that we are all proud as hell to be a part of and we couldn’t do it without you all.

Enjoy,

All water guides.

P.S. JD, you're a bum.