Peace Like A River

"When peace like a river, atendeth my way."  -Horatio Spafford, It Is Well With My Soul.

Vintage Day on the South Llano River

Sunday afternoon found me lazily kayak fly fishing the South Llano River.  I have not fished as much recently as I would like, so it was good to get on the water.  

Fly Fishing the South Llano River

With Octoberfisch here in less than a week, I felt it necessary to post about fly fishing the South Llano River.  I reside here in Junction, TX, and spend most of my free time kayak fishing the river here in town.  I also guide clients on kayak fishing trips down the river as time permits.

Life In The Way

I had plans.  Big plans.  All sorts of tournaments, contest, and posts that were going to occur on Fish Tattoo, but what happened this summer changed all of that.

Here is an evening view of the hills behind my back yard:

Taking a new job as a High School Football coach, and junior high history teacher, takes up more time than you could even imagine!  Please remind everyone that you know that teachers/coaches are underpaid.  Haha.

Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE what I do!  I don't think I would change it for anything.

But it has pulled time away from the blog.  However, things in my life have settled down quite a bit, and I should have the ability to get it ranking again!

I am sorry for not having much original content up lately, but...it is coming.  Be ready, and check back soon!

Summer of the Sunfish

The Fiberglass Manifesto has the year of the bluegill, I had had my own personal version that I am calling "The Summer of the Sunfish."

These hard fighting little swimmers are a blast on the fly rod, and there might not be a more gorgeous group of fish swimming anywhere.  So here you go, enjoy some of my favorite pictures from this Summer of the Sunfish.

Hill Country Rain

As I mentioned earlier, in the post Hank's Fish, I have been extremely busy lately and life has gotten in the way of fishing.  We are moving up to Junction in a month so that my wife and I can both teach and coach at the school there.  I am excited because Junction puts us right on one of my favorite all time rivers, the South Llano.  But...the moving has kept me busy.  I am also in the processes of obtaining my CDL and living/working down south on a ranch near the border, planting a 17,000 tree olive orchard.  So, I haven't had much time to fish.

But, everyone once in awhile, you need to make a little time.  And I made a little time yesterday afternoon.  Here is the quick story:

It has been a surprisingly wet summer here in the Western Hill Country.  This has been a huge blessing, helping to fill up the rivers and the aquifers.  Don't get me wrong, we still need SO much more just to get back to normal levels and to hopefully fill up the lakes.  But, the rain we have had has been nice.

It has been raining all week in Junction, and the South Llano is running pretty good.  When the sun peaked it's head out yesterday morning I decided to take advantage of that time and hit the river to chase some Guadalupe Bass.

I launched at around 12:30, and could already see the black clouds beginning to build again, but I didn't care.  I was going to fish.

I made a few casts with a white streamer, but had no luck.  Knowing that the water was much more colored than normal from the recent rains, I kicked myself for not starting with a chartreuse streamer.  When I finally convinced myself to put the rod down long enough to tie on a new fly, my day changed.

I tied on a chartreuse streamer with a black back and began to cast upstream, slowly pulling it back to me.  Within three casts, I caught my first Guadalupe Bass that went about 9 inches.  Nothing worthy of a picture.  Two casts later I hooked into a real nice Guad, that went almost 14 inches long.  Unfortunately, as I was pulling out my camera, the fish flopped away.

About 15 minutes later, as I was stripping my fly through some grass, it got smashed.  I had a nice bass on, and it was putting up a fight.  I was able to land it and snap a quick picture before I released it to swim some more.

Then the rains came.  And it rained hard.  I caught two more small largemouth and one more Guad in the rain, but I didn't want to ruin my phone (camera) so I didn't get any pictures.  When the rain stopped I was almost at my take out point. I did however, land one more sunfish to cap the day.

Hank's Fish

I have had an unbelievably busy summer.  Unfortunately, most of that busy-ness has not related to fishing.  Sometimes there are things in life more important than fishing.

But, I was able to go out on a boat to fish a little bit with my son, Hank.  Sometimes there are times in life that you just need to slow down and fish.

Although it was only a small white bass, Hank really had fun with the fish.

Fly Fishing Lake Amistad

I went out to Lake Amistad this morning for a little bass fishing. Due to my re-location to Junction, TX, in the near future, all my bass tackle was packed away. I did however have a 5 weight fly rod and some recently tied bass flies. 

I got some strange looks from the other boats on the lake, but I am used to it by now.  My fishing partner for the day didn't think I would catch anything on Lake Amistad with the fly rod either. I was still confident though.

The lake was choppy and the sky high. My partner had conventional bass tackle and was throwing senkos, just like everyone else right now. I tied on a white/chart/brown streamer that I tied about a month ago. 

I didn't catch anything for the first 30 min or so, but neither did my partner. We soon moved to fish a steep bluff with scattered trees.  I tied on an olive crawfish that I thought would sink faster...to get to the deeper fish.

Within a few minutes I had a bite that I missed.  Then shortly after I hooked into my first bass of the day.

It wasn't big, but it went 14.5 inches.  The first "keeper" of the day. And it came on the fly, beating my partner with conventional tackle to the punch.  

He caught one that went 14 inches shortly after, and throughout the day caught three more short fish.  I ended up with two "keeper" bass and one 16 in channel catfish.  Too bad I forgot to get a picture of it.

The First Annual June Four-Fish Fiesta is in the Books!

It took me much longer to calculate the totals than I had expected.  A mere inch and a half separated first place from third!  Exciting...definitely.  Unfortunately, that made the judging very, very difficult.  I had tough decisions to make in determining the length of each and every fish.  But, I did this best I could and even brought in impartial outside judges to help me determine lengths.

Results are In

All the fish have been submitted for the June Four-Fish Fiesta!

The results are in, but are not final yet.  I am going to analyze each picture as close as possible.  If you have concerns or questions...feel free to email 4fish@fishtattoo.net.

The official results will be posted tonight!

Here are some links to see them:
Standings
Competitor List