Fly Fishing Near San Antonio

[JMS]

I know there is a lot of rivers near buy and have fished the Guadalupe below the dam for Trout...However I would like to try another river where I can park legally wade into the river to fly fish.....Would like to be able to walk upstream couple hundred yards and try different holes or pools.

Any suggestion?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JW FunGuy]

There is the upper Guadalupe above Canyon Lake. The flows are finally up, I think around 300cfs. You could try Guadalupe State Park. There is also the Blanco.
Ya never know until ya go!

[BowBuddy]

The Upper Guadalupe and The Medina is good, but prefer to hit the Medina with a kayak


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ron Mc]

Center Point crossings are the best, the forks at Hunt, and the Pedernales headwaters from Boos Ln up.


Both banks of Cibolo Creek from the tractor museum down to the bottom of the Nature Center are public.

The good middle Guadalupe crossings are Rebecca's Creek and old Spring Branch road. FM 311 crossing can fish ok, as well.

Kendall county has closed all the county road crossings to parking, but there's a county park James Kiehl River Bend park.

If you feel like driving 100 mi and eating at Hermann Son's steakhouse in Hondo on your way home (Alvin's pepper steak is good beyond words or imagination), the confluence of the Sabinal and Frio has 5-lb bass to sight-fish, and cichlids the size of footballs.

[Frreed]

The Nueces, near Uvalde, is another great river. It has, or at least had, pure strain Guadalupe Bass. The water is crystal clear to the point that you can watch fish take a fly 25-30 feet away.

[Ron Mc]

The Nueces, near Uvalde, is another great river. It has, or at least had, pure strain Guadalupe Bass. The water is crystal clear to the point that you can watch fish take a fly 25-30 feet away.

this is the bottom of Chalk Bluff park - private but worth the fee - the dark line you see in that pool is a blue hole connecting to the aquifer
Be careful stepping in the Nueces - there's a lot of white quicksand that looks like flagstone, and real easy to step in over your head.
(the Guadalupe bass there and in the upper Sabinal were stocked by the state)

the Nueces between Vance and Barksdale, trees making shade on the water are so scarce, you can work up a feeding frenzy of bass. Starts with the 12"ers work up to 20+" and dies back down to the 12"ers - we've caught 50 at one tree before.

[JMS]

Center Point crossings are the best, the forks at Hunt, and the Pedernales headwaters from Boos Ln up.


Both banks of Cibolo Creek from the tractor museum down to the bottom of the Nature Center are public.

The good middle Guadalupe crossings are Rebecca's Creek and old Spring Branch road. FM 311 crossing can fish ok, as well.

Kendall county has closed all the county road crossings to parking, but there's a county park James Kiehl River Bend park.

If you feel like driving 100 mi and eating at Hermann Son's steakhouse in Hondo on your way home, the confluence of the Sabinal and Frio has 5-lb bass to sight-fish, and cichlids the size of footballs.

Where do you park at? The Tractor Musuem


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ron Mc]

I usually park at the Nature Center, explore the bank up to the Tractor Museum and fish back down.
Make sure you don't go below the fence at the bottom of the Nature Center - that belongs to the guy who donated all the park land.

A wading staff is a great idea - really helps traveling distance, keeping yourself up on rutted dolomite, exploring what's in front of you - I always use a 4-pc trekking pole, and clip it to a biner on my fishing bag. Also in the tight overhang of Cibolo, a short glass rod is an advantage (below I'm fishing a Phillipson MF60C).
This is between the tractor museum and nature center

Cibolo is one of only two remaining A-strains of endemic Guadalupe bass, isolated from feral smallmouth genetics because the creek disappears into the aquifer a few miles down from Boerne. There are also Big largemouth in Cibolo that have seen it all.



this is Center Point down from Turtle Creek crossing at about 300 cfs.
One day like this fishing (really trolling seams) with a Teeny line I caught 200 bass just in chutes.
Our endemic bass live in faster water than trout would occupy.


My best endemic bass came from Mueller falls (above Rebecca's Creek crossing).
The river sources the Trinity aquifer here, and there's a bat cave vent.
She got this big eating the baby bats that fell in. Would have been the record, but 2005, and there were no catch-and-release records then - I wasn't going to kill her for a liver biopsy.
Endemic Guadalupe bass are also the only fish that retreat into the aquifer during drought.


My best red-ear came from the confluence of the Guadalupe forks


My best yellow-belly from an oxbow in the Pedernales headwaters (Many big fish up there).


My best river bass came from the upper Sabinal - 28 inches and about 10 lbs.
Broke off much bigger bass than this in timber on the Frio sendero - buddy has a family ranch there, otherise, no public access.


Seco and Hondo creeks have bigger bass than these, but no public access.
A really educational wade is Williams creek in Tarpley. You can stand over blue holes and look into the aquifer.
This is some of that private water on Seco creek, but where Jimbo is fishing used to be the aquifer before the roof collapsed.

All the deep pools you see on the Guadalupe were formed by floods getting under the flagstone, lifting layers to build natural dams. Subsequent floods gradually fill them with gravel bars. We witnessed a new one down from Center Point FM350 crossing, right where a cold creek comes in from the side - the seams from the cold current entering the hole were a hot spot for big bass. Also on the flagstone above the big hole, bass would come out of the hole and hunt. I caught several big bass by sitting on the bank and watching for minnows jumping out of the water, then stalking the pod bass.
Also going down from FM350, the left-bank landowners are good about you hiking the bank. I always carry a liter bag and use it - makes great graces with the landowners, and can get you a long way from the crossing.

There were bass over 10 lbs in this pool on Seco creek - one cut me off on the rocks, diving into the overhang.

Way down from Center Point Turtle Creek crossing - caught 7 bass in the frame of this photo.

[JMS]

Thanks Ron MC great post thanks for all the great information


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Finn Maccumhail]

I wanna fish with @Ron Mc