Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

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Neumie
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Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

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Just outside of Medina, Texas lies, shockingly, the Medina River. Access on the river above the lake is excellent compared to below the dam. This trip to the Medina River I utilized a small park just west of Medina that afforded great wade fishing both up and down stream. I chose the wade down stream.

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Like most of my Hill Country forays I figured I would spend most my time landing the variety of sunfish and one of the two bass species typical of said rivers.

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Several sunfish, some larger than my hand, and a couple of bass were landed on various flies. Unfortunately, none of the bass had much size to them. There were larger bass I could see, but I couldn't get them to bite anything. Saw a couple of catfish as well as a single carp. About 1/4 mile down river were a couple decent waterfalls.

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After the second waterfall I waded up to a small pool and while I was tending to a small wind knot I glanced over and spotted a Rio Grande Cichlid. It's been a couple years since I got a decent shot at cichlids. Today ended up being a great day on the fly for cichlids as I landed 8 or 9 with easy. Man I forgot how great they fight on a 4wt.

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The fishing was pretty good today and after about 3.5 hours of fishing I had only waded down river 1/2 a mile. The last pool I came up to provided a few more cichlids and sunfish and water too deep to wade with unprotected camera equipment so I decided that would be it for the day. Don't let the following picture of water deceive you, it was quickly over my head feet from the river bank. So I took a 10-15 minute swim in the cool, clear waters before heading back up river to head back to SA.

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I can definitely get used to wading the Hill Country rivers now as a resident of San Antonio.
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Cuervo Jones
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Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Mighty fine reporting on what looks to be a beautiful river. Purty pichers too until that last one of the fearsome merman or Aqua-squatch. How did you escape its watery wrath?
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by wetnhungry »

Nice pics and report. I've driven alongside the river a couple of times and thought it would make for a great kayak trip. Have you ever been down it in a yak?
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

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wetnhungry wrote:Nice pics and report. I've driven alongside the river a couple of times and thought it would make for a great kayak trip. Have you ever been down it in a yak?
I have not done the Medina from a kayak. Saw a group of kayakers along the road between Medina and Bandera, so it's doable.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by Chief Brody »

nice report and terrific pictures - thanks.

We used to camp at Medina Lake when I was a kid, and I've taken some pleasure in watching the water level come back up to something approaching a real lake again. In February it was at 3% of capacity - some 90 feet below normal - and now it's back to around 75% and around 12 feet below normal - an amazing recovery.

glad you enjoyed the river - it looks like a great place to fish and swim.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by F.O.C. »

Those were some really AWSOME pictures!!
might have to make a trip that way.
Thanks for sharing.



Aquasquatch... lol :lol:
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by JMS »

Was the section of river you waded part of the park? Wondering if the bank was private property. I have a trip to the coast coming up but then I'm hitting that spot, looks awesome thanks for sharing.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

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JMS wrote:Was the section of river you waded part of the park? Wondering if the bank was private property. I have a trip to the coast coming up but then I'm hitting that spot, looks awesome thanks for sharing.
The park has about 40-50 yards of river frontage with everything else being private. I never saw a landowner, so as long as you remain in the river bed you'll be OK.

I did go back on Tuesday and fished up river this time and had another good day. There were a couple deep pools that way with the deepest I encountered being about armpit deep. Between the two trips I saw a couple of decent sized bass and catfish but couldn't get them to bite. My 4wt fly rod was a bit much, so a lighter weight rod or ultralight setup is the way to go.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by JMS »

Thanks for sharing
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by Manuel9622 »

I paddled there the past 3 weekends. My bro in law lives there so being dropped is not a problem for me. I have used the shuttle from the Longhorn Saloon for $5 they will drop you off on 1.5, 3, or 6 hour trip of your choice. I prefer putting in at the Peaceful Valley crossing. The river is still running nicely and plenty of fish to be caught. I've been throwing a small 1/4 oz jig head with a pumpkinseed/chartreuse jig and catching both perch and bass. Going to the Gaudalupe near Bergheim this Saturday. Buddy of mine has been catching the heck out of bass.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by quiet time »

Great report and thanks for sharing! I love wading clear water rivers in the hill country - used to do it up near Mo Ranch when we would go camping with the family. It's a long way from east Texas unfortunately.

My wife and I tried our first fly-fishing last year with a guide in Arkansas - she loved it! If you had to buy a rod/reel setup for this type of fishing what would you get - if you were a noob like me?

These type of reports are why I love TKF!!
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by redneckyakclub01 »

Nice report. Before I ever had a yak or canoe that was my favorite way to fish. My buddies and I would find a bridge on a map drive there and get in, wading til it got too deep or til it was time to turn back. I've fished quite a bit of the medina that way and it was always fun. It's been a while now since I did that and I think I need to try it again.
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by Neumie »

Thanks for the feed back guys. I'm stuck right now with my kayaks being at the family ranch and no way to store them currently. So wadefishing Hill Country Rivers is my only option (not a bad consolation prize), but I can't wait to do longer floats with my kayak.
quiet time wrote:My wife and I tried our first fly-fishing last year with a guide in Arkansas - she loved it! If you had to buy a rod/reel setup for this type of fishing what would you get - if you were a noob like me?

These type of reports are why I love TKF!!
I have two 4wt rods. The one I used on this trip was my TFO BVK, but I also own a St. Croix Imperial. Although the St. Croix Imperial is listed as a fast action rod, it's not nearly as fast as the BVK. I snapped the tip on the Imperial a year ago and have been too lazy to get it fixed, or I'd probably prefer to use it since it loads with less line and is a shorter rod, both of which I find to be good attributes for rivers heavily lined with cypress trees. A lot depends on your budget, but it really is hard to beat TFO for a quality rod at a great price (not to mention their outstanding warranty). The Professional and Signature series rods are nice options in the $150 range. Since this will be your first rod I'd go with a 4wt maybe a 3wt if you're wanting more of a challenge. The 4wt offers just enough power to cast flies with some weight, such as a bead-head wooly bigger that I'm not sure a 3wt would be able to properly handle. Definitely cast the rods before purchasing.

As far as reels go, I'd probably wouldn't spend over $50 as this type of fishing the reel is really there to hold line and not needed for fighting a fish (unless you hook into a carp). My 4wt's and 6wt (a TFO TiCrX , for redfish) I use Cabelas reels. My reel for my 6wt is now over 10 years old and has held up well in the salt, so I have zero to complain about with their reels (they're mostly rebranded name brand reels that were fazed out from said label). Cabelas does put together package deals with rods, reels, backing, and line so that saves some money over buying things individually.

Since I like going as light as possible with tackle (conventional and fly) my next purchase will more than likely be the 2wt TFO Finesse rod paired with the Orvis Battenkill reel (pricey at $100, but I'm splurging for its light weight to balance the rod better).
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Re: Exploring New Water - Medina River at Moffett Park

Post by quiet time »

Great info! Thanks - I may just need to spend some money :shock:
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