April competition

[Zackthefisherman]

For this months competition I would like to do one bass and one perch. The reason I said perch and not sunfish is because I would also like to include cichlids. This month the bass fishing will probably start off slow like it has been the past few weeks due to the spawn and post spawn behavior. So the perch will gives us something to target when the bass aren't cooperating.

So the competition will be the biggest bass of any species(no whites, striped bass, or hybrids) + the biggest "perch" sunfish and cichlids(bass don't count as sunfish even though they technically are).
Code: B+P
Good Luck!

[Texjbq85]

I like it, I'll be hit'en the river this afternoon.

[skypilot]

Sounds good

[jhb]

Good one Zack, that limits where I'm going to fish later this month...

I like that RGCs and Guads tend to frequent similar areas. Those are my two favorite fish and I'd love to see someone win with that combo...

[Texjbq85]

Skypilot,

Can you give some tips targeting Rio's on the fly? I haven't caught any lately, but would like to.

[skypilot]

Skypilot,

Can you give some tips targeting Rio's on the fly? I haven't caught any lately, but would like to.

Thanks for asking.

Rio's are more likely to eat insects, near the bottom. They will hang out in 2-4 feet of water, in the eddy behind a bend in the river, or the backside of a tree.

Basically the same as for redear sunfish.

I love to use nymphs with a little weight and watch the line on the drop. A dark colored, Prince Nymph, in size ten will work great. Of course, I am partial to the San Marcos River Nymph.

Always start a series of casts close to the kayak, and then work your way out.

Cichlids usually cluster up, so keep casting to the same area if you catch one.

I wish you well.

[skypilot]

The sunfish are busting the bugs.

Top, bottom, and in between.

Let's go fishing.

[jhb]

Great advice skypilot. For a quick explanation of the SMR Nymph from skypilot himself, see this post from last August.

[jhb]

Damn that's a beautiful (and chunky) Redear. Cameras just don't do the RGCs justice. The turquoise tracks and spots around the mouth, fading into the cream colored spots on the torso are just not captured well usually. Nothing beats holding a 10" male RGC in your hand.

[skypilot]

Damn that's a beautiful (and chunky) Redear. Cameras just don't do the RGCs justice. The turquoise tracks and spots around the mouth, fading into the cream colored spots on the torso are just not captured well usually. Nothing beats holding a 10" male RGC in your hand.

They are beautiful.

[Zackthefisherman]

Awesome fish skypilot that's exactly what I was expecting out of this competition.
I fished twice since the start of the competition but I haven't updated my code so I have nothing yet.

Today my brother caught a big bass and I need help identifying it. It's either a Guadalupe, Smallmouth or hybrid. My guess is hybrid but what do y'all think?

[jhb]

Looks like a dark Smallmouth to me. I've caught one above the Common St bridge by the big rocks, and that looks like y'all are close to that area.

A Guad will always have the whiter belly with the horizontal striping. Hybrids usually also have this but the vertical diamonds along the midsection usually extend into the horizontal striping (I believe it's 7 horizontal stripes for a true Guad) and look like a more tiger striped appearance along with the lines. True Smallies are usually a more brown color (than LMBs and typically Guads), have no white belly and the vertical striping. This is a dark SMB, but the thin vertical lines are barely visible in the hog trough shot.

That's a nice SMB by the way, 18" is considered a BFA.

[jhb]

Hey Zack he's using your old kayak huh?

[Zackthefisherman]

Thanks for the clarification Jhb. It was actually caught in the pool below the rapids at cypress bend. We just pulled over to the calm water on the side to take the pictures. My brother is using the same model kayak(pelican castaway 116) but we bought three at the time because Academy had a really good deal on them.

[skypilot]

All or mostly SMB.

Nice catch!

The fish is really stressed out. Line marks and foamy skin.

Some advice . . . Keep the fish in your net, in the water, while you get out your camera and set it up for the photo. Lip the fish while it is still under water, move the net and lift your trophy for a quick pic or two.

Lower back in the water and gently release.

Go back next year and catch him again . . . This time 20 inches.

[Zackthefisherman]

Thanks for the advice skypilot, but what do you mean by line marks? My brother was the one who caught this fish and I agree that he could of handled it better. I handed him my net so that he could keep it in the water until we were ready for the pictures but he didn't do a good job of keeping it in the water. After joining GRTU and fishing for trout all winter I now have a greater respect for proper CPR and I've been trying to apply it on all the fish I catch unless I'm keeping them.

[skypilot]

Thanks for the advice skypilot, but what do you mean by line marks? My brother was the one who caught this fish and I agree that he could of handled it better. I handed him my net so that he could keep it in the water until we were ready for the pictures but he didn't do a good job of keeping it in the water. After joining GRTU and fishing for trout all winter I now have a greater respect for proper CPR and I've been trying to apply it on all the fish I catch unless I'm keeping them.

You are doing a great job, please don't be offended.

Line marks are where the line rubs the fish.

Believe me, I have been fishing for a long time and am just now getting the (CPR) catch, photo, and release figured out.

[Zackthefisherman]

Thanks again for the advice skypilot I wasn't offend I just wanted to learn more about proper cpr.

Did some fly fishing yesterday and got my first entries for the month.


I tired to get some skypilot style pictures to show off the colors of this redbreast but he slipped out of my hand before I could snap the picture.

[skypilot]

Very nice fish Zach . . . . looking good!

We need to fish together some time.

Taking our veterans out tomorrow, hoping for a dry afternoon.

[skypilot]

The past four months have been hot for monster sunfish. There have been five "pounders" since Christmas, and I lost a couple of huge ones today.

Did manage to catch a bass to get started for the month, along with my sunfish.

Let's go fishing

[skypilot]

Had a couple of hours with a break in the weather, and managed to get some fish to bite.

It was a beautiful day on the water, after the morning's rain.

Temps in the 70's, and not much of a breeze.

A nice bass and some more really big sunfish out of the lily pads.

Let's go fishing

[skypilot]

For three minutes . . . . I had the biggest bass of my life on the line today.

She sipped in the crawfish colored Matt's Bug so silently that there was no movement on the line. The pressure of resistance gradually bowed my rod, as if my fly was snagged on the lily pad next to it. Then, suddenly aware that something was wrong, the giant largemouth bass put her head down and surged toward the fallen tree about ten feet away.

I paddled away from the structure and had her in the middle of the river. She surfaced and showed me the most colorful lateral line and big green head you have ever seen. She was on the reel and the drag was set perfectly. Then the behemoth sounded deep and vaulted to the top. Her massive body breached and reached completely out of the river . . . mouth open . . . . gills flared . . . . head shaking like a mad man . . . . wild eyes looked directly at me. Then, somehow . . . . almost in slow motion . . . . my fly released and floated gently through the air, right at my kayak.

As if in a dream, I watched her slip away into the depths.

Grateful for the opportunity to see her and battle for a brief moment in time, I paddled down river to my awaiting truck. I was done fishing the river for today. Nothing else could top that.

Fortunately, I had already been fishing for most of the afternoon, and many other . . . . smaller but beautiful . . . . fish had bit the bug.

Let's go fishing

[Warthog]

Skypilot, I am glad you got the opportunity to tangle with such a beast. You never know what the river holds sometimes. My friend Dave had a similar experience on one of our river runs a couple weeks ago. I was a witness to it's majestic launch in the air and flinging the lure out of its mouth. He still hasn't gotten over it. I'm still reeling (no pun intended) from an experience last fall, where a monster bass launched onto the bow of my kayak with my lure in its mouth, looked me in the eye, flipped off the yak, and broke my Falcon Bucoo med-hvy rod with the force of his re-entry.

But, at least I have been able to hit the local rivers a couple times this month! Last Wednesday, honkey1 and I did a particular San Marcos run that I haven't done in a year or so. The sunfish were cooperating, but the bass were being pretty stubborn. Honkey landed a nice 18"+ bass, and I landed a few smaller ones. Most of my fish were some decent size sunfish on the fly. We passed by a couple guys that caught a nice ~18" smallmouth on a piece of hotdog of all things. Hope it survived; those guys really did not know how to handle a fish for release...held it up by the line for a few minutes, then tossed it into a 1" deep puddle to "revive" it while it flopped around trying to get to deeper water.

Today, I hit the Blanco River for a couple hours. The fish were very interested in the bumblebee topwater fly on my 5 wt. So interested, that they wouldn't touch anything else. I had as many sunfish as I could ever want. Every cast, then a few pops, and 4 or 5 sunfish were fighting over it. I was lucky enough to get a 17.25" bass to inhale the bumblebee as well (and some other smaller bass). There was some great structure, but this place just gets too much pressure to pull up consistently good fish. I witnessed an "upstanding individual" teach his kids how to harvest an undersized 8" largemouth bass .

Here are some pics of this month's catch below. Been hitting the flyfishing hard. Oh, and I got a camo Diablo Amigo with some extras...This kayak is the perfect flyfishing platform! I am sure I made the right choice. It also holds all of the gear for those multi-day trips. Now I know what I've been missing skypilot. Next weekend, it's either btb or monster gar hunting. Weekend after that, if everything works out, I'm headed to some private waters in Oklahoma. After that, I'm probably headed to Germany for a few months (new job training). Will post pics if I can find some fish there! I'll miss our local rivers. They are pretty hard to beat. Tight lines.

[Warthog]

And the weapons of choice on the fly.

[Hennesey]

And the weapons of choice on the fly.

Great report warthog. Good lookin fish. You should have called me game warden on the guy taking a 8" bass. Or at least kicked him in the balls. in my own opinion anyway.

I will post my pics in a bit if I can figure it out