The Dog Days Of Summer

Well now that the boss is back from Vail I think it’s a good time to update the fishing report.

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Mid day Gwad from the LCR

The dog days are upon us here in Central Texas and the fishing has been tough.  With the summer heat comes warmer water, lower Do2 (dissolved oxygen) and lots and lots of vegetation.  The fish get lazy.  As it goes when its this hot we tend to do a little more fishing and less guiding.  We’ve been sticking (or trying to at least) to half days having the best fishing right at sunrise.  That said, it’s been really inconsistent as to when the fishing is good.  I recently spent the afternoon with a friend for what was going to be more of a boat ride than a fishing trip as we both were locked in to other stuff till about 11 o’clock.  What we thought was the absolute worst time to be fishing turned out to be a pretty productive mid day fishing trip instead of just a boat ride.

We’ve been spending our time on the San Marcos River and the Lower Colorado River as well as some of the local lakes.  The Lakes have been productive for us and are a great “plan b”, when the LCR doesn’t look all that great because of the wonky flows and water clarity that is seen this time of year.  

Family fun on the San Marcos

 Family Fun on the beautiful beautiful San Marcos River

Bull Creek, Lake Austin

Fly fishing Bull Creek, Lake Austin.  Austin, Texas.

Bull Creek, Lake Austin.

Fly fishing Bull Creek, Lake Austin.  Austin, texas

Perch Jerk'n the San Marcos

State Record Rio

Mid Day LCR G'wad

Fly fishing for Guadalupe Bass on the Lower Colorado River.  Austin, Texas.

Lower Colorado River Large Mouth

Fly fishing for Large mouth bass on the Lower Colorado river in Austin, Texas

A "didn't expect that" White bass

Fly fishing for White Bass from the Lower Colorado River. 

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Matching the hatch LCR style

We’ve also been all over the map on what’s been working.  Surface and subsurface have both paid off without rhyme or reason.  Needless to say we’re all looking forward to what’s just around the corner.  We had an unbelievable fall last year and we don’t see any reason why this fall should be any different so book a trip now as were already filling up November.  

So, in a nut shell, It’s tough out there but we’re still catching fish.  

See ya on the water!

AWG

New boat...New water...No problem.

Alvin returned from Colorado with a new boat and with his arrival All Water Guides has been exploring some new water.   With our relationship with Orvis slowly taking shape we are stepping out of our comfort zone a little to offer up...well, more fish to our clients.  This is a fishing report though.

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Head Shot!

AWG have been on Lake Bastrop and Lake Austin over the past month.  We are catching fish on the fly and we are doing so on some notoriously tough but very rewarding lakes.  As we wrote for another publication it is, after all, only water and fish gotta eat.

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It's nice when the fish is exactly where you think it should be.  its a problem though when its your "ok...last cast"

Lake Austin fished very well recently for Shea and Winston who boated about 10 Bass (10 bass is a good day on Lake Austin).  They were on the water and fishing at daybreak and home well before noon and before they were in trouble.  Most fish were caught near the surface with baitfish like stuff and at times they were sight casting to some big fish chasing small fish which they said was extremely exciting.  Texas dry flies haven’t been productive yet (that's a big yet).  8wts are the way to go on the lake with an aggressively tapered floating line so you can throw the big flies. However, as things cool off, Winston will start ranting about the “other lines”.  Lake Austin holds some very large bass and participates in Sharelunker.  Lake Austin is arguably a top 5 bass lake in Texas and has been mentioned as a top 100 bass lake in America.  We’re looking forward to fishing this one more and with its close proximity makes for easy half day trip.

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Shea and the BBQ bass

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JD and Bastrop Bass

Lake Bastrop has been consistent for Alvin, Jeff and Winston.  Overall probably better.  We’ve all had good days pounding the banks with big surface flies.   Alvin and Winston managed a couple nice bass one morning in close proximity to some “bass fisherman” in “bass boats” which was kind of fun as we were getting tight and they were not.  We say this in a playfully competitive manner; we know we can learn a lot from these guys.  Like Lake Austin we have been on the water early and heading home before the heat of the day sets in.  Bastrop is said to have “more smaller fish” but we have not experienced this.  JD and Alvin have pulled out some larger fish.  6-8wts are the way to go, again with floating line. Poppers and baitfish type stuff.

Since the lakes are pretty new to us, we’re not saying that the fishing has been good or bad as only more time on the water will tell.  We are excited to be catching Bass on the fly though.  These lakes hold some big fish and targeting them with a fly rod is different.  I’m sure we’ve gotten some strange looks with our "row boats" at the ramps.  Fall is going to be good!

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Alvin with a Bastrop "deer hair crushing" bass

Tight lines and see you on the water, 

AWG