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.



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.





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.




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.




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.




I can definitely get used to wading the Hill Country rivers now as a resident of San Antonio.

Good stuff I hope you released that last one

Awesome shot of the Cichlid underwater! Thanks for sharing

Derp! Derp! Derp! I was trying to figure out why he would have to release a cichlid?

That is some gorgeous water. I'm gonna have to put that on my "check-it-out" list.
Thanks for taking us along.

Kirk