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Dinosaur Valley Bassing #11835373 09/18/16 05:05 PM
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Glitchmo Offline OP
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I wrote this for another forum, so many of you guys probably know all this, but...

If you guys can check my species IDs, I would appreciate it.

Also I just discovered that there's a max number of img links/post here. Good to know.



My girlfriend Christina and I headed over to Dinosaur Valley State Park, which sits astride the Paluxy River.







DVSP's major claim to fame is the plethora of preserved dinosaur prints found throughout the limestone riverbed. There are two kinds of tracks, some from Acrocanthosaurs (like a small T-rex) which are shown below. There are also some from Sauroposeidon (a small apatosaur) but these prints look mostly like round depressions in the mud, so they didn't photo well.







The Paluxy river's other claim to fame (or at least my source of interest) was as an excellent bass fishing river, especially for wading and fly fishing. I still can't get bass to go on topwater, but the chartreuse bugger was slaying them this morning. I actually didn't catch the target species -- largemouth bass. I'm trying to improve on my PB 14", and didn't manage that this trip. But, I did catch three new species, so I'm pretty thrilled with how the day went.

First up was this handsome fellow, which looks like a LMB, but I think is actually a kentucky spotted bass (mouth does not reach past eye). Unexpected, but not at all unwelcome.



Next up were a few sunfish -- these I think are longear sunfish, but they're much lighter in color than any other I've seen. The limestone river bottom may contribute to that.





Next up was the highlight of the day for me -- the biggest fish I caught and my first guadalupe bass (or smallmouth, not sure, but both would be new)!



I hooked and lost a few more smallish bass as I worked back down the river. Interestingly, most of my fish were hooked on a second cast -- the fish would follow my prospecting casts back in, and once I saw them they would hit a second cast of the same fly in their vicinity -- that's the opposite of how it's supposed to work, but I'll take it.

As we headed out to lunch, I stopped by a bush and landed another longear, though this one had a much darker color scheme.



For lunch we hit a local barbecue joint, which was delightful.



Afterwards, we headed back to the river. Unfortunately, the water temp, which was 75F in the morning had risen to near 90F by 2:00, and I think that really suppressed the bite. I was still seeing fish, but they weren't hitting the fly anymore, and I didn't catch any more bass.

Last edited by Glitchmo; 09/18/16 07:27 PM.
Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835533 09/18/16 06:50 PM
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Linecaster Offline
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Enjoyed your pictures and report. That water looks great, need to plan a trip there soon.


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Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835617 09/18/16 07:33 PM
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Froghunter Offline
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Nice!!! I got my first small mouth in the devils river this spring. That is a fighting little fish for sure.

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835708 09/18/16 08:05 PM
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Robert Hunter Offline
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Great place to fish yes the clear water and light bottom contributed The lighter color in the fish. I believe though you're bigger bass is also a spot. When they are lightly colored the best way to identify them as look for the tooth patch like sandbass. Smallmouth could have gotten in there from going through the spillway tube at wheeler branch but the strains they have their very greatly and pattern from that one. Really need more of a full body shot of the belly to identify better. Either way looks like a great day on the water. There are small little pockets of Guadalupe bass in Texas though


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Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835747 09/18/16 08:23 PM
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MassAction Offline
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Thanks for the post! I've added this to my list of places to fish, looked like a great day!

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835806 09/18/16 09:01 PM
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pearow Offline
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nice post. I built a fellow a little light flyrod and he named it the Paluxy Princess, because of his love for that little river-p-

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835819 09/18/16 09:09 PM
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Robert Hunter Offline
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Also the eyes on smallmouth and guads are much more red in color to help with id.


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Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11835831 09/18/16 09:15 PM
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Nice report and glad you enjoyed your trip!

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11836065 09/19/16 12:32 AM
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coolphotos It just don't get any better! thumb


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Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11836172 09/19/16 01:34 AM
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Froghunter Offline
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That is neat!!!! My boys would love that trip.

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11836234 09/19/16 02:06 AM
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Hawkpuppy 1 Offline
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Fist is a LMB, MAYBE has a touch of Spot in him. Second bass is a Spot all day long.


Strip, strip....set
Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11836275 09/19/16 02:25 AM
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Great pictures. I've been wanting to fish the Paluxy for a while now and this post convinced me to head out there in the next few weeks.

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11837001 09/19/16 04:12 PM
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Glitchmo Offline OP
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Thanks guys. We had a great time. Already planning a return trip.

Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11841225 09/21/16 05:43 PM
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Went there 20 years or more ago and had a ball. The only bad thing was I got to close to a deep gully and ended up sliding down about 10 feet into it. Scared the [censored] out of me and found my rod in 2 pieces. Fortunately the rod had come apart at the joint and wasn't broken. The weirdest thing was where I caught a LMB. There was a channel about 2 feet wide and 2 or more feet deep. I was walking down it to get to another pool letting my fly stay in the water when something hit. It turned out to me a 12" LM on the line.


I'm on other forums that deal with the old turbo powered Buicks.;)
Re: Dinosaur Valley Bassing [Re: Glitchmo] #11841594 09/21/16 09:12 PM
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congratulations on a great outing- it's hard to beat the beauty of the Paluxy


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