Just got back from a four-day trip to Central Texas with my dad. We camped at McKinney Falls State Park and made trips to a different river each day. In four days of fishing easily accessible public water, never more than a mile from the parking lot, we never saw another angler. Thanks to banker-always fishing and J-Moe for some information on where to fish, it was really helpful.

Day 1
We planned on fishing Cibolo Creek with banker-always fishing and Catyakker, but rain caused the river to get muddy and we put the trip off until Day 2. Sadly, the rain never let up and we never did make it to Cibolo Creek, but we'll be sure to make it back next year to meet up and fish.

With Cibolo not in the cards and rain in the area, we got out at sunrise and fished Onion Creek and Williamson Creek (both inside McKinney Falls SP). The main goal for us on the trip was to catch some Rios (which we had never caught) and some Guadalupes, which I had caught before by my father never had. Shortly after getting to Onion Creek's Lower Falls area we spotted a pair of Rios in about 2 feet of water. I made one cast with a small, size 12 Orvis Tungsten Jig Bugger, made two strips and got this big guy to eat.



Shortly thereafter my dad caught two Rios of his own in Williamson Creek on a Matt Bennett Rio Getter and we both added a few more sunfish. This would prove to be the only Rio I would catch on the trip, but at least it was a nice one.

About 9 a.m. the weather west of Austin started to clear so we packed up and headed to The Slab to fish the Llano. The water was low and barely moving, but the fish were hungry. We covered about a half mile of river in about four hours of fishing and caught some nice Guadalupe bass, a few largemouth and some assorted sunfish. Most of the fish were caught on Moorish Hoppers and Llanolopes, but I added a few fish on a Cypert Minnow on the recommendation of Kevin Hutchison in his book Fly Fishing the Texas Hill Country.

Llano River Guadalupe Bass


Llano River Largemouth


We finished the day with a late lunch/early dinner at Cooper's and headed back to McKinney Falls to get ready to do it all again the next day.

Day 2
With Cibolo Creek still muddy, we headed to Pedernales Falls State Park. We got in at Trammel's Crossing and waded downstream. Almost immediately we started catching fish on foam flies, with my dad getting a few Rios on Moorish Hoppers. The day proceeded about like the previous day, with us wading for 4-5 hours and covering about 3/4 of a mile. The fly of the day proved to be the La Ranita bluegill gurgler/popper, with bass and sunfish hitting it consistently. As expected, we saw a lot of carp and I managed to spook most of them. While no carp took my fly, a hungry little Guadalupe bass did find the size 8 olive Carp-it Bomb to his liking. The day ended with two dozen or so fish caught, including 10 Rios for my dad, all on topwater, and most on the La Ranita.

La Ranita eating Rio


A bigger Pedernales Rio that fell for a Moorish Hopper


We had plans to fish the Blanco River after eating lunch at Pecan Street Brewing in Johnson City, but the water at Blanco State Park was super low and the river was completely dry at a few other access points downstream including Five Mile Dam in San Marcos. So instead of fishing we had some beers at Real Ale Brewing and Middleton Brewing and called it a day.

Day 3
We were on the water at Guadalupe River State Park about 9 a.m., but the bite was pretty slow at first. It took a while for us to figure out the fish were relating to rock and not Cypress knees as they had been on the Pedernales the day before, but once we figured that out the bites started. Unlike the other two rivers where we mainly caught redbreast sunfish, the predominant sunfish in the Guadalupe was the green sunfish. Mixed in with the sunfish were some nice Guadalupe bass, but the Rios eluded us. All 10 of the fish I caught were on yellow Llano Bugs, with my dad catching his fish on a combo of Moorish Hoppers, Chernobyl Ants and La Ranitas. I threw a few different streamers (Lunch Moneys, Brushy Creek Streamers, Cypert Minnows and a crawfish pattern of my own design) for a few hours trying to entice larger fish. Not sure if I was fishing in the wrong place (out away from the bank among large rocks mid river), using the wrong flies/retrieve or just fishing at the wrong time of day, but I never could get any bites.

Guadalupe Bass from the Guadalupe River


We ate another late lunch, this time at Krause's in New Braunfels. The jaegerschnitzel was delicious and the beer was cold, and with the rain holding off we headed downtown to see about fishing the Comal River at Landa Park. I'm glad we did because in addition to the clearest water I have ever seen, we also caught redspotted sunfish, a fish I had only ever read about and was not aware lived in that river. We also saw some huge plecostomus catfish and a legit 6-7 pound largemouth that ignored pretty much every fly in my fly box. The redspotted sunfish were caught on Royal Wulffs and Moorish Hoppers.

Redspotted Sunfish on a Royal Wulff


15-20 feet of visibility on the Comal


Day 4
We needed to be back in Dallas by 5 p.m., so we packed up camp by the time the sun rose and headed to Onion Creek again to try for some more Rios. As had become the pattern, my dad quickly caught a Rio while I caught redbreasts, longears and green sunfish on Rio Getters and Royal Wulffs.

Small pool above Onion Creek's Lower Falls that held Rios, bass and sunfish


We checked out about 9 a.m. and drove up to Round Rock to hit up Round Rock Donuts and Living Waters Fly Shop. (I should note we also went to Sportsman's Finest on Day One and to Reel Fly Fishing Adventures and Gruene Outfitters the day we fished the Guadalupe and all shops were really nice.) Picked up some of Chris Johnson's Mardi Craw flies (a pattern he was tying at Fly FIsh Texas in Athens earlier this year) and headed to Memorial Park to fish Brushy Creek. By the time we got done stringing up our rods it was raining pretty hard but the water was still clear, so we headed under the I-35 bridge. I had been trying to make my hopper-dropper rig work all week (Llano Bug above a soft hackle) and caught my first fish on it at Brushy Creek, a nice Guadalupe that took my Partridge and Orange and put up a good fight.

Urban Fly Fishing


My dad managed a few sunfish on a purple/yellow Moorish Hopper before the river started muddying up, so with it getting close to lunch time we headed north on I-35 toward Dallas. We planned on eating at Miller's BBQ in Belton but the line was nearly around the building, so we snacked on beef jerky and headed to Vitek's in Waco for Gut Paks, and unfortunately, a replay of the Texas-Maryland game from the previous weekend. At least the food was good, because the game definitely wasn't.

All total, in four days of fishing seven rivers and creeks, only one of which we had any previous experience on (Brushy Creek), we caught nearly 100 fish covering seven species, almost exclusively on topwater flies. Plus, the trip was done on a budget, with camping fees only $20 each night at McKinney Falls State Park and an annual state park pass getting us into all the state parks for free. I would say the trip was definitely a success.

I have a ton of video of the trip from my GoPro but am not sure when I will get around to editing it. I'll post a link when I get something up on YouTube.

Addendum
Prior to the trip to Austin we were in Bosque County for the opener of dove season. The hunting was kind of slow, but we fished a relative's stock tank two days and caught some really nice bass. I also managed to catch some bullheads on my bass lures and my youngest brother, who fishes only a few times a year, kept alive his streak of catching giant bass from small bodies of water. Last year he caught a 5-1 bass from Childress Creek, which runs through the property, and this year he caught a 4-10 from the stock tank, which is maybe a 1/2 acre in size. Both fish were caught on chatterbaits.

2017 on top, 2018 on bottom


My 3-8 largemouth on a spinnerbait


Bullhead on a chatterbait


My other brother's Childress Creek largemouth on the Eagle Claw Featherlight Fly Rod

Very nice. Lots of pretty fish. Funny how you didn�t see other people fishing.

Great trip. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the report and pictures. I love those central Texas streams. My first time down there, we fished the Llano and San Saba and had a lot of success. The next time was an ultralight flyfishing trip to the San Gabriel and Brushy Creek. Again a great time. Last spring I organized a trip for members of the Fiberglass Flyrodders and Ultralight Flyfishing forums. I and 4 other people arrived 3 days early to get in some extra fishing. The weather was hot and clear and no rain in forecast. Unfortunately it rained that night and just about every night afterward, some where in the area. Except for the Pedernales at Pedernales Falls State Park, the water was high and off color nearly everywhere we went, such as South Llano, the Llano, Blanco, etc. The Pedernales was clear that day, but it was so hot down in the canyon by the falls, I wasn't really sure I was going to make the climb back out. We had originally had up to 24 people saying they would come to this conclave, but with the weather change only 8 finally showed up. But that seems to be the nature of planned fishing trips, sometimes they just don't work like planned. Doesn't keep me from trying again.

Larry

Looks like an awesome trip! I had a hard time on the Pedernales a couple weeks ago with the water so low and clear, but it looks like you got it figured out!

Awesome trip, memories for sure. Thanks for sharing!
P.S. Was curious who and if someone suggested the size 12 Orvis Tungsten Jig Bugger. Its probably the best all around fly i have ever used for all species. From my experience not alot of people know about it or use it.

It wasn't just people fishing, we didn't see another person by the river on the Llano or Pedernales and only saw a few hikers while fishing the Guadalupe. I knew the traffic would be less since it was during the week and school was back in session, but I never imagined we would have entire state parks basically to ourselves.



I think we got pretty lucky with the weather on our trip. It rained a good portion of the time we were there, but rarely more than a light sprinkle when we were actually fishing. I guess the ground was so dry it soaked up rain and prevented the rivers from getting too much runoff since they weren't really affected while we were there, but I see today they have started to come up quite a bit. The rain also kept the temperatures in the upper 80s, which allowed us to fish into the afternoon and not have to find air conditioning at lunchtime.


It was a great time!




Not sure where you fished, but when we were there downstream from Trammel's crossing in the state park is full of long, deep holes connected by stretches of water barely a few inches deep. The fish seemed to be holding tight to the river bank, hidden among the cypress knees in the deepest water they could find. I would guess that almost all of our fish came out of heavily shaded areas.



I have had the flies, both in size 8 and 12 and both olive and tan, in my box for a few years. No one recommended them for this trip, but presumably someone told me about them years ago when I purchased them. I have previously used the tan size 8 to catch gaspergoo, sunfish and largemouth, but had never used them in size 12 or olive until this trip. My dad already had a Rio Getter tied on so I wanted to try something a bit different until we found out what the fish were wanting, and it just seemed like a good choice. It obviously works well and I plan on tying up some before I go fishing next time. I have a trip to the Paluxy planned in a few weeks with one of my brothers and dad and I am sure it will work great there.

Awesome post and some super nice fish Bill! Sorry about the rainy,muddy,and flooded conditions on the Cibolo Creek but the good news it got some much needed rain. Hopefully you and your dad can make it back down here during the spring bite. The Cibolo is loaded with some nice Longear and sunfish.

Great post

Sounds like an awesome vacation with your dad. I love those Hill country creeks and rivers.

Very jealousy inducing post. That plan is seriously in my bucket.Thanks for stoking the desire. Terrific post.

Nice Pics!!

great post and pics, looks like ya'll had a great time! thanks for sharing, cant wait for the video

Outstanding post, I moved away from Austin a year ago and these pictures bring back some incredible memories of my time there. It seems like recently people have been posting more about Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I'll take Central Texas fishing over any of those locales every time, I don't think it can be beat in terms of ease of access and quality of fishing.

It would be great to try and plan a TFF gathering maybe once in the fall and again the spring somewhere like Austin, or perhaps rotate it around Texas so we can all experience some new waters.

Massaction, a TFF gathering like that sounds like a great idea.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Here is some video from the trip.

Excellent post, pictures and video. Enjoyed it!

I live in central Texas and have never been! I need to look into that.

Thanks for posting that up. Very cool indeed.