Jackmack and I are on our way. We are going to make our first stop at Cameron Park in Waco.

Hey RedRaider,
I aint sure I understand how this is worthy of being compared to the Donner Party... My wife and I did a float from PK to Rochelle's once that was worthy of being call The River of No Return.

So, do tell...

Are you making these updates from the road???

Ok we stopped at Cameron Park, but the acess to the rivers was very limted with steep banks and a very rapid depth increase. We fished at the confluence lf the Bosque and the Brazos. Jackmack lost a fly and I almost fell in trying to retrieve mine. No fish thus far, but we're having a great time. We are headed to the San Gabriel to try to change our luck.

Yes, we are headed south on 35 as I haltingly type on this thing.

What part of the Gabe you planning on?

YEah, what part of the Gabe? Maybe I can help you out.

Just played around at the park and caught a couple of spawning greenies. We ran into a local fly flinger who gave us some good intel. We are changing spots now.

San Gabriel has always looks nice while I'm whizzing by on I-35 ... looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Good hunting,

J.

McFly: careful how you mention whizzing in Texas.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale

I'd go to Austin and head straight to Barton Springs !

After they say "Come on in but you cannot fish."

I'd go in and stay the whole day.....

swimmming and diving and snorkeling and watching

that girls are swimming safely, and diving safely... and... and...



.
.
. Here ! Can you spot the fish in this picture - look carefully now !

Well now we are headed to the Pedernales. We caught tons of beautiful sunfish and bass in the San Gabe. I managed the first dunking, but I did keep my hat dry. The fish were some amazing colors. JM took some pictures that he can post later. JM also packs a mean sandwich.

I've been having a blast. Wish ya'll were here.

By the way, Austin traffic sucks.

Hey guys, I had to get my iPhone replaced; lost my contacts. Please txt me again when you get settled in and have some pix for the forum.

The Pedernales was in a beautiful setting, but wow was the water warm. It was actually cooler OUT of the river than in it. We both got a couple of small sunnies and bass.

After a Gatorade stop, we headed to Five Mile Dam on the Blanco. We didn't stay long, but we did catch fish. JM even caught one on the last cast.

Overall it was a great day. Five rivers in one day isn't a bad tally! We should both sleep well. Tomorrow we are headed to Red Bud Island on Derik's recommendation.

Good morning and tight lines

Teen Hostess: Donner, party of two... What is your seating preference?
Mr. Donner: Table
TH [blushing]: No, I mean smoking or non?
Mr. D: Non

10 minutes later...
Mr. D: Didn't I say we wanted a table, rather than a booth?


Glad to hear ya'll are having fun. Did you remember to take along a film crew so you could get into one of those fancy interweb video fly mags?

Red bud isle is beautiful but the are no fish there. we got out there early but to no avail. We're going to make another san gabe stop.

They are there, guess I should have provided a little insight. Were they releasing water?

any Guads or Rio's yet ?

"Shore lunch on North San Gabriel"

received this morning

I knew those two wouldn't catch any fish!!!

That looks nice. I spent this morning on the South San Gabe, the fishing was great. Very few bass though, primarily due to the aggressiveness of the sunfish.

should be a pic here, but I'm not allowed to quote html

That lends a whole new meaning to packing a mean sandwich sammich. Looks like 8wt cold cuts paired with 6wt bread.

It should be noted that the cup was full of icy cold Shiner.

I are home. A great time was had by all (both). I'll post up a more complete and comprehensive report once I'm fairly certain that I'm going to continue to get to live here. SWTRHWMBO seems almost too happy to see me...

Our Route

I thought it looked familiar.

That is what it's all about, roadtripping

Robin, maybe you can use your Moderator kungfu to embed that map. I couldn't get it to work.

Send me the details, I'll do my darndest.

A few pics from the trip. I managed to blow up the white balance on my camera (Tex, I told you I have to read that manual again) so some of these are a lot worse than others. I'll add more to the album at:

http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/jackmack65/Hill%20Country%20Road%20Trip/

I'll break this trip down by our stops.

Cameron Park, Waco, TX
I never knew Cameron Park existed until a couple of days ago. According to the city of Waco's website it is supposed to be the largest municipal park in the US. The park is basically at the confluence of the Bosque and the Brazos and it is a really wild looking place. There are some massive elevation changes for this part of the state. Unfortunately, as JM and I discovered, access to the rivers for fishing isn't great. However, the scenery was worth the stop.

We walked past a perfectly good "Trail Closed" sign and descended from the parking lot down to the area where the two rivers merge. There was a spot approximately 30 feet wide that we found that was clear enough to do a bit of casting. One lost fly, no fish, and a bit of frustration later, we decided to head south and find other waters. It was still worth a stop.

San Gabriel River
Upon our arrival in Georgetown, we wandered near San Gabriel Park and decided to give it a try. A spillway spans the entire river there and we both caught a few sunnies in the deeper water there. We both spotted Rios, but couldn't interest them in our offerings.

I was fishing from the spillway and was approached by an older gentleman who said he wanted to visit. It turned out to be Don Johnson (not THAT one) of the San Gabriel Fly Fishers. He directed us to their website which is chock full of useful information. www.sgflyfishers.com

We wandered out east of town to look for new water and found a crossing on CR 100 near Highway 29. There is a nice shelf of shallow water that drops off quickly. While casting a foam hopper to a fallen tree, I managed to hang up on said tree. At this point, I was only in water up to my knees, so I decided to casually wade over and retrieve my hopper. Ever mindful of snakes I crept up to the fallen tree, not really noticing the depth change. In water just over my waist at this point, I triumphantly plucked the hopper from the tree and gracefully turned around...and fell full length into the water! I did manage to keep my hat dry.

I left that side of the crossing to JM and tried the shallow water next door. The bed of the San Gabriel there is all limestone cut with channels by the flowing water. I saw some fish feeding on the surface not too far downstream and semi-stealthfully made my way over to them. I spent the next couple of hours within 50 yards of that spot. I caught little fish on almost every cast for a while. Tiny fingerling bass and beautifully marked green sunfish were in great abundance. My 3wt was a little large for them, but I still had a ball catching them. I hope JM's pictures of some of them came out. We saw lots of spawning sunfish and later figured out that it was a full moon, or close to it. JM finally responded to my repeated whistles and shouts and wandered over himself to sample the fishy goodness. I'll let him tell about that.

After leaving the San Gabriel, we stopped in the local HEB parking lot to fix some lunch (the contents of which JM had purchased at a Kroger, he's a stickler for grocery irony). If you ever get a chance to have a sandwich with JM, please do so. He really puts on a fine feed. Premium deli meats, fancy cheeses, and home fried bacon were all available. The man even brought red bell pepper! It would be an understatement to say that those were some darn fine sammiches.

Pedernales Falls State Park
We drove from Georgetown to Pedernales Falls State Park with only a brief complete stop on I35 in Austin. By the time we got to the park it was full on HOT. After hiking down from the stuffed parking area, we found ourselves ankle deep in very fine gravel and very coarse sand. The river itself was a beautiful deep green color and looked very inviting. Of course the river was pretty crowded with floating folk near the trail, so we made our way downstream on the bank. By this time we were both pretty warm and talking avidly about how good it was going to feel to step into the cool refreshing waters of the river. I was in the lead, so I was going to be first to be rewarded by the NEARLY BOILING WATER. So that there is no misunderstanding, the Pedernales river was HOT, and not for fishing. You could immerse yourself up to the neck in the water, and actually be cooler when you got back out of the water than you were in it.

Not to gripe about our pristine state waters, but the rocks were also slippery and difficult to notice until you tripped on them, which I did frequently. I did manage a couple of little bass in the shade along the bank. I also ran into a nice couple who were curious about my fly gear and had a very pleasant conversation about fly flinging.

After about an hour of flailing in the steamy water, we decided to head somewhere else, if for no other reason than to get to ride in the air conditioned car. I borrowed a rock on the way out of the water and presented it to the small person who lives in my house as a souvenir. She was thrilled with it when I presented it to her upon my return.

JM had an epic battle of wills with a fish, but I'll leave that for him to tell.

Blanco River
We drove down through Wimberly and ended up at the newly rebuilt Five Mile Dam Park just west of Kyle, TX. A pleasant little hike brought us down to the Blanco on the downstream side of the spillway. The water in the Blanco was slightly cooler than the Pedernales, but nowhere nearly as refreshing and cool as the San Gabriel. We did a bit of wading and caught a few small fish, but night was approaching and JM wanted to stop at Cabelas before they closed.

After a brief stop at Cabelas, we needed something a bit more substantial than a sandwich. I asked the cashier lady at Cabelas where we could get a good chicken fried steak and she replied "Chili's". She was disqualified from further commentary. Because it was after 9, our choices were limited, so at my request we ended up at Cracker Barrel to enjoy a simulated home cooked meal. Eggs in a basket is a tasty dish when you're starving.

END DAY ONE

Red Bud Isle on the Colorado River
We arrived at Red Bud Isle at around 7AM along with quite a few folks out to let their dogs stretch their legs. After some brief instruction and assembly, we were ready to hit the water in the float tubes (special thanks again to Robin for the loan of his). The water was blissfully cool and pretty clear. It looked VERY fishy: lots of overhanging limbs, big and small rocks, and some subsurface vegetation. Unfortunately, looks were deceiving for us and our respective fishing styles. We couldn't buy a bite. We tried everything from poppers to bendbacks to clousers to bugges and even received some helpful tips from a local, but no fish. I did spot one banded water snake, and I'm happy to report that Robin's tube remains unsoiled...at least as unsoiled as it was before I used it. I hate that we didn't catch any fish, but it was a tranquil and pretty spot to fling a fly for a few. You really couldn't tell you were in a major metropolitan area. We missed a major opportunity to auction off our parking space on our departure, but I think capitalism may be frowned upon in that area of Austin.

San Gabriel River (yes, again)
I needed to be home by midafternoon to prevent my belongings being piled in the yard and set aflame, so we decided to try the north fork of the San Gabriel just downstream of the Lake Georgetown Dam. We stumbled upon a really nice little park and a short hike brought us to the mercifully cool stream. The river isn't very wide there at all, probably 40 feet at most, but it averages a foot or two deep. We parted company and I wandered upstream and JM went downstream. I also probably ruined his fishing with my clumsy wading style and the silt kicked up by it. I managed a couple of little bass and a sunny or two, but it was a beautiful little spot and very relaxing fishing.

If you get a chance to find a friend and do a little fly flinging road trip, I highly encourage you to do so. It does wonders for sanity maintenance and is good clean fun besides.

All in all we drove quite a way to catch an abundance of small fish. In that ludicrous sentence lies the insanity and beauty of fly fishing with a good friend like JackMack.

It's at the link below, Robin. Not a big deal.

I'm not usually the one who keeps it brief.

The trip was killer great fun.

If you look carefully at this picture you'll see a pretty nice loop indeed. This was last night, just about sunset, on the Blanco River. It really doesn't get much better than this.

Also, that Pedernales River? It's pretty damned hot.

If you caught me throwing a good loop, you'd better examine the water for Nessie and the treeline for Sasquatch.

Dude, that was cast after cast. Wish that picture had come out better.

Don't fret it. It looks pretty good to me. The color picture of a tiny me casting on the Blanco at sunset is my new wallpaper on my phone. It makes me think of those Japanese paintings where the people in the art are insignificant dots and nature takes the spotlight.

Yes. The lack of color makes it all the more compelling.

Sounds like an awesome trip - I am going to make the San Gabriel a priority next time I am headed that way...

J.

Jose don't let those guys corrupt you!!!

next time you come to waco, don't hit the brazos, at least not where you went. instead try this spot. On the map, follow the road south, and there is a parking area and the middle bosque river would allow quite a few opportunities for some wading, and lots of shade.

[http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=31.50513&lon=-97.283502&zoom=17&q1=barret%20rd%2C%20waco%2C%20texas%2C%2076712]

Thanks for the heads up on that one. Would that be at the south end of the road called Barett on your map? The one that dead ends into the river?

Looks like y'all had a great time.

Les

Yes, sir, I wish we had caught more fish or larger ones, but it was a very enjoyable trip. I'm still buzzing a little and not from the one Shiner I had. It's pretty amazing what a good friend and some water can do for your mental health.

You guys would probably have had 90% as much fun with a zero fish count but who wants to go 90%?

Anyway, those sorts of waters are why I got myself two, one and ought weight outfits. Little fish are a H00T on ultralight tackle.

if anyone ever sees a Cabelas Clear Creek One Weight for sale
Snap it Up as they are out of production and a classy, lovely little fly rod. Anyone want to sell theirs?

Robin, I thought that very same thing about the ultralight tackle while we were on the San Gabe.

Yes Sir! That's the river. head further south on the river and it gets a little deeper, but from that access point you can enjoy everything from there, north. Also a great area to drop a kayak and fling those flies.

Good deal. I appreciate the information.