A Rio, A Rebate, And Redemption On Onion Creek

I found a secluded spot on Onion Creek last week and lost a pretty good sized fish, so I decided that this morning would be a good time to take another shot at it. I arrived right at nine am and saw that I had this little stretch of the creek all to myself.

J-Moe and a few other fly fishermen on this forum mentioned in more than one post that they were having great success with hoppers, so I stopped by Cabela's a few days ago and picked up a few. I am happy to report that the hopper is still very effective.




I saw this guy hanging out below a limestone cut in the far bank and tried my luck at site fishing. He did not disappoint. It was a real thrill watching him slam the hopper.

I even managed to land my second ever Rio, a nice bull. As I was taking him off the hook I noticed a ten dollar bill floating a few inches from my shoes! That more than pays for the hoppers I bought a few days ago.

The redbreasts were the most aggressive, I probably caught six or seven of these. In fact,
I think I may have caught the same fish twice.

I must have landed about twenty fish in two and a half hours. As I was heading back to the house I stopped at another, smaller creek for the first time and tried out the new spinning rig my wife bought me a few weeks ago for my birthday. This creek was probably less than ten feet across at its widest point, but I still managed to land a decent bass and this beautiful little longear, both on a small chartreuse and orange roostertail. If I hadn't already promised my wife we'd see a movie today, I'd probably still be out there. Instead, I fished for ten minutes and went home.

This was by far the best solo fishing excursion I've had in quite some time.

Awesome post Will. Good job.



Side note. You know you are living right when you find a ten dollar bill floating in a fishing hole.

+1

Very nice! Man those Rio's are really beautiful and unique! Congrats

Thanks Chuck, Clayton and Littlefeather for the replies. Littlefeather, the Rios are what we have to make do with down here when we can't fish for trout!

Lol! I hear ya! I've caught Rio's. I kept some in a 75 gal aquarium but never could get the lights right to capture the colors. Congrats again

Great post and pics! Thanx for sharing, happy belated bday

Great job, great variety of fish.

Thanks gar1970 and Jamie for the replies.

Jamie, thanks again for posting about your success with the hoppers! In this case, your success had a great deal to do with my success.

What great pics, thanks for the story!!

I really like those pictures. Beautiful fish you caught

Thanks Hunter and Fitz for the replies. Fitz, I'm already itching to go back.

Nice fish 1960texan! You seem to find some pretty neat places!

Great post. Were you using black or other colors?

Awesome post love the pictures! Thanks for sharing

Thanks Gitter Done, Laker One, and Potlicker for the replies.



It was a two-toned hopper, dark brown over tan. I saw a few posts from J-Moe and others where they mentioned having a lot of success with brown hoppers, so I just stuck with that color.

I've been seeing quite a few dragon flies with white and black wings, but haven't seen any flies that match that color scheme. My guess is that I'll be tying my own flies within the next six months or so.

That's a pile of fish! Great pictures man!

Thanks for the information! Brown Grasshoppers and spiders are working well for me!