Myself and good friend Jeff fished a hill country river this past Thursday a head of this latest cold front. We thought the bite would be good but it was slow. We fished from 10am till 3pm and only caught about 25 fish. Did not catch any small ones. We caught Bluegill in the 7 and 8 inch range, Redbreast in the 7 to 9 inch range, and a bunch of fat Longear in the 5 to 7 inch range. (Great size for Longear). Rounding out the catch were a couple of bass in the 1 to 2 pound range. Fish were by Hydrilla beds in 6 to 8 feet of water. We also picked up a few under overhanging tree limbs. The river is in good condition but could use some good rain. Red,White,Chartreuse Rooster Tails got the best results. All fish were released. All in all it was nice floating down a hill country river that we had all to ourselves.


Side Note: Anyone else do any prefront fishing this past week?

I'd hate to think about a longear that broke 7 inches they'd be chasing people if they did.

Nice report Laker! Love having a place all to your self. Did you guys use any other baits?

Nice report Curtis. Good job guys finding a few fish.



Side Note: Myself and Rick aka Catyakker fished Thursday at two different creeks thinking the prefront bite would be good. We were wrong. The first creek we only caught a few small sunfish and a couple of small Rios. The bite picked up at the second creek we fished. Caught some average Redbreast in the 7 to 8 inch range, a couple of bass,one going about 3 pounds, a couple of nice Longear with one going a little over 7",and a few small Bluegill. The fall bite should be picking up some this week.

Thanks Laker...no small ones in my book means pretty good day...plus the beauty of the river makes it worth it.

My father and I were down in the Hill Country last week. We used Garner State Park as a home base and fished six different rivers during our stay. The day before the front saw us on the Nueces, where the pre-front bite was on fire. Between the two of us we caught about 120 fish, almost all longear (all I ever seem to catch on the Nueces) with a few largemouth, Guadalupes and Rios mixed in. We were fly fishing and while the fish weren't picky as to what flies we threw, most fish were caught on some sort of smallish (size 12-14) craw/nymph pattern (such as Living Waters' Mardi Craw or Creek Boss, or a craw of my own invention I call the Hill Country Craw). We ended the day throwing hoppers and caught some nice fish on Beavertails and a gurgler-style pattern from Fly Fish Food called the La Ranita. Speaking of having the river all to yourself, of the six rivers we fished, we never saw another person while we were fishing. Not just another fisherman. We didn't see another human assuming you don't count people driving by.

And while we didn't fish Friday due to temps in the low 40s and high winds, we did fish Saturday and had really nice luck catching a ton of longear and baby Guads on size 16 dry flies. Not lunkers by any means, but when you are getting bites nearly every cast for several hours, it is tough to complain.

Can't beat that hill country fishing.

Totally Awesome: Lifetime memories.

Thanks for the report Laker. It was slow for me pre-front. The pond fishing, in particular for largemouth bass, is on fire. That's how I know the fall fishing has started. Small bass in small water bodies go crazy. Caught some big greenies too.

Nice write up. Sounds like an incredible time. I too get the most success off a crawfish variant I tie. I use a size 10 Tiemco 5062 nymph hook to tie it.

Awesome reports, Laker and Longhorn. Sounds like the tourists are out of the Hill Country and the fish are back to feasting!

We did use some soft plastics with very minimal results.

Yes Sir Jagg,this time of year you usually have a lot of the hill country rivers all to yourself. This will change once the trout stocking season starts!

The Nueces has nice populations of redear and red breast in that part of the river however its not surprising you catch mainly longear, those little devils are some of the most aggressive fish you will ever meet. I have had a 5in longear dominate a native tank with bluegill, redear and other fish twice his size in there. Its a shame they don't get to the size of redears, that would be an awesome gamefish, but then they might eat everything in the river including the fishermen.

A Longear for it's size is a super fighting fish,they can also hit a bait hard! Love catching em on ultralight tackle.