My wife and I fished the SA River on the South Side today from the yak. Hopefully a vid coming soon. We did ok considering we didn’t figure out the pattern till late in the trip and it was a very specific pattern. We caught quite a few Guads considering the tough conditions, but we didn’t get one sunfish bite. That was very puzzling seeing that I at least catch a Rio and/or a Longear on this particular stretch. The water was up and a little stained but still plenty clear to make fish ID’s and we didn’t even see a single sunfish or Rio. The Fall transition may have them in a more concentrated area in this section or we may not have had the proper presentations despite the fact we were rigged up for and targeting sunfish. After our little trip on the river, my wife needed some rest do I dropped her off at home and went to a hardware store. It’s nice to have a tool to change your barbed hooks into barbless hooks while you’re out there so I’ve been keeping my eye out for such a tool at a reasonable price. I came across a set off diagonal cutters that are tiny, but strong and were very reasonably priced and came with excellent reviews so, after seeing them in the store, I purchased them. Haven’t used them yet, but hopefully a review is forthcoming.

Anyway, not getting a single sunfish bite was bugging me so I decided to try a creek I haven’t been to in some time. The creek had finally leveled off and cleared up after the on and off rain we’ve been having and I was very hopefully. Unfortunately, my first 45 minutes of fishing came and went and I hadn’t had one single bite! I had tried three different presentations and nothing was working! Not wanting to give up, I grabbed the Gulp! Alive! red wigglers and made a cast. The first cast went into a tree so I had to retie. After retying, I made my second cast. It was down the left side of the creek channel and I was dragging that 1/16 oz jig tipped with the worm back at an extremely slow pace, pausing periodically to make sure the jig stayed in contact with the bottom. My guess is that the sunfish were holed up in the deepest part of this hole to protect against the changing conditions. In the warmer months, this stretch of the creek will have some sparse beds of leafy vegetation, so dragging is possible, but difficult. Well, all of a sudden my jig stops. I’m thinking it ran into a log, rock or some other piece that all the rain pushed further downstream, but as we tend to say, “Hooksets Are Free!” So I set the hook, and 10 minutes later it’s this guy...


All of a sudden it makes sense why I wasn’t getting bit, at least at this creek. The big cat had everybody literally swimming for cover! After I took a few photos with him and revived him, I released him and he seemed to swim off strong. All my next casts at least provided the tell tale sunfish rapid tap and I even caught these guys...



before it got too dark. Left them biting! Once we cleared out the boogeyman, the little guys came out to play. Nothing huge (besides the catfish) but still nice to catch some Sunnies for the first time in a couple of weeks!

Solid post Tory! Glad you found some sunnies. I know the feeling about not finding em. I went to an area that I had fished many times and had always did good during the fall bite. I did not catch or see any sunnies! Fished it for a good three hours and caught some Guadalupe and LMB bass. I agree with you that the sunnies are holding tight in some areas.

Nice post! It's going to be harder finding sunfish in the creeks and smaller rivers especially after this upcoming Arctic Front. I have been finding nice Redear and Bluegill in the deeper rivers in 14 to 16 feet of water hanging off the bottom by brush piles.

Nice post Jagg! Looks like the creek fish bite will be slowing down!

Thanks for the kind words, y’all!

One thing’s for sure! You can’t catch them if you don’t go!

Rick (Catyakker) has a saying. "You don't know if you don't go"!

Its always good to go

Great post jagg!