Driving to Austin, have about an hour or two for a fishing detour. Wading/Bankfishing, no floatation. Thinking San Gabriel below Lake Georgetown. Is this worth the time? Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Not looking for anyone's secret spots, just a nice pretty stretch of river to give my 4 wt a work out.

Brushy Creek in Round Rock along Hairy Man Road, or San Gabriel in San Gabriel Park. Easy wading in both locations.

We had a great time splashing around the San Gabe on both sides of 35 about three years ago. However, I don't know what the flow is like lately. None of the fish were huge, but wow did they have some great color to them.

This is the trip report. There were also a couple of suggestions about places along the route supplied by other forum members, so it might be helpful to you.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5131018/all

Good luck!

This link to the San Gabriel Fly Fishers' recent reports page might be helpful too.

http://www.sgflyfishers.com/FishingSpots/SanGabAtPark/FishingReports.html#06022013

Thanks fellas. Got to get a few bass and my first rio today! Will have to post some pictures this evening. Next stop... Glen rose.

Awesome. Let's see them fishies!

Well thanks again for the tips, I managed to make the drive back from Austin to DFW in 11 hours. Woke up to rain on Lake Travis, which was good considering the lake is 40 something feet low but worried me for my planned stops. After a sonic breakfast burrito in Cedar Park, I pulled off 35 in Georgetown. The sun came out as I rigged my rod and walked down to the San Gabriel river below the park dam. The water was cool, low and slow.



It took me a few minutes of slip sliding to get the hang of walking on the limestone riverbed. A pretty looking carp eyed me suspiciously as I fumbled around with my rod, and promptly ignored my fly. A few bass came out of the tree lined banks, mostly small but feisty.



Then I started seeing the Rio's, a species I have never caught before. My brain told me to fish them like bluegills, but they didn't really act like angry bluegills. They would deliberately approach the fly, run off the smaller bass, and just look at the fly. I watched for the take and brought in my first, such a sweet looking fish.



Had a few more bass and one other Rio before wrapping it up at the San Gabriel.


Next stop was in Waco for a Health Camp burger.


(continued)

After my delicious burger, I was tired of 35 traffic, so decided to head up to Glen Rose. I had never been to Dinosaur Valley State Park, and wanted to check it out. The water was fairly low, but the footprints are really pretty cool.

hotspotting


Most of the good 'fishing holes' had been re-purposed as 'swimming holes' by the other park visitors. I can't blame them, it was late afternoon and hot. The Paluxy is still a pretty little river.



Caught a few little gills here


And my last stop




I messed up a few shots at a 3 ft spotted gar, and saw a handful of fat catfish. The bluegill bite picked up slightly as it got later, but it was time for me to boogie on back to Dallas.

All told, it was a fantastic day. I had wanted to do something like that for a long time. No huge fish, or spectacular numbers but I really enjoyed seeing some new water, pretty country, and a first species.

Good stuff. I didn't manage to snag any Rios when I was down there, so I've still got that to do. Thanks for the followup!

Awesome trip! I had waded the San Gabriel and seen lots of small carp cruising around. Now I know there are rio's I'm super ticked I forogot my rod.

How was the water level in the paluxy? Last time I was there it was very low.

What kind of rod is in your photo with the dinsaur track?

TXRR - The Rio's are even more impressive in person. Maybe one of our more experienced Rio fisherman can chime in, but the ones I did hook required more finesse than I expected. Only set the hook right when they picked up the fly, or they would spit it out real quick.

Winchester - The paluxy was pretty low. There was water moving, but not much. Fish were concentrated in the deeper pools, and shady spots. I would like to check out places outside the park next time, I just don't know the area. I figure the fishing would be better without all the people swimming.

The rod is a 4wt 8' Winston passport. Very light, smooth casting, fun little rod. Good price too.

I fished that stretch on the San Gabriel on Saturday, and hooked into some beautiful slab Rios. The trick to catching them while sight fishing is anticipating the take. They'll suck a fly in and spit it out in the course of about half a second (just like those damn commons), so you have to know when to strip-set. I was teaching my buddy how to flyfish that day and watching him miss takes was comical, because you can watch the fly go in and then out of the fish's mouth before you can twitch the line. I must've caught about 90% Rios on Saturday, so if you wanna check that species off the list head out now, because they're super active.

Edit: One more thing to keep in mind is that they have very small mouths and seem to like natural colors more than their sunfish neighbors. I've been tying a neon green and orange legged hare's ear looking thing for sunfish (they go insane for it) and the Rios are a little too smart for that. As soon as I'd switch to a green or brown nymph though, they'd be all over it.