Texas Fishing Forum

Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks

Posted By: Doug

Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 04/29/03 01:44 AM

A buddy, James, and I went up to Purtis Creek State Park for the first time Thursday 4/24 - Sun 4-27. The water is warm, and the visibility is good. This moss was worse than I expected for the time of the year. We did pretty well the first couple of days. My fishing/diving buddy has just taken up fly fishing this year and is hooked on it by the way. I caught several bass in the 1.5 to 2.75 pound range and one really bad boy snapped my leader in spite of all I could do. I was trying to turn him, keep him off the bottom in deep water and out of the logs. He never turned. I caught the others near shore in shallow water and the bigger ones all buried themselves in the moss on the bottom. They would wear themselves out in the moss and by the time I dredged them to the top they were easy to net. I caught them on gurgle pops and (mostly) bream killers. I also caught some really big blue gill, one of the biggest I've ever caught, on a white gurgle pop late Thursday. Saturday we went over to Tyler State Park and fished that lake a while that morning. I caught a 15" bass and one 12 - 14" that I didn't measure - both of them on a bead head Bitch Creek. Tyler is a nice park, nice little lake, lots of moss, rather domestic, lots of kids, paddle boats etc. If you're going to fish it, during the week is probably the best bet. We came back and fished Purtis Creek a while Sat PM. I caught 1 blue gill. That seemed to be pretty much the same for most of the others we talked to. The wind was brutal Friday but fairly still Sat. Sunday, per plan, we didn't fish, just headed home.

The weekend before, James and I went up to the Caddo Gap Arkansas area with some friends. One of the guys, Mike, has a place up there on the South Fork of the Caddo. We fished the South Fork and Mike's pond. Friday PM (4/18) and Sat AM were nothing short of phenominal for perch fishing. I was tossing a bead head bitch creek to them, just letting it sink with little action, and BIG perch were slamming it nearly every cast. We caught fish all weekend but there was a couple of times those two days that were at least as good as any fishing I've done in my 43 years of slangin' bugs. Doug
Posted By: rrhyne56

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 04/29/03 04:29 PM

sounds like a great time - I was at Purtis Creek Saturday from 8:00 until 2:00 PM but was pretty well skunked. Guess I was using the completely wrong flies. No Gurglers at all in the box, mainly my trout bugs which were not popular at all with perch or bass.
Tyler sounds good, I have never been there. Will have to put it on the schedule.

What size were those flies that you were throwing at them?

Best

------------------
RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
rrhyne56@attbi.com
Robins Custom Flies and Leaders
Posted By: Doug

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 04/29/03 05:50 PM

I think Purtis Creek would have required explosives Sat to get much up. We talked to a couple of guys from the Warm Water Flyfishers and I saw a reply from you in another posting that that you were there this weekend. I was using 8's on the Gurgle Pops, 10's on the Bream Killers and either 8's or (I think) 10's on the bitch creeks. The big boy late Friday swam off with a yellow gurgle pop. Doug
Posted By: rrhyne56

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/01/03 12:23 PM

thanks Doug,

I showed up with all the wrong flies, won't do that again

------------------
RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
rrhyne56@attbi.com
Robins Custom Flies and Leaders
Posted By: fishrmurri

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/01/03 01:04 PM

Ok I give up whats a gurgle pop?
Posted By: ccabal

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/01/03 04:36 PM

Robin, or anyone else...
Let me know when any of you plan on going to Purtis. I may be able to take a morning off, or an afternon off I I know in advance.

-Christian
Posted By: rrhyne56

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/01/03 07:48 PM

fishrmurri

here is the Gurgle Pop

Christian, I sure will give a shout! I don't know when it will be but I am ready to give them another try!

------------------
RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
rrhyne56@attbi.com
Robins Custom Flies and Leaders
Posted By: linkonaut

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/02/03 01:54 PM

Doug, my name is Dave... I stopped by and talked to you for about an hour or so Saturday morning before you went to Tyler, I was the tall, long haired guy camped right next to you.

Saturday was beautiful on Purtis wind wise but didn't do a lot of catching. Ended up with a couple of hand-sized gills. I did have a nice bass on about 4 pounds fishing from shore but he threw the hook.

Sunday I managed to catch a bass 21.25" long, around 4 pounds or so. He hit a new fly I designed and is currently in "testing" phase.

The URL for the web-version of that email list, Texas Warmwater Fly Fishers, is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txwwff/

Please note it stays pretty busy, I bet around 50-100 posts a week...
Posted By: Doug

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/02/03 10:17 PM

Dave,

Thanks for the contact. Later I realized we never got your name. You mentioned the Texas Warm Water Flyfishers group when we talked. I joined that group a couple of days ago in fact.

21.25" is a nice fish. What sized rod did you catch him on?

Doug
Posted By: linkonaut

Re: Purtis Creek and Tyler State Parks - 05/04/03 10:52 PM

Doug, it was a six. Tested my drag a bit. I had two bass at Purtis hit my reel, something that had never happened before with largemouth.

Happy coincidence, the couple picnicking next to where I was fishing happened to have a polaroid camera with them so I even got an unexpected picture!
© 2024 Texas Fishing Forum