Texas Fishing Forum

Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King

Posted By: 1960texan

Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/03/18 07:22 PM

Here's a story I wrote last year after a fishing trip with Chuck Dewey, aka Banker-Always-Fishing. I don't know why I waited so long to post it, but now that we're in that in between phase of Rio season winding down and trout season about to start, I thought now would be a good time to relive an awesome day fishing.


Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King

© 2017 Will Atkinson aka 1960Texan

It’s that rare, quiet hour of the morning when the bars have long since closed and the early commuters have not yet begun rolling down the highway on their way to work. It’s easy to imagine that there is no one else on the road except for cops, truckers, and other fishermen.

I’m on my way to Chuck Dewey’s house. The last time we met early to fish Chuck was standing in his front yard, in the dark, waiting for the moment my headlights swung around the curve at the end of his street. Today was no different. In his great booming voice he wishes me good morning and seconds later I’m out of the car and transferring my fly rod, hat and net into the back of his SUV. I’m already wearing my fishing vest. I’ve got an insulated travel mug filled with a caffeinated beverage in hand and a soft collapsable cooler packed with ice and bottled water. We’re ready. Although I’ve already made a few unsuccessful attempts, I’m confidant that by this day’s end I’ll catch my first Rio Grande Cichlid.

Also known as the Texas Cichlid and Rio Grande Perch, the Rio is as beautiful as any trout. Disk shaped and dark bodied, it is a galaxy of turquoise and cream colored spots. Older fish have a pronounced hump and are affectionately known as Brahma Rios, or Bull Rios. The only cichlid native to Texas, they mate for life and can reach lengths of up to twelve inches, although a relatively short lifespan of about five years makes it rare for them to get that big.

Chuck is a retired homicide detective with the soul of a traveling salesman. Over the years he has married the deductive skills he honed on the force with his natural gift of gab, all for the singular purpose of finding the best fishing spots within a two hour radius of his home near San Antonio. The man networks like nobody’s business. It pays off with good intel and permission to fish private water all over the state of Texas. On multiple occasions I’ve seen him land just about every species of game fish residing in whatever river, creek, lake or pond we happened to be fishing, but his favorite are sunfish. He has caught more record fish than anyone you’ve ever heard of, and holds the current world record for the Rio.


That dedication to the sport means that Chuck tries to fish at least five days a week. He fills me in on his latest angling adventures as we enter the onramp and head toward Medina Lake. Work has been keeping me busy so I don’t have anything to add to this part of the conversation except green-eyed envy. Once the fishing reports are in we argue religion and politics until we get to the lake. We’re both talkative in the car and practically mute when fishing. It’s a good combination that makes the drive go by fast and the time in nature all the more restorative.

We arrive just before sunrise. It’s my first time to fish this lake, but Chuck knows of a spot that’s been productive in the past. This treeless part of the lakeshore has the benefit of having enough room on the bank for a beginner level fly fisherman. I’m still new and not very good at it, but I’m having so much fun learning the sport that I seldom get the temptation to switch back to my familiar spinning rig. The morning air is cool for now and there is no wind, an added pleasure when casting the fly rod. I tie on a hopper/dropper rig to start. The dropper is a small fly called the “Rio Getter,” designed and tied specifically for the Rio Grande Cichlid by Matt Bennett of Fly Geek. After a couple of false casts I manage to put the hopper within a foot or so of my intended target, a patch of standing brush in the back of a small cove. The hopper is immediately attacked by several aggressive but tiny bluegill, too small to get their mouths around the hook. I strip a little of the line to move the flies into deeper water.

Over the next twenty minutes I fan cast and cover the entire cove twice, to the best of my limited ability, and finally land one hand-sized bluegill on the dropper. In this same period of time Chuck has caught and released three or four bigger bluegill, a couple of small Rios, a bass and a catfish on his spinning rod.

“There’s nothing but dinks here this morning, Will, let’s go to that other spot I was telling you about.” He seems genuinely disappointed. I don’t mention my one and only fish.

The other spot is at a crossing several miles north of the lake, right on the Medina river. He’d shown me photos from a few months prior when he fished it on one of those rare days when it seemed like only the bigger fish were hungry. There were a lot of them, too.

The change in venue suits me just fine. Since taking up fly fishing I’ve discovered how much I enjoy standing in the middle of a river. Sure, I wade fished occasionally back in my pre-fly rod days, but it wasn’t imperative that I wade fished. Spinning rod in hand I could usually hit my target in all but the thickest brush. I didn’t realize it then but staying on the bank I developed a “run and gun” style of fishing, moving on quickly if I wasn’t getting the action I desired. That changed immediately when I switched to the fly rod. I took my time and fished thoughtfully, because now I had a back cast to worry about, and no desire to add to the collection of lures, flies, and terminal tackle decorating the trees along Hill Country waterways. It was a bonus when I discovered just how calming it was for me whenever I was waist deep in a river.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at the crossing and found a brand new barbed wire fence, each metal post adorned with a “No Trespassing” sign. We turned around and drove to a convenience store about a mile back so Chuck could talk to the woman behind the counter. A few minutes later he walked out with bad news. It seemed that every summer for the past few years visitors were leaving more and more trash behind. Memorial Day weekend was the last straw, and the fence went up shortly afterward.

We discussed our options. Chuck made a phone call and secured permission to fish private water an hour away on the Sabinal river. It was a perilous drive through open range cattle country in the middle of nowhere, but despite a few close calls with wandering cows and hairpin curves we got to our destination in one piece. By the time we drove through the open gate at the property I was convinced that the few remaining dark hairs on the top of my head had either joined their traitorous gray brothers or abandoned ship entirely.

The pleasant crunch of tires on gravel goes on for a few hundred yards. We park in the shade under a small copse of trees, grab our fishing gear and follow a game trail another hundred yards or so until we reach the Sabinal. There is just a whisper of current moving the water downstream. Chuck points out a few spring-fed blue holes that held Rios the last time he fished them, and I pick a promising looking spot about forty yards upstream. The temperature has climbed well into the nineties but there is a slight, welcome breeze. It’s late morning now, almost noon, so I ditch the hopper/dropper combo and tie on a beaded, olive wooly bugger. I then tie a foot long length of tippet to the bend of the hook and add the Rio Getter to that. After stripping a few yards of fly line from the reel I make my first cast upstream.

My first couple of casts are pretty terrible. I take a deep breath and remember to wait until I feel the rod load, and my accuracy and distance magically improve. Funny how that happens. I get lots of follows but no takes, and having exhausted the near bank I step into the cool water of the Sabinal and try to fish as methodically as I can, working midstream before casting to the far bank. Meanwhile, Chuck has caught and released several fish, all bigger than the ones he caught earlier that morning at the lake.

I spot a limestone shelf, a foot below the surface of the water and directly across from me. Calmer now, still remembering to wait for the fiberglass rod to load, I make two false casts and drop the flies above the limestone with barely a ripple. A short, slow strip of the line and the olive wooly bugger slips over the edge and drops to the bottom of the river. I’m fishing without an indicator so I keep my eyes on the spot where my leader is joined to the fly line. After a few seconds the bright yellow line jerks three inches toward the far bank and I lift the rod to set the hook.

My five weight is pleasingly doubled over, the rod telegraphing the energy of the fish much better than any spinning rig I’ve ever used. This is why I enjoy fly fishing so much, and it’s the reason I keep at it despite my numerous embarrassingly bad casts, snags and wind knots. The fish turns and I immediately recognize what I’ve got on the end of the line. I can feel the smile on my face as I shout out to Chuck that I’ve caught my first Rio.

Of course, I haven’t yet landed my first Rio, but in the clear water I can see that it’s firmly hooked on the wooly bugger and I waste no time playing this fish. Less than a minute later I’m holding it in my hand. It’s big.

Chuck is actually more excited than I am. Although he swears he has no interest in becoming a professional guide, as I’ve gotten to know him I’ve realized that he's at his happiest when he’s able to put someone else on fish. He runs to get his camera and measuring tape, sure that this fish is big enough to be a fly rod record for the Sabinal river. Once everything is recorded I put the Rio back in the cool water. Holding it gently by the tail, I let it pump water through its gills until it’s strong enough to swim out of my grip. It heads straight back to the limestone shelf to meet up with its mate.

I’m still grinning when we hike back to the SUV and drive deeper onto the property in order to fish another blue hole. I catch and release a few decent sized sunfish and a couple of small bass, while Chuck is about thirty yards downstream from me catching much bigger fish with his spinning rig. At one point he caught four fish on four successive casts, one of them a Rio Grande Cichlid a good half inch bigger than the one I caught. Its length matches Chuck’s previous all tackle record on the Sabinal. I may have just gotten a nice fish on the fly rod, but he is still the Rio king.
Posted By: gar1970

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/03/18 08:13 PM

Awesome!
Posted By: Pot licker

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/03/18 09:29 PM

Great story 1960texan! Thank you for sharing clap
Posted By: banker-always fishing

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/03/18 11:56 PM

Always love fishing with friends! Nothing beats fishing with people who love and respect the GREAT OUTDOORS! Looking forward to many more fishing trips down the way Will! thumb



Side Note: Let me know when you decide to RETIRE! roflmao roflmao roflmao
Posted By: 1960texan

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/04/18 01:19 PM

Thanks gar1970, Pot Licker, and Chuck for the replies.

Originally Posted By: banker-always fishing
Side Note: Let me know when you decide to RETIRE! roflmao roflmao roflmao
I haven't checked my lotto numbers yet, who knows? who_knows
Posted By: Laker One

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/04/18 03:05 PM

Great post 1960texan! I met Chuck back in 2012 while working with a major sporting goods store. He was having monthly fishing contest here in the Bluegill Section of the TFF. The contest had gotten so BIG that he needed help running them and so I offered to help out. I became a member of the TFF to help Chuck run the contest and the rest is history. The man has a great love and respect of the great outdoors. He also loves people! I have had some opportunities to fish with Chuck over the years and have truly enjoyed each time I have gotten to fish with him! He's a good friend of mine and I hope to fish with him some more! He is truly enjoying his retirement years. If only I can talk him into fishing with lures and flies. Also getting him into a kayak would be great! (Don't hold your breath)! woot


Side Note: I can remember a time he showed me one of his many secret Rio holes! He was showing me where to cast and he made a cast with a bare hook to demonstrate. He actually caught a Rio using a bare hook! He said it was skill! nuts I don't think he has ever done that again! hmmm
Posted By: banker-always fishing

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/05/18 01:04 AM

I can remember those contest very well! Lot's of anglers from all over the State took part. Great while they lasted! thumb




Side Note: Had a BLAST putting them on! Saw some GREAT catches! cheers
Posted By: J-Moe

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/05/18 01:57 AM

Well written Will, I enjoyed the post thumb

I can remember those first few trips with Chuck as well. He was always more excited to see me catch a trophy than he was when he caught one. I learned a ton from him. He is the man.
Posted By: 1960texan

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/05/18 03:02 AM

Thanks Laker One and J-Moe for the replies. I enjoyed writing the post.
Posted By: Laker One

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/07/18 01:56 PM

Originally Posted By: banker-always fishing
I can remember those contest very well! Lot's of anglers from all over the State took part. Great while they lasted! thumb




Side Note: Had a BLAST putting them on! Saw some GREAT catches! cheers




You had em going for three years! They were a blast to watch! Loved the ones that went into overtime! Some great memories there for sure! woot
Posted By: Gitter Done

Re: Fishing For Cichlids With The Rio King - 11/09/18 04:25 PM

Yes Sir Chuck can find those Rios for sure! It amazes me how he catches the quality of fish he catches all from the bank! He really loves fishing the banks! That is why he goes by "Banker Always Fishing"! A true bank angler for sure!



Side Note: Great post 1960texan!
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