# Central Texas Bassin.....part I



## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

I just returned from working in Alaska for 3 weeks and before that spending a few days fishing in Texas. It was quite difficult to convince the mrs. that flying through Austin was a very reasonable route to take from Boise, ID to Anchorage, AK&#8230;&#8230;okay it's not exactly a straight line especially since I had to change planes in Los Angeles first. She was overwhelmed (or just tired of listening to me)&#8230;..but it was probably the subspace rupture argument or the earth going into retrograde axially rotation temporarily which wore her out. Anyways&#8230;..got to Austin to hook up with my numero uno man, Shea McClanahan, to fish on October 7th, 8th and 9th. Of all the guides I've fished with Shea is my favorite&#8230;.great personality, never gets upset (and that is often very difficult around me) and ALWAYS finds the fish&#8230;.a lot of fish.

So we headed to a new area to fish the Colorado River downstream of Austin&#8230;..it freaking hot to start with and got to 98 later in the day&#8230;&#8230;uuuhhhhh HOT! I was fashionably dressed (as always) and within the first 5 minutes I lost a big fish that broke off one of my favorite jerkbaits&#8230;..wahhhh. I regeared and caught a couple of smaller fish before stumbling upon the largest Guadalupe bass I've ever caught&#8230;..





I thought for sure this guadie would make 3 lbs. (WR is 3.7 lbs) but it was a few ounces under&#8230;.still heck of a guadie. This area was kind of open, quiet water initially&#8230;..day was gorgeous (as any day fishing is)&#8230;



Shea told me the fishing had just picked up due to a recent cold front which had gotten the previous hot and lethargic fish, biting. Caught another nice guad and then into my first nice largemouth&#8230;..





This area is primarily guadalupes with some nice bonus bucketmouths. Continued catching many smaller bass and midmorning bumped into another toadie guad&#8230;..



After losing my jerkbait I'd switched to a small, shallow running crawdad pattern crankbait as nearly every bass we caught had claws or antenae sticking out of their stomachs. Occasionally I would switch to a slightly weighted twitch bait. By lunchtime my catch total was over 30. The only respite from the heat was to park the boat in the shade of some large trees. Of course being as thoroughly addicted to fishing as I am&#8230;.I kept on casting up to the bank and was making Shea unhook a few bass while he was trying to make a sandwich&#8230;&#8230;..mmmmmm&#8230;.a little fish slime goes a long ways.



The night before I found out on facebook that Shea was actually taking me fishing on his birthday&#8230;&#8230;..what a trooper. I carried a little cake for his birthday lunch and a fine package of what I term "pink floozies"&#8230;.a bass favorite here.



Another beautiful Guadalupe right as lunch ended.



We continued floating down, as our flesh baked in the merciless sun, and more large bass just kept on hitting&#8230;..



A lightly colored guad&#8230;..



Another great guad over 2 lbs&#8230;...I didn't even have a chance to engage the crankbait as he ate the moment it touched the water next to shore&#8230;..



We were getting close to take out time when another of the few largemouth struck&#8230;.



This day nearly all the fish were taken with a cast on the shore or within a few inches&#8230;.much farther out and there was nothing. This last colorful guad came right before we took out&#8230;..



Shea had a customer give him a counter so there would be an "accurate" count at the end of the day&#8230;&#8230;.this is what it read for my first day&#8230;&#8230;.yeehaw&#8230;..



By the time I got to my hotel in Bastrop my decrepit left shoulder was virtually numb from shoulder to thumb (I know&#8230;..rhyming is just a hobby). I fell asleep with an ice bag on it&#8230;..only waking up when it was completely melted&#8230;.the shoulder definitely felt better frozen.

Lurching out of the bed early the next morning I grabbed another icebag, threw it on my shoulder and drove to meet Shea at a totally different part of the Colorado River which has predominately largemouth. Still using the crawdad cranker it only took 5 minutes to encounter a nice bass&#8230;.



As the day waxed longer it was a much cooler day&#8230;..only 95&#8230;..but this area was very overgrown with grass and water weeds making it difficult to fish a lot of the water. Fishing was definite slower then the day before but we were still taking some nice bucketmouths&#8230;&#8230;





My shoulder was sore and I was kind of feeling like a soft boiled egg so I didn't bother with many pictures.

Early afternoon I did get one really nice guadie&#8230;&#8230;



We ate some lunch and soon after spotted this great blue heron looking for lunch on the bank&#8230;&#8230;and I believe he thinks he is hiding&#8230;&#8230;hmmmm&#8230;..



Had one of "those" weird co-incidences where I had talked to Shea about the Rio Grande Perch (Cichlid) which is the only cichlid native to the United States and he told me they were caught in the Colorado River once in a while. Less than an hour later I catch a feisty little devil and sure enough&#8230;..it's is the aforementioned Rio Grande Perch (Herichthys cyanoguttatus)&#8230;.a new species for me&#8230;..


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Always nice to see and hear your stories.:mrgreen:

By the way,nice shorts!


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

looks like fun


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