River update

The weather has these fish confused. It wont stay warm enough to make them bed in numbers  and the cold spells we are getting are holding back the inevitable. With that said each day has been hit and miss on the river. Yesterday was very slow. We had high pressure and a big sun. Today it warmed up a bit and late in the day we did good, but starting out it was slow, because  the water was cool from last night.  The fish I see are about to explode.  Their sacks are fully mature and they will bed up and spawn regardless of the weather very soon, which will make it tougher than normal on the river for catching numbers. If we could just have a week of solid  warm weather these girls will do what they do this time of year and then head to cover. I am ready for this spawn to come and go because it is dragging on and on with the weather. When the spawn is over they will head to cover and be very predictable.


Bob

blog comment problems

I was recently notified that I had a technical problem for people to comment on my blog. That problem has been fixed. Would very much like to hear from anybody about the outdoors in general.

bob

Big river fish tourney

May 25-27 we are holding a big fish only tourney on the Colorado river based out of Bastrop. There will be multiple categories that you can enter.  Heaviest yellowcat,heaviest channel cat, heaviest gasper goo, heaviest river perch, heaviest largemouth bass, and heaviest spotted bass. You may enter as few or as many categories as you like. Teams are up to 4 people. $40.00 per category. For more details and rules sheet and release of liability email me or call me 512 718 4516

River bottom bass tournament

March 16 th we are holding our first Colrado river bass tourney of the year. If you have interest or want to enter please email me, and I will send you a copy of the rules, format, and location. We do welcome kayak teams as well.

Bob

Pre spawn vs Spawn on the river

The majority of our river fish have not yet spawned. They are really close and you will see a few bedded up. 90% of what I am catching have mature egg sacks in them. These fish want to bed up, and they will regardless of the weather in time.  If we could get a 3-4 day span of 75 + degree daytime temps and lows in the high 50's to 60's, there will be bedded fish all over the river. Two days ago I had a slow afternoon with only about 25 caught, but had 30 degree low temp the night before. The next day it was warm and that night wasnt as cold as the night before.We then caught 60. Weather and mainly temperature plays a huge roll in what these fish will do in this transition period. When the spawn ends these fish will move to cover, and as summer approaches crazy numbers can be caught.  Fishing will be great from now until October, barring some huge rain event that muddies the river up

River fish are still posted up to spawn

We spent about 5 hours on the water today above Bastrop. It was a bit slower than normal, but we did have 25 mph winds, and these cold night time temps are holding these girls back from exploding on their beds. We had about 60 head, and we had a dozen or so between 3-4 lbs. The wind made the spinnerbait bite decent. However, we caught em on brush hogs, weightless sinkos if you could keep it down, small crankbaits, and jerkbaits. Most fish seem to be loaded and ready to let nature take its course. The weather has held them back,but I really believe cold or hot there are too many females ready to do the deed that the majority of the river spawn will happen in the next few days to weeks. We have been seeing a few bedded fish over the last ten days, and have caught some very nice fat females in the 5-8 lb range.  Afternoon trips are the best time to go.


Bob

Top water bite on river

I spent about 4 hours on river this evening with a buddy.  We thru nothing but buzzbaits. Caught a ton of small short fish, almost all were surely males. The females are very close. We did see a handful of beds, and if it stays warm, they will be locked in on beds within a week. Just have to watch the weather.

bob

Fish fillets

One thing I wanted to add to my last post. I heard that some fisherman got an earful for a picture of a bunch of fish he had obviously killed on Lake Austin. I have to believe that the fisherman fillet them and ate them. There is nothing wrong with that. And for anyone who says there is you havnt eaten my fried fish. I do cut a limit of spots as often as I can. They have all but over taken the river. Our blacks have made a decent comeback. I catch about 70/30 spots to blacks. I do not cut any blacks, as I believe they will thrive if given a chance. Obviously they get much larger and we are catching a few of them in the 7-10lb range lately  TPWD has given us no minimum length on spots but you can only have 5.  We have a 14 inch minimum on blacks with a 5 fish limit blacks and spotted combined. I wish TPWD would up the limit on spots to 10 with a 12 inch minimum, at least for the Colorado river because we have such a prolific population of them

Bob

Todays fishing on river

Sunday morning I had a father and his two kids. Air temp was 48 degrees. Not good.  And it was slow as I expected. We had about 16 head in 4 hours.They were troopers tho and with stood the cold and made the best of a hard morning.   These fish are begging for sunlight and warm temps.  They want to spawn, which may not be a good thing, since we are in early February. If this warming trend continues the river fish will spawn regardless of another hard freeze.  Today we had 48 head in 4 hours  . Almost all on spinnerbaits except two big girls  that we pulled off beds with Texas rigged plastic rage tail craws.  Cant ever remember bed fishing in early February.  The bite will only get better and more aggressive as each warm day comes and goes. Now is the time to get on the river and see what it can offer. I fish lake Bastrop all the time and this river has more numbers and better quality most of the time.