Fish Porn

Ok, now that I have your attention...fish porn is the term used by some in the fishing world to describe lots of pics of fish.

Recently, friend Chris and I went to see if there were any willing trout on the Guadalupe River.

We ran down the night before to try to chase a few fish before the sun went down. Chris connected with a few, and announced that the day following would be great.

Chris is a fly fishing guide...which is to say that optimism is part of his stock in trade. He spends time taking clients with all levels of fly fishing skill down the river in a raft, and puts them on fish. Needless to say, he has to be an optimist.

I, on the other hand, am a realist. I know my skills, and my past successes and failures. I am able to remain pretty humble regarding potential fishing success, especially when fishing with guides. I expected Chris would catch a lot of fish, I would catch a few, but we would both have a grand time.

It turns out Chris was right and I was pleasantly surprised...and went home with a sore wrist from arm wrestling fish all day long.

The morning dawned cold for two Texas boys...the thermometer read 28F. Cold enough to freeze my wading boots which were left in the truck overnight, still wet from fishing the night before. I had to warm the laces in my hands to thaw them out so I could tie them.

Soon the sun crept up and we were on the water...finding it mostly void of other fishers.

We selected a spot on our map to begin the day. A spot I had not fished before, but we had it on good authority that it was a prime spot. Our informant was correct...





We caught trout...and some odd fish called Red Horse Suckers...I wonder how they came up with that name? Here is my trophy RH Sucker (Chris kindly netted her for me).

Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Steve Magnelia tells us (tongue in cheek) that we have a "world class Red Horse Sucker fishery on the Guad. This time of year that are spawning, and in some of the shallow areas of the river they can be seen stacked shoulder to shoulder in the current.

They are strong fish, and they like taking flies. And they are fun to catch.
Most of the sucker strikes were slower than trout, and they don;t tend to take the blistering runs tour usually do...but the largest one almost got me into my backing before we subdued her.







This one ran straight across the river from me and tried to swim up the roots of the Cypress tree you see to the right of Chris's shoulder.

I have now been dubbed "The Sucker King"; a rather dubious distinction.

Later at another location we had company in the form of three goats on an impossibly steep cliff opposite us on the river...you can just make them out in the photo.




























Same goats with as good a zoom as my little camera could manage.

And yes, we found more fish...




In all we estimate we caught over 25 trout, and lost at least that many more to thrown flies and broken lines.

These Guadalupe trout may have been raised in Missouri, but they turn into true tail-kicking Texans within a couple days of being in the river.

Must be something in the water.



Tight Lines...