netboy

The COE is releasing lots of water to lower the lake after a very wet spring. Wade fishing is impossible, so I took the boat out this morning and had a good trip. Ended the morning with 11 rainbows, 1 brown and 2 brookies. The best fly today was a girdle bug under an indicator. Here are a few of the better ones.

Fished the C&R area and had a good morning. Only 2 other boats out so it was not crowded. Best fly today was a brown girdle bug dead drifted under an indicator. Ended the morning with 14 including this nice rainbow.

My simple rule for nymphing is one and a half times the depth. I was fishing in 5 feet of water, so set it at 7.5. Adjust accordingly.

Death toll now 78 and still some missing. Texas flooding updates: Statewide death toll now at least 78, say officials

Timelapse video of the water coming up. Timelapse video shows speed of floodwater rising in Texas | CNN And a story from a survivor.

Amazing video of a wall of water coming down the Guadalupe River near Kerrville. Reports now say at least 67 dead and 11 kids still missing from a girl's camp along the river. What a tragedy and it happened on a holiday weekend. Facebook

The COE closed the spill gates and SWPA increased generation to all 8 units at maximum generation. I took the boat to the C&R area this morning and had a good morning with a dozen rainbows, 3 average browns and 2 brookies. Missed the slam with no cutties. Best flies today were a girdle bug with a pheasant tail dropper. With these flows I don't use a tapered leader, just 9 feet of 8lb mono and then a 3-foot 5x tippet which gets the flies down. Here's a couple of the better rainbows. Note... I always cover the bottom of the boat with a towel full of cool water before I take the pics and they swim away strong.

Wow. just got off the phone with the family and got the details. Chuck was shredding the area on an open tractor. His grandson was with him and at the truck, Apparently, he ran over a log and disturbed the nest. They immediately swarmed him, and he jumped off the tractor and ran to the truck with the bees swarming him. The grandson, who is 14, got him into the backseat and was also being stung. He "drove" the truck out of the ranch and found a highway patrol officer and stopped the truck. The officer got Chuck out of the truck as there were still bees in there and laid him on the shoulder of the highway. They called the EMS and by the time they got there, he was gone. Coroner said there were 700 stings.

Another funny story about that area. I occasionally launch my boat at the Ranchette Access, which is on the county road. When you turn off the highway to go to Ranchette there is big, very old oak tree with a carved wooden sign that says "The Talkin Tree". Thinking there must be a good story (perhaps an old Indian legend or something like that) behind the name, I asked our Trout Unlimited friends that live down there about it. The answer was.... Oh, that is closest place to get cell phone reception.😀

It would be a very small HOA as there are only a few houses out there. After venturing out there once, I can see why.

There is one county road that runs through the middle of the subdivision that is maintained, but Dovewood Road is the responsibility of the homeowners living on it and it has a steep drop to the river with a hairpin turn. You won't get a pizza delivered out there.

Here is post about an African bee attack from a South Texas fishing forum.... "A few years ago the wife was mowing in the back of the property around the equipment barn and the arena while I was working in another barn up by the house. I heard her scream, saw her jump off of the lawnmower flapping her arms and then run and dive into a nearby water trough, luckily it clicked as to what was going on, I grabbed two heavy duty slicker suits off of the barn wall and proceeded to go get her out of there. Once I got her covered and wrapped up in a slicker and out of the area they moved on to chasing the horses, the horses hauled butt so they then went hot and heavy after a 900 lb steer that was in the pen next to the arena. The steer died about 3 days later, the wife ended up with around 200 stings to the head and neck, a half a bottle of benadryl and a trip to the emergency room. I ended up with around 25 stings to the face and hands. The slicker suits and the benadryl both helped the situation a lot."

A good hunting buddy of ours was killed by a swarm of killer bees while clearing a part of his property last week in the Brackettville area. Wow, so many great memories of the dove hunts and great grilled dove dinners afterwards. Be careful if you are in South Texas. Those things are deadly.

Interesting that whole area was the White-water development that the Clintons got busted for.

We looked at a house down there when we were home shopping back in 2017. Almost couldn't get up that hill during good weather. It was a bargain, but no way I would ever go back there.

Dovewood Lane????

Was that house you rented a mile or so above Ranchette Access? If so, I know that road and it is terrible. I always wondered how they got all the materials and equipment in there to build homes.

Well, this my experience from this morning. A couple of "spin fishers" came up there in a rented boat from the State Park. They were throwing big "JERK" baits. They finally caught a decent rainbow and guess where it went??? After high fives it went into the live well. I yelled at them that this is a catch and release area and got a rude reply. Next, I told them to let it go. Well after some bantering back and forth, the morons decided it was probably best to let it go and released it from the live box. And then.... about 20 minutes later, here comes the Game Warden with his binoculars out scouting the area. Those Bozos should be pretty happy I got them to release the fish or they would be looking a hefty citation.

Just saw this pic on Facebook. Four gates open with 2,036cfs. Interesting that there is a boat up there clearly in the restricted area below the dam 😡

Of course, I fish most every day, but it doesn't look like it will be much different from what it has been. They added another 2k cfs at 1pm. It went from 19,236 to 21,286 so I wouldn't expect much of a shad kill.

They were running around 19,500cfs this morning with all 8 generators running, so it looks like maybe one spill gate.

Thanks, seems like they come too quickly these days.

I waded at the dam and fishing was pretty good. I saw more sulphurs coming up late morning before the horn went off and the water came up. Caught a dozen nice rainbows, some small browns and a decent brookie. Best flies were a sulphur colored crackleback, eggs and then late morning I caught a couple on a parachute sulphur dry fly and missed a few others on that. Here are a couple of the better rainbows.

Nice one. 👍

I waited until the rain slowed down this morning and took the boat up to the dam. It was supposed to be 8 units, but when I got there the water was down to 1 unit. Fishing was good. Caught a dozen nice rainbows and this brown. Best fly was an egg under an indicator. The river has been brown all day here in Cotter with the runoff.