Austin Fishing The Little Blue River

This past weekend my brother and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures and decided to try one of our favorite local carp spots, the Little Blue River. This little creek is very productive during the late spring and summer, producing plenty of grass carp, gar, common carp, buffalo, and even drum. However, the banks of the river are covered in miles of grass taller than I, making it almost impossible to reach the creek. I've had both deer and vultures jump out from a few feet in front of me while trying to find my way to the water. As a result, I generally stay away for the majority of the summer hoping that someone will come along and cut the grass - and that's exactly what happened this past week. I was a little skeptical that the cooler temperatures would turn off the fishery with warmer temperatures but the forecast said it would be in the 70's on Saturday so I gathered my carping gear and decided to give it a try. 

My brother and I got to the river around 10:00 AM and noticed there was a little more wind than we had hoped for, but sometimes it will blow leaves into the water making the grass carp go on a feeding frenzy. Within seconds we spotted a few common carp cruising the opposite bank but they refused to eat our flies so we decided to move on. A little farther down the creek we spotted some grass carp picking leaves of the surface (At least there is one benefit to wind) so I snuck up past one and dropped a little green fly right next to its face. As soon as the fly hit the water the grass carp swiped towards it and sucked it up, barely giving me enough time to set the hook. After a few minutes of bending my 5wt to its limits the carp decided it was ready for a few pictures and a quick release. Not long after, my brother landed a nice grasser but we had to be somewhere soon (ugh) and we needed enough time to scrub the carp slime off our bodies. I was semi-surprised but very glad that we found some fish this far into the fall and couldn't wait to get out again on Sunday.  

Sunday was quite a bit cooler (in the lower 50's) so I wasn't sure if we would experience the same activity as the day before. We saw a few buffalo tailing on the other bank but as always the buffalo paid to attention to our flies. There were no grass carp to be found anywhere and after an hour of aimlessly wandering around and annoying the buffalo we decided to turn back. Before we left, I made one last cast to the 15th buffalo we had seen and to my surprise, it took the fly. I had never actually hooked a buffalo before and was impressed by how hard it fought. My brother eventually snatched it out of the water long enough to take a few pics of its oddly shaped mouth before letting it go. We decided we should end on a good note and left the river.