Last weekend, Wendy and I headed down to Fort Worth, Texas, to visit some of her side of the family. When the Airbnb was being booked, she informed me that there was a walking trail from the property to a river that was located nearby. I was pretty busy last week so I simply threw some fishing gear into the suitcase and threw a six weight fly rod in a tube. I thought I would simply bring it just in case a chance to fish arose. This was by no means a fishing trip but I thought maybe I would try to catch a fish in Texas just to say that I had done so.
On the morning that we were leaving, I had a little less on my mind and finally started thinking about the river that Wendy had mentioned. I asked her if she knew the name of the river. I asked this halfheartedly because there was a slim chance that I would recognize it since my Texas geography is subpar at best. When she told me it was the Trinity River, I might have literally jumped off the ground out of excitement. I had heard of this river before and knew it was home to monster-sized alligator gar. While I didn't know if the stretch we were visiting had alligator gar, I was excited to hear that it was a fishery that I had at least heard of.
We arrived on Friday and unpacked Friday evening. As the sun was going down, I started to examine the steep path that led to the river. While channeling our mountain goat capabilities, Wendy, River (from yesterday's post), River's mom, River's dad, and I headed to the water. When we reached the water, I was shocked to see how clear it was. It was somewhere between a Missouri farm pond and an Ozark stream. It wasn't gin clear, but it was clearer than I was expecting. It also looked a lot like the rivers that we have in northwest Missouri. It also fished a lot like rivers that we have in Missouri. I was also surprised to see the canoe that had been promised by the owners of the property. It had been mentioned in their property description, but I had a "I'll believe it when I see it" mentality.
I decided to keep things simple in the beginning and just start hunting for small fish with a jig under a float. To my shock and to everyone's amazement in our little fishing group, I hooked into a fish on my fifth cast! I had no idea what I had on the other end of my line, but I knew it was a fish! I eventually brought the fish to the boat but I'm still not sure if it is a small blue, white, or channel catfish. Regardless, I was pretty pumped! Early success on a new body of water does A LOT for an angler's confidence and mine was soaring. I assumed that if there were small catfish in this river, coupled with good water clarity and a seemingly lack of pollution, that I might find some grass carp, common carp, flathead catfish, and bluegill.
River and I found some bluegill just as the sun was going down. It was getting pretty dark and we decided to get to work against gravity on the steep trek home. While this was an exciting night in terms of fish caught, it would pale in comparison to what would happen the next morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment