San Marcos — I have two brothers. My younger brother, Wayne, lives in Aransas Pass so we have opportunity to fish the coastal bays together often.

My brother, Bill, is two years younger than me. He lives on Lake Pickwick in Tennessee. Wayne and I rarely see him, much less get to fish together. So last week was a rare blessing.

Bill and his wife, Gaye, have bought a big 40-foot fifth wheel camping trailer. He pulls it with a new heavy one-ton diesel truck. They called to see if we could all camp together on some lake near San Marcos. What a surprise!

I quickly made reservations for all three couples on Lake Bastrop. Wayne and his wife, Nancy, pulled their boat behind their motor home. My wife, Beth, and I took our boat and camper.

The weather was wonderful for camping and the bass were really biting. Bastrop is a small lake but few lakes can rival the heavy numbers of largemouths that infest Bastrop’s waters.

Years ago, I helped Bill obtain a good fly rod. He tried it one time and put it away. Bill is high octane and not known for patience. Fly fishing just didn’t fit his “in a hurry” personality.

“Bring your fly rod,” I said to him on the phone. “I promise you will catch some big bass on it.”

After we all set up camp Bill got out his six-weight fly rod and I helped him set it up for bass. We put on a 15-pound tippet on the leader and tied on a big black popper. Immediately, we took off for a short practice run before dark.

Like all fly rod beginners, Bill’s casting was a disaster. Fly line was continually wrapped around his neck. But he didn’t give up this time. I was impressed with his patience.

“I’m retired now,” he said. “I’m learning to slow down and enjoy the moment.”

With my instructions he began to improve his casts. I caught two nice bass on my five-weight. Then it was Bill’s number that came up. His big black bug disappeared in a huge swirl. As he lifted the rod and tightened the line with the other hand, the hook stuck.

The three-pound largemouth put on a good show. She went airborne six times. She also fought deep under the boat trying to tangle in the eel grass. Bill kept steady pressure on her. Finally the bass came to the surface and lay on her side.

As Bill released her he exclaimed, “Man that was fun.”

Bill’s first fish on the fly rod reminded me of an event with Bobby Whiteside many years before. Bobby bought a nice G-Loomis six-weight rod and we headed for the coast. We fished under some dock lights in a subdivision that night. At one of the lights a big redfish could be seen circling the light and looking for a late supper. Bobby made a good cast and the red sucked in the fly.

What a fight he had. The fish fought all over that subdivision canal, trying to get tangled in the many docks. Finally, the long rod won and Bobby lifted a 30-inch redfish into the boat,

With a big ear to ear grin Bobby said, “I could have caught three fish on my bait caster rod in that amount of time.” I knew then that no fly fishing genes were in his blood.

Early the next morning, Wayne and I met at Bill’s trailer for a huge fisherman’s breakfast of fried eggs, sausage, and biscuits. At first light we were on the water. Bill fished with me so that he could do more fly fishing. Beth fished with Wayne.

Bill caught several bass on his fly rod again. His casting began to acquire a rhythm. Instead of trying to power his casts he was letting the long rod do the work. Each day he got better and better, until he was catching big numbers on his popper.

Wayne, who is not a fly fisherman, was also catching big numbers of bass. He and Bill both fished a mid-depth chartreuse crankbait that was very effective. Some of the big bass were also caught on the Tiny Torpedo surface lure.

Tuesday night we had a fish fry. We had stockpiled some small legal keepers (under 14 inches). I don’t like to eat large bass but the smaller ones fry up real nice. Wayne’s son, Jonathan, was returning from a business trip and dropped in for the fish fry. After supper, he and Wayne fished two hours and caught 10 big bass. Several of them were in the 4-5 pound class. Those are big fish for Bastrop.

Jonathan, who lives in Corpus Christi, is a great coastal fisherman. His salty skills carried over into freshwater. Pictures of big bass taken with his phone camera were soon seen by friends all over the state.

Wayne and I fished a short morning on Wednesday since he and Nancy had to leave by noon. We helped them pack up and waved goodbye as they headed south.

Bill and I fished two more days. One morning we caught 18 bass in the first hour of fishing. Bass were trapping shad against the rocks on the dam and they mistook our fly bugs for shad. It was quite an hour of fishing.

One afternoon we went out after supper and fished one hour and 20 minutes. The bass ate our poppers until it was pitch dark. Of the 15 fish, Bill caught eight.

By week’s end we had caught over 150 bass without fishing long hours. Bill was elated.

“I love this fly fishing,” he exclaimed. “I can hardly wait to try it on Lake Pickwick for smallmouths.”

Bill and Gaye moved on down Interstate 10 toward Big Bend National Park as we headed for San Marcos. It had been a great reunion week of fishing, feasting, shopping (for the ladies) and camping. We have plans for a repeat next spring.

Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated outdoors television show, God’s Great Outdoors. His column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.