OUTDOORS
Fishing from the Arroyo Colorado River near Rio Hondo has been lots of fun for the last four months. I don’t catch as many fish as I do at Aransas Pass but most of the fish I catch here are larger.
When I arrived in October, the fishermen at the River Ranch Resort where we are living were pretty closed-mouthed about their favorite fishing spots on the river. So I had to learn the river by myself. I was on a bit of a learning curve, but now I am catching more fish than any of the fishermen in the park. They say it’s because I am the park preacher.
Most of the fishermen are bait soakers. They catch plenty of mullet in their cast nets. They do catch some good fish, but hardhead catfish and crabs eat most of the live bait. Using lures, I have never had that problem.
Recently, my friend Bob, who is the best live-bait fisherman in the park, went with me. He calls my soft plastic baits rubber lures. I don’t think he expected to catch anything on plastics. We had landed a few small fish when I hooked into a powerful fish. Finally, a 23-inch black drum came to the net. I think Bob was amazed. Then I hit a really big flounder. Bob netted all 23 inches of him. After the flounder came a big keeper red fish — 25-inches.
Bob kept tossing a pearl jerk bait and missed several red fish. As we were fishing towards the park, he finally got the treble hook into a good red fish.
A few days later, Bob went with me again, and I hooked into a powerful red fish. I directed the electric motor toward the center of the river where the depth is a constant 16-feet deep. I didn’t want the big fish to get into the bush. I just let time tire out in the deep water. When we put him on the measure board, he hit 29 ¼-inches. Legal keepers are between 20-28 inches, so we released him to fight another day.
As winter arrived, the water temperature had dropped. When I arrived in October, it was 80 degrees. Now it is 52 degrees. The colder water is pushing fish, especially speckled trout, from the Laguna Madre up the river.
One morning recently, I couldn’t get anyone to go fish with me, so my dog Annie and I ran about five miles down the river. I caught several smaller fish including two snook about 17-inches long each. Annie is good company in the boat, but she is a pill when you hook a fish. When the fish, large or small, hits the deck, she is on it. It’s a battle to rescue the fish from her to release or put into the icebox.
With Annie intently watching me fish, I hooked into a good fish but it hit the lure on the run. It fought hard, and I expected a red fish. But when it came to the surface, it was a big trout with a huge yellow mouth. Finally I tired him (or her) out and brought a 26 ½-inch trout into the boat. It was my second largest trout. I caught a 28-inch years ago and a 20-inch recently at Aransas Pass. This fish was not only long but thick and heavy. Legal trout must be between 15- and 20-inches, but you are not allowed one to be 28-inches or over. So I slid her back into the river. That fish made my day. I’m hoping for a 30-inch trout this winter.
One of my new friends here in the valley is a Minnesota retiree named Gar. I call him Gar fish. Last week, the weather was awful cold, windy and wet. I picked the best looking morning and persuaded Gar to fish with me.
“I can’t believe you got me here out in this mess,” he groaned.
“You are from Minnesota and you call this cold?,” I said. “Stop complaining and just fish.”
We caught about a dozen trout, red fish, black drum and snook. Three trout were keepers. All the other fishermen in the park said we were crazy and so did one wife.
I’m looking forward to February. That’s when the spring starts here in the Rio Grande Valley.
