It was a beautiful day to be on the river. My neighbor, Tom Ray, and I were on the Guadalupe River about 6 miles above Canyon Lake. The white bass annual spring spawning run was overdue to start. But we love the river and decided to check it out. We caught a few white bass but other events overshadowed it.
A flock of about 35 Rio Grande turkeys were on the bank on the west side of the river. The toms were fanned out and strutting around the hens. They were not gobbling yet. That’s a few more days ahead as we move closer to the spring breeding season. As we idled on past them, the whole flock flew across the river. Tom was counting them like an accountant as they glided across. But even the turkeys were not the main event.
As we slow-trolled our crappie jigs upstream we saw a big limb on a dead tree shaking. Then a big fish tail appeared. Someone’s catfish limb line had a big catfish hooked. We pulled up to the tree and, to our amazement, a huge flathead catfish was swimming beneath the limb. A big hook was embedded in the corner of his mouth so we knew he was not going to escape. Tom eased the line up and I took photos as the fish slowly idled around.
