OUTDOOR
As usual, it’s a hot summer in Central Texas, and it’s getting hotter every year. For weeks, I was bass fishing on Bastrop Lake until the sun scorched us. It was time to move to Plan B.
Lake Dunlap in New Braunfels is one of the series of Guadalupe River lakes. The lake looks more like a river than a lake. It’s narrow and surrounded by many huge trees. Unfortunately, several years ago, the dam that held the water in Lake Dunlap broke and the lake disappeared. Only the original Guadalupe River remained. Finally after several years, the dam was repaired. I didn’t fish Dunlap at all during the years of the broken dam. But now the lake is full again and decided to give it a try.
I love to fish Dunlap with a fly rod. In past years, it was full of big sunfish [i.e. bream], which are perfect to catch on a light fly rod. I thought, ‘Maybe the lake is still heavy on sunfish.” At least it would be much cooler than Bastrop.
The first trip was July 5. I took my young friend Travis from the Cowboys for Jesus Church near Canyon Lake. I am his mentor in fishing and hunting.
It wasn’t a good day for Travis. He had been up late shooting fireworks with his pals. All he did was cast a plastic worm out from the stern of the boat and slump over in a stupor. He caught nothing. But all morning, he saw me catching many bream on the fly rod. Finally as he began to wake up, I asked him if he wanted to learn how to fly fish. He did.
I gave him some basic instructions and put the long rod in his hands. He quickly caught several nice sunfish. He was hooked, so I dug out my older fly rod, reel and line to present to him as a gift.
On my next trip to Dunlap, I took Michael DeVries, Travis’ grandfather. He used the fly rod that I had given to Travis. After some instructions, which included watching him back cast around trees, he was making good casts around the docks and retainer walls.
“I like this better than bass fishing,” he said. “So much more action.”
We brought home a good icebox of bream for him to filet.
The predominant sunfish on Dunlap is not the bluegill. Most are red-breasted sunfish. In six trips, we have caught about 240 sunfish of all sizes [no size or numbers limited]. No red-ear sunfish, no green sunfish and only one bluegill.
One morning I went to the lake myself. Only my labrador retriever, Annie, accompanied me. Annie loves to boat ride and fish. She barks and bites at the fish when I flip them into the boat.
I had several good eating size redbreasts in the box when I cast the little surface poppin’ bug under a dock. The water swirled, and I lifted the rod tip to set the hook. The fish powered out from the dock and leaped into the clear New Braunfels air. A Largemouth Bass!
Dunlap has some big bass that the water around the docks and lily pads. Years ago, I caught a largemouth on a bream popper that weighed almost five pounds. It is still the lake Dunlap record for a largemouth bass on a fly rod.
Since I was enjoying teaching novices how to fly-fish, I invited my neighbor, Brad Allen, to go to Dunlap with me. Brady had never done any fishing, especially with a fly rod.
When I invited him, he got excited and said “I have a fly rod. It belonged to my mother.”
“What kind is it?” I asked. He didn’t know, so he went home and brought it to my house. It was a Reddington 9 foot, 5 weight rod. Reddington makes a very good rod. For bream, I think a light 3 or 4 weight is better but the 5 eight Reddington would be okay.
Brad was a good student. He quickly was making accurate casts against the retention walls. He got lots of hits, but didn’t know how to set the hook. A little instruction about lifting the rod tip and, at the same, time jerking the fly line when the fish hit was all he needed. He was soon catching one fish after another. He caught the biggest fish of the day, a 9 ½ inch redbreast.
When we got home, I taught him how to filet the fish. He took home a nice pile of filets for supper. The last thing he asked was, “Do you go to the lake every Tuesday?”
I think I have a new fishing partner.
