Bass Fishing in the Devil's River

We've been fishing our hearts out. The days would start out very foggy and we would get on the lake just as the fog would be lifting so it was a little damp until the sun burned it off. By late afternoon the fish would be jumping in every cove tempting us to try and catch them. It was interesting to see that even down here they have Mayfly hatches. The Mayflies hatch and die and lay on top of the water and the fish jump to eat them. When we would fish Mille Lacs the Mayfly hatches would be so huge that the bodies of Mayflies would form rivers in the water. Jim had the most luck and caught the most and biggest fish. I only caught a couple but we both were having a blast. It's such a different kind of fishing down here. You cast alongside the brush in the water, trying not to get caught in it while reeling in your fish. They talk about weed beds somewhere in this water but all we've seen is brush and trees. The fish we caught were largemouth bass although down here they call them blacks. Jim caught one white bass as well but it had a hunk missing out of his tail.

The canyon walls in the Devil's River are made of very soft rock and it is full of caves and holes. The hole in the picture is pretty close to the water line but the water is up a good 20 feet from normal so this hole is usually way out of the water. All of the holes and caves are protected -- you can't go in them -- most are too shallow anyway but the deeper ones are home to bats in the summer. The bats head farther southwest into Mexico during the "winter" because they like really nice and warm.

Del Rio had a celebration for all of us "winter Texans" that included a free breakfast and other goodies for all of us. Texas is very happy to have all of us snowbirds in the state for the winter -- its a nice boost to the economy. Our RV park has folks from all over including Alaska, Washington, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri, Mississippi, Kansas, Michigan, Wyoming and surprisingly even from the northern part of Texas.

Open Water

We haven't been able to fish -- too cold, windy and a couple of days of drizzle with one day of actual rain. They tell us the fish go really deep when it turns cold and we don't like to pull them out of really deep water. A fishes air bladder will blow up being pulled up from way down deep because of the pressure change and they usually don't survive. We practice catch and release so we don't want our fish to die.

There was a big tournament on the lake this past weekend. The average catch by the pros was 8 pounds per fish. Huge fish being caught pretty deep. They actually take a needle and poke the air bladder to deflate it to keep the fish alive. We aren't convinced this works but we hope so with the number of large fish that were caught and then released back into the lake.

The pictures of the water were all taken at the the spur 454 boat launch area. This is where they released all the fish. We might try fishing this area just to see if the fish will hang out here or go back deep quickly.

Amistad Dam & Ice Texas Style

Amistad means friendship and the dam was built by the U.S. and Mexico and completed in 1968. It was built to help with drought and flood control. There were some devasting floods in the area over the years and drought is always an issue. The top of the dam is a roadway that is also a port of entry. The statues are along the roadway -- at the border between the two countries about in the middle of the dam. You can drive to the statues without going into Mexico and through customs although you have to go through a border checkpoint on the way back. The picture of the water is the Rio Grande below the dam. It is too wide and deep to walk across at least not now.

The weather got cold here with temps falling in the 20's for a few nights. It was a very big deal down here. They had to open emergency shelters for the homeless and people who don't have heat in their "homes". The temps would rise into the 40's during the day but they just can't take the cold here at all. There was a break in a water pipe at the campground which caused a small lake of ice chucks. The local newspaper showed a large puddle of frozen water along the road in front of a business. Unbelievable that pictures of ice along the road would make the paper!

We won't be fishing until the temps stay up in the high 50's and 60's for a week or so because the lake water temp has dropped into the mid 50's making the fish go pretty deep and lethargic. Although we have seen some diehard Texans going out fishing during this cold snap. It would be like a Minnesotan fishing in late October, early November out in a boat.

On the Lake

We went fishing on New Year's Eve. It was warm enough to be in shorts -- even a swim suit for a little while -- at least until the wind kicked up. Jim caught a small large mouth bass -- too small to keep. I took a picture of the flowers on the side of the canyon wall. It is wonderful to see something blooming this time of year. The flowers are safe from the goats eating them because they are clinging to the wall and the goats can't get there. The ranchers that own land around the lake all graze goats on it. The goats mow the desert down. Sometimes they get themselves caught out on a ledge over the water and can't get off without help.

Lake Amistad has houseboats on it that are rented out year round. Forever Resorts owns them and have them parked in two different marinas. I took a picture of one of the marinas that had both the rentals and some private houseboats.

There has been a sighting of a mountain lion by our camp. Some people feed the deer here and obviously the deer attract predators. The DNR have trapped over 40 of the lions in this part of Texas. They don't like them much -- not sure why -- I guess between the cougars and bobcats they eat a lot of goats.