*Note: Usually when I do an access article, I like to have been to the spot several times before writing it. In this case however I’m not sure I will make it back there any time soon even though it look like a great location. So this article will have a lot of caveats as to the conditions and also include a little extra write up about my morning scouting out the area.
Recently I heard of an outing that the San Gabriel Fly Fishers had to the Colorado River. The description on their website was intriguing and so I scheduled a trip out to check it out, then rescheduled, and again and so on until several weeks had gone by before I finally made good on my plans.
4:30am and I have a love/hate relationship. I really hate getting up early, I am not a morning person and getting up at this time usually means I’ve had 4 hours sleep if I’m lucky. On the other hand, I love the solitude on the river as the sun rises. For example, on this fine morning I was able to assemble the kayak in the pre-dawn light while being serenaded by coyotes.
But I get ahead of myself. Lets go back to the pain that is 4:30am and start there. Its only fair after all.
So, to get to this spot on the Colorado River above Lake Travis that the guys at San Gabriel Fly Fishers described I had to take the FM1431 for 27 deer infested miles. Although fear is better than caffeine any day, there was nary a doe or buck for the entire drive to justify my white knuckle, bug eyed driving style this morning. Had the war on cars that the deer declared decades ago finally come to an end? Would there finally be peace in my lifetime?
Cheered by this prospect, I pulled into the gate to the LCRA’s Shaffer Bend Park and paid the honor box $5 for the vehicle fee.
As soon as I headed down the dirt road that takes a long loop to the river I saw them. Hundreds of deer; in the fields, in the woods, even standing defiantly in the road. This war was not over, they were obviously mustering here in secret for a massive counter-attack. My only hope was to act insane, make them think I wasn’t worth their trouble. Apparently driving mile after mile down a dirt road shaking my fists while spewing none stop obscenities did the trick.
As I mentioned before, I set up the kayak in pre-dawn light and by the time I slid it into the water the first rays of the sun were cresting over the hills. Now with reasonable lighting, I could see that the pool was fairly shallow but the current was a nice 200cfs or so. The banks were wet about 5 to 6 feet higher than the water, indicating that the river had dropped very quickly in the last few hours.
I had not rigged my fly rod yet since I thought I would be doing some exploring before finding a place to fish. However the pool was getting a lot of top water action. It appeared to be small clusters of White Bass chasing some sort of bait fish but I wasn’t sure. I had never caught a White Bass on a fly rod so now seemed like a good time to do so. I rigged up my version of a Cypret’s Minnow in silver/white on my 000wt and waded out as far as I could.
On my first cast into the fast current I hooked up! I was very hopeful for a White Bass but it ended up being a little 8″ Largemouth Bass. The second casts brings in another little 8″ largemouth. I was starting to wonder if the surface action were largemouth’s as I tried casting to an area where the fish had splashed. On the 3rd cast I got a hard take and the fight was on. It was easy to see right away in the clear water I had a White Bass on and man was it strong!
It was only 14″ but it wet my appetite to catch more since its not uncommon for these things can get fairly large and if a little guy fought that good what would a big one feel like?
Later as I worked a small bit of brush in a larger pool, I hooked another first for me on the fly: a White Crappie!
As much fun as I was having, I only had a few hours of river time today and needed to go explore. So I mounted back up in the kayak and paddled off, looking back longingly at all the top water action I was leaving behind.
From the best I could deduce, the river was about 30 feet below normal. Now, that’s a bit of a misstatement since the reason this area is usually higher since it is actually an upper extension of Lake Travis. In reality this section of “river” is normally part of the lake and only because of the drought has it been revealed to us again.
Now it has long riffled runs, waterfalls and narrow channels all separating the deep pools. A very different waterway indeed.
After dragging the kayak past the low water in the photo above, I decided to try my luck fishing for Smallmouth Bass in the fast current next to the shaded bluffs you can see in the distance. I had to wade up to chest level to make the casts but was able to pull 3 Smallmouths out using a Flying Cat fly, including this particularly pretty one below.
Out of time, I headed back up river only stopping twice to cast to fish splashing near rocks. Both times I pulled out small Largemouth Bass.
When I got back to the pool I launched from at about 11am, the water appeared to be about 12 inches lower and the flow lessened. There were a still a few fish chasing bait fish but it was nothing like the morning activity.
This is a photo of the pool at its lowest from where I parked the Jeep.
As far as the access report goes, I am only going to cover the Shaffer Bend Pool:
The Fish:
I’m pretty sure the fish are seeking refuge in this pool whenever the water level drops. There appears to be a healthy population of Largemouth Bass in this pool including some large fish. There are also a significant number of White Bass here that were feeding actively. I’m sure all the usual suspects are also in this pool but stay on your toes in case a monster catfish takes your fly, I saw some big ones in there.
How to get there and park:
My best guess is that the pool is located at 30.543875, -98.18696 on Google Maps. Just go to Shaffer Bend Park and head down to the river, you should be able to make out the pool using the photo above fro confirmation. Parking is easy, its a dirt road and there are pull offs everywhere.
General Fishing Tips:
It appears, at least at this time that the up river dam (Max Starcke Dam) is releasing a lot of water, starting just after noon and building up to 2000cfs to generate electricity. Then starting around midnight they slowly start easing it down to 200cfs by mid-morning. This mean the best fishing is probably just prior of sunrise to around 10am. Most of the pool can be accessed by shoreline and wading however I think a float would be a distinct advantage. When wading, move slowly over the sand, it can suddenly sink up to 12″ when you least expect it to.
Other Spots:
I didn’t really get a chance to explore much but I imagine there are other pools just like this one, perhaps even better. Despite catch 3 smallmouths at the bluffs, I wouldn’t recommend it as worth going to.
