Bass and Dinos

[Glitchmo]

Christina and I headed over to Dinosaur Valley State Park here in Texas, which sits astride the Paluxy River.







DVSP's major claim to fame is the plethora of preserved dinosaur prints found throughout the limestone riverbed. There are two kinds of tracks, some from Acrocanthosaurs (like a small T-rex) which are shown below. There are also some from Sauroposeidon (a small apatosaur) but these prints look mostly like round depressions in the mud, so they didn't photo well.









The Paluxy river's other claim to fame (or at least my source of interest) was as an excellent bass fishing river, especially for wading and fly fishing. I still can't get bass to go on topwater, but the chartreuse bugger was slaying them this morning. I actually didn't catch the target species -- largemouth bass. I'm trying to improve on my PB 14", and didn't manage that this trip. But, I did catch three new species, so I'm pretty thrilled with how the day went.

First up was this handsome fellow, which looks like a LMB, but I think is actually a kentucky spotted bass (mouth does not reach past eye). Unexpected, but not at all unwelcome.



Next up were a few sunfish -- these I think are longear sunfish, but they're much lighter in color than any other I've seen. The limestone river bottom may contribute to that.





Next up was the highlight of the day for me -- the biggest fish I caught and my first smallmouth!





I hooked and lost a few more smallish bass as I worked back down the river. Interestingly, most of my fish were hooked on a second cast -- the fish would follow my prospecting casts back in, and once I saw them they would hit a second cast of the same fly in their vicinity -- that's the opposite of how it's supposed to work, but I'll take it. 

As we headed out to lunch, I stopped by a bush and landed another longear, though this one had a much darker color scheme.



For lunch we hit a local barbecue joint, which was delightful.



Afterwards, we headed back to the river. Unfortunately, the water temp, which was 75F in the morning had risen to near 90F by 2:00, and I think that really suppressed the bite. I was still seeing fish, but they weren't hitting the fly anymore, and I didn't catch any more bass.

[Latimeria]

Great report!  Man, i have read and seen so much about that spot most of my life.  I have found many dinosaur tackway sites, but I've always wanted to go down there.  So cool.

Thanks for that report as it really was a prehistoric soul post!

[Glitchmo]

I thought you'd like that. 

KenT informs me that it's more likely a guadalupe bass, not a SMB.

[Latimeria]

I was going to mention that. Dorsal fins are connected like a smallmouth, but lips pass eyes which is not smallmouth. Really cool colorings though! Fish and fossils at the same time. So jealous!