The Spectacular Nueces River - by Jay Forrest

Last year I was introduced to the Nueces River at the Bud Priddy One Fly tournament.

While I had heard the river was clear, I wasn’t prepared for totally transparent. This year I should have been mentally prepared, but I was not. I have fished so much murky water in my life that I doubt I will ever be truly prepared for the Nueces river.

The clarity of the Nueces makes sight casting practical and makes fishing to the larger bass downright tense at times. And downright frustrating when you watch them cruise coolly past your fly. You know they see the fly and they clearly have no intent of eating it.

Wading can be interesting. The clarity makes estimating depth an interesting challenge. At one point I was wading in waist deep water and looking for a path downstream. One path appeared particularly attractive. The bottom was white broken rock about the size of golf balls. It looked soft on one side and weedy on the other. And it looked like the bottom sloped gently from waist deep to knee deep over about fifteen feet. By the time I had gone ten feet I was up to my chin in water. I tiptoed on hoping I wouldn’t have to swim and the bottom soon rose back to thigh deep, but it never got to knee deep. I had been deceived by the clarity.

I had been deceived by clear water before. On the Metolius in Oregon I stepped into what appeared to be six inch deep water only to find it was over knee deep. Fortunately I remained upright, warm, and dry. On Silver Creek in Idaho, years later I was less fortunate and, in similar circumstances I had the privilege of draining my waders before beginning to fish. But those fabulously clear rivers have nothing over the Nueces. I doubt my tap water is any clearer than that river.

Last year I fished the Nueces with a dry fly and caught about 60 fish – mostly small sunfish with a few small bass thrown in. This year I set out to try to compete with John Marfin, so I switched to a small dark fly tied by a friend and headed for less fished water.

The strategy worked well. I not only caught a huge number of fish (205), but I caught large fish also (14 inch bass and five sunfish in the 8 3/4 to 9 3/8 inch range). My strategy called for retying the fly every ten fish. When I got to 30 fish I didn’t retie because the leader looked perfect and seemed fine. At 33 I checked again. Next cast - a strike and a surging fish followed by a limp line. My push to challenge John was foiled.

I was really impressed by the Nueces. I saw bass to 22 inches or so and caught one of 18 inches the evening before the tournament. And, where I fished there were lots of large sunfish - I probably caught 50 or 60 over roughly six inches in length.

It was an incredible day – to my knowledge the first time I have ever caught 200 fish in one day. But it isn’t the fish I caught that dominate my thoughts of the Nueces. It is the clarity of the water. Casting to the ghostly shadows of fish. The deception of clear water as I wade deeper thinking it will be shallower. And standing above the river with sun over my shoulder illuminating the bottom of a deep hole.

The Nueces is simply spectacular. Whether I catch large fish, or many fish, or any fish at all, I know I will enjoy and remember the clarity of her waters.