11th Annual Oktoberfisch Fly Fishing Festival

Morgan Shady RV Park gives visitors a peaceful view of the slow moving water of the South Llano River.  Under the shade of oak and elm trees attendees of the 11th Annual Oktoberfisch Fly Fishing Festival gathered to share stories and attend fly fishing workshops. This is my fourth visit to Oktoberfisch and hopefully if my health and timing is right, it won't be my last.

Peyton's redfish shrimp was selected.

Over the last two years, I've attended and have had a chance to play a small part by helping by tying a saltwater fly fishing pattern. My contact was Dr. Guy Harrison. Doc Harrison was instrumental in helping to protect our state fish, the Guadalupe bass, that has been threatened by the introduction of small mouth bass that tend to breed and hybridize. This year due to health reasons, he wasn't able to attend. After all he has to slow down sometime now having reached the young age of 95. I'm trying to convince people that fly fishing helps you live longer and Doc is my testament that my theories is a possible explanation.

The smile should say it all!

Gene Smith allowed me to help by tying the Peyton's redfish shrimp. The session was attended by several novice fly tiers. One of them was so excited because he learned to tie his first fly. Peyton's redfish shrimp is not a beginning fly tier's first fly, but those in attendance did a great job making a go of a difficult pattern. You could tell from their comments that they appreciated having an opportunity to tie a pattern.

Irma enjoying the wildflowers.

After the fly tying session, Irma and I headed to the water to try our look with several flies that I had tied. My fly box had a three-layered bug, olive woolly buggers, and plenty of crawfish patterns. Our Wilderness System rides were a little overkill for the river, but I was comfortable and felt it was worth the effort to bring them all the way from the Valley to fish the South Llano, a four hundred mile trip. Fortunately, the only mishap was losing the license plate between the Valley and Kerrville. I noticed it when we got down to photograph some flowers along the roadside.

One of the reasons for traveling to Junction is the opportunity to see fall flowers. The spring is probably the best time for taking pictures of wildflowers, but heading out to encounter cooler weather and see something more than bluebonnets, phlox, and Indian paintbrush gets me excited.

OK, back to the fishing stories. We paddled our way upstream from the park. Usually we rent kayaks or get shuttled up river by South Llano Canoe and Kayak Outfitters, but this year they weren't going to open up for business until the following week.

The view from the river is worth seeing. Irma took these spectacular pictures of the color combination that makes this part of the Texas so picturesque. We were blessed with beautiful skies and cool morning temperatures. Even though we headed out right before lunch the air temperature was near the high 70's. The wind was calm and as I paddled the edge of the bank, I found it easy to position the kayak to make short casts to the undercut banks and grass growing near the edges. I only lost one woolly bugger on a tree branch. That was my mistake by being pretty determined to get as close to the bank as possible. But if you don't hit close, then there is a chance you won't catch fish. Irma stayed near the shade of the trees. One of the neat thing about the area is that other kayak fishermen greet you and offer to comments that give you an idea about where and how to fish. We in return offered what ever information we could provide.

After several casts, I had several strikes probably from bluegill. I took aim at a hole near the bank and after two strips got a strong bite. A small Guadalupe bass had taken my olive woolly bugger. It's amazing the fight and strength of these fish. Of course, its nothing like fighting a redfish even one that just makes the minimum size, but for the size these bass make you think of fighting larger fish. Their bite is a definite tug.

Aside from the fight, they are pretty fish. This isn't a large or mature fish, but it's typical for the fish caught along the river banks within Junction, Texas' city limits. After catching two cute bluegill, I caught up with Irma and decided to go to lunch.

The weather that afternoon was cool and worth exploring the little town of a little over 3,000 people. Last year we stopped at Junction River Winery and decided to make a second trip. The idea was to not have too much to eat since we were going to a barbecue that evening. Of course, that didn't mean that I couldn't have a couple of glasses of wine. My choice was to start with a glass of a carbernet-merlot blend called Reunion de Bluitre or reunion of the buzzards. It was good, in fact so good, that I brought a bottle home.

The rest of the light meal included wild boar sausage, eye of round with a mild horseradish spread, a cilantro spread, candied pecans, olives, apple slices, a couple of cheeses, and grapes. Irma ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream and shared it.

The folks at the winery were very pleasant and we got a chance to take photographs of the food and they even offered to take a picture of us enjoying the afternoon. I'm glad they did because later on I got the idea to ask others to take pictures of us as we enjoyed our trip.

Our hostess told us that she was going to be working on a project with Texas Tech University extension and providing aquatic education classes to local area children. We told her about our interest in working with kids on the same topic. She explained that her experience included working on a game ranch before coming to Junction about five years earlier. The ranch was somewhere in the Houston area. 

It's amazing how much you can learn about people and how much in common you have with them. Who would have known that our hostess would have similar interests. 

Later we experienced the same thing with a couple from Floresville, Texas and another Oktoberfisch participant from Austin. What we had in common is our interest in small recreational vehicles. They both invited us to see their little campers. One was a Flagstaff A-Frame and another was a small teardrop shaped trailer made by Camp-Inn. Both were a little over $10,000, but the design was truly remarkable. Every little bit of space was utilized to contain the most essential conveniences.

Our friends from Floresville took the picture on the right. Doesn't it seem like a wonderful afternoon. It was even made better by the entertainment hired by the Oktoberfish organizers. The little local band from Kerrville was the "4 Proaches". The family band had what Irma thought was the cutest little mandolin player. It reminded her of one of our friends little boy. The older 21 year old brother played the guitar, the 18 year old the bango, and their sister provided wonderful harmony. It was a great afternoon free of mosquitoes and flies. These critters usually can put a damper on the best occasion. 

The steak was delicious and the company was great. Every year we win something during the raffle. This year we only bought $20 worth of tickets. Both Irma and I took the tickets we had split and put them in the raffle boxes. We thought we weren't going to win anything and were surprised to have won a double fly rod case. I was really hoping to win it and when they called out the numbers, I was in disbelief, but happy to take my $20 investment home. The retail price of the Simm's rod case is $90.

Hopefully, this post will get people thinking about joining us next year at Oktoberfish. We have made such great friends over the years. Bringing more people interested in fly fishing would make us happy. You can learn so much regardless of your skill level. It was announced that the organizers were going to try and get Master Certified casting instructors to the event. I hope they can pull this off.