Granny and I and the new red van hit some cool weather.  After last blog from Castell, TX, I hit the Llano River for about an hour with high hopes for more Guadalupe bass.  Temps dropped from 73° to 50° in a couple hours.  With it came the north wind and I reeled it in and it was my first skunk of the year.  Already!  After quitting fishing we drove around checking out this little piece of Texas and ended the day at Colorado Bend State Park.

Colorado Bend State Park is a beautiful piece.  We grabbed a camp and Granny whipped up one of her amazing dinners.  During chow time it was about 44° but we sat out and ate then had a good night sleep.  We have not used the heat in the van yet as we are trying to stay somewhat tough like in the Explorer days.

January 10^th started cold and gray.  I drank my coffee in the van and worked.  Mid-morning we went for a run on one of the park trails.  The sun poked loose and we not only had a great run, but we ran into an interesting animal, the nine-banded armadillo.  We spent a few minutes with five different ones.  Fun to watch.  What a cool critter!

We envisioned hitting the pavement after our run because of the cold weather but the sun poked through.  Instead we both took a brutally cold swim to clean up then I went fishing on the Colorado.  I didn’t take it too seriously but I put on a weighted olive bass concoction and bounced it along a lot of good looking places with trees and rocks.  To my surprise I only got one fish.  But, it was no doubt, my second pretty little Guadalupe.  This section of the Colorado has one of the purest native strains of this cool little bass.

We left Colorado Bend at 3 PM and camped in Mother Neff State Park in TX.  We had a nice evening hike then today reorganized the van.  This place also had a hot shower which was needed.

Tonight we are somewhere near the Sabine River which separates TX and LA.  We’re on the TX side south of Lufkin.  We are camped in a national forest building parking lot because we couldn’t find a camp in the so called campground.  When you have a van, places like this work and all is fine.

We originally planned to head for NH tomorrow morning.  BUT, the Marlboro, MA Fly Fishing Show was postponed till April.  I am super disappointed as I was looking forward to it.  Hopefully there aren’t issues with NJ, Denver or CA shows later on this winter.

That’s all for now.  Not sure where we will be tomorrow night but I’m certain it will be a cool and relaxing new place for us.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing