Queen of the Stream
By Steven McCaslin
Teddy Roosevelt said it well, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It can be easy for me to get wrapped up in the success and adventures of others. One minute you are loving life and abundant with joy in the situations you are in, but the next you are jealous of the guy on social media you don’t even know catching giant trevally on some flats in the middle of the ocean. Maybe that’s not what takes you out of your zone. It can be comparing our jobs, marriages, houses, or anything really to someone who has it “better”. I’ve lived all over the state of Texas and have always pursued all sorts of game in the outdoors. From growing up in the pinewoods of East Texas being taught how to hunt whitetail by my late father to getting married and moving to the far stretches of the Panhandle hunting sandhill crane and chasing upland birds with my GSP, I’ve seen just about all that Texas has to offer. A piece of my heart has been left in every place I have been. These streams here in the Texas Hill Country are where most of my heart currently resides. The diversity of native fish to chase is outstanding. From the northernmost, native population of Cichlids in the western hemisphere to dinosaurs like gar, no trip has to look the same as the last. This day’s target species was our state fish, the Guadalupe bass. Brushy Creek is well known as an excellent fishery thanks to Living Waters Fly Fishing making it their home base. Because of that, it’s a very populated fishery, so finding a remote stretch can be difficult. After many hours of Google Maps and driving, I decided to check out 108
a new stretch of the creek that appeared very promising. After a mile of wading from the access point with only one small Guad to the net, I rounded a bend and was transported to another world. Suddenly I was surrounded by car sized, Colorado-esque boulders lining the bank and pools teeming with Guadalupe bass.
S.C.O.F MAGAZINE