Early last week my buddy Jesse pointed out that we've been fishing the Sunday morning after he attends the Houston Hoedown for the last two years. Jesse wanted to make it 3. Additionally he challenged me to a race to land a brook, brown, and rainbow trout. We arrived on stream by around 830am and the Hoedown Showdown began.
I started off real strong! I landed a few on the San Juan worm but quickly hit my stride fishing with a gray size 18 tungsten beaded zebra midge. At one point I turned a nice 17-18 incher but didn't land the hook.
This water was really cool and springs were noted throughout the stretch of water we fished. After landing this buttery brown I hooked into a few larger than average trout.
At this point Jesse and I each landed a brookie and a brown. His brookie was around 13"! Fishing stayed really hot for me on the midge. Fish ate it dead drifted and drifted slowly with a twitch. Eventually I approached the most perfect little run with a few branches hanging in. I made a somewhat errant cast which landed on the inside seam. As soon as my fly began to drag in the current I spotted a nice fish dart out from some overhanging grass and the fight was on!
This was my big fish of the day. I appreciated that Jesse ran up to snap a pic. It didn't take long for me to return the favor. This dude can fish!
Jesse fished with a combination of Rapala's, spinners, and worms. I know a lot of fly fishers tend to be put off by people fishing with worms but I watched this dude hook every worm caught trout perfectly in the lip. He also carried a cooler and planned to keep any gut hooked fish.
After pulling in at least a few dozen between the two of us we called it a day around 330pm. It was a great Showdown. I landed the biggest brown at approximately 16". No super big ones today but our average sized trout was probably around 12 or 13 inches.
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