deafdave3

Has anyone tried fishing the Frio at Garner State Park? If so, how was it? Is it worth the trip?

David

4everfrio

There isn't much fishing on the Frio. The river is mostly full of people and tubers. There are a few deep holes that hold sunfish and catfish. The water below the dam get rather deep and there are a few spots off the loop at live oak camping area which hold some fish. When my son was little, we would get some worms and do some " perch jerkin' ". It made him happy and isn't that what fishing is all about? The best time is either early in the morning or late in the afternoon when most people are back at their campsite. Have fun and good camping.

honeask

We play at fishing on the Frio but I know for a fact there there can be big fish on the Frio. When the Utopia Road bridge was about two years old we were under the bridge talking to some people and a young teeneaged boy came up, so proud, he had just caught a huge catfish. It was still moving when we saw it. My husband and another man judged it to be between 20 to 25 pounds. Big, no doubt, for that water. Since then, we stay at a place just on the other side of Leakey, near the airport where the Frio and the Dry Frio merge and the owners were showing us a big catfish that hung out for at least two years. We have not seen it in the last two years but it has to go somewhere. This is not to get your hopes up but there is fish bigger than your hand in that river. Also check out the Sabinal and Nueces Rivers, there has been some interesting articles in the Houston Post about fishing the three rivers. Good luck and I am taking my fishing tackle when we are there in late May, you never know.

Sandy

deafdave3

Thanks for the responses. Pardon my ignorance, but what's a "sunfish"?

David

JohnK

If you go to the following page and scroll down to the "Sunfish" heading, you will find a grouping of fish classified as sunfish:

Aquatic Species Found in Fresh Water

If you click on the bluegill link, you will see that "perch" is listed as one of several synonyms for bluegill. Growing up fishing in Texas, I heard bluegills referred to as perch quite commonly; however, I have since learned that according to ichthyologists, sunfish are not perch and purists get their noses bent out of shape if you refer to them as such. Oh well, they'll always probably be perch in my mind.

FWIW, the only true "perch" found in Texas are a variety of darters.

JohnK

JohnK

Well, it looks like I was slightly mistaken. I found a list of fish species found in Texas that listed yellow perch (not a sunfish), and three species of logperch as native to Texas, in addition to nineteen species of darters. Also walleyes are classified as perch (I would have never guessed), and while not native to texas, have been introduced here.

JohnK

deafdave3

Wow! What a difference geography makes! I was born and raised in Louisiana. What is referred to above as "sunfish" I always called "bream". Also, when I looked at the species list, I recognized a fish identified as "crappie". Growing up in Louisiana, it was always called "sac-a-lait". Interesting.

David