Lone Star State offers sportsman a heaping helping Texas trout make trip worthwhile

My wife informed me last fall that she would be attending a conference in San Antonio the last week of February. Her hotel was to be the luxurious Crowne Plaza right on the renowned River Walk that winds through the city. Several considerations came immediately to mind. The first and foremost being Texas is going to be a lot warmer than Maine at that time of year. Also, with my marvelous mate on the road, I’d be delegated to do all my own cooking, and there are dozens of famous seafood, Italian, and Tex-Mex restaurants along the River Walk. And finally, I mulled over the fact that I’d never visited Texas and surely there had to be some hunting or fishing season open for me to “research” while my wife was in business meetings all day.

After prolonged deliberation, (about 10 minutes worth), of which five was daydreaming about fine food and fast fishing, flight reservations for two were booked. I rationalized that at the current price of heating oil, just by lowering the thermostat considerably during our absence, we could almost cover my flight cost. OK, perhaps, I’d also have to add on savings on groceries, electricity, laundry detergent, and even water and sewer, but either way I was headin’ for the Lone Star State. My next step was to log on to the Internet and research cast- and-blast opportunities available during my visit.

Searching for seasons

Whenever I’m investigating a new destination for possible rod and gun outings, my first computer check is with that state’s Fisheries and Wildlife Web site. Most regions have a wide variety of finned and furred quarries, but the largest stumbling block is which seasons are actually open during a sportsman’s visit. Around San Antonio there’s whitetail deer, Rio Grande turkey, doves, duck, pheasant, quail, and goose seasons for the shooters and bass, crappie, catfish, rainbow trout, walleye, and sunfish for the anglers. Unfortunately for me, during February almost every public land and freshwater season was closed, but if I had been visiting a month earlier or later there would have been several upland and downstream selections available.

Having been down this road before when visiting other states or countries, I put contingency plan two into operation. By searching the Internet for shooting preserves, private ranches, or club-controlled fishing or hunting operations in the general San Antonio region, I located a spot the first try: Joshua Creek Ranch is located in Boerne, Texas, about a 45- minute drive from my mid-city hotel on the River Walk, and offered a wide selection of outdoor opportunities. I was kind of expecting to hear the Texas drawl of a bronc-riding, lasso- slinging ranch foreman when I phoned, but I was pleasantly surprised when the marketing director’s voice was female with just a slight Lone Star accent.

Cindy Williams listened to my travel plans, asked a few questions to gauge my outdoor experience and determine my time constraints, and inquired which game animals I wished to pursue. She then explained that for the most part, when state shooting seasons were closed it was the same on private ranches, but there were a few exceptions. Unfortunately for me, the ranch has a large private membership and during the winter months is visited by many traveling sportsmen visiting the area for conferences and business. They were very busy and booked heavily. I told Cindy I was in town for 3 1/2 days of which I hoped to spend any one at Joshua Creek. She said to give her an hour to check the schedules on those days, do some juggling if necessary, and she’d call back with options.

Joshua Creek’s offseason winter options include a world class sporting clays course, trap, skeet, and wobble-trap shooting, driven pheasant hunts, rainbow trout fishing, axis deer hunting, and gunning over dogs for quail, pheasant, chukka, and Hungarian partridge. Since the 1,200-acre ranch is unfenced and all animals are free-ranging and wild, I told Cindy my first choices would be to fly cast for trout for half a day, and spend the other half in pursuit of an axis deer. Axis deer are larger than whitetails and have distinctive light brown hides with white spots, and their antlers don’t bow out like our deer, but rather grow straight up and branch like an elk’s. Racks in the 24- to 34-inch range are fairly common and axis deer meat is absolutely delicious. My third alternative would be to enjoy a few hours trailing a brace of keen-nosed pointers for upland wildfowl. I eagerly awaited a call back, hoping something could be worked out.

Forty-five minutes later I was grinning ear to ear as Cindy explained I would be fishing for rainbow in the morning, lunching with the ranch manager at noon, and sitting on stand for axis deer during the late afternoon and early evening. Much to my pleasure, Cindy would even pick me up and return me to my hotel, so I wouldn’t have to contend with driving around an unfamiliar city or renting a car. One of the guides even offered to lend me a rifle so I wouldn’t have to go through the airline hassle of transporting a gun for one day of hunting, and that was a relief. Fishing gear was offered as well, but I was eager to try my recently-acquired L.L. Bean 9-piece fly rod and Orion II large arbor reel travel set, so declined the generous offer.

Texas trout

On my second morning in Texas, Cindy Williams picked me up right on time in her SUV and we headed out of the city. During our drive she filled me in on how a would-be cattle ranch turned into the region’s premier rod-and-gun retreat. I was amazed at how soon the high rise hustle and bustle of the city turned to a much more pleasant and relaxing combination of cactus and cypress and sand and sawgrass. Just after pulling onto the ranch road, we crossed Joshua Creek, and despite near-drought conditions, the water coursed clear and languidly from pool to pool and along shaded banks that bespoke of trophy trout.

I had arranged to fish and explore the stream on my own, but as I was donning my hip boots and assembling my rod, one of the camp guides stopped to chat. He offered some landmarks to pinpoint a few of the better runs and handed me a half-dozen beadhead streamers and nymphs. Explaining that the hot weather had the fish low and slow, he promised the deep-running weighted flies would coax a few to feed. I thanked him for his advice and tied on a black wooly bugger with gold-bead head as we chatted. I casually asked about the prospects of encountering rattlesnakes along the brook, “Oh, don’t fret about that, son, they’re smarter than most fishermen; they stay out of the sun.” I laughed and waved as I wandered down the bank to the creek, carefully taking every step and keeping my eyes and ears peeled just in case one of the rattlers was a sunbather.

Standing on the shoreline of a large pool below the lodge stripping out line, I was surprised to see a fish roll in the shade along the far bank. I scanned the water some more, planning my best casting pattern, when a shadowy motion caught my eye and materialized into at least a 20-inch trout that slowly cruised past and disappeared back into the depths. Snakes suddenly forgotten, I began a program of casting, waiting 10 seconds to sink, then slowly retrieving, supplemented with a good deal of hope and desire. About 15 minutes later, halfway through a bottom- hugging retrieve, I felt a light tug, but no hookup resulted. I repeated the same cast and was rewarded with a sharp strike and, seconds later, a flashy, foot-long rainbow somersaulting across the stream.

With each of its many aerobatic leaps, the pinkish-purple spectrum of colors along each side, from which the rainbow trout derives its name, shimmered in the bright sun. As much as I enjoy catching brook trout, native rainbows add more fun to the fray. While I worked my way along Joshua Creek, trout rose, ducks paddled by, and once in a while, when the presentation was just right, the line would tighten and a brightly-hued trout would dance along the water.

I came across only two other fishermen during my morning, a pair of lady fly casters with only one trout between them. We exchanged pleasantries, I showed them my most productive pattern, and then we fished off in opposite directions. By lunchtime I had hooked and lost several trout and released half a dozen rainbows in the 10- to 16-inch class, a very satisfying start to my Joshua Creek combo outing.

Axis afternoon

I was scheduled to meet with the ranch manager for a 12:30 lunch to learn more about the past, present, and future of this intriguing urban-edge sportsmen’s paradise. Once again, any preconceptions about a burly cowboy were ill conceived. When Ann Kercheville, looking like a top runway model for L.L. Bean’s ladies sportswear division, joined me at our scenic table on the open patio, I was surprised and fascinated. As it turns out, Ann not only runs the everyday operation of Joshua Creek and knows every aspect of the business inside and out, she and her husband, Joe, own the ranch.

Over a mouthwatering meal of country fried steak and gravy with all the fixins, I learned how a would-be longhorn cattle ranch ended up as the area’s premier shooting, hunting, and fishing attraction. While touring the taxidermy-adorned main lodge, I saw upland birds and big game mounts that proved Ann was as proficient behind a shotgun as behind her managerial desk. Pretty, stylish, smart, and a sportswoman. That’s a hard combo to beat. My second surprise of the afternoon came when Ann revealed that the tender, tasty steak I’d enjoyed was actually Axis deer. Suddenly, I had another motive to settle my sights on a big buck during my sundown hunt.

Before Ann drove me to my deer stand, we stopped along the way for half an hour to watch a half-dozen hunters enjoy a driven pheasant hunt. It was my first opportunity to observe this style of gunning I’d read about, and it was fascinating. As the drivers moved through the huge field, from one to half a dozen birds got up at a time and flew in all directions. Many winged at impressive speed and heights over the shooters stationed at the far end of the field, offering difficult chances, but some great shots were made, some missed, and all the sports enjoyed an exciting challenge.

Later on, I sat in my wooden hut ground blind overlooking feeding fields, game trails, and forest edges for four hours and never stopped sighting wild game. Unfortunately, none of it was an axis buck, despite the guides having spotted several good deer in the area for three straight days. During the first half hour, a motion just outside the left camo-clad window caught my eye, and I slowly turned my head to stare eye level at a huge Tom turkey. He wandered by, stopping to feed every few seconds, and I did manage to snap his photo.

Seldom more than 15 minutes passed without ringneck pheasant, blue pheasant, quail, or turkey parading past my hiding spot. The highlight was a flock of 29 turkey that filed in and fed within a few feet of me. A half hour before dusk, movement far off at a field’s edge got my attention, so I used my binoculars, but the head on the beautifully spotted axis had no horns. Near dark with only minutes left to hunt, another deer crossed the trail to my right, but it was a small whitetail.

When Cindy Williams picked me up to drive me back to the city, she was surprised I’d not seen a buck and felt badly, wishing I had more time. I, too, wished for another day, but consoled both of us by saying “that’s why it’s called hunting, not shooting.” I learned a few things however; axis deer meat is delicious, Texas ranches offer a lot more than rattlesnakes and longhorns, and I’m going to return to Joshua Creek Ranch in the near future to enjoy more of the friendly people, great gunning, and fast fishing.

If you’re looking for a winter, warm-weather getaway or a new spring or fall hunting location, check out www.joshuacreek.com on the Internet or call 1-830-537-5090 for information or to book a visit. Like they say at the ranch, Y’all come and visit real soon.

Outdoor feature writer Bill Graves can be reached via e-mail at bgravesoutdoors@ainop.com