by John Jefferson

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Hot Weather Fishing Tips and a couple of big fish that got away … from ME. One weighed a pound and a quarter. That was LARGE for a Rio Grande Perch (RGP) – or Cichlid, as they’re properly called. If state fish records had been maintained back then, I should have had the record. We weighed it on my grandmother’s kitchen scale. When records were later established, entries were required to be weighed on certified scales.

I have caught probably a thousand RGPs but never photographed one. To illustrate my weekly column, I found a really good photo of an RGP in my friend Chris Johnson’s excellent new book, “Favorite Flies for Texas.” (Johnson gave me permission to use any of his pictures.)

If you’re a flyfishing angler, you probably know Chris is owner of “Living Waters Fly-Fishing” shop just off I-35 in Round Rock, and guides and teaches fly-fishing.

But Wait! If you’re NOT a fly rod fisher (me, neither), please keep reading. Some of this will help you put fresh fried fish on your dinner table!

PICTURED IS A “MASS HOPPER” FLY designed and tied by Josh Smitherman and available at Living Waters Fly- Fishing” shop in Round Rock. It is designed to attract all freshwater fish that annually feed on the summer outbreak of grasshoppers in Texas. It is attached to a casting bubble to give it more weight for casting with a spinning rod. Its orange legs and insect-like body make it appealing to catfish and other fish. (Photo by Vicky Jefferson)

Before putting Chris’ book away last week, I opened it to just look at his pretty fly pictures. He’s a good photographer. The “Mass Hopper” on page 66 caught my eye.

The first two lines of Chris’s description are, “Summer is not one of Texas’s finest moments weatherwise. It gets hot, very hot.” He continues: “The arrival of summer signals one thing … grasshoppers!”

I knew that. I’d fished them since about age 12 — swatting them with my tattered baseball cap just hard enough to temporarily disable them, but not hard enough to kill them. Then I’d fish with them until I ran out. And caught a mess of perch and catfish.

Years later, I interviewed Rick Rivard for an article in Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine on the four anglers who monopolized the Texas state fish records. Rivard held 65 records, himself! Ricky and I became friends, and he invited me to join him on a fishing trip on the Brazos River upstream from Lake Whitney. He assured me we would catch a boat load of catfish.

He explained why: “Every summer, the grasshoppers are everywhere in the fields, and catfish devour every one that hits the water.” I hadn’t realized that it was an every-summer occurrence.

Regrettably, I didn’t get to fish with Ricky but wish I had. Attempts at contacting him this week failed.

The point is that a grasshopper fly or lure can turn an uneventful fishing jaunt into one to be remembered – despite hot weather and bass seemingly having summertime lockjaw!

But if you don’t own a fly rod, put a casting bubble on your spinning reel line, add several feet of fly line tippet or most 4-pound test spinning line and you ought to be able to cast a grasshopper fly with your spinning rod.

The catfish, perch and even bass will do the rest!

JJ