bluecordfishermen 
28 APRIL 2019 was a great day to be at Lost Maples State Park in Texas. This state park is on the western edge of Bandera County along State Highway 187.
I caught two bass and seven sunfish using my fly rod. It was a pretty good evening. The picture above was the biggest. The picture is fuzzy from the low light of Near End of Evening Nautical Twighlight (EENT). Talk about ending the day on a good note.
Lost Maples has several options for fishing: The Sabinal River, a decent size pond and a few fall pools flowing off the mesa. The bass are catch and release at Lost Maples State Park, but panfish and catfish are on the normal limit set by the state.
I started by hiking a couple of hundred yards up stream from the Day Use area along the head waters of the Sabinal River. I saw a few sunfish but the river is just a small creek at this point. I decided that the few sunfish were not worth fighting the vegetation and headed toward the pond.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/lost-maples
To get to the pond, you can park at the trail head and follow the path a mile up the gorge. Several places hold fish along the way but I decided to hit those holes on the way back to the car. I carried my chest waders to the pond and put them on along the edge of the pond. The wind was gusting to 25 mph and gave me only a few options for casting. This pond drops rapidly into deep water but I could get out far enough to fish beyond the bushes that line the bank. That was all I needed.
The pond has a latrine and is available for overnite stays but this is not car camping. These are primitive sites and you have to pack in your gear. The Pond itself is a dammed up canyon. The eastern shore is a vertical cliff. The stream feeding the pond comes from several draws that empty into the canyon. Hiking from here into the back country is as taxing as it gets and is up hill from the pond in all directions except the path to the trail head. The state actually stocks a few hundred trout in this pond in the winter, but they are on the bottom where its cold. I am not sure many make it through the summer.
I immediately started getting hits and the action kept up for an hour. Dry flies worked but the most productive was hoppers I tied using black foam and rubber legs. I did lose a lot of flies in the trees.
I walked around to the dam breast but it drops off even faster. The dam breast gave me enough room to back cast, but I was casting into the wind at this point. This end was deep and needed more patience. It all paid off with a fisty sunfish that I caught using a dry fly and eventually a young 7 inch bass using a wooly buggar as it got closer to sun set. As the sun was setting, I decided to walk back and hit a few holes on the way out.
I did see one nice bass in a very small pool but he spooked and had no desire for what I threw his way. I check on him in the Fall when I return.
On the way out of the park, the stream from the pond joins the Sabinal River and flows under the road. On the down stream side of the road is a decent fall pool. On the second cast where the water comes out of the drainage pipes, I caught a 15 inch bass that fought for much longer than I expected. It was a great battle on a 6 weight fly rod. After releasing him, I drove to the final bridge/low water crossing and caught still one more small sunfish at the very end of twilight on a streamer.
It was a great Day at a beautiful Hill Country Park. There is no bad way to get to Vanderpool. Its all Hill Country driving and the scenery alone is worth the trip.
Logistics near Vanderpool TX on a Sunday evening are pretty much non-existent. Nothing was open on the way home until I got to Medina at the intersection of Highways 16 and 337. Just a planning note, before heading to Lost Maples, start with a full tank of gas. The entire area is a well hidden treasure.