OT - late season Guadalupe (long photo essay)

[bdhold]

In most of the country, trout fishing is ramping up, but our s. Texas tailwater is a winter fishery, and it's already summer here.
Saturday I had 3 schools from Katy driving 200 miles to release baby trout they raised in a program I head up for the region - Trout in the Classroom.

We have also made some progress in our tailwater - we've gained 4 miles of trophy regulation water with a slot limit, and it's upstream in cooler water from where it began before.
My buddy and VP Fisheries, Jimbo, has already secured us a new lease site upriver.
With the teachers and trout fry arriving at lunch, Jimbo met me for breakfast tacos, and we headed from mile 6 downriver to Barking Dog Pool. Of course the day was made tough from the get-go by a 2" rain the night before, which we badly need.
Like that's going to keep me and Jimbo dry ...


Fishing was tough, and that's OK. Best things starting downriver, other than umpteen bluegill apiece we'd total up, was a very nice smallie for Jimbo

and a 20" redhorse sucker for me - well, mostly

In spite of my entreating and keeping a low profile, the size 22 hook tore out of the big fish's fleshy mouth before I could strain him into the net, and that's OK, too - we were both tired.

The farther we went, the warmer the day became, and the closer we got to my favorite BWO hatch.
So I left Jimbo at the Rocky Top tailout, and turned the bend for the cool cypress tunnel at redhorse run.

I hate to talk about the one that got away, but after a few minutes in the chute at the top of the run, I hooked up a sow.
She didn't actually get away, she did beat me up, sounding into the chute over and over, using the force of the falling water against me - but I finally lifted and landed her - easily 22 inches.
So I'm reaching for the camera and she jumps out of the net. Sorry I didn't get a photo, but that's the way it goes.
I headed back up and waved Jimbo downriver.

Right after he got there, I hooked up again and managed to land this 20" hen - she's a nice slab, too, and almost as much work as her older sister.

Good color for our painful low flows (and we did measure a 60-degree water temperature here).
Jimbo got me releasing the fish

Jimbo worked the island down to the next gravel bar and hooked up.

A brightly colored male.

Since Jimbo is our VP fisheries, I guess it's kinda cool to be able to put him on fish.
darn if I didn't leave my cigar and water bottle at the truck, and our friends were due within the hour anyway, so I relinquished my bank to Jimbo for 20 minutes, and trudged back toward the truck - he was back soon enough.

You usually avoid chopped beef sandwiches, but the BBQ stand at Sattler and River Road uses the finest brisket ends for their chop - it has to be the best chop sandwich in Texas.
And blackberry cobbler. It was worth coming out just for lunch.

After their fill, we took our friends far upriver to the new lease site - the home of a sweet couple, retired from Dell

Here's Matt with two coolers of fry - he's not a teacher, but the Conservation Chair for the Houston FFF chapter.

The teachers and kids that came brought two other coolers - all together representing 3 schools.

I wish you could see how pretty this place is, but the off-color water just isn't photogenic

After acclimating them with a double-up of river water, the kids netted the fry from the coolers and released them in the current

a netfull

they had a blast

fish live here


I was done with the sun for the day, but Jimbo took a teenager who had made the drive alone to my second-favorite BWO hatch, the drop at Lefty-Rays hole
(don't know if Trent knows, but he got a guide trip worth $300).

In his follow-up post in the GRTU lease forum, Jimbo gave the teenager his first lessons on indicator nymphing. He said the toughest part was teaching him the strike, but they both were successful on a few bluegill.
Farther up in the Halfway Riffle, Jimbo was catching rainbows, and Trent was missing them, so Jimbo hooked one and handed Trent the rod so he could get the feel and experience of fighting a good rainbow.
All grins.


If I had gone with them, I would have left them at Halfway Riffle, and continued on to the BWO hatch at Lefty Ray's hole. Of course Jimbo made it up there, and caught this beautiful steelie slab.

and this bright male


We have some nice fish in the river.

[rjohns94]

Beautiful photo journey. Beats my 4 bluegills and one yellow persh yesterday. LOL. Very nice. Great work your doing there and it's obviously paying off. Thanks

[M. M. Wright]

Great stuff bulldog! I really liked seeing those kids involved. Bodes well for the future.

Crappie time here in NE Oklahoma and I love to catch 'em on flies. I tied up a dozen or so Crappie Candy this winter and have been using them for great fun. I usually fish them behind a gold spinner especially in dingy water. It's been cold here this week but will warm up soon so I can get back at 'em.

[bdhold]

On another board, someone asked how many of the fry would make it to adult.
The answer is 1 out of 100.

But if one kid out of 100 becomes a conservationist, it's a win.

[mod71alaska]

Great post...thanks for sharing!

[shooter]

I always love your posts Bulldog. One of these days I'm going to have to come down there and fish those waters. There's hardly a prettier place in the world than the Guadalupe (when it isn't full of college kids).

[bdhold]

well, there's the Sabinal


Hondo Creek


Cibolo Creek


the Guadalupe headwater forks


and the Pedernales headwaters


but the Guadalupe tailwater can be pretty spectacular, too

(btw, these Mushroom Rocks are on the other side of the island from Redhorse Run)

[BigSky56]

with the water your area would brookies or gerbrowns fair better than bows? danny

[AJMD429]

Gee, uh, that doesn't look fun, at all. . . nope, not at all. . .

I'm really glad I'm here at work (taking a break since it IS officially my 'day off'), in the middle of cornfields and humidity, and not in the middle of such beautiful country, sparkling water, and family fun.

That would be too much for me.

.

.

.

.

. . . it's not working. . .I'm not convincing myself. . .

[bdhold]

with the water your area would brookies or gerbrowns fair better than bows? danny

Danny, we have stocked so many browns, and one year I did get a 20" male with a 4-inch kype.
But our water, coming out of the bottom of Canyon Lake, is too alkaline, and the browns migrate downriver out of the cool tailrace, trying to get away from it. The state record brown was caught two lakes down.
From Spanish and French explorers, we know the Texas hill country rivers once held Rio Grande cutthroats - and not that long ago, geologically. But one of our famous droughts ended that.
The last bastion of Rio Grande Cutts in Texas was McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park (not related to the tailwater - closer to NM).
But in the 1920s, a load of rainbows was dumped in there and they out-bred the Cutts. There is a wild rainbow population there.
Our Trout Unlimited chapter is working with the National Park Service, TPWD, (tough politics...) and funding a study to eventually remove the rainbows (alive) from McKittrick Canyon and replace them with Rio Grande Cutts, which need a genetic repository, anyway. We've committed to funding $35,000, and are trying to get TU national to pony up and help...

Back to the Guadalupe tailwater - we also know the rainbows spawn

and I've caught wild trout in the fall

[BigSky56]

Bows always out breed and cross breed cutts, we have a strain of bows up here that are called kamloops trout was down at the river ranch when F&G tagged a 44 lber in a cove looked like a big silver salmon Ive caught them up to 15lbs I think that the state record on a rod&reel is 33-34 lbs. Say a blessing you dont have bull trout in your area. Good project you have ,especially getting youngins evolved. danny

[bdhold]

This tailwater and our TU chapter have been here 45 years. We're in Bob Ross' America's 100 Best Trout Streams. I fished with Bob 10 years or so ago when he fell in love with river. We're also in his book, Rivers of Restoration. The challenges we face are drought, scouring floods like 2002. Before the 2002 flood, 9- and 10-lb. rainbows were regularly caught, and all of the wide places held watercress. Caddis were the most abundant hatches and were Complicated. I caught my first 26" rainbow in an April caddis hatch before the July flood. For 3 years after that, we had nothing but midges, then BWO, then the caddis and sulfurs returned. We also have a great December size 6 yellow hex hatch. We spent two years working for permits to move watercress from upriver into the tailrace. We fight for legal water rights and of course have the support of the tuber liveries, since flow is their livelihood, too. In the current drought, San Antonio bay went hypersaline, and 35 whooping cranes died last summer. Looks like the Feds are going to help us in fighting for flow, also.