warm coldwater

[Ron Mc]

I know most of the country is just warming up to their coldwater fishing, but we're already just about past it in s. Texas. It's already getting hot here, made worse by our looming drought.

But still had a good day last Sunday.
The morning started off at 50o, and I started way upriver in the Guadalupe tailrace fishing my favorite BWO hatch.  
All day long, I fished the same rig - braided butt leader for my strike indicator, a cone-head-weighted sparkle nymph attractor, and a swimming BWO dropper.  Every trout I caught was on the BWO dropper, and every fish I caught today was on the swing, which I love, because you don't miss many - it just goes bang and you're hooked up.  
Had a good morning with rainbows and broke off a 25" monster.  Fish porpoised twice, ran way into my backing - there was no stopping it.  While I managed to keep it off the rocks, it sounded and picked up lumber.  After I finally made it down to where evertything was stuck, my attractor was planted in a 1" thick branch, and my dropper was broken off.
It's OK, I had fun.  
Was wearing waders in the morning, peeled them for lunch, and wet-waded in the afternoon.  
It got hot - pushing 90
I went downriver where I thought would be a cool spot. One of my favorite holdover spots on the whole river, I fish it every fall.

There is a narrow, 6-7' deep chute that the whole Guadalupe pours through, though it's nicely disguised by the dolomite and deep pockets across the river.
But the sun drove me across the river to the shade and the slow pockets, where I loaded up on bluegill and yellow bellies

Every sunfish I caught was on the sparkle nymph.  

I came back out to fish the chute when the clouds moved over. As I said, this spot has holdovers even in drought years. You have to get out and explore the river to find these places...
I was high-sticking through the chute, slowly dropping the rod as it passed me, and swinging where the current widened.
Hooked up a wonderful rainbow.  
This girl did not know she wasn't wild. What a fantastic fight. Blasted down, and made me work hard to keep her off the rocks. Then charged upriver with everything and twice I thought she was gone. She even came up to my feet and looked at me, but between me and the current, she couldn't make it up the chute.
After I netted her, she flopped out, and I photographed her where she landed.

Great day, altogether I waded over 3 miles, and was happy to get back in the a/c at the end of the day.  

[Rick H]

Ron...I just LOVE these snapshots of your days wading adventures. PLEASE keep 'em comin'. Great Stuff!

[john elder]

Ditto! ...and that bluegill looks sooooo embarrassed that he fell for that fly

[Ron Mc]

I have a good friend, a prof at Baylor, who drives 200 miles to fish the tailwater. He was coming down with a friend and wanted to put him on fish, so I gave him the details of this wade - both spots, along with a few other details - and where not to waste his time. Kind of an e-guide.
They flip-flopped the morning and afternoon, starting the morning BWO hatch where I fished the afternoon in this tale, and they fished the afternoon where I had started the morning.

You were dead on. We had a fun day. Started off at xxxx. We both caught a couple and kept our hands clean on a couple more!

Then off to lease 6. I caught one in the fast water just upstream from where the road comes down to the river. I also lost one up in what I think you call the Redhorse Run. There was a guy camped there so we didn't really get to fish it.

Then we finished above xxx. My buddy did really well on a bugger at the first small run at the first narrows. He stuck a couple here. I did better at the riffle just above Patio hole. I landed 3 and lost another. He landed 2. I caught a bass at the old upper xxxx weir, but no trout.

All in all, a good day for us. Thanks!

We had our last TU chapter general meeting Saturday - that's what I was doing while my bud was fishing. (We had a great conservation speaker, Chris Hunt, on the Sportsmans Conservation Project - had to blast off afterwards, I promised to put him on endemic Guadalupe bass when he comes back).

When my buddy Jimbo, now VP fisheries was giving his business report, he got a question about why were we buying fish that were so hard to catch this year. I helped him field it. We had a flood last summer that moved a lot of gravel around - dug up some ruts and put the gravel elsewhere. Some famous holes from the past 10 years were completely flat. We've been seeing people wade through water that holds fish this year to get to the spots they were fishing last year.

The river has changed. Whatever was working last year and the year before isn't working this year. We have the best population of fish we've had since '99, and they're not stacked up in all the usual barrels. They're spread out in the river, living where trout ought to live. We have 18" fish in the riffles taking emergers. You have to get out and explore the river. Seems to be the whole point to me.