Jimbo
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The problem with having some split membership, weekdays/weekends or odd/even days is that requires active policing. Someone would have to be available 24/7 to handle violations as violations must be addressed as they are happening. You must remember that everyone on the Board, including the VP of Membership and the VP of Fisheries are volunteers. They do not get paid a dime for the 100’s of hours they put in to get the LAP up and running (among other duries). They have OTHER REAL DAYTIME JOBS that they do everyday to make a living. You can not expect them to drop whatever they are doing to run down a violation. You think this program can run on self-policing, but it won’t. It was fortunate that when I was VP of Fisheries, I worked in Real Estate, which meant I could drop everything and go run down violations. But even the hour it took for me to get to the river meant many times I could not find the member who created the violation. Then it was a matter of trying to figure out who, and contacting them via a phone call. And we don’t want confrontations between members, leasees, or the general public. We want to keep things simple. These things you suggest just adds another layer of complexity and another layer of failures. About the only other real option for the future is a modification in sign-up where we have some combination of open enrollment up to a certain number then then a lottery for the remaining number. I think a 100% lottery will lead to too many hurt feelings with long term LAP members not getting their name drawn. With the new enrollment using a limited access to the server, another layer has been added to prevent it from crashing. Enrollment should go smoothly in the morning.
The Board is quite aware of problems you have expressed. It will be taking up a lot of our next Broad Meeting.
Jimbo
Alex
It was so good seeing you on the water and killing it !!! I picked it up quickly because I had exacting descriptions of how it is done. Also I loved peering into your fly boxes and of course the friendly conversations throughout the day make it even that much better. We need to fish together more often !!!
Jimbo
As Promised….
Well I haven’t posted any stories is quite some time. I usually post my summer vacation stories and I did write them down, but never got around to getting them here. The summer was one of those so so years. In Pagosa Springs the Monsoon thunderstorms had me dodging lighning and hail almost every day. After two weeks there I moved on to Wyoming. It seems I drug the storms up there with me for the first few days. After that I saw the effects of 2 years of drought can have on my beloved streams.
So back on subject, the Guadalupe River, and what we have to offer here. I been on the river a few days and found some healthy Rainbows that made it through the Texas summer’s heat. It is amazing how much difference having even 100cfs versus 55cfs most the summer can make in the holdover population. The fish I have found are fat, strong, and healthy.
I made plans to meet JC and Alex on Wednesday and do a little Euro Nymphing. I’ve been calling it Czech Nymphing, but JC quickly corrected me. You see there are all kinds of nymphing techniques: french, spanish, czech, polish,… collectively called Euro Nymphing. These techniques all are a product of competition flyfishing. There are many rules for these competitions depending on where they are and what they are doing; small rivers, big rivers, lakes, etc. Leaders can be a maximum of 24′, No additional weight can be used on the leaders, all weight must be built into the flys with beads or lead wraps. Heck,.. flys are judged to be legal if the bead can fit through a specific sized hole which I believe he said was 4mm. All these rules are designed to make flyfishing more difficult. This has caused a rapid evolution and refinement of flyfishing techniques. Now dryfly fishing, streamer fishing and wetfly fishing still make up legal techniques used in these competitions, but it’s the nymphing techniques which,… day in,… day out, are used the most and makes up most of the flyfishing done during these competitions.
First of all, I am a subborn old fart, yeap…. no getting around how this old dog has become set in his ways. I cut my teeth some 45 years ago nymph fishing on the Guad. What I learned served me well in my travels throughout the Rockies and beyond. But after hearing all the talk, seeing the all the articles and books written on the subject, and really just becoming a little more curious about the Euro Nymphing techniques myself, I have finally given in to seeing how the pros do it. And let me tell you these two fishermen are among some of the best I know. JC has been chasing the dream of making the US Flyfishing team. He has fished all over the United States and some other places as well. I have to admit it takes some courage to compete against the best in the world, but he is out there giving it a go. Alex, for those who don’t know him, has been quietly knocking around the Guadalupe for decades. I met him through Ron McAlpin many years ago. When I saw the intensity in his fishing I knew I was looking at one of the best. Many times I have stood next to him in the river and watched as he handlily outfish me…. and I am no slouch.
So I was up at 6am,… Yes I can do it,… and no I don’t like getting up that early, but it is worth it to fish with these two great flyfishermen.
There was quite a bit of traffic in San Antonio. Apparently lots of folks are leaving for work before 7am. I finally made it to the river by 8:15am. I pulled into #5 and there was JC and Alex milling around behind their cars. As I stepped out of the car….
Alex said: What’s up? You’re early!”
Me: “What are you talking about? I’m late it’s 8:15am?”
Alex: “Well we told you 8 hoping and expecting you’d arrive about 9am!”
Yeap everybody seems to know me well. So I pulled my stuff out and geared up. We strolled on down below the weir. That’s JC up front on the left and Alex behind and to the right…
Alex had two of his Euro rods and JC 3. I had my choice of Cortland, Orvis, Thomas and Thomas to choose from. First JC and Alex showed me their ‘Top Secret” nymph boxes. They talked about how they came to carrying the flys they do. These were their own custon tyed flys. Again separating the flys by style and bead size. It turns out one of the most important things is bead size. Depending on the the water your fishing, current speed, depth, and target zone, bead size is more important than style. This just reinforces just about everything that has been said over the years. The best fly in the world, in the wrong place won’t catch anything. But the wrong fly in the right place will. JC gave one of his rods setup with a single fly for easier casting and gave me my first lesson on how to cast and drift the flies. There in the “Afternoon Riffle” I watched the casting technique described by JC as a “snap hook-set followed by a looping roll-cast like motion” to deliever the fly. He handed me the rod and I attempted the first cast with this rod and nothing but 20’ of mono and a single small bead-head jig fly on the end. Boy was I surprised !!! This is nothing like casting a flyline with a tapered leader that we are accustomed to. Speed and timing are so critical to get the fly anywhere close to the intended target. To say I flubbed a few casts would have been a compliment. JC shouting directions, Alex chuckling in the back-ground, but after a few embarrasing strokes I began to understand the mechanics. Low and behold I was getting the fly to the spot I was looking at on the water.
Well so much for practice casting. It was time to wade down to the top of the drop into Barking Dog Pool and start fishing for real. I had JC start off and show me how it’s done. Alex walked down the ledge and fished during my lessons.(Alex is about as rabid as I am when it comes to wasting no time on the water) As I watched JC, I absorbed what he was doing. Methodically working up from the deeper water into the riffles. Then the line came tight. JC reared back and put a monster hoop into the rod. He angled the rod left and then back to the right, tiring the fish with force of the rod through the light tippet. He grabbed the net and swept the rod over his left shoulder pulling the fish into the bag.
Yeap that’s how you do it !!!
So JC handed me the rod and I started casting too. A few minutes into my session JC said “Alex is On”. I turned to see Alex’s rod doubled over. This was a big fish. Alex was stepping back and forth along the ledge trying to get the brute close to the edge. Now both JC and Alex know how to work a fish. They are relentless, giving the Trout no quarter. Still seconds were passing and the fish was still out of reach. As with all battles with larger fish, it seemed longer than the stop-watch recorded. But then the net was pulled, the rod swept over far behind his shoulder….
Scoop !!!…..
He had him! Alex worked on getting the hook out. In the bottom of his measure net Alex was doing the math,… 22″… no 21″….. Very nice !!!
Well it was time for me to get back to work. I started casting again. Working from the deeper water up into the riffles. Cast… drift… cast… drift… watch the sighter, look for any movement, but more importantly,… feel for any slight tick.
And there were ticks I was feeling. These rods are amazingly sensitive. Everytime that beadhead jig touched a rock on the bottom, I felt the tick. JC offered that I should fish a little further off the bottom. A few casts later,… I felt the take !!! I set the hook, the light rod reacted with a healthy bend. I let the fish surge around, wanting to feel what power the rod had to control the Trout. JC said, “put the heat to it”, you won’t break the rod. So I did. The rod tip was now parallel with the reel. The fish gave up under the pressure and JC sweeped him up with his net.
Not the 18″er that JC caught, not the 21″er Alex caught, but a fish about 14″ if he stretched out….
That’s my first Trout Euro Nymphing with a real Euro Rod. Sweet !!!
Well we kept at along the BDP ledge. We all worked up and down exchanging spots and looking for more bites. Both Alex and JC did get more bites, and Alex got a few of those into the net. Me, not so much. It was a morning bite. We had been fishing for a couple of hours now and worn our welcome out at the Barking Dog Pool Ledge. I said I was headed down to the Lower Slot to give that a whirl. I headed down with my rod. There the water is much more conducive for nymph fishing with a strike indicator anyway. I was soon joined by JC and Alex. We worked down there for awhile with narry a bump. It was getting close to noon and Alex said he had to leave by 3. Alex and I headed back to the Ledge hoping a few stragglers would bite for us.
We were wrong. JC came back too after working Mountain Creek Pool and S Turn Rapids. He zeroed. While the “Madman” Alex feverishly worked BDP, JC and I stood in the shade of the Cottonwood and went deep into all things Euro. He talked about his experiences in competition and what he had learned. This was good stuff. I will use this intel when I do this on my own.
It was easily about 1pm now. Not even Alex was getting bit anymore. I decided to go up above the weir and work the deeper cut up to the bridge at Rio. So back to nymphing with my Sage One 10′ 4wt., a strike indicator, and a small Jimmy Legs and a #20 Manhattan Midge.
There wasn’t another angler on the water and it was crystal clear. On days like this the river looks amazing….
It was easily 90 degrees now, high barometric pressure, blue bird skies, and not a breath of wind. The fish knew it too. I was looking and believe me I could see everything on the bottom.
You must be careful wading on days like this. The water is deeper than it appears and stepping off these slabs can result in the thorough dunking
What I wasn’t seeing was Trout. I wasn’t seeing much of anything. I glanced back downstream and didn’t see much going on there either….
I kept at it. Well if I wasn’t going to catch any Trout, there is one thing I know. In this bright sunlight the Perch will seek out the shade….
Sure enough, cast deep into the shaded areas of the river, and a little tug is felt….
The first spot of shade yielded a half dozen. I’m feeling better about everything. I kept working upstream. The next piece of shade closer to the ditch….
It yielded a couple more….
Then while working the deep hole right in front of the concrete funnel, the indicator paused…. It was more like I was hung on the bottom than a bite, I put some pressure on the line anyway. As soon as I did the strike indicator disappeared with the line cutting through the surface upstream. This felt like a good fish. I followed wading upstream on the limestone slab there. He stopped on the bottom, I thought,… he’d run into some brush down there !?! I waded up next to him and he shot off to the side. It was time for the down and dirty. It worked and I had him coming towards me, net awaiting….
Yeap these fish are in fine shape !!! I popped out the hook, dipped the front lip of the net down, and he was gone…. I kept fishing up to the bridge. I approached the bridge on the right. Turtles were stacked up on some rocks there. As I approached they slid off into the water. One of the larger ones swam off to inspect my boots.
He made a friendly pass as if to say hello and welcome back. I caught two more Perch in the shadows of the bridge….
It was 4pm now. I was pooped. The early morning and the heat of the day had taken everything out of me. And it was a pretty good day as I remembered it. This Euro Nymphing is pretty cool. The thing is now I will need another rod, another reel, some lighter tippet, and a whole slew of new flys designed for this technique. I think I hear the chiming of e-mails from Fly shops coming in….
You’ve Got Mail….
Jimbo
Thy have been transfering everything over this past weekend. I suppose if everything is one schedule they will be stress testing the thing today.
Jimbo
So Alex, JC, and me will meet Wednesday morning for testing of different nymph rods and techniques. I will let you know how it goes….
Jimbo
Again,… I don’t think we will have an alternative enrollment plan till we get a survey of the members opinions and analyze the results. It will be the thing I ask for when the Board meets again. Really all these problems, would not be problems, if we had a server capable of handling the load. It also seems someone would have invented something by now, that would allow a maximum number of people signing in, and block others from entering after the max load was reached, and then as people sign out allow more in up to the max number and process those. But like I said, I do not know how these thngs are set up or even work, maybe it’s just a pipe dream….
Jimbo
There is one draw back to an unweighted lottery. Right now members trying to get on-line at 7am and register and your chances being real good (about 100%) if the system doesn’t crash. There are about 2000 members right now who want a membership, but many can’t or won’t get up at 6am to do it. Now if we go to a unweighted lottery there will not just be 2000 trying to get 1000 memberships, there will probably be more than 3000 trying to get this LAP membership. Why an increase? Because it takes no real effort. You will have days to enter the lottery. You do it anytime you want to during many days. So the chances of any one person getting an LAP membership will now be no better than 1 in 3. Think of that !!! You will go from almost a sure deal to a 1 in 3 chance or worse.
Weighting because of volunteer serve service seems like a good idea. Except if everyone knows that we will have 100s, maybe even 1000s showing up for stockings. When we really only need about 60 per truck. Right now the only other thing is TroutFest, Trout Youth Camp(already too many volunteers) and the occasional independent clean-up(which are never greatly attended by the way and needs more support). The point being if it is known that volunteering will be you bonus points towards earning a better spot in the lottery, too many will show up for these events, more than we can use or manage. So volunteering while very necessary to support our efforts would end up being,… we signed up, but because there were so many we were sent home and didn’t do any real work. Do you still give those who didn’t work bonus points? Will people start fighting over the only spots we have to volunteer?
There is also the possibiltiy of a hybrid, some open, some lottery. Who knows? I do know there will be more discussion on the board about handling this enrollment into LAP. I also suspect there will be another survey of membership coming soon to get their opinions of all matters. Stay tuned, the board is listening, and we are trying our best to respond to the problems we have met.
For now we have scheduled Tuesday noon for sign-up, that is if the transfer to yet another server works.
Jimbo
There is one thing we all agree on,… the system we used should not have crashed. It was tested and passed. Now I don’t know diddle about computers and softwear and how they work, so I am no help in offering solutions. If it had not crashed I suspect there would be a lot less criticism of the way LAP registering is handled.
A lottery has been talked about. There is a problem though with a lottery system. That is there could become a black market (high demend and limited supply) in which the winner’s would sell their badges and passes to the highest bidder. The way the system runs now relies on the honor system to a large degree, being the person registering for LAP is the one who will use it and obey the rules. There is no real check after the sale to see if those who won the lotto and registered will actually be the person/s who use these LAP memberships. That could lead to a whole lot of violations, mad lease owners, and further loss of lease sites.
There has also been a split system talked about where a certain number is sold under open enrollment and then a portion sold via lottery (with the same problems, but maybe to a lesser degree because of limited lotto numbers).
The real problem is limited LAP access to the river. If we had twice as many LAP sites we could sell more memberships and have less complaining. So no matter how you split the apple, it’s just one apple. And remember the primary purpose of the LAP is not so a bunch of anglers have easy access to much of the river. That’s real nice and all, but the primary purpose of the LAP is to generate enough money so GRTU can agressively stock the river. And that is what we all want, a bunch of nice sized Trout in th river that we can catch and release. You and I can get to them wading from public sites or floating the river like many do already. If I don’t get a LAP membership it won’t be as easy to access, but I also won’t blame everyone and the system in place for not getting one. Back in the 70’s when I started fishing for Texas Trout in the Guadalupe, I parked at Rio and waded from there up to Whitewater and down to Little Ponderosa. I was just a broke hippie with just enough money to buy a few flys and keep me in tippet. I was real happy back then, and I can be happy doing it the same way again.
Jimbo
Really? Sign up in person ?
Back in th day when we had in person sign up the membership numbers were much lower. I can remember when we couldn’t even sell 500 memberships. Those days are gone. I would say if membership was unlimited we would sell somewhere around 2500-3000 and that’s way too many.
OK I’ll bite. Let’s look at what you suggest in today’s world. So is there going to be one site for the entire state of Texas? Or multiple sites across the State ? And what sites can handle parking about 500 cars or more for an extended period of time while people stand in line, maybe for days? How will you allowcate the number of memberships each site is allowed to sell? Who are you going to get to man these in person sites? Do you remember trying to get concert tickets before sales went on-line. Lines would form a week before the sale date of big concerts. What will be the cut-off for the earliest you can get in line? Can you imagine the fights that will start at the back of the line for the last few memberships?
I just don’t think this is possible and still result in a better outcome. You are just worried you won’t get your precious LAP membership. The answer is many, including myself, someone who has dedicated 20+ years to the GRTU Board, over 10 years as V P of Fisheries, may not get an LAP membership because so many people want to join. On Tuesday I will be working on a real estate deal that can not be canceled. So you cam imagine my chances at getting a membership this year? AND I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT ANYTHING !!!! I’m going to be 69 in a week and without membership I will still be fishing the Guadalupe a lot this season. I’ll be using public sites, pay to park, and wading where I can. We can’t have one group of individuals take priority over another because of seniority, past volunteer work, years in the LAP, or other categories, and still be the open Non-Profit CONSERVATION Organization that we are.
Jimbo
Will do….
Jimbo
Getting to fish with Alex and JC sounds like my idea of fun…. I’m in…. PM sent JC.
Jimbo
Thanks Alex. I think I could learn a bunch from you and JC.
I like you already Martin !!!
Jimbo
Sounds good Trey.
Jimbo
Most years you will have early success with streamers like: wooly buggers, mop flys, slumpbusters, etc. Also egg and San Juan worms seem especially effective. Later on general nymph patterns starting with; Jimmy Legs, Pheasant Tails, Hare’s Ear, Prince, Dave’s Red Squirrel, Coppr Johns. And finally the small stuff: zebra, swimming BWO, Top Secret Midge, WD 40, Barr’s Emerger, Serendipity, Darth Baetis, Rainbow Warrior, Frenchie, really almost anything small 18-24 especially with an emergent wing. If your czech nymphing then: jig flys and Buzzers, Perdigon, Tactical Biot, Tactical Hotspot, all in a zillion color combinations. And if your lucky you see some rising fish to cast drys to….
That area above the dam opens on July 1st to fishing I think, so access is extremely limited. I’ve always been there the first weeks of July most years to do my fishing. I’ve caught some fish to 16″ there but most were smaller averaging 8-12″. But there were some very colotful Cutthroats there. Below the dam is a mixture of everything: Rainbows, Cutbows, Cutts, Browns, and Brookies.
Jimbo
