Jimbo
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I Look forward to seeing everyone and I’ll be there with the walkie talkies to play traffic cop again….
Jimbo
Dustin Scott is who you should contact. Give him some time as he has a full time job, in addition to being a volunteer on the GRTU Board.
Jimbo
No Lazy L&L has been a continuous LAP site for decades. We lost Bezdek’s this season, Gypsy River and Koozies few years ago…. Not sure which site your thinking of? Recent sites we added are River Rose and a few years ago Red Bates (Janie’s).
Jimbo
No, It’s the additional time it takes from the hatchery truck to the water. Plus I told Dan that this is a place where it’s important to put fewer fish per bucket. Even if it means two trips or more with the truck. Here the fish go from truck to bucket, which are placed in the back of the truck with another tub on top to keep them from jumping out(but also limits oxygen getting in the water). Then drive the truck down to the water, then take the buckets from the truck to the river. There’s probably and extra 5 minutes or so they spend in the buckets.
Jimbo
Alex, you said you saw many dead Browns. What number would you say you saw? We put somewhere around 250 Browns there. I went in there several days later and saw just a few. I looked long and hard and the Dead Browns I saw I could count on one hand. Unless predators like Ospreys or Stripers came in and ate them, I don’t think we lost that many, certainly not 100’s.
Jimbo
Why do you say most of the Browns didn’t make it? Have you seen large numbers of dead Browns and where did you see them. The Browns come from a different Hatchery Cedar Springs and not Crystal Lake Fisheries where we get out Rainbows. We have not seen evidence of a significant loss of the Brown Trout after stocking them. I personally targeted them and caught them every place we stocked them. I saw a few dead Trout but not many.
Jimbo
It’s a Seasonal Lease in the LAP.
Jimbo
We started the Guadalupe River enhancement project many years ago. We looked at ways that we could improve the river habitat for sustaining Trout. The things that need to be addressed are how far can we get the cold water downstream and can we reduce siltation?
First of all if there was a way to increase flows, especially in the summer months, then we could get a higher percentage of Trout holding over to the next season. So we pursued a Flow Agreement with GBRA. And we were able to get an agreement, in fact two of them. These agreements provide increased flows from late spring through September when certain conditions are met. The bad news is the qualifying condition is the lake being at or above pool, at the beginning or anytime during the period of the agreement. Those conditions have only been met a few times, but it does help.
The other thing we could do is to minimize the thermal impacts along the river’s course then we would have colder water further downstream. How do you do that? If you increase the current speeds (with the standard releases), especially in certain areas, then the suitable Trout Habitat would increase. You would also tend to push sediments deposited by feeder creeks further downstream, increasing pore space in the gravels and increase the bug life that supports our Trout.
We visited this idea, mapping the river and using penetrating sonar to study the gravels and bedrock where if the river could be narrowed and deepened then there would be less thermal impacts from higher air temperatures. The area we concentrated our efforts was the Pott’s stretch of the river. This area has been too shallow and too wide for a long time allowing the summer high air temperatures to effect downstream temperatures adversely.
We discussed several things, but the only real long term solution involves the creation of several wing dams that will use the river’s natural current to scour a deeper channel in the grave beds there. This is the area we used the penetrating sonar to assess the deep of the gravels. That data indicated gravel beds deep enough that wing dams would give us the desired results. Unfortunately these plans were put on hold and no further action has been initiated.
Other things we looked at were: the planting of trees, that would stabilize the river banks, add shade to the river, and limit siltation. TPWD wanted to plant willows along Spillway Creek, but they never got the approval they needed.
We also looked at places some very large boulders in several areas to again cause localized scouring and more places for Trout to hold. We even looked at places so called “Lunker Structures” along the stream margins to give the Trout and other fish more places to hide in the shade. The reality is high flows could easily move the large boulders out of position and bury the Lunker Structures with gravel pushed downstream in the higher flows.
So we are back at the only proven long term solution, the installation of wing dams. These wing dams would require the group cooperation of: TPWD, GBRA, and COE. The toughest part of that is getting COE approval as they control all instream projects as Canyon Lake is primarily a flood control project. It can be done, but we need to pick up where we left off and see if we could get the project approved.
The Board has taken up the subject once again with our latest Board Meeting. I am hoping we will again restart this project and see if we could get the first phase at Pott’s installed. We could use this area to test the theory and evaluate the results. Something like this will take a very long time to get the necessary approvals before any instream work can be done. It’s time to start pushing the ball down the field again….
Jimbo
Why do we stock Kanz?
As managers of the Trout Fishery we do many things that are best for the fish and not the fisherman. Remember we are conservationists first and fishermen second. Also as soon as these fish hit the water, they don’t belong to GRTU, they belong to the citizens of Texas and all sportsmen. So we concentrate our stocking efforts in upstream locations, where water temperatures are the coldest in the heat of the summer. We have too look where we can put these fish first and then that they can be accessed by anglers and still have a good potential to carryover to the next year. Some of these spots are a long wade away, but possible. Another place we used to stock was JDL. Even after that lease expired, because the habitat is so good we stocked it, and you could come upstream from River Rose (or Whitewater while it was a lease and now because you can pay a parking/access fee). Now JDL does not want us to use his property to stock anymore, so we don’t.
We even but several hundred pounds of Browns above Horseshoe falls. Why? Because we can and that water is always cold enough to support Trout unless the entire lake is drained. And there they have a good chance at seeding downstream locations over the years. In past years we even had a lease up below horseshoe falls we stocked before the HOA kicked us out.
As far as you are saying the guides are crowding the area, well they know just like you and me where the best water is and how to fish it. And as Kevin said be there first or come after they have left. There are many other good sites downstream that the guide boats can’t fish till afternoon. And then there is the water below Michaels. Most guide boats won’t fish it because they don’t have take out points.
It’s going to be crowded no matter where or when you fish the river. The Guadalupe is no longer some unknown backwater. It has gained a reputation as a Trophy Trout Fishery. So more and more anglers are coming to fish this river. If you can’t deal with the crowds this isn’t your fishery anymore. One of my secrets you can do is fish the weekdays, when many anglers have to work. I like to fish Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, just for those reasons.
Jimbo
~ 2640 weighting a total of 4000lbs….
Just another side note, It’s time to start watching out for the Brown Trout Redds. If they are in spawning mode, they will be cleaning spots of gravel soon. So watch out for bright and clean gravel and don’t walk or stand in them. I know it’s a little hard to distinguish some redds from where the last fisherman was just standing for awhile and fishing a spot. So just watch where you walk and try to avoid all these spots. It sure would be nice to get some “Born in the River” Browns coming out of this season !!!
Jimbo
We recommend fishing barbless and most everybody I know does, but it is not required. Like was said before, you can use your hemostats to mash the barbs down on any fly. Just make sure you don’t also break the hook point off. I’ve done that before, mash down the barb, and because the hook is weakest there, also bust the point off. I did that one time on a midge and lost a few fish before I realized the point was gone and they were just holding on to the fly for awhile…
Jimbo
I worked a pod of them for 2 1/2 hours last Friday… I have never seen them so fussy !
I threw everything I had at them: nymphs, streamers, emergers, and drys. I did not catch a single one out of that pod. The funny thing is I did catch at least 25 Perch right among them that would come out of no where to nail my fly and many times right in the middle of that pod of Browns. From what I see these Browns are in pre-spawning mode. I have actually seen Browns in a Daisy Chain chasing each other around to determine the pecking order for spawning dominance. I was lucky that I caught 2 Browns right off when I got there or I would have zeroed on Trout that day. At least we will be getting a fresh load of Rainbows next weekend. Maybe that will get in an eating mood…
Jimbo
Woo Hoooo,… You know I’ll be there !!!
Jimbo
This is always a fun event. Most years just a few Trout are caught. This year There are still quite a few Rainbows that made it through the summer. They are notoriously fussy this time of year. You could catch a bunch if the day is right, but usually they are hard to get to bite from them. And yet every year it seems something around 20″ is caught and landed. There are many other categories in the tournament, like biggest fish, Bass, Perch, etc. There are many prizes given out and just participating you have a shot at several of these. And Action Angler makes a generous donation to GRTU every year because of this tournament. It’s a good way to see the river, the ways it’s changed, where the fish are holding, and pick up a few pointers from the best. Plus your fishing on the Guadalupe, and that’s always a fun and relaxing day for me.
Jimbo
