Jimbo
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You have gone above and beyond what most people do. The old pass we used to use was much easier to carry and display. The new pass is a bit cumbersome and in need of some refinement. We are looking at changes for next year again. It is most important to fill out the guest pass and keep it on your person. You will need to present it when accessing sites like Whitewater Camping and Lazy L&L. You displaying it is appreciated. Again it is also important to understand that every guest must be accompanied by a full LAP member, that member may have only one guest per outing, and guest passes are also good for only one day.
Jimbo
Seems area fly shops are going to do well this season.
Jimbo
I had a decent day. I waited to see if they were going to raise the flows, and they didn’t. So I loaded up the truck after lunch and headed to the river. It was about 2pm when I arrived at Little Ponderosa. Saw several anglers and three guide boats. All were talking about how slow things were. I hooked two fish and landed 1 Brown in about 2 hours. I moved to “Brown Town”. There as the light left the water things heated up. I landed 9 more Browns and lost 2. Not bad at all.
Jimbo
I would say it would take no more than 1 hour to reach Rio. Dan Cone has been on top of this and we are trying to get some advanced notice or even an overnight increase so no one will be caught fishing in the middle of the day. It’s dicey to say the least. The lake is rising fast and I would be surprised if the flows don’t go up in a day or two.
Jimbo
We have been in contact with WORD and GBRA, but no announcements have been made. You need to be constantly aware of river levels if you are wading. If they go up to over 1000cfs you will be stuck on the side of the river you are on with no hope of crossing without a boat. Stay tuned for announcements, check flows before you decide to wade. Above all be careful out there.
Jimbo
Mike, unless the eggs are extremely late (not likely) the 20th will be too late. We will probably stock them in the river in the Jan 10-13th range. Thank anyway.
Jimbo
I just talked to the owners who now live in Colorado. They said it was a mistake in understanding with a new management team. She would straighten it out and nothing should be charged to LAP members going forward.
Jimbo
I would prefer catch and keep on all legal Stripers for the sake of the Trout Population. You can release them if you want and I’ll understand. I know there at least 3 larger than 25lbs living in the stretch from Barking Dog Pool and S Turn rapids. If you really want to target them I would suggest floating down from the dam and concentrating on the deeper water down to Maricopa. Also the pool from Little Ponderosa down to Devil’s Playground has historically held a big school of them. There are not that many large ones and they are very difficult to get to attack flys or lures. But I know those who live for the strike from a very large Striper that do live in the Guadalupe. A year and half ago there was one, estimated to be over 60lbs coming up into the Maricopa run to feed on Trout. It’s been awhile since anyone saw it, but there is no reason not to believe it still lives there.
Jimbo
I was there today, nothing was taped to my window. I will call the owners and ask what is going on…..
Jimbo
Jerry,… I’ll get enough help, get that back strong so you can fish.
Baker,… We should have enough eggs this year. We are expecting to have 1500-1600 left over to stock. I’ll let everyone know when we can lay eyes on them.
Thanks Joe!
Jimbo
Well I have already found 3 rods and returned them to their owners,… Let’s make it 4 !
Jimbo
Exactly where were you when you went down? Were you fishing with line out or was it stored for crossing? The flows should drop this week and I’ll be fishing. I might as well do a little search and capture. If it’s in real deep water I can bring a spinning rod and do a little grappling.
Jimbo
Don’t worry about them dropping the flows. Even if they shut off the releases, like they do for dam inspections, the water will drop at a slower rate as the waters from the upper sections of the river drain. The further you are from the dam the slower the drop. Even when there are zero releases, because of inspections (or severe downstream flooding), you will see the river flowing downriver, starting around Horseshoe Falls, for a minimum of 24 hours and inspections only last 10-12 hours or so.
GBRA must release water from the dam, on all other occasions, that is at least that of the inflows into the lake or a minimum of 90cfs, unless a drought is declared by certain pre-conditions being met and even then must releases 55cfs. You can watch those inflows on many different sites like: USGS, WORD, or GBRA. Right now those inflows are about 379cfs. If they dropped the flows on Monday, or later in the week, to those inflows, you won’t see any strandings. Stranding are extremely rare actually. I have only seen a few strandings, during dam inspections, and only in the uppermost sections right next to the dam. Elsewhere the water drops so slowly these fish find their ways to deeper water to holdover till the flows once again resume. I have never seen stranding where the releases were dropped to the 55-100cfs so there is really nothing to worry about.
Jimbo
First let me talk about why we stock the river the way we do. First we must consult with TPWD with any plans to stock our Trout. The hatcheries must be approved, the particular species must be approved, the pounds of Trout must be approved, and the locations we going to stock must also be within the plans for the fishery and then a stocking permit is issued for that stocking.
The places on the river we stocked the Browns this time reflect the overall strategy of putting them in the upper section of the river where they have the best chance to holdover to the next season. These areas are also protected by the TPWD regulations and since most of these fish are 13-18″ they will have to be returned to the river when they are caught by law. We also stock areas that are not directly accessible even from the many LAP sites we do have. Some of these places you’ll have to wade a considerable distance to reach but they were placed in areas that have excellent habitat which is also a big consideration when we place the fish in the river where we do.
Now all that being said, these are the locations we stocked: Maricopa, JDL (accessible from Whitewater camping), Kanz (accessible from Rio or when flows drop from Whitewater Camping), Rio, #5, S Turn Rapids (accessible from #5 or Pott’s), and Pott’s. We stocked 2000lbs of Browns averaging about 15″.
I would also ask that to handle these fish with the utmost care. Fish barbless, use a net with rubber mesh, keep them wet while removing the hook, always wet you hands before handling them, never let their skin touch something dry, if you’re going to take a picture keep the time they are out of the water to less than 10 seconds, before you try and lift the fish get the camera turned on and ready for a quick shot, when handling them if they struggle and you can not control them with only light touching put them back in the water till they settle down, there is an art to holding these fish for a picture, lightly hold the fish just ahead of the tail fin, use your other hand to support the fish below their chin, you don’t have to squeeze the fish here, just support it’s weight with an open hand, the less pressure the fish feels the less it will struggle against holding it out of the water, then lift the fish out of the water quickly, take your picture quickly and then gently lower the fish back into the water, make sure they can maintain an upright swimming position before releasing them. I recommend putting them back in the net and see if they are swimming upright. When they are, drop the lip deeper in the water, and let them swim out on their own. If they are disoriented and flip belly up on their own in the water, again hold the fish by the tail and use your other hand to support them under their chin while submerged in the river, point them into any current, you do not need to work them back and forth and that motion can actually harm their gills, they will start to kick in you hands, when they do see if they can maintain an upright position on their own, if they can they are ready to go back and thrill other anglers. By doing all of this you demonstrate your concern of the fishery, exhibiting all the virtues of true sportsmanship and conservation for everyone else to aspire.
Jimbo
Photos and videos are certainly allowed. You can post these on our Lease forum and you can name locations. Just don’t name locations on open forums or networks. We don’t want the general public to have this information. They will figure it out soon enough by fishing the river.
Jimbo
