J.C.
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I’ll continue by pushing the ball upstream.
Starting where Alex began but at the weir of #5. River right, where the water spills over the weir is the ‘kiddie pool’. Proceeding past Rio (4th crossing) half way between Rio and Kanz is ‘halfway riffle’ (not sure how it got its name). Upstream of halfway riffle is slower water with slotted channels until you get to a deep pool across from a patio, also on river right. That pool is creatively called (wait for it) ‘patio pool.’ Above patio pool is a nice riffle and in decent flows nice riffle/runs all the way to Kanz. Kanz, I believe is a former lease access site that we still stock. Generally, from halfway riffle and upstream will fish well all year. That mostly covers up to Whitewater, if I include the Hideout, another former lease access site between Kanz and Whitewater.
JC
To add another option, James Garrettson and team of About Trout (abouttrout.com) guide on the San Juan, Chama and other Northern NM locales. You can wade or float fish depending on the venue. I’ve only fished with Norman Maktima on the Chama and Rio Grande and met James once but both are outstanding fly fishers and genuinely good humans.
JC
+$0.02. Under the GRTU Home page Conservation tab is a link to the the GRTU archive. There are some interesting studies and articles, and though dated, are in many ways still applicable and make for interesting reads.
JC
Well, here’s hoping El Nino can change our fate as we may be in for a long low-flow spell. Looking at the charts, it appears that even the nearly 5 inches of rain recorded in Jan, only raised the lake by 1/2 a foot, which still leaves the lake 21 feet shy of 909.
JC
I am humbled by your kind words, thank you. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to spend time with on the Guadalupe than GRTU LAP members.
JC
Once again, Alex’s klaxon let the cat (fish) out of the bag, so to speak. Like Cassandra, (sorry can’t help the Greek references based on Alex’s ancestry), my advice to keep this close hold in order to prevent the LAP members from having kittens obviously went unheeded. Additionally, I thought I would have time to mass produce my famous catnip fly pattern that I used to catch this Guad catfish.
Yet, Trey, an accomplished fly tier, has sweetened the kitty for which I cannot compete primarily because that would be like herding cats. Nonetheless, if curiosity is killing you as to what fly I used to catch that catfish … the cat has my tongue. Just kidding, though there are many ways to skin a cat (fish), I caught that one on a size 20 WD40 and that fly was the cat’s meow.
Grinning like the Cheshire Cat
JC
Another site to consider is Whitewater (park at River Rose lease site) and fish upstream of 306. Easy access, no wading required (like CVC) with the added bonus of numerous State stockers.
That sucks, hope you get well soon, Jimbo and get out there before Alex puts a hurt on all the fish. -jc
@Scott: I fished Clear Creek outside of Buffalo, North Fork Tongue River and Sibley Lake outside of Sheridan.
I’ll be there with grandkids in tow.
And thank you Dan for all your work; hard to believe another season flew by.
After overcoming a degree of petulance based on my comp performance, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the participants and especially the sponsors – Enrique, Kenny, Scott and Trent, without you this wouldn’t have happened. I won’t try to recap the comp, Enrique provided an excellent and comprehensive summary. Instead, I asked the competitors if so inclined to provide feedback, lessons learned or anything to improve the experience. The responses were overwhelmingly positive and the anglers enjoyed fishing the Guadalupe and the change of scenery. The comp winner, a great ambassador for the sport and only female on Team USA, Madoka Myers provided the following insights and strategies that I thought might be of interest:
Hi, Everyone!
I hope y’all are having a lovely week and I apologize for the delay in response due to my travels.
It was an amazing privilege to meet everyone and experience the Guadalupe River and its inhabitants. Huge “Thank you!” to JC for organizing, all the lease access program sponsors (especially Trent!) for driving us around and providing access, and Rose for the delicious BBQ from Black’s. Thanks also to everyone for coming out and fishing this mini. I hope it was a fun enough event that you’ll participate in future competitions.Thank you, Trey, for getting the fishing discussion going!
Beat 5 [RIVER BLUFF] “The Chutes:” Rigged up two nymphing rods with micro leaders (T&T Contact 10’9” 3-wt, 10’ 2-wt) and one dry with a long dry leader (Hardy Ultralite LL 9’9″ 3-wt). Started fishing from the bottom of the beat, focusing on the main chute in the deeper/darker green spots that looked like slower pockets/depressions within the chute. It took a number of fly changes to get the weight figured out (I don’t think I figured out the optimal weight/size combination – next visit!) A combination of a 3.8mm peach egg (tag) and 3.3mm flashback hare’s ear (point), 5-6′ of 6.5x below the sighter, yielded two Rbs, one on the egg and one on the HEN. The bucket with the big rock below the weir on the road side of the river yielded two Rbs on the same setup but on a 2.0mm FB HEN. Cast into the pool, let the flies sink, slight jig.
Beat 2 “Little Ponderosa:” Same rigs as above. Bugs were hatching (midges, BWO, caddis, #14 mayfly of some sort), fish were rising. No action on nymphing (likely too heavy) so switched to a single dry. Some bumps on a twitched dry but no takes. Added an 18″ piece of 7x and a #12 Antonio’s Emerger (see pic), dead drifted in the tail out and main seam yielded all four Rbs. It was a lot of fun.
Regarding boats and other anglers: JC did a great job notifying us about the potential for traffic. This is a part of the game when using public waters. Sometimes, explaining to the other angler why you are restricted to fishing a certain piece of water, when you will be off that water, maybe giving them some flies, etc. can result in goodwill and cooperation. Sometimes, it works to let your controller talk to them. Comp angling is a “niche” sport and sometimes fly fishers do not understand the sport or fully appreciate the innovations developed from it. As a participant, hence an ambassador, for the sport, your actions have the potential to leave a strong and lasting impression on other anglers and guides; I’d strongly encourage you to strive to leave a positive one whenever possible.
Thank you again for participating and let me know if you have any questions.Madoka
The comp is fast approaching, this Saturday (12 MAR)! Three GRTU anglers (Alex, Trey, JC), the first female competitor to make Team USA along with 6 other aspirants will be competing. In addition to those that volunteered to sponsor an angler, we could use a few more volunteers.
If you’d like to watch some great anglers fish, make some new friends, and perhaps pick up some new tactics and techniques, we would appreciate your help. We will meet at Rio at 0730, and the comp will end at 4:45. Your only responsibility will be to transport the angler to beat (site) and show where it starts (but if you wanted to impart some local knowledge, I’m sure they wouldn’t object). As it stands now the beats are located at #5, S-Turn, Little Ponderosa, Devils Playground (Lazy L&L), and River Bluff x2 (Hoa Pool to weir and Weir to upper riffle) – https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1gCr44vRhF7MI7k4zyWtQKArJXrj1aWyR&ll=29.81627947076042%2C-98.17330441403855&z=14
Each session will last 1.5 hours and each angler will fish two sessions for a total of 3 hours. The anglers will control each other and record the number of fish legally caught.
If you can support this effort, please PM me, or send me an email at john.cadran@gmail.com. Thank you!
JC
Another consideration, Rommel, may be that the T&T is telegraphing more takes than the Cortland so you aren’t in fact dropping more fish, just realizing more takes. Of course this too is just conjecture and Jimbo and Alex both raise valid points. I also started with a Cortland, now spend most of my time with a 10′ 2wt T&T Contact II and an Orvis 10’6″ 3wt Helios 3F. I had a few days in December of fishing with the Cortland (due to breaking both the other rods in the span of a couple of days), I did notice a difference in sensitivity and of course weight but not an uptick in dropped fish.
Another thing to consider, the tippet protection is far superior on the higher end Euro rods and bending out hooks is a real possibility on the larger trout in the Guadalupe even on 6x. Yesterday, I bent out two hooks (though managed to land the fish) and these were quality hooks – Hanak 400 BL sz 16 and 450 sz 18, so I monitor the hooks and the points. As for running straight mono, I know several people that do, although as Alex pointed out, it’s not comp compliant if that’s a consideration. And I find that it’s harder to strip and almost necessitates playing fish on the reel.
Finally, if you are managing your line with your off hand, (i.e. taking up the slack with hand twists, figure of eights or slowly slowly stripping it in), incorporating a bit of a strip set as Jimbo suggested wouldn’t be that difficult. But I find if you’re mostly staying tight to your flies, it’s usually not necessary. In the end, because there are many variables, you just might have had a bad case of the drops, and the next time you go out your ratio of hooked to landed will be back to normal.
Thanks to everyone that responded to help out and to those that want to compete shoot me a PM. I have scheduled the event for Saturday, March 12th and the details can be see at https://www.flycomps.com/events/guadalupe-river-mini-3-12-2022. More to follow.
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