J.C.
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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.
Good news, I received approval from Team USA regional coordinators to host a mini comp on the Guad. In the next couple of days I will post the event on https://www.flycomps.com/ with the details. I still have some details to work out, such as GRTU member sponsors, whether I can bulk purchase LAP passes for the non-member competitors, beat locations, etc.
Also, if you’d like to compete, visit the site to understand the requirements as well as the FIPS-Mouche rules that govern the comps. Additionally a Team USA membership is required. More to follow as we work out the logistics.
JC
Excellent and legitimate question David, for which I’m unsure how to answer without understanding the metrics you use to determine benefit to GRTU and our fishery. Since I don’t want to speculate on your criteria to establish benefit, I offer the following:
1. Creates an opportunity to observe and learn how some really good anglers approach water and the tactics and techniques used to fish that water.
2. Affords an opportunity for those in Texas curious about Team USA or fly fishing comps to see and even participate in one.Since you asked, I also offer a reframing of the question to you:
1. Do 12 anglers fishing for a total of 3 hours, who ardently practice catch-and-release, advocate for and only use barbless hooks and fully understand proper handling and release of trout somehow detract from or harm GRTU or our fishery?JC
Welcome to the dark side, Ron. I echo everyone’s comments. A few egg patterns and a few perdigons will get you started. My suggestion is start with 2 flies: eggstacy egg (if you can find the material), and a perdigon on a size 16 jig hook (Hanak 400 BL for me). Tie the perdigon on the size 16 hook with different slotted tungsten beads: 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 mm, it will serve you well. This way you can fish the same fly at different depths / sink rates. Good luck and if we run into each other on the water or at a stocking, I’ll be sure to share some flies that have worked for me.
JC
We caught those little ones in the riffle above Gypsy Rose, an unexpected location and even further away from Ron’s nursery. Given the Purina trout chow disruptions, perhaps the State settled for what was available, but I’d like to believe the Guad is the only home they’ve known.
I concur with your assessment, Alex. Just after Christmas, I broke my Orvis H3 tip (yes Jimbo that’s the 3rd time but this was the bridge’s fault). Got online Sunday night, ordered a new tip and received it on Tuesday. Thank goodness because after that I broke my T&T Contact II just above the handle and that one was my fault. T&T received the rod Monday and stated repairs will take ~8 weeks, sigh. Well, I have one more Euro rod to break to make it a trifecta, think I’ll take my Cortland out this weekend.
JC
Wish you well, Dana and hopefully you’ll get a chance on Gunpowder as well as some of the great and historic streams of PA.
JC
Ron, we stocked at Horseshoe Riverside Lodge (formerly Maricopa), Rio (off the bridge), #5 (only above the weir), Meckel’s and CVC. This batch of fish came from Nebraska, which is probably a bit too far away as many of the fish didn’t fair well. There was a higher than usual mortality rate and the majority of the people stocking spent time on revival detail trying to save as many as possible. Hats off to everyone’s effort in trying to save as many as possible and to Dan for recognizing the condition of the fish and stocking them as quickly as possible in the most optimum spots for survival. As for size, from what I saw, most fish appeared to be in that 12-16″ range with some outliers.
JC
Great question, jrcheno for which I believe there are as many answers as there are variables. Alex astutely summarized the major observations, especially the early morning bite, to which I’ll add low light imparting a sense of safety coupled with that hunger and amnesia. I do think the bite is often cyclical, so perhaps it’s more instructive to reframe the question.
When the bite slows, how do you respond/adapt? The reason the bite slows may be important in determining a specific response, but how many times do we really know why? So I think having multiple strategies is more important to help bridge the doldrums. To this point, how many people fish the same fly without changing and just keep moving to cover new water? What if you aren’t able to move to new water, then what? I would offer that when the bite slows, changing patterns, depth, weight, action, and presentation style may realize a few more in the net and of course presentation, presentation, presentation.
I would ask if you were seeking loneliness, which lease would you visit, however, I fear the answer may be Canada.
I haven’t really noticed a difference in snagging bottom, Drew. However, I use a slotted bead and attempt to situate its center line above the hook shank in hopes it will invert in the water and not occlude the gape as much as a standard countersunk bead. I don’t know if it actually helps and in all honesty I don’t fish these enough to have formed an opinion. Also, when I do fish them, they tend to occupy the dropper position.
I hope Flylords at least cited you in the post (and that you posted it to your Instagram otherwise I’d be concerned that they have a GRTU logon)!
