Alex Argyros
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Yes, congratulations, Scott. Retirement and a box full of perdigons will make a man happy.
Now, for the bad news. We just got an email to the effect that flows will be increased to over 800 cfs starting today. They will decrease them over the weekend, but that implies that they will raise them again next week.
Alex
Yes, it’s a conveyor belt of free beer out there. There’s also something comforting about being asked “Any luck?” and “What are you catching?” every few minutes. But my favorite activity is watching an armada of connected tubes bearing down on me.
You clearly weren’t at River Bluff on Sunday. The hatch was thick and loud. But the fishing remained good in spite of the revelry.
We got a subsequent email saying that the flows would remain at around 350 for the foreseeable future. Perfect for fishing and, alas, for tubing.
Thanks for the report, J.C. Sorry about the conditions and the lack of cooperation from the trout. Looking forward to Part II.
Alex
Good work, guys. Nice to see the little trout and the little humans working together.
Alex
It’s a wonder we didn’t run into each other on Sunday, J.C. I started at Rio and fished upstream. Like you, I saw very few people until the tubers started stumbling down, at which point some earplugs would have been a good piece of angling equipment. But, the fishing was good, although not so much with the Perdigons. Eggs and small caddis larvae/scuds worked much better for me.
Alex
I’ve seen lots of fish with that kind of damage, but, interestingly enough, they’ve all been rainbows. This year, at least, I’ve not caught a brown that wasn’t in great shape.
Those are some beautiful Perdigons, JC.
I was out today too, but downstream of the tubers. Had a great day, but no doubles. I did, however, catch a few of those elusive minnows.
Alex
About half of our leases are year-round. All the information about which leases close March 31 and which are open is on the sticky that Jimbo generously provided.
Also, remember that some of the closed leases are accessible with a bit of wading.
Alex
Hi JC,
I’m not sure about the luminary part (more like a candle, if you ask me), but if love of a river is a light, then my does shine pretty brightly. At any rate, welcome to this forum.
If you’ll be fishing the Guadalupe using tackle that is FIPS legal, I’d love to know what works for you.
Alex
Excellent choice. Now, go catch a bunch of fish with it!
Alex
Good luck, Scott, on your new adventure.
What rod did you decide on?
Alex
Yes, tags have to be pretty short. I try to keep mine around 3-4″.
You might try switching heavy and light flies, putting the heavy one on the dropper and the light one on point.
You might also try going lighter. With these flows, I would use one 2.4 mm. and one 2 mm nymph if I were fishing the main Pott’s pool. Just cast a bit farther upstream and give your flies enough slack to sink quickly (a tuck cast helps). This is even more the case if you use inverting beads, since they function like jigs and sink faster.
What tippet size are you using? I’ve been getting most of my fish on 6x using size 18 or 20 nymphs.
Finally, you might try striking at every hesitation of your sighter with a short little jerk of the rod. If there’ s nothing at the end of the line continue your drift. You’d be surprised how many strikes go unfelt.
Alex
There’s no quick way to learn contact nymphing; a lot depends on experience.
The thing to remember is that when tightlining, you’re fishing to the weight. The goal, regardless of how you rig, is a relatively drag-free drift.
If you’re using weighted flies, you can tell that the flies have reached bottom when your sighter straightens a bit. But, you’re never dragging your flies. You’re trying to keep us with what you don’t see, the flies on the bottom of the stream.
The same is the case if you’re drop shotting. The only difference is that the weight is split shot on the bottom and your flies can be lightly weighted (or unweighted). And they can be very small (something hard to do if you rely on beads to get your fly down). The flies should also be drifting pretty naturally.
A third option is to use an unweighted fly on point, especially an egg. Then, using you can run a small (midge larva, for example) as a trailer off the egg.
No matter how you do it, there is no actual dead drift. Even an unweighted nymph is much heavier than an actual nymph. So, it’s always a compromise.
Alex
