Trout Time in Texas!

I was able to make my first trip of the season down to the Guadalupe this past weekend. With Liz and Collins on a girls weekend visiting Liz's sister, Saturday was wide open to head south for some solid time on the water. As the forecast for the day called for 80 degree temperatures, the plan was to hit the water early and try and beat the heat. With the first round of Texas Parks and Wildlife's stocking program taking place the day before, I was hopeful to beat some of the crowd that I knew would be there as well. I made it down to stop number one, Rainbow Camp, right at day break. It's always a good sight pulling up to the water and having no other cars around, it really makes that 5:30 wake up call worth it.

I fished a pretty typical Guadalupe nymph rig for most of the morning. 6 weight rod, 5x tippet, split shot for some depth, and a variety of tandem patterns. I fished for a good hour and a half with no strikes, changing up fly combinations along the way. The first hookup came closer to 9am on a small copper john (size 22) that was trailing a hares ear. It was a beautiful 18 inch rainbow that I was able to get to the net. With the warmer water temperatures, I did my best to play the fish as little as possible. Long drawn out battles and warm water are a bad combination for trout on the Guadalupe. After a quick picture, he was back on his way.

It wasn't ten minutes after watching the first fish swim away, that fish number two was on, a pretty 13-14 inch rainbow. As with the first fish, he took the little copper john trailer. I felt like I was on to something. 

I fished for a while longer at Rainbow camp but with crowds increasing and no bites, I picked up and made a move. I stopped off at Action Angler to stock up on flies before heading to Lazy L&L for stop number two. There were a number of anglers on the water at the far end of Lazy L&L. I had to make my way down river a bit to have an area to fish. I fished a while with no success but the highlight came when Texas Parks and Wildlife showed up with their stocking crew. They brought bucket after bucket full of trout down to the water to release. I walked over to check it out and it was quite a sight seeing so many sizable trout swimming off down river for us anglers to chase. Of course I fished for a while longer after that but with the place becoming a mad house, I decided to pack it in for the day.

All in all, it was a fun first trip of the season to the Guadalupe. Sattler was having a big Christmas parade which I stopped off at (or got road blocked into) on the way home. The whole town was out in full force to show their holiday spirit. The Reel Fly shop was a great spot to take it all in as they had a keg of trout slayer and Christmas cookies for people to enjoy as the floats went by. Great way to top off the day!