Guadalupe Report

The beginning of the trout season on the Guadalupe has included a number of very nice days on the river. Most of the trout we are catching are podded up and there have been quite a few double hookups on the boat! Average fish size is about 17 inches and they are all strong fighters. The rains this past Friday stained the river for about a day but also brought a nice amount of new water into Canyon Lake. Fishing on Sunday was very good, with clear water conditions. There were not that many bugs on the water on Sunday and the fish did not get that active until the sun came out in the late morning. Once the sun was out the fishing stayed good throughout the day.

In the past few days on the river I have seen very good hatches of tricos, a handful of hexagenia and lots of midges. In the evenings we have seen nice hatches of caddis and even some ginger quills.

Fly Patterns that have been working well include hares’ ear nymphs, pheasant tail nymphs, prince nymphs, zebra midges, various egg patterns and San Juan Worms. I have had three trips this past week where a tan egg as an attractor and either a #18 prince nymph or pheasant tail without a bead were the rigs of choice throughout the day. On the overcast days, a bubble-back PMD emerger was very effective as well.

Warm Water Report

We are having cool fronts coming through the Hill Country about once a week and that has affected our warm water fishing. This past weekend the San Marcos received a large amount of water which stained the river and put the fish down. The Llano has also had some increase in flows in the lower sections of the river. Last week on the Llano near Junction water temperatures were in the lower to mid sixty degrees, which is still good but getting into the lower range for steady fishing. The bass are still active but the sunfish and Rio Grande Cichlids are starting to slow. At this point in the year it is good to keep an eye on the weather and pick and choose your warm water fishing days. Most of the better fishing is in the late afternoons and evenings. I have received good fishing reports on the Colorado and will be getting out later this week to confirm those reports.

Fly Patterns for this time of year are almost all streamer patterns, with the most productive patterns on the Llano being olive or black and on the Colorado white and chartreuse have been the colors of choice. We have had some nice action on poppers on the Llano in the evenings, with chartreuse or red poppers being the most effective color choices.

Guadalupe River Nymph Fishing

One of my most asked questions at this time of year is "What’ya git'em on?" My most common answer is “A little number (smaller than an 18), (fill in the blank) nymph.” The most common response to this is “Geez, I hate those little flies.” This is followed by some head shaking by the angler as he digs in to his boxes to find the few small nymphs that were bought five years ago when fishing on the San Juan, South Platte or Frying Pan.

For various reasons, many fly anglers in Texas have a deep fear of little flies and light tippet. When I first began fly fishing for bass on the Llano River I would walk into a fly shop, see the trout nymphs and shake my head, wondering how anyone would think that a big fish would ever want to eat such a little bug. As time went on and I began expanding my fishing horizons a few of the smaller flies found their way into my boxes. I still have trouble with the idea of fishing anything smaller than a size 16 for bass and to this day refuse to tie any fly smaller than a size 18. I have gotten over my phobia of small flies for trout, partly due to my fishing on various tailwater trout streams, where you have to go small on your fly selection, and if you look in my trout boxes you will find that most of my flies are smaller than a size 16 and quite a few are in the 22-26 range.

To most fly anglers, and certainly those who have read anything on trout fishing, the term “match the hatch” is an accepted fact of their fishing life. Unfortunately, for many this knowledge is separate from their practice. On any given day on the Guadalupe I will see at least one angler who will stand in one spot and fish the same flies on the same feeding line for 20 minutes without a change. Quite often the angler is making good drifts on a good feeding lane but is fishing to fish that have been beaten over the head by their flies. I am certain that most of these anglers are fishing their “confidence flies,” or that set of flies that have worked well for them on the river in the past and possibly even produced a fish or two in that spot earlier in the day. Unfortunately for the angler, the fish also know these flies and will move away from them the more often they are shown that particular fly.

Confidence Flies

I do believe in confidence flies on any stream. They are the flies that are proven to catch fish throughout the day and throughout the season. On the Guadalupe, my confidence flies include #18 hare’s ear nymphs, #18 and #20 pheasant tail nymphs in both natural and black, #20 and #22 gray RS2s and various colors of #20-24 zebra midges. These are patterns that I will often start out the day with; if they are not producing I will change away from them but will often come back to later in the day. These are flies that on slow fishing days will fish longer and harder than other flies but, unlike the angler who stays with them in the same spot for a very long time, I will change away from, especially on those days when there are a number of other anglers on the stream.

As the season progresses, I add in other flies such as graphics caddis, more midges such as rainbow warriors, WD40s and black beauties, baetis emergers such as mercury baetis, biot emergers and other patterns in olive and gray, trico emergers such as #24 black RS2 and, later in the season, sucker spawn patterns in pink and yellow.

As a general rule, I will fish a confidence fly for four dozen drifts before changing. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but it does give me a finite measure of how that fly is working on that day compared to other days on the river. If the last time I fished the river any particular fly produced a hookup every 20 drifts and today it is producing every 30 drifts, my confidence in that fly will change relative to other flies in my box. When you consider that most drifts on the Guadalupe last less than 20 seconds, the 48 dozen drifts rule works out to about 15 minutes of fishing time before changing flies. When it becomes time to change flies I have a progression of flies that I will go through, based on the other confidence flies I have yet to try, the bugs I am seeing on the water, water conditions and the all important, “let’s give them something different” factor. There are times in the season where I will rest a pattern for a few weeks, letting the fish forget the pattern and hopefully making it once again a successful pattern in my box. Bead head patterns tend to be the first patterns that get rested, and there are many years where I will not fish a fly with a bead head in the latter months of the season in favor of more natural looking patterns.

Stocking Your Box(es)

For many people, walking into a fly shop and looking at trout flies can be a little overpowering, especially when you walk into a shop without your boxes. I almost always know what flies are in my boxes but quite often will, shortly after restocking my boxes, find that there is still a gap in my box of a certain fly that, at that very moment is my best producing fly, leading me to dig deeper into the boxes to find another pattern that is similar to that fly and hopefully just as productive. Sometimes this digging can lead me to finding a new favorite pattern; often it leads to more fly changes as I keep wishing that I had remembered to get the better pattern in the first place.

When you do your fly shopping, consider getting a few extras of each of your best producing patterns. Buying one or two each of a half dozen patterns will get more types of flies in your boxes but also means that you will run low on a particular fly much sooner. For the better producing flies on the Guadalupe, I suggest that people get at least four each of three or four patterns. After you have those flies taken care of, get a couple each of two or three new patterns to add to your selection.

Another advantage of taking your boxes into the shop is that it allows you to show your flies to the sales associate in the shop and will give them an opportunity to make suggestions on the gaps in your box. This is especially helpful if you are just getting into fly fishing for trout or if you are going to be fishing a river for the first time. Rather than guessing as to which flies you have in your boxes, it will allow you to make certain that you are picking up flies that you are low on addressing those gaps in your boxes.

Rigging Up

Fly selection as the season progresses on the Guadalupe is often more a matter of going smaller on your flies and lighter on your tippet. In the early parts of the season, it is possible to be very successful on your standard patterns in sizes ranging from 14 to 18, fished on 4x tippet. As the season goes on, I will get progressively smaller on the fly sizes, down to size 24 or smaller, fished on 6x tippet. This is partly due to the fact that the bugs (especially the tricos and midges) in the latter part of the season are smaller and also because many other anglers on the river are still fishing the larger flies on heavier tippet. Once a trout has been hooked on a 16 bead head pheasant tail a few times they will remember the fly and will refuse it in favor of smaller and more natural looking flies. I do still keep my standard selection but often go one size smaller (#18 instead of #16) and fish that pattern as my attractor, upper fly on a two fly rig, with the smaller, more natural looking pattern as my trailer.

When setting up my nymph rig for the Guadalupe I tend to fish a two fly nymph set. In setting up the rig I will typically take a 9 foot leader to start and will immediately trim off the last 12 inches of the leader. I will then take 18 inches of tippet and tie on to the leader. The purpose for this is to 1) create my preferred leader length 2) put a tippet knot onto the leader to create an anchor point for my weight. For my weight I prefer a moldable tungsten putty that allows me to quickly change the amount of weight but will sometimes use a piece of split shot as a base weight and then add additional weight with the putty over the shot.

At the end of the tippet I will tie in my first fly, which is typically a larger attractor or confidence fly pattern. After that fly is tied on I will take an additional 15 inches of tippet, tie in my smaller, more natural looking fly and then attach that fly onto the attractor fly with an improved clinch knot at the bend of the hook. If I do want to change flies, I will start by changing the trailing fly, nipping the tippet between the two flies just above the knot on the trailer fly and retying a new fly as a trailer. With the 15 inches base length between the two flies, I will trim and change flies to the point where there is 8 inches of tippet between the two flies. Any less than 8 inches and I will trim out the tippet between the two flies and start again with the 15 inches of tippet. Other people I fish with will go as little as 6 inches between flies and there is no fixed rule for the distance between the two flies. If, after about 48 drifts, I don’t have any success on my any of my offerings I will nip off the entire rig and start with a new attractor pattern and cycle back trough my natural trailers.

The only remaining part of the nymph rig remaining is the indicator. For nymph fishing on the Guadalupe I am almost always fishing an indicator. The exception would be if I am swinging soft hackles or swinging a nymph behind a small streamer. Unlike some tailwater fisheries, I have not found that the type or color of indicator on the Guadalupe matters much. I prefer a smaller ball indicator that is visible in all light conditions, typically in bright orange. I will set the indicator at a distance from my weight, which will change based upon the speed of water fished and the depth of the water being fished. The general rule is to have a leader length 1.5 to 2 times the depth of the water you are fishing. More practically, if your flies are not hitting the bottom every few drifts, increase the distance between your indicator and flies and possibly even add in a little more weight to make sure you are getting down to where the fish are. If you are hitting bottom every time, shorten the length between your indicator and flies and/or remove some weight. Many times this is the most important change you can make to your rig throughout the day. You do want to check your flies every so often to ensure that your bottom bumps are not resulting in your flies getting slimed by the algae along the bottom of the river. There are many days when simply adding a little depth or weight will mean the difference between catching a few fish and having an epic fishing day.

On the Water

On the water technique is another important aspect of successful nymph fishing. Many anglers in who fish for bass in the summer months will want to fish the water away from them, forgetting that many trout can be caught at your feet. Learning where the fish hold is often as simple as seeing where the water is flowing. When you approach a section of water, looking to see where the predominance of flow is going through is important, as these lanes are often where the natural bugs are flowing in the water column. Look for the foam on the water or debris such as leaves or sticks are flowing down the river will show you the predominant flow on the river. Start on the near side of the flow, often on the near edge of the current. Make a handful of drifts on the near side, looking to ensure that your flies are getting down to depth, to see if the trout are on the near edge of the seam. When the bugs are not very active, trout will often move to the edges of the flow to wait out the slow periods of the hatch.

After having made a series of casts on the near edge, work your next series of casts slightly further into the current, progressing across the current methodically. If you find a fish on a certain lane then you can start focusing on that type of water. If you don’t find fish after a series of casts, adjust your weight and depth to ensure that you are getting down. If you don’t have success after a couple of dozen drifts, start changing flies. If you still are not having success, move upstream or downstream (preferably upstream when nymph fishing) and see if the fish are holding in different parts of the channel. I don’t know how many times in a season that I see someone with their feet anchored to a spot, refusing to move despite the fact that they haven’t had a hookup in over 30 minutes.

It is also important to get a good drag free drift. Work on making your mends as soon as you make your cast, keeping the fly line in a straight line between the tip of your rod and your indicator. Many times on the Guadalupe I see people who mend too much, sometimes making as many as six mends along a drift. If you can keep your mends to a minimum (two or three at the most) during a drift you will keep your flies floating along with the current much more naturally. This can be accomplished by getting one good mend at the beginning of the drift and then adding an additional mend as the flies go past you.

Final Thoughts on Nymphing

Fly fishing is a nuanced sport, and many people who fall into the dry fly only category look down on nymph fishing as chuck and duck, blind casting. Many of these people fail to see that the variables involved in nymph fishing make it a more technical aspect of trout fishing when compared to most dry fly fishing situations. Trout feed below the surface the vast majority of the time and, when you consider the fact that trout see many different natural bugs as well as artificial nymphs they can be much more discerning when it comes to artificial flies fished below the surface.

Nuanced nymphing is especially true on the Guadalupe in the later months of the season and focusing on making good drifts as well as changing your flies and depth will help anglers to become more proficient in their fishing technique so that their days on the Guadalupe are more productive. As a bonus, all of these techniques can then be carried over to other trout streams, making those summertime trips to Colorado or Montana more rewarding experiences. And remember that most fellow fly anglers are a friendly bunch and the occasional "What'ya git'em on?" is part of the continual learning process that is inherent in the sport of fly fishing.

Warm Water Report

The warm water fishing in the Texas Hill Country has been a mixed affair of late. We have seen days when the fish will move 6 feet to take a fly, and others were you can bring a fly within an inch of a bass, only to have the fish slowly turn away. The trick for successfully targeting bass in late fall is often persistence and being at the right place at the right time.

The most productive fishing days are days when the weather pattern is stable and has been stable for at least 3 days. The quality of the fishing has also improved in the past few days, mostly due to the fact that our overnight lows are back into the mid 50s, while the afternoon highs are staying in the 70s. This is the time of year when we get our “Indian Summer” that will bring nice bass out from their stumps and snags. On the days when we are experiencing weather pattern changes the fishing can still be good, but is subject to shut down as the front moves through. If you are fishing ahead or right on the front, then the fishing can be excellent, once the front has moved through the fish often move into deeper water and will wait to see if winter is here or if the Indian summer will return. Another factor that has affected the fishing has been the rains we are finally receiving in the Texas Hill Country.

For the first time in almost two years the ground in the Hill Country is wet and so much of the rains we have been receiving, and that we are forecast to receive in the next few months, will be flowing into our rivers and lakes. With each rain event there is typically a 2-3 day window after the rains subside that the water is stained. The first day or two will put the fish down but a little stain on the water can allow you to get a little closer to the fishy spots before casting.
After the rains subside and the water clears, we have continued to enjoy nice sight casting days on both the Llano and Colorado Rivers. The San Marcos has received a number of rises coming off the Blanco River but the fish are settling back down and the fishing should keep improving as the current weather pattern holds. On the extreme end of what we see in the Texas Hill Country, on October 22, in 40 minutes, the Pedernales River in Johnson City went from 230 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 22,500 cfs and, at one point that day was increasing the level of Lake Travis by one foot per hour.

Fly patterns for this time of year are almost all streamer patterns. My best producing fly on the Llano has been in olive, and white has worked very well on the Colorado.

The forecast for the next week calls for stable temperatures (lows in the 50s, highs in the 70s) and mostly stable rain chances. Now is an excellent time to get in that last minute bass trip before trout season settles in.

Guadalupe Report

The trout season on the Guadalupe is starting early this year. Cooler days and cooling rains have brought the average daily river temperature on the Guadalupe River tailwater down to the required thresholds for the safe introduction of new fish that will soon join the holdover trout in the Trophy Trout Zone of the Guadalupe. My guiding season for trout on the Guadalupe will being on Tuesday, November 17 and continue into the spring. Flows are still down from the historic averages but Canyon Lake continues to rise, and has now gained five feet since the beginning of September. This is one of the earlier starts to the trout season on the Guadalupe in a number of years and, with the long range forecast calling for above average rainfall and slightly cooler temperatures this winter, we might finally be seeing the end of our extended drought and a return to nice trout fishing well into the spring.

Fly patterns early in the season often include smaller wooly buggers, standard nymphs such as hare’s ear nymphs, pheasant tail nymphs, zebra midges, various egg patterns and San Juan worms. There have been nice hatches in recent weeks, including caddis and some mayflies. As winter approaches the bugs, and therefore the fly menu, will change but for now, start with your “go-to” flies and then get more creative from there.

In addition to scouting for trout, I have also been looking for striped bass above the trophy trout zone. This has provided some mixed fishing days in which I have fished nymphs for trout in the runs and streamers in the pools for stripers.

All-in-all, it is looking to be another very nice season on the Guadalupe River for trout.

Got Carp?

Yes, the accompanying photos do show yours truly holding a carp and sporting a wide grin. I realize that to many, targeting carp with a fly rod is only slightly more refined than sitting on a bank with a cane pole, a can of kernel corn and a pack of treble hooks; unfortunately, the majority of the carp naysayers have never had the pleasure of seeing a freshwater fish put them into their backing. Some of the naysayers have even targeted carp, though some might not admit this fact to their friends, only to have this so called “trash fish” refuse their fly with the gravitas of an old brown trout.

The carp in the first photo was feeding in about 3 feet of water and took a chartreuse and white cat’s whisker, fished behind wooly bugger that was presented directly in front of the fish. The other carp near this fish were suspended and not feeding and any attempt to put a fly near them resulted in the entire school being spooked in a manner similar to red fish being spooked by an errant cast. This fish, however, was actively feeding and took the fly on the first drift. [Before you start your comments, yes, he was feeding on the bottom of the river, and yes there is muck and sometimes trash on the bottom of a river and, once again proving that the laws of gravity do hold true, even in a river.] The key was to get the fly in front of the fish without spooking it and on an angle that will bring the fly directly in front of the fish’s mouth. If you can make the cast so not to spook the fish and if the fly can get down along the bottom as it comes in front of the fish, the end result is quite often a good ride.

My preferred flies for carp are simple and include smaller sized (#8-12) wooly buggers in olive, brown or black, crayfish patterns and “buggy” looking nymphs in sizes #10-14. Damsel fly nymphs, hellgrammites, dragon fly nymphs, and most any other of the larger macro invertebrates common to a river or lake are good patterns for feeding carp. I keep a selection of larger nymphs in one of the streamer boxes I carry so that if I happen upon a feeding carp I can quickly add the nymph or small bugger to my line. Tippet size can sometimes be a concern in areas where the carp have seen angling pressure in the past, but I tend to fish in the 2x-4x range for carp, with 3x being what I use most often.

One of the draws to carp fishing is that you can often sight cast to a feeding fish. Sometimes described as “poor man’s bone fishing,” carp fishing requires both accuracy and delicacy in fly placement. A missed shot often results in the fish being startled and blowing up the area as the fish move quickly away from you and your fly. For those who want to sharpen their casting skills prior to a saltwater trip, carp fishing provides some very nice “game day” opportunities. And, given the size of the fish you are dealing with, it is a good opportunity to break out that 8wt that seldom gets used.

The state record common carp was taken on Lady Bird Lake in Austin in 2007 and weighed in at 43.25 pounds. The state record for common carp on a fly stands at 33 pounds, caught on Lady Bird Lake in 1999. There are many nice carp still in Lady Bird Lake and many more in the Colorado River below Austin as well.

Common carp are the most numerous of the carp species on the Colorado River below Austin seem to range in the 8-15 pound range, but on occasion it is possible to spot a fish that would easily weigh in excess of 30 pounds. Carp run in short, strong bursts and will then hold in place, often spinning in a slow circle, regaining strength for another run. Fishing from a raised platform, such as a boat or raft will make it easier to spot feeding fish and make it easier to chase down any fish that decides to run. It is still possible to get into your backing when float fishing for carp and if you are wade fishing, you are very likely to see your backing.

Carp can be fished year round, and do thrive in the colder waters of our Hill Country winters when the bass are slower to feed. While I do not typically set out on any given day to go “carp fishing,” I do keep an eye out and if I happen to see a feeding will back off the fish, make a quick fly change, tighten my drag, and get ready to hold on.

Guadalupe Report

The Guadalupe River below Canyon Dam is doing well and Canyon Lake is up over two feet from the lows of this past Summer. There are holdover trout in the Guadalupe and if the air and water temperatures continue to moderate we should see some good trout fishing by early December. TPWD will start stocking trout on the Guadalupe in the first week in December and I suspect that GRTU will be starting at or about that same time.

Lastly, if you are in the area this weekend, the Fall GRTU meeting will be held this Saturday, October 24th. For more information, please visit http://www.grtu.org/