Post by gui on Dec 27, 2017 14:25:09 GMT -6
On our way from Dallas to go join the family in South Texas for Christmas, we stopped for a relaxing two nights stay in the Texas Hill Country. We brought fly-rods and waders with us.
I've heard about the "Southernmost Trout Fishery in the United States" several years ago. And since the tailwater below Canyon lake is about halfway between Dallas and my wife's family place, we had made a couple of quick fishing stops in the past with limited success, besides a few small bass and sunfish here and there.
Yet, from these trips, I keep with me memories of a beast with blood orange gill plates and lateral lines that tried to hit my black wooly twice without getting hooked. And it sometimes still haunts me at night.
We had never fished the Guadalupe in the winter, which is also the TPWD trout stocking season. I'd also heard rumors of some larger than usual trout being stocked in the tailrace this season.
So we came in this time determined in catching some Texan trout!
It was drizzling on that day, with a cold front approaching.
My wife was fishing a San Juan with a small nymph dropper under an indicator and I was alternating between trying my best to coach her and stripping or dead-drifting a wooly bugger with or without a dropper.
We quickly had a few hookups and early releases. It was not really my day, as I kept struggling with various tangles and lost flies on the river's bottom...
Then it happened. I hear this again: "baby, I got something!".
So I go to her and pretty quickly realize that this one is a good fish.
The next five minutes were spent praying that the 5X tippet and my knots were going to hold. Or maybe it was ten minutes, we both can't tell .
Then comes the critical moment and the net is obviously too small...
But Santa decided to gave us an early gift. So here it is, a gnarly looking texan trout.
Oh yeah, and they say everything's bigger in Texas...
After the release, my wife decided to name him Marcel.
Marcel took the size 18 rainbow warrior dropper.
Meanwhile, this is what I catch:
And now I'm going to have nightmares of Marcel at night...
Happy Holidays everyone!
I've heard about the "Southernmost Trout Fishery in the United States" several years ago. And since the tailwater below Canyon lake is about halfway between Dallas and my wife's family place, we had made a couple of quick fishing stops in the past with limited success, besides a few small bass and sunfish here and there.
Yet, from these trips, I keep with me memories of a beast with blood orange gill plates and lateral lines that tried to hit my black wooly twice without getting hooked. And it sometimes still haunts me at night.
We had never fished the Guadalupe in the winter, which is also the TPWD trout stocking season. I'd also heard rumors of some larger than usual trout being stocked in the tailrace this season.
So we came in this time determined in catching some Texan trout!
It was drizzling on that day, with a cold front approaching.
My wife was fishing a San Juan with a small nymph dropper under an indicator and I was alternating between trying my best to coach her and stripping or dead-drifting a wooly bugger with or without a dropper.
We quickly had a few hookups and early releases. It was not really my day, as I kept struggling with various tangles and lost flies on the river's bottom...
Then it happened. I hear this again: "baby, I got something!".
So I go to her and pretty quickly realize that this one is a good fish.
The next five minutes were spent praying that the 5X tippet and my knots were going to hold. Or maybe it was ten minutes, we both can't tell .
Then comes the critical moment and the net is obviously too small...
But Santa decided to gave us an early gift. So here it is, a gnarly looking texan trout.
Oh yeah, and they say everything's bigger in Texas...
After the release, my wife decided to name him Marcel.
Marcel took the size 18 rainbow warrior dropper.
Meanwhile, this is what I catch:
And now I'm going to have nightmares of Marcel at night...
Happy Holidays everyone!