hookie day on the Guadalupe

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Ron Mc
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hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

Waiting for something to happen at work tomorrow, and got a lot done yesterday, so went fishing with Jimbo today.
It was a good day, a nice lazy start, and we met up about mile 8.
I got 3 small hens and 2 nice bucks 17" and 20" for the day. This was also my first day to fish the tailrace in 4 years, because my daughter's HS wrestling career was a total drain on my winters - and that's all right, it was a hoot, too
(SR year, she lost her state championship by 2 points - it was a ride).
Got my wading legs back in 330 cfs flow, and wore myself out good.
Jimbo caught quite few more and I got some good photos.
Jimbo was the first to hook up, and here's the commotion in his net
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I got my 3 little hens like bang, bang, bang. Far down in the net, they look smaller than they are - she's probably 14"
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We explored upriver. I went right past the spot where Jimbo got a nice brown and 5 small rainbows. And worked my way back down to below where I started. While I was waiting for Jimbo to come back down, wore myself out on this fella - can't remember that last time a rainbow fought this hard.
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and a cool shot with the multiple frames cranking
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We were getting calorie deprived about 1p, and headed into Sattler for the best chop in Texas
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After lunch, we headed farther upriver, about mile 5
Two shots of Jimbo working hard.
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Then I got my 2nd nice buck
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here's a fun series of Jimbo after he moved a bit farther down
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you can see this one was a big girl, when she came up to check out Jimbo
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Last edited by Ron Mc on Wed Feb 27, 2019 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JW FunGuy
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by JW FunGuy »

Nice shots! I know Jimbo always carries a camera, where’s the shots of you?
I’ll be on the river tomorrow I hope y’all didn’t tire them out too much. :)
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by shoffer »

Now that is a fishing message post right there. Well done, Ron Mc.
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Ron Mc
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

I missed so many fish yesterday that I would have hooked last time out...(4 years' rusty)
I'll get the touch back.
Jimbo must have been as tired as I was - he took several photos of me, and if he posts on GRTU, I'll copy some here

Jerry, sorry I didn't add this last night - you're probably already out...
Midges and BWOs hatching all day, caddis hatch in the afternoon - switched my swimming BWO dropper for size 16 soft hackle on that last buck.

A guide reported a 22" chromer brown buck - definitely a holdover - caught on dries at mile 6
We saw the nice photo at their lunch stop
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Will also add there were redds all over the skinny water at mile 5. In the fall, Jimbo and I both have caught wild-spawned rainbows here.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Wed Feb 27, 2019 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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kickingback
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by kickingback »

Very cool report. Glad you caught some nice trout!
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Makes me wish I lived closer to some of your south texas rivers.

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Re: RE: Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

imaoldmanyoungsalt wrote:Makes me wish I lived closer to some of your south texas rivers.

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I guess I should have said south and "central" Texas

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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

It's kinda funny, 70 miles apart - Austin calls it Central, SA calls it South - but we all call it hill country
Rocky Top is a photogenic spot
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and round the bend is Mushroom Rocks
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and Redhorse Run on the other side of the island
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Re: RE: Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Ron Mc wrote:It's kinda funny, 70 miles apart - Austin calls it Central, SA calls it South - but we all call it hill country
Rocky Top is a photogenic spot
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and round the bend is Mushroom Rocks
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and Redhorse Run on the other side of the island
Image
Those pics..... now you're just rubbin' it in!ImageImageImage

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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

don't mean to, but this is 20 min from my house (for the past 20 years) - when I was 20-something, used to drive from Austin to wade at 800 cfs, but now I stick to 300 or slower.
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Very nice! I'm just kidding anyway, keep posting these, I can take it!

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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

here's one Jimbo posted of me hooked up at mile 8
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me at mile 5
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Jimbo/brown selfie
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by BowBuddy »

I was there


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Ron Mc
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

certainly a more than cryptic reply (or maybe less than a reply?) - fishing at mile 5 with me and Jimbo, somewhere below Canyon dam, in the state of Texas, planet Earth?

And that usually followed by a description of the day's noteworthy event, maybe even a photo.
In OP, didn't post that whole camera low-seq shutter series, check this out with the middle two frames added:
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also adding here, Olympus along with all their vendors is running a current sale on the TG-Tracker - $200 - it's the current equivalent of my 10-y-o Stylus SW that took about 10,000 photos you guys have seen me posting over and over. But the sale ends tomorrow.
It also does videos as go-pro.
While I'm floored by my TG-5 (new since last summer) for its lens and pro-quality programming, it's also twice the cost of the TG-Tracker.
You really can't capture on a phone what you can get on a camera - even a waterproof pocket camera. With a waterproof camera on a lanyard, you snap the shutter, drop the camera and don't worry about it.
Even the 10-y-o SW takes great offhand macros (series on BWOs - nymph, fly, female, male)
Image Image Image Image
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hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by JW FunGuy »

And here’s how NOT to do it! I was there Wednesday, took my usual kayak fish the salt buddy out for some trout. Did a lot of hiking up through mile 9.
My camera? My old iPhone (I think a 4) that I don’t real care if I loose it, I can still use it as an iPod and I can still send the photos to my computer or pad when I get home. I have lifeproof case on it so splashes etc should (?) be OK. But does it take good pictures? Especially comparing to Ron’s? Well like the say, a picture is worth....
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Sad thing is that I am kind of a photography nut, have been for a long time. Now if I can only convince my wife. :/



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Ron Mc
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

whachutalkinbout Jerry - great photos - thanks for sharing
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Kayak Kid »

Thanks again Ron Mc for sharing another good fishing trip. I enjoyed fishing along side of you.
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

thanks friend - paying the other end of those dues now - in Ingleside working all weekend into next week - didn't even bring a fly rod
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

I've been earning my keep ever since my last post.
At one point in the war room, every phone there was on Tobin's website, and I know at least one plant engr ordered some grasswalkers... :mrgreen:
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Mddauby »

Look at the color on that second photo. One of these days I'm going to get after some trout in TX. It's such a trip, I honestly even forget it's an option.

MD
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

Of course, I have the advantage this fishery is 20 min from my house.
Color on big rainbow bucks can really be striking.
Not the fish below, but I caught an 18" buck, tall back, long kype jaw, way back in the early 90s, that fought a smallmouth in a turf war the whole time I was trying to land him. He came up solid crimson without another color - unfortunately, that was back in film days, and I didn't take my 35mm to the river (did take it to the coast a few trips).

I'll throw up a few of my favorite Guadalupe rainbows (since digital) below...
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how about watermelon?
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my favorite Guadalupe hen photo
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and my largest, 27" and 8 lbs
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bright cheeks on this October holdover hen
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I'll also add that this winter in particular, all photos of bucks posted on GRTU lease forum have shown that dark crimson.
Could be related to the high flows we've had this winter.
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

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A brown this morning before I fell and bunged my knee. Didn't take in too much water, then missed 3 hitting hard on the swing in combined caddis and bwo hatch.
Decided to come home for lunch, dry out and let my knee rest.
She's thicker than she looks in the bottom of the net, 18".

you can see my swimming BWO in her mouth.
Image

Image
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

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It was a blast to fish with Alex yesterday, and long overdue. He is truly great company (and we're making plans to warmwater with Jimbo in the coming months).
I got some good photos of the river and both Alex and me in action - especially Alex - that was easy, he was always in action.

Oddly, no fish photos - the one worthy fish I got in the net - a glorious 18+" buck as red as the one in the first post, head every bit as big, and 4" of kyped jaw. I flipped my swimming BWO out of his mouth, and he flipped right out of the net - he was in great shape, laughing at me the whole time.

We made dark-thirty to the 2-car-limit prime water lease at mile 7. I needed daylight to rig - Alex was already rigged.
First thing I see when I get in the river is Alex backing away from the Barrel Hole putting a fish in his net.
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Alex caught several browns, and I wasn't catching anything.
Working our way up, we traded back and forth between our favorite hole and pocketwater at lower Rocky Top.
Nice rainbow
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I broke off a fish on the swing on a knot I had just tied - was splicing a rig and think I under-tied one side of the surgeon's knot - and couldn't turn another.
The flows have inched up a little bit from the other day, and I just wasn't getting down.
Decided I was going to have to add split shot and high stick.
Instant pay-off with a healthy hen, right where I had been swinging my wets.
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Alex again in my favorite pocketwater - I think this one is a redhorse sucker
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Upriver from here to upper Rocky Top is an island that splits the river into Redhorse Run and Mushroom Rocks. We fished up one and down the other.
Here's my big buck right where I struck him.
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and taking off on his first run - Alex is on a deep gravel tailout, and I think he's hooked up to nice buck at the same time - I saw his buck catching its breath when I got up there.
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Really had a blast with this fish - I would work him halfway across the fast run, and he would shoot back across the run to his hiding spots in the deep cypress roots - 3 times when I thought he was ready for the net. And as I mentioned, he was so fresh when I got him into the net, I flipped the hook from his mouth, and he flipped back into the run.

Intrepid wading to get up the run from here. I haven't waded the river this fast in 15 years. There's a spot where you're on the eroding flagstone, left leg mid-thigh, and where you want to put your right foot is shallow and too steep to get traction - one step to the left and you're over your head in fast water.
I passed Alex on the wide flagstone, fished the chute at the top of the run first - no luck - crossed over first at the upper Rocky Top tailout - even that shallow water crossing was a chore, had to ride the current the last two steps to get to the island - there were 2 dozen redhorse in the tailout.
From the top of the island, here's Alex on his turn on the chute.
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Going back down on the other side, there's really nice deep pocketwater, shaded between the cypress, the cliffs of Rocky Top, and also under the mushroom rocks.
We worked it over, and each missed a couple. I'm on the pocket just above mushroom rocks, and Alex is tight-lining the deep hole beside the first rock.
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This run is worthwhile fishing when flows are this high. When I fished this flow 15 years ago, I caught a 20" brown buck, just down from the 2nd mushroom rock. At the same spot yesterday, a rainbow rose on my strike indicator.
The river will fish so well in the fall, with the guaranteed flows we'll have through summer. The seasonal leases are closing next weekend, fishing pressure is already dropping off, and Alex I plan to make a few crack-of-dawn distance wades from the couple of year-round leases into summer - those days always end early, both for the fish and the tubers.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by JW FunGuy »

One of my most peaceful spots on the whole river. :)
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Ron Mc
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Re: hookie day on the Guadalupe

Post by Ron Mc »

more tackle to show off - I was out for 4 hours Thurs morning, got saturated with oak pollen, and 4 trout including this feisty little brown buck.
Part of this trip was retracing my steps - my favorite net didn't make it home last week - I thought it probably got plucked by brush when I was busting on the island, but no avail.
The rod is Heddon No. 17 Black Beauty, 8-1/2' 1-3/4f 4/5-wt; the reel is Heddon Little Rivers (1st model Russell, 1928-34)
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(this reel sounds so good)
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rainbow on the swing in a bwo hatch, also taking line right away - this one has the focus in the right place
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