January Pictures

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jhb
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January Pictures

Post by jhb »

I know it has been cold but I'm sure some of you have been on the water!

I made it out yesterday to Cypress Bend and paddled down to the Comal and up. Air temp was about 51˚ and the Guadalupe felt super cold. The fish in the long flat section all pile up in the lower Comal because that water is noticeably warmer. Found some Smallmouth willing to cooperate but not a single Largemouth or Guad all day. I was out for about 3 hours in the late afternoon. All fish were in full sun and "deep" (for the Comal). Used an olive 3/8 oz. football jig with a green/purple flake craw trailer, cast upstream and let it fall. Smallies were picking it up off the bottom after a few seconds of letting it rest or after a few slow hops. Best fish of the day was this little bruiser below who puked up a few crawdad arms on my yak :lol:
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Zackthefisherman
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Re: January Pictures

Post by Zackthefisherman »

Good report Jhb! The Comal really shines this time of year for various reasons. I can't count how many bass I've caught out of that river that were in the process of swallowing a crawfish when I landed them. That's why they get so fat like the one above. Jhb, I'm going to text you this evening about tomorrow.

As for me, I've been doing a lot of trout fishing this month. Unfortunately, the fishing has been super slow the past week so I don't have mutch to report.
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jhb
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Re: January Pictures

Post by jhb »

Zack and I had every intention of flyfishing for trout and stripers on the Guadalupe yesterday, but the wind was having nothing of it. Zack is a tried and true flyfisherman and was being real patient while I tried to untangle mess after mess of knots in my leader and tippet setup. Trout fishing is super technical and I'm way behind the learning curve, throw in wind gusts up to 25 mph and I was getting frustrated. The winds were whipping our indicators off the water's surface. Pull your tippet out of the water and it was a wind sock, just flapping around. So I switched to a conventional setup- it's kind of my security blanket.
Early on Zack caught a good red horse that kept us guessing its identity until right when he brought him to the yak. That's the first time I've seen a redhorse caught on a line. All day long it looked as if I was going to come up short. The water temp was cold and though I could feel bass hitting my jig/craw combo I was either yanking it out of their mouth before they swallowed or, more likely was using a spineless rod that didn't have the backbone to set the hook properly. I lost a good bass below 4th Xing by making the mistake of attempting to set the hook while she was under my kayak, drag pulled for a few seconds and then limp. On a slow day that was tough. I lost two more Largemouth as they jumped simply because my hookset couldn't dig deep enough. My usual jig rod has enough backbone that I don't have to reel down all the way, a crank or two before the hookset usually does it. So I had to mentally prepare myself for the following fish.

We paddled straight through L&L, the Devil's Playground and past the Ingram bridge to get out of the guides' way. Above Rocky Beach I proceed to pound the banks with my jig and felt a good hit. I force myself to reel all the way down until my rod tip is in the water and then I leaned all the way back, bringing my rod tip to the sky and my drag starts to peel. I'm headed downstream and she heads up keeping my rod doubled over. For a second I was gaining no ground and cinched my drag a notch or two tighter before I could reel in. For a minute this fish kept as low as she could and I was sure it wasn't a Largie at that point. So my mind starts to wonder what it might be. Then my leader becomes visible and each time I try to bring her to the net she's dives back down, and she's as brown as the river bed, a great Smallmouth.
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Zack, thanks for taking the time to help my trout and striper game. Sorry I showed up for amateur hour. We'll get back out soon!
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jhb
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Re: January Pictures

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For about two years my Ride has been plagued with a persistent leak, two cracks right in the keel slightly behind my seat. I've done plastic soldering, duct tape, marine patches and eventually spray foam and though they might have slowed the leak they never really fixed it. I spent a day last week removing all the prior patches and sanding the area down. I then took my plastic soldering iron and melted the cracks smooth. Next, I took plastic shavings from real thick areas of the kayak itself with a sharp knife, and then soldered those into and on top of the cracks.

Today I had a free afternoon and spent 3 hours out at Cypress Bend to do a watertight test. After 3 hours there was less than 1 cup of water inside and I believe that was spray/splash entering the hatches. I'm happy with the repair at this point. This is the most 'waterproof' it has been in over 2 years, but I'll have to keep an eye on it (which I'm already used to unfortunately). So the lesson is don't drag your kayak, don't try to rock off of shallow rocks if you get stuck. If you're scraping just get out and lead your yak down.

I did manage a few fish too but the bite was slow, even in the Comal, but it sure is fun to watch your bait get picked up in crystal clear water.
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18.25" LMB caught in 1' of water, full sun behind a tree, right against a metal retaining wall.
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13.5" Guad in 3' of water, full shade at some cypress roots.
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jhb
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Re: January Pictures

Post by jhb »

Made it out to the GuadaComa at the tail end of the rainstorms yesterday and fished for about 1.5 hours. Tried and true jig/craw combo brought in two just above the Comal. Water clarity wasn't too bad, about 2', but was less than 1' in the Comal so I stayed upstream of the Comal. Biggest was 19", the other right at 16" and chunky.
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I also met a gentleman at the takeout who was extremely interested in kayak fishing and asked a bunch of questions about fishing the GuadaComa area and good beginner techniques. I pointed him to TKF, so maybe he'll join us on here one day soon.
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Zackthefisherman
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Re: January Pictures

Post by Zackthefisherman »

My brother and I took advantage of the MLK holiday and spent the afternoon on the Gaualupe. He got his first trout on the fly and I finally got my first Palomino Trout!
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Re: January Pictures

Post by Zackthefisherman »

I have yet to catch a 20 plus inch Trout this season, but I've caught a few in the 17-19 inch range that have been footballs. Here is one I caught this afternoon.
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jhb
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Re: January Pictures

Post by jhb »

Dude, you're killing it! That Palomino is gorgeous, but that's not in the same spot you mentioned you saw the other one... I'm free next week if you find time to go wading again. I need some rainbow in my life!
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Re: January Pictures

Post by Zackthefisherman »

Jhb, for now, I'm open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will be getting a part time job in the next week or two so that will likely change. Let me know when you can make it but keep in mind the flows will likely be increased soon.
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Re: January Pictures

Post by jhb »

I'm good on those days too. Lake isn't even above 910' (909.88'), and inflow (515cfs) is almost down to 400 cfs, so I really don't think they're gonna open it more than 400 cfs. They've been real receptive to keeping flow steady when between 909-910'.
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