MORE 2009-2010 TEXAS TROUT STOCKING RUMINATIONS

Of course, the grand locale of Texas Trout Stocking has always been the Guadalupe. I began fishing for trout on that river in the early 1970's on family vacations to Canyon Lake. Both Brown and Rainbows survive year round in the frigid output of Canyon Lake that becomes the lower Guadalupe.

And I've caught or seen trout caught year round in the Guadalupe River below Canyon Dam. They also stock more trout there every year. It's a grand fishing river, and you can get to the best spots with a canoe and then do some wading.

In the 1970's, we used to stay at this lodge on the Upper Guadalupe and fish for stocked rainbows in the headwaters of the Guadalupe and downstream from there. There was a damned up lake at the lodge on the river and you could drive upstream a short bit and access the mostly shallow and wadeable portions of the river from low water crossings.

All I had then were uninsulated waders, but by wearing scuba booties and several long johns and some jeans under the waders, I was pretty warm. It was there I first practiced fly fishing for trout, and it was always exciting to catch a trout "on the fly".

Somewhere in the past few months I read a blurb about some private stocking on several Hill Country rivers. The Perdenales, Cypress Creek near Wimberly and if I recall correctly, that part of the Blanco River far downriver from the State Park in Blanco where stocking takes place but before San Marcos. Seemed like it was talking about an area on the Perdenales and another area around Wimberly.

I tried to find the article online and couldn't, so I must have read it in the area updates or something in the tons of Texas Outdoor and other Texas sporting magazines that my friend Big David gives me every six months or so. The gist of it was that lucky anglers that pass through those areas where private stocking has taken place can try their luck at some rainbows on a float trip, or perhaps a short distance up or down stream if any public access exists. And that often those rainbows migrate to other parts of the creek or river.

I could see that on certain spring fed creeks and rivers, which they mostly all are in that area, temperatures near some of the springs might remain cold enough for rainbow to survive year round, perhaps in some adaptation.

In any event, I plan to get some salmon eggs and perhaps visit an Orvis store and get some new flies. I've got a decent selection, and could really use a sinking line also for when the trout are deep on warmer days.

I'm anxious to fish the 3 wt. Orvis bargain rod I got last year. I've fished it a few times and it's a great river trout rod that really lets the fish put up a fight. It casts like a dream, of course, because it is an Orvis rod. Just marvelous for dry fly fishing.