GRTU Meeting
January 24th, 2015 (January 2015 Newsletter)
Meeting is held at the CRRC Building, South Access Road
125 Mabel Jones Drive, Canyon Lake, TX 78133
Agenda:
9 AM Social Hour
10 AM Business Meeting
11 AM Speaker (Chris Johnson)
12 PM Lunch
1 PM GRTU Board Meeting
Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson, owner of Living Waters Fly Fishing, has been fly fishing Central Texas for over 15 years and has spent countless hours scouting, researching, and fishing the rivers on which he now guides. Living Waters is a full service fly shop located in Round Rock, Texas, which hosts Chris’ guide business and serves as a fly fishing education center to anglers of all ages. The fly shop, which opened in 2008, just recently received the Lee Wulff Award from the International Federation of Fly Fishers, denoting it as the “fly fishing business of the year.” Chris has guided the Texas Hill Country for nearly a decade, and does so on some of the most pristine rivers in the state, including the Llano, San Gabriel, Colorado, Guadalupe, and Brushy Creek. He is also a licensed guide in the state of Oklahoma, and guides the state’s premiere trout tailwater: the Lower Mountain Fork River. In addition to being a fly shop owner and full time guide, Chris is also the GRTU Vice President of Membership, the Central Texas Representative for the Federation of Fly Fishers Texas Council, an IFFF Certified Casting Instructor, and is a member of Scott Fly Rods Pro Team. Chris is passionate about fly fishing and loves to spread that passion through teaching others about the sport that became his way of life. If he isn’t on the water guiding or in the fly shop, he can often be found frequenting his local haunts, but like most Texas fly anglers, he has to heed the call of the Rockies each summer for a much needed “cutthroat pilgrimage.” Chris fishes the Guadalupe River on a year-round basis. While he primarily guides the river in the winter months, he frequently chases “holdover” trout in the heat of the summer. He and his wife Emily both enjoy fly fishing together, and have traveled to premiere destinations such as Alaska and the bay islands of Honduras to pursue everything from salmon to permit.
Chris is the guest speaker for our January meeting and his presentation is quite simply a ‘no nonsense” approach to fly fishing the Guadalupe River. He guides the Guadalupe on a near-daily basis during the winter, despite the advice given to him from our past president, Bill Higdon, to “get a real job!” While the river sees changes each year due to weather, flow, water clarity, and a myriad of other factors, there are many things that remain exactly the same! Many anglers are overwhelmed at the complexity of trout fishing, and many become consumed by the variables instead of capitalizing on the constants. The main goal of this presentation is to prepare you to catch more fish on the Guadalupe River through understanding the essentials! The techniques that will be covered are applicable to trout fishing everywhere, not just our fishery. Chris will be covering a wide range of topics including fly selection, reading the water, perfecting your presentation, rigging for success, and sight fishing. You will leave this presentation equipped with a better understanding of trout fishing our Texas tailwater. All of Chris’ presentations are designed to be very interactive and he welcomes questions, so feel free to ask away!
YOUTH TROUT CAMP!!!
Click HERE for an application
GRTU TROUTFEST 2015
Click the TROUTFEST icon below for more information.
TEXAS FRESHWATER FISHING HALL OF FAME TO INDUCT FAMED ANGLER, CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION
ATHENS—The angler who caught the first entry into Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s ground-breaking big bass angler recognition program and the organization responsible for Texas having a year-around rainbow trout fishery will be inducted into the Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in June.
To be inducted is Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (GRTU), the largest Trout Unlimited chapter in the nation with more than 5,000 members. GRTU has been the driving force behind the development of a year-round rainbow trout fishery on the Guadalupe River, listed as one of America’s top 100 trout streams in 2013. TPWD studies show this fishery has an annual economic impact of $1.9 million on the local economy, but GRTU’s contributions go much further. The organization maintains a leadership role in conservation and development of public access to the fishery.
GRTU leases access points along the river from landowners and businesses and uses fees from anglers to pay the lease fees and purchase approximately 12,000 pounds of large rainbow trout for stocking into the river each year. These fish become public property and are available for anyone to catch. GRTU also funds scientific studies of the fishery and supports a number of educational programs for young people, including Trout in the Classroom and Trout Camp. The organization also contributes to such programs as Casting for Recovery, Reel Recovery and Project Healing Waters. GRTU also supports conservation efforts nationwide, working with other Trout Unlimited chapters.
Wanted – Old GRTU Newsletters!
We are trying to fill the gap in some of our archives of older newsletters. We have one from 1979, then a gap for all the 1980s. If you have newsletters that you would allow us to borrow to scan in to our archives, please contact me via email at president@grtu.org.
Thanks!
