Guadalupe
River Chapter Trout Unlimited
Editor; Bob Tuttle 207 Finn Austin, TX 78734
(512) 261‑4409
Contributors: Jeff Schmitt
OFFICERS President: Jeff Schmitt (512)282‑4408
VP
Chapter Affairs: Alan Bray (512)263‑9619
VP Fishing Affairs: Erik Bataille (512)9194
Secretary: Cyndie Schmitt (512)282‑4408
Treasurer: Ron Presswood (713)9327874
DIRECTORS
Clem Bird
Cyndie Schmitt
David Hotz
Jeff Schmitt
Jon Morse
Marion Tilson
Irving O'Neal
*Jim Vynalek
*Ex Officio
Notice of Annual Spring Meeting & Newsletter
DATE:
SATURDAY APRIL 23, 1994 PLACE: St. Thomas Church Activity Center adjacent to
the church
[Just below Canyon Dam on South Access) ‑
Sattler, Texas.
TIME: 10.00 AM ‑ Registration &
Socializing coffee Bar
10:30 to
11:00 ‑ Meeting Business Raf le @ Yes @ This Time (See Raffle insert
Sheet) Program 11:00 ‑ 12:00 ±
LUNCH:(optional) 12:30 ‑ Tasty BBQ!!
Various Salads, Johnson Beans, chips, Buns, Relishes, possibly some unusual
desserts and maybe a choice of wines. Food contributions gladly accepted!
Margaret Ann, Betsy & others are to be congratulated for their hard labors.
if you do plan to dine, please feed the "kitty" when you get in the
line.
DIRECTORS MEETING AFTER
At the January Meeting...
Absolutely the largest attendance our chapter
has ever had. Many new faces. 73 people showed up to hear Judy Lehmberg discuss
Utah's Green River, fishing in the Yellowstone area, float tube excitement, and
other interesting fly fishing adventures. She did comment that this was the
first time that she had addressed a group that had women in the audience. Some
missed another fine meeting. our weather committee did not do so well, but
trout fishers, sailors, and golfers are not fazed by inclement weather. Dining
was inside and, due to advance planning by Margaret Ann Johnson, we did not run
out of food. Marian Tilson even brought a double order of her legendary Potato
Salad. In fact, there was more than enough for all.
The coveted 4 piece Orvis travel rod was won by
Cyndie Schmitt. The door prize, a box of premium flies, tied and donated by Bob
Harrison was awarded to Jim Vynalek Some $25 Fly Pattern Books from a recent
conclave brought by Bill West sold for $10 each. There are a few left and might
show up at this meeting. Great book at a great price!
The Program:
Another interesting presentation complete with
color slides about Utah's Green River below the Flaming Gorge Dam. Trout
fishing at it's finest.
Chuck Meeder, past president of one of the many
Colorado's TU Chapters, will preside. He is now a member of our Chapter and has
offered to share some of his fishing adventures with us.
Check out the 2 raffles we have for this
meeting. They are so fine that the Chapter Tightwad (.. Withheld) has bought
several pages of tickets and this has never happened before.
The rod can be seen at Rodmakers in Austin
before it is picked up and brought to the meeting.
Bits & Pieces...
After our four trout stocking events, plus the
ones that TP&W has done, there are so many trout in the Guadalupe that
during a hatch you could almost walk across on fish heads poking above the
surface. Catch them but release all for another day and remember to send in
your creel cards.
With the increase in the number of lease access
cards, plans for finding new lease holdings are in place. The researching of
several spots on the river is now in progress. Nothing definite at the time of
this writing. Anyone having any suggestions or information on additional areas
would be most welcome. Contact any officer, director or, better yet, bring it
up at the meeting(s).
Notice the new signs at Lower Bean's advising
all that this area is for fly fishing/catch and release only. This is with an
agreement between The Chapter and Camp Bean.
Stocking Report
The final stocking of our 1993/94 season took
place on March 1. Since we have so many more lease cards out this year, this
stocking was a bit larger than normal. The Chapter stocked 1500 pounds of
primarily rainbow trout, which turned out to be about 875 fish. This made the
"average" fish about 1.75 pounds. However, there were quite a few
fish in this batch in the 3 to 5 pound range, which should make fishing quite
interesting this spring. There are already a number of reports of fish in the
20"‑24" range having been caught. Most of the fish were rainbow
trout, but there were a few nice browns (include one real big one) a few
cutthroats and a couple of brook trout in there. So, anything is possible the
next time you go fishing! The fish were distributed as follows: 35% at the Kanz
lease, 10% above Rio Raft, 10% at Little Ponderosa, 20% at L & L and 25% at
lower Bean's. Have a good spring, fishing the Guadalupe. J. S.
Notice of Intention to Amend Bylaws
The Board of Directors hereby provides notice to
the members of The Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited of its' intention
to bring before the members of the Chapter a motion to amend the Chapter Bylaws
at its' April 23, 1994 meeting. this proposed amendment comes with the
rccommendation of the Board of Directors. In general the amendments of the Bylaws
address the following subjects:
1) Officially change the name of the Chapter
from Texas Chapter Trout Unlimited to Guadalupe River Chapter Trout Unlimited.
2) Remove all gender specific references from
the Bylaws.
3 Makes provision for two Vim President
Officers, a VP of Chapter Affairs and a VP of Fisheries and clarifies the
duties of each.
4) Makes provisions for separate offices of
Secretary and Treasurer currently have a combined office of Secretery/Treasurer
as previously specified by the Bylaws
5) Places additional control. on the expenditure
of Chapter funds in excess of $500 requiring checks to be countersigned by both
the Chapter Treasurer and the Chapter President.
6) Divides the responsibility for maintaining
the records of the Chapter between the Chapter president and the Chapter
Treasurer.
Full text copies of the proposed amendments to
the bylaws will be available to the membership prior to the meeting, for those
who wish to review the exact text of the proposed amendments.
Leave it Better Than Before..
People tend to be more careful about littering
an area that is kept clean. Carry a plastic grocery bag with you. Don't
hesitate to pick up litter along the trail or stream and deposit into the
nearest trash bin. Here's a list of how long commonly discarded items take to
decompose:
Paper 2‑4 months Orange peels 6 months
Wool socks 1‑5 years Milk cartons, coffee cups 5 years Filter cigarettes
10‑12 years Plastic bags 10‑20 years Disposable diapers 10‑20
years Leather shoes 25‑40 years Nylon fabric 30‑40 years Sneaker
sole 50‑80 years Tin cans 80‑100 years Aluminum cans & tabs 200‑400
years Plastic six‑pack holder 450 years Glass bottles 1 mil. years
Styrofoam indefinitely Plastic bottles indefinitely Monofilament line
indefinitely
Source: David Diligent, Cornell Cooperative
Extension Reprinted from Riffles, the newsletter of The East Jersey Chapter of
Trout Unlimited
Nymph Fishing Tip
Attach a large dry fly such as a #10 Humpy,
Royal Wulf, or Caddis to your tippet, grease it more than usual so it will
float high and support the nymph which will be attached. Tie desired length of
tippet on at bend of dry fly hook using an improved clinch knot and tic nymph
to other tippet end. Change nymph tippet length to water depth.
When using the tag end off the knot where you
tie in the tippet, problems of tangled messes happen. When using the method
described above it is tangle free and you now have a strike indicator that
catches fish!
According to the rest of this article from the
West Michigan TU Chapter, it is very productive. Thanks to Dick Wilson the
author.
Another filched article...
This time from North Arkansas Fly Fishers
newsletter.
Two Canadian researchers say that you can
increase the survival rate of caught rainbows by as much as 60% if you release
the fish without exposing them to the air. Researchers from Queens University
in Ontario, Canada, found that survival on rainbows jumped 88% if the fish were
not lifted from the water, while survival rate dropped to 28% on rainbows
exposed to air for 60 seconds. 63% survived after 30 seconds of exposures. The
researchers say that even during brief periods of exposure to air the fishes'
gill lamellae collapse, inhibiting oxygen exchange, thus leading to death. The
answer? Hold the fish in the water for photos and then release.
(This could possibly apply to most fish)
The Chapter honors the following distinguished
members with an Honorary Life Membership. This honor is reserved for
commendatory recognition of individuals whose personal service contributions to
the Chapter are deemed to have had significant impact and otherwise were
outstanding.
Honorary Life Members
James Keeton
Lt. Col. Paul Schubauer
Bill Pabst Hazel Schubauer
J. Bill Parvin
Tom Whitehouse
Glenn Richardson
Bill Cobb
Chad Oliver
Howard Itten
Chapter Display at I.S.E.
The Guadalupe River Chapter was provided booth s
ace by TU National at the recent International Sportsmen's Exposition (sorry
ladies, I didn't name it) last month in San Antonio. The Chapter booth
consisted of a display provided by TU National, along with information on
Chapter activities, membership, and fly tying demonstrations. This show was
probably the best nationally based flyfishing show that as ever come to Central
Texas. Many well known flyfishing professionals were in attendance, including
Lefty Kreh, Dave Whitlock, Gary Borger, Chico Fernandez and so many others that
I can't even recall all the names. Show activities included casting
demonstrations, clinics of all types, and booths by most of the major manufacturers
of flyfishing equipment as well as outfitters from around the world. Thanks to
all Chapter members who volunteered services staffing the booth and
particularly Jim Vynalek who coordinated our Chapter's efforts at the show. I
hope most of you had a chance to attend.
JS
Our Fish Marking Program
As many of you already know, Texas Parks and
Wildlife is in the middle of a 3 year study of the Guadalupe River Fishery. One
of the goals of the study is to learn about the over‑summering of fish in
the river. As I reported in the last newsletter, last fall's electro‑fishing
stream surveys yielded positive evidence of significant over‑summering of
our fish.
In cooperation with this TP&W survey, our
Cha ter has been allowing TP&W to mark the rainbow trout that we stock for
future identification in these electro‑fishing stream surveys. The method
that we been using to mark the fish has been the clipping of one of the fins on
each fish. Each stocking has clipped a different fin, allowing TP&W to
identify the source of each fish. A number of members have expressed an
interest in knowing which fin has been clipped for each of the last two years
that we have participated in this study. Therefore, here is a list for your
future reference:
If you catch a fish with its pelvic fin clipped,
it was stocked in 1993 and has weathered our long hot 1993 summer with little
rain and low stream flows. Let us know about it if you do.
Note that only the TU stocked fish are being
clipped. Those stocked by TP&W are being placed in areas where the
intention is for anglers to keep the fish that are caught, which signifcantly
undermines the study. It was felt that the clipping and study of the TU fish
would be more valuable, as our fish are put in more limited access areas and
tend to be caught by anglers that are more likely to release them. As a part of
this year's study, TP&W is also doing regular creel surveys, in order to
estimate the number of fish lost to anglers who keep (eat) our fish.
There are positives and negatives to the fin
clipping program. While theoretically the removal of these fins does not harm
the fish, it does cause a wound on the fish that could become infected and
does, to some extent, damage the fish as it was intended to be. However, to
this point; fin‑clipping has been the most economically and practically
feasible way to mark our fish. I consider it to be a necessary evil to get to
the long term goal of the study, which would be to change the regulations on
the river such that our fish are protected in a manner so as to have a much
better chance of establishing themselves on a long term basis. While we
continue to look into other alternatives for fish marking, we hope that this
year, and maybe next year, will provide the information required to get TP&W
to recommend the regulation changes we need on the Guadalupe in order to make
it a first class and maybe even self‑sustaining, trout fishery.
J.S.
It has been mentioned/suggested that a Stripped
Bass contest be arranged to help clear the Guadalupe River of this voracious
and unwelcome denizen of the river. They most likely arrived during die great
flood several years ago when the floodgates at the dam were opened. The fish
were having such a great time eating our trout and everyone else's that they
never wanted to return to Canyon Lake from whence they came.
They are large, good eating, and sporting. Catch
them and, if you don't eat them, give them to someone who does. Do not return
them to the river.
Send in your catch reports (they are too big to
fit a creel) to the newsletter and the winner will be announced in the next
newsletter. Some kind of prize will be awarded if this idea flies.