Madison Redux

April 10, 2017 By TB

Last year, we fished the Madison River both inside Yellowstone National Park and outside in Montana. The Madison is one of those rivers that always produces fish and sometimes gives you an “epic” day on the water. We had that epic day, inside the park, with Patrick Daigle of Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, swinging flies in October. We had another epic day on the wate,r outside the park, this past week with Steve Smith of Rivers Edge Fly Shop in Bozeman.

Barb and I were in a boat with Steve and our Bozeman friends, Sue Doss and Dud Lutton along with their dog Solomon, joined us for the trip. We put in at Burnt Tree on a cold, breezy morning and were a bit concerned about even more wind and cold hitting us all day. As it turned out, if it did get colder and windier, we didn’t care because we were ON fish all day.

We fished from the boat most of the morning but focused on the deeper buckets as we drifted downriver. We were hitting fish all morning, both browns and the most beautiful rainbows, all in the 14″-16″ range, with a few 18″-20″ fish as well. When we stopped for lunch with Dud and Sue, we shared stories and what was working. It was all wire worms and small midges doing the trick. Red seemed to be the color of choice for these hungry trout.

At lunch, we’d dropped anchor in a “fishy” spot, so after we’d eaten, Barb fished in a one person hole and I took over picture responsibility. Bam! Fish on… and what was so funny, was that about 30 yards downstream, there was Solomon, jumping out of Dud’s boat, and heading upstream to be a part of Barb’s catch. Dud came running upstream to bring Solomon back to his boat, but once back….. BAM! Barb hooked another fish and Solomon was on the move. We did this another 4 or 5 times before pulling up anchor to begin our afternoon of fishing.

We’d had an incredible morning and couldn’t imagine the afternoon getting better, but it did. Instead of fishing from the boat, we found spots to get out and wade fish. In each spot, we hooked into fish again and again. Strong, beautiful trout ready to bend our rods and boy did they.

We fished about 5 different buckets after lunch and at each location, we caught so many fish. When we left to fish the next spot, we full well knew there were even more fish that could have been hooked in the hole. You never want to use the “E” word but this day was EPIC!

At the end of the day, we floated downriver, enjoying the incredible scenery around us, the snow on the mountains and even a moose taking a peek at the drift boat as we slowly passed. We’re still talking about how great the trip was and how Steve was a great guide.

Ramble On

Lagniappe, Road Trip

Arches National Park

April 10, 2017 By TB

As we made our way from the San Juan River to Bozeman, we happened to be going through Moab UT, which is base camp for many outdoor adventures, including trips into Arches National Park. We looked at our fishing calendar which suddenly had a couple of openings due to SNOW on the Green River in Flaming Gorge and decided to hole up in Moab for a few days.

The first day we arrived in Moab, we parked the SaraLinda at the SlickRock Campground on the north end of town, nearest to Arches. Once we were settled, we headed up to venture into the park for our first sojourn. It was late, the park was closing at 7pm due to road work in the park, so we raced (at 45mph, park speed limit) deep into the park to see a few of the sights. We walked about a quarter mile to get a better look at Double Arch (see Pic 1) and realized that we really needed to go all the way up into it to gain a greater appreciation of its size. We also did our three nods looking up at Balanced Rock which we were told is actually the size of three school buses. What our first day excursion told us was that we’d be spending at least a full day in this beautiful park.

The next morning we were up early and headed into the park again. After stopping at the Visitor Center, we ventured up the winding road, heading again to Double Arch. There were far fewer people in the park at this hour so our hike to the arch was much more peaceful (aka…. all the young ones were still safely in bed as were the tweens). We made it to the base of Double Arch where Barb shook her head as I was determined to climb up inside the arch to get a picture looking out over the landscape. It took a bit of “scrambling” but I finally made it (see Pic 2). After slowly sliding back down on my backside, Barb and I headed off for the next set of arches.

Across the way from Double Arch are two “Window” arches aptly named, North and South. What is amazing is that as you hike the path to see North Window Arch, you are looking everywhere to see where South Window Arch is located. Nothing! When we arrived at the base of NWA, I was able to coax Barb up under the arch for a picture taken by another hiker. We traded a lot of arch pics with people from all over the world.

As we left NWA and thought we were headed for Turret Arch (the arch in our featured cover pic…that’s me inside the arch), disappointed we didn’t find South Window Arch, low and behold, it simply appeared, behind a rock. Perspective was everything in seeing SWA as I later learned. We continued to Turret Arch which turned out to be a very easy hike. Again, Barb took in the view from a distance while I climbed up into the arch. When I turned around, a beautiful view of BOTH “Window” arches appeared (see Pic 3).

After these three hikes, we were beat and ready for lunch. We headed to an area in the park known as Devils Garden. We grabbed a quick lunch of our usual PB&J, a few chips and an apple. It’s our “go to” lunch everywhere… fishing, hiking, traveling and just hanging out. We never get tired of it.

Our next hike was to Landscape Arch (see Pic 4) which is the longest arch of its kind in the world. This was a longer hike, a bit of up and down, but not too bad. On the way back I couldn’t resist running up a hill of sand weirdly tucked into the canyon walls. On the way back from seeing Landscape Arch, we took side trips to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch.

We had a bit of energy left in our tanks, so, we hit a few more arches before heading to a local brewery. As we sat down and shared a nice Moab Brewery scotch ale, we looked at Barb’s watch and determined we’d hiked about 6 miles during the day… so, of course, we splurged with nachos to go with our brew!

The next day, we headed to yet another national park in the area, Canyonlands, as well as to a state park that got rave reviews, Dead Horse Point State Park. The prevailing story behind Dead Horse Point State Park is actually pretty sad.

After another day of hiking, we made our way back toward Moab, our basecamp. However, one more hike was in store for us. We hiked up the side of a cliff; yes, even Barb had to climb this one, overlooking Moab to see some Native American petroglyphs (see Pic 5). Very cool. And we just had to make one more trip into Arches to see Delicate Arch which is the arch used in most all of the literature about the park.

Our time in Moab was done and we headed on to Bozeman for some fishing, R&R and seeing friends. We had an “epic” day fishing on the Madison, but that’s another story.

Ramble On

Lagniappe, Road Trip

Grand Canyon

April 3, 2017 By TB

After fishing the Lees Ferry Reach of the Colorado River with Lees Ferry Anglers, we took off for Navajo Dam, NM and the San Juan River. Along the route, we noticed a right turn at Cameron, AZ that would take us to the Grand Canyon…. well, DUH! Of course, we decided to head west to Grand Canyon National Park.

We arrived at Trailer Village RV Park inside GCNP around noon, got the SaraLinda setup and off we went. We were anxious to get in as much as we could that first afternoon because the forecast for the next day was rainy and windy. Nothing worse that hiking down a narrow trail with the wind blowing hard and the trail wet. So off we went!

When we decided to go to the park, we consulted with our friends Chuck and Marty Raplinger, who’d actually hiked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with their daughters Christina and Jessica, a year ago. They’d shared with us the details of their trip, hiking down Bright Angel Trail, camping at the base of the canyon, then hiking back up on Kaibab Trail. Chuck told us the hike up was challenging, especially that last mile. However, Chuck told us that a good hike might be the first mile down the Kaibab Trail to a viewpoint called Ooh Aah Point.

So, our first stop was the South Rim trailhead for the Kaibab Trail. I knew Barb would be somewhat skeptical of hiking the trail due to it being narrow, with somewhat steep drop-offs and mostly, her fear of heights. Not to be deterred, Barb and I started down Kaibab Trail for Ooh Aah Point (Refer to Pic 1 above – “Selfie”). About 50 yards down the trail, Barb looked at me, said “give me the backpack”, and headed back up. . She said “You go if you want, but not me!” As I continued down the trail, I took a picture of Barb as she ascended the trail (Refer to Pic 2 above – “Bye”). We were headed in opposite directions.

As I continued down the trail, two things struck me, first, the views were breathtaking. Around each switchback of the trail, a new view unfolded with the shadows painting the landscape of the canyon in different ways. Second, I knew that if somehow I’d convinced Barb to continue down the trail with me, she’d have already pushed me off the trail, down into the canyon.

Continuing on, I also noticed two kinds of hikers coming up. First, those who’d hiked down to Ooh Aah Point; they were all smiling, a bit winded perhaps, but still smiling. Then, there were those who clearly had hiked that day from the canyon floor, straight up the trail. Now mind you, the Kaibab Trail, from the canyon floor up to the canyon rim is 8 miles long. Those people were NOT smiling, most were breathing heavily and NOT wanting to say “hi” or even look up at you. Their goal was simply to make it to the top. Take a look at Pic 3 above…. this is the “Warning” sign along the trail. It seemed a few of those coming up didn’t heed this warning.

The real crazies were those who’d decided to hike down to the canyon floor and back up in one day. Those, what is the right word…. um…… idiots, were the grumpiest of all. You could easily identify them. They had only a small backpack, if any at all, and were typically complaining loudly with their hiking partners… some very loudly.

In any event, I made it down to Ooh Aah Point, took my obligatory canyon photos and selfie (Refer to Pic 4 – “Ooh Aah”), took a sip of my water, and then headed back up. About a quarter of the way up, I started to take stock of my breathing and the amount of water I had left in my liter bottle. I started to wonder if others coming down were categorizing hikers coming up like I was. I was hoping they would put me in the right class of those just hiking down to Ooh Aah Point, and not that “idiot” class. I tried to make sure I at least smiled at those coming down as I gasped for air periodically. Finally I made it to the top and hooked back up with Barb at the Visitor Center.

The remainder of our day was stopping at various lookout points along the Rim Trail. We concluded our day by watching the sunset at Mather Point. OK… to be honest, Barb had seen enough canyon views, she took the bus back to the SaraLinda and I met up with her after the sunset.

The next day actually turned out to be better than expected, other than it snowed on us several times throughout the day. We went to the Desert View area of GCNP, climbed the watchtower there and took in more incredible views of the canyon. We also stopped at more overlooks, especially stopping at those where you could actually see the Colorado River cutting its way through the canyon and one of the Class 8-10 rapids. We went to the Tusayan Ruin, an 800 year old pueblo a short distance from the canyon rim. It was so interesting to ponder what life was like for the Native Americans who made GCNP home.

Next, we visited several of the “historic” spots along the Rim Trail, including the Hopi House, Kolb Studio and the El Tovar Hotel. As we were walking back to our car, taking a short cut through another historic structure, the Bright Angel Lodge, a rainbow appeared over the canyon and we snapped the 5th Pic above. Take a close look in the picture, in the lower left corner. You can see a small ribbon of a trail going right to the edge of the canyon wall, a part of the Bright Angel Trail. THAT is where Chuck, Marty, Christina and Jessica hiked and then down further to the bottom of the canyon on their hiking/camping trip. You cannot even see the Colorado River from this viewpoint…. just that ribbon of the trail disappearing off a cliff.

Finally, we did what we always do at the end of a late March Saturday, we retired to the lounge at the Yavapai Lodge to watch March Madness. More specifically, we were there to watch the KU Jayhawks play the Oregon Ducks. Growing up in Missouri, attending the University of Missouri, you can imagine who we were cheering for….. Go Ducks!

The next morning we packed up the SaraLinda and headed east for the Navajo Dam State Park and the San Juan River.

Ramble On

Arizona, Lagniappe

AZ Memories

March 28, 2017 By TB

When we arrived in Arizona, the first leg of our 2017 River Ramble adventure, we were excited about more than just fishing. As a matter of fact, we spent the early part of our time in Arizona hiking, enjoying the outdoors, meeting up with old friends, hanging out with our daughter Kelly and yes, we still did manage to find a river to fish before our first “official” TU Top 100 river of 2017.

We set up camp at the Lake Pleasant Recreation Area in North Peoria, AZ, a burb of Phoenix. We took some time to hike around the area trails, stumbling upon some burros grazing on the side of the hill. Beautiful cactus of so many different types were everywhere. We also found some beautiful wildflowers already blooming along the trails. We especially enjoyed the yellow poppies that seemed to be the first up in the desert landscape.

We did find a river to fish just north out of Sedona called Oak Creek. When we contacted some of the local guides about fishing the river, we learned that the river was blown out by melting snow from the mountains around Flagstaff. Such news might discourage others, but Barb and I still ventured up Oak Creek Canyon to see the river and wet a line. It looked like a green veggie smoothie flowing downstream. While the fishing wasn’t great, the scenery was. The drive up and down the canyon was spectacular.

When we got back to Phoenix, Kelly was off work and we were able to go to a farmer’s market and a street fair. Later on, we attended an Arizona Rattlers Indoor Football League game as well as a Suns game. The fans in Phoenix are very lout and proud of the home team. We had a blast with Kelly, exploring Phoenix and just hanging out.

Some of our dear friends from Lincoln NE, Ted and Deborah Watson, came to Phoenix to visit their daughter and we had a chance to catch up with them as well. Its always so much fun to see them. We had the pleasure of going to their daughter, Katherine and her husband Brian’s home for burgers and beers. Then after they’d hit the links, we met up for BBQ in Cave Creek. We’re already planning a meet up in South Dakota as we traverse the US from west to east in August.

Next, Chuck and Marty Raplinger invited us to join them and their Benedictine College Raven college buddies for a weekend of baseball, BBQ’s and pickleball. Terry and Sandy Cullen were the ringleaders of our pickleball matches and helped us learn how to play the game. As you can see in the pictures, everyone had a lot of fun in the sun and at the ball game. While I whiffed at my share of pickleball shots, I’m already looking forward to seeing everyone next year if they’ll have us back. By then, maybe the muscles I’d not used in forever will be recovered and ready to play more pickleball.

Finally, we were joined by a couple of fishing buddies, James Kelley and Dan McCormack, as well as James’ son Andy to fish the Colorado River, Lees Ferry Reach. Before we fished however, we attended a game at Sloan Park between the last two World Series champs, the Royals and Cubs. The Royals came out victorious, but, it’s just spring training. Hopefully, this will carry over into the regular season. Who knows, maybe they could meet in the 2017 Series.

Once we got to Lees Ferry, it was fish on! We went out on the river with Skip Dixon and Kevin Campbell of Lees Ferry Anglers. We motored upstream from the Lees Ferry put in, where the Grand Canyon raft trips begin. We were in search of beautiful rainbow trout, not rapids. We found them in some of the most beautiful areas we’ve fished. And yes, while it’s really not about the fish, we DID catch some beautiful ones. We also had a chance to tour some of the cave dwellers ruins, more wildflowers and a picturesque view of Horseshoe Bend before the sun set on our Arizona adventure…. giving us memories that will be with us forever.

Ramble On

Arizona, Lagniappe

Fun in the Sun

March 13, 2017 By TB

We arrived in the Phoenix area after enduring the drive across west Texas and a snippet of southern New Mexico. It’s actually a beautiful drive with the southwestern mountains framing the desert landscape. Sunsets were incredible each night. When we first arrived we were at Lake Pleasant Recreation Area where Barb was dwarfed by a giant cactus. But now, the SaraLinda is parked in the Cave Creek Recreation Area north of Phoenix.

We’ve been having a blast hanging out with our youngest daughter Kelly, taking hikes, going to a few Phoenix sporting events (Suns and Rattlers) and sampling some of the Phoenix cuisine. We’ve also met up with our dear friends from Nebraska, Ted and Deborah Watson along with their daughter Katherine and her husband Brian. We had such fun catching up, eating BBQ and hanging out.

Hiking has definitely been a major theme of our time so far in Arizona. We’ve hiked 6 trails so far and they’ve all had their unique character. Our first hike was on Wild Burro trail as we were hoping to find… ummmm… wild burros. Our hike was along the lake and beautiful wildflowers were popping up, especially the yellow poppies. The big “bloom” is about to happen here and it will be spectacular. We’re hoping to still be here when it happens. We saw so many plants almost ready to pop open.

As we left the Wild Burro trail and headed back to our campground, of course, what did Barb see on the side of a hill, THE BURROS! We stopped, I hiked down the hillside and then along the Beardsley trail toward them to get a picture. The three in the picture above were giving me the eye so I didn’t venture any closer. There were at least 16 burros in the group just lazing along, snacking on the plants along the hillside.

While our first Trout Unlimited Top 100 Trout Stream fishing won’t happen until next week, we did find a trout stream about 1.5 hours North near Sedona. Oak Creek is a small stream flowing through the Oak Creek Canyon south through Sedona and ultimately joining the Verde River. The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff which parallels Oak Creek is recognized as one of the Top 5 Most Scenic Drives in America according to Rand McNally. We had a great drive up to the scenic lookout above the canyon and of course, there was snow…. yes snow in Arizona.

While we drove up to the scenic lookout, we were spying for good pullouts so we could fish our way back down to Sedona. We ended up stopping at three different spots, but the river was blown out from rain and snow melt in the Flagstaff area. While river conditions made it impossible to wade safely into the water, we still decided to at least wet our lines from the bank. No fish were caught but we had a great time practicing short casts and high sticking in the narrow, tree lined spots we’d picked. We finally made it back to Sedona, took a few pictures of the beautiful surroundings there, and headed back to our campsite.

We are excited this week to see a host of friends from our original hometown of Lexington, MO who are coming in for spring training games. We’ve got more BBQ’s, ball games, hikes and even pickle ball, whatever that is. And, we have some fly fishing buddies coming in on Sunday who’ll be with us to kick off our “official” start to year 2 of our River Ramble. Until next week, its time to….

Ramble On

Lagniappe

2017 River Ramble Route

February 26, 2017 By TB

We leave central Texas Tuesday, February 28th, heading out on our 2017 River Ramble adventure. We’ve enjoyed our time along the Guadalupe River and in Austin over the past 7 weeks, but in the immortal words of Led Zeppelin, its time to “Ramble On”.

The picture above shows our route for 2017. We’ll start by heading west first, fishing in AZ, CA, ID, CO, WY and MT in the spring and summer. As we traverse from west to east in August, we’ll stop to fish the Driftless area in Wisconsin and a couple of other rivers in Minnesota. We’ll also make a mandatory stop in Indiana to see our grandkids, of course!

Come fall, we’ll start out in NH, VT and ME before heading south along the Appalachian Trail to PA, WV, VA and TN. We’re hoping to catch some fish, but as importantly, some of the beautiful fall foliage in the mountains and new friends. We saw this beautiful country last spring and we cannot wait to see it in the fall.

While we’ll be fishing 48 new streams that are a part of the Trout Unlimited’s Top 100 Trout Streams, we’ll also be on the lookout for other new streams to fish as well as hitting some of those we fished in 2016. We’ve purposefully planned our route so that we’re close to most of the 2016 rivers we fished.

We hope you’ll follow along with us again this year. Also, if you have any angling friends who might enjoy our blog, we hope you’ll send them to www.riverramble.com and encourage them to “Subscribe”. As you know, we simply send out an email once a week to update you about any new posts we’ve made to the blog.

The SaraLinda is ready and it’s time to….

Ramble On

Guadalupe, Lagniappe

Troutfest 2017

February 20, 2017 By TB

Up until a year or so ago, every “conference” I’d attended had something to do with educational technology, from NECC/ISTE to SXSWedu and dozens of statewide conferences in between. I could tell you everything about using social media in the classroom, the ins and outs of challenge-based learning, how administrators should be encouraging and supporting educators using technology in the classroom and much, much more. This past weekend, that all changed.

Every year, the Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (GRTU) chapter puts on its major fundraiser, a conference called Troutfest. This year, Barb and I were actually in central Texas and able to attend the event. Instead of bits and bytes, we learned about strip sets, euronymphing techniques, tailwater trout tips, and reading streams for better fishing. Here is a recap of our time at the GRTU Troutfest.

We showed up Saturday morning, bright and early, to catch a session on “Fishing the Driftless” with Jen Ripple. This was a big session for us since in August of this year, as our “River Ramble” takes us from the western US to the east, we will be fishing in Wisconsin in an area known as the “Driftless” area. It turns out, this area was formed by glacial “drift” some 500,000 years ago. What this drift created was a series of deeply carved river valleys. A TU Top 100 trout stream in this area is the West Branch of the Kickapoo River. We’ll be putting the SaraLinda near Viroquoa, Wi, to fish this stream, along with several others Jen recommended, including the Timber Coulee, Blue and Big Green. With over 3000 miles of improved trout streams, thanks to Trout Unlimited and others, we are excited to be heading to these waters. Who knew; great trout fishing in Wisconsin. However, we were warned that in summer, when we will be there, we should watch out for wild parsnip, which turns out to be toxic when the sap gets on your skin, producing sometimes serious chemical burns. Needless to say, when we fish the Driftless, we’ll be wearing long fishing pants and long sleeve shirts. Big thanks to Jen for all the intel and sharing. Make sure to checkout her free online magazine, Dun Magazine, The Women’s Fly Fishing Magazine.

Next up, we sat in on a session with George Daniel, a fly fishing legend at only 38 years old, on nymph fishing without an indicator, or “tight line” nymphing. While we learned to do this on our 2016 Ramble, especially from Rachel Finn on the West Branch of the Ausable in NY and Lance Wilt on the streams around State College, PA, we knew we needed more help, and George came through. As we listened, it was like things started to “click” in our minds as to the when, where and why to employ this technique.

We also sat in on another of Georges’ sessions on the “Strip Set” when fishing streamers. Barb and I both enjoy fishing streamers but have had the least experience fishing them so far. Hearing George talk about the proper equipment, the right flies and most importantly, successful streamer fishing techniques, we now feel much better about it conceptually and will be heading to our “Local Water”, the Guadalupe River, this weekend to work on our techniques. I especially want to work on fishing streamers upstream as this technique seems to be the most productive way to fish a streamer. There is something inherently primal about fishing streamers, feeling the tug as the fish hits and eats the streamer. The fly fishing saying, “The Tug is the Drug” is a mantra to anglers everywhere. We grabbed a copy of George’s book, aptly titled “Strip Set” and got it autographed. A great read for anglers who appreciate the tug drug addiction.

Finally, on Saturday night, Trout Porn! Yes, this is an actual term fly fishermen use to describe pictures and movies anglers post to internet websites showing huge trout. Highlighting this, every year a group puts on the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T), a road show around the country showing a dozen or so short films about fly fishing, both fresh water and salt water. While often these films show the huge trout, tarpon, permit, bonefish, steelhead and other species being caught, they most often focus on the adventure, people and scenic locations where these fish are being pursued. This years films were no exception with adventures to places like Siberia and Kamchatka, to great human interest stories connecting friends and family to this endeavor. It’s really fun sitting in an audience of several hundred anglers, when one of the giant fish gets hooked and starts its runs and jumps, to hear everyone cheer aloud. For all of us, this moment in fly fishing is a big part of the reason we fish, so we collectively celebrate it. I hope you’ll consider attending one of these F3T events held around the country. Here is the LINK to the schedule. Most times, in each location, it’s far more than just the film, with activities including food and great local beer, live music and vendors participating. At Troutfest, we had vendors from local fly shops and travel companies, to major vendors like Orvis, Sage, TFO, Rio and Umpqua; great music provided by Little Outfit from Houston; and food/beer provided by Gruene Outfitters, Gruene River Grill, Upslope Brewing and Guadalupe River Brewing.

A BIG thank you to all the GRTU organizers for a great Troutfest. We cannot wait for next year! And to top it off, to close their set out, the band Little Outfit amazingly played our theme song by Led Zeppelin…..

Ramble On!

Guadalupe, Lagniappe

Local Waters

February 12, 2017 By TB

While we are “rambling” along, fishing the TU Top 100 Trout Streams (and more!) we also want to pay homage to our “local waters”. Central Texas has been home to us for over 27 years now and while we learned to fly fish on Pacific Creek in Grand Teton National Park, our local water here is the Guadalupe River.

Yes, the Guadalupe River is one of TU’s Top 100. Its the southernmost trout stream in the US. It’s also one of the most popular tubing rivers in all of Texas. The Guadalupe River flows from Kern County Texas all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. The section that we focus on is the stretch just below Canyon Lake dam.

According to the local TU Chapter, Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (GRTU), “Rainbow trout were originally stocked in the river by Lone Star Brewery”; yet another reason to love this fishery! After this, a small group of local fisherman banded together to form GRTU. Working with the Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW), they experimented with what types of trout might best adapt to the cold waters flowing from the bottom of the Canyon Lake dam.

As word spread about this fishery, GRTU gained more and more members where today, they are the largest chapter of TU. GRTU took on many roles in protecting the fishery, encouraging young anglers to take up the sport and more. But perhaps the thing that made this fishery grow to TU Top 100 status was the stocking program GRTU undertook.

While TPW stocks smaller trout (8”-12”) in the Guadalupe River and in other Texas streams, GRTU stocks rainbows (and now browns) of a much larger size, some over 20”, but most in the 14”-18” range. GRTU stocks trout in the Guadalupe River 3-4 times between November and March. These trout are feisty stockers from a hatchery in southern Missouri.

This trout section of the Guadalupe River supports a thriving fly fishing community along its length. Between Sattler and Gruene, there are three fly shops, numerous guide services and on weekends, in every named pool along the Guad you’ll find fishermen wetting lines, hunting for 20+” trophy rainbows. Our favorites are Action Anglers and Gruene Outfitters for fly shops. While we’ve floated the Guadalupe with several different guides and guide services, I’d highly recommend All Water Guides and specifically Alvin Dedeaux and JT Van Zandt. You can check out their “Guide Talk” on our blog.

If you come to spend a few days along the river, fishing or tubing, there are numerous places to stay right on the river. We’ve parked the SaraLinda at Rio Guadalupe Resort the last two winters. Before we got the RV, we stayed numerous times at Hideout on the Horseshoe and Maricopa Lodge, both located right on the river with great fishing and floating access.

Once you are here and you are looking for some food and fun, many options await. Our favs for dining are Granny D’s in Canyon Lake for home cooking and The Grist Mill in Gruene for great riverside dining and atmosphere. Nothing beats Sweeties in Sattler for coffee, donuts and kolaches. If you’re looking for a great cup of joe, go to the Gruene Coffee Haus.

While there are numerous places to hear live music along the Guadalupe River, none beats a stop at Gruene Hall, “Texas’ Oldest Dance Hall”. Built in 1878, Gruene Hall is Texas’ oldest continuously operating dance hall. Gruene Hall hosts a variety of acts from established veterans like Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Earl Keen and more. Many “up and comers” cut their teeth singing and songwriting at Gruene Hall before they made it big like Garth Brooks, John Hiatt, Chris Isaak and The Dixie Chicks. Even the original “outlaws”, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson spent time on the small stage while the audience listened and two stepped on the wooden floor. While major acts play regularly on the weekends, one of our favorite things to do is to grab lunch on Sunday at The Grist Mill and then head to Gruene Hall just across the yard for a variety of local artists who play free concerts on Sunday afternoons. Its laid back, the beer is ice cold and the music is amazing.

As you can likely tell from this post, our “local water”, the Guadalupe River and its surroundings are very special to us. We hope ya’ll will come and visit sometime when we’re here, like Chuck and Marty Raplinger did. We’d even get a picture in front of Gruene Hall ?

Ramble On!!!

Lagniappe

Lessons Learning

February 3, 2017 By TB

We had a great first year on our River Ramble, fly fishing the Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s 100 Best Trout Streams. We fished 47 of the Top 100 and over 70 streams in all. We planned meticulously so that we’d not just maximize our time in each location, but more importantly, maximize our quality fishing time in each location. To do this, we set out a few “rules” for our trip that I’d encourage anyone going on a fishing adventure to adopt as well.

The first of these “rules” was that once we arrived in a new spot in the SaraLinda, right after we’d “hooked up” at the campground, our next stop was to visit the local fly shop. We’ve found these fly shops via our guidebook, Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s 100 Best Trout Streams. At the back of each river description, the author lists local fly shops that service fishermen on that river. We also do internet searches in each locale for other possible fly shops in the area. Finally, we’ve been asking other fly shop owners if they have recommendations. These three methods have proven very successful for us. We’ve been blessed on our trip thus far with some of the most helpful fly shop owners/staff imaginable.

The shop staff have been invaluable in helping us get the right flies for the local river(s). They’ve also been great at pointing us to the right spots on the rivers to fish most successfully. They cannot guarantee you’ll catch fish, but, they can tell you the most likely spots where fishing has been good. They can also suggest other streams in the area you might fish. We’ve totally taken advantage of this and have been pointed to some great “other” known streams and “nunya” streams in the area.

Safety is another reason to drop into the local fly shop before heading out to the stream to fish. There may be high flows that make wading dangerous, or dam generation that changes flows dramatically in an instant. If you’re kayaking, there may be crossings, weirs and other obstructions in the river that require special navigation. Safety first when you’re on the river.

The second thing we do is to check in with the guide we’ve hired who will be taking us fishing the next day. Our itinerary for each river has us taking a guided fishing trip the first full day we are in an area. This way, we get to see the river and fish the river through the eyes and instruction of a qualified, knowledgable person. Usually, the guides we hire have many years, if not decades, of experience fishing and guiding on the river. As with the fly shops, these guides know what flies to use during the day, what parts of the stream are most productive, often pausing at these spots to fish them thoroughly and above all, assuring our safety either in the drift boat (raft) or wading.

We’ve had some outstanding guides this past year and are looking forward to this year. We have found them via local fly shops as well as through recommendations from other guides we’ve had. What we’ve found is that the more information you, the client, can give them prior to your guide trip, the better your time on the water with them will be. I’ve often made the mistake of just saying “whatever you think” or “we’re with you” when a guide asks what we’d like to do during our trip. While the guide does know files, water, safety and such, they don’t know what you might consider a great day on the water. Do you like to throw streamers? Nymphing? Are you a dry fly “aficionado”? Do you want a more “technical” guide (focused on fishing techniques) or a more “place” guide (focused on the “experience” and the surroundings)? A big shout out to Rachel Finn, my guide on the West Branch of the Au Sable in NY, who brought this concept of sharing all this with your guide before your trip.

The days following our guide trip, we typically wade fish the river (and others in the area), taking full advantage of what our guide has taught us as well as what the fly shop has provided us. We’re often back in the fly shop multiple times to get more flies (yes we loose a lot in trees, submerged limbs and rocks) and get even more information that makes our fishing more productive. We’ve made really good friends with fly shop owners, staff and guides along the way.

Staying true to our mantra, “Its Not About the Fish”, we really try to immerse ourselves in each local community. We also try to take the occasional “Road Trip” when we find ourselves near national parks, monuments (Devil’s Tower) or just cool places we’d like to visit. We’re going to try and do even more this year as we traverse the country. We’ll be fishing in several national parks (Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountains) and will be taking time to explore them as well. We’ve got a Grand Canyon “Road Trip” on the books already that we’re most excited to experience. We’ll be doing our own version of “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives” as we sample the local fare from these great fishing towns we visit.

We’re learning every day as we ramble around but wanted to share a few of these “Lessons Learning” in the hope they might help others who go on fishing adventures. Stay tuned as we continue our journey.

Ramble On!

Lagniappe

Sisters on the Fly

January 14, 2017 By TB

Sometime, in the early 2000’s, we were on one of our first fly fishing trips to Montana and noticed several really cool, vintage looking travel trailers. Seeing these, we started dreaming about how much fun it would be to travel in an RV to fish, especially in one of these amazing tricked-out trailers. We learned it was a small group of women who’d traveled to Montana to fish together and have fun, traveling in their Shastas, Holidays, Airstreams, Aljos, Roadrunners and more.

Fast forward to today, we are in the SaraLinda, watching vintage trailer after vintage trailer checking into the Austin RV park where we’re camping. These are the same kind of vintage trailers we saw gathering, years ago in Montana. We noticed that all of the campers in these trailers were women. Little did we know that the two sisters who originally shared a fishing trip in Montana, in their trailers, had spawned a nationwide group of over 7000 members…. “Sisters on the Fly” – and – the women convening here are “Sisters” from this group.

We’ve had a chance to meet some of these women, learn more about the organization, and Barb is ready to join up. Even though the weather in Austin this weekend is cool and wet, the campfires are burning and stories are being shared. We hope you enjoy this “Gallery” post of a few of the members and their trailers.