I'm headed to the Guadalupe near mid-April, never fished there. What assortment of flies should I have?
I'd like to trout fish - I'm sure the water holds other species, too.
I'm on a 5 wt rod/reel.

TIA

I use a 5 wt too and fish mostly near the Joshua Creek and Guadalupe area. We've had good luck with green wooly buggers with a light weight bead that will drop slowly. A little shiny specks on them seem to get more hits. Also did good with a mylar blue/white/silver whif. Using San Juan worms are a home run. I prefer the squeezy rubbery ones to the "hairy" ones. We used #6 or #8 hooks in the middle of the worm. One note of caution - just the mention of the San Juan worm can get you thrown out of some fly shops. My brother and I went to an Orvis shop and asked for them. You'd think we were asking to buy drugs - a lecture and a lot of condemnation and praying for us. San Juan worms are artificial and are extremely effective anywhere but on the Guadalupe in particular. I guess a "purest" looks down on them. My brother tied a shiny green mylar with a pinch of white hairs and put a hard head with a red painted eye on it. The whole thing was about 5/8-inch long. He got some trout and panfish on it. We got one bass on a purple streamer - the only hit we got on that fly. Good luck!

The last time I was there some of the guides were floating and drifting a San Juan worm under a strike indicator that was functioning as a bobber. It looked very similar to my grandkids fishing with a powerbait worm under a cork. I saw very little actual casting. This is not a criticism, just an observation.

I did well on a small version of my carp slayer fly that looks like a trout pellet.

I thank you for the input! My trip is just a couple weeks away now. We're staying in the area of the 3rd bridge upstream from Camp Huaco. Really hoping I can get in same wade fishing from there.

Check with Chris Jackson at Action Anglers at the third crossing. He has a complete section of everything needed for the Guad including flys and fly tying material. I use to fish there several times a week, and it is productive for trout, year around.

I'll definitely go see him. We're actually staying just about across the street from the shop!

Chris was out guiding a trip the day I stopped in the fly shop. I got good information from the gent who was watching the place, though.

I just walked about a mile of the river (half mile upstream and half mile downstream). Caught lots and lots of long ear sunfish. I saw a few trout here and there.

Until the last day of my trip. I found a hole where the trout were stacked up and feeding. I managed to catch only one - but it was a bruiser, between 18 and 20 inches.
Photo isn't great, but I wanted to get it back in the water as soon as possible.