Just a basic question....

After seeing that extra row of bones in rainbows.....sure...I could care less. And the meat.....nothing to write home about. It's pretty unique to be able to have a legit trout fishery in south Texas of all places. Why not make the fishery bigger if we can?

Absolutely...Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited has worked hard to establish and continue the southermost trout fishery in the country. They stock trout in the river along with TP&W stockings.

These fish are too valuable to be caught only once...

I guess I'm looking at in a practical point of view.

The question I have is do those trout that they have stocked, live and thrive once stocked, or are they put and take, with most dying off from the heat of the summer and lack of flow?

It would seem like a good investment if a large majority of the trout had the chance to survive, but if it's just the later, then putting restrictions on the method to catch them seems to be a waste in my opinion, as well as fostering the elitist attitude by excluding the youngsters who can't master a fly reel or artificial bait.

Also if a certain amount of flow is needed to keep the trout alive, I don't think the lake as in this past summer should have to suffer from the seriously low lake levels and out of water ramps just for a few trout fans down stream.

Any trout fishery should be regulated according to how much water is going into the lake from the watershed, rather than how much is being released at the gates. So in dry years the trout fishery will go away, and in wet years it will thrive, but that would make too much sense, but we can't have it both ways.

Maybe I'm totally wrong on this, but that's my opinion!

i agree jimbo. when the river is only a trickle during the summer and canyon at an all time low how important is it to keep water flowing just to keep trout alive? i think it is a great opportunity to catch trout in south texas, but not very practical.

It's more political than anything, and usually the special groups downstream ride the tails of the members downstream and give the excuse that the flow needs to be increased to supply water for downstream interest which is true, but it seems like there is poor management of that water, and a lot of it is wasted when it doesn't need to be.

Until those who own property up above the lake become more politically motivated and organized, it will continue as is!

After all, they vote, pay taxes, and own businesses also!

Good points Jimbo. I read the trouth unlimited website after my comment and got an idea of what it takes to keep the trout alive. Doesn't seem practical in times of drought.

And this is South Texas, so when the rain stops, that's the first day of the next drought!

Do these trout successfully spawn? No. Do these trout make it thru the summer droughts? Most don't.

Catch and take, thank you.

Yes, there have taken on a natural spawn and you can catch trout year round down there.

i cant catch trout for nothing, but i know my buddy hand caught a nic trout in th middle of the summer this year...was 100* out and we were in a drought and the trout was alive. Other than that idk...i say put and take works well...who in there right mind would go after trout for "sport" purposes... the ones i seen caught are dinks! its not like they put up a fight

River flow on the Guadalupe has many more competing interests than the trout. The trout fishery is merely the beneficiary of keeping water flow for TUBERS and downstream "water rights owners" who are guaranteed a certain amount of water per day from the river. Stocking the trout just "uses" the water one more time.

How can anyone drag a fish in, crack it over the head, gut it, and eat it when thier refrigerator is already full?
I know it may be a issue of getting back to our hunter roots. I used to catch and keep brookies in New Hampshire when I was a kid swinging wet flies, but if you get a hankering for this... theres always the white bass runs in March!

By Jon Lyman
Humans have been fishing for sport as well as food for almost as long as fishing has existed. In Europe, angling for pleasure can be traced back to the first century A.D. In the Far East, sport fishing - with bamboo rods, silk lines, flies, and barbless hooks - dates back more than 3,000 years.

Parallel to this long history of sport angling are signs of the development of angling ethics. There were very early discussions about the need to limit one�s catch. Releasing fish alive may be nearly as old as the sport itself.

In the 1950s and �60s, state fish and wildlife agencies brought the weight of science to bear on the problem of renewing and sustaining wild fish populations. In recent decades, agencies have focused on developing a mix of management practices to ensure the health of fish populations while providing angling opportunities. Catch and release was formalized as one management tool through extensive research.

Some fisheries managers have said that �Fishing for Fun� began in the 1950s as a pseudonym for the first catch and release fisheries. Some fly fishers maintain that catch and release began with Lee Wulff�s 1939 admonition that �a sport fish is too valuable to be caught only once.� But catch and release is far more ancient in origin and practice.

From Martial�s poetry of the first century to Sir Humphrey Davy�s "Salmonia" in 1829, anglers have written about the need to release a portion of their catch. In America, the earliest discussion of the need to conserve resources and release fish comes with our first great author on fishing, Thaddeus Norris. His "The American Angler," published in 1864, was the first book published in the United States wholly written by an American angler about our fisheries. Uncle Thad, as Norris came to be known, wrote about the destruction of our fisheries and the need for resource conservation. He also wrote of releasing as many fish as he kept.

Perhaps the most influential book in the conservation movement of the early years after the Civil War was written by a Boston minister named William Henry Harrison Murray. �Adirondack Murray�, as he was known, published his "Adventures in the Wilderness" in 1869. The book went through eight printings in its first year and led to the building of over 200 �Great Camps� in the Adirondacks within five years. �Murray�s Fools� flooded the wilderness from the East Coast through the Midwest each weekend, packing specially scheduled railroad trains which ran from urban centers to wild places. This was the birth of industrial tourism that we experience in Alaska today.

Murray wrote of the need to restrict one�s harvest of fish and game to that which is needed for food, and of releasing fully half of his catch. In the final 20 years of the 19th century, editors of outdoor magazines championed releasing fish as a means of conservation. By the time of the �Golden Age� of fly fishing, during the first several decades of the 20th century, catch and release was well established as part of the ethics of responsible angling. Just a few quotes from some of the more prominent writers of the day will illustrate this.

Theodore Gordon, perhaps the most revered angling writer at the turn of the last century, remarked in 1905 on the growing practice of releasing fish. �Some say it is well to kill off the big fish. I doubt this greatly� and �I know Mr. LaBranche by reputation, and his ideals are high. He fishes the floating fly only and kills a few of the large trout. All others are returned to the water.... I fancy that a trout should be big enough to take line from the reel before it is considered large enough to kill.�


"Murray's Fools" Author and minister William Murray inspired thousands of urban dwellers to visit the outdoors in the late 1800s.

In "Streamcraft" (1919), George Parker Holden took time out from describing the habits and lures of trout and bass to declare �not the least of the beauties� of fly fishing is that the quarry is hooked �lightly through the lip.� Holden then instructed on how to release fish easily, with minimal damage. He quoted Harold Trowbridge, from Outlook magazine, Aug. 6, 1919, extensively on the use of barbless hooks. Here was perhaps the first documented example of catch and release with no intent to harvest:

�In one morning�s fishing out of fifty successive fish which I hooked I found it necessary to take only three out of the water in order to release them from the line. Two dropped off as they came over the side of the boat, and only one required an instant�s touch before the hook could be slipped from its jaw.�

Holden declared: �Do not be afraid to join the slowly growing fraternity of those anglers whose password is �We put�em back alive!��

Hewitt�s "Handbook of Fly Fishing" (1933) touched briefly on releasing fish: �It is surprising what freedom and relief one feels when the basket is left home. I rarely carry one any more, as I seldom kill more than one or two fish for a day�s sport, knowing only too well how long it takes to grow these fish and how few of them are in any stream. I do not want to injure my own sport or the sport of others in future.�

In 1936, Gifford Pinchot published "Just Fishing Talk." He referred repeatedly to releasing fish.

�We love the search for fish and the finding, the tense eagerness before the strike and the tenser excitement afterward; the long hard fight, searching the heart, testing the body and soul; and the supreme moment when the glorious creature, fresh risen from the depths of the sea, floats to your hand and then, the hook removed, sinks with a gentle motion back from whence it came, to live and fight another day.�

These writings and many others led to Lee Wulff�s famous declarations in 1939 �Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once,� and �The fish you release is your gift to another angler and remember, it may have been someone�s similar gift to you.�

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Jimbo,

Your "elitist" argument doesnt fly anymore. Does fly fishing make you elite? I taught myself to flyfish at the age of 10. Prior to that I fished worms for brook trout in a "put and take" trout pond in MA and thats how I got hooked.
Your prejudges' just dont fly any more. A "bass rig" cost three times more than a fly rod, so how is fly fishing elitist? All flyfishers (should) be happy to teach the ropes. Its not more expensive than what I;m sure you do. Keep an open mind. You will get hooked yourself fly=rodding for bass and sunfish... I promise!

I think the regulations that are in place are good enough. The places that get stocked with the bigger fish are pretty much behind pay to play areas. If I have to shell out 10 bucks then I don't think it is unreasonable to keep one fish!!!