this spring break I fished the shonto ranch in kerrville texas. the ranch has several spring feed creeks which have been damned up into small lakes. There are clifts and beautiful land surrounding the crystal clear water. During the cold months the lakes are stalked with rainbow and brown trout. In 2 days I must have caught about 30 of them. Some of them were in the 20 inch and above range. I was also lucky enough to catch the elusive golden rainbow. Beside the winter trout, the ranch is stocked with florida bass year round. Suprisingly, the lake intitled the "Trout Pond", carries the biggest bass I have ever seen(saw several double digits). This is do to the fact that they feed upon the large amount of trout that are in the pond. My cousin, who fishes the FLW, was able to pull in a 12 lb bass (a personal best) from this specific pond. The fishing rates were $100 dollars for a full day, but it was an experience of a lifetime. After all, a Texan would have to pay thousands to go out of state for trout and would never catch the quantity and quality that we did. To learn more the ranche's web page is at www.shontoranch.com. If you go tell them that Ryland Kirchoff sent you. The people are very friendly and ask for T.C.

Big bass love to eat little trout, that's a fact.

WHY do you think the Stripers below the Canyon Lake Dam get so big? TPWD stocks those little rainbows....

That sounds like a lot of fun. 20 inch and above? Wow, might need more than a 4wt. then!

Lived in So. Cal. for a number of years. The bass there get really big and feed heavily on rainbow trout.

I fished Lake Perris near Riverside. This lake is only about 2000 acres but at one time it was thought that it might produce a state record LMB. Rainbow trout made up a large part of the LMB diet there. Guys would regularly fish the lake using Rapalas that were about 8" long and painted like a rainbow trout.

Sounds like a real nice place to fish there in Kerrville.

If you think about it....it would cost in excess of $200 to hire a guide to fish a lake. This might be a good deal.

those prices are certainly not out of line for access to such a beautiful place.

i am not a trout fisherman, so i was wondering what a golden rainbow trout was. is it like the species of golden trout that live in california or some sort of large rainbow trout

a golden trout is like a genetic mutation of a rainbow trout. Sort of like an albino but golden instead of white. Before I caught one my cousin was saying that they were gold fish. However I new it was something else because they kept following my lures. They seemed to be much more picky than the rainbows but when I finally hooked up the bight and fight was much more intense than with the rainbows. I have a pic and will try to post it up for you to see.

thanks i was just interested i have spent a good deal of time on the guadalupe and just never heard of them. sounds very interesting.

The best guide for the ranch is Bret Fisher
of South Texas Fishing Guides. 210-394-3925

hey, I couldn't find any info at the webbsite you posted, is there another way to find info, any help would be appreciated, ken

tool chest, the web page for the ranch is up and working. In case I messed up I'll give it to you again. It is WWW.SHONTORANCH.COM Click the fishing icon to recieve info. Also check out all of the photo gallaries.

Topdog, thanks for the help, it worked, sounds like a fun thing to do, will let you know when I go, respectfully, ken

toolchest, I promise that it will be the best 100 that you will ever spend. Last time I fished it the wheather was between 40 and 50 degrees and it was raining. Me and my cousin were tickled to death over the fact that we were tearing it up under these conditions. It was so cold that snot was pooring out of our noses while engaged in double hookups. Make sure that you fish it during the winter or spring while the trout are there. But the summer will be fun too. There are also huge cats in the lakes as well.

Any reports on the Bass fishing? Do you know if they allow kayaks or canoes or if you can only bank fish on their lakes and stream access points?