just out of curiosity, I am thinking about treating my wife to a trip to Gruene for a weekend and have an alterior motive of fishing the Guadelupe. when is the best time of year to catch the most variety of fish? and who do ya'll suggest for guides?

Spring and Fall are the best time for size and qty, but it also depends on what you want to target. I catch bass and sunfish year round from the Guad and the pattern stays pretty consistent.

As far as guides go, there is Casteel's Guide service and Action Angler.

http://www.guadalupetrout.net/Photo_Gallery.html

He will put you on the fish too.

what are the rates like?

Tiffany Fluitt's Gruene Outfitters website has a pretty good set of links on this page - http://www.grueneoutfitters.com/anglers-resource-blog/.
Here's a pretty fun video I was involved with last spring on the Guadalupe - http://youtu.be/7l7Cf1JGYz0 - will give you a great idea of the size of Guadalupe stockers compared to, say, Oklahoma. They will be stocking smaller fish this year, meaning larger quantities. There's always the holdovers though!

Do yourself a favor and get a guide, get a good guide, get Dan Cone at Castell Guide Service. The Dude knows his stuff and is a super nice guy.

http://www.castellguideservice.com/

+1 Castell. Dedeaux was our guy on the kayak fishing shoot. When you are looking at the Guadalupe, you're looking at the epicenter of freshwater fly guides in Texas.

Went last weekend. The pigs are there. If you're not going to get a guide, target slots in moving water. Hooked up with a few on streamers at night. Good luck to ya!