Is there a good place to fish for trout in nearby Dallasarea in the early summer. Any info is helpful.
Thanks
texas fishing
Is there a good place to fish for trout in nearby Dallasarea in the early summer. Any info is helpful.
Thanks
Bwahahahahaha!Take that as a "NO."
You can head N to OK or S to New Braunfels or W to northern NM. That's the closest trout fishing to Dallas.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
For trout? There's not anything real close to Dallas. The two options are the Blue River in southern OK, it's about 2 to 2.5 hrs drive, or the Lower Mountain Fork River in SE OK close to Broken Bow, about a 3 hr drive.
However, you'll be surrounded by good bass and Striper fishing. Bring your rod and go warmwater fishing while your down here.
Rex
There is trout fishing in west Texas. The chapter of TU there has more members than any other chapter in the country. They fish the Guadalupe River and from what I have read it's mostly put and take with people fighting for flows in hopes that the tailwater will become a year round fishery. I would go bass fishing if I were there.
Benjo,
The Guadalupe River runs through New Braunfels. The reason their TU chapter is the biggest in the nation is because the chapter controls access rights to the river. It is a virtually sterile put-n-take Rainbow fishery with almost no carry-over. The trout fisheries in SE Oklahoma have a much better reputation and are actually closer to Dallas.
The river isn't really in what Texans consider "West Texas." It's in the Texas Hill Country...or Central Texas. It's just a bit N of Austin and quite a ways S of Dallas/Ft. Worth.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thanks Everyone. At least i know what to expect when i plan on being down there.
Mark
Sterile? In what way?
TU controlling access to the river? How?
North of Austin? What compass are you using?
JB
Oops! Sorry...yes, it is between Austin and San Antonio. Embarassing mistake for a Texan to make.
In comparison to the Ozark trout fisheries, it is pretty sterile. I was speaking in terms of going to SE OK vs. going to the Hill Country from Dallas to trout fish. Last I heard, not a lot of 16"+ trout being caught down there. And the lack of carry-over is well known. A lot of that is due to summer water temps, which could be improved some with better minimum flows. But a good chunk of it is probably habitat conditions too, according to what I know of the river and what I've read from expert analysis over the years.
As for GRTU controlling access to parts of the stream, just read this link:
[url=http://www.grtu.org/grtujoin.html:243fb]http://www.grtu.org/grtujoin.html[/url:243fb]
Members of the chapter ($135/year...national TU is between $19-$35/year and required) can join the Lease Access program for an additional $95/year. There are over 4,000 chapter members. If 1/4 of them are in the LA program, that's roughly $10,000/year, which goes to maintaining the lease and purchasing 11-20" stocker trout for catch-n-release. Everything I have ever read/heard indicates that the vast majority of fish over 12" caught in this tailwater fishery are these large stockers. The growth rate of trout in the Guadalupe is pretty low.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I live in Dallas, and agree that SE Oklahoma (the Lower Mountain Fork River) is probably your best bet for trout fishing - I usually make it in about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. It is a really long day if you drive up and back in the same day, so sometimes its nice to grab a room in a motel or in one of the rental cabins in the area the night before. Although there has been no real evidence of spawning, there are most definitely hold-overs, and some of them reach a pretty impressive size. There are a number of stream improvement projects underway or in the planning stages with the Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation, so I think things are going to continue to improve.
As far as TX goes, it's mostly stillwater fishing for bass and panfish close by. There is a little river called the Paluxy River that can be pretty fun to fish when the water levels are decent (not the case this year), but the fishing is limited to warmwater species. Some of the Texas Hill Country rivers are beautiful, and if you're not absolutely fixed on trout, offer some nice fly rod opportunities for other species (sunfish, Guadalupe bass, etc).
It ain't Colorado, but it ain't too bad, either. Hope you find something here that you like!
Dennis
Silver Mallard is partially right, but I feel I need to clear up a few misconceptions.
First, we have the largest TU chapter in the US not because we "control access" to the river, but because we are the only chapter in Texas and anyone who joins TU national with a Texas zip code is assigned to our chapter. Public land is scarce in Texas, so we have for years now sponsored a lease access and stocking program on the river. Both Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Guadalupe River chapter of Trout Unlimited lease access and stock trout through the winter months and a recently enacted minimum flow agreement now gives us enough cold water in most summers to allow fish to survive year round. This year, we had a 23" rainbow caught in early October almost 12 miles below the dam, which attests to the success of the minimum flow agreement.
Studies conducted by Texas State University's Aquatic Center have shown that the river does have the biomass to support trophy trout (we stocked well over 10,000 14-24" brown and rainbow trout last season, TPWD stocked 17,000 8-12" fish), since the healthy but not massive insect population is augmented by rich supplies of minnows, crayfish, and other food sources. Growth rates of 1/2 to 1 inch per month are not uncommon.
Mallard's math is also faulty. We average 550-750 lease access members each year, and spend $40 to $60,000/year on trout. We are also active stewards of the river, sponsoring cleanups, river studies, conservation and education programs, and family events.
The Guadalupe tailrace was recently named to the Trout Unlimited Top 100 Trout Streams in America. So if you're looking for a fishery that's fun when others are frozen, come on down.
Mick McCorcle
President
Guadalupe River Chapter
Trout Unlimited
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