GRTU (Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited) is madly planning for 2012 Troutfest, a fly-fishing exposition that will be held on the Guadalupe River this February 24-26. Troutfest supports coldwater conservation and promotes flyfishing for Texas anglers and families.

This year we are hosting a writing contest for kids and all the prizes are GRAND! All your kids have to do is write an essay about a great day of fishing. Details…

Participants:
All boys and girls from the state of Texas who have an interest in fishing and the outdoors. Entrants will compete in one of three ages classes:
Age 6-9
Age 10-13
Age 14-17

Writing Topic: A Great Day On The Water
Tell us a story about a memorable day that you’ve had on a Texas lake, river, pond—or even the coast. Tell us about a fish that you caught, or the one that got away. Tell us why this day was special. Was it the company: your dad, mom, sibling, or friends? Or maybe the weather was especially nice and you had a great nature sighting?
Minimum length: 200 words
Maximum length: 800 words

Please submit entrants by email to mail@departurepublishing.com

Judging:
Each entrant will be read by a panel of judges who will select three finalists from each age group. The winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd place in each age group) will be announced on Friday evening February 24, 2012 at the GRTU Troutfest banquet in New Braunfels, Texas.
Please note: correct grammar and punctuation will be considered, but the finalists will be selected primarily on the quality of the story. This contest is for the kids, and we hope to read their story in their own voice.

Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each age class.
1st Prize: Fly Fishing Starter Kit from Temple Fork Outfitters
• Bug Launcher fly rod (5/6 weight)
• NXT 1 fly reel
• Floating fly line and leader
• Ready to fish!
2nd Prize: Beginner’s Fly Tying Kit
• Hackle
• Hooks
• Materials
• Tools
• Instructions
3rd Prize: $50 Gift Certificate

Schedule and Deadlines:
Deadline for entries: February 5, 2012
Finalists announced: February 15, 2012
Winners announced: February 24, 2012

Please spread the word with families and kids who might be interested. As you might imagine, this contest is close to my heart. I love to fish, I love to fish with my daughter, and I love to write. Let’s not forget it was a writing contest in the 4th grade in 1980 that kickstarted my lifelong goal to become a writer!

So who knows where this could go for the next generation of young writers and flyfishers? Let’s give them a shot!

So get those pencils on the paper and show us what you’ve got.

If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Central Texas you do not want to miss the family-friendly activities on the Guadalupe River at Rio Raft. The funds generated by the Banquet and Expo will be used by GRTU to conserve, protect and restore the cold tailwater fishery immediately below the Canyon Dam on the Guadalupe River.

It is such a gem to have this trout stream in the middle of Texas, those of us that know that have a responsibility to protect it, those of us who are new to it need to discover this gift of a resource we have. Seriously people, we can fish for big trout right here in Texas!

If you’ve been with me awhile here on FFC, you may recall my very first blogpost ever was called Lone Star Trout and was about fishing on the Guadalupe with my good friend Banning. That brings back a whole heaping tablespoon of nostlagia right there! Wow, who knew this blog would be alive & kicking over three years later?! Where does the time go…

But I digress…

Bottom line? Throw everyone in the family truckster and head out to Troutfest next weekend. There are fly-fishing celebrities, local and national sponsors, great interactive classes for all levels….and food. Details provided in these links:

Three Days of Troutfest

Schedule of Superstars and Events

Banquet and Auction

Fly Fishing Film Tour

Admission

My friends who have been working on Troutfest tirelessly for over a year are ready to see you! Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to up your fishing game, hob knob with some pretty darn cool fishing personalities, login some solid family-time, and do some good for your local trout stream.

VIVA TROUTFEST!

I may not be an expert paddler, but there’s one thing I know something of, and that’s music. And rivers. So in an effort to get my corpulent yuletide fanny off the couch and back on the treadmill, I’ve created a whopper of a playlist with great songs about RIVERS.

I have to imagine a few of you could chime in on this topic. So tell me, my huckleberry friend, what is your favorite river song?

In the meantime, enjoy the flow of these selections…

Joke is on those snooty trout because it was a hell of a good time.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

But we had one Warrior on our team who wouldn’t say die. He fished every inch of that river. He’d cast an inch farther to the left. But the fish would move over a few inches. So he’d cast a few inches over there. He’d alter his mend by a few inches, adjust his indicator up a few inches.

He fought and clawed and fished as fiercely as I’ve ever seen. And eventually, he pulled out the rainbow we’d all been looking for.

We celebrated all eighteen beautiful inches of it. Proof that the inches we need are everywhere around us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was a pretty great way to spend a day…

Click here to view the embedded video.

All the credit goes to Banning who persevered through our dry spell and ended our team slump in a blaze of glory. Apparently when he starts to catch fish, there’s just no stopping him.

I had a couple of small connections, but at the end of the day I finally caught up with a fat & feisty rainbow that really gave me a run for my money. But eventually I got him all the way to the net and then merrily on his way.

Man, it was a nice fish.

Afterwards we grabbed the crew from Gruene Outfitters and walked over to Gruene Hall for some live honkytonk music and cold beer. We shared fishing stories and skinny dipping stories and basically laughed until we cried. All in all, it was a damn good way to spend a Tuesday…rainbow trout, plenty of sunshine, good people, Ernest Tubb cover songs, and Texas beer.

Somebody better pinch me.

The Guadalupe River, circa this past Monday morning. Between the alarm clock and my todo list.

I think our forefathers would totally be okay with it. Based on the following quotations, they sound like fairly level-headed guys. Hell, they sound like fisherman.

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” – Abraham Lincoln

This pretty much sums up my preparation for today’s fishing adventure. I spent all afternoon yesterday readying myself for a fast-break at the break of dawn this morning. I filled the car with gas. I went to Target and purchased a memory stick for my new digital camera. I charged the digital camera. Attached new leader to my fly line. Buckled down and put all my tippet in a new Ziploc. Lined up my waders and boots in the kitchen. Tidied up my gear bag which, although filled with trash, still had remnants of a price tag on it. Moved things around on the lanyard. Moved them back into place.

Then I’d say I fished for about an hour and a half.

“Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” — Abraham Lincoln

And wear good wading boots.

“He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern.” — Thomas Jefferson describing George Washington

This also describes the one fish I hooked up with this morning. With complete calm and unconcern, the trout simply unhooked himself as if I’d greased the fly in butter, laughed at me over his shoulder, and swam away.

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” — George Washington

Yep, George was a fisherman, allright.

“Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” — Abraham Lincoln

All I can say is I’m on cloud nine after my morning on the water.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln

Hmmm, I suppose I violated this one. But couldn’t we argue that the act of fishing is not an act of evasion, but is actually quite essential? Certainly that’s not a revolutionary idea with this crowd.

Either way, when you start your Monday standing in the middle of a beautiful river and the sun is gleaming, the outlook is pretty bright.

Hail to the chiefs.

I’m no stranger to the Guadalupe. When I was a kiddo, my grandparents had a house right on the river. I spent summers swimming and tubing in the rapids among giant cypress trees dripping in Spanish moss. In college we’d race along the river road, hitting any and every honkytonk that would serve us beer. More recently than I care to admit, I went on a Guadalupe tubing adventure with a group of friends. Picture some 30 & 40-somethings, who are otherwise upstanding members of their communities and corporations, floating down the river with coolers of beer, sucking on jello shots and getting into aggressive singing competitions with fellow floaters. Of course we capsized dramatically, there was a bit of a theft from a campsite along the bank. I really shouldn’t go into details.

But what I can share is that I am having a mad love affair with the Guadalupe River. At each stage of my life, it just seems to offer me something new. These days it’s trout. I’ve had some fun wade-fishing outings, with moderate success. But I’ve long sensed that if I could just cover some water with a person who really knows it well, I could leap ahead to a whole new level with this river. Now normally I’m not a big fan of level-jumping in a relationship, but where the Guadalupe is concerned it was time to get a little more serious, make a commitment.

So I booked a guide.

Banning Collins guides in Texas in the winter and Montana in the summer. I really can’t say enough about Banning. Top notch guide with a wealth of experience and personality to spare. We met at the put-in, he already had his cataraft in the water so we popped on the river. I like to travel lean but he wisely suggested I bring my 5-wt and my 6-wt plus layers upon layers of clothes because it was ice-cold. I realize cold is a relative term, and that Texas winters are mild. But it was 30-some-odd degrees when we put on. The sun, however, was bright and the day sublime. Pristine water with deep pools that glowed a mesmerizing blue-green color. Those familiar trees leaned over from the edge, offering moss and mood. And the best part of all, I caught trout on the Guadalupe like never before. These hearty holdovers had been holding out on me.

Banning deserves all the credit of course, not just for putting me on the perfect spots, but really taking the time to explain how this river fishes differently than what I’m used to. I will be the first to admit, I have been spoiled rotten by the dry flies and big skies of Montana. But those boys from Lone Star were truly onto something. I mean, I was an hour away from my house on a gorgeous day in January, catching trout with some legitimate chunk and spunk to them. And they fought with a unique style. On my first take I was actually worried I’d foul-hooked the fish because it seemed to be coming at me sideways. But that 22 midge was on his lip right where it was supposed to be. Each fish did the same thing, sort of pitching to one side as it fought then making a good run right at the end.

And right to the end, it was a great day. It’s hard to distill all the intangible highlights into words, but let’s just say once again the Guadalupe was there for me. All those freshwater takes gave me a fresh take on a river I’ve known my entire life. And I’m rejuvenated to see how much more there is to discover.

Once back in Austin, I decided to top off my flyfishing adventure with live music at Atone’s. Truthfully I was already pretty hopped-up on the highs of catching Texas trout, but of course I had to celebrate with some Lone Star too. And I can say, now more than ever, I am proud to call it ‘The National Beer of Texas’.