Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Guadalupe River and Canyon Lake are in the best shape we have seen in about 10 years. As of today, 8/10/26 the lake is at 910.05 (1.05 feet above pool) and the releases have been varying from 150-300cfs depending on the day. These flows are cleaning out the mud and leaving a much clearer river.
The holdover population will be higher this fall. The fish will generally be smaller than last year’s holdovers, because we were supplied smaller fish to stock last year, so most of the Trout will be smaller (13-16″) and fatter (because of the summer supplemental feeding) but there will still be some monsters swimming around to be caught. We still have not assessed the Brown Trout eggs stocked in the Whitlock/Vibert Boxes, but I expect to see some small Browns start being caught in the upper river this fall.
The coming Trout season will be exciting. We will have 4 stockings this season, adding 16,000lbs of Rainbow Trout. We’ve already had summer rains that brought Canyon Lake above pool, the Flow Agreement kicked in, and we are actually seeing flows above those required by the flow agreement on weekends. El Nino should have increasing impacts on Central Texas weather come October through late winter. This means cooler and wetter weather. It has been a long time since we have seen flows in excess of 100cfs. We are likely to see flows over that for most of the Trout season, where flows are expected to be 300cfs until September. When flows are above 300cfs wading the river becomes increasingly difficult. I would suggest fishing with friends often, using a wading staff when crossing, and using your wading belt at all times to prevent your waders from ballooning with water if you should slip and fall in. If the river is above 500cfs, crossing the river is possible in only certain areas, so be cautious when wading in heavy flows. Be safe out there and get ready for the best Trout fishing you have seen on the Guadalupe in a very long time.
There is a new update to our temperature and flow page on our website. Go ahead and check it out here: https://grtu.org/river-flow-demo/
Jimbo Roberts
GRTU V.P. of Fisheries