Are the BG worth any size?

JMoe / HLS,

Is it normal for things to go this quite on the whites when consistently releasing this much water? I mean it when from pretty darn good to awful overnight...

The bluegill i caught and i watch being caught were fine size. most between 6-7" when a few smaller and a few larger. but that was just the one day i was there.

When the daybreak action on the hybrid stripers and whitebass down in the spillway is lacking we go looking for sunnies feeding on dive bombing Kamikaze crickets. When the no-shows miss the pool party it is good to know where to look for a little fishy fix to hold us over until the next big wave.

My concern is that it is fishing pressure. When the water overflowed the emergency spillway the fishing along that wall was incredible the first day. Each day it got worse until I quit going. There were well over 100 hybrids removed during that first few days. Seems the same thing happened below the spillway. That first day Ben and I had was incredible for whites and even a few hybrids. Each day has gotten worse.

I guess if we go out this weekend and catch a limit then we can start to decide if it was the moon phase or did the fish simply move. Who knows

Thanks for the video Ben!

The BG I saw another guy catch on worms were definitely eating size! He and his Dad pulled out 6-7 of them that looked plump. This was on this past Monday (6/27/16).

Awesome footage of the bluegill eating the crickets

I think J-Moe is on the right track about harvesting of these fish being the major cause for the slow down. It is a finite resource but if things go like last year I encourage every fish eating fisherman on the planet to come get your share of fish before they cut off the water...

I made a trip today.
1rst time there & got there about 8:00am
Caught a hand full in a couple hours.
Me & the guy in tan shorts black shirt left at 10am when I couldn't stand the heat anymore.
I was soaked from the sweat of 92 degree heat.
That trip up the long hill wore me out good.

I caught some 15" whites on roadrunners & the big boys on a chrome rattle trap.
The guy in tan shorts caught 4 gaspergoos buy, nothing else.
Here's a sample of this mornings catch.

I don't have much experience fishing the Somerville system, but I can say the times I have, the competition from other fishermen and trash left behind is frustrating to say the least. I think fishing pressure is a concern currently, and the same can happen on the white bass runs in the spring - there are a ton of fishermen and a ton of fish taken out. Over the years I have seen this happen at water bodies I have fished. Which brings up another controversial topic - catch-n-release culture, which has been doing well in the LMB, SMB, musky and trout fisheries....

Somerville is such a rich whitebass and hybrid lake the fish that do get removed from main lake system doesn't even take a hit. There's literally thousands and thousands removed from Somerville a yr and each ye it will produces plentiful numbers and quality size fish. The fish behind the spillway are what's coming thru the shoot, not resident fish. They also see same lures thrown at them constantly.

I went tonight... It was an interesting evening. Caught 4 white bass (3 keepers) from the north bank of the hwy 36 crossing downstream of the spillway around 4:30-5:30pm. Then drove around to the south bank and caught two small LMB. Then went to the spillway and... Nothing. There were a ton of people downstream fishing from the bank. I think the majority were fishing with live bait, but I don't know and I don't know if they were catching anything or not.

So... Then I proceeded to the lake side and caught 15-20 bream on night crawlers kept 10 to compliment the 3 whites in the cooler.

Went back to the hwy 36 crossing and fished maybe 15mins around 8pm and nothing. So I returned to Katy. Not a bad evening, not the best either. I saw white bass surface for a little while between the south bank and the main current. When I went around to the south bank, I realized that could not be reached without entering the water and wading out a way or from a yak... Obviously never caught any whites from there.

Saw gar at both the spillway and hwy 36 crossing.

Spend some time with Jmoe. It's always an honor to meet other honest fisherman. I enjoyed watching Jamie work that fly rod. Much better then me!

Finally... I can't believe how much trash people leave behind at be spillway. It's so disappointing. I would think that most of those fishing love to fish and love the outdoors. Can not comprehend leaving garbage behind like that. So sad. Maybe I'll organize and service project for my church or for the TFF and go clean it up. Really sad and disappointing. Almost makes me not want to return to the spillway... Well, that and not catching fish!

Happy fishing!

Did anybody fished in welch park yet? how is it looking?

Just went bowfishing.... Which was good. The water clarity is good. Only 2 other boats on the lake that I noticed. Also just went to take a look at the lake. We went up some creeks and ran from welch around to overlook, up to jerdelles, across to big creek and back.