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Exploring New Year's Creek #10820391 05/05/15 07:14 PM
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J-Moe Offline OP
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I was fishing a local ranch with my nephew a couple weeks ago. I caught a big greenie. He looked at the fish and said "We call those Creek Perch, if you want to catch some monsters go down and fish New Year's creek". He told me to follow the ranch road down past the ponds another quarter mile and you will come to a low water crossing in the creek. There are 2 deep pools above the crossing that they used to catch these huge greenies. So my first question was, "How long ago". Answer was "7 years ago?". That was prior to the drought of 2011, so my expectations were low that these pools held water throughout the drought.

Jagg tells stories of how hardy greens are and how he came up on a pond with greens that had survived through such a difficult situation. He found 1 lb. greenies in such a pond. That always provides me with motivation to explore new areas.

I started by fishing 3 deep pools upstream of the low water crossing. All I caught were 5 inch greens. As I suspected, the fishery died during the drought.

I then decided to head down stream. I found a perfect location. There was a fork in the creek, feeding into a deep pool with structure. One fork had running water and the other was a shallow still area. A perfect location for fish to hold deep and come up into the shallow to feed. I was also lucky enough to have space to back cast my fly rod. I fished the area for over an hour. I caught several bluegill, a couple bass and some greens that were around 6.5 inches. It seemed to me that the pools above the low water crossing remained isolated from rest of the creek. Also, the fish have been able to make there way upstream to a point just below the low water crossing.

Hopefully, with more time and the absence of another drought this will recover and become the fishery it was once upon a time. Until then, I'll just keep searching for that Utopia that Jagg describes, LOL!!!








Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10820576 05/05/15 08:13 PM
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Looks like an awesome place to fish Jamie. Love the variety! Hope you nail one of those MONSTER GREENS! cheers


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IGFA World Record Rio Grande Cichlid. Lake Dunlap.

John 3:16

Sinner's Prayer. God forgive me a sinner. I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior !
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10820696 05/05/15 08:53 PM
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Looks good! Always love exploring and fishing new places to fish. woot

Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10826648 05/07/15 11:29 PM
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jagg Offline
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The droughts as well as really wet years definitely change the game for our sunfish friends. I don't know for sure if I went back to some of my greenie holes that they would still have the heavyweights. The pond that had the biggest greenies I ever personally caught was very turbid. You couldn't see a white spinnerbait in 6" of water. I actually caught those fish on bright crankbaits and big, bright soft plastics. I've also caught some really nice greenies on a pond next to a rest stop on I-10 that was very clear with coontail moss growing on the edges. Caught those big greenies while fishing from my canoe in the middle of the pond. Caught me on silver and gold Rapala floating minnows. It was a hoot to see those greenies come shooting out of 8' deep weed beds to hit a topwater. I've noticed that truly big greenies often have some big pescatorial big apex predators. The dirty water greenies had 3lb+ LMB swimming with them and the clear water greenies had even bigger channel cats in the pond. I'm guessing that the constant predatation keeps the numbers in check and makes sure only the best genes survive. The early pioneer greenies are not often the big trophies, but within a single generation the trophies show themselves, if the conditions are right.

Nice report and scouting trip, Jamie! Love those trips when you don't really know what to expect. Very nice bluegill, for sure! thumb


Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless His Holy Name!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBzsXYK-44H5uEUe3WXjmLg
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10835475 05/11/15 05:57 PM
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Looking good!

Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10852554 05/18/15 03:38 PM
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J-Moe Offline OP
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We have received over 8 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks. We got almost 3 inches this morning alone. New Years creek has been up and running well since the beginning of the year.

New Years Creek stretches about 50 miles. Several other creeks feed into it before it finally dumps into the Brazos river. With all this constant rains there are clear signs that the greenies and catfish are moving up from the Brazos.

I had already caught some decent sized bass, bluegill and greenies near the head waters of the creek. I moved down to a point about 5 miles downstream of the headwaters. There is a small branch off the creek with deep holes that has held water through the years. I fished this area about a month back and only caught small native bluegill. I fished it again on Saturday and caught some green sunfish. There was another fisherman there who was catching catfish, mainly small ones, but he did catch at least one in the 2.5 lb. range.

I'm really enjoy chasing the green sunfish. As Jagg puts it, they are the pioneer fish and one of the first to move into new areas. I read a story in which someone actually saw a school of greenies pushing upstream against some strong current like salmon do. One of the greenies actually jumped out of the water onto the trail he was on, so he took a picture to verify it was a green.

I caught this greenie on Saturday. They are getting bigger!!!!


Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10852749 05/18/15 04:54 PM
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Nice Green Jamie. Good job. Fatty for sure. cheers


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IGFA World Record Rio Grande Cichlid. Lake Dunlap.

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Sinner's Prayer. God forgive me a sinner. I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior !
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10853136 05/18/15 07:23 PM
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Nice report Jamie!


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Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10853248 05/18/15 08:18 PM
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J-Moe Offline OP
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Thanks Chuck and Fitz

Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10856395 05/19/15 11:13 PM
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jagg Offline
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Pugnacious! boxing


Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless His Holy Name!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBzsXYK-44H5uEUe3WXjmLg
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10868242 05/24/15 02:48 PM
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I fished a branch of New Years creek this weekend. It is a loop of the creek which has a deep pool. The water is stagnant to slow moving in most cases. I found a sweet spot about the size of a trampoline that is stacked with fish.

I was hoping to catch some greenies and bluegill, but I got more than expected. I caught greenies, bluegill, bass, long ear, red ear and warmouth all in that one small spot. Poppers and Briminators were the flies of choice.

The odd part was that I caught all these fish on Friday but when I returned and fished it on Saturday morning all I caught were red ear and bluegill. No long ear, greenies, warmouth or bass. I even tried fishing with worms but only caught red ear, bluegill and catfish. So now I'm not sure if they moved or if these species for some reason or more effected by weather and atmospheric pressure.





Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10872256 05/26/15 03:07 AM
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jagg Offline
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WOW! eeks Sunfish Slam!


Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless His Holy Name!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBzsXYK-44H5uEUe3WXjmLg
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10878606 05/28/15 06:48 PM
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I went down to the low water crossing this week. I fished in some deep, slow moving or stagnant pools the last time I was here. Not so much now. With all the rain the creek was flowing really strong. Since I walked over half mile in that sticky clay (You know the stuff that weighs a ton, LOL) to get there I decided to give it a try.

As the water goes over the crossing it makes a sharp turn to the left. The creates that whirlpool effect with slow moving water going the opposite direction on the right side of the creek.

I first tried fishing with a cork, #3 split shot, size 6 cricket hook and worm, without any luck. So I took the cork off and started to catch a couple fish. I added a second split shot and that was the ticket. I found the fish right on the edge of the fast moving current and needed that additional weight to get it down to them. I caught a lot of small greenies, bluegill, longear and catfish.

I then took my fly rod and added a size 3 shot to a sinking Briminator fly. I duplicated what I was doing with the worm and was able to catch a couple greenie. That was my first experience fishing in a fast moving creek so I was excited I was able to locate and catch fish; Even if they were small.




Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10879075 05/28/15 10:03 PM
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Awesome post Jamie. Good job. cheers


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IGFA World Record Rio Grande Cichlid. Lake Dunlap.

John 3:16

Sinner's Prayer. God forgive me a sinner. I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior !
Re: Exploring New Year's Creek [Re: J-Moe] #10880986 05/29/15 05:44 PM
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Thanks Chuck

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