My son and I spent the entire day Kayaking Yegua on Saturday with no luck. When we left the ramp it was 29 degrees - yes, mom, we were dressed appropriately - and before we hit the creek a little ice had formed on my son's waders. It was a beautiful day. The water temp in the creek was 48 degrees. The fish finder did not mark lots of fish, so when we saw a few in 10+ ft of water near some structure we did some jigging, but to no avail. We saw one other fisherman up there and he said his fishing was also very slow. We also set out six catfish tree/drop lines baited with chicken liver and/or zote soap but they all still had the bait on the hook after hours of being in the water. We go when we can around baseball tournaments, Scouts and such and hope to be able to make it back up the creeks while there are still some crappie and white bass in 'em.

Where is the closest place to buy minnows around Nails Creek SP? We come up from Katy through Sealy, Bellville, Brenham and Burton.

I was fishing at Irwin Bridge on the last Saturday. only caught one undersized crappie and one white bass.

Coming from Brenham the gas station on the corner of 36 and 1948 where you turn to go towards the lake has minnows.
Coming from college station the gas station in Lyons off 36 has minnows.

Thanks SweetRay. We go to the State Park from Katy via Sealy, Bellville, Brenham and Burton. It's looking like we'll have to take a detour to find minnows to take up Yegua and Nails Creeks for crappie fishing.

I usually catch minnows from a pond in my neighborhood and bring the minnow bucket with an aerator to the state park.

I paddled into the Nails creek last Saturday. I left the ramp at around 2pm and fished in the creek for 4.5 hours. Only one undersized crappie was caught in a 15 minute time window close to sunset when bites occurred.

I heard Newman's Bottom is now open. Has anyone had any luck there?

With this cold snap, I would imagine the fish are holding deeper and therefore bank fishermen may have somewhat limited access to them. I will be out there next Friday and Saturday and will report...I fish artificial only mainly because of the hike down to the creek!

What I don�t see guys post or talk about much on here anymore is the use of jig/slip float. That is KILLER on the creek... just a helpful hint for y�all.. waters cold- those fish aren�t going to chase a bait...

IMO the most addicting way to catch em too...I will be doing that exclusively on my trip!

Hoggwild, I've had success with this method for Crappie, but not so much for White Bass. Is there a trick to it?

Thanks for the report, Don. Nails can be very slow at times, but it makes for a nice paddle.

Twitch twitch sit? Lol. The lake temp is 43.. that�s COLD. Slow prevention will getvthe bites. I�m sure most of the guys fishing the creek are cranking that bait as if we are in late March and whitebass are schooling. Slow it down. Use a slip float and work the standing timber. You�ll find the fish. 👍🏻

No doubt this has been one of the coldest winters we have had in a while. I've had snow at the house 3 times this winter.
I have caught over 15 white bass 3 times this month and all 3 times I caught them between 2 PM and 5 PM. I've caught very few before noon and they shutdown around 5 PM.

When the water is this cold early in the run the fish will bunch very tight, hold right on the bottom of a deep hole against a vertical wall. Which means I usually find them very close to the bank. I equate it to putting the fly into a 5 gallon bucket.

It's all about presentation. I roll cast a jig head fly. White marabou tail, white body, white 1/32 ounce jig head with a crystal braid collar. The fly or lure must produce good action on its own. I usually don't impart any action to the fly but just let it fall and watch my line for movement of any type. The lighter jig head will fall very slowly so sometimes I have to wait 15 seconds or more before I get a bite. The lighter the line the better. I normally use 6 lb. fluorocarbon tippet.

Fishytx used to drill me on this method but I always had problems using light line on my spinning reel and fluorocarbon just twisted so bad I finally gave up on the spinning reel. The 6 lb. fluorocarbon I use is as small as 4 lb. mono. Using a fly rod is far easier for me to cast the light jig head and I don't have to deal with all the tangles.

Them's some healthy looking White Bass, Jamie. Nothing better than catching them on light tackle.