This thread is for anyone who wants to share info about Denton Creek (upper feeder Creek to Grapevine Lake). Remember to take any trash out that you can, it helps keep the creek clean.

I parked on 377, and dragged the kayak down to where the first step is (usually).

First step location.. https://maps.app.goo.gl/7Yrd4PGKV9bGWaE29

It's way too early, the lake level is still up and the first step is underwater. I met a man who (Ray) who was in a sweet little aluminum boat, he was heading down. Water temp is 63, and fishing is very slow. He caught a few above the water treatment discharge feeder Creek. Saw some people up from there with a few fish on the stringer, but there was no party going on. Really need the lake to drop another foot for the fish to setup on all the gravel steps. I didn't go up to the hole, it's not time and it would be wasted energy. Water looks good, but I didn't catch a fish until I got up to the step above the "Y" where the water treatment plant inputs water. It's amazing how much the creek changes, year to year. The picture below is where the first gravel step is "usually".. Right above this a step is a deep pool. I did doodle a jig on all the trees, and not one crappie bite. The full moon on March is typically the time, but I wanted to spot check things. Be careful all.

First wave of fish has already come up and got caught out. I caught 40 plus early last week believe it or not. Really need another good rain to bring more up. I am surprised the crappie have been a no show so far this year.

Fished the creek on Monday 2/26 and only managed 8 fish.
Water temp was 60 in morning and 67 when I left.

Put in at Marshall Creek/Trophy park and thought it would only take maybe 1 or 1.5 hours to reach 377, way, way off.
Paddling most of the way it was 2.5 hours from boat ramp to bridge.

Only caught 2 above the bridge but did not get far past it.
Tried for crappie in the log jams but no bites there.








I think they are getting ripe, right after this next cold snap, it should be good.

thanks for sharing information. Even though I live too far south to ever visit your places, there is something to learn from yall. thanks for the generous spirit not seen often these days

I think I calculated it once, I believe it's 8 miles from TC park to Henrietta Hole by water. I need to go back to Google maps and check this. I saw a truck parked under the 377 bridge, but I can't get my truck down there. The mud hole getting down there has stopped me too many times.

Just a heads up for everyone, I’ve been told by a game warden and the USACE Grapevine office that vehicles are not allowed along the west side of the railroad or parked under the railroad/377 by the Knob Hills trailhead.


Was out there Monday afternoon, a very grueling 20ish fish (probably a dozen keepers) over 4-5hrs. The most consistency was after 4PM.

The best advice I can give you guys is not to mess with anything down the stream of the bridge. If you don’t see water moving, then you were in the wrong place

I can second Kid's comment. We slayed them a week ago. 40+ fish and many of them were females. We also actively searched for crappie and found nada. Another good rain and we'll get another wave of them.

Go to Google Earth and use the ruler icon at the top of the page

That is spot on. I don't even stop until the first step that is usually visible. The Google map link I put in the original message. But with the lake level being up a skosh, it's covered up a little. But I wouldn't even mess with anything below 377 bridge (except for crappie and catfish). To find fish bassthumb is dead on, running water. I will go in a couple weeks, I know you could catch a bunch of small fish up but the big girls will not be here for a little while.

Note (main lake tip): I got a message from Mr. "R" this week. He caught a limit of big fish on Murrell point on Monday. (Big 14 inch sandies). They were feeding on big 4" shad. This will tell you the big ones are still at the main lake locations.



I will be chasing the green fish, but will check a few areas on main lake for lake spawners. Last few years we found Magnum females on the end of Murrell Park "main point" which loved a crankbait.

What kind of rain did everyone get yesterday? 0.27 here, near a feeder creek that flows to DC, about 20 miles upstream.

You were a little too late actually, as Kid said. But there's more to come

The fun hasn't even started. There are a couple spots that are flat amazing when the run starts. A rat-l-trap (tiny-trap) bumping the bottom in a couple gravel stretch's is so much fun. Hopefully we will not get a big flush, like we have seen for several years.

It was pretty fun a couple weeks ago for me lol A big rain will get more fish up and that’s exactly what we need I feel.

It was not enough unfortunately

Yep, next chance near the end of this week. Things should be primed for a big push after another warm week.

Definitely got Lots of rain to get the creek moving..

How long before it will be fishable?

That's a tough question, IMO. I just don't know how much clarity they need to move up the creek. Might be a while as it's dark chocolate milk with allot of moving water. With the current I saw, I would think the fish were flushed down to large/deeper sections of Denton Creek to hold up. The lake is probably up almost a foot since the rain started two days ago. The lake level reports in the morning, so we will see tomorrow how far it has come up. There might be some better answers coming, but I like to see the green water moving down (Rather than the heavily stained water).

I just left there. Walked a ways up the creek from 377. Water clarity is horrible. I didn’t get a bite.

It won't be fishable for a few days

Guess I'll go just so I ca say I tried.. Will be getting right when it's back to work time next week

If you have a kayak, out boat. Go to murrelll Park, and go out to the main point way out. Whacked then earlier this week, see the Grapevine report. You will do much better there than the creek in the next week.

I will probably do that.. Jigging slabs?

I was using a small Cordell spoon, but a soft plastic would also work. I was almost dead sticking it below the boat, but I did use a 3" pale tail soft plastic casting out, and just lifting the rod and letting it slowly swim back close to the bottom.

I had a 4" soft plastic on a jig head for bass on the deck. I could dead stick that worm and they would hit it, but couldn't get the hook in their mouth. So I scaled down and it worked, and the thumper (Bluetooth speaker) ran them off twice so I turned it off. Murrelll point has very few pieces of structure to get hung up on. There is one stationary piece of wood, and a couple of small brush piles farther west on the hump. But I get hung up more along the drop than any other area on this long point.

Caught 4 today over a couple hours. Really slow fishing. Is this the end of it or will they keep running?

No, full moon on March is typically the big switch. The rain last week slowed things down, and the lake went up 1 ft.
If you go up Denton Creek and want to find sandbass, you will need to go up until you find an actual step. They will be going up until they find a gravel fast moving step. I would say that you will prob have the best success above Henrietta Hole right now. FYI: Largemouth bass have been staging on the main lake as well, they haven't spawned on main lake either. For sandbass you will have to be up near the hole, or above. The normal steps are underwater. I wouldn't waste time below the 377 bridge. Report anything you see, and water clarity.

Caught half a limit this afternoon, 11-12" males. Threw another dozen back that were right at 10". Water clarity is lightly stained but not bad. Still early but with more rain coming I'm guessing when the females do show up it's not going to be for long.

Awesome job! Where abouts were you? Feel free not to share 😂😂

I fished Denton Creek for the first time today. I started by parking on the dirt road running along side of 377. I parked before the huge mudhole, walked up to the power lines and crossed the road and tracks. I walked down the power lines for a short ways. Then blindly went tearing through the green briar until I found the creek. It was difficult to fly fish as there were not many places to get down the bank and just too much water to cover by roll casting alone. I caught 5 small males and then left to try and find a spot further upstream. Luckily I met a local who gave me a pin to a location I would have never have found in a million years.

The area was incredible for fly fishing. I immediately started catching fish and it never stopped. I fished until around 2:30 and they were still biting. I was completely beat though. I ended up catching around 100 white bass on the day.

A TFF'r pinged me with a link of one of my older threads. These have a tremendous amount of info on them, if you go thru them you can pick up allot of good information. Thanks (Snagged).

2021 Denton Creek

https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/13907459/all/denton-creek-2021

Could be wrong but I feel last week was the peak of the run. This week should be good too but I feel like we are over the hump this year. Would not surprise me if it winds down by April this year

I fished around Henrietta hole and down river a half mile or so yesterday for about 2 hours and didn't catch anything. I did snag a gar on accident as they were all over the place. I'm sure it was the rain that turned them off, so hopefully next week will be good again.

Interesting. I only caught a few females. They were small females but clearly bulging with eggs. Everybody I spoke with had the same results. Did the remainder of the females already come in and leave? Did you catch a lot of big females early in the run?

I have been catching females mixed in for several weeks now. First limit out of there was 2/16. The females are in certain areas more than others and I would say about half of the ones I have caught have been spawned out/spawning .

Got any pictures of those females? We are seeing them on main lake, and they are huge. I haven't seen anyone who has seen a big female on the creek yet. Would like to see Pictures of you got them, I doubt they will be up with all the moving water we have been seeing.

Even better… I’ve got videos. Check them out on my channel. Multiple videos with fat females

Rock on! Love videos. Did real well today on main lake. Will post some pic soon. Magnum Sandbass on the humps north of the crusher.

I referenced the humps north of the crusher several times, stayed off the top and casted over the hump with a small blade bait. I just reeled a few cranks and let it fall. Fish are tight to the bottom. Just save this Google map link, and go-to it using your phone. I stayed downwind of the hump, the fish are setting up on the north side.
Lots of good eating size catfish, and I had 54 casts in a row. About 50% are big, and the other 50% is (8-12"). I took a few pictures so you could see the north bank In the background. I fished the humps from 2-5pm. I checked others on the north end of the lake but they weren't any good.

https://goo.gl/maps/5HpsGsF6m42LgCP16

Thank you sir. Gonna hit that on the kayak today while I wait for the creek to come down just a bit more.

When y'all talk about these "steps", are you just referring to ledges or quick dropoffs in the creek? Does this ledge/step extend across the whole creek channel? I have not fished Denton Creek much.

I refer to the steps as the gravel bars that typically stop the water, and create a step where the water level increases upstream. There are the fast moving water over the gravel bars, and there is a deeper pool above them. Right now they are mostly underwater, you would have to go to Henrietta Hole, and above to find these now. Water is really high for this time of the year, and if we get one of those "Belly Washer" April floods we are going to have another year of flushed fish. There are actually three creeks on Grapevine which hold a ton of sandbass. Walk into these two others, and you can have some fun. There are some trees across the creek in the upper creek referenced, but a kayak could get by it. There are gems, but with the high water, you have to walk thru some heavy brush and get wet to find the "Juice". Water is up, so things are so much different when the level is high. If you want something fun, have someone drop you off at the I-35 bridge, and pick you up at the 377 bridge. But be warned, you may have to drag your kayak up the hill at the 377 bridge if the mud hole is deep. Good luck all, and report anything you find. If it were me, I would fish above the Hole, and not even look below.

I see, thanks for explaining! I've fished the creek you show in the first picture by Cross Timbers Trailhead (Whites Branch), and it was an excellent white bass/crappie spot last year. I haven't had the chance to head out there this year.

Was at my local creek and found a bunch of what seem to be leeches on the rocks in one of the gravel rip rap shallow spots I like to fish. Does anyone know what they are and if they are harmful? Found a few on 1 fish this year but have caught many limits this year and in years past and have never noticed them.

Good Long day on the water. I fished from 3am-1030 on Grapevine chasing the Green fish. Came home and then me and my son Mason went up Denton Creek in the Canoe. We went under the 377 bridge and launched the canoe from there. Seriously I would not recommend this to anyone, but my son wanted to try it. It is just too sketchy for me, I usually launch at Trophy Club park and go up in the canoe. I saw a boat on the creek, and the guy had Livescope. He said not much other than Gar are in the deep areas from the 377 bridge to about 1 mile below the Hole. So don't waste your time unless you see running water over rocks. Look at the pictures, and you can see how shallow the water we were standing in was. The small pools above these areas are holding some fish. But it is not really that good of fishing. I am still catching limits of big sandbass on Main Lake. And the Crappie fishing is Amazing down in some of the creeks (The feeder creek of Meadomere was on fire last week).
Years ago I found a pool cleaning pole, and created a lure retriever with it. I have a birds nest of heavy braided cord on the end, and it works well. We removed every lure we saw going up from the 377 Bridge, to above Henrietta Hole. We spot checked several gravel areas, but didn't catch anything until we got above the hole. The first bend from Henrietta Hole, and the next 4 small pools were fun. I was using a tiny-trap made by rat-l-trap. We found 4 of them today, and one was bright yellow. I installed hooks on it, and it was the best lure. The tiny-trap out fished the lead head jig 10 to 1. Me and mason would swap every now and then so it wasn't boring. The bait has to bump the bottom, or your spinning your wheels. It sucks getting hung up, but we had the pole to get the bait if we got snagged. Also caught 3 big spot tail gar in the small pools. A bonus for the day was finding a big group of magnum crappie just up from the hole. See the map below, the area shaded in green has a big group of crappie. They killed the small rat-l-trap, and the jig head got zero bites. Allot of people on the creek, but not much action as the water is high. You have to find some steps, so go above the hole and don't stop. We dragged the canoe up the shallow steps, and had a great time. Saw some big snakes sun bathing, so keep an eye out. Take care all.


Forgot to add. If your waking in, your going to get wet. Banks are very slippery. We were chaco sandals and walk thru the water, and is easy to navigate. The banks above are thick with vines that will cut you to pieces, or break a rod easily. It's just easier with a canoe, out kayak. I have a 2.5hp Suzuki so we don't paddle unless we see fisherman/Fisherwomen. Lastly, shad spawn going on from the 377 bridge up quite a ways today. With the lake being so high, all the usual steps are covered so fishing is tough unless you go way up. I haven't tried the other creeks for sandbass. They are letting out water at 1014cfs and the lake is coming down, so things will change if the water drops another foot or two.


Areas we caught fish.



Green Area is a jackpot of Crappie














Lures Found Today

Launched canoe out of TC park, and went up to Henrietta Hole, creek has cleaned out many of the large trees. Creek is stained, and even above the hole going up Denton Creek it's off. I went about 1 mile above the hole, and it sucked. Came back and went up Elizabeth branch and it was cleaner water. Water is shallow in this creek, but I caught fish in the small pools. Fish were small 7"-maybe keepers. Had fun looking around, and the tiny lipless crankbait kicked the lead head jig in the ding ding again. If your fishing either, you have to be making contact with the bottom. If your casting, and simply reeling it back you might as well stay home and cast in the front yard. I got hung up several times, and had to walk out into the water to get my lure un-hung several times in Elizabeth branch. Came back and fished below the hole, and running the bait along the edge of the wall I caught about 8 keepers in about 30 min. Seemed to work better casting down, and reeling it very very slowly up the edge of the current. Water is flowing a bit more than it was on Sunday. Really nice out today. Give it 3-4 days at the least. Even way above the hole on Denton Creek in untouched areas not even the mosquitoes were biting. Lure hunting was good. I will add a map of where I caught fish.
Take care all.

Well, is it mudded and flooded again?

I'm still surprised I haven't heard anything from the catfish people. When Denton Creek is flowing the catfish stack up at the mouth of Grapevine lake where Denton Creek spills into the lake. At the back of Trophy Club park you can see the main lake to the south east. This is where me and Mason would go have fun catching catfish in the canoe. I will add a clip from me and him fishing back in 2020 when the lake was up about 10ft over full pool. We were going to try and go crappie fishing, but we got spooked by some big fish. We came back the next day with heavier line, and catfish setup. We caught some shad along the bank, and you can actually see my truck parked in the background. We caught many good catfish, but mason caught and released a fish of a lifetime. After every good rain, if you have a canoe/kayak you can really have some fun out in this area. But, you have to have some moving water from a good rain. The catfish move up into the shallows, and up in front of the large log jams and you can have some good fishing. Even jug lines are good, but you have to be quick and don't want them getting wrapped up in the structure.

Where we were fishing in the canoe


https://maps.app.goo.gl/KXx6fwk3C1Jg7wNHA


Catfish video from March 2020. This little boy is now 6' ft tall..

Sweet !!

Denton Creek is chocolate milk, and running pretty good. I drove over the 377 bridge when I was coming back from Ray Roberts. I would say your going to be about to crappie fish the creek, but the sand bass run is prob over. Lake has come up almost 2 feet from this last rain. Take care all