I'll start this one off with special thanks and gratitude to fellow TFF Member fisher79 for booking your Brazos River kayak fishing adventure with River Run Guide Service.
It was a true pleasure sharing a day on the river with you and your father, James. Few things are closer to my heart than Family time spent together enjoying the river.

When we initially planned the trip, fisher79 had stated that this would be the first kayak fishing adventure for both of them. Since a good portion of my business is derived from first time kayakers and folks that are new to river fishing, I assured him that all would go smoothly. Come to find out, these two were a father and son angling team that had garnered both fresh and saltwater fishing experience over the years. fisher79 also went on to explain that they fish together almost on a weekly basis. I thought that was pretty neat.

The day of our trip is at hand, as I head to the Brazos to meet my guests. I can't help but wonder all of what the river will have in store for us. I don't need perfect conditions to catch fish, but on the day of our trip, we have sunny skies, temps in the 80's and light winds forecasted.

We meet at the launch to get an early start on the days activities. Before heading out, I take a moment to brief my clients regarding kayak related safety gear and paddling techniques. They both get the hang of it quickly and before you know it, we are off on our adventure.




Our gameplan was to start off tossing artificials to see if we could dupe a few of the local largemouth bass population to get the trip kicked off. We begin to make our way along the river picking off a few small Spotted bass as we go.

Here is fisher79 getting things rolling with a quality CPRd largemouth.



James also gets in on the LMB action by CPRing a nice LMB from the kayak. This bass hopped on Jame's plug so hard, the takedown could be heard accross the river!




These fiesty river LMBs would keep us entertained periodically, throughout our trip.







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At this point, I recommend shifting gears as we make a quick paddle and relocate to another area of the river and take advantage of what I felt would be a developing striper bite. Along the way, I make a quick pit stop and load up on freshley netted baits.



Upon arrival at the next run, I put out a spread of liveys as we begin to man our battle stations in preparation for our first linesiders of the trip.

We anxiously watch as one of our rod tips comes surging to life as a big livey starts getting worked over by a unseen predator. Finally, we get the solid run we have been waiting for, signaled when one of the Abu's comes to life as the bait clicker starts singing my favorite tune. James is the first man up as he grabs the lit up rod and comes tight to a solid striper that begins to immediately display a stubborn fighting style while James settles in to go a few rounds with a husky Brazos linesider.



James, manages to outlast his opponent and is rewarded with what would be one of several Personal Best stripers for my guests.



While the bite never went to wide open, we manage to CPR several quality stripers from this run before we relocate to another part of the river.

Here are a few action shots.




Of course, no trip would be complete without a " daily double". Well done, Gentlemen!



We now paddle to another run where we would spend a few hours with little to show for our efforts other than a few bumps, swipes and misses from the kayaks.



My guests take a quick lunch break while I come up with the next move in our impromptu "chess match" with the ever elusive river stripers that roam the pristine depths of the Brazos Basin.

As we head to the next run, my hopes are high as we approach and get set up. However, things start out a little rough when our next solid takedown results in drag searing run followed by a very unfortunate breakoff at the terminal gear.

Seemingly unphased, we continue our assault. Suddenly, we see one of our big baits getting worked on top by what appears to be a big striper. What begins as a "cat playing with a mouse" quickly escalates to all out piscatoral punishment as our livey dissapears in a washtub size surface boil that sends line quickly dissapearing from the spool under thumbed tention as I hand off the rod to fisher79.

What happens next can only be described as "all out war" as our unseen adversary effortlessly dumps line off the reel in 20-30 yard bursts under medium heavy drag as I instruct fisher79 to hunker down for a prolonged fight with what looks to be the best fish of the trip, so far.



After a noble give and take struggle on both ends, I finally get the opportunity to see color as I catch a glimpse of a deep bodied fish with distinctly broken lines and a oversize "paddle" of a tail. I excitedly inform my guests that we have a large Hybrid coming in for a landing as I begin to move in on her for the next pass.

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Holy Hybrids, Batman!!!



Congratulations to fisher79 on his personal best 14.5# Hybrid. This also represents the largest Hybrid to be CPR'd by a River Run Guide Service customer in 09.

Here is fisher79 displaying the ultimate example of conservational sportsmanship by releasing his Trophy Hybrid back into the depths to fight another day.



As we return our attention to the task at hand, I quickly deploy another fresh spread as we continue to have quality stripers oblige us throughout the remainder of our riverine adventure.



How about a 36" Personal Best Striper to round out the catch? This fish fought James tooth and nail in a dogged and somewhat prolonged battle. After it was all said and done, James' arms had turned to rubber from the tussle as we looked for assistance from fisher79 to help with the CPR session.

Congratulations on your Personal Best striper, James!



Our final catch of the trip winds up being a double from the kayaks. In the first photo, you can see James in the background with a big fish that literaly goes into freakout mode as it begins to bulldog him around in the kayak at odd angles.



We finally get James' fish in the kayak as my guests strike a pose with a nicely executed Father and Son striper double.

Nice job, guys!



At this point my guests are "waving the white flag" and ready to call it a day as we begin our paddle to the takeout.

However, I can't hardly blame them.

What more could you ask for?

Awesome!

What a trip Shane! Frank and Lizzie are really looking forward to their upcoming kayak fishing adventure!

JDPoulsen

dang son

I'm having trouble coming up with something original to say in response to your great reports....

Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Looking back, my favorite pic has to be the one where fisher79 is posing with his fish in the yak, while James is fighting his big fish on the surface, in the background. I got lucky on that shot.

lol!

That was the tits.

WOW very cool.

Good report as always. Shane, I sent you a PM.

I agree with Siler....It's getting hard to come up with something besides, Holy big fish once again and so on and so on.....DUDE......WHERE WAS ME AND LUKE'S FISH LIKE THIS!!!!!

I want to know if any of your customers have taken you to breakfast at Ol' South Pancake House before???

Somethings not right here?

Thanks,jdpoulsen.

I am looking forward to it as well.

I'll take good care of them.

Talk with you soon.

Thanks, PaulGrapevine.

Sent you one as well.

Ouch!!!

C'mon, Stickmeister...

You know I love ya'll like cooked food. Right up there with food from the Ol' South Pancake House!

That was my first time at Ol' South but it won't be my last.

Thanks, Bro.