hello all.

i am trying to pack up my lure and fly box for the Brazos this weekend. i will be doing the 20 mile rochells trip.

1. what regular fishing lures work for the bass/ stripers on the river? there are striper right? smallies?

2. i fly fish a lot. what flies work for that river?

3. how deep are the holes on that river.

I appreciate any feed back.

Justin. Arlington.

I can only speak for the first 2 miles from the 16 crossing. I think most of the holes are anywhere from 4-8ft from what I saw Sunday. I have heard there are some deeper ones that get to about 14 feet deep. I had a lot more success on live bait that I caught on the river. I did catch a nice large mouth on a white spinner though.

Ultra light rod, small circle hooks, a 20 ft seine and towable minnow bucket will get you 13 times as many fish as any thing else you can think to try...


catch your own live bait

thanks to Steve I know what a seine net is. It works wonderfully and is a really cheap way to catch bait. If your by yourself you may have to throw a cast net.

There is a guy that runs that section of the river on a flatbottom boat with a jet outboard. He is very good at catching bait with a seine by himself.

One pole is a little longer and he sticks that in the bottom, close to the shore. He walks out with the other one and loops back to the stationary pole.

I've got an XL length seine
One manning is possible.
I weight one end on a clean shore,
weight the other out deeper,
walk up stream and herd the critters down to the trap
and drag the deep end up the shore.
After your pal sees the catch rate rise ten fold, he is gung ho to help from then on. Right Dave ?

Dragging slow up the bank is 1000% more effective to get em caught.

Silver shiners are the best bait overall.

Seine a ton of bait and cast them at deep shoreline structure, a fresh bait ever 6 casts. Tons of bass and cats.

Deep / dead water slow fishing is too tedious and boring for me, hence the lack of stripers. But I've done it.

I think Dave 99 ended up just throwing a bait at a time a sweet spot stacked with bass. Watching them blow up and fight for it. He'll up and say he didn't, he was 'casting' and went thru his bait real quick but he lies. He is a fisherman. He just got excited.

LOL. I wasnt even casting. I pretty much only let out 10 feet of line and I was pulling bass out of that hole like crazy. I am a converted seine netter now. Im going to academy to buy one soon. lures suck compared to live bait.

ha ha

The boys over in the fly forum, well, they aint gonna like hearing that.

its so true though

I fly fish out South of the 16 bridge when they release trout. Last year I caught a bunch of fingerling striper. I've also caught some decent large mouth, small striper, and lots of sandies. I usually see what's hatching. Mayflies were all over the place about a month ago when I was in that area. Fish were hitting them top water like crazy in the evening.

If you are using a rod, get a light weight creek rod and use spoons and spinners. You'll catch a lot with those. Road runners and those cheap crappie jigs work OK. You can wear out those jig hooks pretty quick.

Or if you want the boring fishing, use live bait and you will catch plenty.

Green clousars (small with bead eyes) Gurglers, white with red belly, Gummy minnows, Fast retrieves will get the stripers and sandies, Slow will get the black bass. Also for some fun San Juan worms, and small bead head nymphs for the carp. If you come across some gar, Use a gurgler and stop when he gets real interested. Let them take it for a few seconds, or until he pulls it to the back of his mouth, then hang on. All of the flies are on 1.0 or smaller. Good lck and post some pics

i do not fly fish
but
1 advantage
you need something that does not make a huge splash when casting at structure

My son and I will be there in the morning also-

Looks like we may need to find a rattlesnake lure!

Good Luck and maybe I'll see ya on the river.

manns 10 inch rattlesnake. check it out.