Short report (versus my normal standards):

Slept in the car at the 16 on Sunday night since I couldn't leave until evening. We decided to wait until morning to launch rather than do the ninja-style paddle downstream in darkness like before. Still alive in the bait tank were the threadfin and gizzard shad that I caught the day before. John L, Knot at Work would be on this venture with BaffinBay bed ridden with some sort of "male performance" related injury...

Monday before dark, we offloaded and paddled downstream fishing the usual spots with a high level of success. Stripers, white bass, largemouth, channel cats, bluegill, and longnose gar were caught on live bait as well as lures. Topwater Pop-R type surface plugs worked great. Diving crankbaits caught 3 varieties of fish as well. Mutliple CPR fish and a couple strung up for the evening fish fry.

Wind was brisk throughout the day until it laid down in the afternoon. It added some challenges to paddling down but later helped us on the paddle back up. Water level seemed a couple inches higher and was the expected clear conditions that I've experienced in the past. Monday night/Tues Morning, it appeared there was a thick oil slick on a long stretch of the water as the wind had stopped and current seemed to come to a standstill. Stuff would stick to the legs as you waded in the shallows.

Congrats to Knot at Work for knocking the Brazos Striper Skunk off his bank..finally. Dinks count when eliminating the skunk I guess.

Nothing beats a shore lunch of freshly caught fish, some cold brews, and fixins that John L always comes through on. Mixed bag for the menu and my first try of a "green skippie" proved that they are pretty good to eat with no bloodline and bluegill-like spidery veins throughout the flesh (no they weren't worms). I might have to eat one again in the future.

By the way it was freezing cold (by my San Diego standards) Monday night since I didn't have the normal cold-weather camping gear. Adorned in simply 2 longsleeve shirts and a pair of windbreaker pants over my board shorts, it was shivering time! Thank god I had a beanie to wear under my cap and an old pair of neoprene gloves in stashed in the yak that hadn't been used since fishing La Jolla Cove. An old towel in the yak that was 2 feet short to cover my body was used to help shield from the cold. Thoughts of Survivorman and Man Vs Wild ran through my mind as I struggled to get any sleep. Bare feet were kept within arms reach of the campfire and for the first time, smoke inhalation wasn't an obstacle in my attempts to sleep.
Scouring the banks for any dead branches/twigs to make a fire kept me and John L busy throughout the night to keep the fire going. In case you didn't know, mosquito netting doesn't add much value to preserving body heat or shielding the body from the elements. Note to self: I need to get one of those emergency metallic/foil blankets just in case next time:)

Poor Knot at Work struggled to sleep and no snuggle bunny or spooning pal this time for him since his partner in crime was unable to join us. I'm not sure that sleeping on multiple small hard coolers works for my sleeping technique...

Plenty of Brazos river snakes to tempt us to go "YaknYota Style" but we didn't muster up the balls to try the new trendy "lure".

Post trip, a lot of good laughs about how cold we were.

Link for some of the photos:
Almost 5 lber


Topwater bass



http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt..._Br#Post3995657

Looks like a good trip.

Thanks for the report and pics, man!

that 2nd fish looks like you took 2 fish (a spot and guadalupe bass) and pasted over them...

are there guadalupe bass in that part of the river or is that just a spot that looks like a guad?