hey guys, if you had a chance to float the brazos this weekend, have had these plans for some time, would you still do it after all of this rain??? i am having mixed feelings about this. let me know what you would do?? and if anyone has any better report on the condition of the river right now, please chime in. the plan was to go from rochelle's down 10 miles.
thanks for your help, and advise, russell

i dont know about what the rain will do, but myself and a couple of buddies are floating this weekend. The weather looks to be near perfect.

If you got the time and money set aside then he!! yeah go. I'd rather be stuck on a river in the rain than stuck at home in the rain.
Might want to call the dam and ask 'em about any upcoming releases.

copy and paste it in your browser

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/nwis/uv/?site_no=08089000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

flow is way up but I bet it goes back down by saturday

The 1000 CFS jump ysterday was due to some testing they performed on one of the gates.

It wound up being partially opened for about three hours.

With PK Lake level holding steady at around 995, I don't anticipate anything more than nominal flow between now and Tuesday.

However, the watershed downriver is completely saturated from recent rain.

Granbury has been releasing between 9,000 and 12,000 CFS for the last 24 hours. I'm guessing that equates to somewhere between 12 to 15 gates down at DeCordova.

That is good news!

Will be on the river Saturday an Sunday putting in at 16. Will be fishing with Shane on Sunday. Shane, looking forward to meeting you and catching lots of fish.

Looking forward to it, as well.

Troutbum...go for it, man.

Yakbonz...You won't be sorry going with Shane. Let us know how you did. I won't be fishing at all this weekend because my daughter is playing in a softball tournament--a different kind of fun.

well, a mixed report on our trip. the weather was great, the food, and friends were awesome, nut the fishing was horrible. the water was very muddy, and the farther you went down river, more debris, and mud. the leaves are changing colors, which was awesome!!! all in all, it was better than work, and doing honeydews, like i ever do those. LOL. anyway, back to the grind!!

B_Rod, fishing with Shane (and thanks again Shane) was a blast. Unfortunately the fish didn't cooperate on Sunday, which appeared to be the rule for everyone else I that fished the Brazos this weekend. Shane said it was one of the worst he had seen in awhile, so unlucky for us. It did not detract from the experience, and I can not think of a nicer person than Shane to be fishing with. The end of the day was quite interesting with us trying to load five yaks plus two days worth of gear onto his truck to haul us up back up to 16 as thunderheads rolled in and some of the most wicked lightning I have seen in awhile. Even at the end of this long day Shane helped us load up my truck as well after pulling them all down from his. And as a night cap dipped into his personal cooler and shared a well needed cold beer before our drive through the storm back to Dallas. We were unlucky as far as the weekend we picked to fish, but not unlucky on the setting and choice of guide.

TroutBum, agreed, those first three miles or so in the bluffs with the fall colors were magic.

ahh the sweet miller highlife! It really isnt bad.

Ah...that's the nice thing about floating the Brazos--even if the fishing isn't great, the river is...

yes, two things really messed up the fishing, in my opinion. The rush of runoff, and the release three times of very cold water, as the corp was testing the flood gates. Put those fish in a state of shock!!! One young man in our trip, did catch 1 nice bass, say about 16 inches, but that was it. Our trip was still good.

Here is my yak, that looks like the Beverly Hillbilly's wagon!! Notice the PVC rack I built that holds gear above my native storage dry/wet components. This system worked great all weekend. I can open the storage component, without unloading all of my stuff!!



The scenery was great, with the cliffs, and colors. Except for the color of the water!!





but it is the camping, cooking, and sitting around the fire, that i really enjoy!! My dinner, ala aluminum foil, that i made for saturday night, was amazing!!! asparagus with garlic, sauteed mushrooms, and cabbage, new potatoes, and onions, served with butterfly pork chops, was the topping on the cake!!

before:



after:



here's the gang going down the river!!






really was a fun trip, just not good fishing!!

Great pics. Wow over the top on dinner.

Wow I have never seen the brazos look brown like that near PK.

Dave, ha, yes, fisrt time in a long time the High Life tasted so good.....

I am glad to hear we werent the only ones who struggled over the weekend to catch fish. Myself and two buddies were on the water from Friday thru Sunday and we only had 3-4 fish to show for it. However the exceptional weather and scenery compensated for the tough fishing.

sounds like a great trip troutbum. fishing is only part of it. that rack on the back of your yak is genius. the food pics have made me hungry, gonna go get supper.

i agree on the mud
even when it flooded back about 3 years ago it wasn't that brown

Trout Bum, Nice Yak!

thaks guys. i love the native's. the other cool thing about the native, is that you do not have to pack a chair!!! just simply remove the chair from the yak, get a beer and some food, and drop next to the fire. most comfortable camp chair you will sit in. lay down a log or stump, and prop your feet right up!! you can also lay the seat down, and probably sleep in it!! may try that next summer!!

Great pics, Trout Bum. And your kayak is a sweet set up.

Fished with Shane and YakBonz this weekend. Had a great time! Thought I'd add some more photos to the topic.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44091004@N04/4051161149/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44091004@N04/4051161185/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44091004@N04/4051905464/

Guess I don't know how to post pics yet!

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/44091004@N04/4051905464/[/img]

thats how you post pics but your link doesnt work