Predicting Water Flow in Brazos Below Whitney

Sometimes the COE falls into a predictable pattern. During the hot part of August they seemed to be predictable, most likely I thought because they were generating. But then they fell off the predictability wagon and went random. Now I don't know what to think.

Does anyone know how to predict the pattern of water releases?

Check out this graph:

I suspect the weather was cooler on Tuesday and the power consumption wasn't high enough to run the generation facility.

Yea it's been almost like clockwork 1-7 in the afternoon almost every day.

Don't know where you got that but Aquilla isn't on the brazos river. The chart is right though. In the last 2 days the weather was nice and not as much energy needed to be generated so the flow was reduced. I live in Peoria about 1/2 way between Hillsnowhere and Whitney and would be more than happy to tell you of the weather so you can get a better idea of usage from the power plant. What are you looking to go after?

Like j moe said that cooler weather calmed it down that day from looks of the graph it's been 1-7 pm and am. May be some bigger stripers there in the dark! Charlief1 have you been this last week? Was over there last Sunday it was good until 5 but died earlier than normal.

Haven't been in a while. I'm thinking of going to Aquilla tomorrow off 1543 to work the bridge there. Got a friend with kids and I thought they could have some fun before school starts Monday. Love taking kids out because their reactions when they hook into a good one is so fun to watch.

Lol yea Half fear half joy sometimes

Interesting. I live in Peoria too.

This chart is for the gauge at the FM 2114 bridge. They list is as "near" Aquilla for some reason, though it has zero to do with Aquilla. Best I can tell, and I'm not very sure of this, the water released at the Whitney dam takes about 6 hours to reach this gauge, which is about 8.5 miles below the dam. The patter was, and now it's totally changed, but it was for a while low until about 5pm when it would start to rise. From that I'm guessing they were generating starting about 11am. I know the radio was reporting record electrical usage during that predictable time.

This weekend the river didn't come up at all, and yet it was pretty hot. I've called the COE and asked for a release schedule or even a few hints. They won't say anything about when they are going to release water. I expect that has some legal basis to it - as in if you are told when they will release water and if they release sooner than that and you get in trouble you might feel you can sue them. Or something, I don't really know.

All I know is that I've been trying to outguess the COE and have not been able to. I definitely am not psychic.

For four weeks it was 1-7 pm was there several days at start and stop. I hope they start running it again soon would like to get back over there

Robert - if they released at 1pm then the time it takes the water to get to the 2114 bridge would be right at 6 hours, as it was rising around 5pm. That helps some...

Yea will help time it. Almost 2 weeks I had somebody there or was there myself and it was like clockwork 1 o'clock the horn sounded Lasted till 7-730. I just wish they had a better prediction like they do for most of the lakes in the Ozarks that are ran by southwest power administration. But we get a real cool day like j-moe said may not run. Would really like to know if they've gotten back on track for that I'd like to head over there.

Those days with lower release the fishing was defiantly not as good. Still plenty of fish but the bigger ones didn't make it up as far.

I have 2 buddies that live on the Brazos below Dicks and they both have Aquila addresses. The guage is down in that area so I would guess it also has an Aquila address. The flows below Whitney have never been predictable.

Here's the link to the gauge on the 2114 bridge, next to Dick's Canoes. http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=aqlt2&wfo=fwd

It gives current (no pun intended) conditions in real time. I wish there was a gauge at the dam so I could have a head start on guessing when the water will rise down where I fish. But there isn't, and I haven't found a website that gives a time on when they release.

Lately they've been very random. Best advice is if you are wading around, keep a sharp eye on the water level and have an exit strategy.

I live on 2415N Budd. If you'd like to meet up and wet a line I'd be happy to join in. I moved into the area about 9 years ago and haven't done any fishing since I moved here so I don't know that many places to go. I didn't do any good on Aquilla the other day but I really wasn't in to it. With that front that just moved through my guess is that the fish weren't interested either.

Heck Yeah! In fact I'm going to be meeting up with another member on this site sometime this fall - maybe we can all get together. In fact maybe we can get even more folks to show up somewhere and do some greeting and fishing?

That sounds like fun to me?

Anybody else interested?

Lloyd

The river is fishing better than I have ever seen it fish.
I can't seem to stay away it's so good.
Now is the time to get out and catch some serious fish.

Would depend on the day for me. Need to get back over there went from three four days a week over there to havnt been in a week. I'm with you jerry best I have seen down there in in five or six years.

It's the cleanest its been in five or six years too, after that flushing out it got. I wonder if that has much to do with it?

Adding a lot of fish out of the lake from the flood gate helps. as well as a good riverbottom scouring.

Sounds like fun Lloyd. We could meet in Whitney or Aquilla and go from there. It might take a couple of weeks to get everyone together so maybe sometime in September? I've been so involved with the Buick guys and something other than car talk would be a lot of fun.

Late September or early October maybe? Whitney or Aquilla are good meeting places - Laguna Park is too.

Just imagine several of us hitting one location at the same time. It might look like a bunch of guys learning how to use a whip. LOL

We could do a reality show, have some contests where we eliminate ourselves one at a time and slip off to drink beer.

We had 13 members of the Texas Womens Fly Fishers and myself on the Brazos below Whitney two weeks ago.
It was a beautiful picture!

If we get enough people that want to have a fish and greet session we might want to consider doing a kayak/canoe run from the dam to the 2114 bridge. That way we wouldn't be crowding each other out by being limited to wading.

YEP!

Don't have a kayak and I need to build another canoe. My old one got a big hole in it. Just not worth fixing the old one and I've got a few designs I've been working on for a better version of the last one.

Have any of you tied a fly using a foam floating jig? I just started tying again and forgot I had 2 of them and I'm not sure what I want to do with them.