Fly Fishing the Brazos River

I have fly fished the Brazos River below Whitney dam 3 times. Each time was in the summer when they are producing power in the afternoons and releasing water. Each time I went was fantastic. I caught crappie, white bass, stripers, red ear, bluegill, redbreast, longear, catfish, LMB and drum on each occasion. I didn't have to kayak very far to find them either.

Today was not the same though. They haven't been releasing water, nor have they been producing power so the water level was way down. Ben and I had to work hard to find fish today. We ended up kayaking about 3 miles downstream today. With the exception of one hybrid sunfish and a gar, all we caught were Bluegill and bass. But what we lacked in quantity we more than made up in quality.

Ben focused on catching big bass and he didn't disappoint. He caught two 22 inch and one 24 inch bass. He also caught a longnose gar that was about 4 feet long.

I focused on catching bluegill. I only caught 7 bluegill but they were all 3/4 lb. or bigger. I also caught 7 bass and a hybrid sunfish. All my fish were caught on a yellow Llano bug and a rubber legged dragon again.

The biggest bluegill I caught was 9.75 inches / 0.90 lbs. I registered it for a Brazos River water body record.

Congratulations J-Moe, 9.75 inches / 0.90 lbs, WOW. That is one BIG Chunk right there.

That fish is a "CHUNK"! Great post and another CONGRATULATIONS on yet another RECORD FISH! You are on a roll Jamie. Good job!

"OUTSTANDING" That is a super nice Bluegill! As already stated. "You are on a roll"!

Congrats!!

Great fishing J-Moe! You have covered a lot of area! Congratulations on your Record Bluegill!




Side Note: Do you get different results on the flies you use on the different water bodies you fish?

Thanks everyone for the nice words. I appreciate it. I expect the bluegill and sunfish fishing to be outstanding on this next full moon. I can't wait.

For the most part I have found that yellow top water poppers have worked everywhere. I used to use yellow Betts Fancy poppers and they always outperformed other colors. I tie the Llano bug with yellow foam, florescent yellow chenille and yellow with sparkle silver silly legs. It has worked incredibly well at Buescher, Bastrop and the Brazos River the last couple weeks.

As far as the rubber legged dragon. It has replaced my Briminators as my favorite pattern. It has been incredible. A guy named Alan Prater sent some to Hook-Line&Sinker for him and I to try out. Both of us agreed immediately it was the best sunfish pattern we had ever used. There seems to be something special about the combination of the orange bead chain eyes with Chartreuse/black silly legs on a black body and tail. I have caught record hybrid sunfish, Rios, and Red Ear on it. I gave a couple to my friend Alan Hunter and he caught 100 sunfish on them in one day. He immediately tied up more.

These seem to work on every lake, creek or river I fish. Now saying that I have seen certain situations where matching the hatch will outperform these. For instance, last summer Alan and I were fishing a small creek. He had bought some size 12 Rainy's brown hoppers that matched the grasshoppers in the creek exactly. They outperformed every other fly we used.

So to make a short answer very long I would say Yes you can improve your catch rate on different water bodies if you more closely match the hatch.

Some good information! Thanks J-Moe for sharing.

This is what makes the TFF a GREAT source of information. Anglers sharing their knowledge!

Way to go Jamie, congrats on another record!

I plan to fish the Brazos soon, can't wait. I hear there are some new rules there but don't know any specifics, does it effect fishing out of a kayak?

Thanks Andrew

No, it doesn't effect fishing out of the kayak other than the distance from the dam has increased slightly. No more wade fishing. The power generation is now on an automatic setting so there is less time notice when the gates will open.

Thanks J-Moe. Interesting! I always love to know what fish are biting on in other water bodies.

Thanks Jamie

Congratulation. Pretty fish.

Awesome fishing! Congrats!

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Our fly club is planning another trip up there on Memorial day. If they don't start generating power and releasing water by then we may put in at Dick's, instead of below the dam.

Interesting that you caught coppernose bluegill, a non native species, in the Brazos river. I'm curious, were all the bluegills caught coppernose?

Any native bluegill?

Thanks.

Yes, they were all coppernose, no native bluegills were caught on this particular trip. I only caught 7 total bluegill on this trip. No redbreast, longear, greenies or redbreast either. It was very different than when they are releasing water.

Did you put in at the hatchery or the bridge? I always surmised that when the fish trucks release the trout, various species get released as well...in fact, I caught a saugeye out of that area once...so odd looking I had to go to the books and figure out what it was...tasted good though!

We put in below Whitney Dam

My bad, I thought you were fishing below PK...never fished that section you mentioned, my apologies.