How did it go?

I kayaked and fished Nails Creek yesterday from about 11:00 to 4:00. I went almost as far upstream as the CR 125 bridge. There was a tree down just downstream of the bridge that would have been tough to portage around. That said I did portage around one other fallen tree, and had to shimmy under, basically lay down in my kayak to get under another tree (this was just downstream of the trailway bridge. The creek has changed a bunch since I've been out there last. There are so many trees down or dead and in the process of going down. On a positive note, the log jam at the trailway bridge is gone.

There is still too much water in the creek, and the fishing was very slow. I did manage to catch some small (9-10 inch) Crappie around the trailway bridge. Other than a few small black bass, this was all I caught. Everything was caught on a jig. I had to lower the jig all the way to the bottom and reel up about half a crank. This was the only way I could get bit.

Water clarity was ok and got better the further I went upstream. If you plan on kayaking the creek, be prepared to navigate some obstacles.

Tired and sore today from all the paddling, but it was a beautiful day on the creek.

Thanks for the report. I've been waiting for someone(H-L&S)to post up some pics of a few slab crappie. This colder weather is making me anxious to head up Yegua creek, but the high creek flow rates on USGS site tell me to stay home till the water gets back to normal levels.

Great report. Do you think I could walk into the area around iron bridge and catch fish?

Me too, I can't get him to give up the hunting, or deer videotaping, in his case.

It is supposed to be 81 degrees on Friday. The lake should be down to less than 3 feet high by then.

I feel a sick day coming on quickly. We were catching both white bass and crappie in the Yegua this time last year.

If you're talking about the trailway bridge, you could walk in from CR125. The surrounding area is still holding a lot of water so I would wear some waders if you're going to do this. Like I said, I caught a few fish around the bridge, but nothing of any size. Doesn't mean they're not there though.

Thanks Jared

Great Day on the Yegua

Just not the day I expected or planned on.

Per my previous premonition I felt sick early this morning and had to take a vacation day. Not sure my illness is covered in the medical plan.

So I headed down and checked Newman's first. Gates are still closed.

I went over to Irwin Bridge. There were quite a few fisherman throughout the day fishing around the bridge. Most were catching a few, mostly undersized, crappie. No white bass were reported. Good flow and pretty good water quality for the Yegua.

I headed out exploring with a white rooster tail. There was some bank loss and a few good bank fishing spots lost in the flood. There were also some large piles of trees washed away. But for the most part all the previous fishing spots are recognizable. I found fish at only one spot though. And they weren't crappie or white bass. They were largemouth bass. I sat in that one spot and caught 13 lmb on the rooster tail before losing it in an overhead tree branch. I switched over to a pair of black and chartreuse tube jigs and caught another 7. So at 20 bass now in the .5 lb. to 3 lb. range I decided to size up to a big double bladed spinner bait to try and catch some bigger fish. I caught five more lmb about the same size.

So after catching and releasing 25 LMB, and it was only 9 AM, I decided to head over to Nails creek and walk into the trail way bridge from CR 125. There was no flow. I tried fishing around the bridge with no luck. I moved down the bank toward CR 125 a ways and tried a couple of spots but didn't find many bank friendly locations. I tried fishing with live worms around some of the trees but didn't have any luck doing that either.

I took a break for lunch and then Jess and I headed back to Irwin Bridge. We caught another 25 or so LMB and Jess caught the only crappie of the day. A fat 13 incher. We did some more exploring and ended up catching a few bluegill and longear. No more crappie and no white bass.

One thing that was very noticeable was a lot of the sticks, fishing line and other underground snags had been washed away. We weren't losing rooster tails. I told Jess the Yegua monster had gotten soft. Oops, bad mistake, she heard me. In the next 30 minutes I slipped down the muddy bank twice. Got my clothes, skin and fishing tackle snagged in the briars and lost 5 pairs of jigs. So heed my lessons, she may not eat as many of your lures this year as in years past but she still has some claws.

That was great fun Jess. The laughter and fishing cured me.

Thanks for the report, J-Moe. Glad you were able to find some fish biting.

I have three days of camping & fishing planned next weekend at Nails Creek State Park. Hopefully a can catch a few fish for the frying pan.

TFTR Yegua snags change every year. One has to keep going out there till they find the right spot to clean house on these whites with out losing a bunch of tackle. That's what I do any ways. I won�t fish an area full of snags, these fish move around enough to find a good place to catch them with out hanging up all the time.
I may have get out there soon, further up the creek there are some good holes that hold some good keeper crappie. Might even be able to catch a limit. This time of the year one can get a good mix on their stringer, crappie and whites. Take some real worms fished on bottom, you should be able to get a good stringer of channel cats too.

Thanks Doug, I still haven't explored the WMA area. It's on my list of areas I hope to find time to fish this season.

Lake Level is 242.8. It came up about 1.5 feet since the flooding this weekend. They closed the gates at the dam yesterday and haven't opened them back up yet. Brazos River was very high yesterday.

Re-thinking the camping plans this weekend. There's just too much water right now.