I asked the park director John Rorie when he expected Newmans Bottom rec area on the Yegua to be open again..

Inquiring minds want to know.. thousands of fishermen are asking when Newmans will be opened again..

John's response is as follows..

The Corps is predicting we will get 6 feet out of the last rain which will put us at 10 feet high again. The Newman Bottom access road looks like the Gulf of Mexico again. Any more rain in the next month would just add to the delay. I would predict that the road will not be open until sometime in the spring.

Hard to be more specific than that but realistically we could be longer than that depending on how wet of a winter we have and how high the lake gets again. We also have a bad culvert on that road that is really big that needs repair. The only way it has survived is us patching it after it goes under everytime, but without being able to get to it could spell disaster should we get another big surge of water.

Sorry to be the messenger with the bad news.

John

Thanks for the update, Ben.

This is definitely bad news. Newmans is far and away one of my favorite places to fish and the White Bass run is fast approaching. On the other hand, this could mean better fishing around the Irwin Bridge/WMA area. With the lake up so high, the fish will be forced to travel further upstream looking for flowing water.

If we keep getting these floods all bets are off though.

The fish can and probably have already advanced higher up the creek than usual and are beginning to stage in the deeper pools.
If the COE is correct and the lake rises to 10 or more feet above normal and stays high this time of the year that will put the bulk of the whitebass out of reach and on private property. Right now it looks like the best springtime whitebass fishing will be way above the WMA if the lake keeps rising.

I really doubt we will get 6 feet out of this last rain. Maybe after then next one. They are releasing 1500 cfs and the lake only rose 0.06 ft in the last 24 hours. The COE did shut the gates completely this week, but then opened them back up to 1500 CFS. Most of the runoff from the last rain on Sunday is already flowing into the lake.

I suspect the COE predicted it would rise 6 feet at the time they had to close the gates. The Brazos is extremely high right now but they continue to release into it.

Just my opinion, but I've watched the lake levels daily for over a year now. Or maybe I'm just hoping against hope, LOL!!!

Thanks for the update Ben.

The Lake level was at 243.38 this morning. Went up to 243.39. Then dropped to 243.38 and then back to 243.39. So it at least seems to be holding at this point.

The lake has stopped rising. Creek fishing is going to be on fire two or three weeks from now.

Bad news though, I caught Yegua fever again. I'm going to spend the next couple of days trying to get rid of it. I know those white bass are in there somewhere. Still trying to decide but I'm leaning toward Yakin up from Nails Creek boat ramp to the Yegua tomorrow. Man I wish Newman's was open.

Don't get lost out there. It's like navigating through a swamp when the lake is up this high.

Thanks, Jess is supposed to come with me. I'll probably hit Irwin early AM for a couple hours then we'll launch the yaks around 11 AM or so.

Good luck man. That water is flowing fast! Was up almost to newmans today.

Now you have me worried it will be too fast to paddle in.

What was the water quality like?

Not that great. Was a little better downstream. Creek was flowing fairly fast up where it was in the banks. Down by wolf pond it's out of banks and you don't notice the current as much. I think it's going to start slowing down some, judging by the creek water data.

Was the felled tree before Wolf Pond still blocking the creek?

Yep. But you can go around

We might take the flat bottom. Is there enough room to get around it with a flat bottom? We couldn't get around it last time.