I have not checked the water temperature but Lake Sommerville is a shallow, medium sized lake which in turn should lead to quicker changes in water temperatures than other lakes.

From what I have heard the females eggs are not ready yet. So the spawn is not quite started yet. Although I've been secreted on by several males already. The white bass start staging in the Yegua in early December if there is adequate water. It is much different from any other creeks or rivers I read about.

A few observations about whitebass fishing in Lake Somerville.

The lake is located pretty far south and this area of the Brazos Valley seldom has very cold winters. The Yegua is a long shallow creek running through mostly ranch land so the quality of the water is good to better than most and rich with nutrients. It also floods frequently causing the lake to fluctuate greatly expanding to nearly twice it's normal size.

I am going to suggest that the influence of stocking hybrid stripers for nearly forty years has the whitebass favoring cooler temperatures like their striper cousins. Or it might be a water quality issue where the water in the creek is fresher in the cooler months or maybe this far south the length of daylight isn't as short. It might be all of these factors combined but one thing is for sure over the last few years frequent drought has messed up everything about every other year.

I think it is important to understand how temperature and daylight affect spawning fish. Temperature affects metabolism which increases in cold blooded fish when the water warms. That equates to more active feeding and growth rates more than the timing of the spawn. I have always correlated the whitebass spawn at Lake Somerville to be most active between the second and third full moon cycle. Almost without exception the whitebass spawn is totally over by the forth full moon of the year. Exceptional rain events that fill and flood the lake change everything and events like last summers flood are what set up this truly unique fishing opportunity before us now.

If we don't get flooded out this is shaping up to be the best whitebass fishing in years..

Since the last hybrid striper stocking was in 2011 we should see very few if any undersized hybrids. In two more years the population will begin to dwindle down to just a few big fish. By 2020 it will be very rare to catch a hybrid striper unless TPWD begins to stock the lake again before then.

Anyone headed out tomorrow? Debating going out in the morning but concerned about water clarity. The level seems to have subsided.

It would be worth a try. Wish I could. Hope we don't get anymore heavy rains this week.

Just kill me now.. stuck in the office all week and on a day like this...



at least I've got my memories.. same time two years ago

I've been watching fish tales all day. Making my first trip down this weekend and can't wait.

See you out there, Kayl. It should be fun.

Heck yeah!!!

The eggs are not ready yet. They will be by the end of next month though. The males squirt milk at a very early stage, so you can not go by that, it's the full maturity of the eggs that count. You can tell when you catch a female right now, but they are not bulging out good yet. Give it another four to six weeks and they will be going nuts.

The high temp on Thursday is supposed to be 67 and Friday supposed to be 68. Think there's a front hitting saturday. If I knew how to get to the water there I'd be walking up and down that whole place friday fishing it and learning it. Is anyone going thurday or friday? I would be coming from lockhart/austin area.

I went on Wednesday and bite was a little slow not to mention the banks were highly slippery. So please take some with you and be extremely careful. The current was a little fast and off color so i had to up the size of my road runner to 1/8 oz which helped the presentation. fished Irwin and made the long hike to newmans. All in all I managed 6 in a few hours. If this good weather keeps up then next week should be an awful lot better.

Thanks for the report. Wow, that is a long hike to Newman's. How did it look? I haven't seen it in a long time.

Fishing this weekend from bank, boat & kayak. Hope to see a few of you out there. Report will be forthcoming on Monday.

Made my first trip to Nails Creek yesterday, hiked in from the WMA location. As a newbie this trip was mainly an exploration trip to get a feel for the creek and the terrain in preparation for future trips with my son. like most have posted here the fishing was slow, no whites caught but I did manage to bag 5 crappie on jigs. Stopped by Erwin's bridge on the way home and watched for a few minutes, bite was slow there as well. All in all what a beautiful place to fish and hike, looking forward to the coming months.