Went to Irwin Bridge and walked to my crappie hole and it did not disappoint. Caught over 40 crappie with 2 keepers and 2 whitebass. Most of the crappie were 9 3/4 to 9 7/8. Fun day with my daughter. Hope we get some rain soon to replenish the creek with fish.

Sackah-ja-weiners

Lake level is 238.1. The dam is closed.

Very disappointing trip. 11 fish. A ton of small crappie and perch. My thoughts on this is, the fish have turned around and headed back towards the lake looking for a better food source. Due to the amount of small blacks, perch and crappie, there isn't anything left for these guys to feed on. I don't know what's going on, but we definitely need a two or three foot rise in this creek. I would like to think it was just a bad day, but it should have been an awesome bite going on. I'm a little confused, but I still think it has to do with the food shortage myself. I have never seen this many perch blacks and crappie in this creek like there has been this year. At least ten times more than ever before. It is what it is, sure hope someone can find a good bite, because I sure didn't.

Hmmmm.....I certainly didn't notice many smaller baitfish. You certainly have a point. I Hardly tried to fish during my walk in, but once I got to where I wasn't seeing many footprints anymore, and I started to see whites super shallow, I started casting. I threw several different jigs and little spoons and such at them and only caught dinks other than whites. I switched over to a little ultralight rapala rippin rap in blue chrome and caught two whites in a matter of minutes before I broke my rod setting the hook on a tree bass. Those two fish absolutely choked it. I got snagged a few times but I just wrapped that 30lb power pro braid around a little stick and pulled the hook straight. Going pretty fast looking for a reaction bite with a bait like that could be a ticket. Find a bite and then slow down a little? You are bound to lose baits though. Them little dudes are $7 apiece, too.

That's interesting. I was reading last night that late in the run all that is usually left is very small bait fish. I've been using a size 8 clouser. Maybe it's time to size down to a 10 or 12 to see if that improves the bite. But with all the small fish, maybe those small bait fish are all gone too.

As the water temperature heats up the fish will become more active and go after a reaction bait. They were taking a white rooster tail prior to the last cold front. And now I see a few more people catching them on reaction baits again.

I also read that late in the run, during the warmer period, Charlie Cypert used to sink a clouser and then strip it as fast as he possibly could.

I guess anything is worth a try now.

That's 11 more than most people caught Doug. Well done.

Welcome 1Tacklehoarder, thanks for the report.

Curious, did you say you were using 30 lb. braid on an ultralight rod when you broke it? That's a unique setup.

Not too bad. My wife and I caught 9 fish together yesterday from 11am to 3pm.
It's a very slow day. You had to work very hard to get the fish to take it.
We did not move around, and only fished one spot all the time. We have caught
a lot of small crappie as well.

Since I arrived some what late, it was difficult to see the water flow, but I have noticed in my last two trips before that the water flow has really slowed down. Lack of water flow, lack of prey to feed on, it makes total since to me why thesee fish would turn around and head back towards the lake for their own survival mode of existence. A walk towards Newman's bottom will probably be ones best bet right now, but if we don't receive some rain soon, these fish will high tail it out of this creek all together. They will continue their spawn out in the lake on wind blown shorelines and shallow sand bars. This is only my take on what I think is going on, but I'm always watching every little thing that goes on during the white bass spawn and I'm always making evaluations from what I see so I can get a clearer picture of situations. I believe one has to understand what is going on if they want to stay on top of their A-game. Mother nature and wildlife will keep you going in a guessing game no matter how much you may already know, or you think you know. But one thing is for sure, I have never seen these fish stay up in this creek and allow themselves to die. When they fill threatened about being stranded, they will leave.

Great looking fish there JonL. We managed only 2 out yesterday out at Granger. Let me know the next time you head out to Somerville.

Tony

That's not to bad of a number for two hours of fishing, but I was expecting a much better bite.

I'll bet this gray rainy morning had the whites spawning around the creek.. warm and cloudy with a little drizzle to make the yegua nice and slippery too! GOOD FUN!

I talked to Meg over at the headquarters of the Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway to get the status of the park and trailway. The Birch Creek Unit remains closed as the clean up and rebuilding continues. The Nails Creek Unit is partially open, some camping and day use is permitted but the Yegua, Cedar and Nails creeks can only be accessed from the park boat ramp by water since the trailway remains closed. The pressing issue in the whole park & trailway are the dead and dying trees and their removal.

Newmans Bottom is still closed and no date to reopen has been set or discussed as far as the State park staff knows. I suspect there is still a serious issue with the little bridge just past the gate leading to the creek since the repairs to the culvert should be complete. More on this as it develops..

I can tell you that the first round of cleanup funds have been allocated so the money is there but the progress is slowed when having to coordinate efforts between state and federal agencies like the Corp of Engineers, TPWD, TDot and other public and private parties actually doing the work..

I guess a long walk towards Neman's is in store if I want to catch a few. My little sweet spot close to the parking lot has dryed up on me. Oh well, that's the way it goes some times. I sure would like to see Newman's bottom open up soon, it would save me some walking.