FYI, there was a scary moment for me when paddling my kayak along in the nails creek at around this time last year. It was almost the dusk time. All of a sudden, I noticed that a big cat-like animal was trying to chase me along the bank. I couldn't tell what it exactly was due to low light. My guess is that it might be a black panther by judging from its shape and size. I thought I would be ok since I was in the center of the creek and it was on the bank. But it jumped and dived into the water towards me from a section of the bank without bush. I scrambled to paddle and leave the place. Thank the Lord! I was alright in this incident.

@fishytx, I remember you once mentioned that you typically use a spin rod with a 4lb test line and a 1/32 oz jig and can catch tons of fish. I can image that the light line and jig work great in still water because the lure can be worked back slowly and elegantly. But in creeks that flow as fast as Yegua, the lure would be quickly flowing away with the water. How do you still manage to make the presentation of the lure attractive to fish in this situation?

That was most likely an otter that charged and dove into the water. There are very few (if any!) big cats in the whole area.. Bobcats yes.. panthers not likely..

Driving up out of Newmans Bottom late one evening looking into the sunset I spotted the dark silhouette of a huge two legged pointy eared beast standing upright looking straight at me.



I kept driving slowly along CR 140 keeping my eyes glued to the figure standing about 50 yards back from the fence. As I drove further down the road getting another view in the fading light the beast now had four legs and looked more like a horse... because it was a horse. If I had only the front profile to go on I would never have guessed the beast was anything other than bigfoot. People by and large are afraid of the dark mostly because we use our eyes to identify dangers around us and when our sight is compromised by the dark our other senses try to compensate. When you have to decipher what you have heard way back in the darkness your imagination will get the better of you so just remember what isn't there in the daylight probably isn't there after dark either.. Wildlife will always be near water and many critters are more active at night so we hardly ever see or hear them when we are fishing the creeks. I can tell you that creek critters like raccoons, otters and many birds have a vast vocabulary making the strangest sounds some of which nightmares are made of..

tons of hogs down there too. Saw a big hog a couple weeks ago on the opposite bank. In the dark/moonlight it looked huge but likely wasnt.

Anybody know if more water coming down the creeks today? I know several people that said there was a hard rain last night in Giddings area.

My dad and I fished yegua creek at Irwin bridge thus morning dawn to 1030. Managed 17 keepers but they were all in one spot. No fish in other holes. Dad used 1/32 jigs in picture and I used white/chartreuse again. Video to follow. Creek levels looked same as last time I visited a few weeks ago.

Took my kayak to nails creek state park to attempt to paddle to nails creek
Wind made that very rough and was not able to locate the mouth of the creek with my phone GPS so went back.

Drove to Newman's bottom a little before 4 and left about 630
Caught 26 kept 16
Mostly males a couple big females
First time I've actually seen them spawning and doing their thing at my feet

Video and report are done from Yesterdays trip. Enjoy the sounds of chirping birds.


http://perksoutdoors.weebly.com/blog/yegua-creek-3-14-19

My Mom lives on the Middle Yegua water shed, she said they did not get much rain. I live on the West Yegua water shed and we have received right at 2-1/8 inches in the last two rains. J-Moe is at Newman's Bottom this morning he said the water is stained and the bite is good. That's all I know because I have switched gears and I am now fishing San Gabriel river west of Granger Lake, better known as the steps. The bite there is slow for whites but the crappie is doing pretty dang good. I have a buddy who has been catching his limits on crappie, he had one yesterday that was 15 inches. And there are anglers hauling out limits of whites, but they are putting in the time and effort to do so. The water current is fast, to fast to fish in it. You have to fish above or below fast moving water, or fish the deeper backed up lake water. And I need to take a break, my lower back issues is giving me fits that are out of this world. I got 2-1/2 hours sleep last night, it was bad.... But I also went to a pain specialist doctor yesterday and they did some work on it and that just added to the problem, better today as speak though. So maybe I'll be able to finish out this years spawn. Two months a go I would have told you that I wasn't planning on fishing for them this year, but I have pushed myself into doing so. LOL I am not a sit around type person, I have to be on the go at all times. When my time comes then I'll rest and sleep forever, but until then it's all out go, go, go because that's how I roll. And I am a little over the top and full of it too. Heheheheheee You only live on this planet once, so do what you can while you can and enjoy every second of it.

Watching them spawn is really neat. I saw a huge fat female swim up into this little hole next to the shoreline and sit there. Seconds later a few males swam up next to her, they all got in passion and then they chased her into the current on the surface and they did their thing several times in the exact same way. Me watching that made the trip ever so worth everything. I have watched them spawn a bunch, but to watch how they stage for it was something I had never seen before. It was like the female was telling the males, ok boys, it's time for me to spit out my eggs, come on lets do this.

I would like to share a little tip with you that I have found to make measuring my fish somewhat easy. I put a small piece of tape10-1/4 inches up on my pole from the cork by the reel. So easy to see if it's a keep or a throw back. I also like to use the foil tape they use on AC duct, it is very thin and it sticks great, never does peal up at a the corners, good stuff. Electrical tape works good too, but the corner will start to come lose with time. Some guys just use a silver paint or some type of permanent marker. The flashy silver foil tape is just something I like a lot and it has been the best tape so far that I have used. Awesome video, I have caught more than my share of fish from that hole.

Finally, a great day on the Yegua

Thanks for the reports PerksOutdoors and CSSource. Based on those reports I decided to walk in to Newman's today.

I walked upstream to my favorite spot. I got to the spot at 9:30. By 10:30 I had already caught 25. I ended up catching 33 in that spot and then decided to work my way back downstream. I caught 5 in the next spot, then 19 in the next spot, but no big females. So I decided to walk down to the low water crossing to a spot I have caught big females in the past. All I caught were more males. I headed back upstream toward the bridge. I fished a couple spots with little luck. Then I found a sweet spot and caught over 20 there before I had to leave at 2:30.

In all, I caught 81 white bass today. Most in the 11.5 inch range. A dozen or so over 13 inches. Only a few less than 11 inches. No big females.

Water was stained with good current.

Went to Newmans bottom this morning with my son arrived by about 8am were a few other cars in lot. Fished till about 11 walked out with 25 about half were female. Others i talked to had 10 to 15 fish on stringers. When we left there were about 15 vehicles in parking lot. So im sure more are still getting caught

Thanks for the measuring tip fishytx. Do you happen to have any tips for that pesky bloodline when filleting the fish. I felt like I had to cut each filet into two pieces to get it out.

Sidenote: dang J-moe, you hammered them today. Sounds like an amazing trip.

Nice Haul TTF. Where did you catch the big females? Downstream of the low water crossing? Did you catch them early morning? I can't believe I didn't catch any big females. I saw a fair amount of spawning too.

First thing I do with white bass is cut their throats when alive on stringer to bleed them out. Then when I fillet them I will make a v cut on that red piece you are talking about and pull it off. The more of that stuff you can remove the better the fish taste. That red stuff will make you gag, you have to get rid of it, it taste real fishy and it is nasty. White bass, hybrids and stripers have this red strip you must remove.