Attention all you fishers of Yegua Creek @ Newmans Bottom..
A few years back I was a member (last president) of the friends group for Nails Creek State Park.
You all know how life has a way of changing directions and so with obligations at home pull at me my involvement with the friends group dropped off to nothing.
In the meantime the old friends group has faded into history.
With the passing of my parents and other life changes I now have the opportunity to get involved again with the State park and plan to do so in helping to create a new friends group.
My focus in the past was always on kayaking, hiking and fishing and will try to do so in the future.
The damage the State park sustained from the 2015 & 2016 flooding has really pushed the whole complex into uncertain times.
The Trailway (which Newmans Bottom is part of) has been so badly damaged that reopening it has been a great challenge.
The road to Newmans washed out and repairs have been delayed with the continual flooding (4 times over the last 5 years) that put the whole area under water for months at a time.
At any rate I'll be meeting with the park director and unit supers in the near future to see what we can do to get the park back in action for the upcoming whitebass run..
Don't be surprised if I ask for your help..

Ben, I'd be more than happy to help in some capacity being this is far and away my favorite state park. I don't want to see it fall further into disrepair or close down.

Can we get an idea of what’s all needing to get done? I’ve been there twice and loved it. Unfortunately I don’t know what it use to look like, seemed fine when I was there . Not asking you to go into great detail

Ben: I would love to help out

I would be down to help out too. I just discovered Somerville last year and my wife and I really enjoy it. Happy to lend a hand with any sort of cleanup or improvement.

Good thing prop 5 was passed , Texas parks will get the money from of all the sporting goods stores sales taxes! Starting 2021 this will help out a lot sucks that they are so far behind on things that need repairs .

I honestly do not know what the TPWD plans are for Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway but I do know what will happen if no one is willing to work to make the park better.

The first thing to learn when working with the state park system is that funding has always been a battle and it is a complex arrangement between the federal, state & county governments that all have influence over some of the park infrastructure.

The drought of 2011 really did a number on the park but nothing like the flooding since.
After the 2015 flooding the TPWD had to petition the state legislature for funds and about the time the repairs were being made the 2016 flood occurred which did even more damage to the whole park and infrastructure.

I suspect after the second record flood the legislature and the TPWD were forced to re-evaluate their game plan going forward.

As a taxpayer I'm always concerned about how taxes are used and so whatever the project it must be vetted thoroughly and never should anyone throw good money after bad.

Considering the lake has had two more high water events since 2016 that impacted the state park the question now is where should we invest our very limited resources.

Often times the presence of a strong friends group & volunteers gives the park options they otherwise do not have.

I’m thinking about taking my preteens to fish below the dam this weekend. I am a mediocre black bass fisherman and a terrible white bass fisherman. And I haven’t bank fished below a dam in 30 years. Any advice for a noob?

Bug-e. The fishing at this point can be very difficult below the dam. Timing is important in order to catch any on live bait or lures.

There is little shad below the dam to catch in a cast net. The best live bait for white bass is freshwater shrimp if you know where to net some up. Crawfish tails or live minnows are good live baits as well.

If you throw lures then use light line and light jigs. 1/32 ounce white marabou jigs or using shad colored plastic 2 or 2.5 inch swimbaits/jigs thrown without a jig head.

There are lots of carp so you shouldn't have a problem catching a few on carp bait.

Thanks!

I love videos...thanks

Hopefully you're getting some rain out that way. Austin got a decent amount overnight and it's still raining.

What do these freshwater shrimp look like? Are they just big scuds or do they look more like their saltwater cousins? I might try and create a fly pattern for them.