I went to Irwin yesterday and all of Irwin and Nails were closed. I checked the website. The area will be closed through this weekend.


The entire Birch Creek Unit will be closed on the following dates:

*From 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 until 2 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2020.


On the following dates the Nails Creek Unit trails and trailway will be closed:

*From noon on Jan. 20 until 2 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2020.

*From noon on Jan. 24 until 2 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2020.

Thanks for the info, J-Moe. We're getting some good rain in Austin today. Hopefully the Somerville watershed is getting the same.

Pretty consistent rain over the past day and a half. There should be a decent little rise in flow by the weekend.

First time poster. Long time lurker. I have been chasing white bass on the creeks for years, and have met some of you out there. Love to read but scared to post. Stage fright I guess. Went to Irwin with the wife and kids Sunday and ran into something I need closure on. I was hoping the story would have made it here, but it hasn’t, When we arrived there were two gentleman sitting on their tail gate in the parking area. I kindly asked “How’s it goin?” Immediate response was “not too dang good.” They continued, and told me they had met on the creek that day while fishing and decided to make the trek toward Newman’s. The younger, a very polite 20 yr old Texas A&M student had made the trip before and new the short cuts. He offered to show the older gentleman the way. When they were getting close to Newman’s there were two fisherman on the other side of the creek. They stopped to say hello and suddenly an ATV rolled up in a hurry. The person on the ATV identified himself as state park police and immediately started chastising all parties for trespassing on private property. I’m not sure the story with the guys on the other side of the creek. They may have entered through Newman’s which we all know is closed. Those guys could have been in trouble. The guys from Irwin explained to the officer that they had paid their entry fees and had walked from Irwin. The officer wasn’t having any of that. He told them they could only fish at the bridge. Told them they were trespassing on private property and took their names and pictures of them. He then told them to get back to their vehicles and he would meet them there. If they weren’t there when he got there, they would have warrants for their arrests. When I arrived they had been sitting for two hours not counting the time it had taken them to walk back. As y’all all may know the phone service at Irwin is spotty at best so I drove out and up the road to call the nails creek office for clarification. The lady ther told me what I had always assumed. If there isn’t an area closed sign you should be able to fish. When I left the guys were headed to nails to try and make contact with this officer. I’m sure he had found out that he had made a blunder and was hoping the guys would let it go. From what I could tell these gentlemen were pretty upset and were wanting the offficer to be reprimanded. Legally they were detained for over three hours and the guy didn’t even show up to either handle his business or apologize. I wish I had gotten one of their contacts to see how it turned out. Maybe the officer was right, but I don’t think so. I hope someone with knowledge of the incident or one of the guys involved will post the conclusion. In the mean time, beware, there’s evidently a new guy on the beat that could be a little twisted on what the rules are.

Welcome to the forum Schweatty

Hopefully we get some clarification on that, it has been my understanding that anything along Yegua Creek up to Irwin bridge is all State Park land and the W.M.A. land above the bridge. That's the first I've heard of private property being mentioned. I was under the assumption that Newmans Bottom was off limits for now, even if you hiked all the way from Irwin? I guess I interacted with the same officer my last trip up a couple weeks ago. He didn't seem rude, but was overly impatient waiting for me to show him my State Park Pass.

The Lake Somerville floodplain is federal property.
As a general rule if it floods when the lake is at full capacity (258) then it is in the floodplain.
A state park police officer or game warden will be in uniform when on patrol.

This is very disconcerting as I would like to try and fish there but being newly back to Texas I certainly don't want to wander into a situation like has been described.

I did not get the impression that it was someone posing as an officer. They never mentioned plain clothes or anything. I am also not sure if he was armed. I think the surprise was that he wasn’t a game warden. I’ve met multiple game wardens on the creek, or at least assumed they were. I personally had never heard of park police. I’m sure there are some. I’ve met multiple park rangers inside the various parks, but don’t recall if they were armed, and never thought of them as police officers. I realize there are three sides to every story, and I’m providing second hand information, but this seemed pretty cut and dry. Two strangers that had met that day should have no reason to corroborate a story, or have any vendettas. I look forward to the dog woods blooming every year, because that always coinsides with the white bass run. I just don’t want to lead my 15 year old son into a mess, or want anyone else to have to deal with it. Sorry to show up out of the blue and bring a bunch of drama to the board, but I think this is a big deal for all that love that creek area.

I called nails again this morning and am waiting on a call back from the park manager. If I find anything out I’ll definitely let you guys know. Hopefully, if there is a line between Irwin bridge area and Newman bottom he can clarify. It could be possible, they were fishing at or below the Newman bridge. If that’s the case, I could definitely see where there could be an issue. Again, sorry to hijack the forum.

Any LEO from the state of Texas will be identifiable and in uniform if they are down there patrolling. Any question on it, ask for identification, if you still have doubts, call it in. There are State park police at Nails and Birch, they are not game wardens. You will see them down at irwin and newmans.

Howdy, I am the Texas A&M student that you saw. Hopefully this will be a good explanation for everyone on here about what happened. The older gentleman and I walked down to Newmans bottom which is where we saw the other two guys across the creek. I told them that I thought the newmans side was closed and they said back to me that they were able to walk around the gate and walk down. (I thought that was weird because I still saw crews working on the road) That is when the State Park Police rolled up on his ATV and told those guys to go back to their truck and that as of now they were under arrest for a class A misdemeanor for fishing with out land owner consent and if they tried to leave that they would have a warrant out for their arrest for a felony. He proceed to look over to us and ask where we came from and we politely said irwins bridge. He said you aren't allowed to fish here and that we need to go back to our trucks and wait for him and if we tried to leave we to would have a felony warrant for running from the police put out for us. We tried to explain to him that there were no signs out saying the area was closed. The officer didn't want any of it and said he would meet us at our trucks in an hour to give us a ticket and we could talk to the judge about it. After making the hour long hike back to the trucks we then waited from about 12:45 to 4:30 at the truck before we decided to try and go to nails to get that officer to come meet us because neither of us wanted a felony on our record. On our way out I saw the officer driving down the road and waved him down to talk to him. The first thing he said was "I'm surprised y'all are still waiting" and I go, "Sir, you told us if we ran we would get a felony and I really don't need that on my record." He then said that he would not give us a ticket and that our time served was enough for him. It didn't sit well in me but I was happy that we weren't getting a ticket, so I started to question him on where I was allowed to fish and when newmans would be open. He said you can only fish the bridge right now and that was due to public hunts. Then he said he wasn't sure when newmans would be back open, but they are trying to get it opened up in the early parts of November. He then also explained to me that apparently someone had taken down the signs that were supposed to say the area was closed and that the signs were just your typically yard signs. He also explained that he had caught 7 people that disregarded the signs at newmans and they still tried to go fish it. Long story short, we did not end up getting in trouble because the signs were gone and he had made us wait so long. He was in his uniform and I knew that it was the state park police. After the public hunts are over I believe as long as the signs are gone we can start fishing the creek around Irwins, just maybe not all the way down to newmans. I still don't understand why people had tore down and destroyed the signs that are there to inform people the area was closed so that events like this don't occur. Also I tried to keep this as short as possible with as many details as possible, so if anyone has any questions please ask. I don't want anyone else to have this happen to them. Also I never even cast my line into the water that day.
Thanks and Gig'em y'all

Thanks AggieFisher! I was hoping you’d see this. Sorry if I messed up any of the details. That explains it then. I’m assuming these are the closures that J Moe posted about. Sorry you guys had to go through that. I’d like to tell your parents what a respectful young man they’ve raised. They should be proud. Good luck to everyone this year and be safe!

Just received a call from Lauren at nails creek. She confirmed the closures due to the public hunts. The last hunt is Sunday, so the Irwin bridge area will be open Monday the 27th and remain open. You can hike to Newman’s from Irwin and fish that area without issue. She also said, pay attention to their web site and Facebook page they are working hard to get Newman’s open sometime in February. They’ll anounce in both places opening dates.

When you say they are going to open Newman's in february. Do you mean open all the way to the bridge and old parking area or up by the oil tanks and still have to walk in?

The hold up has been repairing all the repeated flood damage to the road leading to the parking lot. When the repairs are complete we will be able to drive to the parking lot next to the creek.