Early to Mid April

So far, three trips out there this year and only one fish. At this rate I'll have to make 75 trips to catch a limit. At least they put in a Southside Market in Hutto. If the fishing sucks I can still get BBQ.

Interesting that the lake doesn't have to be very low to end the runs there. Anyone tried to find them spawning on mainlake points? If they aren't going up the creeks, they will be all over shallow points.

No, not yet. I expect we are still at least a week away from them actively starting to spawn in the lake.

The whites usually starts up about now over at the Birch Creek Unit of the state park but you will have to fight for a good spot. That Cat has been out of the bag for years now..

these two are from Birch creek park




This one is up in Birch creek


and this is how the lake looked at the mouth of the Yegua


and later in March the whites really get going..

Seems like Lake Somerville is very seldom at normal pool level come whitebass time.. it's either low or high sometimes to extremes..

Thank you for the reply. I don't fish down there but know here in DFW, it doesn't take much water for them to come up. Literally a couple of inches is all they need. Still hoping for more rain for yall. Doesn't look like much is on the way though.

I'm planning on kayaking down from the low water crossing @ Newmans Thursday morning if anyone want's to tag along that would be great and give us all a better idea of how the fishing is 'good or poor'.
I think conditions are good with four days of warming weather behind us and a cool front coming in on Friday, and the moon coming up very late. Midday bite might just be the best in a month.. I'm also counting on a few whitebass to have breached the shallows when the Yegua came up two weeks ago. This year is Déjà vu all over again.. seen this many times it ain't nothing new. At the very least the resident blackbass and crappie will be there and likely keep us busy all day.

Well Peeps Yegua creek is in good shape and flowing but the lake needs about two foot of new water to get the annual whitebass spawning run going.
Having a long history with the lake and creeks the fishing was about what I had expected.

I dragged yak down from the Newman Bottom parking area and kayaked all the way down to Wolf Pond mostly just to check on the creek conditions and look for wildlife.
The paddle down was easy as there are no obstructions blocking the creek.
I charted lots of fish in all the usual locations on the way down but didn't get on the resident crappie until about 2:00 pm on the return trip back up the creek.

The water clarity is good all the way to Wolf Pond where the shallow flat and a feeder creek entering there muddy up the rest of the creek on down to the lake.

The Yegua in this "low lake level" situation isn't going to allow many whitebass to move into the creek but the resident blackbass and crappie can fill the void pretty well if you can find them and they are in a biting mood.

IMHO walking the banks of the Yegua won't be very productive especially if compared to kayaking and being able to fish right on top of suspended crappie in the deeper parts of the creek.

A simple fish finder/graph is a very useful tool when the fish are grouped up like this and when not as active overall.

Crappie at this time generally don't put much effort into feeding but if you drop a jig down right in front of them they will thump it.. I live for the THUMP!

Long FishTales

Cool video! Glad you caught a few.

Havent been on Somerville in a lonnnnng time.

Went out on scouting trip this morning. Crappie were at every location.
Water temp 57°, used mix of jigs (blk and chart, white and chart) along with minnows.
Most fish came out of 16FOW.
If you’ve never tried Spider Rigging - you’re missing out.

Few whitebass fisherman on Birch Point and and Welch Point.

Thinking about going back down the Yegua just for crappie... now that there is a answer to the whitebass question.. very few in the creek and probably shouldn't expect much unless it floods.

There are some nice crappie in this creek. The two places I fish for spawning whites are not looking so good this year. It would only take one good rain to change this and turn it into a good year, but the rains we need may come a month to late. December and January are the two months of rain that determine how well the spawn will be and we are not looking so good as of now. Somervile Lake is down -2.15 feet below full pool and Georgetown Lake is down -10.70 feet below full pool. Granger Lake is like -.34 below full pool, so the fish can get up that river, but they need a good flow of water to help guide them up into the river channel. The steps will probably be an anglers best choice this year if we don't get some good rains soon. Got about six weeks left, maybe eight and then it will be over until next year. Come on rain, flood these waterways so we can get on some good stringers while fishing from the banks....

I may run the boat up to the steps soon and see what's happening there.

Might be a little icy the next few days.