A KayakFishing Adventure in sub-freezing temperatures, catching big river stripers.

It must be Winter on the Middle/Upper Brazos River, Tx...

Only the hardiest, need apply. lol

I'm jealous. Nice job

Thanks, Striper Sniper.

A full, blow by blow report and more pics to follow.

It was "off the chain", for sure. lol

I cant take it anymore!!!! I am going to have to sell a kidney so I can go on one of these trips!!

Oh yeah, great looking fish YaknYota!! As always.....good job!

LOL

I'm ready when you are, TXstryker. Just give me a call or PM.

A kidney is good idea. However, keep the extremeties intact.
You will likely need them for our river trip. lol

Actually, you are not the first TFFr to come up with the idea of cashing in organs for guide trip $. In fact, another TFF member PM'd me to say he would give his left n_t for one of my trips. lol

Dang, how much is one of your trips? Will I need my own yak or do you supply all the gear like a lot of guides do? Can you take out more that one person? I have a buddy that woukd probly like to go.

wow, it's probobly a lot of work & fun. I'm saving up for a warm water day.

Updated report with pics.

Enjoy!


Normally, I would consider myself a little "high minded" at the expectations I had for my latest foray on the Middle/Upper Brazos River. However, I must admit, the striper bite has been in full swing and I could hardly wait to get to the river and see what was in store for me.

Given the recent forcasted bitter cold that had set in, my prospective clients for this trip decided to

skirt forecasted temperatures in the 20's in favor of rescheduling our Kayak Fishing Adventure for a later date. With 48 hours of notice and deposit already received, I had no problem accomodating them. Besides, now I get to fish solo, which doesn't bother me a bit.

Soon, I am loaded up and rolling on down to the Brazos. Arriving at the river, I open the door of my truck only to be greeted by diminishing darkness and crisp, sub-freezing temperatures.

"Good striper weather" I muttered to myself as I quickly exit my truck and begin to unload and organize my gear for a day on the river.



I pack the kayak light, in anticipation of a gameplan that involves covering more water than usual. First order of the day would be to score a fresh net load of big, lively baits for my striper assault. As I paddle my way to the bait run, I stop only to make a few pattern casts with my sub-surface plug. However, my only result was a few "window shoppers" pushing up big water behind my fakeage, with no takedown. Now, it's time to take off the gloves for a little "bare knuckle" brawling with the resident population of Brazos Linesiders that are revealing themselves to me.

I hastily net several dozen baits and quickly return to the area where the stripers had followed my plug. The cool tamperatures had these stripers in water that would normally be considered more suitable for flipping a bass jig. The strike zone would be an area of the river no more than 30 yards accross and maybe 40 yards long.



I quickly dismount to line my kayak on a gravel bar. My plan is to lob my liveys into the strike zone so as not to spook the fish with the presence of my kayak. As soon as the first bait makes splashdown, it gets wolfed up by a good size striper that leaves a washtub size boil behind as it makes off with it. By now, the bait alarm on my Ambassaduer 6500 is crying out the battle call, as I engage the reel clutch and start winding down tight to my fish. "That's what I'm talking about!" I exclaim, as a fish of obvious size, begins the usual anticts to try and shake the hook.

I got a kick out of this close quarters fight, in which my fish still managed to take a decent amount of line, under drag. I land my first of the day and retreat to the gravel for a photo before I put her back in the river.



I would get two more stripers from this particular run, before all the commotion shut the bite down.




At this point, a relocation is in order, so I retrieve my remaining baits and head to the next spot.



The bite at this run starts out slow, with multiple bumps, swipes and runs, but only one hookup.

I switch bait species and that does the trick as my bite turns to full swing and baits start getting hammered immediatley. This turns into a strong bite that has me fighting and CPR'ing solid fish for several hours.






(Continued)

(Continued)



Interestingly enough, just as quickly as my bite developed, it would shut down. No complaints from me, however, as I regroup and head out for quick paddle downriver.

As I'm leaving the area, I can't help but notice a good size silouhette moving slowly and silently, parallel to the opposite bank. I am thinking "largemouth bass" as I can hardly believe my good fortune for a sight casting opportunity. I reach for my fluke setup and make an acceptable presentation just ahead of my fish. Now, suddenly, I can see the fish alter it's path of travel just enough to intercept my offering. The take was solid and the big "thump" reverberated down the rod to my cold, numb hands. This fish put up a great fight and I was happy to see her swim away after our CPR session.



By now, I am eager to freshen up my bait and head to my favorite late afternoon run where I plan to finish out the trip. Upon arrival, I deploy a fresh spread of oversize baits to see who's home.

It's not too long before the hits start coming and I find myself playing a impromtu role of Director as my "Symphony of Bait Clicker Alarms" begins a performance fueled by thunderous takedowns of two large, voracious striped bass that have worked into my spread.

It took a fine bit of fancy rod work, but after an amazingly stubborn battle, I eventually land what I believe to be the larger of the two stripers, then the other. The first fish winds up being big fish of the trip and the other, a solid fish as well. At this point, I'm chuckling to myself as I ready the Oly 790SW for my CPR session with my two latest "party crashers".






And the beat goes on......





Now, I begin to notice the sun sinking lower in the sky, as the daylight begins to diminish. I still have baits left and have lighting on the kayak, as well. Unfortunately, my thoughts are beginning to turn toward the rumbling in my stomach. However, it's just too tempting. I've got to hit my catfish run on the way out to look for fish taco candidates.

Bingo!!!




At this point in my trip, all I need to do to make this the perfet day is head to the casa for some fresh YaknYota NorCal style fish tacos and a cold Miller High Life or two.



Stripers anyone?

Incredible post and story as usual Yankin! What a day...I been doing some brazos fishing lately but have only been catching sandies , would sure love to get into some of them nice striper when you say middle brazos , without giving away your honey holes around the weatherford area or headed closer to whitney if you dont mind me asking.. If not I understand..

can you do one for gar?

that would be pretty sweet.

Great post

Looks like you had a great trip as well!!!

Great report.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.