Imma go, to the Whitney's Brazos to early AM fish above 2114 then float the whole 90 miles per hour river at 10 am or so...

But the afternoon before when it is HOT as heck, whould it be possible to wade around the dam while the flow is high ?

Anybody know ?

not possible right now. I have floated it in a kayak the past two weekends and they are consistently letting out 1990 cfs. You have to go down stream a couple of miles before you can get to some wadable water.

how's the fishing been?
me and a buddy are planning on going in a few weeks, hopefully the water will be down a little bit more.

Need to wait until the generation cuts back to about 1500 cfs. Stripers galore, if you know how to catch'em.

fishing was a little slow. But I will say the river looks great and it is a lot of fun. I wish the TP&W could turn this section of the river into a world class smallmouth bass fishery -- that would make a lot of fly fisherman in North Texas happy as the fishing would be similar to trout fishing AND we could do it all year.

+1

i heard they may stop releasing so much, soon. fingers crossed!!!

That sounds entirely too sensible. I don't think that kind of talk is well-tolerated.

You should call the biologist for this area at TP&W. They are usually really nice and can explain why or why not they don't do that.

let us know what you find.

well, as a matter of fact I did email some TP&W biologists and they were quite responsive. I got a email and a phone call back - so it was very helpful. The golden algae blooms seem to be a big problem is the main point - and they believe they are doing everything they can. The TP&W guys are great and seem to be really making an effort with the smallmouth.

But still I wonder (and I am no expert so I may just be talking crazy talk) -
1. The TP&W stocks 10,000 SMB fingerlings in the Brazos below whitney the past year. The biologists say about 5% to 10% survive. So that is 500 to 1000 fish for a lot of water, best case. That first section of water below Whitney is 8 miles long, so that means we have 62 to 125 fish per mile...that seems pretty low considering that they are trying to rebuild the fishery from the algae kill. Seems like I have read about great fishing rivers having fish counts in the 1,000 per mile range. I know it varies quite a bit on size of river...but it just makes me wonder.
2. The TP&W stock thousand of 8" to 10" rainbow trout each year (including in the Possum Kingdom tailrace)...and those fish die FOR SURE!!! Why can't we take a similar approach to smallmouth...and perhaps many will live and have a sustained/reproducing population. So maybe Texas should buy 10,000 8 inch SMBs from a hatchery (out of state if we have to, and put them in the Brazos)...then declare catch and realease over a section of river, at least until the population stabilizes
3. This is a crazy idea I thought about yesterday and I think should be investigated...the Guadalupe river has a sustained trout fishery because of the effort of Trout Unlimited in the region. I wonder if a similar organization could be created to focus on the SMB fisheries in the Brazos River. Just a thought. Go to the Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited website and read about what they did - pretty cool.

I am just wondering if it takes a little private effort to supplement and support what TP&W is already doing.

If there were enough interested anglers I see no reason why this could not happen. Its a fine idea.

Not a crazy idea, but rather a brilliant idea. I am of a like mind here. What does it take to start a grass roots project like this? There are alot of guys who fish that stretch of water. I will talk it up and see if anyone will throw in....

I wonder if FWFF or even DFF would get in on this?

This could serve as a springboard to start a Smallmouth Alliance Chapter in Texas. Just need a core group of people to take the initiative and go from there.

I am already doing some research so any others want to join in to help figure this out - let's talk about it. The idea would be to pick a section of river (I am thinking the Brazos below Whitney may be best) and privately fund (maybe there is some federal money to get as well) the stocking of smallmouth bass in the appropriate numbers...and get the cooperation of TP&W to manage and regulate (hopefully catch and release for a section of river). First steps are:
1. Where can we get these smallmouth bass (that are larger than fingerlings) and how much do they cost?
2. What is the appropriate number to stock given this specific river habitat?

Once we have these two questions answered, we can go to the TP&W and the fly fishing public to see if we can get the support and funding.

Can you imagine what this would do for the business of some of the local fly fishing stores, like Orvis and Tailwaters, if there was a superb SMB fishery in the Brazos. Game changer I think.