The First Tour is in the bag!



As all of you already know kayaking has exploded in popularity over the last ten years and the Nails Creek Unit of Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway has a unique opportunity at present with the lake at 1.66 feet low. The upper end of the lake is very shallow where the Yegua and Nails creek enter from silting in over the last 40+ years. Although it is possible to get bigger boats up to and in the creek it takes some serious effort! Kayakers have no problem crossing the shallows and it is smooth paddling up the creek from there. All of this changes when the lake is at or above normal level allowing full access to the creeks and the Yegua gets pretty busy then!



On Saturday February 23rd and again on March 9th I'll be leading a kayak fishing tour up Yegua creek starting at 8am from the boat ramp at the Nails Creek Unit of Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway.

This is an open invite but some kayaking or paddling experience is very helpful and a decent level of fitness is required. It is nearly a mile of open shallow water paddling before we even get into the creek and depending on how far up the creek we go the whole paddle trail can be 12 miles or more.

Don't let the miles paddled scare you away because it can be much shorter and we have all day to do the trip. The section of the creek I've done the best fishing on lately is the last 2 miles anyway so there is no need to paddle way upstream to where the bank fisherman will be.

This is a kayak fishing "tour" of the Yegua and not so much designed to teach someone to fish. I'll lead kayakers to the creek and try to catch fish while sharing what I know about the sport. I can assist in many ways but mostly I do this to help the state park create programs that last by finding folks wanting to enjoy the outdoors and getting them into the park doing things they want to and will do again and again...


Google map to Nails Creek Unit. http://goo.gl/maps/Pbsc2

6280 FM 180
Ledbetter, Texas 78946

Phone (979) 289-2392
Email Nails.Creek@tpwd.state.tx.us
Website http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/lake-somerville

I've been wanting to head down that way for a while now. This may be the opportunity I've been waiting on.

March 9th is during spring break I think..

Saturday's kayak fishing tour of the Yegua is taking shape and it appears the weather is going to be good... We'll be leaving from the boat ramp around 8am Saturday morning if anyone wants to join us..

Sounds awesome man. I can't make either date, I'll be in Denver for Spring Break. If you do this in the summer or later in the Spring at all, I'd definitely be game to make a trip down there. Can visit my buddies in College Station while I'm there.

Let us know how it goes this weekend. Good luck!

Looks like it would be fun.

I plan on being there this Saturday.

I'm planning on being there Saturday as well.

Looks like the weather Saturday will be the best yet... lets hope the fishing is too!

I'll bet the kayaking is better then the fishing on the Yegua Saturday.. but either way it's gonna be fun..

I was right.. beautiful day.. tough fishing..

Good thing the weather was nice cause the fishin' kinda blew like the cold north wind..

Ben, cool video. I ended up catching 2 keeper Crappie and several small ones. I actually left Yegua Creek around 2:00 and paddled up Nails Creek. The fishing was slow there too.

You're right about the weather though. It was perfect.

anyone interested in a trip up to Whitney to kayak the brazos below the dam?

I'm very interested. I've always wanted to check that place out.