Absolutely!!

yep...i went last summer and had a great fishing trip

I'm considering heading up to Whitney dam Saturday March 2, hopefully launch around 8am. We would fish down about two or three miles then paddle back up to take out around 4 or 5pm. Other options would be to float/fish/paddle the entire way to Dick's Outpost 8 miles down river and shuttle back up. Most often we just paddle down and back up to the dam with no shuttle being necessary.

Things to consider when kayaking the Brazos:

Water level.. Lake Whitney is currently about 8.5 feet low, with virtually no release from the dam (25CFS) so the river is low too. If and when they generate power the river will rise quickly making for some tough potentially dangerous kayaking. Twice we went down river under dropping low water only to have them start generating about the time we were heading back.. Wear your damn PFD! We already lost one fisherman to the river and don't want to do that ever again...

The normal trip up to the Brazos we are draggin' yak & wade fishing at least as much as paddling. There are long shallow sections of the river followed by deeper pools so finding the fish can be tricky.

The Wind
The river runs north to south and tends to channel and focus the wind. I've only been there when the southern wind was blowing. Once when we did the whole 8 miles down to Dick's & the last half was into a 20+ MPH headwind.. 12 hours on the water was some tough fun especially the last four. I won't do that again if I can help it.. A wind-assist back up to the dam is nice though!

The Fish
The Brazos river below Lake Whitney probably offers the greatest variety of species to fish for of any river in Texas. Every type of catfish, bass, gar, carp, & panfish including crappie and sunfish are swimming in that river.
The Fly fishers will love this river as it offers access to open river bed with clear flowing water to float your fly and hungry bass to take it!

What lures to bring? I'm thinking jigs, roostertails, small plastic worms - basically stuff that catches multiple species. Any recommendations? Never fished there before.

Bring whatever you like to fish with! The river is usually clear and the fish hold in the deeper parts most of the time. I'll use spinners, jigs and small cranks if I'm not flinging flys...

Let me know if you guys do the shuttle route. I dunno if I'm up for a 16 mile round trip paddle then a 2 hour drive home. Haha I'm lazy. Sounds fun though!

16 mile round trip? What are you getting us into, Ben?

Only an Aggie could do 16 miles on a 8 mile trip. At the most I'm kayaking 3 miles down and 3 mile back up. I suppose someone could start at Dick's Outpost, paddle up as far as they wanted and then float back down but I'm more familiar with the section just below the dam and its got more then enough fish for me.

Here is the fishing forecast for Saturday.. http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/outdoors/fishing/77802?dayParam=5

Nice cool sunny day but maybe a little on the breezy side.. fishing will be tough under these conditions but still worth the trip IMHO...

I can't make it this weekend. I'll be down at Matagorda.

Hey hook-line, do you know any of the history surrounding the Yegua? it has a pretty interesting story that includes a roanoke style settlement disapperance.

I know a little of the history but nothing about the Roanoke disappearance However the fish tend to disappear on a regular basis

We stumbled upon the Brazos River RV Park near Gholson(www.brazosriverrvpark.com)last summer but were only able to stay one night. It's a well kept, gated, hidden (sshhhh) campground that has great river access for yakers/canoes. We saw many airboats in private boat slips but did not have the luxury of hearing them. Probably because we were there during the week. I caught mucho fish varieties on the fly. Probably the most memorable yak fishing I have accomplished other than the Yequa, of course. Undecided about this Saturday. Still waiting on basketball schedule.

I don't get that warm fuzzy feeling about the fishing prospects this weekend. Clear, cool and coming off the full moon won't put many fish in the boat during the daylight hours... best time seems to be about dark-30 and that ain't no time to be on the water in a yak.. still considering a run up to Whitney to fish below the dam and downriver a bit...

I'm undecided too. Fishing has been tough for me lately. If I'm not going to catch much I might as well stay closer to home to do it.