Nolan or Brazos River for Sandbass??

Hello. I know this question may be like asking for the winning lottery numbers, haha. But, wanting to see if I could get some advice/direction for sandbass.

I live in Weatherford (near Fort Worth). I've been fishing some creeks nearby for sandbass with no luck yet this year. I have heard that the Nolan River and Brazos river...upstream from Cleburne Lake and Lake Whitney are good for sandbass. My question is...could you recommend a place to launch a kayak in the these areas that would be good to fish this time of year. I've never been down there and I am planning on going tomorrow. Hoping to get some launch site suggestions before I go. Any recent reports from those areas would be much appreciated as well! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!!

The Nolan above lake Cleburne doesn't have much water in it at all. Very unlikely that sand bass have run upstream out of the lake.

The Nolan above lake Whitney, near the town of Blum can be a great spot this time of year. But there's almost no flow there either right now. Less than 4 cfs. Need around 80-100 cfs.
Right now there should be tons of sand bass staging in the area where the Nolan meets the Brazos, waiting for the flow to increase if we ever get some rain. Nolan River park is there, that would probably be a good spot to launch a kayak and look for sandies in the deep holes. I was in my boat in that general area of the Brazos on Wednesday fishing for stripers, and the water temp was 52-53. It's probably up a couple of degrees now.

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it!

Last year we absolutely slaughtered them at Tin Top between Granbury and PK, on this exact same weekend. No flow, but they were running like mad. Caught tons of big fat egg filled females. Threw them all back, but it was a blast. We're going tomorrow to see if they're back. I'm betting they will be.

Is there a place to launch a kayak at Nolan River Park? Also, looks like maybe people put in at the river crossing of 933 in Blum?? If both of these have places to launch, which one would ya'll recommend?

z289sec, let me know how you do at tin top. I’ve been wanting to meet up with a friend and get into a mess. Good Luck.

Turkey Caller, we’ve been catching them on the Brazos River above PK lake. I bet if you went south and fished the brazos above Grandbury, they would be there. If I was you, I would go to Tin Top or Dennis and fish those bridges.

Thank you!

If you're there tomorrow, look for a 20 foot Excel Stalker. Optifade Timber. That'll be me and the wife.

saw a report from yesterday on the brazos. Guy said he fished it all the way up to ham creek with no luck at all.

Nolan river park is a good place to put in but its kind of sketchy down there. I wouldnt want to leave my car down there. You cant launch at 933 bridge unless you got wheels on that thing and want to walk it 1/4 mile - 1/2 mile.

Fished Tin Top this morning, virtually no morning bite. Fish are there, but weren't biting early. Picked up a bit when the sun came out. Caught two nice egg laden females, and two smaller males. Looked like everybody was struggling. They wouldn't even hit live bait. Either a tad early, or too late. Water temp was 57, when we got on, and 59 when we got off the water.

Rock Ck. may not have enough water to get to the lake from the 933 bridge. There is a ledge upstream that stops fish and boats at low water. What most don't realize is high water stocks the deeper holes close to the bridge so at recent levels that shelf cuts off any others. I can't help but laugh when I c comments like...'they were here yesterday' 'run must be over'. Finite # of fish until next rain.
Then the run wil be back on.

I didn't get a chance to fish this past weekend, but my dad went yesterday. He fished from Tin Top up to Horseshoe Bend. Caught 1 big female and a bunch of 12" males. They were scattered though...

I don't know how true it is, but I've always heard the males head up river first. I may go back this weekend and try again. Last year when we did so well, about 3/4 of the fish we caught were big fat females.

On Wednesday night 3/2, I caught several in the evening. Only had about 30 min before sunset to fish and then once the sun went behind the horizon, I caught 5-6 fish in a row. My buddy went on Friday night 3/4, and same thing. Then on Sunday 3/6, I fished around noon and the cold front blew in and I caught 1 small male. Lots of fish jumping and splashing which might be why they weren’t biting. To busy doing other things that they came up river to do. Lol

They gene

They generally come up in waves, but have always seen the males first. Females always followed the males. Last year we caught fish until the end of March, which is when i quit fishing for them.

Sunday I fished Nolan River from Nolan park to near Rock creek. I didn’t catch anything but I was marking fish and other people told me the same. Fish was feeding on top chasing bait but not interested on my lures. I left at noon when wind stared to pick up. I’ll probably try again this weekend and bring minnows this time maybe I’ll have better luck.

I use the ramp at Nolan park often specially during sand bass run and never had a problem of curse I don’t drive a fancy truck but during this time of the year there is always people fishing even at night so I don’t worry much leaving my truck there. Probably in the next few weeks there will be so many people fishing that you will have trouble finding parking space.

Majority of what you were seeing were not sandies this past weekend. Some were, but not most.