Its been great this year. We started off May with relatively low water around most of the state making for some awesome sight fishing conditions on bass, carp, bowfin and even some big gar action. But then rain showed up and has been storming every other day or so. This has brought high flows to most of our rivers and brought several lakes way up. While also keeping thing cooler than it could be. This doesnt mean fishing is a no go we just adapt!
East Texas lakes Like Conroe, Raven, Fork, Holbrook, Tawakoni and so on have all been fishing great and didnt blow out to bad with recent rains. Large mouth have been crushing topwaters early especially Grey and or white shad colored poppers. Frog topwaters have been great as well in and around cover/grass. Streamer fishing game changers in shad, olive or black, meat whistles in olive, black, crawfish, Weighted Crawfish patterns in crawfish orange or olive, Weighted shad colored patterns have all been working as well as popper droppers and clousers in white or grey but dont count out black or olive and a few different sizes/weighted ones at that. Bowfin are done spawning and out on the prowl if you can find them and very willing to eat a crawfish fly. Common carp are working some shallow coves and points and very willing to eat a well placed nymph/carp bug.
Ray Roberts was perfect there during the last bit of April but rains brought it up and dirtied the clarity a little. Its still fishing though. For carp find clear water and even better if theres grass. You can also look for mud puffs or work bubblers if all else fails. Keep a cotton wood seed in the box too seeds are still falling and the carp will surface feed along with catfish! Large mouth bass fishing is almost always good there. Topwater fishing grass or riprap can be decent but streamer fishing points or logs and stumps or grass edges can be more effective. Baitfish pattern like game changers or shad patterns. Meat whistles in olive, white, chartreuse or black weighted versions for deeper fish, ned style flies, never count out clousers or decievers in shad, chartruse or black. For carp flies i throw orange carp boogers mostly but any size 8 in crawfish orange, hot orange, olive or black. Hybrid worms work great too.
Brazos river just like everything else it was almost starting to get low but not is running super high and not sure when its coming down with rain in next week forecast. Depending on which section your in or which lake your below it may be fishing differently and depending on flows you should probably go else where. Below possum kingdom as i type its 544cfs which is fishable and you can look for almost normal stuff like topwaters around rocks in current or fishing full sink lines and flies near them. But other sections are running 1000cfs to almost 12,000cfs and your going to want to wait for that to drop or fish flooded areas, swirls and side creeks. Topwaters have been decent and streamer fishing has been hit and miss with all the water. There has been a good amount of striper activity if you know where to look. Dedueax poppers, dalburg diver and boogles bugs have been great for topwater action. Strippers delight, game changer, smoke and mirrors, sex dungeons, agent skullys and clouser/ kreelix minnows all thrown on inter mediate or 3s sink lines. Carping has been tough but doable look for them in flooded grass or on edges as it drops. Look for this to get better as we get lower flows.
Alligator Gar action started off slow but picked up even with some of the higher water. A monster was scored 66” length with a 27” girth roughly 80 to 100 pounds before the river came back up. Its still running high but fingers crossed it starts dropping in the next couple weeks and were back on them, For now im focusing on options other than the river gar but that means more sight fishing and harder to land fish scenarios because of trees and debris. Its part of the fun though and badass when you win.
Its looking like more rain next week keeping us cooler but hopefully not blowing to much out. Fingers crossed were on the big rivers soon. Look for lower water towards the end of the month hard to believe it keeps storming. With that expect lower water, hotter days and pickier bite windows. Dont sleep in get that early bite and once the sun starts kicking your ass its mid day sight fishing until you cant stand it. Evening windows can be good but short and sweet some nights. Its also getting right for night trips to beat the heat. Get out there yall and dont forget to call me to get on them!
