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Clear Water
Blog by: Lloyd Tackitt , TX 9/5/2017 (Return to blogs)
Sunday I wade fished in the Brazos. The river has been down quite low for about three weeks now. The lake is down a bit and there's no need to add to the water problems near Houston so they aren't letting out any water, at all.
When it gets down and stays down it can really concentrate the fish into the deep spots. The one I was wading was down to about waist deep at the deepest part, so not all that deep really - but it is the deepest area for about a mile up or down river. On a normal low water day that waist deep spot is about up to my shoulders.
Surprisingly the water was extraordinarily clear - extremely clear. While I was fishing I had carp and drum and bass swim past me. Mostly they'd be just cruising along nice and slow in either two and threes or in schools. The drum were in schools, the carp and bass in twos and threes. They'd turn about twenty feet away, having obviously spotted me. They didn't turn away in alarm, just casually turned and went around me in a wider circle.
Even at twenty feet away I could see every scale on the carp and buffalo, see the black stripe down the bass' sides. See the lighter color of the lower fins on the drum. It was like being in a large aquarium.
I got a couple of bites, had a nice drum on for a couple of minutes. Didn't land anything. It was a slow bite day, possibly because the sun was still very much overhead and the clarity of the water. Possibly because...well who knows with fish...never can really figure them out no matter how hard we try.
The leeches were gone, which surprised me because of the near zero current flow. Maybe the fish have eaten all of them, given their dense population in a small area. Very little in the way of moss growing on the bottom which also surprised me given the water clarity and the low flow. But very happy to see, I've never liked wading in mossy water much.
It was very nice, out there wading on that clean bottom that I could see every pebble of, in that aquarium like atmosphere with hundreds of fish all around me, even though they weren't biting. My wife came out and fished with earth worms, she got only a couple of nibbles which tells me they just weren't biting - worms generally get hit hard out there.
The old man that sits on the bank and fishes that spot every day said they would start biting later in the evening, when the sun was almost down. He would know, he's there fishing nearly all the time. Retired and lives right there in a house just a few feet away. He knows that spot, knows those fish.
Next time I'll go late in the evening, see what happens.
Blog content © Lloyd Tackitt
Comments
Dave Mauldin
09.06.17 9:45 AM
Ditto here...Even on the big (clear water) lakes, as they drop in elevation, and the water is clearer, the bite doesn't start till just before dark, and night fishing is actually better in the summer. Hopefully with fall weather, more rain, some color to the water, and cooling water temps the bass will move shallower, and bite more during the day...Good fishing to all!
About the Author
I live on the edge of the Brazos River. I walk out my front door and into the river and - boom - I am fishing just like that. For me the river is fascinating. The mile long stretch I fish is a microcosm of the river, I have it all in that one mile. Trying to figure out where the fish are, what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they are biting, if they are biting - this is what keeps me in the river casting flys. I fly fish almost exclusively. It isn’t that I am a fly fishing snob, it’s that fly fishing works – it’s effective - and it has added benefits. I carry all my tackle in a vest, no tackle box needs to be dragged along. The casting itself is fun, even when I don’t catch fish I’ve enjoyed the experience of casting. Fly rods enhance the experience of bringing fish in. I like the hands on the line feel instead of the feel of line spooling up on a reel and muted down through a gear and crank system. Fish fight better and feel better on a fly rod. Fly fishing just feels better to me than other methods.