When planning a Brazos River kayak trip there's always multiple variables I have to consider… “What's the flow looking like? What's the wind doing?”  and depending on what time of year it is, I ask myself: “What are the fish doing?”.  Springtime in Texas, there's only one thing on every anglers mind; spawning Largemouth Bass. My friends Lawson, Brian, Wyatt and I did what every angler does come spawning season… we went fishing!

 We all decided to float the Brazos River below lake whitney from the dam to a takeout about 8.4 Miles down river. I've been fortunate enough to call this river my “home river” and due to the knowledge I’ve accumulated,  I already knew we had to be strategic with our time. The night before I picked out some spots on the river for us to spend a little more time picking apart and in preparation of possibly finding bedding fish. I tied on my go to fly for this river, Bennetts Carp-It-Bomb. Reason being because these fish only have spawning on their mind this time of year and they really aren't after a meal, we’re really trying to get a reaction strike out of the fish. These fish this time of year are very protective and territorial of their beds and whatever fly I'm throwing at them is more about pissing them off than providing a meal.

Game time came around and we started to paddle down to one of the sections I had picked out the night before. This particular section surprisingly does not contain a whole lot of structure, but I've found that they tend to key in on flat gravel bottoms in 3-5 feet of water, when looking to establish a bed and spawn. Lawson and I were the first to roll up on the spot and immediately spotted a few bass on beds. On one bed,  we spotted the female that was noticeably larger than the other two males. Lawson was the first in position to take a cast, but ended up snagging the branch right next to the bed and couldn't get it free. Because of all the commotion up above, these fish began slowly swimming away from the bed and Lawson yelled to me “Ino, cast at her!” and that I did. I made a pretty good cast leading the female and working the fly in front of her until she ended up slowing down like I had caught her attention. I picked up and took another cast leading her again, and very lazily she followed the fly as it sank to the bottom and I began to strip it. I gave it one good jump and let that fly sink and all of a sudden she sips my fly. I set the hook and hell breaks loose, Lawson's screaming, I'm screaming, the fish jumping and shaking her head. By the grace of God, Lawson helps me land this fish that ends up being my personal best bass weighing in at around 6 pounds not even two miles into our trip. Emotions were through the roof. We were all stoked and excited but we still had a lot of ground to cover, so we took a couple pictures and videos and released her back where she belongs and continued on with our float.

We covered about another half-mile or so down river from where I caught that first fish and decided to stop for lunch. As we recounted the fish I had caught earlier, we laughed and joked about the whole chaos of the catch,  and I remember Brian jokingly making a comment  “Ino you're done fishing”. As we wrapped up lunch, I told the boys that it would be a good idea to walk the sand bar we had beached on, as in the past i've sight fished a variety of different species off this sandbar and you never know what you're going to run into. We started walking and spotted three fish, two males together and one bigger fish cruising around the perimeter. We messed around with these fish for a bit and Brian ended up catching one of the males on the bed. We snapped a few pictures and sent him on his way. 

Finally Lawson put down the camera and played around with the other male and after a few fly changes he ended up bringing it to hand and the female kept getting closer and closer to the bed. After pulling out the second male, the female that we've been eyeing the whole time made her way onto the bed. Brian wanted to have a try at catching the big girl so we let him fish her for a bit but no luck, Lawson then tried fishing for her and after many fly changes still had no luck. They all finally came to a point where they had enough and gave up on the fish, and told me to take a stab at it. So I threw on the biggest galaxy worm I had in my box and took a cast. As soon as it hit the bottom,she put her nose on my fly and followed it for a few feet, turned around and went right back on her bed. At this point she was showing a lot more interest in my fly than any of the others we threw at her, so I could tell she was getting aggravated that these flies were on her home turf. I took one more cast that landed a little off the mark, but out of aggression, she moved 15 feet off her bed to smash this fly and all chaos ensued for the second time that day!

In the midst of screaming and watching the fish jump, we realized this fish was way bigger than we initially thought. Brian netted the fish and not many words were said as we were in shock about what had just happened. Not even thirty minutes before catching this fish, I thought I had caught the biggest bass of the trip and there we were holding a 7.5 pound Largemouth. We were all in shock and speechless on what I had just accomplished with a fly rod in my hand. After that second big fish was caught, the puzzle was solved and for the remainder of the float we continued picking bass off there beds left and right, and we all had a great time.

The Brazos River has a very special place in my heart, it's the river that taught me everything I know about fishing and it's the river I always feel confident fishing and its beauty is unexpecting. This day was pretty special for me because of the fact that I've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out, and the fish gods were generous enough to allow me to have that experience. In the past I've had plenty of great times by myself on that river, but to have my buddies with me on this day made it even better. In the future when im too old to get out and fish anymore and all I have are my fish stories to talk about, i'll always look back on the time I had a day to remember.