Up the Pecos from High Bridge

Going up the Pecos first of Feb. does anyone know if the sandies will be up there then? Going to camp and fish for a few days.

Where do you camp at?

I was just gonna find a spot 7-8 miles up the river

My dad used to take us down there when i was little back when you could go up into the Indian caves. Would like to go back one of these days. Watch out for the copperheads and good luck!

Thanks man! I’ve been up there numerous times . Just fished never camped.

Never fished there but spent many hours working on High Bridge.

may be too early with the cold we have been having,but they run anywhere from now till march depending on weather

I drove over the bridge last month and the water was low and brown. The pecos is silted in completely at the confluence of the rio grande so not sure where the whites are gonna come from as they cannot get past the silt. I'm sure there are resident whites that live in the pecos that will go upstream to spawn but without the fish coming in from the rio grande the fishing will not be what it was in past years

the water is always running on the pecos,it is still running against the west wall to the rio.so the whites will run.

Mmmhhmmm

I did this trip a few years ago in October. Only caught black bass and saw a lot of catfish but no whites. Lots of fun!

So are there no problems with the landowners if you camp above the bridge? I thought that was private property.

How far up from the bridge can you go in a 16' shallow water boat with a 25hp Merc? How far up were you in that pic?

I estimated about 8-9 miles up. Took a 14 foot flat bottom with a 15 horse outboard. Had to pull it through a few shallow areas to find a good camping spot.

I go several times a year and the water is always flowing,the rio and pecos have been that way for years.independance creek alone supplies 26 million gallons a day to the pecos,the water has to go somehere which is the rio.currently you can get about 8-9 miles up.camping is no problem but you can no longer go into the caves.that now is considered the land owners above the river.

Did you go this weekend?

Thanks for the info guys! No I’m going last wkd feb 28. Will anyone else be up there then??

I will be there that weekend also,had a buddy go last weekend and they slayed em!!

Whites?

That’s good to hear! Good luck! Maybe I’ll see ya up there.

Yes whites and some blacks.we will be in a 14 ft Jon boat camo looking 40 hp evinrude 3of us.

Looks like wife and I will be there weekend of Mar. 2-3... Will be in a camo GoDevil boat with Merc 25 on it

Sounds good! In a white 21 Triton. Good luck

High winds predicted for march 2nd and 3rd. The narrow chute just north of the rail road bridge becomes like a washing machine with waves in all directions. Please wear your pfd's and be careful

im showing 10-14mph what site are you checking for weather?

Kens 5 san Antonio news

We’re going to be up there and fish the 28th through March 3rd.

Hope kens wrong noaa and weather channel still say 10-14

+1 just want you guys and gals to be safe and have a great time

We had to push ours out a week. Going to me up the river March 7-10. Hope we aren't going to be too late!
I hope you guys who are there this weekend have a good trip and get into them.
Please post when you get back and let us know how you did!!

Any of you guys who went recently have any news on how things went?
We’re leaving Thurs 3/7 and going to fish Friday thru Monday. I’d be interested in how far up river you were able to go and what kind of luck you had with the whites. I’m wondering what effect the cold weather had.

We didn't end up going due to the weather. Still looking at another set of dates to make it over there....

I thanks for the reply Hawk. Hope you guys have a good time when you do get to go.
I hope some other guys who went chime in with some info. We got 3 full days to find them and Unless they got up in some real skinny water past where we can get to I’m sure hoping we find some biting.
I’ll let y’all know when we get back how we did.

Trip report for day 1 Friday 3/8. We got to the high bridge ramp around 11 am
and launched ok. Pretty shallow there and kicked up mud till we got out to the channel. Both going out and coming back on a different track.
Had some motor trouble we got sorted out fairly quick. Glad we had the tool box - it was needed!
I don’t know how any river miles we went but way up till the water was running fast and only about 2’ deep bank to bank. Pretty skinny water.

Got to be really careful up here and really watch for rocks. Saw one guy tear up his jet drive outboard and have to get towed in. Hit a rock and cracked something that put him out of commission.

We were going to park the boat and wade, but the fish were just not up there yet.. We headed back downriver and finally got into some that were in about 10’ - 12 ‘ of water in the deeper holes.

We caught 17 total mostly small males. Most we caught were in 7 to 12 ‘ but saw a lot in 5-7 and caught a few.. All were caught on Berkley Gulp minnows on 1/16 to 1/8 oz jig heads letting them
Sink to near the bottom and reeling slow. bouncing along a foot or so off the bottom. All fish were caught on 4lb line which seemed to help in the clear water.
3 of us ate like pigs tonight!!

Hope tomorrow is better. Good news for anyone coming in the next couple weeks should just get better and better.
We only caught 1 female today.

Day 2 report. Excellent. Kept and filleted 47 and threw some of the smaller ones back.
All males. Weather was perfect. Only issue was burning up our electric knife and wound up driving to Del Rio to get another one. Our proficiency with old school method is way to slow due to lack of practice doing it that way.
A dozen is not too bad but a cooler full is a whole different story. I may invest in a Bubba Blade and learn how to run one of those. No motor to burn up.

Excellent report Jon

Day 3 and final report. We’re going to skip the fishing tomorrow and head on home instead of fishing in the rain.
Today was best day yet. We kept 49 of the biggest ones and threw back probably that many smaller but still legal fish.
More females today- maybe 20%.

In the clear water you could see about a dozen males swarming around a female just wating for her to let loose the eggs so they could make babies. Caught them in the same places as last 2 days except a lot of them were closer up to the reeds or near the bigger rocks out in the middle. I’m thinking because that’s where the females were so they’d have something close for the eggs to adhere to.
That’s just a guess though.

We did learn that the Berkley gulp minnows in black shad color outperformed the smelt minnow color about 3:1 or better. A faster retrieve was what they wanted today with a few short twitches every 5’ or so. Bites were very light - just a twitch on the line or feeling a little resistance then set the hook. These fish fight like hell even the smaller ones. This has been one of the best trips I’ve been on in a long time.

When I get back from Langtry to a WiFi signal I’ll look on google earth and try to figure out how many miles up river we were catching them.

we had total hell,boat problems tire blowouts,the mud.we did leave a nice stove and table by accident if someone happens to find them lol!!!

Hey Jon what size boat did yall use?

18' v bottom center console. Started life as a "bay boat". we modified it a bit with adding a front casting platform and 2 swivel seats and a trolling motor and added a rear box covering 2 18 gal fuel tanks with two swivel seats on top.
No idea what it weighs but both tanks were full on day 1 and we never even ran one empty in 3 days. It has a 50 HP Merc outboard.
we loaded and unloaded OK but you do have to back the truck a ways out into the water.
We managed to make it way up river far past where the fish were to where the current is pretty darn fast and the water really shallow like 2' or less.

After you get off the ramp, there's a path almost like a boat lane but no markings through the trees at about a 30-45 degree angle heading up river and toward the west shore line. Still best to trim the motor up and idle through there. If you go across west from the ramp and south of the trees you will kick up mud big time and may even get stuck.Going that route, we churned up mud a good long way but luckily never got stuck.

Once you get close to the bridge you can pretty much trim on down and run on plane for a good ways.
This is all based on water level when we went. If it had been 6" lower could have been dicey getting off and away from the ramp.

Once you get up river pay attention and watch for rocks. There's a place where you will see an obvious mud/sand bar parallel with the river and has green trees growing out of it. We went on both sides, and made it past OK but the east side is the best route past that.

If you go, hope you have good luck and a nice trip.

Sorry to hear that brother! I've been on those trips and that stuff can sure put a damper on the fun. When did you guys go? we might have seen you but didn't pass anyone on the way either direction from Big Spring with a blowout. Did you at least catch any fish. I bet somebody found the stove and table but it could have sat there a good while before anyone decided no one was coming back for it and picked it up.

10-4, I have been going down there since I was 13 and I am currently 39 but we have always had center console aluminum river boats and boats like that. I bought a 18' Bass Buggy pontoon was just wondering if we will have hell getting in. I figure if we can get it off the trailer we can make it up the river.

I believe you are correct. We saw one full size pontoon that had made it way up the river. Maybe unlatch everything, get one person in the toon to drive and then back that sucker down at a pretty good clip and slam on the brakes!
If that don’t work be prepared to back down a good ways into the water. If you got some help I’m betting you can get it off the trailer. There’s some bumpy rocks or holes, not sure which that are out a ways in the path of your trailer tires that you can’t see but if you go straight back and keep your right side tires about 18” off the edge of the concrete, you should miss those. I had heard the water came up some since we were there so that will help.

Just a heads up we made it back from the High Bridge yesterday 3/31/2019 and we were able to get in 2 18' Bass Buggy pontoons loaded for bear,19' Targa Deep V, and a 19' aluminum bass boat with no problems. we did have to trim way up and cruise like that until we got under the Highway 90 bridge but then you could run like normal.

NM, quoted the wrong post.

How was the fishing? Did you catch any whites?