Livingston tailrace 9-9-07

[shadslinger]

Karen and I went today below the Livingston Dam and took a 20 fish limit of channel and blues up to 4lbs, most were about 2 1/2 lbs. It is unusual to catch channels big enough to keep in the tailrace, but 2 1/2 lb channels made up of our stringer. Lot's of fun.

[txredneck68]

sounds like a great trip thanks for sharing

[Richlyn Concepts]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like some good eating.

[shadslinger]

The best cats came on cut bluegill, I had caught one in the net and he made about four or five good baits cut up. All of the bigger fish were caught either on it or some cut whiting I had left from a visit to Corpus Christi.
BTW, Whitebassfisher and I have been swaping striper stories by email. I told him about hitting the tube when it was discharging a good amount of water on the first cold snap of the year and having one of my best days ever catching big stripes. This was long ago, but it happens every year on that first cold snap, usually in October sometime. The tube is best if they are discharging from it because that is where the big gizzard shad go, to spawn I suppose, and big stripers (12lbs+) prefer gizzard shad and river herring over threadfin shad because they are a much bigger meal. Fishing at the tube can be red hot because the fish are concentrated in a more confined area and compete with each other over the forage fish. It's great fun to catch them up in the stilling basin at the tube and have to walk down with them as they go over the rocks into the pool below the basin. My best at the tube was 17lb bad boy caught on a a spinning rod w12lb line and a Zara Puppy. My best fish at the gates was a 24lb 9oz really fat striper caught while wading from the East bank using a 15' surf rod. On that long rod the fish has all of the advantage and my arm was BURNING so bad I could barely reel in the last 25 feet to land him. Fishing for big stripers is always best during October thru November and early December.
That's right around the corner!

[megjur]

Caught my biggest striper there in early December a few years back on a crayfish. I had been fishing for spotted bass which you can get there sometimes and was getting alot of them when I hooked a 12lb freight train. Looking foward to going back.

[bueyescowboy]

shad i am guessing the tube is around CC,tx. I go there quite often but haven't found a place to fish. I also go to port aransas alot. the only place i ve found to fish there is a pier around rockport. can you give me any advice on where and how to fish. actually this was the first year i ve fished saltwater in 20 years. i stopped at the bait shop and bought some shrimp and fished off the rockport pier.
and about livingston, I haven't caught a thing this year on the lake. i ve heard good reports about below the dam....maybe all the fish when over the dam this year......gotta run bueyescowboy

[megjur]

Shadslinger, is there anyway to tell when the Tube is discharging. Most times I hear its not lately. I've caught alot of fish there. Cowboy...the tube is at the Livingston Dam.

[Whitebassfisher]

Megjur, I don't know of a way online to tell if the tube is discharging. Call the TRA and speak to some one, or Browder's @ 936-653-3278 may tell you.

The tube is interesting. The TRA explained to me that the tube is 10' in diameter. Four small gates plus one large gate can go into it. The gates are at different heights and the water disolved O2 at different depths may impact which gate(s) they open into the tube. Also, the TRA could only drain the lake half way through the main 12 gates, which we hope never has to happen. They could pretty much drain it the rest of the way through the tube. The main 12 gates release water from the middle of the water column. Since the main gates release from so far down, logs are rarely a problem getting in the gates. If a log does somehow get in a gate, they open up enough to wash it through. Logs rarely stack up around the dam like I would think they would, so winds must take them somewhere else. Also, at the TRA, I saw a picture of the big new 190 bridge completed but before the lake started filling; that looked strange.

I hope you find this interesting like I did.

[bueyescowboy]

always learn something new....now i ve been going behind the dam for awhile and never heard of the tube....had a friend doing some fishing behind the dam this year ...even got stuck behind the dam this year...and still haven't heard of the tube....hum better get my gear and head back there....i know i heard alot of stories of people catching fish behind the dam this year...cold snap huh? might see me back there.....

[Whitebassfisher]

The y-off on the west side of the river just above the 3278 bridge is where the "tube" comes in.

[Richlyn Concepts]

The y-off on the west side of the river just above the 3278 bridge is where the "tube" comes in.
I was told awhile back that they (TRA) have no intentions of fixing the tube. It has been broke for sometime now.