Chapter 13: Brushy Creek
Regular insect hatches, genetically pure Guadalupe bass, Rios, ease of access, gorgeous scenery, opportunities to practice tight-quarters casting. Access points: 14.
Brushy is a creek in name only. This fascinating stream rises east of US 183 in western Williamson County and flows 69 miles to its confluence with the San Gabriel River in Milam County, well below Granger Lake. From its headwaters in Leander to Norman’s Crossing in Taylor, Brushy Creek falls about 500 feet, in the process flowing off the Edwards Plateau and onto the deep alluvial soils of the Blackland Prairie. Fed by numerous tributaries and springs, it is a lushly vegetated small water with stunning views around nearly every bend.
Let’s just get this out of the way up front: Brushy is also fed by discharge from several wastewater treatment plants, which together pump up to 20 million gallons of treated water into the stream every day. Every stream that flows through an urban area has had a brush with wastewater. Don’t let it alarm you. Water treatment is managed with recreational contact in mind, and local governments work hard to preserve the riparian corridor and buffer the stormwater runoff. Wastewater returns contribute to baseline flows, too, especially important in summertime. Overall, the water quality in the creek is good, and the little river supports a diverse array of aquatic insects and native fishes.
“[I]n a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion.”
It’s almost impossible to overstate how much this stream is treasured by local anglers. Brushy Creek is home waters for Living Waters Fly Fishing (see the Appendices, page 352), and it is a quick and (sometimes) easy local option for Rio Grande cichlids. The bass fishing can be hot here, too. Because the creek is small and isolated from reservoirs and larger rivers, Brushy’s native Guadalupe bass have largely escaped the genetic introgression common in some other area streams.
But it’s not just the locals who love this river. Anglers have been known to drive three or four hours just to fish Brushy Creek. Maybe it’s because this stream is catalog-perfect; it would look right at home in Pennsylvania or in the foothills of the Rockies. Or maybe it’s the regular insect hatches—BWOs, caddis flies, and tricos—which reinforce the illusion you are fishing a trout stream. Go ahead and fish it that way. The jewellike, native sunnies and yearling Guadalupe bass rise to the insects, and strikingly patterned, mature bass will be in the pocket water, seams, and deep bends, just where you’d expect to find coldwater trout.
The Spanish explorers who encountered Brushy Creek in 1716 gave it the more lyrical name Arroyo de las Animas Benditas, or Creek of the Blessed Souls. Those lucky enough to fish it believe this early appellation to be fitting—until a backcast gets stuck in a sycamore or willow tree. Then the current name makes total sense.
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Champion Park and Hairy Man Road, Cedar Park |
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30.51152, -97.75847 |
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3830 Brushy Creek Rd., Cedar Park, TX 78613 |
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22.2 road miles, 0:28 drive time |
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Difficulty: Easy |
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Champion Park is a convenient staging area, with plenty of parking, restrooms, and potable water, and it’s just minutes from dozens of other access points on Brushy Creek. It’s a good place to begin exploring the upper section of the stream, and the natural pond created by the creek here holds some good fish.
What You Will Find
If you are eager to wet a line and are approaching from the east, it will take some willpower to make it all the way to Champion Park, which is actually on South Brushy Creek. All along Hairy Man Road, you will be tempted by gravel turnouts along the creek here’s one, at Great Oaks Drive: (30.521249, -97.73587) and parking areas across the two-lane blacktop for instance, dedicated parking for Brushy Creek Regional Trail: (30.52547, -97.72351). The parking areas are technically for folks who want to stroll or jog the trail system that follows the creek, but they work perfectly well for anglers, too. The stream along this section is hard-bottomed, shallow, and—in the summer months—sometimes annoyingly clotted with long, ropy strands of algae. Pools and bends hold plenty of fish, though. For a quick and easy guide to the upper sections of Brushy Creek, stop by Living Waters Fly Fishing in Round Rock and pick up their richly illustrated map.
The Pond at Champion Park (Bank and Wade Fishing the Impoundment)
The pedestrian bridge that crosses the lower end of the pond is a good place to start. The easiest access is on the south side, across the bridge. There is room to cast near the southeast corner of the pool, and plenty of brush in the water to hold largemouth bass and sunfish. These fish get harassed pretty regularly and can be finicky. If poppers or other topwater flies aren’t working for you, try a damselfly nymph.
Wait a minute … do you smell that? Did a pack of gum explode in your pocket? No, that’s a sprawling patch of wild mint you’re standing in (probably an escapee, it’s the only known wild stand of peppermint in the county). Pretty cool, huh?
The only known wild mint patch in Williamson County sprawls across a spring on the south bank of the Champion Park impoundment.
The stream spills out of the pond in two channels. The riffle river left, the north bank, sometimes holds carp head-up into the current. Follow either channel downstream, back toward Brushy Creek Road, and you’ll find sunfish and Rios in pocket water.
Back on the pond, you can cast from the base of the bridge on either side, but the south bank is the better option. On the upstream side of the bridge, walk back up the hill to the trail and head west a few yards to get around a stand of trees at water’s edge, and you’ll encounter a beautiful spring braided across a large limestone slope. The mint is lush here. Work your way down and fish immediately below the spring. The bottom looks mucky but is actually pretty solid below a layer of silt. Standing timber upstream river right separates a backwater from the main channel, and both are good for largemouth bass. There are huge carp and smallmouth buffalo in this pool as well.
The impoundment of South Brushy Creek at Champion Park offers easy access and a variety of water.
To get to the head of the pool, your best bet is to cross back over the bridge toward the parking lot and then follow the trail upstream along the creek. A dirt track leads down to the head of the pool. Stealth is key here; approach slowly and quietly, as bass cruise the channel and hang out at the edges of the vegetation. Ease into the water and you can wade back downstream, fishing both banks, or upstream toward the large boulder river right (your left). Above the boulder the channel narrows considerably and the trees on the bank crowd over the water.
The navigability of South Brushy Creek where it crosses private property above this point has yet to be determined conclusively, but the Brushy Creek Regional Trail greenbelt provides near continuous walk-in access along much of the stream, both upstream to US 183A and downstream along Brushy Creek proper through Round Rock.
Just above the impoundment, the stream narrows and stealth is required to sneak up on the fish.
From downtown, take TX 1 (MoPac/Loop 1) and US 183/183A (tolls on the US 183A section) north to Avery Ranch Boulevard. Turn right and go 1.9 miles to West Parmer Lane. Turn left, drive 0.7 miles to Brushy Creek Road, and turn right. The entrance to Champion Park will be just over a mile down the road on your right.
This is a terrific one-way wade upstream, a bit more than 2 miles between parking spots, with Guadalupe bass, largemouth bass, and carp featuring prominently. The stream’s character is varied along this reach, with a hard (and slick) corrugated limestone bed alternating with easy-walking gravel. In many areas there is enough exposed rock along the edge of the water to legally walk with your feet dry.
This low waterfall spans Brushy Creek about a quarter of the way between access points on the Cemetery Wade and marks the beginning of the most productive water.
You will drive past a lot of good water in Round Rock on your way to this access point, including Chisholm Trail Park (30.512064, -97.689527) and Memorial Park (30.512303, -97.685592), on either side of I-35, and Veterans Park (30.514766, -97.675553) just downstream. All afford good access and excellent fishing.
Chisholm Trail Park, one block east of the interstate, is home to the erosional pedestal of Edwards limestone that gives the city of Round Rock its name. The rock was a handy landmark for a ford, so this is also where the cattle trail crossed the creek during the frontier years.
You can also get to the water at the CR 123 crossing (30.53093, -97.589405; park on the gravel turnout but don’t block the low-water bridge) and at the corner of Red Bud Lane and CR 123, 1.25 miles upstream (30.53074, -97.61401; a dirt track parallels the northbound lane; park at your own risk beneath the bridge). It’s a 1.6-mile wade between the two access points if you want to go one-way and shuttle.
I don’t want to make too much of it, but consider: you could purchase a Rio Getter fly at Living Waters Fly Fishing (103 N. Brown St.), grab some famous Round Rock Donuts (106 W. Liberty Ave.), and catch a Rio Grande cichlid at Memorial Park all within about half a dozen blocks and half an hour, fifteen minutes of which you’ll spend in line for your donuts.
What You Will Find
From the unimproved parking area at the CR 137 bridge, it’s an easy walk down to the water—just follow the trail. The creek is shallow here, but the bottom is hard, slick, and uneven (thus the “Moderate” difficulty rating). Where you can, you will want to walk the gravel bars or dry limestone shoulders.
The Cemetery Wade (Wading Upstream to Chris Kelley Boulevard)
Wading upstream from the bridge, the first reach of water is a long, shallow run. Guadalupe bass—our main quarry here—are riffle-loving fish; look for them lying in the corrugations of the channel and also against the slightly deeper, treed north bank (river left, your right).
At about 600 feet you’ll encounter a picturesque limestone shelf jutting from the south bank river right (your left). At about 0.3 miles a spring spills into the creek on the same side. Another tenth of a mile upstream you’ll see what looks like a tributary entering river right. There’s a deep pool here and some timber in the water; it’s a fish condominium and worth a pause in your trek upstream.
Just above the pool, at about 0.5 miles, a low waterfall spans the stream. It’s pretty, and there is excellent, highly oxygenated pocket water below the drop. Take your time with the broad pool above the falls. A little farther on, you’ll encounter another riffle with some interesting backwaters river right, and then a sweeping bend. Here, at the 0.75-mile mark, there is access river left to Old County Road 137 (30.51807, -97.54644), which runs right past the old Hutto Cemetery. Don’t get out yet, though. The best water is ahead of you.
At 0.8 miles, the center of the channel deepens to about thigh-deep, and you can find fish holding at the edge of the current there. At about a mile above the bridge, in another sweeping bend (this time to the west), the stream deepens along a high dirt bank river right. Stop! Or, at least, slow down. The next 200 yards could provide the best fly fishing of the year, so take your time. You will want to wade the shallows and gravel bars on the north bank.
There are big carp in the pool at this bend, and some potential state-record Guadalupe bass. A crawfish-patterned fly, like Matt Bennett’s Carp-It Bomb, is a good all-purpose fly for this spot and will fool both big bass and carp.
At about 1.1 river miles you will encounter another riffle, marking the upstream limit of the magic pool. At the 1.3-mile mark, you’ll want to slow down again. This pretty pool is waist-deep river left, and deeply undercut limestone ledges on the south bank provide terrific cover for fish.
Even though Brushy gets most of its water from tributaries and (gasp!) treated waste water returns, springs contribute throughout its upper reaches, and are always a goood place to look for fish.
Look for this ammonite embedded in the center of the limestone stream bed just upstream from the CR 137 access point.
At approximately 1.75 miles, you’ll wade under the Riverwalk pedestrian bridge (30.52310, -97.56038). You can climb out here and take the sidewalk back to the Hutto Youth Soccer Association fields, where you have perhaps left a second vehicle, or continue another half mile through promising water to Chris Kelley Boulevard (30.52594, -97.56660), at the 2.2-mile mark, where there is an easy walk up the bank under the bridge.
The best parking at the soccer fields is adjacent to Chris Kelley Boulevard. To get there, take the dirt road on the north side of Riverwalk Drive at the east end of the park and loop around between Brushy Creek and the playing fields.
This mid-winter 15-inch (plus) Gaudalupe bass fell to a Carp-it Bomb fished slow and deep in a bend about midway along the Cemetary Wade.
From downtown, take TX 1 (MoPac/Loop 1) north to TX 45 east (tolls) to TX 130 north (tolls). In 2 miles, take Exit 426, Gattis School Road (CR 138), and turn right. Follow CR 138 2 miles to CR 137, and turn left. Go north on CR 137 for 0.9 miles, pull off, and park on the other side of the guardrail on the southeast side of the bridge.
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Norman’s Crossing, Taylor |
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30.489056, -97.499279 |
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394–428 CR 129, Taylor, TX 76574 |
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31.1 road miles, 0:38 drive time |
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Difficulty: Easy |
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Norman’s Crossing is far enough east of the I-35 corridor that it gets very little fishing pressure. The creek flows fast and deep here over a mostly gravel bottom and is shaded in the wet wading months by a canopy of bottomland hardwoods. Rio Grande cichlids don’t make it this far down the stream, but handsome, genetically pure Guadalupe bass—a few roughly the size and shape of a football—are plentiful.
What You Will Find
After you’ve parked, walk back across the bridge and hop the guardrail on the northwest side. A trail at the bottom of the cement bridge apron leads to the gravel bank of the stream. Fishing is good both upstream and downstream, though if you’re headed far downstream, a paddlecraft would serve you well. The FM 973 crossing (30.469034, -97.463487), about 4 miles downstream in Rice’s Crossing, offers good access and great parking beneath a shading oak, but several more-than-head-deep pools with no legal way around make wading difficult unless you’re willing to swim. We’ll head upstream from the CR 129 bridge instead.
Norman’s Crossing (Wading Upstream from the Bridge)
The pool below the bridge is deep, particularly against the south bank (that’s why you had to walk across and approach the river from the north). Sunken brush and logs that have washed down the river collect against the pillars. If you don’t pick up your first Guadalupe bass here, walk upstream about 100 feet on the gravel bank river left (the north bank). A nice eddy forms against the opposite high dirt bank; swing a Brushy Creek streamer or largish olive Woolly Bugger through here for a near certain-take.
The reach above Norman's Crossing alternates between fast runs and broad pools.
The entire shoreline here, up to the first riffle, is productive. There is some nice pocket water and a slough below the riffle river right (your left as you head upstream). Above the riffle, which is at a bend in the stream, a gorgeous pool hints at what lies ahead. The water ranges from thigh- to chest-deep once you step off the gravel bar. You’ll want to cover the north side of the pool all the way up to the riffle pretty thoroughly. There are some fine Guadalupe bass beneath the trees here.
This standard 8-inch Guadalupe bass came from a shallow pool in stained, but still reasonably clear, water.
Above that riffle, a gravel bar river right parallels a fast, deep run. The pool at the top of the run, about a quarter mile from the bridge, is thigh-deep along the higher north bank; there is some shallow, slack water river right. The next pool is broad but shallow—just ankle- to shin-deep–and you should walk through it.
The pool above is a doozy. Head-deep against the high, dirt bank, it’s full of complex eddies. It’s worth casting from the lower end of the pool for a while just to see where your fly will go—it’s mesmerizing. The pool can be fished equally well from the tail or the head. To get to the head, edge to your left and wade through the muck river right, and then walk along the shoreline (it’s the only muck you’ll encounter).
The run above the pool looks to be bottomed half in gravel and half in limestone, but it’s actually half gravel and half clay. The clay, which is firm and fairly sticky, is an exposure of the Sprinkle Formation, a rare layer of ancient seabed that did not become limestone. If you look down as you walk upstream, you’ll see dozens of fossils of extinct giant oysters (Exogyra ponderosa). They’re pretty cool, and common in this formation in the few places it crops out in Central Texas.
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Outside of federal lands, including national parks and parks managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it’s legal in Texas to pick up fossils on public land; however, cultural artifacts such as projectile points and pottery should always be left where they are discovered. |
The next pool upstream gets gradually deeper toward the top—chest-deep against the bank river right. Walk to your right to the exposed gravel bar. The creek makes a gentle S curve here, west and then north again. Continue to walk on the gravel river left to a fantastic pool in the bend at about 0.5 miles. The current runs hard in deep water against the high bank, where eddies, plenty of slack water, and a deposit of silt and leaves conspire to create an insect factory. The little fish love it, and the big fish follow the little fish. Take your time.
The stream shallows as the bend straightens out into a run, but tenacious sycamores cling to the far bank and their exposed roots could pass for mangroves.
The next pool also gets deeper as you head upstream. Keep to the north bank on your right, and at the head of the pool walk up the big gravel mound and around the fallen tree to cross the channel. The deep run here forms an interesting backwater with a jumble of cement and (usually) some sunken logs. Both are fish havens, and this is a great place to tease some green sunnies.
Around the next bend and at the top of the run, at about 0.75 miles, a vista opens that is beautiful in any season. Springs tumble from the fern- and moss-clad north bank, and elephant ears bunch along the edge of the water. Sycamores, pecans, and oaks form a canopy overhead.
Blake Smith releases a largemouth bass on the Norman's Crossing section of the creek.
Deeper water lies against the high bank river left, but the entire pool can be productive. The next gentle bend to the west features tons of vegetation and brush river left, up to the log-choked mouth of Cottonwood Creek, which enters from the north about 0.8 miles from the bridge. This is easy wading, with lots of fish-holding structure in the river all the way up to the next bend to the southwest, at the 1-mile mark.
I can easily take an entire morning or afternoon to fish this first mile, especially if I’m paying attention to the insect hatches or the incredible variety of birds flitting through the trees. It’s just a bit more than three more river miles up to the CR 137 crossing in Hutto (see page 171). Save it for a long summer day and be sure to bring plenty of water.
This gorgeous, shady pool features cascading springs and chest-deep water along the north bank and knee-deep gravel and overhanging brush on the south bank.
From downtown, take I-35 north to Exit 238B and then US 290 east (tolls) toward Houston. Continue on US 290 about 10 miles. Just past the Walmart in Manor, take a left on FM 973. After another 10 miles cross Brushy Creek, take a left on FM 1660 at the small community of Rice’s Crossing. At Norman’s Crossing, 2.6 miles up the road, take a left on CR 129. The unimproved parking area is adjacent to the bridge guardrail on the southwest side of the crossing.
Texas Beer Company
Hours vary, closed Mondays
Many years ago, I briefly worked as a reporter at the Taylor Daily Press. I chronicled the first big, painful growth spurt in nearby Hutto, where the city council meetings frequently lasted into the wee hours of the next day and sometimes included threats of bodily injury. I wrote about the usual small-town events and characters, and unwisely took an editorial stand in a local barbecue skirmish. I hadn’t been back in a decade when, after a session on Brushy Creek, I met some friends at the Texas Beer Company on the corner of Second and Main.
This was not the Taylor I remembered. A dozen years ago, the blocks of historic, Victorian-era Main Street buildings were locked in a death spiral of moribund, low-rent businesses and boarded-up storefronts. Today these are rapidly being converted into vibrant, modern enterprises.
The Texas Beer Company brewery and taproom, opened in 2016, has been a catalyst for the city’s revitalization. Housed in the graceful, fully renovated McCrory Timmerman building—three older buildings joined under one roof in 1911—the brewery sits on a corner that has been the site of a mercantile store, a department store, and a diner. Today, loft apartments occupy the top floor and a gallery, barbershop, coffee bar, farm-to-market deli, winery tasting room, and the taproom fill out the street level. An awning covers the sidewalk all the way around (you can take your beer outside, just stay under the awning). The beer is excellent—I’m partial to the Blacklands Porter—the staff and patrons are Texas-friendly, and there is live music on weekends, when you may also find barbecue from one of the award-winning local joints (for the record, they’re all good). There is a limited bar menu during the week.
A fairly typical largemouth bass from the Hairy Man Road reach of the stream.