Quick trip on Lady Bird Lake

This afternoon I continued my quest to find a spot I could fish with my son and this time drove to downtown Austin to check out Lady Bird Lake (previously known as Town Lake).

I parked near the high school and launched from the canoe launch and headed downstream to the entrance to the spring fed Barton Creek.

The water was fairly clear and flowing nicely. The day however was windy. I worked my way upstream and in one location I had a bass trail behind my fly but no bite. That was actually the only fish I was able to see. I kept moving upstream avoiding the inexperienced folks that were trying to paddle the rented canoes from the canoe/kayak rental shack upstream.

I spent some time fishing along a large drain emptying into the creek but without any luck so I started my paddle back since I wanted to get on my way long before rush hour started.

I am considered just going with my son tomorrow to a small lake near our house that I rarely ever fish called Brushy Creek Lake. That's right, it has the words creek and lake together. It is a place I once caught a 16" crappie on the fly there. However, it was heavily overfished and so I stopped going there. Like Lady Bird Lake, it is a motorboat free lake and so kayak friendly. We'll see how this trip works out.

Commitment Issues

This morning I fished Barton Creek right off Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin. The creek is spring fed and so is warmer than the main lake. I was hoping the warmer water in the creek would attract bass in from the main lake. This, as it turned out, would be the only hope I had that would come true.

Paddling along the creek was like paddling in a swimming pool. The water was gin clear. I could see down to nine feet deep quite easily. This, I think, was partially to blame for the difficult fishing.

First of all, between the pedestrian bridge and the street bridge that crossed over the creek, I found that the creek was absolutely loaded with bass. Most of them were in the 2 to 3 pound range but there were plenty there that were 4, 5, 6 pounds or bigger. I had never seen such a concentration of healthy bass in one small area before. I have also never had a school of bass in this size all follow my fly in such large numbers. I would have 5 to 8 bass at a time trail my fly. This is where the good news ended.

No matter which fly or which type of retrieve (slow, jigging, burning, start & stop, etc.) I tried, I could not get them to eat it. They would follow it until the leader itself passed trough my tip guide and then they would thumb their nose at me and swim off. Very frustrating!

I had folks on the bridge or the running trail yell things at me like, "Hey buddy! There's a huge fish right behind you!" and I would reply, "Yeah, thanks.". After three frustrating hours without a single bite, I decided I had had enough of these bass with commitment issues. I told them to all see a shrink and let me know when they were over their inadequacies so I could catch them all. I won't hold my breath.

Fishing in a swimming pool

This morning I went down to Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin to look for some largemouth bass. I decided since the water would be warmest coming out of Barton Springs I paddled into Barton Creek.

First thing I noticed was that even though the water was crystal clear it was also lower than I remembered. This might be due to less water being released upstream since the drawndown of Lake Austin upstream is probably complete.

I ran into another kayak angler that indicated there were fish in the creek yet with the water clarity he was having difficulty enticing them. I paddled past him and sure enough found lots of bass. Some of them looked to be in the four pound range if not slightly larger but they seemed to not be interested in anything I threw. Actually, that isn't entirely true, I threw a Gurgler topwater fly and had one small bass try to take it but I was to quick on the hookset this time.

I stayed there for about two hours then decided to throw in the towel. So many bass but all of them were wise to me in such clear, shallow water. I also saw one huge carp and what looked like shad but they were about 10 inches long.

I hope next weekend I can fish Lake Travis at night and see if any white bass show up.

After the rain

A couple of days ago we had a good amount rain in the area. Georgetown received about 3" on one day causing the creeks to swell. I expect the San Gabriel was the same and muddy. I figured the lakes would be similar. We were driving by downtown Austin yesterday and Town Lake didn't appear too bad. So, I decided to try it this morning.

The morning was calm and foggy and it felt cooler than it was thanks to the humidity in the air. I decided to take along my 4wt XP since I expected to find small bass and they would be great on the lighter rod.

The river had a little bit of floating debris and when I paddled into Barton Creek I found it really muddy. It took a while to find fish. I had to paddle all the way to the back of the creek where some large drains were dumping water from the aquifer into the creek. I would cast my chartreuse/white clouser minnow across the current and strip it across and would end up with a bass. They were a lot of fun on the light rod in the current. It was a mix of Guadalupe bass and largemouths and one bluegill. I think I probably caught a dozen or so. Most were about 12" in length.

On my way out I met up with a kayak angler I always see at the lake. He's a retired electrician that fishes the lake practically every day. He wanted a report and I told him the creek was pretty muddy. He told me that near Red Bud Isle near the dam on the north part of the lake he had spotted bedding bass.

I drove up to Red Bud and indeed found some bedding bass but after 20 minutes I couldn't get them to bite and was getting hungry so I went home.

This Saturday I may go in search of white bass on Lake Travis. I hope I find some.

Town Lake

The morning was beautiful and the temperatures were supposed to reach the mid 60s with mostly clear skies.

So, I headed to Town Lake with my kayak around mid-morning and put in at the drainage ditch near Austin High. Just before I got my kayak in the water I talked a bit with a kayak angler who fishes the lake almost every day since he retired. I also found a paddle on the grass and it didn't belong to the gentleman I was talking to so I left it on the bumper of my truck and am going to post a lost+found on the kayak forums.

I paddled into the mouth of Barton Creek and fished it for the first two hours and got no hits at all. I did see some fish in the clear water but it's possible that some were among the underwater grass. I paddled all the way to the back of the creek trying to get a bite. I turned around and had a beautiful swan following me, possibly hoping for a handout from me but I had none.

I finally paddled back out and around 1pm at last found a small school of bass in between the grassline and trees on shore. I found that when the minnow fly was stripped at a very fast pace they would chase it and commit to eat it. I was then able to rapidly catch around a dozen bass though they ranged from 10 to 13 inches but at least I got into some action.

Barton Creek Revisited

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was cloudy and calm and today was windy with gusts up to 26mph and bluebird skies. This apperently did affect the fishing somewhat. Barton Creek did shelter me from the NW winds though which was nice.

I was hoping for a repeat of yesterday but fishing in Barton Creek was a little more work today than yesterday. I had to work to catch the five bass I caught. All were less than 13 inches but spunky little fish. The fish were warm to the touch, too. Most of the fish were caught along the grassline using clouser minnows and cypert minnows.

I ran across a couple of other kayak anglers that were catching some bass as well but nothing bigger than 1 1/2 pounds. I actually did paddle along the grass line and twice saw largemouth that looked to be between 3 and 4 pounds at least.

I'm glad I caught some bass to close out the year on a positive note. Happy New Year!

Barton Creek

Following this post I saw on GitBitFishing.com that mentioned someone catching a new lake record 12 pound bass a couple of days ago, I decided to pack my 5wt and kayak and head to downtown Austin and fish around Town Lake around mid-morning. I had taken the kids to Zilker Park a week ago and we had walked down by Barton Springs and the creek that it feeds that empties into Town Lake. I decided this was a great spot to fish since the water there is around 68 degrees year round and it is typically very clear and not too deep. In other words, it's made for fly rodding!

Once I put-in near the high school I paddled directly to the mouth of Barton Creek and paddled up into it. There are running trails and pedestrian bridges that go across it so not a very quiet and peaceful spot but pretty nonetheless. I paddled just past the street bridge to a spot that looked to have fish. It had plenty of weed beds where largemouth could ambush baitfish from. The water also did feel tepid compared to the water in the main lake.

I cast at several spots and finally caught a 10" largemouth on a superhair clouser minnow. I saw a school of minnows around some reeds by the shore as well as on the edge of grasslines so I kept using different baitfish type flies such as craft fur clouser minnows and polar minnows and caught several bass up to 1 1/2 pounds. I lost one that was likely 2 to 2 1/2 pounds. With the water so clear I could see some smaller bass charge the fly and short strike it as well as larger bass follow the fly only to see it up close and lose interest. I tried varying the retrieve but either a slow drop or a fast retrieve seemed to get a strike. I need to figure out how to do a fast two-hand retrieve like the Northeast striper fisherman do in order to speed up the fly and keep the fly right on top of the weedbeds.

I also saw a big largemouth cruising through the grass that could have gone 5 pounds easily! This was a good spot to be in indeed!

Altogether, I caught and released about 7 largemouths and lost another three with just as many short strikes and refusals.

On my way out I stopped to talk with another kayak fisherman who routinely fishes the lake and he indicated he caught a 9 pound largemouth last week where I was fishing! Cool!

I plan on going back to the same spot tomorrow but with a larger variety of flies to try.