Taking a family trip in a few weeks. Can anyone give advice about the lake, is it safe to run, fishing experience, dining experience/advise.

Thank you in advance!

I was on the lake yesterday with Texas Parks and Wildlife placing brush piles. You should not have a problem running a boat on it. We did not see any floaters and as long as you stay in the main channel you should have no problem with standing timber (there is not a lot of standing timber anyways).

As for fishing, I made a few casts from the bank with no luck. There were a lot of boats fishing yesterday and rumor has it that the striper fishing has been pretty good.

Jason, thanks for the advise. Exactly what I was looking for.

The lake is a foot over full-pool. It's been hit or miss lately. You can crush em' one day then zero the next. Look for places that are coming out of spawning areas and fish the millions of flooded bushes with a craw, spinnerbait, or throw a topwater around them. You can pretty much go down any rocky bank and catch fish with a squarebill all day. You probably won't get much size with that pattern, but you'll catch fish nonetheless! Channel swings and rocky points are where the big ones live. You can also catch quite a few on brushpiles. There's a list of them all on TPWD's website. The main lake is safe to run, just be careful when you're running in the river. There's a bbq place at the marina called Baja BBQ Shack. It's one of my favorite places to eat around there.

Big bass - thank you very much for the info!

For dining, Startz Cafe is good. I've only eaten breakfast there a few times, but it's been great.

Sounds like you're going to hit it when there are likely to be a bunch of tubers around. If you'd like to avoid that crowd (and the drunk driving that ensues), stay away from the area known as the Horseshoe in the evenings. It's below the dam where the river makes a (surprise!) horseshoe. You can see it on a map and it's where a bunch of stuff is, the crown jewel being Whitewater Amphitheater. It's a popular area because there's river access for the tubers and has restaurants, bars, and the amphitheater, a big live music venue.

Dot's Burgers is also a good place to eat; it's at 281 and 306.

Appreciate the responses!

Used to catch some nice smallmouth close to the bluffs by north park. White bass around the dam.

Thanks for the response! I wouldn't mind hooking into some decent Stripers!

Also try Granny D's! Best breakfast by far!