I have been fishing Lake Athens for about 5 years now and mostly target LMB (no supprise on Athens right). However lately I have been targeting other species with some success. On the morning of the 4th of July I had the lake to myself from about 7:30-9 due to a storm that blew in. I was soaking wet and my teeth were chattering which is unusual for July in Texas but the action by the dam was keeping me going. I was throwing a 3/8 chrome casting slab and letting it sink below the schooling LMB. I pulled in tons of smaller bass but also quite a few HUGE sandbass. I kept a few for lunch and the rest are swimming free. I was just curious if anyone had any information about the sandies on Athens and curious if there were still any hybrids out there. All the sandies i caught were huge 15 inches plus and one monster just a hair over 17 which leads me to believe they do not reproduce there and have not been stocked in awhile.

Hey UnckleBud, I saw your teeth chattering as I was fishing across from you dockside. I figured you were on fire to withstand the lighting strikes. I too have been fishing Athens for 5 or so years and never caught a sand bass until this weekend. I caught 4 sandies, 1 @ 18" basically doing the same technique. Thanks for the pics and glad you avoided the jet ski convention that followed soon after the weather passed. Good times!

Thats cool Unckle Bud. I caught a few white bass here and there bass fishing on lake Athens and they were all big fish like those. I've heard from locals that there used to be a decent population of white bass in lake Athens and they used to surface near the pump station on a regular basis. I'm sure the drought took its toll on the population because there isn't much current in the creeks feeding the lake. About 4 years ago I was on the lake one winter day and decided to try deadsticking for them. We caught about 15 and they were all big old fish. Several of them looked blind.

Thanks for the input. I have caught lots of crappie near the pump starion but have never targeted sandies on that end of the lake I will definately give it a try next time i am on the water.