I got a buddy who is doing ok on this lake. Not real sure how much he fishes it, but more than me. I haven't fished it in two years now. Grass carp really messed it up....

I believe the color of Ol' Monster you were throwing is probably South Africa special

I have been wanting to fish Lake Austin for the past year. Primarily due to history during it's heyday... and partly due to the negative attitude towards it on TFF.

Situation: Take a buddy fishing day (he's working at getting back into fishing)
Time: 0845 Launch, 1530 Return
Weather: mostly cloudy throughout the day, sunny after 1 p.m.; Windy (12-17mph, SSE)
Air Temp: 76-87 degrees
Water Temp: 73-74 degrees

Launched from 360 bridge and headed up river past a few campgrounds and docks to find a few cliffs on the south side of the river. Surprised to find a few recreational boaters already out and running down river at 0900. Graphed a few ledges & rock piles and no luck with swimbaits, spinnerbaits, medium cranks. Buddy's TW/Popper produced one small fish near overhanging trees.

Made a run downriver to the dam and fished the shallow rocks on the south end. Windier conditions put a good chop perfect for spinnerbaits but only had a short strike. Moved into Bee Creek and managed to catch a 17" on jointed sunfish swimbait. Buddy caught another dink on a chartreuse medium diver in 3 FOW, go figure. 30 seconds after my swimbait catch, my buddy caught a red ear on the same crank.

Shortly after, I linked up with a fellow HOTBA member, Robert, when we moved to the cove on the north side that has the island at the entrance. Shallow water with the wind/current prevented me from taking advantage of the opportunity to fish the shoreline but there was a good presence of water willow in .5-1.5FOW, no doubt this would produce earlier in the morning. Plenty or reeds lining the shoreline and a good abundance of baitfish moving around. I elected to fish the dock on the east side of the cove and produced another keeper using a T-rigged Zoom 10" Ole' Monster Worm(Black w/ blue-red-silver flake), forget the actual color but similar to LFT's Black Magic. My buddy, Andy, switched to a fluke jr. t-rigged and produced another dink off the dock when it pinned to the retaining wall encompassing the boat slip.

We pushed back out and met up with Robert again around noon. We ran halfway back towards the bridge and graphed a few more ledges on the north side but nothing productive on the rock piles or ledges. Stopped back off at the bridge and fished up river along the bank in 10-12FOW. Robert hadn't been up river yet so decided to take off and look at the ledges we had fished earlier that morning. He came back reporting that he caught 3 (1 keeper) pitching a t-rigged craw (black&blue) through small opening in the overhanging trees. The key was getting it all the way to the shore in the tight little spots.

Overall, I only caught two trying to fish big. Andy caught 3 dinks and the sunfish, and Robert caught 9 with 3 keepers. Not what I hoped for but can say I'll go back in search of the DDs that still live there. Hopefully vegetation will continue to make a return, as I saw a few small grass patches in addition to the water willows. My suggestion to all.... fish it while it's tough, and enjoy it. However, many previous posts are spot on as the boat traffic and party crowd was ever-present by noon. So... October will be the earliest I go back pending rain and/or a cold front.

TIGHT LINES TO ALL Y'ALL!

Mike Schweizer
Heart of Texas Bass Anglers
Killeen, TX