Been fishing LBL almost every Sunday morning this year. Over the last two weeks the Long Eared Sunfish and Red Breast bite has been on, but I haven't caught a Bluegill in two weeks. This weekend might have been my last sunfish fishing trip for the year, it seems to be time to break out the baitcasters and bigger baits to do some bass fishing.

When I put in at Austin High School at 6:30 am the air temp was a balmy 41 degrees and the water was 65 degrees, dropped fifteen degrees in two weeks with the cold fronts and rain. The rain washed the algae mat out of Barton Creek so I went up the creek all the way to the pool. Caught my first sunfish just before sunrise. Was getting some half hearted swipes at my favorite bait (Matzuo Nanocrank) so I downsized to a Strike King Bitsy Minnow on 4lb test. Caught another couple sunfish moving down stream when I saw minnows jumping out of the water in some bamboo growing by the bank. Caught my biggest bass of the year on the first cast (guessing around 4 lbs). Didn't put him on the measuring board or take a picture because bass were busting the surface everywhere. On six straight casts I caught the 4 pounder, a 2.5 pounder, three around a pound, and the last one broke me off. (I probably should have re-tied after the first fish, but I got caught up in a fishing frenzy during the bass feeding frenzy.) By the time I re-tied they moved on and so did I.

Headed upstream past the Mopac bridges and got into two schools of long ears. Both schools were around deadfalls in about 4'-6' of water right on the edge of the 12' drop off. Was catching every other cast. Caught 25 between the schools. By then the wind picked up to about 13 mph and I called it a day. It was a good day, ended up with 27 sunfish and 5 bass, all of them came in the right side of the kayak and went back into the lake off the left side.

It's looking like the bass in LBL are shallow and aggressive, will probably be bass fishing next Sunday, just haven't decided if it will be from the the IH 35 bridges east or around Red Bud.

I am hoping the longear slow down they have been insane up here on Nolan Creek. They slash at anything in that hits the water. I will be sad that the rest of the sunfish are gonna be scarce though. May go check and see what's shaking today as I haven't been out since the last cold front.

Sounds like you had good time with the bass. I love some creek/river bass truly the only way I enjoy them.

Good post with lots of details even though ther are no pics i can still envision everything. Thanks for sharing

Nice post. Good job on catching those Redbreast,Longear,and bass! I have also been catching some nice Redbreast and bass. I have also noticed that the Bluegill bite has slowed down a lot. I was able to catch some nice ones last week just prior to the last front that blew through. As for Rios, I have only been able to catch a few with nothing going over 10". I also do not see many Rios on the move.

That sounds like an awesome trip! Nice to see that filamentous algae washed out of there. My brother said it was pretty bad last week. That lake and chain have some huge Longears and Redbreasts! Hopefully I can get my yak up there and give Lucille and Bobby Joe a good work out! Thanks for the outstanding post!

Love your LBL reports! I was thinking about fishing there this week but I have changed my plans to my plan B spot! Great post and thanks for sharing.



Side Note: The LBL has some pretty good winter time bass fishing!

Bones- when I was at Ft Hood I lived in Harker Heights less than a quarter mile from Nolan Creek...never thought to fish it . Of course I didn't have as much time to fish back then either.

Gar- Thanks. Hoping for a calm day this Sunday so I can try out the tiny jigs.

Chuck- I wish I would have taken pictures of the two Rios I caught back in the spring. Had no idea what they were when I caught them, and had no idea I wouldn't see another one this year. I've got the cypress I caught them by marked, hopefully they'll be there with friends next spring.

Jagg- I think it was about two weeks ago that I tried to head up Barton Creek, didn't make it 200 yard before I hit the algae and the mat was solid. Hope we've seen the last of it for awhile. LBL has become my favorite lake for kayak fishing, though it gets a little nuts when the rental kayaks come out later in the mornings on weekends.

Laker- if you change your mind there isn't much bamboo on Barton Creek and I know there's at least one chunky bass hanging out in it, though they may be wary of Bitsy Minnows for awhile. I'm looking forward to figuring out the winter pattern...the lake isn't terribly deep so probably won't be as hard to find them as it is on Lake Georgetown.

Always love reading post from other water bodies. Great post and thanks for sharing.

Here's a "I should buy a lottery ticket" update to this post from 10/27/19



Yesterday (10/27/20) I was fishing Barton Creek. Not 100 yards from where I broke off a nice bass on a Bitsy Minnow, I was releasing a small bluegill. A large (I'm guessing about 5 lb, but they always look bigger in the water) LMB swam under my kayak, with a Sexy Shad colored Strike King Bitsy Minnow hanging off the left side of her bottom lip. The hooks apparently haven't rusted out and it apparently hasn't kept her from eating the past year. Maybe I'll run into her next fall.

What are the odds. Awesome that you saw it.

A few years ago while fishing Lake Dunlap I lost a nice Redear using a Yellow Jig. About a week later I caught the same fish and that Yellow Jig was still in it's upper mouth. The fish was healthy and fat. Not only did I get my jig back the fish was released to have another fight. I have also caught a few bass with spinner baits and soft plastics still in their mouths.




Side Note: I caught the Redear with the same type of Yellow jig that I caught it on the first time.