Took the big boat, launched at Trophy Club boat launch.. Went up and saw the creek was stained from the half inch of rain.. The higher we went the more stained it was.. Went around the 377 bridge and cleaned out the lures in the trees around the 377 bridge. The shad are saturated in this area. You can see them committing suicide along the banks trying to get away from the fish.. Fished for Catfish just down below the 377 bridge for @ 1.5hrs and caught 6 nice eating size catfish.. The tree in the creek just below the 377 bridge will block the creek in about 4 more feet. the left side of the tree is shallow. Worked a few spots on the way back to TC launch but no good. Within eye sight of the boat ramp we caught 18 really nice sand bass in the 13-13.5" range. Did not keep anything.. Working the mud line in the creek was the key.. Funny thing, mason found a rapala rip rap blue lipless crankbait. That thing out fished all the other baits we fished. I used white jigs, and a med size spot. Wind got nasty, had to anchor in the creek or tie up to trees to work the fish.. For catfish you can fish the bridge area by foot, but by boat would be great if you put out jugs.. Sand bass, just stay at the boat ramp area and finesse them until the water clarity cleans up.. Some nice fish caught..


Creek Update Video

Some nice sandies! Any story on the shad he is holding, or just a sample of the size bait you caught the kitties on? I really enjoy your posts. Some probably think you give up too much info and add to the crowding, but for folks that can't get there very often, I'm sure it's a great help in eliminating some of the guesswork!

The shad was one of the suicide victims we found under the 377 bridge,and was pretty recent as well. Thought maybe a big wave from a boat might have rolled some onto the bank, but we were the first up that AM. Picked it up and used it as cut bait. We caught some nice 1.2-3" shad and kept enough for some catfishing.

I learned a very important thing from a Very important outdoors man back in 1994 timeframe, "get kids out fishing". I ran into a guy that could just plain catch fish.. I worked at Oshmans sporting goods before I got into the Semiconductor world. His name was Jody Jackson, and he was big into getting the Kidfish program started back then. He plain out told me where to go, what to throw and why whenever I crossed paths with him. I fished the Highland lakes all my life when I lived down in the Hutto/Round Rock area. I fished Travis all the time, and got used to catching dinks on light tackle. He told me to go to the biggest sailboat marina I could find, and work a Jumping minnow on 15lb test on the deep end of the marina. I caught some bucket mouths, and some stripers doing this.. He would always throw me a bone on where to go. That is when I fell in love with Town Lake (Ladybird Lake). That is my favorite lake ever.. Seen post spawn females over 10 just sitting out in clear water in fiesta gardens. DIdn't catch my biggest on this lake, but above on Lake austin may 7 2007 post spawn at 13.6lbs (released). Lost touch with him about 1997 and he made a great impression on me with the kidfish program. I love to fish, and luckily my son enjoys it also. You can forget many things, but you don't forget the time you killed 'em with your Dad, uncle, or buddy. Makes lifelong dreams.. I agree it does increase the traffic, but if one kid gets out and does good with their old man its worth it to me.. There are always river rats leaving the 12 pack of beer cans anywhere you go. But you can spot the difference between good people and others.. Appreciate the reply and hope it helps some people. Darn creek is easily stained from some rain since the water is back in the creek channel. So the pattern changes a shosh. The low lying areas are now out of water and land locked bait are getting assaulted by the birds. The beavers are out, and not shy as well. If you hear a splash that sounds like a bowling ball falling into the water its a beaver letting you know he is not happy. Fish are also out at the mouth of the lake but the high winds have the lake all stirred up. Believe it or not, the video of me catching the fish at the end of my rod, the mud line was flowing upstream from the high winds blowing down the lake. Now its back to downward flow with the half inch of rain. The side I was on is the west side of the bank in that video.. But there are some big fish in the TC boat ramp area and probably down as well. This is where we stopped. Take care and God Bless.


Picture is from my QSO card for Ham Radio, fish caught about half mile up from 360 bridge on the small private HOA dock that has the big flat on the left side as you go up.

Wow, that is one heck of a fish!
Thanks for sharing.

For the record: You guys are correct, we are not catching any hybrids.. They are all sandies.. Thx Guys.. You don't know what you don't know.. And we learned something which is always cool for Mason and I.


Not much to report.. Launched in TC, water is lightly stained. Fished up to 377 bridge but not much going on. Went down to the mouth of the lake but water stained as well. Caught fish within eyesight of the ramp once again. We saw two gentlemen camped at a small logjam for most of the morning. They did well on Crappie. If you go up from the ramp, take a left and the first right you will see a small brush pile. We caught 4 nice crappie there also.. cleaned out the lies and fishing line at the TC bank fishing area (ramp area and back section near the mouth of the lake). Lure and hardware bonanza. Actually found some saltwater shark tackle.. The crappie location is here: Crappie map location I caught a massive crappie here, but when I tried to lift into the boat it came off.. Was a massive Crappie, but for the record I do not know what I'm doing. We caught fish in the 4-5 ft range, no shallower or deeper. Mason used jigs, and I used small shad. The mouth of the lake has tons of shad, any sand bank has shad for bait. We kept 3 keeper crappie, and let the other one go (big and fat). Little man was pooped and gave out on me early.. Left at 5:15, BTW there is still a visible mud line at the TC boat ramp. When a boat goes thru the water just above the old log jam you can see clearer water below the muddy surface water. The afternoon bite at TC area is pretty good just up from the ramp. If anyone knows of a kayaker/canoe who lost an anchor and stringer let me know.. If anyone wants bobbers I have a gallon of them. We don't use em. If anyone knows of a youngster who is getting into the hobby and they need some tackle let me know. We have a 5 gallon bucket full of lures that need to be cleaned, and most are in real good shape. What Mason hasn't already claimed would help a new fisherman out. Will put together about 4 goody bags for a young fisherman/fisherwoman. God bless and get out and wet a line.. We are going to go way up tomorrow in the canoe and look at our fossil spot. Also want to verify something I heard. BTW the tree just below 377 will be unpassable in the next few days unless someone with a big boy boat pulls it out of the way, or brings a chainsaw..

Lastly, no affiliation with this business. If you want to rebuild a reel, Identify the model and exact bearings.
Get some good abec7 (abec 9 are awesome but $$) bearings and your reel will be better than when it was new. I'm still using my chronarch 100's from the 90's. They will flat out cast better than when they were new. Only tip I can give you is, if you have a plastic body reel they just don't last like a metal frame reels IMO. Dads Ol tackle are "good people".

CRAPPIE: Doesn't look like much but this little pile has some fish on it.. You can just stay in the same spot and they will eventually come to you. We tried the log jam about 500 yards upstream, but we didn't get any bites there. Think we are going to try more of this crappie fishing. Was fun, and we recently got some good crappie poles to use..

Update: 5-6-20. (Creek water temp 78.8 deg) We went out yesterday from 6am-4pm looking around. We cleaned out the lures and line once again, the water is dropping pretty fast. We checked on the mouth of the lake which is still stained. Shad are in great supply on sandy banks out at the Beach which has finally surfaced. Nothing caught out at the mouth, nothing seen with birds. The water goes from stained to clearish down at the narrow bend/old logjam on your way from the boatramp to main lake. We are done running in the creek in the big boat. Saw several spots at 4ft on the graph on the way out. Looks like the channel silted in and will prob clean itself out when the water drops to the old creek channel, once the sides of the mouth come out of the water there will be some silt to clean out. There are many new widow makers in the creek from the mouth to the the main lake. Fished early up about 2 bends at the crappie spot I referenced last week (Did not go up from there). We did good on crappie fishing with shad and jigs. Shad of course won, but I consider it cheating when using shad.. Did catch a nice bass on the 13ft buggy whip, which was a challenge, weighed 3.4lbs. Have a video linked. Caught crappie until the gar moved in, they are everywhere. Fishing is tough right now, there are tons of small sandbass int he 4-6" range moving down. Did not catch any sandbass over 8 inches anywhere from the crappie spot down to the mouth of the lake. Shad migration is crazy, the bait are coming down the banks early and the fish are working them hard. You can sit and watch the snakes sitting and eating them as they jump out of the water. Caught shad at the launch when the sun came up, but at about noon we didn't catch any in the ramp area. Did spot check many banks on our way to main lake, but not much seen. Did see a man with drop lines (On sunday) all the way down the creek bank oposite side of the ramp. All the way down the long bank going east to the first bend. Nearly all of the lines had catfish on them. Will prob hold off on updates until something worth sharing comes up. Going to start working down the lake and also going up the creek to just look around this week.. Take care all, and if you have any questions shoot me a IM. God Bless..

Bass on Crappie Rod Link

You are living life right. Great parenting and damn good fishing.