I've been starting to feel guilty about catching so many fish with Gulp Alive Minnows, so I decided this weekend instead of fishing for a lot of fish, I was going fish for big fish. I left the Gulp in the crate and broke out my two favorite panfish crank baits, a Matzuo Nanocrank in Black Shiner and a Strike King Bitsy Minnow in Black Shad (a color I think they've discontinued ). The lake is right at full, but they're not releasing much water at all from Lake Austin upstream, so there's almost no current. Due to algae I was only able to make it up Barton Creek to the Zilker Bridge. Water temp was 83 in the creek and 81 on the main lake. Air temp was 80 when I put in at Stephen F. Austin HS at 5:45, was up to 100 when I got out at 11:00. The rental places opened up this week, so there was more traffic on the lake than I've been seeing lately, but most of it stayed downstream from the Mopac Bridges.

I started in Barton Creek, then headed upstream along the South Bank to Red Bud Island before it was time to call it a day. As I expected, I didn't catch as many fish as I do with Gulp. I caught 62 fish, 3 bass and the rest a mix of Blue Gill, Long Ear Sunfish and Red Breasted Sunfish. I hooked (note I say hooked, not caught) a bass that I'm guessing was about 5 lbs, but when I got her to the kayak instead of netting her I tried to lip her and she broke off. She took one of my last two Bitsy Minnow's with her. I did catch some big girls. At least a dozen over 7", and a 10 1/2" Red Breasted Sunfish. All fish were released.

Nice post and nice fish! Thanks for sharing

Good looking fish there.

+1

Wow, that last one is a monster.

Excellent report and BEAUTIFUL pics. Very healthy sunfish, but those bass look like they could use a good meal !

As always. Super post and some some super fish, especially the Redbreast. The LBL is on my radar screen.

Looks like you got into some nice Redbreast. Great post and super fish. Love fishing the LBL!



Side Note: That Bitsy Minnow is DEADLY! Lost a very nice bass the last time I fished LBL.

Also soft plastics work well in October!

Nice post and fish. Good job.



Side Note: Have you fished Lake Austin or Travis this year? If so how did you do ?

Thanks everyone.

Vogey, I do seem to catch the scrawny bass, it doesn't help that whenever I hook a decent one I seem to break them off....gotta start using the net instead of trying to lip them.

Laker, love the Bitsy Minnow...I'm hoping the black one (I think they call it Gizzard Shad) is just temporarily unavailable. There are some good bass in LBL...whenever I hook one I usually get them close enough to my kayak to get a look at them before they break off.

Gitter, I haven't fished either Austin or Travis this year. Lake Austin is just too crazy with wake boats to take my kayak on it. With the parks being closed a lot in the spring I didn't get a chance to fish Travis, hopefully this fall.

John: I get very good results on the Chartreuse/White and the Chartreuse/Black (Baby Bass). Vandam's Ware House has a very good selection of Strike King baits including the Bitsy Minnows. Check out his Web Site.

Thanks Laker! They had them in Grizzard Shad, I should be good for another few months.

Yes Sir Lake Austin has some monster wake boats on that lake for sure. Again keep up the great fishing!