I finally made it down to the famous\infamous Braunig lake and knocked it off my list. At first fishing was really tough. I did find where the bass are there, they are in the bullrushes on the south side of the lake near where the dam starts. They seemed to be one to three feet inside the rushes, I heard them splashing from about 8 to 10, but I couldn't get any to come to the edge of the rushes to bite.

After a few hours fishing the shore and along the dam without any bites I started trolling across the lake and about 200-300 yards out Bam! I hooked my first Redfish. I think it was 4 to 6 pounds and close to two feet long and wow, that fish really fought hard! It took me maybe 5 to 10 minutes to land the fish. I caught it on a big mepps spinner. Another guy that caught several was using a rubber fish jig and he said they were on the bottom. Other than that guy, I didn't see anyone else catch anything and I only had another one or two bites. Overall fishing sucked, but that redfish was great.

I will say overall I didn't like this lake. It's brown, hot, pretty stagnant and not very scenic plus swimming isn't allowed or safe I don't think and fishing mostly sucked. And be aware not to troll near shore, a lot of people had those ocean casting poles and I snagged their line about 100 feet off shore.

OK it's not two feet. I measured that pole he's lying next to and it looks like he's 18 inches long, which is still respectable.

I was there a little over a week ago. Wind played a huge factor for me. Only caught one small Bluegill.

There are redfish in that lake that will tow you around the lake before you will land them, and that is what keeps everyone going back.
Nothing scenic about either Braunig or Calaveras especially along the shorelines from people that can't hit a trash can if they had to walk around one to keep from tripping over it.

I’ve fished Braunig 3-4 times in the last 2 months and have caught 1-2 reds over 29 inches every trip, but only caught 5-10 total each time in 1/2 day. I’ve gotten some small ones on frozen shrimp, but all the better fish have been on artificials. It can get pretty crowded at times. Last trip I caught several nice ones in a row, then a guide started trolling in circles around me 😡.

There's nothing complicated about catching redfish in Braunig. Go out on main lake and in no time you can locate the fish on sonar. Drop bucktail jigs or spoons on them and hang on. Even w/o sonar you can slow troll spoons and swimbaits slowly deep and catch pretty easily.

I have heard some real horror stories about the lines to get onto Calaveras. Is it the same at Braunig?

Depends on when you go. Weekdays aren’t bad. Don’t try either on a holiday weekend. I’ve turned around and come home before after getting sick of sitting in line on a holiday weekend. It is better than last summer when everything was shut down for COVID. Braunig is smaller than Calaveras and has less parking. There are probably less people overall, but since it’s a lot smaller it seems more crowded on the water. I’d say it’s a tossup. I try to avoid holiday weekends or Saturday mornings at either one.
Back in April a friend and I talked to the guy that does the creel surveys for TP&W- he told us he traveled all over the state doing creel surveys and claimed the # of people fishing for reds on those lakes per acre dwarfs the # of bass fisherman per acre at Lake Fork.

I've avoided both lakes for years during weekends and holidays.
It's a real circus with all the boat traffic and guide boats and crossed lines.
It's always been that way even back in the days when it was a top bass fishing lake before the artificial redfish infestation.
The older I've gotten, the less I tolerate crowds.

I was a park ranger for SARA back around '93-'95. Worked both Braunig and Caleveras. Only worked there so I could learn more on how to fish both lakes from the guides and bank fisherman. We had a clip board and asked everyone to log in their catch. Species, bait used and bank/boat. This gave me the chance to start up conversation and learn how the fish were caught. Most of the guides back then were very generous with their information as were the "regulars" bank fisherman. My favorite was always Caleveras back then. You could catch some huge Corvina and reds using live tilapia. Buddy and I bought a cheap 14ft aluminum boat and launched it by the bank along the dam. Paddle out about halfway under the lights and fish all night. Great times!

Weekends during the summer with summer holidays it's a circus. Regular week days especially after Labor Day it's not that bad as far as boat traffic and crowds. The care of the park grounds is another story. Sometimes the park is somewhat clean but other times it's trashed. I was lucky the last time I was at Calaveras a couple of weeks ago. It was actually fairly clean.

I got there at 6:30 am Sunday and there were 5 cars ahead of me. It only took maybe 5 minutes to get through the line.

Thats a pretty red Carl! congrats!!