With my oldest daughter being a Freshman at A&M, my Sunday's have been spent taking my wife to visit. Happy wife, happy life, but no fishing since Halloween. Thanks to summer vacation, I got to fish again Sunday, 5/1. I've gotten a bit out of practice. It took me half an hour to load my truck and another 20 minutes to get my kayak in the water. I realized that two of my reels are low on line and I only had two 1/64th OZ jig heads and one Strike King Bitsy Minnow in my tackle crate.

It was 70 and humid when I hit the water at 5:50 am. Water temp was 70.5. I fished Barton Creek all the way up to the pool, then upstream to just below Red Bud Island until 11:30 when it was raining hard enough to get my butt wet (I learned in the Army that once my butt gets wet my will to live drops by 45%) and I hung up my last jig head (I lost the Bitsy Minnow in the creek). Caught everything on a Strike King Bitsy Minnow in Gizzard Shad or 1" Gulp Alive Minnows in Watermelon Pearl on a 1/64th OZ Trout Magnet Jighead. All fish were caught in 3-5 of water under overhanging limbs, brush piles, or docks and were released to swim again.

Caught my first fish of 2022 at 6:32. This guy. Not exactly a monster.


Caught this one a bit later. He bent the rod and pulled drag (UL/UF rod and 4 lb test...makes pan fishing fun). I thought she was bigger, but only measured 8.5 in on my bump board.

Caught some colorful fish in their Sunday best:




Even caught a couple bass. Asked them to come back when they got a little older.




Caught 77 fish total, due to the rain and the early start had the lake almost to myself. Was nice to be on the water again, fishing in the rain is more fun than driving from Liberty Hill to College Station, and now I don't feel like such a lurker!

Great post and pics!

Pilgrim, how long has it been since the last time you went fishing? Well that's too long!

Solid post with solid fish. Good job.

Great report & nice pics...The wet butt comment made me LOL !

Going to start calling you the "Master of the LBL". You have those BIG Bluegill and sunfish dialed in. Always enjoy fishing the LBL. Nice post.

Love the Austin post. Hope to see more.


Nice fish.