We are taking a trip thru the hill country in a couple weeks. After Sea World we will head north to Bandera, Medina, and maybe on up to junction. Me and my boys want to do some wade fishing in the shallow clear waters (not many clear rocky streams at home in east texas).Knowing that most all the land is private owned I am looking for some suggestions for public access areas where we can wade and fish without worrying about being run over by intertubers. Not looking for someones secret honeyhole and not looking to catch any trophies. We will be using ultralite tackle and small jigs to catch anything willing to bite. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

If you don't have a "Roads of Texas" atlas, get one. It will show all the little county roads and where they cross rivers and streams. Some have access to the rivers at the crossings and you can get in there. I have fly-fished the Medina behind my uncle's house west of Bandera, and have had a ball catching bluegills and other bream. Never caught anything of any size, but it was fun. And the scenery out there is spectacular...a nice change from East Texas.

Try Austin360 for some local info on the Llano river. Lots of access points and some scenic views that you won't forget.

Thanks for the suggestions.

There is some good fishing at South Llano State Park just a few miles south of Junction. Morgans Shady Park in Junction is a good place to camp and wade fish. If you don't want to camp she'd probably let you fish there for a small fee. There are two crossings several miles south of Junction near Telephone on 377 with access. On the main Llano heading downstream from Junction there is good access at Whites Crossing (FM 1871), at James River Crossing (FM 2389), the Castelle Crossing
(FM 2768), the Hwy 16 bridge in Llano, and at the "slab" just upstream of Kingsland(FM 3404), although there are liable to be a lot of swimmers at the slab. Good luck and take some pictures.

Thanks roadtrip. That is exactly what I was looking for. South Llano State Park looks good on their website.

I would love to go back down there. The water in that little river is beautiful and so are the surrounding hills. I live in East Texas too, it's nice but I'd move down there if I could.

Yes, the Junction area is so very nice. My fishing buddy and I have taken many trips over the past nearly 30 years, called "blue line" trips. We just look for places where the blue lines (creeks, rivers) cross country roads. The Junction/Mason County areas are great places.

I've also had good luck fishing at and around the numerous low water crossings in the Bandera area, on many of the creeks that feed the Medina.

Often you can get one of those county maps for each of these counties and just look for the larger creeks (at least in this drought) and do some driving.

I've had no problem finding places to fish on the Llano system using the blue line method.

The Park is a good place to start. A good googling for Llano River cabins will turn up all kinds of reasonable places to stay, many with river frontage, although most have a 2 night minimum.

Another nice place to check out some day is the Sulfur Springs fish camp 20 miles or so west of Lampassas on the Colorado river.

Fish Camp

I appreciate all the help. Look forward to trying out some of these places. I'll give a report. Thanks

And my go to lure for catching Hill Country fish is any number of mepps spinners, with the brown tail. The basic model. Silver and red body with silver blade works best for me.

Weedless frogs are good to throw at the bank vegitation.

Llano river just outside of Mason is some of the best river bass fishing i have ever experienced.