Since Steve brought up the idea of an outing at Town Lake the other night, I've been very excited about finally fishing this legendary venue. I've been stuck on my PB of 22lbs. since the very first time I fished in Texas back in Feb 09. Needless to say, I was ready to change that and this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

So I went to bed Friday afternoon in the hopes of getting some shuteye in preparation for our EARLY start. I wanted to sleep till 1AM or so but I woke up at just before 9PM and knew I wasn't going to get back to sleep. So I headed down to Steve's at around 2 and picked him up at 3.

We wanted to get to the lake around 6, which we only missed by about 20 minutes or so. The night before, I had put several Town Lake swims onto my GPS in case we decided to move if there was no action. Our plan was to hit the Gazebo, but when we got to the GPS waypoint that I thought was correct, there was no gazebo to be found. Frantic, I called Zach and Steve called Scott to try to figure out exactly where we were, but both of them were still sleeping. There were fish crashing everywhere around us, so we decided to set up and give it a try.

We found out later that we were at the Melrose swim, which is the next peg up the river from the gazebo (I think). I must have clicked on the wrong peg when pulling waypoints off of the ATC map..

Some swimmy pics:




Steve wasted no time in catching the first fish, a fish I just can't remember the weight of but it was in the mid teens I think:



Shortly thereafter he caught one we never weighed but might have been a low double.

And shortly after THAT, he hooks into something he can immediately tell is a big fish.


After a lengthy battle, he banks it, a phenomenal common of 33lbs.!




As we dealt with that fish, Steve got another run that turned into a really nice mid-twenty.

This is Steve's "Just take the damn picture already!" face. I got to know it well today lol.


So he had around 60 lbs. of carp on the mat at once!





About that time I got a run that almost immediately got hung up on something solid. After the standard give and take I still couldn't get it to swim loose so I decided to do some wading, the first of many times we were in the water today. I struggled with it for about 20-30 minutes and could tell the fish was still on so I wasn't giving up.

Meanwhile one of my other rods goes off and I tell Steve to pick it up. He does and again, immediate hangup. I told him to just break it off if he could while I was still working on my snag, since he could tell his fish was no longer there.

Eventually, after nearly sinking ankle deep in muck with water up to my waist I got the entire snag to break loose (Suffix Siege FTW!). A HUGE tree branch, with a carp STILL ATTACHED! It was a nice one that I think would have been a PB but alas, just as Steve had climbed into the water to help net it, it got off. My heart sank as I watched a PB swim slowly away. After I retrieved the tree branch, I found that on the other rod that had gone off, the fish had taken me into the exact same snag. So at least I was able to retrieve both feeders.

After that, the action died down and we were no longer seeing much crashing. We actually kicked around the idea of moving to a different swim, but we decided to hold off, mainly because we're both lazy.

<to be continued>

And then the rain moved in.

Just as we were beginning to dry out from our dip in the lake, we got absolutely soaked again. Well, me moreso than Steve since like a dumbarse I left my raingear at home. It lasted about an hour, and just as it started to let up, Steve got a run that turned into this guy. Can't remember weight or if we even weighed it.


About that time, Steve gets yet another run (did I mention Steve hauled today?) that ends up being a new PB, a 35lb. buffalo. This was Steve's second double of the day!



Chris showed up just in time to see those two fish. That's him giving Steve the ol' rabbit ears.

We sat around shooting the breeze (well, mostly trying to make Steve feel bad for getting all the action) and nothing much happened. At some point Chris starting catching occasional fish. I don't have any of Chris' pics on my camera, but he'll post his later. He got a few teeners and twenties, I don't exactly remember specifics, but he was catching pretty good.

As time went by, I started to get a little discouraged. Don't get me wrong, I love watching buddies catch fish, especially big ones, but I was starting to feel like my opportunity for the PB had slipped through my fingers with the snag fiasco. I got zero serious action for a few hours.

Then, at around 3:30, I got a screamer so I go sprinting to my rods. As soon as I picked it up, it took a 15 second burning run. I've never had that happen on the Euro rod. The letters "PB" started to creep back into my head as I got the fish closer and closer. By the time I had it to the net, Steve had informed me that it was a good fish, probably a PB!!

I was hoping 25 or so until I saw Steve struggle mightily to lift the netted fish onto the bank. Then I started thinking 30. When he set it on the mat, my jaw dropped. It was huge, the fattest carp I've ever seen with my own two eyes. I was then thinking maybe 35 and getting more and more excited. Chris had to unhook it as my hands were shaking too badly.

We lifted it onto the scale and Steve and Chris immediately got these big goofy grins on their face. I walked around to the other side to see the dial pegged right on 40. I think I nearly fainted lol. I couldn't even talk for 30 seconds or so. I couldn't do anything other than giggle like a schoolgirl and try to catch my breath. I think my state of mind comes through pretty well in the pics. Talk about a natural high!




Honestly, most of the rest of the day is a blur to me. Chris kept catching. He was monitoring an incoming storm system that looked to be less than an hour away so we started thinking about breaking down. Just as the thunder started to roll, Chris caught one that we all thought was gonna be a 30, but it turned out at 27 I think. You could have heard his F-bomb across the lake.

Steve caught the last fish, a teener. By that time, we decided to pack it up and we got it all together and loaded just in time. Just as we drove away, the big storm blew in. The combination of weather and traffic was rough for awhile, but we made it home safely.

I was going to wait till tomorrow to post this as I knew I would turn it into a book (sorry!) and I am now sitting on 30 hours since I last slept so I think I'm gonna hit the hay!

It was a dream day for us, and Chris and Steve, I had a blast with you guys today, and thanks to Zach and Scott for all your help and advice!

Also, sorry you prebaited for nothing Chrismunn, we really appreciate what you did even if we didn't take advantage!

That's a beast of a fish! Congrats man you look HAPPY!

I enjoyed reading about your trip and Congrats on your new PB!

That was one nice fishing trip!

great job guys ! especially to you ben to be able to hang out with steve for so many hours without a break hahah jk.... nice write up .....

awesome 40!!!!!!! another unbelievable session in Austin waters... congrats all around the PBs

Way to go guys. Very impressive fish. Great story.

wow you guys, thats amazing, great job out there!

Now that was worth the trip! Nice little honey hole. Still nothing for me from LBL. Maybe need to try another trip when I have a whole weekend and no rain in the forcast.

Nice read. Congrats

Great job!

Lol awesome!

thanks guys, it was truely a great day out there, we arrived at the swim around 6:30 and did a little scouting, we thought we were at the Gazebo swim but we could not find a gazebo anywhere, anyhow we scouted around the area of the Hostel and found a couple decent spots to fish, the time we were walking the bank we were hearing crashes on a regular basis so I turned to Ben and said that we should set up here and that I had a good feeling about it.
well you know how it played out, Ben of corse stold my glory,
*&^&*^*^*, haha, fantastic job bro.
Looking forward to another Austin trip in the near future.

congrats on your 40! that PB will be hard to break!

Well done guys! Way to follow your gut and get into the fish.