Went out to Dunlap today, water temperature was 76 by the launch ramp, 79 about half way up the reservoir. Water was clear until the no-wake zones, mildy clear thereafter. I did not fish north of the ramp.

Water traffic was very minimal, but there was one swell producing wakeboaring boat that was motoring up and down the river. Even as they went by slower than normal in this video, the oscillation from the retaining walls is hairy! Their previous loop they were towing two wakeboarders and the ballast tanks were full, darn boat looked like it was half sinking and the waves it was creating were big enough to actually cause shore break 2-3 feet away from the side of the lake. Surely a lot of fun, but I wouldn't want to be caught in a yak near a wall!!! - and it's happened to me once in my Coosa!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NRq3thQ0yk&feature=youtu.be

Bite was moderate...I did find several nests but Dunlap was not giving up it's 12"ers today. Caught dozens in the 5-7 range and a few 8"+ gills.

Beautiful Dunlap!








Overall I would say that as summer comes to an end, with the temps down a bit and the boat traffic lessening, Dunlap is a great spot!

Thanks "Drrouter" for a super report. Nice fish also. Seems Dunlap has been off since it has been filled back up. I have only had four very good days on Dunlap this past summer where I have caught nice Sunfish fish over 10". Like you have said there are plenty of 7" to 9" fish. Even those on some days have been hard to find.

BAF,

My experience is much more limited than yours, but those big red ears gotta be somewhere! I'm gonna spend more time at the south dam end to see if they are down there, but I want to wait until the skiing activity diminishes.

Last year was epic, for sure. Day after day of 10-12" gills.

We all were spoiled last year! They cant stay hidden all the time. Soon or a later we will find em.

im going to chime in here and say that I dont think its just a lake Dunlap issue. I have 2 great lakes here that were producing 12" fish on a very regular basis. Now a 10" fish is quite a different story. They are plentiful and everywhere, but the big fish are just not to be found.
I have no idea as to why this is occurring on seperate systems. But it is. When I saw this post I was sure I would see finally a large fish from Dunlap. Weather? Last summer was much worse. Pressure maybe, but not likely, These guys are used to a 4 month long high pressure system by now. And as far as the bright sun this summer we all know BAF, has plenty of shade where he is fishing. Boys, I have no idea what is going on, but at least Its good to know this is not an isolated occurrence. Any ideas, please Router make a new topic....Btw we have not seen any big 10" greens from the metroplex this summer like we did last year. Sorry to hi-jack your post but this has been bothering me for some time now

I don't normally measure them, but a few were close to 9 to 10 inches. The third pic down was probably a 9 inch fish.

For sure I didn't find any lurkers, although I did have a monster on over by an area called 'the stones', which is right across from the apartment complex, where the gravel beach used to be (when the water was low). I fish there a lot and something fierce hit it - could have been a bass, don't know. But I was using meal worms and generally bass above 12" don't hit on meal worms.

I have just gotten use to being soaked and the back end of my yak full of water and everything I own from being on Lake Austin. The wakes are like nothing else when it is busy. I swear Sunday I almost went back end over front from a wave. Really scary stuff.

I am thankful you made a Dunlap report. If all pans out, I will be going this weekend. Hopefully my conditioning from Lake Austin will allow me to survive.

I got to totally agree with you Kent. I talk with other anglers who fish Dunlap a lot and even the Bass seem hard to find. Most I have spoken with have said they have had more average to bad days than good days. You will always have a few exceptions of an angler who just happens to hit a lake at the right time and he will nail some pretty good fish. One thing for certain we were seeing a lot more bigger fish last year. You know the old saying "Keep fishing and good things will happen"!

I think the traffic will taper off starting this weekend coming up. The area right across from the apartments is very productive.

Nice seems like you did pretty good catching them gills ! Can't wait to get back to dunlap and catch those big redears

We gotta find em' first!

I went up to Dunlap on Saturday and did fairly well but like you said there was alot of boat traffic out that day. I made the second turn near the Apartments and went down into the feeder creek from the water treatment plant and did really well in there on some Rio's and Bass. Caught my first coppernose BG up near the dam. Beautiful weather and clean crisp water. It was a nice day. Good Job.

Nice fish. I am also having a hard time locating the bigger fish on Mcqueeney. My first year fishing there I was getting a few nice ones each trip. Now it seems that I am getting only one or two nice sunnies every other trip. Just makes me want to fish more!

Nice pics!!! Even if the big boys didnt show themselves the worst day on the water is better then the best day at work.

Looks like the lunker life for sure!!!

The water level on Dunlap had to have some effect, but I think the time of year is also a big part of it.

If I look at the pictures of the huge sunfish I caught last year, I was wearing warm clothes. I don't recall catching the big ones during the summer. In fact one of the best trips I did with Drrouter was in January 2012 (so it was actually this year).

Fishing usually slows some in the winter, but it has never failed me that I always catch the biggest fish in the dead of winter! So hopefully our best fishing of the year is still to come!