The Bass fishing is still great in Braunig and Cali...they look like mutant footballs!

I heard they blocked off the lake at the rail road bridge. They are putting a new gas line. I'm going Wednesday, I'll have to check it out.

Probably a lot of this is what's up. Even though these were from saltwater, I'm sure there have been similar hauls at Calaveras over the years.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...Goe#Post9505126

My fondest memories was when the bass fishing on Calaveras was at it's peak in the late 70's and early eighties. Loved fishing the club bass tournaments and also fishing for slab crappie. Calaveras was known statewide as one of the hottest bass lakes even thought highly above either Amistad or Falcon if you can believe that, but it's the truth.

I remember those days well Jimbo..hard to believe how fast the bass & crappie fishing declined. When Choke was built, a lot of the dedicated bass fishermen went with it.

I am a hug fan of Calaveras and Braunig for that matter. They both produce pretty well for being so fished from the guides, it gets pretty crazy during the summer if you are trying to downrig. But I live 5 min from Braunig and 15 min from calaveras so they are my lakes of choice.

Well I was wrong, okay mistaken. I went to Cali on Wednesday and they did not block off the bridge area. The water temp was 61. Did not see any fish till 18 feet. Wind was at 10-12 mph, drift fished with cut bait, caught 2 blue cats and two channel cats. Went to the bridge and caught 4 channel cats fishing the bottom with Sure Shot. Only kept the blue cats. Fished from 11am-3pm. Only saw about 4 boats.

Thanks RODD for the report. I'm thinking about going Sat. Did you try up by the power lines ?
Roger

I went saturday and caught 2 reds on shrimp. It was a very slow day. One of the guides was fishing next to me on the wall. He was catching cats with stink bait and i believe he was also using chicken liver. The crappy wall is aways good for a few cats.

and yes i do mean the crappy wall!

I am a little surprised that you caught reds..it's a little late in the season. I never made it to Calaveras. Had to do the WalMart thing instead.

Good lakes...if that's all you can do, I kinda stay away from reds with tan to brown meat that cal and braun lakes have...too scary for me, I stick with pretty white meat reds from corpus, huge difference!!!

I'm not really into eating fish unless I'm at Sea Island restaurant. I have had some great times over the years, fishing both lakes...catching & turning em loose.

Calaveras hasnt produced nearly the fish it used to, atleast for me. I used to catch dozens now i catch a couple on a good day.

I've got to agree with you saangler55, that's why I started this thread. I was wondering if it was just me or everyone else had noticed the same thing. I have my favorite "honey holes" at Calaveras & have fished them for years. Here I use to catch lots of reds, now I/m lucky if I catch 2. Stripers were an almost every trip thing... at lest a couple. Now I haven't caught a striper in over 2 years..fishing the same places & same bait. I have a feeling that stocking has been part of this budget cut.

It seems most folks are not reporting their catches either. This is how TPWD knows what and how many to stock......