I don't know about y'all but I've been very surprised with how mild the heat this summer has been. Compared to last summer with 45 consecutive days of triple digit temps, this summer has been way cooler and I'm very thankful for that! This week the weather forecast is looking a lot cooler with a little chance of some decent rain... it looks perfect to get out on the water and do some bass fishing.
I finally bought a new truck, so I've been traveling around fishing some other lakes besides Lake Travis. But for this report I'll focus on Lake Travis and Lake Decker as I have the most info to share for those lakes.
Lake Decker
Currently Lake Decker is fishing REALLY good... if you are reading this report right after I post it and have been thinking about booking a trip, now is the time! My last couple of trips have caught 20-40 fish with a lot of big fish mixed in. The schooling bite out there has been really good. We've been catching them by chasing schools of bass out in the main lake with livescope and throwing moving baits like flukes, jerkbaits, swimbaits, and best of all... topwater lures!
If you are headed out there, there are a couple patterns working well. For the best bite I recommend spending time graphing around areas of the main lake that are holding a lot of shad. Where there are balls of bait, you'll find more schools of bass. During the summer months a lot of fish move offshore and chase bait. They will do this all day, but I find the best time is in the morning. Weather patterns such as cloud cover can extend the prime schooling bite though. Once it gets hot out though, I do find a lot of fish move back out to deeper grass.
As I mentioned, the most fish and the best bite is chasing the schooling fish around the lake. There are a couple key areas that they consistently school in, my Honey Hole Report will show you exactly where to go. If you're headed out there on your own I recommend turning on your 2D sonar and your side imaging at the highest frequency your transducer is capable of, and setting it to 80 feet out on either side of your boat. Get out in the middle of the lake and spend some time graphing around. The schools of bass will show up as small bright dots close to one another on side imaging. But more importantly, you are looking for the bait. You'll find bait pretty much everywhere around Lake Decker, it's a super healthy lake. However, you will find certain areas where its obvious there is way more balls of bait. This is where you want to start fishing. Livescope makes this super easy, within a minute you can pan around and tell if there are bass or not. If you don't have that sonar though I recommend watching the surface of the lake for any signs of life. Bass jumping out of the water will be obvious, but also keep your eyes peeled looking for any disturbances from shad being pushed to the water's surface. Rotate through a variety of your favorite shad pattern baits. I would recommend a Zoom fluke, a 6th Sense Provoke DD jerkbait, a small paddletail swimbait like a 3.2 6th Sense Divine swimbait, and a topwater lure like a Dogma or Catwalk.
If you are out fishing the grass I recommend two ways of fishing. #1 is to get out early and throw a topwater frog. The 6th Sense Vega frog in Gilliken is a really good one that has been working well. Get those casts way up inside the reeds and put it in those hard to get little pockets... that is where you will get most of your bites. From the reeds to about 15 feet out is really all you want to be fishing. Anything further out than that typically doesn't get many bites.
The other thing I recommend is fishing deep grass. You can totally get bit fishing the grass that grows up along the reeds. However, in some places you can find deep isolated patches of grass with your side imaging. Spots like these not only get less fishing pressure but tend to hold more fish as they are further off the bank and in a little deeper water. Presentations like a drop shot, a free rig, a neko rig, or a Texas rig are all great options. When fishing play around with different baits and colors. When I fish Decker I am constantly alternating between these trying to better pattern the fish. There are a few key colors I've been using that my Honey Hole Report will talk about, but colors like Junebug and Green Pumpkin are consistent producers on Lake Decker. When it comes to fishing a plastic out there in the grass, when you think you are fishing slow enough, fish slower!
I live pretty far Decker nowadays, but I still love that little lake. I have a full day minimum for Decker, but my rate for that lake is the same, and right now it is well worth it! Give me a call or book online to reserve your trip!
Lake Travis
The bite on Lake Travis has been a bit slower with the hot weather. I've been seeing the water temps out there around 86-89 degrees. With that said I've still had some really fun trips out there recently, I just have to work a little harder to find the fish. My biggest piece of advice on that lake right now is to get out early and move around often. If you fish a spot for 20 minutes and don't get a bite, try another spot. Locating small schools of fish, or locating more active fish is key to catching numbers. The two main ways I recommend targeting fish is locating schools of suspended fish up around docks, and fishing deep bluff walls.
Lake Travis has quite a few big marinas that sit over deep water out over the river channel. Some of these marinas hold big schools of bass and can be prime spots in the early morning. I like starting at 6AM and throwing some small topwater baits, flukes, swimbaits, and spoons for bass I see chasing bait to the surface. If you have livescope this kind of fishing is much easier. I recommend adjusting your gain a few percent higher than normal, range to 90 feet, and depth to 25 feet, you typically won't see the bass deeper than that. Pan around and try to locate active fish, once you find them keep your transducer on them and track the direction the school is swimming. These fish tend to move a lot and your ability to put the bait out in front of where they are swimming will improve your chances of getting bit.
Deep bluff walls is another place you can get bit right now. Bass love going deep when it's hot and bluff walls allow them to do this without having to swim too far. In addition to that they provide good habitat and ample food in the form of crawfish, sunfish, bluegills, cichlids, and other species of minnows. Throwing a finesse bait like a ned rig, a small jig, a Texas rigged craw, or a drop shot are all great options when you need to go deep, downsize, and fish slower to get bit. The key with fishing these bluff walls is slowing down enough to ensure you are maintaining bottom contact. When letting the bait sink allow it to do so on a slackline, this helps prevent the rig from swinging back towards your boat. In addition to this, try pausing longer than you think is necessary, especially if you are having trouble feeling the bottom. My last tip is to go as light as you can in terms of weight. It can be tempting to go really heavy since you are fishing deeper, but this tends to cause more snags and makes your bait sink too fast. Unless it's very windy I try not to go too heavy with my weights. When it comes to picking colors of your baits, a good rule of thumb is the clearer the water, the more natural of colors you should try. When picking baits gauge it based on where you are fishing and the water clarity. You'll notice a big difference in water clarity from the upper end of the lake down to the lower end by the dam.
As of writing this report Lake LBJ is getting some heavy inflows of water from the Llano River. The LCRA has opened the dam on Max Starke and Tom Miller dam up river releasing it to Lake Travis. The last I read the LCRA is expecting Lake Travis to come up about 5 feet... I sure hope its more than that! But any new water in the lake is a blessing. Hopefully it comes up enough to flood some of the brush that's grown in around the lake. You can see more info on the lake levels and inflows from the various creeks and rivers in our watershed on the LCRA's hydromet website. Check back periodically on my site's fishing reports for updates on the bite and lake level. I expect that once the water level settles and things calm down that some fish will move up to feed in that new shallow brush. I'm excited for that!
If you want to get out and catch a bunch of fish, or learn our local lakes better, reach out and book a trip today!
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