My clients caught five species of fish during the morning trip! The bass fishing on Lake Travis has been absolutely phenomenal for the past few months. When the water surface temperatures were in the low 70s and the shad were spawning, we were catching 30 to 40 bass in a four-hour half day trip. The largemouth bass and white bass could be easily found each morning fishing the grass flats off the Pointe Venture peninsula and other grass flats around the lake. This was just one of the many predictably patterns that we were fishing to catch fish from sunrise to sunset. Now that summer is “officially” here in Central Texas the water temperatures have soared to the low to mid-80s. Some of the fish have migrated to cooler shaded areas near deeper water. In the past week, we have added main lake, deep water, marinas to the rotation where we are consistently catching good numbers of bass. For a successful day on the lake, I would recommend starting at one of the main lake marinas at least 30 minutes before sunrise. The feeding frenzy is a sight to see as groups of bass breach the surface knocking shad into the air. A fast topwater bait on swimbait can get the attention of these more aggressive bass. Once the sun comes up and the schooling activity dies down, move to the outer edge of the grass flats. The water here will be around 15 to 20 feet deep. Fish the grass wall with swimbaits, flukes, jigs and other Texas rigged soft plastics. Craws and big worms are catching the better fish in these areas. When the sun is high in the sky, targeting shaded areas on the deep bluff walls of the channel swings. These areas tend to hold quality fish all year round. Follow @fishingwiththefriz on Instagram and let us know if these tips help you have a successful trip on the water!

To say it’s been a hot summer here is Central Texas would be a huge understatement of the relentless heat we are experiencing. The first 100-degree days starting in May this year and continued through June and July. I been running mostly early morning trips for the past month so we can get to the first marina by 6:15 am when the sun is just starting to come up and the bass are starting their morning feeding frenzy. We are usually off the water by 10 or 10:30 when the temperature is just getting into the mid-90s. Even with the water temperature pushing 90 degrees on Lake Travis and in the mid-90s on Lake LBJ, I’ve been able to have a very consistent bite for my clients and catching 15 bass on average in a four-hour trip. With the low lake levels (33 feet low at the time of this report) the shoreline has exposed new layers of limestone to the wave action. This is given the lake a very nice lime green stain and reduced the visibility from 15 feet down to about 3 feet from the dam to Lago Vista. (25 miles). This is helped the bite tremendously in the past few weeks. A dropshot worm and a shaky head craw continue to put up to five Guadalupe bass in the boat each trip. There are about three 100 yard stretches around the lake where I’m able to rotate through throughout the week and catch several Guadalupe bass and an occasional largemouth bass. These areas are all deep bluff walls on the main lake where the boat is sitting in 50 to 70 feet of water, and we are throwing the bait right at the bank. The strike usually happens in just a few sweeps of the rod as the bait falls down the various ledges on the bluff wall. This bite is supper soft, and even experiences anglers can miss the bite. When I doubt, set the hook!! Fishing the bluff walls is not something I focus on during the trips. It’s more of a spot along the way from marina to marina. The first spot and last spot of each trip have been one of three marinas that hold several hundred bass. Yes. Hundreds. During a few brief periods throughout the day, you can see 40 to 50 bass breaking the surface in a feeding frenzy. This is the time you want to have your bait in the water and not looking at the bass in amazement! This happened a few weeks ago when I was reeling a solid bass on a whopper plopper. My clients were from up north and have never seen such a site. The stood there holding their rods which has the little swimbait dangling just inches away from the tip of the rod. “This would be a great time to make a cast!”, I said. I ended up boat flipping my bass just in time to grab the net to haul in their catches. It’s always nice to triple up!! The whopper plopper is such a simple bait for beginners. I’ve had youths as young as 9 years old catch some pretty good bass the past month on it. That bait tends to call the fish up from the depth where they are suspended around the marinas when they are not feeding. At time, it can even get a lethargic school fired up into a brief feeding frenzy. This is the time of year you always want to have your favorite topwater bait on deck and ready to cast. The marina bite should continue through summer and into early fall. Once we start getting some really cold night and there is fog on the lake in the morning, I’ll start looking for bait transitioning to the major creeks. When this happens, the bass aren’t far behind. There are many factors that can make fishing during the dog days of summer a success. Knowledge of fishing patterns, as well as what’s under the water, are key to catching bass when the water temp is pushing 90 degrees. Let Captain Randal with Central Texas Fishing Guide help guide you to success in fishing!

Winter is typically a very predictable time of year for fishing a specific pattern to catch deep, lethargic bass in Central Texas. You can usually find some deep offshore structures and throw a drop shot, structure jig, or Carolina rig to entice the lethargic bass to strike. However, this late fall / early winter has been a little different with the record-breaking heat wave covering the Central Texas region. Instead of the water temperatures dipping into the 50s, they have been steady at 65 degrees from the surface down to 50 feet. For the past month we’ve focused our attention much shallowed in the 5 to 12 foot range and catching good numbers of bass by fishing the grassy coves around the Pace Bend area of Lake Travis. Since the last big flood in October 2018, the grass has slowly been growing in the sand that was washed down from the lakes above Lake Travis. This factor, along with a consistent lake level, has allowed the aquatic grass to take hold and flourish. Grass is an absolute bass magnet when it’s not the main cover on the lake. The grass seems to pull the bait fish away from the closer docks where they would normally hang out. Where the bait fish goes, the bass tend to follow. We’ve been seeing huge pods of bait fish shallow in the top two feet of the water column near the grass. This isn’t typical in the winter when the water has been historically much colder. The two baits that have been catching 20 bass in a half day around the grass are the soft jerkbait and a whacky stick bait. If there are clouds and a little wind, ripping a soft jerkbait over the grass has been eliciting very good strikes from the active bass that are chasing down the bait fish. Following up in the same area with a finesse bait such as a whacky rigged stick bait tends to catch some of the bigger bass. The weather has produced many high-pressure systems sitting over the regions since September, making it the hottest September on record. These systems have continued through December, which also makes it the hottest December on record. Most of the days on the lake have been high-pressure days with very little wind and absolutely no clouds. If you can’t fish the grass in the first few hours of the morning or the last hours of daylight, it’s been extremely difficult to pull any bass out of the grass during the day. Once the sun gets high enough in the sky to cast good shadows around the docks and bluffs, we’ve switched over to the drop shot and shaky heads to load the boat with bass. Lake Travis has really become a finesse fishing lake for numbers with such clear water. A drop shot rig is probably the most frequently thrown rig on the lake because it reliably catches lots of fish. Many of my clients have caught lots of five, six, and seven pounders on the drop shot rig in 2021. Lately, I’ve been working some of my old favorites back into the line-up, like a weighted whacky rigged stickbait and a Texas rigged baby brush hog. Getting these baits down to the depths of 25 feet has been successfully catching the bigger bass. So even with the warmer weather the days are getting shorter, which may be driving the bigger bass into deeper waters out of habit. So if you’re hitting the lake this winter and the bite is getting tough, a simple change in depth can make a huge difference. Start on the main lake points or the bluff walls with a jig or drop shot and move further into deeper water until you find them. With good electronics you can quickly find where the bass are orientated in the water column. No need to fish the entire point if you’ve located bass suspended off a ledge in 30 feet of water. I hope you find this information helpful as we enter the winter months! Just remember, the bass will move deeper in the winter but may come up to feed if the bait moves shallow. Follow @fishingwiththefriz on Instagram and let us know if these tips help you have a successful trip on the water!