Some days you can even find some good ones on top waters. While they may not be locked on bed at this time, they will hover in and out of the areas which they will be spawning in. I always tell clients, spring and fall are hands down my favorite time of year to fish. You need to have the confidence that you can feel your bait hitting the bottom and be confident its down there where the fish are. I believe that starting your fishing trip early in the morning this time of year seems to yield more bites and fish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgP4t5LSesM. 6,540 Readers. In the past I would wait until the fish jumped to start casting. We have found the walking the dog baits have been very productive (Zara spook style). Now with that said, these fish are not easy to catch. If the fish want structure or shade, that is where they are forced to go. I typically start with a brown craw color this time of year, but if Im not getting bit on it I will quickly switch to a shad pattern. By this time the bass have begun spawning and will continue to do so the rest of the month. Once again, these lures would be most effective when color matched to the predominate prey species in your fishery. For me a bone or shad colored topwater walking style bait such as a Heddon Spook is a prefered bait. Catching them will soon be on more moving baits such as spinner baits, crank baits, swimbaits, etc. It is subtler moving, as they dont have lots of appendages flapping around. Make sure you are getting your casts very close to the structure, the closer the more bites you will get! One tip though, if you are fishing on the upper end of the lake where the water is a bit more stained, consider adding some chartreuse dye to the tail of your bait. These are places that I have been focusing on heavily during my guided trips as of late. Most weekdays we have the lake to myself aside from a few dock builders boats. Temperatures above that are more comfortable for those not acclimated to the cold. Humidity is close to 71%. If the bass you are targeting are not getting fired up with the fast moving bait, slow down. If you purchase a report and dont think it was worth your hard earned money I will refund you no questions asked! Raising funds for water-related causes is an excellent World Water Day activity. I prefer the crankbait and Alabama rig when there is a little bit of wind or cloud cover, I find those conditions help. Crankbaits fished in the same places I fish the topwater plugs have also been very productive. Winter fishing, if you read last months report this will be quite similar. The fishing is only going to continue to get better over the next couple months! A quick tip is to look for Blue Herons and Egrets, these birds feed on the shad and are a dead giveaway to the presence of bait fish. Quick, accurate casts into the schools of bass hitting the surface are key to getting bit. Keep in mind though the seasonal transition these fish make has to do with water temperature and not the date on the calendar. In most of the country December means winter fishing. The process begins with the fish finder, your underwater eyes. These feeding windows are often short lived, so dont waste time taking selfies, measuring the fish, or Face Timing your fishing buddies, get back to fishing! For the topwater spook I work this a little faster giving it a walk the dog action while pausing it every 5-6 feet. Please feel free to visit my website, or give me a call! November is my favorite time of the year to fish. As we move into early fall, we are finding fish near creek channel swing banks, on the main lake. Theyre my personal favorite at least! February is broken up into two main patterns, winter fishing and pre-spawn fishing. There are a couple baits that I like to throw in particular when the bass are spawning. When I find fish out deep I pay attention to how they are positioned on the fish finder to help me decide what bait to throw. I recommend fishing deep secondary points, ledges, and the middle of creek channels. Ledges, points, bluff walls, and rockpiles in 25-35 feet of water are your best bet. Temperatures average 74 to 94 degrees in the summer and 40 to 70 degrees in the winter. Time to buckle down and focus, because the easy fish have been picked off. On days with no clouds and no wind you have to really fish a little stealthier and slow down your presentation. Summer conditions are still here and will be for at least the next month or two. Cover as much water as possible and fish fast! I tend to find them suspended 10-20 feet under the docks in the shade. Coves that are protected from the wind will be the first places I look. 6,013 Readers. Best Lake Travis Lakeside Restaurants. If you follow me on social media you probably have noticed a lot of posts from Lake Travis. Typically it takes several cold fronts and several days of extended cool temperatures before you see the surface temp of the lake actually start to drop enough to have an effect on the fish. If you intend to stay in the water for a while a thin shorty wetsuit will suffice. I promise you will not find a guide in Austin with a better boat! However, the bulk of these fish will likely be post spawners. Warmer water instinctively tells the fish that it is time to build nests and lay eggs. Most of the time I fish this bait on a or 3/8th ounce lead head. Make long casts up forward of your boat and get close to the shoreline. Top Bassmaster Tournament Lures on Lake Travis (slide show), Its May and the fishing is really strong on Lake Travis. We are still in the season of the spawn. Be focused on creek channels, or the river beds at the bottom of the lake. Also, we have been getting into a lot of White Bass. Look for ledges and points that are close to a creek channel and you will likely find these fish. During the spring bass move up shallow to build nests and lay their eggs. During this time of year I rely a lot on my fish finders to help me locate these offshore schools of bass. The biggest fish want the best possible combination of cover and favorable environmental conditions. These are paid reports that I update every Thursday at 6PM and include 5+ EXACT locations on the lake where I am catching fish with my clients. Football jigs and finesse jigs with a craw style trailer work very well and tend to draw larger bites. My two favorite trips to guide are trips with children and my coaching trips. I especially like it if there is a little wind blowing into the area I am fishing. We would recommend a small black and blue craw imitation, worked slowly on the bottom over brush piles or grass patches. My trips are geared around education, and I promise I can cut your learning curve drastically. Ive seen it as low as 61 degrees recently though. I do experiment a lot with colors and changing them up, but when in doubt one of these three colors will get you bit. While I dont like seeing the lake so low I do see it as an opportunity to get out and scout. In my previous report we discussed how the fish will move back into the coves to follow their food source of shad. You can find them hitting the surface on and off, live sonar such as Garmins Pantopix is also very useful to find these fish. Lake Travis has finally begun what I refer to as the fall transition. Repeated casts to high percentage targets, fishing quick, and rotating baits often will also help get you more bites. What this means is that your typical pre-spawn spots will reload quickly with different fish. You will also find a population of fish that stays out deep, even when its getting closer to sunset. Moving baits such as swimbaits and crankbaits is about to get good so keep trying those to get some good bites. Trooper said on April 29, around 11:56 p.m., a 2003 Suzuki . Be quick though. If you do not feel it was worth your hard earned money I will gladly refund your money. Look for docks in 20-35 feet of water that have metal staircases under them, use your side scan sonar to find the schools of Crappie and drop your baits down into the middle of the schools. There are days that Strategy 2 wont work, so dont try and force it. Knowing how to determine when a thermocline is present is something I cover during my guided trips. Bass are feeding heavily in pods and corralling their prey. . Spring is right around the corner! You can catch some up shallow in spurts and a few decent ones out deep with really slow presentations using jigs, t-rig worms and shaky heads. The slow fall of the bait can often get you bit. As the water gets colder expect the fishing to slow down a bit for the average angler. Currently water temps are around 60 degrees on the main lake, up to 64 degrees in the backs of coves. Spring is in the air, the weather is finally warming up, and the water temps are slowly rising. The backs of creeks also tend to warm up quicker than the main lake since they are not as deep. Before getting into that I should touch on the morning bite. During March there are two patterns I focus on pre-spawn and spawn fishing. Alternate between these baits as you figure out which one the fish have a greater preference towards. They can still find your lure, but I find it makes them a little less discerning and more likely to attach a fast flashy moving bait like an Umbrella Rig. Bites will be subtle but typically theyll feel like one light thump. If you are out there early either fishing from your boat, or at your marina getting ready for a fun lake weekend, have a rod at the ready rigged up with a small 3 swimbait smaller the better. The lower end of the lake feels more like just that a lake. We will also go in depth about how to use your electronics to find fish. Wind direction and depth along the bank is also important. Cast it right up against a dock and let it fall. Current water temps on Lake Travis are in the upper 80s, anywhere from 85-88 degrees depending on the time of day. As of writing this at the beginning of January, water temps are still in the mid 60s! A Heddon Zara Spook- A bone colored spook is one of my favorite topwater baits. For those of you with a boat headed out to the lake, consider checking out my Honey Hole Reports. Water temps throughout the winter have been cold. If youve been wanting to get out of the house and catch some fish, visit my website and book a trip! When it comes to pre-spawn bass there are a lot of lures you can throw, but I will limit it to my top three baits: a Medium diving crankbait, a jerkbait, and an Alabama Rig. Be patient and make sure to let you worm float down to that depth before slowly twitching it back to the surface. Natural colors like green pumpkin have been best, however add some orange to whatever bait you are fishing. I mention all this because I hear about a lot of people fishing elsewhere due to Travis being low. Fish baits that are fast moving, throw off a lot of vibration, or have some flash to them. Jul 1, 2009. Live view forward facing sonar such as Garmin Panoptix has been vital to catching these fish when they are on the move chasing bait. Once you see water 59 degrees or higher you can expect a change in the bass behavior. When I get younger children in the boat the trolling bite has been the ticket lately. Lake Travis Vacation Rentals There are several ways I have figured out how to catch them and have produced some very big limits this way. That still is the most consistent pattern for me, with a few exceptions, which we will get too. Check out the photo above of my client Brenda holding up a nice bass! Water Data For Texas Lake Travis: 44.0% full as of 2023-04-29 Recent Historical Statistics Look for fish in anywhere from 20-40 feet of water. Largemouth bass are at their heaviest when they are full or eggs but have yet to lay them. April fool's Day produced the catch of the week. I am an open book with my clients and will treat the day as if we were practicing for a fishing tournament. Water clarity is still very good, Lake Travis is known for being very clear, but at the present time can be a bit more cloudy in some areas depending on the wind. Stick to shad pattern baits until the water temps get down into the 70s, then start throwing some crawfish colors. This is the time of year when the water temps start dropping from their summertime highs and some fish start moving up more shallow. A watermelon red trick worm on a shakey head has been our ticket the last few weeks. Get out there and catch a few! Currently water temperatures are in the 85-88 degree range with temps varying slightly depending on the time of day you are on the water and what end of the lake you are fishing. During the hottest months of the year the bass go deep to offshore points, humps, ledges, marinas and bluff walls. . I completely disagree! During the fall, crawfish become a large part of a bass diet. Dont get me wrong, I love fishing jigs, Texas rigs, drop shots, etc but getting slammed on a moving bait like a swimbait is a blast since there is no doubt when you get a bite! Bass fishing in September on Lake Travis can be a very fun time to hit the water! Bright colored baits allow you to visually see the fish eat the bait and thus set the hook quicker. I have some tips for you that will help put more fish in the boat. Guided tours are October through April, Saturdays at 10:00 am (weather permitting) and are limited to the first 30 . I should note, I also throw this bait a lot in red and orange as well, to imitate crawfish. www.torwicksguidingservice.com. It is a bait I pick up selectively, throw three or four times, then set it down. Key baits this month, when the fish are on bed, are bluegill imitations like square bill crankbaits or small swimbaits. These reports are updated each Thursday at 6:00PM with fresh info. Host a fundraising event like a boat party, boat parade, water sports tournament, charity fishing tournament, or water conservation auction, and donate the proceeds . Lets not forget about the white bass run that is taking place farther up lake (up river) and the crappie that will soon be showing up in the shallows and the marinas to spawn. Jun 26, 2009 . Sunset Water Utilities has the rights to 348.74 acre-feet of groundwater but is only permitted to use 152.5 . Lake Travis Fishing Guides When bass are on a nest they become very territorial. However, if you are fishing the day after a front moves through and are facing blue bird skies and north winds, the bite can be pretty slow no matter how skilled of an angler you are. The graph below shows the range of monthly Lake Travis water temperature derived from many years of historical sea surface temperature data. Days with no wind, high barometric pressure and sunny skies will make fish move a little deeper and hold tight to cover. First off, while we are experiencing this cold front expect the bite to change and the fish to react to it. Medium Diving Crankbait When I find fish on the graph, especially if they are suspended this is how I like to try and catch them first. When the fish are like this I approach them in two ways. Lake Travis has an abundance of deep points and deep ledges. This is important because it brings cool, oxygenated water and food to the bass. This stuff will attract them really well! Windblown areas can also be great as they congregate bait fish and other prey species. Once you have found some fish, or pulled up on your favorite spot, there are a couple baits I recommend you have tied on. The water temperature on Lake Travis is in the high 50s to low 60s, so pretty warm compared to the rest of the country this time of year! What I mean by this is when you find a stretch of shoreline where there is only one dock on it, that will be a hot spot. Crankbaits are excellent search baits to cover a lot of water. During the winter I will pause my bait a lot longer than I normally would. Lake Austin is a popular spot for boating and fishing, as it has a massive population of bass, many of which weigh over 10 lbs. If you are fishing later in February start looking for the tops of small ledges that are close to deep water. You may also get more aggressive with your approach and hop the bait more erratically and even try to bump the bait into the fishs nose. Consider purchasing one today! I recommend throwing this on braided line with a fluorocarbon leader. Weve had some really productive trips lately, so dont let the fear of summertime fishing stop you from hitting the lake. I also encourage you to follow me on Instagram @LakeTravisFishingGuide I post daily on there with tons of great Lake Travis fishing content! Whilst sea temperatures for Lake Travis are as accurate as current data allows, there may be slight local and regional variations depending on conditions. A good mess of white bass and crappie make for a great fish fry and table fair. Now that its that time of year for these fish to start transitioning you can expect to find some populations of fish moving closer to coves. Once summer gets here and the water warms more fish will start to move out of the coves and out of the shallows to deeper cooler water. (Something to note, the words get interchanged often but structure is technically contour changes such as points or ledges, cover is an object or objects that create an ambush spot for a bass think docks, brush piles, stumps. Until the water gets a little colder, they will continue to do so. Its the same underwater this is what I am referring to, so look for this type of bank! Great targets can be points, docks, seams, or any other obvious transition where bass have an opportunity to ambush. The shorelines of Lake Travis hold all types of forage including threadfin shad, sunfish, bluegills, and cichlids that these bass will hunt for. Our morning started on a deep chunk rock near Starnes Island on the lower end of the lake. Getting that jig as close as you can to the backs of the docks near the staircases is going to get you bit. Bring your swimsuit and jump in the lake to cool off before getting back to fishing! This style of fishing will last a few more weeks. Personally I prefer winter fishing to summer fishing, but as water temperatures drop, the fishs metabolism slows. These baits and rocks dont mix, so do not let it hit the bottom. During this time of year bass also tend to hang out in schools out deep. If you purchase one of my Honey Hole Reports and dont think it was worth your hard earned money I will gladly refund your purchase. While I do not offer guided Crappie trips, there are some nice ones in Lake Travis. Look for structure such as main lake points, ledges, and deep rock piles. Water temperatures are currently between 67-69 degrees, but with temps forecasted in the 80s all next week I expect to see temps finally get over 70. There are a lot of versions of this bait, a vixen, sexy dawg, spook, rover, dogma, etc are all good choices by various bait companies. The bass fishing on Lake Travis has been great, and will only continue to get better throughout April! Instead, I am looking for the first stretch of deep water out in front of the areas where the fish have been spawning. When you take a good look at the size of Lake Travis, this large water mass is quite impressive. A bass eggs will not hatch until the water temps are in the low 60s. I am focused on water in the 10-15 ft depth range. With the lake so low there is a lot of good structure at the right depth out close to the river channel on the main lake. A Texas rigged curl tail worm, a wacky rigged senko, and a flipping jig are all baits I like throwing around this kind of cover. I like to keep the sinker only 4-6 inches from the hook, this way the bait isnt up above the fishs head. Honestly I have been throwing a little bit of everything as far as baits, but a chrome pop-r and a whopper plopper in a shad color has been consistently getting bit. As I mentioned earlier though, crawfish are a large part of their diet too. They are not interested in eating it, just hurting or killing it. Once you determine these factors, you can select a presentation to suit the specific situation. Texas rigged craw style plastics work well too, but a personal preference of mine is a jig. However, on overcasts days you can get them to bite it all day long. Lake Travis average April sea temperature Max: 23.6C / 72.1F Avg: 20.6C / 69.1F Min: 17.7C / 66.2F These figures are calculated from several years of recorded data and are the maximum, minimum and average temperatures of all the recorded years Average April sea temperatures C F Feb Mar Apr May Jun 0C 10C 20C 30C Alternate between these baits and target points and drains outside of areas bass spawn. Water clarity on Travis is generally very clear year round. Stick to colors that imitate a baitfish, anything white, grey or silver will work well. Visit https://www.torwicksguidingservice.com/shop-2 to check out these reports! When starting your search for deep summertime bass try targeting areas 20-40 feet deep, there is no need to look deeper unless there is no thermocline present. In particular, I look for shorelines that have small rocky drop offs, or veins of rock as I refer to them. Not that you cant catch them, but you have to work hard for them. With that said, some largemouth bass will make a migration to the shoreline early in the morning and late in the evening right before sunset to feed. Also, it provides an opportunity for fish to suspend over deep water in a secure environment. AUSTIN, Texas The mean water level on Lake Travis is 657 feet above sea level, or 64.5% full, down from the same time a year ago. On days when we have weather moving through or some cloud cover, that deep crank bait can work well to fire up a school of hungry bass! If you have a boat and fish Lake Travis on your own, consider checking out my Honey Hole Reports. They do this during the early hours of the mornings, so getting on the water early is your best bet for success. 6,011 Readers. I stick with a 3.8 fat swing impact of a 4 inch Easy Shiner in shad colors. Those areas of gravel, sand, and small chunk rock dont really provide anything for the bass. While this may all sound like doom and gloom, fear not! For trips with children I recommend a half-day trip. If you are fortunate to have a stable weather pattern, and you employ Strategy 2, chances are you could catch a giant. Also, time your fishing so that the areas you plan to fish have had some time to warm up before you fish them. I like to use a crawfish scent on my plastics to make it a little more enticing. The fish will seek out protected areas away from wind and boat traffic where they will not be disturbed. They will eat though if something easy to catch goes past their face. I have caught fish from 10 feet all the way down to 35 feet. Watermelon and Green Pumpkin have been the best colors lately with the water being so clear. All of these baits can be fished deep effectively yet slowed down to maintain bottom contact. Flukes can be deadly as they represent the migratory baitfish and can be color matched to be even more effective. We will go over how to set up your graphs, what each sonar frequency does and when to use them, and how to interpret what you are seeing on the screen. On windy overcast days, especially if the barometer is dropping from weather moving in, I like to get on main lake points and shorelines getting hit by the wind. Now with that being said the bite has begun to slow up a bit with the warming water. My biggest piece of advice this time of year is to get out early while its cool, avoid the weekends when its busy, and pack lots of cold drinks! Ambush points are always good places to look, but sometimes they just relate to structure since its instinctual, not always to position themselves to feed.I approach these the same way I approach ledges as far as baits. Jun 28, 2009. When they do this you are able to sight fish for them and catch them off their nests. Make long casts with your spook across main lake points or ledges adjacent to deep water. One morning produced back to back 6 pound bass on a windy point on a weighted fluke. What is the Ideal Swimming Temperature? It was a very subtle bite today but a lot of fun!
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