Fishing Austin, Texas

Fishing Austin has been a conundrum for the last decade, but you can still get hooked up… if you know where and how to fish.

Where to fish and what to use
Bait casting, by far the most popular type of fishing in Texas, can be done in any of a dozen lakes including Town Lake, Lake Travis, Lake Georgetown, Lake Austin, and Walter E. Long Lake. All hold fish but must be fished very differently. Live bait consists of shiners, worms, and crickets. Artificial bait for the lakes on the Colorado River system vary but plastic worms jigged along drop offs generally catch the most and biggest bass- if that’s the lunker you’re after. Berkely Powerbait Worms in the 7” size seem to work well in these lakes when used in watermelon, grape, or chartreuse. Bass in the myriad of ponds and streams around the Austin area will answer to a wider variety of baits such as spinner baits, top water baits, shallow water plugs, and pig and jigs. Lake Georgetown, with its deep crystal clear water requires clear or black baits only, with the bass there being the fussiest fish around Austin. Boat fishing and bank fishing is possible at any of these lakes, but there are two great places for shore fisherman or wade fisherman that you really can’t miss.

Brushy Creek
A fishing spot that gets overlooked in Austin all the time is this gem of a creek that runs out of Cedar Park- where you can catch-and-release at the YMCA park- through Round Rock-where you can fish at the *actual* round rock the city gets its name from- and out towards Hutto. Fishing with your kids is easy on this little patch of water where natural baits such as shiners and worms will produce a catch of sunfish, bluegill, crappie, drum, catfish, and small black bass. There the creek is just deep enough to canoe or kayak but the best way to fish it is simply to wade its warm waters slowly upstream. I suggest you take a friend with another car, drop one off at some point upstream and wade it together. It’s no fun fishing if you can’t compare your catches, is it?

Below the dam
On Austins Town Lake there’s a gem of a spot that’s seldom fished by the masses and is a delight for the flyfishing angler. At the top of the lake in the shallows below the dam can be found some of the best fishing in Austin for bass on a flyrod. Fish up to 3 lbs on light fly tackle are an exciting catch in this scenic spot in the heart of Austin. Wet flys prevail but there is some dry fly fishing available if you’re willing to cast from the rocks in the early morning and sunset hours. On any given day I’ve netted between two and five small bass in this fishy little hole and it isn’t uncommon to catch catfish on a flyrod there either.

Fish these spots and you’ll quickly find that nothing nets you a better day than fishing in austin, tx!