Story by Nate Skinner, for Lone Star Outdoor News
Inconsistent weather patterns are keeping bass on the move across inland lakes. With both daytime highs and overnight lows reaching extremes in short periods, the fish haven’t been holding to steady patterns or trends. On warm, sunny days, the fish seem to be moving toward shallow water, and on colder days, are holding over deep structure. Anglers covering plenty of water and a variety of areas are having the most success.
According to Lake Fork guide Greg Hill, the water level on Fork is about 6.5 feet below normal. This has eliminated a lot of water, especially in shallow coves and flats.
“There are a lot of shallow water areas that are high and dry right now,” Hill said. All of our grassy areas and banks have no water over them. There’s no flooded grass to fish on Fork. It’s a real good time to go take note of where logs, trees and other structures in shallow, backwater areas lie.”
Hill said the fish are piling up in certain places, but they are not sticking around in these areas for long.
“I’ve been finding fish everywhere from 5- to 20-feet deep,” he said. “They are definitely moving around a lot with the constantly changing weather conditions. You have to cover a lot of water to get bit.”
Hill has been catching fish on jigs, Alabama rigs, crankbaits, and suspending jerkbaits. The best fish that he or his customers have caught recently were in the 4- to 5-pound range.
Cody Mason has spent some time on Fork recently, and he said he has been using the low water level to his advantage.
“I’m finding a lot of bass stacked up in 6 to 10 feet in the creek channel, working bends and the biggest pieces of wood that I can find,” Mason said. “There’s also plenty of fish around all of the bridges.”
Texas rigs, jigs, A-rigs and large swimbaits have been his bait presentations of choice.
“There have been a lot of fish in the 4- to 6-pound range, with an occasional bass pushing 8 pounds,” Mason said.
Mason said the new, exposed shoreline is also holding good numbers of bass, especially during warming trends on the days that heat up between cold fronts. “Stretches with 2 to 4 feet of water that have any sort of structure that might hold fish have been productive,” he said.
Mason also has been fishing on Lake Bob Sandlin, where the bass have been staging over grass. “Lipless crankbaits ripped through the grass have been the key on Sandlin,” Mason said. Rocks, rip rap and bridge aprons also have been productive.
Kayak angler Immanuel Barela landed a solid 5.25-pound bass on Lake Dunlap recently.
“The bite was pretty tough, and I had a few fish following the swimbait and jig I was throwing that wouldn’t eat,” he said. “The best bite was in about 12 feet of water on a jig bounced along the bottom.”
Barela also has been fishing on Lake Austin, where he’s been chunking large swimbaits to lure strikes from bass.
“I’ve had a lot of bass follow the swimbait almost all the way in and then refuse to eat it,” he said. “There have been some 3- to 4-pound bass willing to commit to striking the large lures, and I’ve had some bigger fish strike and then get off.”
The mouths of creeks, main lake points and bluff walls in 5-20 feet have been productive on the lake.
On Lake Falcon, guide Jimmy Steed said there were a few bass beginning to move up into typical pre-spawn areas prior to water temperatures dropping with recent cold fronts.
“Once the water temperatures dropped into the 50s, the shallow water fishing action tapered off quite a bit,” he explained. “There have been some bass in 15-18 feet that are really healthy and full of eggs.”
Steed said the fish have been all over the place with the changing weather.
“It’s been hard to stick to any particular pattern,” he said. “We’ve been catching them on a variety of baits including crank- baits, spinner baits and shaky heads.”
Steed has caught bass up to 9 pounds, but more of them have been 7 pounds and under.
On Lake Travis, guide Randal Frisbie said most of the bass are holding in up to 30 feet of water over structure off of points.
“The weather has been so up and down lately that these deeper areas have held the most consistent bite,” he said. “There are some fish shallower too, but they are definitely more spread out.”
