Fishing reports for
Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake)
at Austin Rowing Dock

Links

September 2, 2007 - Don Johnson

I fished from about 6:30 AM till about 10:00 AM. I had poor lock, catching only one 5 inch bass. As I was rowing back to the take out spot I was passed by a large kayak going the other direction about twenty yards away. The kayak contained a family: mom, dad, and two small boys about six and eight years old. As the kayak drew opposite my little kick boat, I heard one of the boys say "dad, that boat is silly".

So that was my morning; I caught no fish, and a kid called my boat silly.

August 19, 2007 - Don Johnson

Just like last week, I started from the Austin Rowing Dock at about 6:30 AM. I rowed upstream to the tail end of Redbud Island and fished down on the south side. I landed five small bass in the ten to twelve inch range and hooked two larger ones that I played for while before losing them. The larger of the ones that got away jumped once and gave me a good look at him. I am not sure how big he was, but he was big enough to have a little bit of a pot belly. If I keep hooking fish but not landing them, I may have to quit mashing down the barbs on my hooks! I saw a large water moccasin crusing along very close to the shore that I was casting toward. It submerged, and I kicked out farther from shore (actually I pulled my feet out of the water and rowed away from shore), but it resurfaces a little farther down the shore and kept on going. The snake caused me no trouble, but reminded me to pay attention the next time I went in to shore to retrieve a snagged fly. The flies that hooked fish were: a green and white wooden popper, a double aztec sunfish imitation, a brown and white flip-flop rubber popper, and an olive wooly bugger. My thanks to Bob Pool for the sunfish streamer design and for the rubber plug for the popper.

August 11, 2007 - Don Johnson

I started from the Austin Rowing Dock at about 6:30 AM. I rowed upstream to the tail end of Redbud Island and fished down on the south side. I repeated this loop several times until I called it a day at about 10:30 AM. I fished most of the morning with large green and white wooden, store bought, popper that was too big to be bothered by the small sunfish. I landed five bass: two dinks, two of approximately 14 inches, and one large one of about 18 to 20 inches. I did a long distance release on two others. The water was pretty clear; I could see objects at least 4 feet down.

I only saw one other fisherman, a short rodder, but there were quite a few rowers, single and team sculls, on the lake. While I was fighting the largest of my fish I kicked my pontoon boat out from the bank to keep the fish out of any possible snags. I looked up to see a woman in a single scull bearing down on me. I hadn’t seen her because I was concentrating on the fish, and she hadn’t seen me because she was, of course, facing backwards. I yelled and, though we bumped slightly, we managed to avoid a full speed collision. So, even though power boats are barred from the Lady Bird Lake, a fly fisherman can still get run over by a pleasure boat.

August 5, 2007 - Don Johnson

I launched my kickboat from the Austin Rowing Dock about 7:00 AM on Sunday. I rowed upstream about three quarters of a mile and fished my way back, along the south shore, to the dock. I caught many sunfish, but they were all in the four or five inch range. There wasn't a range of sizes from small to decent; they were all almost exactly the same small size. I also hooked four bass, of which I landed two. Of the two I brought to hand, the larger was about fourteen inches and the smaller was about eleven inches. One of the ones that got away, the smaller one was probably in the ten inch range, and the larger one felt and looked, in his one jump, larger than the fourteen incher that I landed.

Immediately upstream from the dock the south bank of the lake is low and a little muddy, but farther upstream, toward Redbud Island, this bank becomes a steep rock bluff. The bass were all caught along this steep bank. All the fish were caught on Miss Prissy, a store bought wooden popper.