I slept in and arrived late on the water at 10am. Weather was cold, clear and no wind. Since I knew there was some eel grass there, I headed to South Point Cove. Although I tried several different lures, I couldn't get a bite. Left there after about 45 minutes and headed over to Camping Loop Cove. Although it took 5 missed fish, I finally landed my first bass. I continued to catch a bass here and there on a small crankbait. After about 2 hours, I moved to South Shore Cove, but only caught one fish. Ran over to the shallow area in front of Swimming Deer Point, but no grass, no fish. I went back to Camping Loop Cove and had some moderate success, including a nice bass over 3 pounds. I finished the day checking out Stock Tank and Mid Lake Cove. Neither of these areas had any grass but I did manage a few fish in them. I wound up with 20 bass, but I missed SO MANY others! All in all, I was very happy with my day. Beautiful weather and a decent number of fish. You can't beat that!

Nice work Rayzor. Pretty typical day on Bastrop. You'd think there would be a good class of 4-5 pounders with as many small fish as that lake has, but I've yet to come across many...yet.

Rayzor, great report! I've fished that lake many times but I'm lost on the names you have for the coves/areas. Anyway you could send me a marked up map with names on it?

I have tried everything I can think of to download the LCRA map without any success. I cannot understand why there isn't a simple, old fashioned paper clip. Please copy below and see if this takes you to it.

https://maps.lcra.org/default.aspx?MapType=Parks

Thanks Rayzor. Now waiting for decent weather to go,.

Sorry to whoever i cut off Saturday on lake Bastrop. I tried to take my 3 year old out and he got cold while i was heading towards north shore park area so cut into a main lake cove to try to get a few cassts in before he asked to go home then realized someone was about to round the corner - when i fired up the mains he started to cry to i took my chances being an ahole fishermen over an ahole dad.

Has anyone been out on the lake lately? How's the water level and temps?
Hopefully the bite has picked back up.

Yea I was out on Lake Bastrop Monday 1/29 - I got out late because I started at 6am on Lake Austin - after catching only 1 fish on Lake Austin I left around 1pm to head home but stopped at South Shore Park.


It was a great day Monday after the storms on Lake Bastrop despite the 2pm start time - Third cast with a lighter colored swim bait I got a nice 2.5 lber and that pattern was consistent until i left around 5pm. Between 2pm and 5pm pretty much snagged one every few minutes along the main lake reeds while casting (I don't have ffs for whatever that is worth) I had my wife and 3 year old with me so also had to spend some time just flying around to make him happy...




Sorry I did not recall the temp but the water level is constent, i want to say it was around 58 degrees though. Great Bite - Always makes for a fun day.

I am glad you had a good day on the 29th. My Wife and I went Sunday (28th) and stunk it up. After catching more fish than I could remember on the 20th, we caught 7 fish. Water was somewhat warmer (56 degrees), but it was silted over from high winds. We are going to give it another shot tomorrow.

We went today and boy, what a day. Got up early to get the boat together and it was still raining. I was under the impression that it was going to stop by 7am. it finally gave up around 10:30am. Took off and stopped at Bucee's for bathroom and iced tea. Oh boy, right front wheel hub bearings are fried. Two hours later we took off for Bastrop. Fished from around 2:30pm to 5:30pm. Tough day with 10 bass total. All were small. Headed home and stopped in Giddings for fried chicken. Had to drive through a deluge of rain and wind. That wasn't expected either.

I think I may have saw you Sunday - Wasnt many boats out there.. I had to start late.

I lasted from about 11am to 1pm - I tried to hide from the wind back in a far cove around timber but only caught 1 dink back there.

Got 2 ok ones on the main lake reeds but the wind was a bit much so went home super early

Every time I get around that timber up north side i feel i will get my Bastrop PB but always get 1 dink back there if anything.

Headed up there to fish this Friday and Saturday. Hopefully they are turned on!

Nice thread!

Looks like rain all weekend.

We have a club tourney on Saturday, so I'm hoping for a little break in the weather!

Rain is trending down it seems but will be windy again...

Today is so perfect - as usual im working my office job 9-5 monday - friday is always perfect right! : /


I was working a jerkbait last weekend, blue and silver - worked well in the wind for me.

You guys launch out of north or south shore park? How many boats will I be contending with ?

I will be pleasure fishing so if you see a white/cream tracker feel free to blow up my spot or ask me to move along : )

ShaneTX, we have about 14 boats, so not a ton, but enough to be in the way!
I'll keep an eye out for you, as I'm in a Red/Black/White Skeeter and feel free to do the same!
I think we'll be fishing out of the North Park, but I'm staying at South Shore so I'm sure a few boats will put in there.
I'll also be out scouting on Friday, so say hi if you see me.

Road house up the road is a pretty decent place to grab a bite - really close to the lake. Good Luck, tight lines!

Good food, but expensive. Then again, where isn't expensive?

Right - I stop at buc ee's to get the efree gas in the boat - I use to go in an get a coffee and snack but after realizing it was adding 60 bucks to my fishing trips : ) - Now i point the other direction so the beaming lights don't entice me.

Are you talking about the mini-Bucee's in Giddings or the one in Bastrop?

Went with my high school buddy yesterday. Got a bit of a late start. Fishing started around 8:15 or so. Caught 35 total. Typical day on Bastrop. Catch quite a few...don't catch anything worth bragging about. One might have gone 3 pounds. Most a pound to two pounds cookie cutter Strop fish. All in less than 10 feet. Water temps 60 to 64 degrees.

We need an eel grass report.

Less than 10! Great fly fishing depth. Haven't been to Strop in a while - eel grass problems? Or benefits?

Last time out the only eel grass I found was S.E. of the dam. We stayed north Friday. No eel grass I saw in the N.E. area.

The difference in the eel grass on the north and south sides is significant. I don't buy "the eel grass was killed off by cold weather" baloney coming from LCRA, TPWD, the Lake Bastrop parks or Sam Gideon power plant. Cold weather didn't selectively kill the grass on one side.

I fished Friday for practice day and Saturday for our club tournament. Friday the pattern seemed to be weightless worms or flukes on the edge of the reeds and above the grass. Also picked up a few with a small swimbait and spinnerbait.
Saturday seemed better for me. Started off with a few quick dinks in the discharge. Couple on topwater and then weightless flukes. Moved out of the discharge down the reed line and picked up a few more on weightless worms and small swimbait up against the reeds and over the grass. Moved over to Scouts Cove and the same pattern worked along the reeds. Then the storm moved in and I caught my biggest of the day (18.5") in the S Bend of the discharge on a shakyhead. Caught about 8 more in the exact same spot for about 20 mins. After the rain, I moved down to just outside the intake bouys and picked up a few more on spinnerbait, weightless worm and swimbait. Ended the day in Stock Tank Cove along the reeds with the swimbait.
Overall it was a pretty decent day on Bastrop for most of our club. Our club (Katy 4F Bass Club) had 14 boats total. I think I heard of 2 other clubs fishing that day with 3-4 boats in each club.

Forgot to add a special shout out to Forum member Boomer for the tips on the eel grass in Camping Cove. I chatted with him in his kayak for a bit on Friday and he passed along some good tips.
Camping Cove has tons of eel grass along with South Point Cove and Stock Tank Cove as well.

Sounds like things are picking up nicely.

The Strop, wonder why them fish never get any bigger?

Camping Loop Cove has the most productive eel grass on the lake right now. Personally, I always fish South Point Cove because of the numerous eel grass patches, but I never catch any fish in there.

Went Wednesday and water temps are moving up pretty quick. Water temps were around 58 - 60 early, but it got up to 82 degree Wed and by noon most of the areas I fished were in the mid 60's water temps. Fished 7:30 to about 2:30. Caught 19. The jig bite is on!! 13 or 14 of them came on a jig and they were thumping it. I couldn't get much of a bite in the reeds. I think I caught 3 or 4 in/around the shallow stuff in less than 3 feet. Most of the jig bites came in around 8 - 10 feet of water. Typical Strop bass though. Biggest was about 2 3/4. Most were around 2 pounds with a couple of real dinks. And the two smallest came on the jig as well. Did hook into one that looked to be close to 4 on a ned rig in 18', but she pulled off at the boat. I'm really just learning Bastrop and found a really cool drop off with a very small defined hard spot. Got 3 or 4 bites on it, but it looks like it will be more of a summer time pattern hole. All in all a beautiful day and nothing better than a jig bite!

We went today. It is a 2-hour 15-minute drive from our house, so we didn't get on the water until 8:30am. With the full moon and clear skies, we could have been fishing at 6:30am. I was wondering if the beautiful weather and low winds would bring out the boaters, and it did. We wound up with 27 LMB and got off of the water at 2:00pm. High water temp was about 65 degrees. Water was silted from last week's high winds. Still do not see any eel grass in about 2/3's of the lake.

because no one ever takes any fish from the lake. everyone is catch and release. makes for a TON of fish in the lake. now, in defense of those that dont take fish, who wants to filet a 12" bass and its illegal to take 14-21" ad you can only take one over 21" (which are rare anyway).

many moons ago tpwd was surveying anglers for ideas how to make bastrop a better fishing lake. as far as i know they considered all ideas and did...nothing except move it to a 14-21 slot. several recommendations to make the lake a 18-24 or even a 16-24 slot for a few years to decrease the population and competition for food were completely ignored.
more evidence of overpopulation - they havent added fish of any species to the lake since 1997 (catfish) and no bass have been added in 30 years.

it says something that the lake record has stood (and not even been sniffed) since 1991.

i fish bastrop regularly and have since the early 70s. 5-6# used to be, well not regular but common. the largest fish i've boated since 2000 went 5.5# and other than that ive always called it a big bastrop fish if it is over 3.5. i've seen the lake survive heat, cold, flood, algae bloom, choking hydrilla, lmb virus (which actually helped the health of the bass population greatly) and other "catastrophes". the lake is indestructible as far as fishing goes, but it isa numbers lake and not a heavy fish lake anymore and never will be until tpwd decides to do something about it.

This is a great post. In the last 15 years, I too have seen all types of bad things gang up on Bastrop. This obviously includes extreme cold and heat. Nothing has EVER wiped out the eel grass. These temperature extremes don't and won't eliminate the eel grass over half of the lake. SOMEONE SPRAYED THIS LAKE.

I was on the water on 2/16 and there was a very nice officer checking all the boats. When leaving the park ranger was outside and stopping boats. Apparently they just found tilapia in the lake and found some guys were taking them out of Fayette and were caught stocking Bastrop.

They already have concerns about the destruction cast netters do to the beds (their words not mine but I tend to agree)

Im new to this lake first year fishing this area not sure how valid this new is but they came from the park attendant directly. With the officer out there makes sense they were doing some sort of survey too.

We saw and talked to the same guys and heard the same story and I believe it as I saw a bunch of tilapia. The bad thing is those things can reproduce every 3-4 months.
I 100% agree with the points made about the slot allowing too many small fish to survive and it turning into a numbers lake.

Any chance this new forage could increase the bass size by providing more food or now is this just competitor for food source...

I did a solo trip on Bastrop today. Got on the water about 8:15am, with overcast skies and cool temps. Started fishing Camping Loop Cove. Couldn't see a dang thing in the water. Although I have been catching fish there and just about there only, I never got a bite. Decided to go "grass hunting" around the lake. I found very, very few areas that had any. The West Wall produced 5 bass in a 30-minute stretch, then nothing. Caught 1 here and 1 there for a whopping grand total of 12 fish.

I clobbered em Tuesday on LBJ before the front. My best 5 was around 21 pounds. (saw Media team results this morning...that would have put me in 2nd. But again, post cold front yesterday.)Started to go to the Strop yesterday, but went to Decker. Bad decision. Water temps backed down into the upper 50's and fish moved back out some. Saw a few up shallow but just cruising. Lake was packed. I fished from 8 til noon and only caught 3. All around 3 pounds. Some days you're the hammer...some days the nail.

This Saturday may 4th is the cast for kids event at south shore park. We will be taking kids out with disabilities to show them the joy of the outdoors and boat fishing.

Please be mindful if you see a boat with a disabled child and if possible share any fishing tips so we can try our best to give these kids a good experience.

I suggest if you are not taking part to launch out of North shore park to help with parking and keeping the docks open.

ShaneTX, that is awesome to hear! We do something similar at Fayette County in October with the Kids Unlimited Foundation.