Y'all the good "fall fishing" is finally hear! Every year come summer time I start counting the days until it cools off and the fish get hungry again. As many of you who have fished with me during the summer know, you can still have some great fishing trips that time of year. Fall fishing is special though, the fish what have been living deep are starting to make a move to shallow areas to feed up before winter. Shorter days and cooler water temperatures tell the bass' biological clock that it's time to do this. As it cools off the patterns that are working change and we start throwing move moving baits and topwater lures.
If you don't already I highly recommend you follow my Instagram account @laketravisfishingguide. I post on there almost daily with weekly fishing reports on Friday, tips on baits and rigging, photos and videos from my recent trips... writing a fishing report takes a lot more time than posting to Instagram. If you want to keep up with what's happening on the lake that's the best place.
As I mentioned the fish have been getting more active. I've had several trips recently catch 20+ fish as well as some big ones! Last Tuesday my buddy and I fished the TTZ Travis Tuesday Nighter and won it with 15.09 LBS. I had a guided coaching trip this past weekend and we hammered on them fishing a variety of patterns. Our best 5 would have easily gone over 16+ LBS with one close to 6 pounds in the bag. If you've been waiting for the prime time to book your trip, it's here. Another thing I should mention is if you want to throw a topwater all morning, now is the time! A lot of the big fish I've been catching lately have come off a topwater bait. Let's get into some patterns and advice on fishing Lake Travis if you're getting out there on your own this week.
Morning / Late Bite:
While it has been getting cool in the evenings, mid day it's still pretty hot... this is Texas after all! After about 10AM the topwater bite slows down and the fish pull out deeper. You can commit to it all day and get bit, but there's better ways to catch them mid day. When I say "deeper" I'm talking 10-15 feet of water. If you know Lake Travis then you know I don't consider that to be all that deep.
If you are hitting the lake at first light tie on a walking bait. A Zara spook, a 6th Sense Dogma, or a 6th Sense Catwalk are all great options that have been working well for me. Get that bait super close to the bank and work areas with large rock or flooded brush. When the bass move up shallow they get around cover to hide and wait to ambush prey, put your bait in those spots. A faster retrieve with some pauses every couple of feet will get you bit. Try shad colors with chrome in them, but if it's overcast or really early colors like Bone can be good.
With the lake having come up earlier this year there is also a lot of flooded brush still in the lake. Find this brush that either forms point, or is in a location that the wind is hitting it. I like to keep a couple baits tied on and alternate between them as I fish. A weedless swimbait rigged on a keel weighted hook, a spinnerbait, a chatterbait, or a squarebill crankbait are things I would have tied on. Depending on how thick the brush is I recommend switching over to some of those options that are less prone to getting snagged.
Once it gets warm and the sun gets high in the sky this pattern will die off. However, late in the evening during the last couple of hours of daylight the fish will move back shallow to feed and this pattern will pick back up.
Mid Day Bite:
Later in the day, usually after 10AM or so, the fish move back out and find deeper cover in that 10-15 foot depth range. Grass and rock are the two main types of cover I focus on. Something I've been getting bit on is targeting isolate grass patches on the upper end of the lake. This is something that will take some time graphing to find, but there are places where you find grass growing out off the bank all on its own, not a big flat of grass like you find all over the lower end of the lake. Think of these areas like an oasis in the desert. In a place where there is otherwise very little cover on the bottom, its a magnet for big bass to live. If you'd like to save yourself the time of graphing around, this week's Honey Hole Report that comes out 10/10/24 will include some of these prime spots.
I recommend riggin up some baits that you can fish weedless. A dropshot and a pegged Texas rig are two great options that come to mind. You want something you can fish slow and get down into the grass with without getting snagged too much. Try very natural colors such as plastics with a base color of watermelon or green pumpkin. Generally speaking a slower retrieve is still working, you'll get bit a lot of times when you pause it, so be sure to not over work the bait.
Another pattern that's still producing well is targeting rock piles or rocky drop offs, especially those formed by a creek channel. These areas around the mouths of coves are holding fish and can hold some big ones. The sames baits I mentioned earlier can work well, I would also add a jig and a heavier paddle tail swimbait to your arsenal of baits. A 4" paddle tail swimbait on a 1/4 to 3/8th ounce jig head has been working well if you let it sink out and fish it over the edge of the drop offs or run it just above the bottom. Having Livescope helps a lot with this style of fishing, the key to getting more bites is to fish the bait slower. Not because they won't hit it moving fast, rather because when you fish it too quickly it brings your bait back to the surface too fast... something to keep in mind.
Like I said earlier, we are at a prime time of year. Morning trips lately have been awesome, the weather is forecasted to stay nice, its just cool enough to need a light sweatshirt and the fish are biting! I have openings sprinkled throughout my calendar the rest of the month. You can visit the BOOK ONLINE page of my site, after selecting one of the trip options it will take you to my calendar where you can see all the dates I have open. You can also reach out to me via phone or text.
If you are headed out on the lake by yourself and would like a little guidance feel free to check out my Honey Hole Reports. These are paid premium fishing reports that I update weekly with EXACT fishing spots where I have been catching bass that week. You not only get exact locations with GPS coordinates but also advice on bait selection, color to use, conditions to look for, how to fish the spots, etc.
Good luck and if you see me out there on the water be sure to say hi!