The Herald-Zeitung

Hello everyone. Welcome to another week of Anglin’ with Austin. We’ve got a beautiful week in store. November is here and there are no excuses — go fishing!

Wednesday night water temperatures were in the mid-60s around the freshwater areas of the river. The main body of Canyon Lake was still hovering in the 70-degree range but dropping. Winter fishing is on its way. Once the water hits that magical 60-degree mark, it’s a good time to be out chasing fish.

Get your winter fishing clothes lined out now and get the waterproof jackets ready to go because it’s almost time to be stylin’ the Michelin man look again.

Canyon Lake is only 111⁄2 feet low and filling about 50 cubic feet per second faster than water is being released. This is our time, anglers.

Pleasure boaters and jet skiers won’t find much pleasure zipping across the lake in cold weather. The lake will be ours and we’re heading for the zone…fresh water flow, temperatures dropping and not a jet flea in sight.

As the water levels come up, underwater vegetation is abundant on the upper third of the lake. I’d suggest targeting these areas, if possible.

Most of my throws with the cast net were successful for baitfish in the grass. The last time I caught a gizzard shad, singular, was back in May. This past week my cast net harvested two nice size gizzards. It’s good to see that this shiny baitfish still exists in Canyon Lake.

Thermocline will be disappearing over the next month and fishing all depths for each species of fish will start.

Canyon Lake complaints

I have heard several complaints about the fishing on Canyon Lake over the summer.

Canyon has always been a finicky lake but I think that Mother Nature is preparing us for a great winter for fishing. Anyone can go to a lake loaded with tons of healthy adult fish and catch something.

A real angler with goals will enjoy the challenge of our lake. Running down that big bass or that school of whites three days in a row is such a good feeling. It took me five years to break the 20-pound bluecat mark.

How did I finally get there?

Tons of gas, a canopy, propane heater, and a few good notes to self. I get calls from people saying, “…not a fish to show for the day, Ray. What gives?”

I have been there and done that, blanked after a 12-hour trip on the lake fishing several spots.

I have always said, “bring the best of the best to Canyon Lake for a weekend and lets see how they do on a lake that fishes as tough as this one”.

If Canyon Lake offered one tournament per species, it would separate the anglers in a hurry and make them thankful for their easy fisheries in other parts of the state.

This lake will produce new fish, but you won’t immediately start catching them.

Over the winter, a new pattern will develop and that is what I’ll be watching for and sharing with you over the next few months.

Winter fishing

Summertime was a great time to take in the beauty of the lake and its surroundings while fishing. If you didn’t catch a lot of fish, no big deal. You were still comfortable and could jump in and cool off in the water.

Winter anglers view fishing a bit different…this is the time you must be catching fish to REALLY enjoy yourself. Being cold and wet stinks if your fish basket is empty. Actually, you kind of stink all of the time — it’s in the job description.

If you’ve fished Canyon over the past few winters you’ve got a head start.

Head back to the old fishing holes and see if that pays off. If not, do something different.

Check out the Canyon Lake attractor locations in the FYI section of my Web site www.topcatfishing.net.

Try a new location and definitely experiment with different depths.

If you’re determined and willing to give it some time I can almost guarantee that you’ll find a new favorite fishing hole.

The fish are there but after drought, rains and temperature changes it’s up to you to figure out exactly where “there” is.

Fish updates

The Florida Largemouth Bass that were stocked in 2008-09 should be big enough to make for some fun catching. The smallmouth bass should be trophy size after a 10-year existence in the lake. The million plus stripers are there, surely fewer in numbers but still aggressively feeding every day.

The whites will be in pockets in deeper water and a spoon will yank them out until you get tired of catching them.

Blue catfish are abundant, jug liners have had okay success over the summer,but rod-and-reel fishing has been a different story.

Once upon a time, there were days of 200-pound catches of bluecat, from sunup to sundown. It’s not that way anymore.

If I were guiding trips on Canyon, now it would be less than exciting for customers.

An eight-hour trip might yield six or seven catfish. Right now it takes a real investment in time to come up with big numbers or sizes.

I’m excited about the changes that winter might bring and conditions are ripening for some great fishing. Let’s hope that it pans out.

I anticipate that cats in general, will move into a more aggressive feeding pattern even though yellow cats typically slow down at Canyon at this time of year.

Fishing report

Canyon Lake — Largemouth bass good on 7-inch watermelon culprit worms, zoom watermelon brush hogs and chartreuse finesse worms, crankbaits in 2-25 feet of water.

Smallmouth bass slow, Striper fair with large minnows in 1-50 feet of water at dam and off point at North Shore. White bass slow, crappie fair on live minnows around timber and some found around pier at Fort Sam Houston recreation area. Blue catfish fair on live perch and cut shad, channel good on Danny Kings and Big Marv’s punchbait. Yellow cat slow.

Lake Dunlap — Largemouth bass good on crankbaits, spinning lures, topwater, crappie slow, bluecatfish good on cut shad, liver, and Danny Kings punchbait. Channel cat slow and yellow cat fair on live perch.

Lake Placid — Largemouth bass slow, crappie excellent around lighted docks and timber, blue cat slow, channel cat good on liver and Big Marv’s punchbait,

Tip of the week

Spend the money on the good waterproof cold weather gear. You won’t regret it. The good gear should last for years, while the cheap gear will fall apart on the coldest day of the year

NOTE: Cranes Mill Pak is closed until further notice for renovations.