After a fast morning on Lake Austin, we ran the second half of the double-header out at Lake Bastrop for the afternoon and evening. The bite there was a different story - slow and grind-it-out - but we stayed patient, put 10 bass in the boat and missed a handful of other bites along the way. On a tough afternoon, that's honest work.
And it was TOUGH conditions: water temperatures ran in the mid to upper 90s across the lake and hit 103 degrees in the discharge. That's bathwater. Bastrop is a power-plant lake, and while that warm water keeps the bass biting all winter long, in the heart of a Texas summer it stacks heat on top of heat - the fish get sluggish through the afternoon and make you earn every bite until things start cooling off in the evening.
Golden hour paid off - a solid Bastrop largemouth as things cooled down.
The bites we got came on the same family of baits that worked in the morning: soft plastic creature baits in those darker green colors, plus a shaky head rigged with a watermelon candy trick worm. When the fishing gets that tough, the shaky head is hard to beat - a slow, subtle worm wiggling in place will draw a strike from bass that won't chase anything else, and watermelon candy fit the finesse game perfectly.
Some fish get a kiss goodbye before they swim off.
A Bastrop double at dusk to close out the day.
Two lakes in one day is a fun way to do it - a numbers morning on Lake Austin and a technical evening on Bastrop is a full education in Central Texas bass fishing. And keep this lake in your back pocket: once fall and winter roll around, that same hot discharge water turns Bastrop into one of the best cold-weather bass bites in the region. Call or text and let's set up your trip.