Lake Georgetown is 1,310 acres of limestone bluff and rocky point near Austin. Where the bass hold when the Corps pulls the level down.
Lake Georgetown is 1,310 acres of Army Corps water on the North Fork of the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, and it goes down 70 feet. Almost everything that holds a bass here is made of stone. Limestone bluff walls, hard-bottom ledges, chunk rock points, gravel pockets in the backs of coves. If your usual approach is to pick apart grass lines and lily pads, you have to set that down and learn to read contour instead.
That has a practical upside. Rock does not move. A point that sets up right will hold fish year after year, and once you have found three or four of them you have a milk run that does not depend on this spring's weed growth. The tradeoff is that everyone else fishing out of Austin has found the good ones too.
The Corps manages this level, and it is the single fastest way to be wrong about where the fish are. Conservation pool is 791 feet. Recent readings have the surface at 787.35 feet, roughly 3.6 feet under full, sitting at 87.9 percent capacity and trending down from 93.7 percent a year earlier.
Here is the pattern to carry with you, because the number will change. When the lake is falling, bass consolidate. Shallow rock that would be prime at full pool is dry ground or a foot of water, and fish slide off it onto the deepest available structure they can reach: the dam area rock, the channel swings, the outside turns of the creek arms. Fewer places hold fish, and the ones that do hold more of them. Fish slower and fish deeper than the calendar tells you to.
When it stabilizes or comes up, the opposite happens. Bass scatter back onto secondary points and creek arm flats, and if the rise is quick they will push into cedar and brush along the bank that has been dry for a while. On a rising lake, follow the water back rather than sitting on last month's deep spot. On a falling one, every foot it drops, move out to the next contour break.
Visibility runs 4 to 10 feet, clear to a light stained green. Winter and early spring are the clearest windows. Summer algae blooms knock it down and a hard rain will turn the whole thing turbid for a while. The North Fork arm cleans up faster after a rain than the South Fork does, so if you launch into muddy water, check the other arm before you write off the day.
Clear water plus Austin weekend traffic is why the local finesse habit exists. Bass here get looked at constantly, and they respond by going deep and getting picky. Eight to ten pound fluorocarbon on drop shots and finesse presentations is the standard, not the exception. Save the heavier line for the jig and crankbait work where you need it.
The other half of the answer is timing. Weekday mornings and the low-light hours are consistently the best windows on the main lake points. A Tuesday at first light on the same point that produced nothing Saturday afternoon is a different piece of water.
Surface temperatures climb into the 80 to 90 degree range and the bass go where the rock goes deep. Main lake points in 18 to 30 feet, bluff walls on the shade side in 15 to 30 feet, creek channel ledges in 16 to 25 feet, and the dam area rock structure from 20 down to 40 feet.
A 3/4 ounce football jig with a 4 inch craw trailer in green pumpkin, brown craw or black and blue is the workhorse. Drag and hop it across the point tops and ledges in 18 to 28 feet on 15 to 17 pound fluorocarbon so you can feel every rock and pull free when it wedges. When they will not commit to the jig, put a 4 inch Roboworm or Zoom Finesse Worm on a drop shot with a 3/8 ounce weight and shake it on that same structure in 18 to 30 feet.
The bluff walls deserve their own approach. Fish the shaded side, drop a drop shot with a 1/2 ounce weight straight down the face, and pause at every shelf and crevice you feel between 15 and 35 feet. Bluff fish stack in narrow bands, so when you get bit, note the depth and repeat it down the whole wall.
For covering water, a Strike King 6XD or Rapala DT16 in Sexy Shad or green gizzard shad, cranked down until it is ticking the ledge edge in 16 to 24 feet, will find the active ones fast. And do not skip the first 45 minutes of light: a 4.5 inch Spook walked over a main lake point catches summer fish before the sun pins them down.
From 42 to 56 degrees the fish set up on the deep main lake points and ledges in 20 to 40 feet, the dam area from 25 to 50 feet, and the deepest channel holes. This is the time of year the water is at its clearest, which works in your favor with two very different baits.
A 1/2 ounce blade bait, Silver Buddy or Heddon Sonar in chrome or gold, jigged vertically over deep rock is the highest percentage cold water presentation on this lake. Lift it, let it fall on a semi-slack line, and most bites come on the drop. A drop shot with a 3 inch finesse worm, essentially deadsticked on deep rock with almost no movement, catches the ones that will not chase.
Then on a warming winter afternoon, go the other direction. A suspending jerkbait tuned to hang level, worked with 8 to 12 second pauses near bluff ends and main points in 6 to 14 feet, pulls fish up out of the deep water when the sun has been on the rock for a few hours. Ghost Minnow and perch patterns on 8 pound fluorocarbon suit the clear winter water.
At 52 to 64 degrees the bass stage on shallow rocky points in 4 to 10 feet that warm through the afternoon, on creek arm flats in 6 to 12 feet, on secondary points in 8 to 14 feet, and where bluff ends flatten into softer banks. That bluff-to-flat transition is the classic Georgetown staging spot, and it is worth idling until you find a few.
A Vision 110 or X-Rap on 10 pound fluorocarbon, twitched twice and paused for 3 to 5 seconds, is the bait to start with in clearing pre-spawn water. A 1/2 ounce lipless crank in red craw or chrome blue, ripped and paused over rocky flats and yo-yoed over submerged points, covers ground on the windier days. When they get sluggish, a 3/8 ounce finesse jig with a compact craw trailer, dragged and hopped on rocky points and channel swing banks in 8 to 16 feet, will pick up the better fish.
From 62 to 72 degrees look for protected rocky coves in 2 to 6 feet with gravel or clay bottom, shallow pockets off the main creek arms, secondary coves near Jim Hogg and Cedar Breaks parks, and shallow bluff pockets where sand or gravel has collected. On a lake this rocky, that soft substrate is limited, which means it is predictable.
A 5 inch Senko wacky rigged on 10 pound fluorocarbon and dead-sticked is hard to beat around beds. A 4 inch creature bait Texas rigged with a 3/16 ounce tungsten weight, dragged slowly and twitched in place, works on the same fish and gives you a better hookup on the ones that just bump it. In the clear water, a Ned rig with a 2.75 inch TRD dead-dragged over gravel gets bit when nothing bigger will. At dawn, before the coves get crowded, a Spook Jr or a 3/8 ounce buzzbait burned across shallow rocky flats is a legitimate way to catch the aggressive ones.
At 70 to 78 degrees the fish pull out to main lake rocky points in 8 to 16 feet, bluff ends and walls in 10 to 20 feet, and creek channel swings in 12 to 20 feet. The shaded bluff wall in the middle of the day is the pattern most anglers overlook here.
Work a 3/8 ounce finesse jig down the wall on a pendulum swing, pausing in every crevice, and follow it with a drop shot shaken vertically at whatever depth the first bite came from. A 3.5 to 4 inch paddle tail swum along the bluff base or the sides of rocky points covers more of the wall. Early, a popper or walking bait over the point tops catches the fish that came up overnight.
Between 58 and 74 degrees the bait moves back, and the bass go with it: creek arm flats and pockets, main lake points in 8 to 18 feet, shallow rocky flats near creek mouths, and the upper river arms as the water cools.
A 1/2 ounce double willow spinnerbait in white or chartreuse and white, slow rolled along rocky points and creek arm banks, is a straightforward way to stay on moving shad in 4 to 12 feet. A 1/2 ounce lipless crank ripped and paused over rocky flats covers the same zone faster. As the water clears back up through fall, the jerkbait comes back into its own on main lake points and rock transitions. Keep a football jig rigged for the fish that stay out on the points in 10 to 18 feet, and a Spook Jr for dawn on the creek arm flats.
Along with largemouth, this lake holds native Guadalupe bass, and they concentrate in the upper arms where the river character survives: current-influenced rock, channel swings, moving water. If you want a shot at them, run up the North Fork rather than working the dam end. The same finesse gear you would use on pressured largemouth, light fluorocarbon and small soft plastics on rock, is the right tool.
If you have never seen the lake, plan a weekday and be on the water before light. Start on the main lake limestone points in 10 to 20 feet, throw a topwater for the first 45 minutes, then pick the same points apart with a football jig or drop shot as the sun gets up.
Points near Jim Hogg Park and the rocky flats off Cedar Breaks Park give you shallow-to-deep transitions to learn on. Russell Park Cove is worth a look for spawn and fall shallow patterns. When the lake is drawn down and the shallow bite is dead, the dam area deep rock and the mid-lake bluff walls are the two places that always have water deep enough to hold fish. And when it rains, remember that the North Fork side clears first.
Yes. The lake holds native Guadalupe bass alongside largemouth, and they are most concentrated in the upper arms where the North Fork of the San Gabriel still fishes like a river. Rocky current areas and channel swings up the arms are the places to look.
Considerably. Corps drawdowns pull bass off shallow rock and consolidate them on the deepest structure available, mainly the dam area, bluff walls and channel swings. Stable or rising water lets them spread back onto secondary points and creek arm flats. Check the level before you plan a shallow day.
Generally clear to lightly stained green with 4 to 10 feet of visibility. It is clearest in winter and early spring. Summer algae blooms and runoff cut it down, and heavy rain can turn it turbid. The North Fork arm clears faster after rain than the South Fork.
For the finesse work that produces most consistently on this lake, 8 to 10 pound fluorocarbon. The water is clear and the pressure from the Austin metro is heavy, so a lighter presentation gets more bites. Step up to 14 to 17 pound for football jigs on deep rock where you need pulling power.
Main lake points and ledges from 18 to 28 feet cover most of it, with bluff wall fish anywhere from 15 to 35 feet and dam area rock holding fish from 20 down to 40 feet. Deep-diving cranks work the 16 to 24 foot band.
Weekday mornings and low-light windows. Weekend pressure from the Austin metro pushes fish deeper and makes them harder to fool, and the same main lake points that are dead on a Saturday afternoon can fish well at first light midweek.
No. Productive structure here is limestone bluff, hard-bottom ledge, chunk rock points and gravel pockets. Learn to fish rock and contour and you will catch fish; looking for vegetation will waste your day.