Texas Bass in Trout Stocked Lakes - Tips

[Kyle Davidson]

This is nothing new for the CA crew, along with some other southern areas, but I feel like it's not something mentioned often here in Texas. I am Austin based so aside from a few rivers all of waters are too warm to sustain trout, that said, each year TPWD has been stocking trout at more and more lakes. 

 

I have caught a few trout and have seen the result of some Florida strain bass munching on stockers and getting huge. Not to mention, unless they are all sinking to the bottom I don't see ANY dead fish floating around. Someone is eating them. Thing is, I have never really tried to target the bass like bass that are looking for trout. 

 

Sadly the location with Florida strain and my PB (7lb) is not getting trout this year after three years of stocking. It's a small BOW so I plan to give it a go anyways. 

 

The other options are some local trout ponds that I know have bass (never know what is in there sucking down trout) or the local river that has some big LMB, SMB, Guads and Stripers and toss the trout patterns. 

 

Any tips for targeting bass around trout stocking time in a "weird" area for trout? 

 

 

[d-camarena]

Hey man im from austin also. You fish off the bank or boat? I do both, i have a small bass raider. I dont know any other swimbaiters around here. We should try and get together for some swimbaiting sometime.

 

And about yout question. I throw swimbaits all year in lake austin, decker lake and ladybird. Seems to be working all year

[Kyle Davidson]

Hey man im from austin also. You fish off the bank or boat? I do both, i have a small bass raider. I dont know any other swimbaiters around here. We should try and get together for some swimbaiting sometime.

 

And about yout question. I throw swimbaits all year in lake austin, decker lake and ladybird. Seems to be working all year

 

Hey man! Same here, I fish boat and bank all over Austin. I fish SB all over but I wanted to mess around at a few of the local ponds they stock a day or two after stocking. Shoot me a PM and I will send you my number, get it touch. 

[Top Ramen]

I use trout pattern or ayu pattern Hudds during the trout stocks and they work fine. It's exactly like the CA trout stock fishing so just read up on that and do what they do. Last year I had a trip where I caught bass over five pounds on four consecutive casts, all with trout tails hanging out of their mouths. 12 good fish in four hours with an 8.2 as the largest.

 

There are a LOT of 7-10 pound fish in the little Mueller park pond so don't overlook it when you hit the trout stocks.

[Kyle Davidson]

I use trout pattern or ayu pattern Hudds during the trout stocks and they work fine. It's exactly like the CA trout stock fishing so just read up on that and do what they do. Last year I had a trip where I caught bass over five pounds on four consecutive casts, all with trout tails hanging out of their mouths. 12 good fish in four hours with an 8.2 as the largest.

 

There are a LOT of 7-10 pound fish in the little Mueller park pond so don't overlook it when you hit the trout stocks.

 

They stopped stocking Mueller this year  Gonna try Bullfrog/Kingfisher as they stocked today. My PB was out of Mueller at 7lb so I know what you mean. Haven't fished it in a while, Mabry main lake is getting stocked again this year, going to hit it on stock day.

Edited December 10, 2016 by ATXBass

[got2be5]

Dont wait a couple of days after stocking,get on them asap ive seen the truck pull down the ramp and the feeding starting within ten minutes.Ive also seen the trout 1000yds from the ramp the next morning.Hope this helps

[Kyle Davidson]

Dont wait a couple of days after stocking,get on them asap ive seen the truck pull down the ramp and the feeding starting within ten minutes.Ive also seen the trout 1000yds from the ramp the next morning.Hope this helps

 

Thanks for the tips, these spots are a bit different. Small ponds in parks, I think they stock them by net, bass population unknown. I spent a few hours out there today, one day after they stocked it with trout. Pretty shallow ponds running fountains, maybe a half dozen people trout fishing, saw a few people catching trout.

 

Threw the 68 trout just about everywhere, all slow and close to the bottom. Not a dang bite. I did bring a weightless senko to test a few spots as I am not all that convinced that these ponds have a great bass population anyways. Not a nibble. It's Texas... there are bass in there, maybe not huge but the fact that nothing tapped the senko makes me think they were totally turned off or sparse. 

 

I know the hudd gets bit everywhere, I just wanted to experiment with it during an actual trout stocking. IMHO I missed out on my best opportunity the last two years. A local pond in a park development was stocked with Florida strain and the fish are big. Last two years they stocked 2000 plus trout and of course the last two years I just have not made it out there much. Now they have stopped the stocking. I personally caught a few 5-6lb fish and my PB 7lb fish out of the pond BEFORE the trout... I never saw dead trout and I didn't see tons of people pulling in trout. Pretty sure they were bass treat, TopRamen confirmed this.

 

Tomorrow I plan to check out Mueller with the hudd, even though they aren't stocking, this is the time of year they would have so maybe they are keyed in. I will keep the posted updated, I will probably throw a BullShooter and Negotiator tomorrow as well, both of those have gotten bit out there. 

Edited December 10, 2016 by ATXBass