By Jim Darnell
Although it is our nearest large public lake, Canyon has never been my favorite. The fertility of the lake has always been weak.
It’s rather sterile.
It has no aquatic vegetation, like large hydrilla beds, to concentrate the bass. It can be downright difficult to make a good catch on bass.
People sometimes ask me, “How can I catch fish on Canyon? I’ve never caught a fish on that lake.”
My advice is usually “fish somewhere else if you can.” Then I add. “If you fish Canyon try to avoid the cold of winter and the heat of summer. The bass tend to suspend in deep water. But spring and fall can sometimes be good.”
Bobby Whiteside and I were on Canyon in late August. And conditions were not good for bass fishing — no clouds, no breeze and high barometric pressure. But we did hold one ace in our hand. We were fishing with bass fishing guide, Phillip Walker (512-554-9568).
Upon graduating form Southwest Texas State University in the early 1990s, Phillip moved to the Austin area and began bass guiding. Most of his guiding experience has been on Fayette County, Bastrop, Travis, Choke Canyon and Amistad.
He’s very good. Years ago, my wife Beth and I filmed a TV show with him on Fayette County Lake. We caught lots of good bass.
Last year, in April, he and his partner won first place and $25,000 in a bass tournament on Choke Canyon. They weighed in a five-fish stringer of more than 42 pounds. That’s over an eight-pound average. That’s the best five-fish stringer ever caught on Choke Canyon Reservoir.
A few days ago, Whiteside, Leonard Meoller and I were on Lake Bastrop catching schooling bass. Phillip and his clients were fishing the same area.
While fishing with our boats paralleling each other we visited for quite a while. In the course of the conversation, Phillip mentioned he had moved last year to a home near Canyon Lake. And since he lived only five minutes from the lake, he was catching fish and actually guiding some on Canyon.
I supposed that he was catching the bass in the spring or fall. Then came the surprise. “I’m on some good fish right now in the upper part of the lake,” he said. “If you would like to I’ll be happy to take you to Canyon one morning.”
“How about Monday?” we asked.
“You’re on,” answered Phillip.
So here we were. On Canyon. In the heat of summer. On a cloudless day. Could Phillip make good his boast?
It didn’t take long to find out. After a few casts with a popper on my fly rod I had a nice bass. But he threw the lure before I could get him into the boat.
That was just the start.
Shad were moving along the rocky shoreline and bass were right up in the shallows. I soon caught two very nice fish on the fly rod and Phillip landed a three pounder on shallow crank bait.
A three pound bass is a good fish on Canyon. Little 11-inch fish are much more common. A five or six pound bass on Canyon is a trophy. As Phillip said, “A five pounder on this lake is like a 10 pounder on some lakes.”
My thoughts were still not full of faith.
“Well, it’s early. This good fishing can’t hold up when the sun gets up,” I thought.
Wrong!
We caught bass regularly until 1 p.m., when we quit. Most of them were still in a foot of water.
The fly rod popper died off but Phillip’s crank bait, Bobby’s soft plastic fluke and my soft plastic ring fry kept on catching bass. Many of them were legal keepers — above 14 inches. Some were smaller.
All the bass caught were largemouths except one. Bobby caught a nice Guadalupe bass that had two crawfish in his throat. We had hoped for a slam but didn’t get a smallmouth bass. They tend to hold more on rocky cliffs in the upper lake nearer the dam.
Phillip had never been very far up the Guadalupe River. So we took a scouting run. Bobby and I showed him how to run the log-infested river and where we had caught bass in years past. I could almost here the wheels in his brain turning as he planned a bass expedition up the river.
If you asked me now, “How can I learn to catch fish on Canyon?”
I have a simple answer. Fish with Phillip Walker.
For a great learning experience on Canyon Lake fish the Canyon Bass Club’s 28th Annual Open Tournament on Saturday Sept. 20 from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Canyon Lake Park
It’s $150 per 2-man team and $5000 1st place prize (based on 100 entries)
For rule and entry form www.sanmarcos.net/cbc or call Kenneth Dees at 512-396-2090.
Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host of the syndicated outdoors show, God’s Great Outdoors. His column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.
