Texas fishes like a country of its own: grass giants in the east (Rayburn, Fork, Toledo Bend), striper factories on the Red River, catfish capitals, and the clear canyon lakes of the Hill Country. No closed season, year-round bites, and more water than a lifetime covers. These are the flagship reservoirs we track daily.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
The Houston area's big-bass playground: 21,000 acres of hybrids, brush-pile bass and reliable catfish.
The biggest lake wholly inside Texas, and one of the best bass fisheries in America.
The trophy bass factory of Texas: more 13-pound ShareLunkers than any water in the state.
An East Texas sleeper: hybrid stripers, big cats and a bass lake without the crowds.
The biggest reservoir in the South: 185,000 acres of grass, timber and bass on the Texas-Louisiana line.
Trinity River powerhouse: the white bass and blue catfish factory an hour from Houston.
The official Catfish Capital of Texas, with a bird-chasing striper bonus all winter.
The deep, clear giant of the Highland Lakes: stripers in open water, whites up the Colorado.
The striper lake of the Brazos: granite bluffs, clear water and a two-state-quality fishery an hour from the Metroplex.
A 44,000-acre hybrid factory southeast of Dallas: big water, big schools, few crowds.
The border giant near Del Rio: gin-clear canyon water, hydrilla edges and a history of heavyweight bass.
The deep-south border lake that grows double-digit bass in brushy, fertile Rio Grande water.
The Brazos canyon lake of Hell's Gate fame: clear water, deep bluffs and quality stripers.
The workingman's saltwater capital: jetties, piers, surf and bay within an hour of four million Texans.
Where the deep Gulf meets the flats: tarpon history, jetty fishing and the clearest redfish water in Texas.
Big-city bays and the Bob Hall surf: trout on the flats, big drum at the packery, kings off the pier.
The art-town flats: protected bays, whooping cranes and classic wade fishing for trout and reds.
South Texas' brush-country giant: big bass, bigger alligators and boom-cycle magic.
Austin's deep, clear playground with a serious side: staircase bass and canyon stripers.
DFW's timber trophy lake: standing forests, big-bass genetics and ShareLunker pedigree.
The Dallas hybrid factory: 32,000 acres of birds, blitzes and dependable crappie.
The constant-level Highland Lake: dock bass, seawalls and Guadalupes in the current.
The windswept Brazos-basin sleeper: white bass runs, hybrid schools and birding-refuge quiet.
Dallas' northeast standby: hybrids under birds, crappie bridges and bass in the flooded timber.
The urban giant: 29,000 acres of DFW water with sneaky-good hybrids and big blues.
The quiet Navasota gem: lightly-pressured bass, box-stand crappie and space to breathe.
Central Texas' crappie-and-cats standby on the San Gabriel.
The Brazos ribbon lake: stripers below Possum Kingdom, sandies everywhere, docks for days.
The clear East Texas boutique: big-bass genetics and a fish-hatchery pedigree.
The Fort Cavazos lake: deep, clear Leon River water with hybrids and smallmouth history.
The city lake rebuilt: raised pool, flooded timber and a bass fishery that came back swinging.
East Texas mood water: cypress, coves and a chain-pickerel accent to the bass program.
The West Fork's clear canyon: sand bass, deep points and an underrated spotted-bass game.
San Antonio's power-plant lake: warm water year-round and the best winter bass bite in the region.
The Pecan Bayou getaway: docks, rocky points and a classic Hill Country-edge mixed bag.
Five miles of fishing pier disguised as a road: the world's longest man-made fishing structure, pointing straight into Galveston Bay.
The Lower Laguna Madre's gin-clear flats meet the island party town: sight-fished redfish, trophy trout, and the jetties of Brazos Santiago Pass.
The border pass where Texas and Louisiana trade water: jetties, ship channel and marsh drains funneling everything between Sabine Lake and the Gulf.
Fort Worth's quiet corner: a Corps lake without the metro crowds, running hybrids at dawn, flathead nights and a bank-fishing culture the big lakes lost.
Fort Worth's sailing lake with a fishing engine: sand bass factories, spring hybrids and dock-line largemouth on the Trinity's West Fork.
Dallas' east-side big water: bridge-rip hybrids, flooded-timber crappie and a sailing-lake surface hiding one of DFW's steadiest fisheries.
San Antonio's power-plant oddity: redfish and hybrids in a Texas hill-country pond, biting hardest when winter makes everything else quit.
East Texas' twin-basin classic: pine-lined water, big-bass genetics and a fishing culture Tyler has kept close for generations.
The ShareLunker capital: West Texas' big-bass phenomenon, where 13-pounders make Tuesday news and forward sonar changed everything.
The Panhandle's canyon oasis: a Canadian River lake back from the dead, with walleye, smallmouth and sailing-club wind.
The Lost Pines power pond: warm CPS-style water among loblolly hills, growing Austin's most reliable winter bass bite.
East Texas' quiet achiever: Cypress Creek water with big-bass genetics, timber-lined crappie and none of Fork's traffic.
Texas' newest lake: flooded timber by design, Florida bass stocked from day zero, and a fishery built to boom through its first decades.
Texas trout, for real: the Canyon Dam tailwater holds rainbows through Hill Country summers, with Guadalupe bass upstream as the native prize.
Houston's home water: the San Jacinto's city reservoir, rebuilt for crappie and cats, with bass returning as the habitat work compounds.
The Colorado's country-club stretch: dock-lined constant-level water through Austin's hills, where hydrilla cycles mint double-digit bass.
DFW's airport lake: Corps water between the runways and the wineries, running sand bass schools, dock bass and a quiet trophy pedigree.
The southern metro's young gun: DFW's newest big lake, timber-edged and spring-loaded with the region's best big-bass odds per trip.
The two-bay town: East Bay's wade-fishing purism and West Bay's redfish marsh, split by the Colorado's mouth and blessedly under-built.
The trophy trout mother church: hypersaline water, ancient serpulid rocks and the biggest speckled trout in Texas swimming among them.
The Laguna's quiet door: a fly-in-sized village facing the clearest flats in Texas, where redfish tail at dawn and the East Cut opens the Gulf.
The Texas power pond that grows giants: warm water all winter, hydrilla edges and a big-bass program that punches double digits.
San Angelo's home water: the Concho's town lake, where power-plant warmth once ruled and the catfish-and-crappie culture never left.
Abilene's big water: Phantom Hill's mesquite shores hold West Texas hybrids, blue cats and the wind that never files a flight plan.
The Llano Estacado's trophy tank: a canyon lake on the caprock where West Texas grows 15-pound legends against all geography.
Fort Worth's original: the 1914 city lake still schools sandies, cats and comeback bass under the Jacksboro Highway's history.
The Hill County sleeper: Aquilla's stained timber grows heavyweight largemouth for the few who work its snaggy truth.
Waxahachie's water: Bardwell's prairie coves run hybrids, crappie bridges and Ellis County's after-work fleet.
East Texas' postcard pocket: Cypress Springs' clear coves and manicured shores hide bass quality behind the lake-house calm.
The forgotten Texas bay: Sabine’s marsh-lined water gets half the pressure of Galveston and grows trout that prove it.
The Highland Lakes’ steady one: Inks never draws down, so its granite shores and stripers-in-miniature never miss a season.
The middle Brazos below Possum Kingdom country: limestone bluffs, sandbar camps and river bass that fight above their weight.
The clear one at Killeen’s door: Stillhouse hides hybrid schools, big smallmouth genes and hydrilla flats under a modest profile.
Hill Country blue: Canyon Lake holds striped bass and clear-water bass, with the Guadalupe trout tailwater below.
The Hill Country’s roller coaster: Medina swings from full to nearly empty, and its bass fishing follows the water.
Northeast Texas timber water: Wright Patman spreads flooded forest and crappie across the Sulphur River.
The warm-water bass lake: Squaw Creek runs heated year-round, and its bass spawn while the rest of Texas shivers.
East Texas grass lake: Nacogdoches grows big largemouth in hydrilla and timber west of the oldest town in Texas.
The Highland Lakes’ small link: Marble Falls holds white bass and stripers in constant-level river water.
Austin’s downtown lake: Lady Bird holds big largemouth and Guadalupe bass under the skyline.
East Texas blackwater: the Neches runs bass, catfish and cypress through the Big Thicket to Sabine Lake.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Conroe | Reservoir | Montgomery | USGS | Mar |
| Sam Rayburn Reservoir | Reservoir | Angelina | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Fork | Reservoir | Wood | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Palestine | Reservoir | Henderson | USGS | Mar |
| Toledo Bend Reservoir | Reservoir | Sabine | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Livingston | Reservoir | San Jacinto | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Tawakoni | Reservoir | Hunt | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Buchanan | Reservoir | Llano | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Whitney | Reservoir | Hill | USGS | Mar |
| Richland-Chambers Reservoir | Reservoir | Navarro | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Amistad | Reservoir | Val Verde | USGS | Mar |
| Falcon Lake | Reservoir | Starr | modeled | Mar |
| Possum Kingdom Lake | Reservoir | Palo Pinto | USGS | Mar |
| Galveston | Coastal | Galveston | modeled | Sep |
| Port Aransas | Coastal | Nueces | modeled | Sep |
| Corpus Christi | Coastal | Nueces | modeled | Sep |
| Rockport | Coastal | Aransas | modeled | Sep |
| Choke Canyon Reservoir | Reservoir | Live Oak | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Travis | Reservoir | Travis | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Ray Roberts | Reservoir | Denton | USGS | Mar |
| Cedar Creek Lake | Reservoir | Henderson | USGS | Mar |
| Lake LBJ | Reservoir | Llano | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Somerville | Reservoir | Burleson | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Lavon | Reservoir | Collin | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Lewisville | Reservoir | Denton | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Limestone | Reservoir | Leon | USGS | Mar |
| Granger Lake | Reservoir | Williamson | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Granbury | Reservoir | Hood | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Athens | Reservoir | Henderson | USGS | Mar |
| Belton Lake | Reservoir | Bell | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Waco | Reservoir | McLennan | USGS | Mar |
| Lake O' the Pines | Reservoir | Marion | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Bridgeport | Reservoir | Wise | USGS | Mar |
| Calaveras Lake | Reservoir | Bexar | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Brownwood | Reservoir | Brown | USGS | Mar |
| Texas City Dike | Coastal | Galveston | modeled | Sep |
| South Padre Island | Coastal | Cameron | modeled | Sep |
| Sabine Pass | Coastal | Jefferson | modeled | Sep |
| Benbrook Lake | Reservoir | Tarrant | modeled | Mar |
| Eagle Mountain Lake | Reservoir | Tarrant | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Ray Hubbard | Reservoir | Rockwall | modeled | Mar |
| Braunig Lake | Reservoir | Bexar | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Tyler | Reservoir | Smith | modeled | Mar |
| O.H. Ivie Lake | Reservoir | Concho | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Meredith | Reservoir | Hutchinson | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Bastrop | Reservoir | Bastrop | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Bob Sandlin | Reservoir | Titus | modeled | Mar |
| Bois d'Arc Lake | Reservoir | Fannin | modeled | Mar |
| Guadalupe River | River | Comal | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Houston | Reservoir | Harris | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Austin | Reservoir | Travis | modeled | Mar |
| Grapevine Lake | Reservoir | Tarrant | modeled | Mar |
| Joe Pool Lake | Reservoir | Dallas | modeled | Mar |
| Matagorda | Coastal | Matagorda | modeled | Sep |
| Baffin Bay | Coastal | Kleberg | modeled | Sep |
| Port Mansfield | Coastal | Willacy | modeled | Sep |
| Lake Fayette | Reservoir | Fayette | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Nasworthy | Reservoir | Tom Green | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Fort Phantom Hill | Reservoir | Jones | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Alan Henry | Reservoir | Garza | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Worth | Reservoir | Tarrant | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Aquilla | Reservoir | Hill | modeled | Mar |
| Bardwell Lake | Reservoir | Ellis | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Cypress Springs | Reservoir | Franklin | modeled | Mar |
| Sabine Lake | Coastal | Orange | modeled | Sep |
| Inks Lake | Reservoir | Burnet | modeled | Mar |
| Brazos River | River | Somervell | USGS | Mar |
| Stillhouse Hollow Lake | Reservoir | Bell | USGS | Mar |
| Canyon Lake | Reservoir | Comal | USGS | Mar |
| Medina Lake | Reservoir | Bandera | USGS | Mar |
| Wright Patman Lake | Reservoir | Bowie | modeled | Mar |
| Squaw Creek Reservoir | Reservoir | Somervell | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Nacogdoches | Reservoir | Nacogdoches | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Marble Falls | Reservoir | Burnet | modeled | Mar |
| Lady Bird Lake | Reservoir | Travis | USGS | Mar |
| Neches River | River | Jasper | USGS | Mar |
Texas fishing splits into four worlds. East Texas is grass-reservoir country: Rayburn, Fork, Toledo Bend and Palestine grow giant largemouth in fertile, stained water. North Texas runs on hybrids, sand bass and the striper factory of Texoma. The Hill Country's Highland Lakes (Buchanan down to Austin) offer clear canyon water and white bass runs. And the coast, from Sabine to the Laguna Madre, is its own universe of trout and redfish. One license with a freshwater or saltwater endorsement covers the side you fish, and nothing ever closes: February giants and August catfish are both Texas traditions.
The bass calendar peaks February-May (pre-spawn through post-spawn) and again in October, when the lakes empty of traffic and the shad migrate. Hybrid and white bass fishing carries the summer mornings; catfishing never stops; and on the coast the calendar flips, with the best sight-fishing in winter's clear, low tides and bull redfish schooling every fall at the passes.
February through May is prime on the bass lakes (pre-spawn through post-spawn), October is the underrated month everywhere, and the catfish and hybrid bites carry the summer. There is no closed season.
No: dams, riprap, bridges and state park piers give real bank access on every water we cover, and the tailraces (Livingston, Texoma) are famous bank fisheries.