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Calaveras Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Calaveras Lake: CPS Energy's power-plant cooling reservoir near San Antonio, where TPWD stocks red drum every year.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~74 F est.
Air / High
84 / 85 F
Wind
SE 11 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Calaveras Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. Today brings clear skies, wind SE around 11 mph, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 85. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:11 AM-12:11 PM and 10:38 PM-12:38 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 80 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Texas requires a fishing licence from age 17, from $30.00 for residents. What a Texas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing catfish (blue, channel) here? Check the size and bag limits with TPWD before you keep anything. The season dates for Texas, read off the agency, are on the Texas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp84 F
High / Low85 / 57 F
WindSE 11-12 mph
Pressure1016.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:39 / 18:54
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Calaveras Lake this week

The best day on Calaveras Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
10:11 AM-12:11 PM and 10:38 PM-12:38 AM
Minor period
4:33 AM-5:33 AM
Sun
07:39 to 18:54
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 10 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Calaveras Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

When to come: the Calaveras Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Catfish (blue, channel)
Redfish (red drum)
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Calaveras Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 87 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 85 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Catfish (blue, channel) led the card at excellent. High of 84 F, wind to 7 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Texas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Texas fishing license. Calaveras rules (TPWD, read today): red drum 20-inch minimum, no maximum, 3 a day; blue and channel catfish 14-inch minimum, 15 a day combined; largemouth bass 14-inch minimum, 5 a day.

Access

Recreation access is controlled by Thousand Trails Management Services, and paid entry is required (TPWD). TPWD lists Thousand Trails as the camping and recreation contact.

About this water

A CPS Energy cooling reservoir impounded in 1969, 3,624 acres on TPWD's lake page (3,110 in the 2023 survey), 20 miles south of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Fishing Calaveras Lake: the full guide

A cooling reservoir

TPWD's survey report describes Calaveras as a reservoir on the southeast side of San Antonio built in 1969 by CPS Energy for power plant cooling and later opened to recreation. Its level is held near conservation pool by pumping from the San Antonio River. TPWD's lake page gives 3,624 acres and a maximum depth of 45 feet; the 2023 survey report gives 3,110 acres. Cover is mainly cattails and bulrush, with riprap along the dam and the intake canal.

Red drum

Red drum are the lake's main attraction: in 2021 they drew 72% of angling effort, and TPWD found their abundance above the historical average. The agency has stocked red drum fingerlings since 1984 and continues annual stockings at 200 fish per acre. TPWD's lake page names March through August as good months for red drum, with crawfish and tilapia as natural baits and gold or silver spoons and rattletraps among lures.

Catfish, hybrids and bass

Blue and channel catfish are stocked as fingerlings; catfish anglers accounted for 9% of angling effort in 2021. Hybrid striped bass stocking was discontinued in 2017 for poor results and low forage, and none turned up in the 2024 gill-net survey. No largemouth bass were sampled, and TPWD expects only a negligible bass fishery.

Common questions

Do the redfish reproduce in Calaveras?

TPWD keeps the population with annual fingerling stockings, recorded every year since 1984, at 200 fish per acre.

Is the bass fishing good?

Not according to TPWD's latest survey: no largemouth were sampled and no anglers reported catching any, so only a negligible fishery likely exists.

Are hybrid stripers still stocked?

No. TPWD stopped hybrid striped bass stocking in 2017 and found none in its 2024 gill-net survey.

Is fishing good at Calaveras Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Braunig Lake4 miGuadalupe River41 miMedina Lake41 miCanyon Lake42 miChoke Canyon Reservoir55 miLady Bird Lake76 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 29.2845, -98.3202 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 7, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 7, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.