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Lake Travis Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Sep 4, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Austin's deep, clear playground with a serious side: staircase bass and canyon stripers.

1/5
Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.
Lake level
677.91 ft -3.09 vs pool
Air / High
98 / 98 F
Wind
SE 8 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 08154500, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
4
September 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.

1/5Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Lake Travis serves up more heat: the productive hours are the dim ones. The gauge reads 677.91 ft, 3.09 ft below pool, easing 1.00 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind SE around 8 mph, rising pressure near 1012 hPa and a high of 98. Water sits around 84 F for the season (estimated). With the last quarter, the solunar majors run 5:39 AM-7:39 AM and 5:39 PM-7:39 PM: plan around them and beat the heat.

The plan, species by species

Striped bassFair

Deep and early: live bait on downlines over the river channel at first light, or downriggers along thermocline depth.

Catfish (blue, channel)Fair

Anchor on 20-30 ft baited holes with punch bait or cut shad. They keep biting through the heat when everything else quits.

Largemouth bassSlow

Topwater at first light on points and seawalls, then slide out to 12-25 ft brush and points with a Carolina rig, deep crank or drop shot. The bite is dawn, dusk or deep.

CrappieSlow

Straight down on bridge pilings and deep brush at 15-25 ft. Minnows outfish jigs in hot water; move until the graph shows them stacked.

Tomorrow: Similar at 98 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Sep 5, 6:30 AMHow this report is made →

Water and weather

Live readings from LCRA Lk Travis nr Austin, TX.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 08154500. Conservation pool is 681 ft.

678.45679.45680.46pool 681677.91 ft08/0508/1508/2509/04

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp98 F
High / Low98 / 78 F
WindSE 8-9 mph
Pressure1011.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain16% cloud, 29%
Sunrise / Sunset07:10 / 19:51
MoonLast Quarter, 50%
Water temp (seasonal)~84 F est.

Bite planner

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

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Next 7 days

Tap a day for the detailed outlook.

Fri Sep 4 · Showers, 98/78 F, wind 14 mph, rain 29%

Fair or better. A 14 mph breeze puts a working chop on the banks it hits: fish the wind-blown side.

Species guide

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

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: spring and fall

The headline act on most American reservoirs. Relates to cover: docks, brush, grass edges and points. Topwater at first light on points and seawalls, then slide out to 12-25 ft brush and points with a Carolina rig, deep crank or drop shot. The bite is dawn, dusk or deep.

Striped bass illustration

Striped bass

Best: spring and fall

The reservoir heavyweight. Follows shad and herring schools in open water year-round. Deep and early: live bait on downlines over the river channel at first light, or downriggers along thermocline depth.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Good year-round

The most reliable bite on most southern waters. Blues run big; channels fill the cooler. Anchor on 20-30 ft baited holes with punch bait or cut shad. They keep biting through the heat when everything else quits.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: Nov-Mar

Brush piles, bridge pilings and standing timber. The fish fry favorite. Straight down on bridge pilings and deep brush at 15-25 ft. Minnows outfish jigs in hot water; move until the graph shows them stacked.

When to come: the Lake Travis 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
Largemouth bass
Striped bass
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 84 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovSep, ~84 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 Lake Travis today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Sep 3

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Striped bass led the card at good. High of 104 F, wind to 16 mph.

Wed, Sep 2

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Striped bass led the card at good. High of 100 F, wind to 9 mph.

Tue, Sep 1

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Striped bass led the card at good. High of 101 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
Only used to send you this water's report each week. No spam, ever.

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

Bass 14-inch/5 standard TPWD. Water-district level data posted daily.

Access

Mansfield Dam Park, Jones Brothers, Sandy Creek ramps: usable ramps vary with elevation.

About this water

18,900 acres on the Colorado, Travis/Burnet counties, TX. Mansfield Dam (1942), Highland Lakes chain.

Fishing Lake Travis: the full guide

Below the party barges

Travis drops 200 feet clear into Hill Country canyons: under the pontoon flotillas lives a real fishery: largemouth and Guadalupe-strain bass stacked on marina cables and bluff staircases, stripers and whites chasing shad up the river arm, and night fishing that owns the summer. Finesse gear and weekday dawns are the local wisdom.

Clear-water finesse school

Travis is Texas' finesse laboratory: 30-ft visibility on the lower lake means drop shots, Ned rigs, and long fluorocarbon leaders for spotted-and-largemouth mixed bags on the bluff ends and marina cables. Night fishing under the dock lights beats the ski-boat chaos of summer days.

The level rollercoaster

Travis swings 40-plus feet between drought and flood: each stage redraws the playbook. Low water concentrates fish on the river-channel ledges and brush piles; refill floods buckbrush flats and lights up the shallows for a season. Check current elevation before you trust any old waypoint.

Common questions

How do I fish Travis in summer traffic?

Dawn until 10am, then night: the wakeboard fleet owns midday. Dock lights after dark produce the lake's easiest quality fish.

Deep structure inventory

Travis' 40-ft-visibility lower basin turned electronics fishing into the meta: brush piles sunk by tournament anglers at 25-45 ft, marina cable anchors, and the flooded roadbeds near Mansfield all hold suspended bass visible on forward sonar. The skill ceiling is high: long spinning rods, 6-lb fluorocarbon, and marks fished from casting distance. The lake rewards the patient technician.

Is fishing good at Lake Travis right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Tough. Pick your battles. Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Nearby waters

Lake Marble Falls16 miLake Austin18 miLake LBJ20 miLady Bird Lake24 miInks Lake28 miLake Buchanan34 mi
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