Fishing rating: Good

As of mid-August, the lake level was at 1,078 feet. This is about 3 feet lower than it was last year at this time. Fall often comes all at once on the Colorado River. One day it’s summer and 105 degrees and the next it’s 85 and windy. Look for the largemouth bass to stay in a summertime pattern until around Halloween. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving look for largemouth very shallow hitting anything moving. Often they are keying in on late hatching insects and will hit buzz baits, spinners, and poppers with reckless abandon! If that’s not working, try jigging with split-tail jigs, jig and pig, or Yamamoto jigs and grubs off lake contours at 20 to 30 feet. The lake is at historic low levels, so key in on inflow areas like Sandy Point and up the Overton Arm. Threadfin shad hold to areas that have muddy or stained water. The striped bass will be with them definitely feeding heavy throughout the fall. Try trolling anchovies over reefs and around main lake points until you locate a school. Then very often you can catch as many as you want to filet, within the limit of coarse (20 stripers over 20 inches and unlimited under 20 inches per person). This pattern can work all winter long, you may have to go deeper. Channel catfish will go through a high activity period also during the fall. Fresh cut baits (bluegill and carp) typically work well, along with shrimp, nightcrawlers, and minnows.