Outdoors: Not too cold for bass at Bastrop Lake

Mike Schlimgen shows off nice largemouth bass caught in hot water discharge channel on Lake Bastrop. (Photo by Jim Darnell)

Don’t think you must wait until spring to catch fish, especially largemouth bass.

Yes, on normal lakes, like Canyon, most of the better bass fishing happens in later March, April and May. But on power plant lakes the water is warm coming down the discharge channel into the lake. That can make water temperatures in February on power plant lakes like May waters on a normal lake.

I usually spend most of February and March fishing up the Guadalupe River above Canyon Lake for white bass and stripers. But the run has been slow this year so my fishing pal,

Mike Schlimgen, and I launched my outboard into Lake Bastrop last week.

Bastrop is a power plant lake. Colder weather means people are heating their homes and more electrical power must be produced.

Turbine generators begin to spin to generate the power. The generators must be cooled. So water is taken into the power plant from a cold water intake canal and released as hot water out the discharge canal.

Click here to see the full story in our e-Edition.