Bass fishing in Texas: the year, the water and the lure

Largemouth bass is the fish more Texans want to catch than any other. TPWD says that when anglers were asked which freshwater fish they prefer, they chose largemouth three to one over striped bass, four to one over white bass and nearly five to one over channel catfish. TPWD stocks 6 to 8 million Florida largemouth fingerlings every year, there are hundreds of bass clubs in the state, and TPWD says bass fishing adds greatly to the Texas economy. It is also a fish that rewards understanding, because where it is and what it will bite change with the water temperature, the cover, the light and the weather. This guide goes through all of that: the bass family, the seasons, what happens in a lake in summer, how to pick a lure, and the rules. Where TPWD gives a fact or a rule it is marked as TPWD's; the patterns are our own summary of what experienced bass anglers and guides describe, and the "For more reading" list at the bottom has the articles we learned from.

The black bass of Texas

Largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Guadalupe and Alabama bass are all black bass, members of the sunfish family, not true bass. Largemouth is by far the one most anglers fish for, and there are two kinds in Texas: the native one and the Florida largemouth that TPWD has stocked into many lakes. Smallmouth have been stocked in streams of the Edwards Plateau, spotted bass are native to East Texas rivers, and the Guadalupe bass, the state fish, lives only in Texas, in the flowing water of Hill Country streams. TPWD's tests for telling them apart use the jaw, the markings and where the color ends on the sides.

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How a bass lives

The year by water temperature

A thermometer tells you more than the calendar. Bass anglers divide the year into winter, prespawn, spawn, postspawn, summer and fall, and each has a place and a few lures that fit. The sources do not agree on exact temperatures, and the stage depends on the lake, so treat the numbers as a starting point and check your own water, ideally early in the morning on the main lake, where one pro says to take the base temperature. TPWD says Texas spawning begins when the water reaches about 60°F, as early as February in the south and as late as May elsewhere. Move the temperature and switch between warming and cooling to see where the bass go and what to throw.

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Texas lake data adds some details. TPW Magazine looked at tournament results from 2014 to 2022: the share of teams catching a five-fish bag rose as spring warmed, May was the best month overall (usually postspawn, when fish are hungry and the water is not yet hot enough to stress them), fishing got harder from June, and October was harder than September or November, perhaps because cold fronts start arriving then. At Sam Rayburn it found February the best month for the heaviest bags, the peak of the prespawn, when big egg-laden females feed heavily. It is one analysis of tournaments, not a rule, but it fits what the seasonal pattern predicts. TPWD says that at Lake Fork the best fishing is in spring, fall and winter, with spring peaking from mid-February to April along the shorelines.

Weather, moon and wind

Summer: layers, oxygen and the thermocline

In spring and fall a lake mixes, and the temperature and oxygen are about the same from top to bottom. In summer the warm top water stops mixing with the cool water below. The warm top layer, the thermocline between, and the cool bottom layer then act almost like separate lakes. Most of a lake's oxygen is made by plants and algae in the sunlit top layer, so once the layers have formed, the bottom layer's oxygen can be used up and not replaced, and fish cannot live there. The thermocline can be where bass find both cooler water and enough oxygen. Where it sits depends on the lake, from a few feet in a small pond to 60 feet or more in a deep clear lake, and the water in a river-run reservoir often does not layer at all. Anglers use a fish finder to see where the fish really are.

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Cover, light and lures

Once you know roughly where bass are, the cover decides how you fish. TPWD's lake pages give good Texas examples. At Sam Rayburn, game fish sit around hydrilla edges, flats, humps and creek channels in the clear lower lake, and in timber, brush, laydowns and channels in the upper lake. At Lake Fork, docks, boat houses, hydrilla and points have historically held the most bass, and TPWD says fish also gather at bridge pilings and artificial brush piles. In the hot Texas summer TPWD says to fish topwaters in low light, then switch to plastic worms, jigs and Carolina rigs around the vegetation edges, brush piles, deep ledges and creek channels as the sun rises. Pick a cover and a light.

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The cards in Tackle & Lures show each of these in more detail: the Texas rig and Carolina rig for plastics, the drop shot for finesse, the weedless spoon for grass, and tuning a crankbait. For how to work a lure, see flipping and pitching, slow rolling, ripping, walking the dog, popping, swimming and twitch and pause. Match line to the job with fluorocarbon, braid and line color, and tie with a Palomar.

Reading a lake with TexCast

The lake pages in TexCast show the water level, and many lakes have depth contours. Contour lines packed close together show a steep bank or ledge. Lines spread far apart show a flat, which is where spawning bass want to be, and the guides suggest looking for flats of 10 feet or less on lowland reservoirs and 8 to 20 feet on highland reservoirs. A ditch or channel running toward the flat is a prespawn route. A level that is high or low changes which cover is wet, as TPWD notes for Sam Rayburn, so read lake levels and the conservation pool. Start from the lakes list.

Rules and releasing a bass

You need a Texas fishing license with a freshwater endorsement unless an exception applies. TPWD's statewide limits, valid September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027, are a daily bag of 5 black bass in any combination of largemouth, smallmouth, Alabama, Guadalupe and spotted bass, with a 14-inch minimum length for largemouth and smallmouth and no minimum for the others. Special regulations apply to some lakes, such as slot limits or maximum lengths, so check TPWD's exceptions for the water you fish.

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If you let a bass go, TPWD's guidance for black bass is worth following: avoid catch and release in water deeper than 30 feet, avoid it in hot weather (it is stressful above 70°F and very stressful above 80°F), stay away from fish on spawning beds, use barbless hooks when possible, land fish without a long fight, keep them in the water as much as you can, wet your hands, grasp a bass by the lower jaw without bending it, and never put fingers under the gill cover or in the eye sockets. TPWD's biologists found that many bass caught from deep water recover on their own, especially in water 60°F or cooler. See handling a fish well for the full steps.

This is a summary of what TPWD says and a general account of bass behavior, not legal advice and not a promise of any lake's fishing. TPWD and the Texas statutes and rules decide what applies to you. The temperatures and patterns come from several guides and differ by lake and year.

Related

For more reading, we suggest these articles

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