If you’re hanging around the northwestern edge of the Hill Country, eager for a good place to wet a hook, you’d do well to take a look at 6,490-acre Lake Brownwood. It was on this beautiful body of water some 40 years ago that outdoor writer Col. Dave Harbour came up with an interesting way for anglers to explore a new lake. It’s simple, fun to fish, and here’s the best part -- it’ll catch almost any thing that swims. I’ll tell you about it in a minute, but first let’s take a look at the lake itself.

It was back in 1933 that the Brown County Water Improvement District built a dam across Pecan Bayou and Jim Ned Creek. (For those of you interested in geography, a bayou is defined as a meandering, slow-moving body of water; Pecan Bayou is the westernmost bayou in the United States.) The reservoir was designed for irrigation, flood control, and as a municipal water supply but it quickly became a Mecca for Texas anglers. The lake sits some 10 miles northwest of the city of Brownwood on Hwy 279. Park Road 15 accesses the State Park and the north side of the lake, while Ranch Road 2632 serves the south side.

Whichever side you try, you’ll find good black bass fishing. Randy Smith from the Lake Brownwood State Park told me he had good luck with tubes and Texas-rigged plastic worms in the brush and water grass. In the upper ends of the bayou or Jim Ned Creek, you should hit the exposed standing timber with topwaters like ChugBugs, buzzbaits, or my old favorite Zara Spook. I’d also work the area with spinnerbaits and plastic worms. These same lures will pick up a few largemouths around the many man-made boat docks that dot the shoreline. Brownwood has been stocked with Florida largemouths and the result is a lake record of over 12 pounds. As in most Texas water, bass bite best in the cooler months.

Crappie bite well all year, but there’s a catch – first you have to find them. Schools of these sweet-tasting panfish li ...

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