If you're looking for a good fishing hole half an hour from the granite dome of the State Capitol, then Lake Georgetown might be just the place.  This U. S. Army Corps of Engineers project sits four miles west of its namesake city, some 20 miles north of Austin.  It's a typical Hill Country reservoir, deep and clear, created in the late 1970s by damming up a canyon on the North San Gabriel River. 

    The lake has been stocked with the Florida strain of largemouth black bass, and has yielded a number of fish over 10 pounds.  The official record fish was a 25.5-inch, 10.6-pound beauty caught by Jason Carter in 2000.  One reason the lake produces such lunkers is that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department enforces a 14 - 18 inch slot length limit, which means you can keep any largemouth you catch that's shorter than 14 inches or longer than 18.  

    The other black bass you'll be interested in is the smallmouth.  Bronzebacks were first stocked here in 1978 before the impoundment actually filled.  The Parks and Wildlife people continue to introduce smallies, including some 12,000 fingerlings stocked in 2006.  As across the rest of the state, the size limit is 14 inches.  The bag limit for all species of black bass is five in combination.

    Lake Georgetown has no boat docks and virtually no underwater vegetation, so some of the choice places to fish for bass include rock piles, points, bluffs and submerged timber.  Preferred lures are crankbaits, jigs 'n' pigs, plastic worms (either Texas- or Carolina-rigged) and lipless rattlers like the classic Rat-L-Trap.  Early mornings are a good time to try buzzbaits, or topwater plugs like the Zara Spook or ChugBug.  When the fish are deep, some anglers like live minnows fished with a slip cork.  Under those conditions, I personally prefer a shad-colored deep diving crank bait.  Even better is a quick falling tail-spinner like the Little George or a Texas-made Humdinger ([[ ...

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