You couldn’t have asked for a prettier evening. It was early fall, the afternoon breeze had long since called it quits, and the lake’s surface lay there before us as smooth, slick, and shiny as Aunt Margie’s mirror. A few weeks earlier Central Texas had baked in the Dog Days of August and even now, afternoon temperatures in the high 90s kept many an angler off the lake.

But this time of the year, when the sun goes down, nights turn cool and comfortable. Now it was dark and Harrell Clary of Lampasas and I hit the water in hopes of finding a striper or two and maybe a few white bass. But when our boat rounded a point and we entered our favorite cove, Harrell and I instantly knew something was different. It took us a few minutes to figure out what was happening. No doubt about it – this was a surprise. A most pleasant surprise.

Lake Buchanan can be full of surprises. One surprise you want to avoid is rough water. The lake is big – 22,000 acres – and when high winds come up, the waves can grow dangerous in a hurry, so be sure to watch the weather. Another surprise is how to pronounce the name. If you hail from somewhere other than the Central Texas hills, you might be tempted to say, “Lake BEW kan un.” You’d be wrong. Area fishermen would certainly know what you were talking about, and I doubt anyone would make fun of you, but if you listened close, you’d hear the locals call it, “Lake BUCK an un.” Of course it doesn’t really matter how you pronounce the name – this 70-year-old lake can reward you with a ton of angling pleasure.

You won’t find classic habitat such as water lily flats or hydrilla beds, but Buchanan can still surprise you with excellent black bass fishing – especially in cooler weather. My personal best went just over 8 pounds, but they get much bigger. Robby Payne caught the lake-record 10.93-pound largemouth back in March, 1997. If you like topwaters, try white buzz baits, Zoom Horny Toads, or ...

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