Lake Athens

A fellow Dallas Fly Fisher gave a pretty positive report on Lake Athens last week.  Now, we thought his numbers of 140+ fish with many Sunfish weighing over a pound exaggerated, but Cody and I thought we would give Lake Athens a visit.  Originally, we were going to fish on Tuesday, but the winds were 15-20 mph, so we put off our trip to a calmer day, today.  We have fished Lake Athens once before and enjoyed the day there, and today was just as fun!

Bluegill Fun on a 1#

We got on the water at 8:30 a.m. and left at 13:30.  22 fish were brought on the boat, so our numbers were not nearly as high as our fellow DFFer, and while we landed 18 nice Sunfish, none were over 1/2 pound. The two Largemouth Bass weighed in under 1½ pounds.  The GirlieBugger caught 21 of the 22 fish; Kevin Hutchison's Swamp Monster caught the other one.  We fished fly patterns in chartreuse, red, green, and a blue/black combination with no luck.  Black was definitely the color of the day!  Early in the morning, we fished floating lines with a 9-10 foot leader/tippet set-up, but once the ambient temperature reached above 85°F, hook-ups dropped off.  Cody switched to a sink tip line, which proved to be the most successful, because he caught 12 of the fish and had two catches to my one.  We fished northwest of the bridge near the marina along the edges of the hydrilla beds with great success in the morning.  Then, we moved to the shoreline across from the marina boat ramps starting at the little creek and fished all the way to the pump station zone.  While we found some nice Sunfish around the beds, shadowed areas from home owners' boat docks held the larger Sunfish.

After we finished fishing, we boated around to see the lake.  Hydrilla beds have choked most of the coves rendering some inaccessible, and while the lake levels are down, there are still many fishing spots all around.  Fish, not carp, either, consistently crashed the water eating the large dragonflies.  There were very few boats on the water, so crowds were not a problem, and we enjoyed the added bonus of seeing two different flocks of Canada Geese.  Lake Athens is a nice, friendly lake with great fishing spots, especially for Sunfish on small 1 and 2 # rods!

Cody's Largemouth Bass

Bluegill Fun

One of Cody's Two, Large Redear Sunfish

Redbreast Sunfish

Canada Geese