i am going to austin 12/8/08 for a week with my boat wondering if you have any suggestions on were to fish and if this time of year is better fished with jigs or minnows thanks gary

In the immedeate Austin area, my recomendations, as a Native Texan, are Lake Travis, Inks Lake, and Lake Austin. All three offer great bass, catfish and crappie fishing, but Lake Inks is by far the most beautiful and picturesque. Lake Austin is a reservoir on the Colorado River. It was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. It has a surface area of 1599 acres with a maximun depth of 75′. Lake Austin is mainly a bass and catfish fishery, but rainbow trout are also stocked there. Fishing is excellent at all times of the year with both live bait and lures. Lake Travis is another reservoir on the Colorado River. The lake was formed in 1942 by the construction of Mansfield Dam, by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Travis has the largest storage capacity of the Highland Lakes, and stretches 65 miles upriver from western Travis County into southern Burnet County to Max Starcke Dam, southwest of the town of Marble Falls. The Pedernales River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, flows into the lake from the southwest in western Travis County. It is a large, deep lake with a surface area of 18,622 acres, and a maximum depth of 190′. Lake Travis has outstanding fishing for Guadalupe, and Black Bass, Catfish, and White Bass. Crappie fishing is marginal due to competition with more agressive species for habitat, but they are there. Inks Lake is yet another reservoir on the Colorado River. The reservoir was formed in 1938 by the construction of Inks Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. It has a surface area of 831 acres and a maximun depth of 60′. The shoreline has numerous rock piles, ledges, and chunk rock banks. Several private boat docks, especially on the west side of the lake, hold fish year-round. Inks Lake has good populations of Sunfish, Crappie, Black and Guadalupe Bass, and Catfish. Allm species in t,is lake seem to prefer live minnows. year-around, except for sunfish. They like a Red Wiggler Worm on a thin wire #10 long shank ‘cricket’ hook. Happy Fishing.