Located in south-central Texas, Lake Buchanan has a reputation for excellent white bass and striper fishing. Its 22,300 acres are also home to crappie, sunfish, gar, catfish, and hybrid striped bass. Anglers can rent a boat or launch their own from one of five launches, four on its eastern shore and one on the west. There are also many points along the 120-plus miles of shoreline where you can portage a canoe or kayak.

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Lake Buchanan is known for its good catfish population, as well as its white and striped bass fishing, and even the occasional Guadalupe bass. The white and striped bass runs occur from February through May, from Beaver Creek up to the Colorado River, which is also an excellent area for finding largemouths. Anglers catch Buchanan’s white bass using live bait, small crankbaits, small topwaters, small hair jigs, and twister tail jigs. Striped bass are caught with live shad sunk into humps and around drop-offs.

Spring and fall are popular times for topwater fishing for striped or white bass. Look for flocks of birds diving for baitfish around main-lake points and humps. Bass will be nearby feeding on the baitfish school. However, when the weather grows hot, Buchanan’s anglers have better luck casting downriggers twenty to thirty feet deep, with white or yellow bucktail jigs and trailers behind.

Largemouth bass tend to remain shallow on Lake Buchanan due to its stained waters. They respond to topwater lures, spinnerbaits and shallow-to-medium depth crankbaits. When the Lake floods, largemouth bass gather around boat docks, laydown logs and flooded willows, where they can be caught using plastic worms and jigs.

Anglers on Lake Buchanan catch channel and blue catfish using stinkbait. Flatheads prefer live bait.

White crappie is found in the upper end of the reservoir.

There is a lot of rocky terrain along the lake’s east side up to the Silver Creek area, and many rocks near the dam. When the lake’s water level rises, this is a good opportunity to fish on the flooded brush spots along the flat coves.

Lake Buchanan boat ramps:

The following boat ramps provide access to Lake Buchanan.