We had looked at a couple of places on Google maps with water, like New Braunfels, but that was too far, Lake Travis, again too far. Wife said maybe just the overflow pond at the end of the street, which made me think of kicking her, that sounded so lame, but we have seen people stopped there and trying to fish, so who knows. There are also huge ponds behind Sam's at Southpark Meadows but that also seemed lame. I decided to go to a park area called Roy G Guerrero park on Lake Austin by Pleasantville road in East Austin.
The weather could not have been nicer at 71 degrees and with the sun setting, a cooling breeze was in the air. I took a sweater but it was not needed, although it would have been fine to wear. Wife decided she would just observe, which I do carry those folding chairs in the Excursion for these occassions. We got our 4-5 rods, and tackle gear and Wife grabbed a chair and we walked along this nice trail where people were taking their afternoon walks. Javalina was kind of worried that the area was a little ghetto but I told him "look, those are old white people walking by, this is a safe neighborhood, or they wouldn't be here." That seemed to relax him.
We had to walk a bit, we were right in front of a fat part of the lake, and looking up it is a perfect spot for taking in the downtown view of all the highrises. The only problem is that the trail is more for walking than fishing. There were only 2-3 spots where it wasn't all overgrown on the water's edge so we could throw out our lures and stuff. I was a little worried the boy's would get bored as I saw no fish activity in our first spot we stopped to try. Still, I thought it would be good to put some lures on their rods and let them try. I put a crankbait on Javalina's rod so he could throw and retrieve, to keep him busy, explaining that as he reeled it in itlooks like an injured minnow and that is what bass attack. On his friend, I put a jig head and a little grub tail, telling him that goes down and the wiggling tail attracts nearby fish, specially if they are laying lower. I tried an artificial worm, on a Texas rig. The water was very clear and I could not see any fish there, so it didn't really matter, but to my surprise, the boys were having fun, regardless of no fish. We walked further on the trail and Javalina found a second place that had a nice opening, so we tried there for awhile. We lost a hook and grub to a tree branch and Javalina almost lost a crankbait he named George (for some reason), then we kind of decided to call it a day as it was just turning to evening with a perfect sunset. The sun gleamed off the surface of the lake, and the downtown buildings looked brighter than normal for a few minutes, then it got dusky.
There was a look out point with a concrete pad and even rails to prevent people from falling in and even better, no grass or trees and I saw a few crappie moving around the water. I had 1 of the rods set up with a tiny hook, and I had been joking around about using the stinky bait, which I pulled out. Javalina didn't see it come out, but he must have his mama's delicate nose because he got whiny about "ughh, what is that smell?" I put a little pellet on the tiny hook and by the 2nd strike, I pulled out about a 3-4 inch crappie. It got the boys excited, and then we were there a good half hour after the sun set where they were trying to catch one. I kept setting the hook with fresh pellets but they weren't reacting fast enough. The line even had a bobber and you could see it go up and down, but they wouldn't jerk the line fast enough. It was fun watching them trying so hard and they were having fun doing it, so I didn't mind them trying for so long.
Eventually, I walked all the other extra stuff to the car and they kind of trailed behind me. It was a good afternoon. We didn't really catch anything, but Javalina said he had fun and wouldn't mind doing it again, so I call it a win. I told him, part of the fun is just being outside doing something different. I feel great that at least for the start of 2020, we have been to the movies, a boat-con, fishing, and even a new restaurant. Not bad for the first week....
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