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Lone✯Star Outdoor News

TIGHTEN THE NET: Fresh bait caught each day in a cast net like this one being tossed by guide Ray Austin is the key to the guide’s success in hauling in big catfish at Lake McQueeney. Photo by Ralph Winningham, for LSON.

Lake McQueeny a hotspot for cats By Ralph Winingham FOR LONE STAR OUTDOOR NEWS Even with as many as 15 fishing rods sticking out from the side of his boat like a pin cushion and each line offering a tasty live or big chunk of shad as bait, Ray Austin knows the big cat odds are stacked against him. “I know there is at least a 60-pounder out there — the genetics are here so we just have to find the right place at the right time,’’ said

the veteran guide of TopCat Professional Fishing Guide Service. Austin specializes in big blue and flathead catfish — lunkers tipping the scales at 20, 30 and 40 pounds are not uncommon — at Lake McQueeney and other lakes on the Guadalupe River, in addition to the Highland Lakes. The 396-acre Lake McQueeney, built seven miles east of New Braunfels in 1928, is his go-to spot for hooking up with the big cats this time of year. Both the blues and flatheads, sometimes called yellow catfish, are spawning in April and May with females full of eggs often being the most aggressive. The lake record for a blue catfish, a 41.70pound, 45.25-inch long monster, was caught last year on May 14, and the record flathead weighing 44.70 pounds and 45.5 inches long was landed last April 3. Many of the anglers on this small impoundment devoid of public access and surrounded by million-dollar homes release the big fish caught on rods and reels, leaving

See LAKE MCQUEENY, Page 11

April 27, 2012

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