Lake Austin

File:Lake Austin Pennybacker Bridge.JPG|alt=image of Pennybacker Bridge from underneath on Lake Austin]]

Lake Austin is a part of Texas' Colorado River; it begins below Mansfield Dam and is principally fed by the outflow of Lake Travis. The lake meanders generally from northwest to southeast, with few significant tributaries; the largest are Bull Creek, entering from the north near where Loop 360 spans the lake at the Pennybacker Bridge, and Bee Creek, entering from the west just above Tom Miller Dam, where the lake ends. Its outflow through Tom Miller Dam then becomes the principal inflow for Lady Bird Lake.

Lake Austin is maintained as a constant-level lake by releases of water from Lake Travis upstream. The other Highland Lake reservoirs on the Colorado River are Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, and Lake Travis upstream, and Lady Bird Lake downstream.

The first lake on the same site was named Lake McDonald, a reservoir formed by the construction of Austin Dam between 1890 and 1893. In 1900 a heavy rainstorm overwhelmed and destroyed the first Austin Dam, causing extensive flooding. The dam began to be rebuilt in 1915, but repairs were abandoned because of a contract dispute, and the unfinished dam was again destroyed in a heavy storm later that year. In 1938 the Lower Colorado River Authority began building the Tom Miller Dam; the dam was completed and the lake filled in 1939.{{Cite web|title=LAKE AUSTIN (TRAVIS COUNTY)|website=Handbook of Texas Online|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rol13|access-date=21 April 2015|date=15 June 2010|publisher=Texas State Historical Association}}

Lake Austin is a popular fishing and boating destination.

Numerous companies rent out sailboats, motorboats, jet skis/waverunners, canoes, pontoon boats, and large party boats in the Austin area.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k6692W5sYakC&pg=PA303|title = Insiders' Guide to Austin|year = 1999|isbn = 9780762755684| last1=Hylton | first1=Hilary | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}

The Austin Parks and Recreation Department offers classes in canoeing, kayaking, and sailing.

Lake Austin has been stocked with several species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. The lake is considered to have an excellent stock of largemouth bass.{{cite web|title=Lake Austin|url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/austin/|access-date=21 April 2015|website=Texas Parks and Wildlife Department}} Other fish present include catfish and sunfish.

Lake Austin is one of the Texas Highland Lakes infested with hydrilla, a non-native aquatic plant species. The Lower Colorado River Authority has intentionally lowered the water levels in the lake in the months of January and February so that freezing air temperatures might destroy substantial portions of the hydrilla in the lake each winter. As of March 2014, hydrilla has been completely eliminated from the lake through the stocking of Asian grass carp by the City of Austin.{{cite news|title=Hydrilla plant gone from Lake Austin|date=27 October 2013|url=http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local/2014/05/25/2418984/|newspaper=KVUE|access-date=21 April 2015}} As of September 2016 the grass carp released into Lake Austin have begun to devastate the lake’s natural resources. This has led to a decline in the wildlife native to this section of the Colorado River.{{cite web |url=https://www.kut.org/post/grass-carp-ate-all-plants-lake-austin-now-city-wants-them-gone |title=Grass Carp Ate All the Plants in Lake Austin. Now the City Wants Them Gone |website=www.kut.org |date= 9 September 2016|access-date=29 April 2019}}

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Category:Reservoirs in Texas

Category:Geography of Austin, Texas

Category:Protected areas of Travis County, Texas

Category:Bodies of water of Travis County, Texas

Category:1939 establishments in Texas

Category:Lower Colorado River Authority