Below Highway 87 the river splits on the rock
Somewhere past the Highway 87 bridge near Hedwigs Hill the Llano crosses the Llano Uplift, a dome of billion-year-old granite and metamorphic rock, and stops behaving like one river. Southwest Paddler describes the 30 miles from US 87 to the town of Llano as often 100 yards or more wide and very shallow, with granite slabs splitting the current into several channels, and says a rise of one or two feet makes the section very interesting. Castell Guide Service puts the fishing consequence plainly: in the rock gardens, picking the wrong channel turns a fishing trip into an adventure.
Upstream the character is different. The South Llano rises on the Edwards Plateau and, according to the Llano River Watershed Alliance, runs on springs for its final 20 miles into Junction. The Handbook of Texas gives the main river about 100 miles across Kimble, Mason and Llano counties to Lake LBJ at Kingsland. Below the Highway 16 bridge in Llano the last 24 or so miles are mostly backed up by LBJ, with no intermediate access.
Four leased gates and a lot of private granite
TPWD classifies the Llano system as navigable, which in Texas makes the bed public between its gradient boundaries while the banks stay private. TPWD's own advice is to portage directly around a hazard and get back in the streambed without lingering, because other use of the banks can be trespass, and purple paint on posts or trees is a posted notice. With most crossings private or unsafe to park at, TPWD leases carry the public side of the river.
Pete's Pecan Patch near Junction has about 800 feet of frontage, 7.1 river miles above Grobe crossing, with a lease to August 31, 2027 and parking by reservation at (325) 215-1333. Maso-Llan Road near Art in Mason County sits 5.8 river miles below the Highway 87 bridge at the bottom of a roughly 1,000-foot walk down steep grades, and TPWD lists it as temporarily closed due to flooding. Castell Crossing at FM 2768 has about 950 feet of bank, 6.6 river miles below Maso-Llan, leased through August 31, 2027. The Kingsland Slab RV Camp lease near LBJ ran only to August 31, 2026. Upriver, the 6.3-mile South Llano Paddling Trail runs from South Llano River State Park to Junction City Park, and inside the park you need no fishing license; from October through March the day-use area opens only 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. while turkeys roost.
No special rules on a restoration river
There is no special regulation on the Llano. Every TPWD lease page says all species are managed under statewide rules: five black bass a day in any mix of largemouth, smallmouth, Guadalupe, spotted and Alabama, a 14-inch minimum only on largemouth and smallmouth, 25 white bass at 10 inches, and no limit on sunfish. A resident freshwater package is $30 and runs to August 31. The same pages ask you to go easy on harvest, especially Guadalupe bass.
The reason is genetic. Guadalupe bass live only in Edwards Plateau streams, and their main threat is hybridizing with the smallmouth TPWD began stocking in 1974. When TPWD put about 175,000 Guadalupe bass fingerlings into the South Llano in May 2011, samples there showed only 3 percent hybridization, against 30 percent in the Guadalupe system when restoration started. TPWD's brochure lists the Llano among the four rivers its restoration work focuses on and gives the state record as 3 pounds 11 ounces. Its fishing tip for the lease reaches: faster riffles for Guadalupe bass, downed trees and vegetation in the pools for largemouth. Castell adds sunfish, Rio Grande cichlids and carp.
What 278,000 cfs did, and what 150 looks like
USGS 08151500 at Llano drains 4,197 square miles and sits in town, below the whole granite reach. On October 16, 2018 it peaked at 278,000 cfs and 40.14 feet, second only to the 380,000 cfs of June 1935; June 1997 reached 260,000 and July 4, 2025 hit 132,000. The 2018 flood took out the RM 2900 bridge at Kingsland. Castell's report weeks later had the Highway 87 gauge still above 600 cfs and Llano above 1,500, and warned that the river might not be back in shape until spring.
Normal water is small. Castell calls 150 cfs average for November, and the USGS daily median on the 15th of each month runs from 73 cfs in August to 201 in May. Southwest Paddler wants 250 cfs to paddle the main reaches without dragging and calls 500 to 2,000 best. No outfitter publishes a wading range, so the 100 to 250 cfs band on this page is built from those numbers: roughly the summer median at the bottom, the paddling minimum at the top. In late September 2026 the gauge ran 132 to 289 cfs after rain.
White bass in February, poppers by summer
The year starts at the bottom of the river. TPWD says white bass begin their spawning run from Lake LBJ up the Llano and Colorado arms in February and run through May, and it recommends twister-tail jigs, small hair jigs, small crankbaits and small topwaters; the Lions Club ramp in Kingsland is the nearest launch. Guadalupe bass nest from early spring, March into June by TPWD's species account. Castell fishes the Llano in spring and fall, teaching streamers and poppers from a kayak, and TPWD notes that bass feed by sight here, so the days after a muddy rise are usually lost.
Southwest Paddler calls fall through early summer the best time on the Llano and warns there is little to no shade. Plan midsummer trips for early mornings, carry more water than you think, and leave the braided granite reaches for water high enough to float the channel you picked.