Just bought a property with a 32 acre full pool lake on it, previously stocked with bass, crappie, and bluegill (not specific on the species). We closed on the property Friday April 28, and we have fished the lake three times, once before closing and twice after. Goal with this place is to produce large lmb, crappie, and maintain a healthy forage base for these species.

Catch first time out was a couple bass (son caught and not sure size or health) and about 6-7 decent sized (8-12#) flathead catfish. Bottom fishing with worms.

Second time caught a small white crappie, moderate size bluegill (hand sized) and a 10-12# flathead catfish. I think there might have been one other bluegill type caught but never saw it. Fishing with jigs and crankbait (jig caught everything I saw, crank caught nothing).

Third time was just me and the dogs. I used worms and started on bottom but moved to a float fishing 12 inches below surface. Caught lots of bluegill, what appeared to be cooper nose, possible one green sunfish, all sizes ranging from 6 inches up to one or two that I think were close to 12-14 inches long and thick. All of them appeared healthy for their sizes, none appeared thin. Caught two lmb that were healthy in the 1.5-2# range and two that were in the 5# range. Pics included below. Also caught one catfish thatbent my #4 hook and fell off at the shore.

I know the catfish need to go. Will help With water clarity and forage base. I also know any large crappie need to go. The previous owners have pics of what appeared to be at least 18-20 inch crappie. Way bigger than any I ever caught in Ohio, so maybe even bigger than 20". Would you recommend throwing away smaller bass at this point knowing the smaller ones I caught were healthy appearing and there didn't seem to be an abundance of them? I know it's only a few fishing trips and not much info, but anything you can offer to help grow bigger lmb would be great.





My new fishing buddy

With that size of waterbody you should start with a electroshock survey. Call Bob Lusk - it will be well worth the $ !!! Those 2 LMB could use some food ! They may be post spawn thin. Would be good to write down your fishing results with pics and send it to him prior to the survey.

Nice catch on the lake.

I appreciate the reminder to log the fish caught....that will help regarding size/weight ratio and if I need to correct something there.

The fish really did seem decent sized. I think the pics are misleading a bit due to me taking while holding them, although they may be a little thin post spawn as wel. Hard to say, but logging them will help determine.

I believe the noble foundation can do electroshock surveys in my neck of the woods. Might be a good resource to use.

Congrats on your new property with a 32 acre lake. You are going to have a lot of fun. Keep posting pictures....we love pictures.

Wow! That's big enough to ski in.

I don't know how you would get rid of all the flathead catfish if they are a reproducing population, other than draining and starting over.

NOt trying to rid them completely, just minimize their population. Take every cat caught out and see how many we keep catching. If it gets too crazy we may need to be more aggressive with other techniques. But, 32 acres is big and that's a lot of space for a lot of fish. Hard to think any one species would completely take over. Just trying to
Minimize competition between predators.

if you drain and start over a 32 acre lake producing the kind of fish shown your pictures I just may have to come up and cross the Red River and well just....I dunno...maybe cry.....lol

Yeah don't worry, not draining this one. It's part of the caddo creek watershed program in Oklahoma, so there is about 3200 acres of watershed draining into this lake, it isn't going dry unless God says so.

Just want to try and maximize the food base for the lmb and not the cats...

That's a lot of watershed. Does it have a large reinforced concrete spillway?

The dam was built. Y the state of Oklahoma as part of the caddo creek watershed project in 1966. The state evaluates their dams and places them on status and my dam is on "no worry" status. The dam appears really well made, has a good wide spillway and has a very nice drainage structure that keeps the pool well below spillway level. During the storms in 2015 the previous owners said it reached the spillway once, and the previous owners to them said it hit spillway once or twice. So yes, large watershed, but the design of the system is different reservoirs collect and slowly drain downstream and don't inundate the caddo which would inundate lake Texoma. Had never heard of the system until looking at this property.

So to answer your question, the drainage system is a nice concrete structure but the spillway is grass. It is a well designed dam/structure that I don't expect to fail anytime soon.

Hey, TB, another Ohio transplant here. I'm wondering if you've tested the water alkalinity & pH. That's the challenge my pond in the pines faces, despite four tons of ag lime per acre. Hopefully your location is better in that regard.

Also, what kind of habitat is present?

The habitat is mostly hardwood surrounding. No pine or other evergreen in the area aside from a very few cedar but those aren't really by the lake. I have not had the water tested yet, but may be something to consider. Having said that, it isn't pine area that lends toward acidity.

I grew up in E Central Okla and fished several of those watershed lakes built by the government back then. I was always excited to fish those places. Sometimes we were legal and sometimes not so legal. We fished them from inner tube type fishing platforms. A 6 lb lmb was a big bass back then in the 60 and early 70's. Now living in NW Louisiana and N E Texas, no way I would fish like that here. Way to many alligators and Moc's. Thanks for reminding me of those great little fishing lakes.

Harrison County, Texas does have it's share of gators!

Zep, if I told you how big of gators are close by, ud think I was lying. Remember I am only a mile off Caddo

I can only imagine Tracy.

I have never caught a flat head in my life. I have read on here that they are eating machines, but no one ever talks about eating them. Are they good to eat?

Yes, they are very good eating at 10-12 pounds and under.

Many people consider flatheads the best tasting catfish, superior to CC.

Tracy, my dad used to wade fish in False River, just north of Baton Rouge. He flyfished for CNBG and BG, which he kept in the water on a stringer attached to his belt.

One time he felt something tug his belt. When he looked down, he saw a huge water moccasin that had swallowed the bottom three fish on the stringer and was moving up...

can you post pictures of the cat fish. what you should do is just fish fish fish get an idea of how many fish your catching and how big is average. and with a lake that size getting 4-5 different feeders wouldn't probably be a bad idea. I would also recommend getting some sort of bait fish besides bluegills or sunfish. Flat head cat fish are lie in wait predators and like eating little blue gills or bigger minnows try catching some 3-4 in sun fish take a scissors cut most of the tail off and the pectoral fins hook them right behind the the top fin with the spins on the back and cast out with a few split shots and just wait to see if you catch some really big fatheads and if there are big flat head those might be you blue gill and crappie management tool but if you want fish for eating dont be afraid of keeping 5-12 pound cats while flat head eat the pan fish in a bigger size range then bass there will be a prefect management tool to allow pan fish that dont get eaten to be breeders and pan fish for you to eat the small pan fish will be bass food and and 4-5 inchers will be big bass and cat fish food

Running trot lines and jug lines would be a fun way to help control the catfish.

Went out fishing again this past weekend. Caught several more decent sized cats and after checking them out I am pretty sure they are channel cats. Largest might have reached into the 15# range.

Also caught several good bass, some smaller bass. Looked healthy but didn't have tape and scale with me to measure. I need to do that but might wait until fall.

Had some decent sized of panfish. Caught different sizes of crappie too, with one lunker crappie as big as I have ever seen, easily a 2-3# slab with about a15-16 inch length. Have never seen on that big.

Just picked up a barely used pelican predator with 3.5hp ob and 30# tm with depth/fish finder and trailer for a steal. Looking forward to getting that up there to see wht the bottom looks like and how deep the water is...

take the average size bass your catching

catching average 14-18 above average 20 + keep any bass 14-18 release that above average and under average bass. For blue gills release bluegills 8 + keep gills from 5-7 inches crappies keep from 9-15 release under or over cat fish keep everyone you catch once you determine the bottom start making cover for fry forage and predators also start feeding feed in a cretin spots and only there this will allow you to concentrate fish to one spot for easy catching and surveying I also recommend you get some sort of fish tagging system to watch GOOD lUCK