Help on an East Texas Lake - 02/08/07 10:53 PM
Hello to Everyone! I'm new to this website, but I am simply amazed with the abundance of great information available here.
I have just a couple of questions, and some of these may be more appropriate in one of the alternate forums. Anyhow, I have a 26 surface acre lake in Huntsville, Tx.(East Texas). The lake was originally built and then stocked about 15 years ago when I was a young man in high school. We stocked the lake first with fat head minnows, and chub suckers, and then later added CNB, and "Hybrid-Bluegill," and I believe native BG. After about one year, bass were added. I believe the bass were an F-1 cross (possibly a pure florida female, weighing close to 14 lbs., an an extraordinary male, florida crossed with a northern native, just under 7 lbs.). The lake took off amazingly, and in the first several years, the bass fishing was amazing...several bass over 7 lbs., and a known lake record of 12 lbs. As time moved on, I went off to collge, went to law school, and went to work in Houston, and the lake has suffered. The initial problem was too much vegitation in the lake, when the bass were able to just dominate the threadfins we had put in there about yr. # 3.
My questions are the following: (1.) In general how difficult is it to get a lake back to being a trophy LMB lake; (2.) is there such a thing as good/quality Hybrid Bluegill (I have heard that Lusk prefers native BG's over any other forage fish; (3.) what is the likelihood that the only remaining BG are natives, and not a hybrid strain at this point(I've heard that the Hybrids cannot produce as proficiently)?; (4.) How many small bass should I be taking out of there (I routinely catch as many as 30/40 LMG an outing, but all are in the 14" range, less than 1 lb. I am thinking that 200 of these LMB out the lake, may just be getting started. (5.) The lake had minor PH problems back 15 yrs. ago, and the recommended dosage of lime was added to accomodate, maybe as much as 40 tons. How often should you lime a lake of that size, annually, bi-annually? (6.) Should I plan on taking out as many as 400 small bass before using lime, and fertilizing, and restocking my forage base? (7.) Has anyone heard of Alan Rudd of Lone Star Lake Mgmt.? (He did the initial evaluation, and stocking.) (8.) Also, as vegetation became a huge problem in the lake, Grass Carp were added. They are huge, and although they were not supposed to be able to breed, I tend to think otherwise. Should I plan on taking some of these out because now, there is no vegetation. I have added plenty of structure such as 40 X-Mas trees, Pallets, and plan on adding 2 or 3 aqua-cribs for strucure. The lake is heavily timbered anyhow, burshpiles, standing timber and all, and I'm wondering if little to no vegetation would be okay, this being the case.
Thanks to all. Love the website!
Mance
I have just a couple of questions, and some of these may be more appropriate in one of the alternate forums. Anyhow, I have a 26 surface acre lake in Huntsville, Tx.(East Texas). The lake was originally built and then stocked about 15 years ago when I was a young man in high school. We stocked the lake first with fat head minnows, and chub suckers, and then later added CNB, and "Hybrid-Bluegill," and I believe native BG. After about one year, bass were added. I believe the bass were an F-1 cross (possibly a pure florida female, weighing close to 14 lbs., an an extraordinary male, florida crossed with a northern native, just under 7 lbs.). The lake took off amazingly, and in the first several years, the bass fishing was amazing...several bass over 7 lbs., and a known lake record of 12 lbs. As time moved on, I went off to collge, went to law school, and went to work in Houston, and the lake has suffered. The initial problem was too much vegitation in the lake, when the bass were able to just dominate the threadfins we had put in there about yr. # 3.
My questions are the following: (1.) In general how difficult is it to get a lake back to being a trophy LMB lake; (2.) is there such a thing as good/quality Hybrid Bluegill (I have heard that Lusk prefers native BG's over any other forage fish; (3.) what is the likelihood that the only remaining BG are natives, and not a hybrid strain at this point(I've heard that the Hybrids cannot produce as proficiently)?; (4.) How many small bass should I be taking out of there (I routinely catch as many as 30/40 LMG an outing, but all are in the 14" range, less than 1 lb. I am thinking that 200 of these LMB out the lake, may just be getting started. (5.) The lake had minor PH problems back 15 yrs. ago, and the recommended dosage of lime was added to accomodate, maybe as much as 40 tons. How often should you lime a lake of that size, annually, bi-annually? (6.) Should I plan on taking out as many as 400 small bass before using lime, and fertilizing, and restocking my forage base? (7.) Has anyone heard of Alan Rudd of Lone Star Lake Mgmt.? (He did the initial evaluation, and stocking.) (8.) Also, as vegetation became a huge problem in the lake, Grass Carp were added. They are huge, and although they were not supposed to be able to breed, I tend to think otherwise. Should I plan on taking some of these out because now, there is no vegetation. I have added plenty of structure such as 40 X-Mas trees, Pallets, and plan on adding 2 or 3 aqua-cribs for strucure. The lake is heavily timbered anyhow, burshpiles, standing timber and all, and I'm wondering if little to no vegetation would be okay, this being the case.
Thanks to all. Love the website!
Mance