We're spring fed and only recently closed the bottom drain. Yes, private 50 acre lake, 70 years old. We have man made brush piles, several natural blowdowns, and docks of course. Other than that not a lot of cover. I'm trying to re-establish beneficial native vegetation with mixed results. I have to fence everthing or the turtles and a few old grass carp will decimate it. I have a fair stand of various water lilies now, some Illinois pond weed, and one small cage of eelgrass.
We stock 3000 or so Florida fingerlings every year. We buy a few hundred 12-14" Florida's from managed lakes when available. A few years ago we bought a few Camelot Bell mature bass as well. We stock threadfin shad as needed. We get fair reproduction and with mild winters they survive well. Tons and tons of evey variety of blue gill. We also have crappie and a few catfish. We have a few feeders that are kept up. This lake gets overflow from a lake above so we also have native bass in the mix. This lake was one of the first in Texas to have Florida bass as it was the home lake of Charlie Inman, the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist that brought the first Floridas into the hatchery. We fight cormorants and otters.
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