East Texas new member - 04/27/20 07:49 PM
I live on an 80 acre east Texas private community lake. It's an older lake managed for bass fishing. A few years ago the lake was stocked with grass carp to reduce the coontail. This resulted in all vegetation being stripped and alligator grass is now our principal cover along with some parrot feather this year. Grass carp appear to be gone now. I have recently added 50 eelgrass plugs in two shallow bays and a few water lilies, odorata and hybrid. I have a small stand of pickerel that I'm transplanting around the lake as well. We have blue flag iris around several areas of the perimeter.
Our lake runs through the spillway 11 months out of the year most years due to springs and a larger lake above us. This makes fertilizing and liming difficult to get results. The lake averages around 10 feet deep with areas as deep as 21 feet, and several creek areas that are much shallower. Terrain around the lake is fairly steep and carries down to underwater.
We have otters that we are trying to remove by both trapping and night vision hunting. It's an ongoing challenge. Cormorants weren't too bad this winter compared to others, and we have a pair of eagles this year.
The lake is electro-surveyed every other year. We usually remove 1-3 40# plus flathead cats during the survey. Few other catfish are caught during the year. We have a strong blue gill population, copper nose, red ear, etc. Below average crappie IMO.
Lake record for bass is 14.5#. Several 8# plus fish are taken each year. This was the home lake of Charlie Inman, the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist that first brought Florida bass to Texas.
Our lake runs through the spillway 11 months out of the year most years due to springs and a larger lake above us. This makes fertilizing and liming difficult to get results. The lake averages around 10 feet deep with areas as deep as 21 feet, and several creek areas that are much shallower. Terrain around the lake is fairly steep and carries down to underwater.
We have otters that we are trying to remove by both trapping and night vision hunting. It's an ongoing challenge. Cormorants weren't too bad this winter compared to others, and we have a pair of eagles this year.
The lake is electro-surveyed every other year. We usually remove 1-3 40# plus flathead cats during the survey. Few other catfish are caught during the year. We have a strong blue gill population, copper nose, red ear, etc. Below average crappie IMO.
Lake record for bass is 14.5#. Several 8# plus fish are taken each year. This was the home lake of Charlie Inman, the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist that first brought Florida bass to Texas.