There are bunch of new lakes popping up in Houston. The city has a problem with flash floods, so the new building codes state that if you cover so much soil with concrete, you have to build a certain proportion retention lake. The retention lakes fill through unrestricted inflow pipes and empty through pipes with about 1/2" mesh. The lakes typically overfill and empty in less than 12 hrs.
There are also lot of decorative lakes that are on golf courses and pathways, that get some runoff and maybe well water, so they are pretty closed ecosystems.
The most common sizes are 1-5 ac and they all have fountains, as much for show as to keep the water from going stagnant. Since this is relatively new development, it is yet to be seen how these lakes develop, but the one I live on does not look too good right now.
photo
http://www.doylestuckeyhomes.com/ (the bottom picture on the left is taken from my back yard)
see lake design here
http://www.lakesofjerseyvillage.com/location.htm Our lake has concrete curb and concrete slope that goes into the water about 4 ft to keep cattails and such from growing on the edges. The water is constantly murky with maybe couple of inches visibility. The lake is about 4 yrs old and it was "stocked". Last year I was catching up to 24" channel cats and there were lot of fatheads and catfish of all sizes around. That told me that they basically threw in some catfish and maybe minnows when the lake first filled up and that there are no predators.
This year I noticed lot of sunfish. I set out some minnow traps. (can't get these things to work, but that is another story) So far I caught 6" blue cat, 2 fatheads, 1 mosquito fish and maybe 20 green sunfish from 1-4". The writing is on the wall. Greenies are a fact of life. The lake looks nice from people point of view, but there are no plants, structure or cover. Nothing that reduces the volume of the lake is allowed to be put in.
What can I do to make this a decent fishing lake?
As residents, we are not allowed to put any fish into the lake, but I know for sure, that there are 100 bluegill, 1 18" LMB and 11 12" LMB living there. Friend of mine lives on one of those decorative lakes that only gets rain and well water. That pond has stunted LMB, so it needed some reduction in population. I have a feeling that about 100 hybrid stripers are going to move in soon.
Assuming that I can get the Homeowner's Association to allow a group of interested homeowners to manage the aquatic life, what can we do to make this a decent fishing lake?
I think some state money was used to build or stock the lake, because we have to allow anyone with Texas fishing licence to fish there.
I guess before I can expect any kind of advice, I sould state some goals.
1. Provide good fishing action for the kids in the neighborhood. They are not patient and don't care what kind of fish they catch, but I am thinking at least 6" fish.
2. Have some good size fish of different kinds, Channel and Blue cats, LMB, Hybrid Stripers, Carp? I know that LMB and Stripers are sight feeders, but they catch some good ones from the Mississippi, and I don't think water gets muddier than that.
3. Keep relative balance in the ecosystem.
I think I have convinced most people to do mostly catch and release due to the fertilizers and ant poisons that get applied to the surrounding back yards, but that will also become a problem later.
