Few stripers today trolling but no reds. Warden was hitting everyone today. Told me I need to pull the drain plug on the ramp instead of when were unloading our gear. Oh well, I'm glad to see them out there. I didn't fish the wall today but it was packed!

Man, I'll bet that warden has gone through several cases of ticket books already!

I just got on chemical cally and man that ramp is nuts. Just caught bait and seeing the shad work the edges of the bank. If you see a guy in a Hazmat suit and wearing big rubber gloves it is me.

I tried that and it doesn't work! If water gets splashed on you it eats right though it!

Is it really that bad? I'm catch and release but those guides are killing some serious fish and plenty of folks take home a lot of filets.

Seriously, I can't answer that question as it's been reported that the levels in the fish at Calaveras contain levels of mercury that are in the safe range and not a cause for alarm.
I can say I've eaten plenty of fish out of the lake since the early seventies and the only thing I've noticed is I can walk into the dark without a flashlight and see perfectly fine.
Again, I'm kidding of course about the flashlight, but most of the water is pumped out of Braunig into Calaveras and the water in Braunig comes from being pumped out of the San Antonio river which is downstream of the Dos Rio's waste treatment plants. It's also down stream of a large metropolitan city where all the runoff empties into creeks that ultimately end up in the San Antonio river via Salado Creek, Leon Creek and various tributaries and drainage ditches.
Other than those facts the water is suppossed to be pretty clean.

I quit eating fish out of there about 5 years ago, I went on a dove hunt with some CPS guys that worked there and they told me not to eat anything out of there. I will leave it at that.

If you are a guide and have clients paying you for your services, the client is expecting a good time, no stress, pictures and a bonus of some filets. Guides have no money invested in the lake or the fish. This is a freebie for them other than their permits, time and gear. So, they are not going to say anything about the water quality in the lake. However the guides at the bigger lakes in north Texas will not let you keep anything over 5 pounds. I take fishing trips outside of Texas and use guide services all the time, guides are a needed business and I do support them. (P.S. - to the guide that dumps buckets of cattle feed near the 181 cove for chumming, "really guy"!)

The rumors through the years is that the water is tested at the plant and is considered safe. To this day I cannot find any test data from the actual samples from Calaveras lake. You can go to the EPA website and find several warnings from the EPA to CPS about ash disposal and ground runoff into the lake.

I like to fish Calaveras because it is close to my house and the lake is not that easy to catch fish out of. You have to learn the lake and depend on your sonar to catch fish there. Going to the "WALL" and catching red drum is what most folks like to do because it is easier than learning the lake. Bodies of water that are available to fish out of in south Texas are few and far between, so the fishing pressure has got to be tremendous.

I get off my soap box now. Lets see some more cally pics!

I learn by trial and mostly error. I am still trying to figure out where the "humps" are. I found some good bottom yesterday and caught fish while trolling and telling my wife and son this was a good area. I'm still not where I want to be catch wise for reds there but we are learning and getting better.

Calaveras used to have some huge blue cats but it's hard to catch one in the double digit range that pushes the 20# mark. Oh, you can catch one once in a while but there definately aren't as many as there were years back.
The guides depend on their ability to catch fish and satisfy their clients in order to get repeat trips and run their business. Very few if any practice CPR.
The amount of fish taken out of that lake are staggering, but without restocking you wouldn't see the traffic it now has.
It's basically a put and take lake not counting the catfish since they are still holding their own, but there is a lack of big blue cats and channels.
I failed to mention the Largemouth bass, but life is too short to fish for LMB on Calaveras. If you want to fish for Crappie you would do better getting a castnet and throw it trying for talapia.
That's what happens when you introduce those exotic species that don't spawn and where the only way for them to thrive is through mans efforts of putting them into the lake and having folks catch them before they die naturally.
It's popular with most folks who fish there, so I guess it could be worse and we'd have two powerplant lakes we could call the dead sea were it not for the stocking of those exotics.

I've fished Calaveras for a year now and very rarely get skunked. There are usually reds holding at the wall. Sometimes they are further down the channel. I've caught lots of fish there the past few weeks but gotta deal with the crowd. I usually fish the week days. I've recently discovered there's decent sized hybrids (not stripers) in the lake and have found them by bouncing 1oz spoons on the bottom. Use a navionics app to locate humps and a fish finder to see clouds on the bottom. Clouds with streaks are usually feeding hybrids. Just streaks will be reds. I've caught both and absolutely loved fishing under water humps. I'll check those first before i go too the wall. However weekends are tough. Tons of ppl trolling, wall will be packed, ramp is aggravating. It's a 3 boat ramp and still ppl manage to clog it up. Been seeing more and more offshore boats lol. Kinda crazy. But hey, it's all part of public lake fishing make the best of it and be open minded and usually can find a way to catch some fish.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5lHSRT7rM8I

Little video of the action you can find.... Caught 6 Reds and 7 Hybrids all in the same spot on Calaveras. Released them all of course.

Southtxangler22,
I have caught hybrids, but a 18 inch or bigger for me is tough. Have you been catching any that have made the legal length of 18 inches?
The state of Texas calls them Palmetto bass and the have been stocked almost every year since 1975. Them old red drum probably eat those up pretty quick when they are fingerling size.

Check out the stocking report:
http://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/stock_bywater.php?WB_code=0131

Check out the black bass stockings. 1999 was the last time they stocked 100,000+ and from 1993 they stocked from 150,000 to 170,000 each year up to 1999.
With that many fish stocked Calaveras should have been one heck of a bass lake.
I guess those redfish were eating pretty good along with the hybrids.
They haven't stocked the black bass since 1999 so I guess they gave up.
It is hard to catch a hybrid over 18". Why? All those stockings and once the fish reach 17 3/4" they stop growing? Is it fishing pressure where those undersized fish are being kept?
It also seems that the large number of redfish that are being stocked they aren't always that easy to catch. Oh you can fish on the wall where they are corraled in that tight area and wait for them to swim into range of your bait, but even with all the reds the guides catch aren't all that great in numbers considering the numbers that have been stocked.
The catfish are plentiful but even they show the signs of being over fished because most are in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound range on average.
Just more sign of the fishing pressure which we all know they get hammered.
I guess if it wasn't for the stockings it could get tough out there in a short time.

Anyone going going tomorrow (Thursday)? I'll be out there in the am. Got a few reds and big blue cats on the downriggers.

I got room tmrw morning. Shoot me a pm