I like the lake. It's close to where I live. Been there a couple times recently and caught fish each time. Check my posts in the photos section. All fish caught near grass beds or boat ramps.

Like the others, I had no idea it was a 'no wake' lake. I've run around quite a bit on that little lake. Never once saw a sign. There are rarely more than 2-3 boats on the lake at one time, including ski boats.

And yes, to confirm, they are rebuilding the college-side (north) ramp area, parking lot and docks. That entire area is closed off right now. The sign shows what will be built, looks like a nice ramp, courtesy dock, canoe dock, and parking lot will be built up. Also I assume good lighting, as well. Should be nice.

Learn something new every day! I can say that it must not be enforced very much because like I have said. Everytime Ive been on on the bass boats run WOT all up and down the lake. Never seen anyone actually idle anywhere. They could make a killing if they did enforce though Id imagine.

Ditto here. Have eat 'humble pie'....I have never seen the sign nor has anyone who fished with me.
But, I sure didn't think to look at their website either...
God Bless

I personally think it needs a supplemental shad stocking. TPWD seems to be content with it being a sunfish bait lake.

That's good news for the no wake. Now if they can stock it a little better and get some shad in there!

That sounds like a great idea.

If the lake was capable of supporting a large shad population, it would already be there. TPWD does not generally stock shad. They sustain their numbers on their own.

remember that beaver on the vine?

I sure do, Dave! Remember the night we did all 18 stations? Joe (I think that was his name) kissed the tag on the last station of the night! That was a long night.

Looking at the chart, it appears that as the number of white bass increase, the numbers of threadfin and crappie plummet.
Lots of reports of skinny smaller bass, but the few bigger ones are fat.

Makes sense.

good times, haven't seen hasbeen in years

I see no correlation, positive or negative, to crappie and shad with white bass, at all. What are you seeing? I may be missing something.

It appears that with electrofishing, no white bass are present in the results. And, in the night net fishing where I believe that is a "quantity of fish caught" statistic, it is so low across the few readings over the years that it gives the appearance of almost no white bass in the lake at all.

I think the few white bass must be coming in from an upstream water source on occasion but certainly have never developed a lake population.

It is an interesting lake, that is for sure. Those big bass were supplied to the reservoir, not home grown. All black bass much prefer baitfish with soft dorsal fins but the hogs in there must be okay with eating the stiff dorsal finned bluegills, just make do with it. The smaller bass in there, the common skinny 12" fish? I think those fish are finding food sources scarce.

I rarely see any signs of shad in the lake either from the bank or from my canoe or kayak.

Brad

there's a reason for that.

Standard sampling gears consist of trap netting for crappie, electrofishing for the black basses and forage species, and gill netting for temperate basses (white bass, striped bass, hybrids, etc) and catfish species. That's not to say we don't see white bass while shocking, it's just not an efficient gear for that species as it with black basses and shad/sunfishes.

Honest question: what does it take to support a large shad population in a lake and why would Marine Creek not work? And why is it a Share Lunker lake if it doesn't support a food supply for growing large bass, other than those that are stocked large? Seems odd that it would be part of the program if the lake doesn't support shad or they won't stock shad, but will add SAL fingerlings or fry or whatever and only a small percentage of bass will be able to or willing to eat sunfish, as was said above.

I don't know if the last part is true, but seems plausible and I have enjoyed fishing the lake in the past, even though I never quite figured it out.