Surrounded by Choke Canyon, Falcon, and Coleto Creek; I believe that Lake CC (mathis) is extememly underated as a bass fishing lake.

I love making little trips to Mathis, not only because it is 15 minutes away, but because it is loaded with bass!! Once you figure the lake out a little, bass fishing at Mathis can be just as fast paced as Choke or Falcon!! It is common place for me to catch 20 bass on a Saturday morning fishing session.

Also, Mathis has some real "hawgs" in there. The lake record is only about 1 pound shy of the Choke record and 2 lbs under Falcon'. This fish was almost 14 lbs. Personally, I have caught two 8 lbers on this lake and have seen a 12 lber caught by my neighbor. It is not rare for me to catch fish in the 5-6 lb class, as I usually catch one on each trip.

However, the average fish on Mathis is much smaller than the other South TX lakes. You will go through about 5 dinkers, in the 12 inch and under range, before you get a solid keeper fish. Last weekend, I fished a tourny there and me and my partner must have caught 50 fish on Sunday, yet I only had 5 keepers and he only had 3. What this tells me is that there needs to be a better stocking and management system on the lake.

Obviously, the lake has what it takes to grow large fish, and it does! However, the average fish can be very small. I believe that if someone would take an interest in bass fishing on the lake, than better management could be done and the lake could be on the same level as the other lakes! Why not? It has year around warmer conditions than all but Falcon, plenty of forrage, and excellent habitat.

There needs to be a push to start developing that lakes fishery. It needs some Floridas, and tighter regulations. If this is done I believe it could be a dynamite lake. However, it is already pretty good in my book!!!

MeSkeeter, Im probley going to get shot for posting this, But o well, from one fisherman to another. Do you think it would be wise to take out some of the Samller fish, and give the larger ones more room to grow, like managing a Deer Herd, if your catching 50 dinks a day, in my opinion some of them should go in the grease. Just a thought guys, dont kill me for it. I know its Taboo to talk about eating bass. hell i cant say much, i dont keep them either.

No that is something that can help fisheries at times. However, when I say dinks, Im talking about smaller than the leval limmit. The fish that I was talking about are like 12" or less. The limmit for a keeper is 14"

Now, in certain situations, sometimes fish do need to be taken from a population. This is usually the case in smaller bodies of water where over crowding occurs resulting in stunted fish. This was evident in a private lake membership that my uncle had. It was catch and release only, and things were good at first but after a few years the fish began to get stunted. Youd catch alot but they were all about 1 1/2 with big heads and small bodies. However, the owner could not get the concept that there were too many fish for the small lake to handle and my unle left because he did not want to pay big bucks for 2 lbers.

However, keeping fish is not the answer in Mathis. Mathis is a fairly good sized lake that is capable of sustaining lots of fish. We're talking over 20,000 acres. Its a little smaller than choke canyon.

I think that the answer for Mathis is to apply a slot limmit. Possibly from 16" to 22" or something of the sort. Also, stalking some Floridas wouldnt hurt either.

Still, I dont understand why there are so many dinkers in there when it obviously can grow big fish? Anybody?

I didnt realize Mathis was that Big, I thought is small like Houston County. I think your right about the the slot, i think it would help to.

i grew up there catching tons of crappie and catfish. went camping there this spring for the first time with a boat and did some bass fishing. we got a 6 and a 4 and had many small ones. it is a pretty good lake.

MeSkeeter is correct about Lake Mathis. I also live within 15 minutes of the lake and have had a lot of success. I have caught several bass in the 6 lb class.
The BASS Federation used to hold tournaments on this lake until recent years when the lake levels dropped to dangerous lows. To the point of mud literally being sucked of the bottom as this lake is a ater source for C.C.
Now that the lake has filled back up and the officials hopefully realize that releasing all the water to pump fresh water in to our bays for the shrimp is not at our best interest, I believe that the growth rate will be fantastic with all the new feeding opportunities for. the bass such as new flooded areas
Besides all that, it is an extremally fun lake to fish. And a few Floridas wouldn't hurt anything!
:-)

Also, everytime I fish mathis I see tons of white bass. However, they are all about 9-11 inches long. There has to be some fooballs in there somewhere, but maybee not. Anyone ever caught any good white bass there?

However, it does have some fat daddy crappie. Ive caught a few on crank baits by accident.

I can remember when we would drive past choke to go to Mathis. It use to be my money lake. I think its main problem is that it does not have a lot of spawning areas and that is made worse when it is low. When it was at its best in the 80,s it had gotten a lot of fish that had washed down from choke when the had to do a rapid releas from a flood from a hurricane. At least that is what we thought back then. I do know for a fact that we fished there usually in June or July with about 100 teams and 95 of those teams would have a limit. It would take about9 to 10 pounds to make a check and 14 to 18 to win usually. Big Bass was normally in the 6 to 7 pound range. It was a fun lake to fish, tho it is probably one of the most hazzardous to run if you plan on heading up lake.

ML

I am not for shure but I think about 4 or 5 years ago they put a bunch of Florida bass in there, but I would have to look it up.

Mathis still has good fish in it MLTX!! Last weekend I fished a two day, 3 fish each day, for a total of 6 fish tourny; and the winning total was about 18 lbs. The big bass was only 4 lbs. However, I had a total weight of 12 lbs, even with my dad goofing the landing of the 8 lber that I caught all the way up to the side of the boat. That would have put me at least at 20 lbs. No BULL!!!

However, you should have seen the mess of fish under 14 inches that everybody caught. Just about everyone would catch 30 bass in a day, but lots of guys couldnt find three keepers to weigh in. On day two, I did manage to catch 5 fish over 14 inches, my best 3 were all over 3 lbs, but...... I probably caught 40 total fish to do this. To me, that is way too small of an average, especially when it is not uncommon to catch a fish close to 10 lbs in that lake if you actually fish it.

Its weird? Mathis has the ability to produce big ones, the record is almost 14 lbs, and there is lots of fish in there, but the average fish is just so tiny. Somethings up????

I really dislike that mudhole. I fished it a couple of times this month. Once prefishing for a tourney and then the tourney. 10lbs won it. Big bass was 3.8 lbs. Dang near everyone ran north. We stayed south. Only 4 or 5 teams brought in a limit. We had 4 fish and took 5th with 7lbs with a 3.4lb big bass.

Tamale, what tournement was that.

ML

You need to come fish mathis with me. Like I said, it does have a small avg. fish, but it is loaded with them making it kinda fun for being so close to CC. Also, there are some real hawgs in there if you know what to do.

I just got back from a quick little Mathis trip. Took the girlfriend and the dog, so I did not get to stay very long. Again, the fish were biting, but lots of small ones with a few keeps mixed in. From 7:30 to 10:30 I probably had 10 fish, but only 3 keepers! Lost a good one though!! Also, I must have mised a hundred, all small ones pecking at the end of the plastic. Still, for only being a few minutes away from my house, it is a good time.

It just needs a good stocking job and tighter restrictions.

It was an oil man tourney. Don't really recall the name of the tourney, I fished as a guest.

BTW I did catch some white bass. I was working down the bank and they started schooling all around me. I had a crankbait on a rod that was hanging over the side of the boat and caught one about 6 inches long.

Oil man tourny? I need to fish some of those! Most oil tournys around here are saltwater though. Im in the oilfield trucking business and that would be a good way to meet new customers!! Let me know if you know of any more of these by PM.

Yea, even the average white bass on Mathis is very small. It is loaded with them and I can catch them at any time or day but they will usually be very small.

However, you can catch a big bass there if you are patient!

I think some of the reason for so many small fish is the lack of deep water, but this is just a guess.

Its not deep like choke, but It does have plenty of areas around 30 ft. But, that may have something to do with it.

I wonder if the big fish are geting dumped out when they let water out of the lake leaving mostly young fish out there, with the occasional big uns that you will catch from time to time.

If this is so, then maybee we otta fish the river a little more. Come to think of it, nobody fishes the river at all for bass and the last time that I did, I caught a couple of solid 3 lbers.

How do you guys usually fish CC? From what I have seen just from being around the lake and messing around on it skiing and such, everyone fishes the south end. Is it best deep, or shallow around the flooded structure?

I like to fish the docks that have deep water by it and I also like to fish the isolated patches of trees.

small fish with the occasional swap donkey being caught, throw some 4-6lbs in the mix and it sounds like every other lake in tx other then Amistad,Falcon,choke,alan henry and rayburn...

I think the hybrids/striper that where stocked might have something to do with it, they will compete for the same food and if the lake doesnt have alot of cover they will share habitat as well so bass wont be the main predator ,im a firm believer in that... I say that cause we have 2 local lakes here in san antonio (braunig and calaveras) that where the best in the state of texas at one time(70's-80's) and now they stink for bass fishing, but u can catch hybrids and reds like crazy in them now though.. Looking at the cc(mathis)lake stocking history bass wasn't on the top of the list unitl couple of yrs ago, hybrids/stripers won that race... Amistad is a lil different, it gets it fair share of bass and striper stocking but there is tons of cover and food to eat, oh yea its also 60,000+ acres as well...

I would like to fish this lake in a couple of yrs though with what i see happening as they stock rainbow trout and all the florida bass.... ID There grass present?? IF so has the making of being a good lil lake on paper that is

The lake has alot of cover for the bass. Just to name a few willow trees, docks, reeds, water hyachens, big chunk rocks.

Jbguide is right! Mathis has ALOT of cover. Everything he named plus lots of Mesquite brush. Since the lake was so low for a long time, alot scrub brush began to grow up in the dry areas. When the lake came back up and reclaimed its boundries, it left alot of mesquite trees flooded and under water. There are mesquite flats everywhere!

STC, like jbguide said, fishing the docks can be good but it depends on which docks you fish. There are lots of dead water areas on Mathis in my opinion. Also, Mathis fishing seems to be different than other lakes. Fish seem to relate more to certain kinds of cover rather than points and things like that.

I like to fish islands of flooded sticks, flood sticks around certain shorelines, rocky shorelines, and certain docks on the southwest end of the lake.

Will, they may have stocked hybrids, stripers, and bass at one time; but nothing has been done in quite a while to continue and improve these fisheries. Im telling you right now, I dont think that there is a striper or hybrid that still exist in Lake CC. However, there are plenty of Bass, Cats, white bass, and Gaspergoo. It would be cool to have some stiper though. I guess a combination of the big drought and them dumping water out into the bay killed the striper and hybrid fisheries because I never hear of them being caught.

However, there are plenty of LMB and sandies though the average fish is very very small. The thing that I find strange, is why?? Mathis should have a great average fish for the same reasons that Choke and Falcon do. Warm weather, low pressure, lots of forrage, plenty of cover, ect. I think that it is just a perfect example of the effect that stocking has on a lake.

Mathis is just a lake that is left alone to produce for itself without help from man. Consequently, you have a lake with tons of small fish with the capabilities of growing big ones, which it does. However, if it had some help I believe it could rival some of the better lakes.

Here is the stocking for Mathis lakes Florida bass (2008-463,176)(2002-483,220) (1998-422,269) and Rainbow trout have been stock from 1993 to 2008 on average about 1,500 adults. To me you would think that the trout would help, but maybe it is to hot and none of them are making it.

Mathis just can't keep the water in it long enough to become great again. When there was grass in the lake, fishing was real good. I think now that we have kept the lake up for a 1 1/2 years it might pick back up if we get more water soon and get rid of the floating veg. that chokes everything off in the backs of coves.

p.s. There is a tourny. on the 27th of July if anyone is interested. Pays top 3 JUBC

Can you give some more info on tourn.

Basstacker, Mathis has held plenty of water for alot longer than 1 1/2 years. It has been at a fairly decent level for several yrs now in my opinion. However, 400k bass fingerling does not seem like very many for a lake the size of Mathis.

Also, the rainbow trout will only survive in the lake for the winter and start to die as the water warms up beginning in the spring. Plus, the trout are only kept in a little bitty area of the lake. They are fenced in. It is more of a kid thing for the campers to enjoy. The trout are not out swimming in the open lake. Too bad, because the bass could eat them for a while but it would never be a year round thing. Mathis gets very hot and the trout die fast.

What part of the lake do they keep the trout at? This would be a good place to take my 3 year old son to.

Basstacker the only way to get rid of the water hyacens is to spray them and I don't think parks and wildlife is going to spend the money for that. But it would be nice if they would just control them so maybe some hydrilla would grow.

They keep them down there by the state park area, in a little fence off portion of a cove. Next winter, go to the office and ask one of the park people to show you, but you will drive right past it on your way in. Its not too hard to find.

Also, I guess most of the hyacen grows on the northern areas of the lake. I fish mostly on the southern end and do not see much. However, I do have one spot that I call "Hyacen Hawgs" that is just North of the Park Boat ramp area.

It is like a little canal, made by a flooded Mesquite flat on one side and the Hyacen covered bank on the other. In the middle the water is a little deeper like a channel. It is usuallu about 3 ft under the Hyacen but deeper when the lake is up. I like to punch through the Hyacen with heavy jigs or tungstun wighted (1/2 to 1 0z) plastics. Or sometimes fish the edges with a wacky worm. You usually dont get alot of bites but when you do they are big. Ive seen a 12 lber caught from this area. You can also fish the edges of the Mesquite/timber side. This side produces more fish but they are smaller and it is hard to fish.

what's the lake level at from what i can find it looks like
about 4' low headed down in a couple of weeks

Its a little low, but still nothing to worry about. Check out the caller times website fishing report for current lake levels.

www.callertimes.com

JB, nothing fancy,
$36 CASH entry fee
launch at the state park (safe light)
weigh-in at 3
Most of us come out of Corpus, Ingleside area. we welcome anybody wanting to fish, even non-boaters (just give me some noitce and we'll try and find a ride).
ask for Ray or Eddie at the ramp.

Basstracker, what are you talking about? If JB wants to fish your club tourny, but does not have a boat, then he can fish with me if that is okay. I got a brand new skeeter.

If this is what you are talking about than let me know. I would love to fish with yall guys.

thanks you the info. the last time we we there was back in summer 2006 when the lake was down , wife and I comming down
for alittle bass fishing , just seem like every time we go to
choke their is a tournament there.

MeSkeeter, what does your boat look like? Is it an SX185 or SX200 or something like that? White and Blue?

Tamale, yes it is, I think that I may have met you at a hotel near Falcon lake a few months back if Im not mistaken.

I will definantly be there. Look forward to meeting some bass fisher-people from around the CC area !!!

I know Ray and Eddie, they are buddies of mine!!!

ML

Nope..saw a boat just like yours I guess hit one of the spots we found when we were prefishing for that tourney on Mathis. We've never met, it was just a lucky guess.

Meskeeter, he could fish with you even if he had a boat..we'll see you at the ramp with jb.
robert2119 I'll be looking forward to meeting you.
MLTX I don't claim to know you or the snowman you fish with.
speaking of snowman have you caught any this year? I know where you can catch a Ranger stickman if you want a challange. Here's what you do if you want to fish deep......

Basstracker, does that mean that you were talking about a club tourny? If so, and if you are serious about wanting to get me in it, then send me a PM with some info. What date, time, location, etc.

I like to fish club tournys and would like to see how good some of yall really are!!! Oh yea, making some new fishing buddies is ok too.

I grew up fishing Mathis lake or Lake Corpus Christi. I have a lake house on the lake! This lake definately need restocking. I contacted TP&W about it and the local Biologist says that its too bad! Only the Bass lakes that are High profile get restocking! Due to public interest! I was disgusted about this. Lake Fork gets 2-3 stockings a year and this little lake cant even get one every so often? About 5 years ago the lake was awsome! I was fishing in the spring and had 26+ pounds fun fishing. The fish fight hard like at falcon. I wish this lake got restocked! It sure was good fishing when I was a kid growing up!

Im telling you, Mathis could be among the best lakes in the state if they would do a little stocking here and there, leave some water in it, and implement a slot policy.

Right now, it is left on its own to produce fish, and it is not too shabby. I fish it at least once a week, and on a full day it is not hard for me to catch close to 40 bass. Its just that many of them are in the 12" or less category.

However, I believe that Mathis could rival lakes like Falcon and Choke if given the chance. My reasons are: it has the same warm climate (warmer than Choke), plenty of forage/prew items, adequate cover/structure, deep enough water (over 30ft), fairly large (over 20K acres), and low bass fishing pressure. Plus, Mathis has already proven it can grow big fish. The current record is just shy of 14 lbs. This is not much smaller than choke or falcon. It is not uncommon to catch fish of 6-10 lbs at lake Mathis. To tell you the truth, though the average is much smaller, I have caught my biggest couple bass of the summer at mathis. And this is with me fishing choke once a week and Falcon every 2 weeks or so.

Mathis tourny Sun/27/08
36.00 cash only
meet at the state park about 6am
best 5 fish
weigh-in @ 3pm
top 3 get paid
standard tourny rules apply (sportsmanship, safety ect..)
anyone can fish (no bank fishermen)
and have fun