I went down and fished with Jackie last night. We just fished for a few hours and caught one 12" fish and one 32" fish. Reds of course. We landed one large channel cat and 2 gar too. We saw a bassfisherman at the ramp. He was complaining he only caught 7 redfish and no bass. Later we saw one of Jackie's friends who is an experienced fisherman of the lake and used to guide there. He said they had landed quiet a few fish from 20-28 inches in each of thr last few days. 3700 dead fish will definately put a dent in the population but they arent all dead. The winds had changed and the dead fish were starting to disperse across the lake. We saw lots of happy buzzards and racoons. Mike the park ranger said yesterday was one of the busiest days of his career. He also said the incident was still under investigation. He said people were still reporting catching some redfish.

Im just guessing but comparing to hybrid striper the TPWD like a rate of 10 fish per acre on the large lakes. I know they have a hard time surveying fairfield for redfish but if those numbers are even close you're looking at 3700 fish taken from a population of around 20,000.

Im starting to wonder if all the fish people have been witnessing feeding along the dam at night somehow got pushed into that cove due to an oxygen depletion situation. When they got into that cove they had no where to go and perished.

Ive seen smaller fish kills on the lake and thinking about it i could see how it could happen on large scale in a series of unfortunate events.

I'll keep fishing. It might be more of a challenge now but they arent all dead. If anyone can keep finding and catching them Jackieblue can.

I have my fingers crossed...yea, I gotta agree Jackieblue will be the one that eventually determines whether the fishery has been harmed.

This news just in: Jackieblue and Vaughn caught 16 reds this morning along with three channel cat, and missed about 8-10 more reds. Jackie says Fairfield fishing is still very good. Also, the same bass fishermen that Parker mentions above caught six reds this morning and a dozen or more bass.

This is great news!!!

fished for reds early friday am and was unaware of the killoff. caught 4 keepers including 1- 14#, 1 cat, and about 8 12" red fingerlings who insisted on stealing our bait. saw no dead fish west of cold water intake area

The reel news is Parker and Jackie "missed" 8-10 fish.

Great to hear you guys found reds.

No Don, it was me that missed all those bites. I think it was just a smart a$$ Gar or something but Peanut was about to get out of the boat and walk, he just couldn't stand the shame.

I missed two and landed 3 this morning. Seems to be OK but i had to fish pretty hard for what i got.

I am starting to stress to everybody I correspond with that I'll never blame the power company even if their operational activities resulted in a fish kill, so long as there was no chemical additions to public waters. It is their waste heat producing so many fish in this lake. All must be made to recognize it is their cooling device (the lake) that we have the pleasure of fishing. It is not the power company's objective or requirement to keep fish alive in their cooling device. They have to do what they must do to operate their power station the best way they know how. We get to enjoy the results of whatever they must do.

Lake Fairfield is theirs to do with as they please. Even if a chemical spill happened, so long as lake water isn't sent to the public water, IE the creek leading to the Trinity River, the power company has done nothing wrong. With the lake as low as it is, I doubt if any lake water blowdown or purge is sent to the Trinity River.

I will continue to appreciate the right to fish their cooling pond.

Don't let the power plant get a free ride. Yes maybe they have the right(maybe?) to do what they want to there "cooling" pond but right is right and wrong is wrong. Killing alot of fish is wrong.

This fish kill may turn this fishery into a bigger trophy fishery. If the bait population didn't get hit too hard there will be less competition for forage. That grows bigger top-line predators. Let everyone think the kill hurt. Leave the fishery alone THEN there will be more BIG fish.

Ok here I go on my soapbox again. I get somewhat--ok alot tired--of hearing how us lowly fishermen should be glad TXU even allows us on the lake as it is their lake, their plant, their state, ect. Am I incorrect or isn't Fairfield a state park which is given supplemental water from the Trinity(a public water source). Public property has been slowly given over to private entities over the past couple of decades--look up Cintra and our toll roads or TRWD and the section of public land they look over at Bridgeport--and Fairfield is no different if TXU is guilty and given a free pass--just my 2 cents now I will shut up.

Don
Do you work for TXU? Just wondering. I wake up every morning wanting to go fish for the reds. What is done is done. I just pray that the lake and the City of Fairfield is able to get over it. I'm pretty sure that the city depends on the business that comes to the lake.

The lake is going to be fine.....we caught rat reds this evening...which means they will grow up......

Nope, not with TU or any related company. However I do work that other big industries buy.

You can be dead certain before the Big Brown project was started both the Feds. and State OKed their plans. I can tell you it was a hard fought battle, there was plenty of environmental objection to these stations at the time, it is written up as an example case. So those governmental OKs did not come easily. I'm betting our access to Lake Fairfield was a compromise in those agreement. PS the park land was 99 year leased from TU.

You can be sure TU bought the rights to the water shed production, and got permission to pump from the Trinity when the water shed production was insufficient. I have been told TU has to pay for the water they pump from the Trinity.

TU doesn't get a cent from the fish production, in fact it costs them money to clean dead fish from their intake screens. Having seen other much smaller circulation cooled systems, you can also be sure they have to clean the remnants of live but stupid fish out of their screens and hardware as well.

The Fairfield gains a great deal more from Big Brown employees who live in the area, and work the station farms out to local industries.