I know several members of the Athens Bass Club on on this forum but I got to ask, Where do I start at this lake? We fish there on the 21st and I have never seen the lake. I know with my schedule I will not get to see it before start time on the 21st. Any help is greatly appreciated.

All I can say is good luck buddy. Since its a power plant lake, the fish really depend on the current and water temps. Well, i know for last couple of weeks the power plant has been shut off and word on the street is that it will be shut off for the rest of the year.

This just makes fishing really tough there and you honestly have to hit the fish on the head to catch them.

I absolutely love that lake. It's an amazing fishery but without that plant running then the fishing goes down the drain. Good Luck!!

humps and brush piles. check the tpwd for the coords to the brushpiles.

don't seem to find any on the TPWD website!??

Thanks, story of our life this year as a club. I just saw that not only can I catch fish but I can't type either. See "on on" in my post. has the road to the ramp always been as bad as it is right now? Half of the road is gone next to the parking lot. Is that the only ramp?

yep thats the only ramp.

Here is the link to the brush piles. it took some research.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/lake_survey/pwd_rp_t3200_1253_2007.pdf

Plant is shut down for 40 days from what I heard.

I drove by yesterday and the water was COLD!

It's a small lake...just start fishing! Good luck!

Hey man, thanks for the info on Brandy. When they turn the plant back on I will be going soon after, since they will go into instant spawn mode!!!

Any idea when the 40 day shut down started???

Anyone have a contact name/number at the plant to confirm the plant is generating????

That lake is just ten miles from my house. I pass it twice a day going to and from work. When it first opened it was all trees. Now mostly stumps and weeds. Godzilla weeds. Stocked with bass, bream, chanells and 6 flatheads in the 80's.
Have seen some nice bass strings, never caught a catfish there and very few bream. Judging from the stunted bream at the ramp it is not a very healthy lake for bream.
I stopped fishing there when I hauled a ton of weeds out putting the boat on the trailer.
Lately I have not seen many boats on the lake. Mostly none.
One tip I received was drop rigs in 19 feet of water near the weeds.
Maybe if I knew how to put up with the weeds I would think better of this lake. Most places you cant cast and retrieve any type of lure without 10pounds of weeds.
Now there is the threat of Giant Salvinia. Please please, check your boats BEFORE you de trailer for that damn weed.

The drive way used to be in worse shape if you can believe it. In the archives of one of the Shreveport TV stations is an interview John Gordon did in which I said I would gladly pay a $2 launching fee to pay for drive way upkeep. That was 20 or so years ago. There is not much interest on the part of the land owners to improve access to the lake. There are other ramps but restricted to non public use--for employees I guess.

I dont know anything about the workings of the plant other than I can see if they are producing steam or not.

I'd be interested to know when the plant starts back up I'd like to make a trip out there.

True lots of submerged grass/weeds/etc... however lots of good spots to fish and very nice size bass.

Well, if any one that is familiar with the lake will give me some tips, methods, spots to fish I would appreciate it. That lake would allow me to fish for an hour or two early in the morning week days.
I am not much of a bass fisherman and release all I have ever caught there. No interest in any tournament, just want to have a nice lake near by that I can learn and not get skunked every time I go.

If any one is interested I can keep you posted daily as to whether any steam is coming out of the smoke stack. I am assuming that the generators are off when no steam clouds visible being it is a lignite fired plant.

was there Saturday for about 4 hours.
water temp 64-65 degrees.
grass within a foot or two to the surface till you get to 18-24 ft deep.
caught 5 fish only 1 keeper.all in shallow water with not as much grass.
road in sucks!! and someone has dumped their mattress and box springs in the curve of the road.
did get visited by a Harrison County Sherriff as we were loading up.
don't think he was patrolling,cause he asked us about fishing and that he had never been on the lake but wanting to fish it !!!!

Isn't it great! I saw that.

I hate dumpers! I've had some dumpers start dumping trash 30 yards from my deer stand this year! THANKS GUYS!!

Found these cold weather reports for Brandy Branch:

click here>>>>>>X

Wed Am No steam from the stack this morning.

I found this on-line:

American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP.N) planned to work on the 675-megawatt Pirkey coal-fired power station in Texas on Oct. 17-Dec. 21, the company told Texas regulators in a report.
During the outage, the company said it would work on the boiler, precipitator and scrubber. The company said it moved the outage up one week due to unplanned fan repair work.

The company did not say in the report when the unit would likely return. Electricity traders guessed the outage would last a couple of months.

steam cloud reports suspended til further notice

this lake an lake Striker lake have got to be the worst an ugliest lakes I have ever fished,have heard of nice fish coming out of both.I went to Brandy branch last year to prefish for tourney,an was off the water within 45 minutes an did not even fish that tourney even when I was third in points,could not stand this lake an will never go back.I know i dont know the lake an there are good fish there,but honestly would not ever even want to try an learn this lake,I give it a 1 on 1-10 scale because there is no zero.

Mind elaborating on what makes this lake so "ugly"?

I saw some very good stringers of bass being returned to the lake after weigh in last year. I don't think there are are share a lunkers in there the the lake has it's share of keeper bass.

strange! it's a Buzzfrog Paradise!

A lot of real big fish in there ,my buddy won a Check there that bought his boat I know it sounds weird an I do admit I didn't give it a chance,an I love trying different lakes,I think I just got irritated that day,don't let my thoughts discourage you from going there,someone else may love it.

what makes a lake ugly? i went to the lake for the 1st time last year and spent 4 hrs trying to figure it out once i did i caught about 20 fish off of one hump. the biggest fish being around 6lbs. this is one of my favorite lakes in east texas and reminds me of a private power plant lake i used to fish when i was a kid near avinger.

just the ride to boat ramp trash everywere ,matresses, couches,looks like a dumpsite,the road is terrible holes everywhere thought I was gonna blow a tire,or break my transom saver,just getting to ramp.This lake needs some att thats all could be a better little lake with some effort just to many lakes around this area to deal with this one .Hydrilla to the top in 25 foot of water,the power plant is broken down trash all a long the bank,I could go on an on just not my cup of tea thats all.ya people do not have to keep quoting me just my opinion.