Lake Meredith back in the day!

Used to catch smallmouth and walleye on Meredith in the 1990s. We used to tear 'em up on clown color Suspending Rogues. Anyone else used to fish Meredith? I wonder what the drought has done to the fish population.

Is that a 10 lber?

Was looking at meredith water level yesterday. About 5% full. I think it had an algae bloom in recent years that killed a lot of fish. Getting good rains up there lately but not enough to fill it.

It's low. You can put a boat in and run around but I've been told that the only fish in the lake now are catfish and carp. It's gonna take a lot of rain to get that lake back to where it was. That and Ute Lake is gonna need to help by releasing some water.

Meredith still holds the record for largest TX smallmouth-before that the record was from Whitney.

NM took TX to court over water releases that TX was trying to force NM to make into the Canadian river that
feeds Meredith-and won in federal court. That sharply curtailed releases NM had to make from Ute and doomed
Meredith to the mud puddle it is today.

I knew a guy who used to guide on Meredith for smallies back in its heyday. Sad to see what its become.

Golden algae killed everything but catfish and carp. I pray it will recover in my lifetime. I grew up on that lake and have caught some good fish out of it.

7.93 pound smallmouth record and they used to, on rare occasions catch yellow perch out of that lake. Man I wish I could have fished it back in the day.

In the mid 90's the lake had a lot of water and had started getting some milfoil.. It was not much of a large mouth fishery until then. It had always been a good Walleye and small mouth lake.. Very sad to see the level it has been at for the last several years..

The way I remember the law suit Tx sued N Mex. after Ute had raised the level of the dam and won.. Which made them release extra water for several years.. When the time ran out on the extra release...Then the low rainfall amounts then a record drought.. It soon was just a mudhole that nothing but catfish and carp could live in.

I spent 18 years living on Meredith lot of five pound smallmouth and largemouth up to six pounds

Some old pictures..

Kinda a dink, but it's the only photo I could find from when I used to fish Meredith. Also sporting the good ole tall cap. I used to hang out and fish with Kelly Jones. His passing was a sad deal.

Aw yes the glory days of Meredith were good. I still live in Fritch and have been 5 minutes away from Lake Meredith for about 35 years. Last time I fished it was in 2010 and still caught a few Walleye. Rumor is that if it makes it back to 60ft. TPWD will start a restocking program. Don't know if you remember me JP but I fished next to you at a Mel Phillips tourney on Greenbelt one morning. You were split shotting purple smoke 4" senkos off the ridge as you came out of the marina you had your wife with you and I think you were in a brown Stratos. I was in a red Javelin and you showed me what you were doing you won the tourney and I placed in the top 5. Greenbelt isn't a whole lot better shape than Meredith but at least still has a few fish left in it.

I seem to recall that Meredith has NEVER been full.

I can remember the lake being full, launching at Alibates and catching walleye around the Plum Creek Cove and catching crappie in Cedar Canyon. I can also remember being on the wrong side of the lake when a storm blew in.

I heard it was 50' and they'll start restocking. I sure hope they do.

not sure what "full" is---but I remember more than once it was dang close to the emergency spillway

Some parts of the water shed got over 4" of rain yesterday and today and it's still raining.