Texas lake and pulling water

I've heard people for other parts of the country talk about how good the fishing can get when they are pulling water from lakes.

Why do the fish in our Texas lakes seem to shut down when they are pulling water ?

It is not that they shutdown but most of our lakes are constant level lakes when current starts to flow the fish move from where people want them to be. Or in many cases when our lakes are moving current it is because of highwater which many times is muddy or has the fish spread out amongst the 20' of new cover. Not sure how many lakes in Texas other than Texoma have a power generation schedule under normal conditions that can create current on a regular basis. Also many of our lakes are stocked with millions of hydrids and stripers which will tend to push many bass off the offshore structure that Bass would normally be on in the summer months!

well said, and they suspend making them inactive and hard to catch for most.

One other thing I have seen numerous times on Fork, particularly early in the year. The water temp drops rapidly when SRA begins pulling water. My theory is that the outflow causes a mixing effect. Warmer surface water and cooler water from the lake bottom get mixed and the syrface temp drops. I've seen Fork water temps drop almost 10 degrees in a 24 hour period after the gates were opened in the Spring.

I think on other lakes (you're probably talking about the Tennessee River chain), when they pull water they are not actually dropping the lake level. They move water through the entire chain, and the current causes the fish to set up in more predictable areas.

Here, when they pull water, the fish typically have to escape from falling water levels causing them to move out and suspend.

this is true.

Here's what I was told that makes the most sense. When you hear or see on TV during a BASS tourney how they were just waiting for them to start "generating" or "pulling water" for those fish to turn on, it's because those fish have been around that type of activity all their lives and have figured out how to use it to their advantage by positioning where the bait is going to coming right to them.

On the flip side, our lakes are stagnant outside of the power plant lakes so when the fish all of sudden have current they typically are not used to it and it causes them to just sit around going "WTH is going on?" instead of wanting to eat. Another example I can give would be on Monticello. You ask anyone out there that has been fishing the lake for any amount of time what happens when they first start generating after not generating for a while. The answer will be the same....those fish go crazy! It's because they have been used to steady current being the norm for years.

Dropping water levels are whole different ballgame than flowing current with stable levels.

+1

I don't think current is created on massive and wide reservoirs. Maybe in certain areas. Current causes the fish to be active, they have to swim to stay in one spot, expend energy.

current is in all texas lakes. it creates saturated oxygen that starts a food chain.

Yup, I don't think it's a TX thing.

I have seen the bite turn on when they push water from Lake Travis through Lake Austin, but it's a river lake and they are used to the current, fish will stack in different areas compared to the norm, just have to find them.

yup, the fishing changed a lot on Austin when Travis got so low for the last several years and they weren't able to move as much water through

Sure, but not from dam release. Rayburn, Toledo Bend, Conroe, prolly not the case. I'm sure there are a few this effect of then dam release causing the fish to bite. But not like tidal waters and river type impoundments. Large massive reservoirs don't get that type of current.

I dunno.

They definitely bite better on Austin and Dunlap when water is moving.