Soil Conservation Lakes

Okay, I have seen a few posts in the past about public access for Soil Conservation Service lakes so I called the Austin office of the TPWD. I was looking for information on the reservoirs in the Midlothian and Alvarado area, so they sent me to the Tyler office. The Tyler office didn’t know anything, so they sent me to the Fort Worth office. The Fort Worth office wasn't sure, so they sent me to the Waco office. I figuratively did a complete geographical circle!

The Waco office also wasn't sure, so they called the Soil Conservation Service for me. The answer they got was that an actual listing of lakes and/or which ones might be public access was not available because when they were put in, it was done with lawyers involved and that information was confidential!

I was assured by the TPWD that public funds to stock these lakes would not have been used on lakes for private use...

Long story... I have read that some of these reservoirs might be public access if the land owner worked with the state to have them stocked. This would require the land owner to allow public access. Well, I have talked to three regional offices, the state office and the TPWD spoke with the Soil Conservation Service for me and no one can say if there are any such lakes.

They did tell me however that there are 2,000 of these lakes in the state of Texas!!!!!

The only definitive word I could get was that none of these three regions is actively stocking any of the Soil Conservation reservoirs in their district.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Typical goverment buracracy FUBAR

We lease access to more than a dozen soil conservation lakes. They are privately owned and the public does not have access to them without landowner permission. Sometime back the state passed the costs of maintaining the lakes to the county and as you might expect it is now a mess. Most counties have no money to maintain the lakes (primarily mowing the dams-God help you if you own one and you have a pipe or dam issue as it may take years to find the funding to fix the problem.

Most of the soil conservation lakes were built in the 1950's 60's and 70's. During this time the state was stocking these lakes and any other private lake free of charge. Tax dollars were paying for this service. In 1980 or 1981 the state no longer provided stocker fish. This opened up a whole new industry of private lake managers who now sell fish for private lakes.

So can we legally fish these soil conservations? I know of a few locally.

lavonfisher.

You cannot without landowner permission.

Actually there have been a few turned into city/neighborhood parks which you are allowed to fish, walk your dog, etc..

I own land next to one of these lakes that was built in 1973. I have no idea if it was stocked back then, but I will tell you that it is extremely silted in. It is largely a big bowl of mud that when full (rarely in Texas) is about 8 ft deep in the middle, otherwise about 3-4 feet all the way across. Sounds like would be a waste of time to try to get the state to empty it out and dredge out all the silt????????? but that is what needs to happen to make it a decent fishing lake again.

Aggravating, to deal with getting answers from government offices..

Our Tax dollars are still being poured into these conservation lakes.
Go to : www.tsswcb.texas.gov and look at the left of the screen at: Flood Control Programs

TSSWCB Awards Flood Control Grant to Local Soil and Water Conservation District
TEMPLE - TSSWCB awards funding to the Navarro SWCD to match federal dollars from the USDA-NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program for needed repairs to flood control dams.
Read more...

I'm writing a letter to my state rep and encourage others to do the same. I have called gov agencies also and got the run around. Sure lawyers were involved, because most ranchers got these lakes for free and don't want anyone to use them. I have a friend who has a friend that has one of these lakes on his ranch and tpwd has stocked it and runs the shock boat on it ever couple of years, and yes it is posted and yes it is a high fence ranch and yes that is illegal, but know one wants to do anything about it.

1. The state is not doing shock surveys on these lakes. You may "have a friend who has a friend that has one of these lakes," but my family owns one and the state has never shocked it. With thousands of soil conservation lakes in the State, it would literally be impossible for the state to survey them "every couple of years" like you say.

2. The state did not purchase the land from the landowner, they simply build the lake, so the public has no claim to it.

3. The lakes were built to control flooding and soil erosion (which is a benefit to the public), fishing is just a byproduct of the lake existing. Your tax dollars were spent to help with flooding/erosion, not to provide a lake to fish in. If the state built a retaining wall or culvert on private land, would you be demanding access to it? Just because the project happened to be a lake and you like to fish does not give you the right to access private property.

I live in Live Oak and there are a couple of soil conservation site ponds around the area. Converse North Park produces quality bass for a 20-acre pond. I average 15-18" bass nearly every time I go fishing.
Both places are city parks, so it's public access.

These ponds are all managed by the NRCS Natural Resource Conservation Service which is a division of the US Department of Agriculture. Folks that work there are really helpful and can help you with whatever you want but the majority of these lakes are on private property.