Current Choke Canyon Report?

Heading to Choke for the first time in a few years this weekend----Does anyone have any current information to share??

Sorry not much to report on other than water quality.
The area near south shore boat ramp and I guess what you would call lower end of lake looks best. I tried for a few hours and managed three dinks.
South shore ramp closed. Good Luck. Staghorn Restaurant still best food in town.

I went a few weeks ago, did pretty decent. Hydrilla was getting thick, real thick. Be prepared to fight it if you run down to 4 fingers.

Is the hydrilla all over?

It's not 100% of the shoreline on the entire lake, but it is on a lot of the lake. From the places I went I'd say about 50% (maybe more) of the shoreline had grass. Some real thick, some in clumps. The lake is dropping and the hydrilla should be matted on top now.


And I'll also add that I did not catch a single fish from the grass, I'd almost swear that the fish don't use it.

Going tomorrow, winds 20-30, fuuuuunnnnn!!

If you get tired of fighting the wind and decide to head up the river, make sure to take it at an idle. I was idling up and hit a big mofo tree, whole freaking boat came to a screeching halt. There's some big bad trees up the river.

Thanks Mike

Only boat on the lake today, fishing was decent.

Crazy being the only boat, I remember days where you had to park way up the parking lot and both ramps would be packed. A lot harder to fish spots back then.

Some spots of the watershed (mainly around Pearsall) got 8" of rain this morning with more rain in the forecast the next 5 days. Going to take some major flooding to fill Choke, but should still see a slight rise with just what they got today.

Man I hope so.

I'd love to see it about 10' low, just gotta have that hurricane come up.

More rain today, hopefully the lake catches some water!

Just amazes me! Been fishing Choke since she was 1st flooded ! We've had good years and bad . - Thru the last 30 years she has gone up and down with the water levels fluctuating from releases at the Dam to flooding in her watershed to the NW along with an occasional Hurricane or Tropical depression! This recent rain pattern was incredible as I watched the Frio get pounded . Some of our posts in the last few years have been wondering ?---- Where the H-- is the water going ? Well if she doesn't catch any and rise from this last flooding-- I'm gonna agree with those that posted in the past !!! "There must be a hole in the Frio water Basin "
Rio

Call me a "tin foil hat" person, but look at google earth and all those wells around the lake... wouldn't take a whole lot to directional drill into the lake for water.

ding ding ding winer!

Went today, definitely a few inches lower than last week! Seems like it should be a few inches higher.

Found some white bass today, need to take my electric knife with me next week when I go..

You'll never hear any complaints since the oil well business is the livelyhood of more folks than it is for fishermen.
Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out where all the water is going.

Not in the Oil business but live in the area. They have not dammed and of the rivers coming into the lake for frac water, that would be the most logical, but not consistent. And to think a company would horizontal under the lake to use the water is laughable. Yes they drilled a 6 million dollar hole for water they can get from any one of the thousand carrizzo wells already drilled for farming and livestock. Horizontals happen at 8000-9000 feet, that's close to 7000plus feet deeper than the deepest part of the river basin. There is a reason for the lack of lake recovery, but that is not it.

Maybe I just like to the pot!
I've been around since before the lake was a lake, and it will take a tropical storm or hurricane to fill that lake, and it will eventually happen.
Until then I guess we all will just believe what we believe, and have comic relief reading all the posts.

Do you have any idea what would happen to a company IF they could actually do that?

I bet these stay filled from the rain water. Also, I'd like to point out that I don't live in the area and it doesn't affect me whatsoever. The town also draws water from the lake and evaporation also occurs, so anyways.... you can view my opinion however you'd like.

Those are recovered frac water.

I'm clueless on the oil life, what happens to this water? I tried to google it, but it didn't sound very positive.

It evaporates, or is hauled to disposal wells. As goofy as it sounds, it is too contaminated to use to frac again. Now there is a company that claims to be able to treat it, but haven't heard much out of them.

I'd think with the heat that place has, that stuff would have to evaporate fairly quickly. Sounds like some pretty nasty stuff according to what I read on the internet. The page I was reading said it took something like 5 million (or more) gallons of water to frac a well.

And less than half comes back out of the hole. But,fracing has been going on for at least 65 years and it is nothing but water and sand. All this "exocitic chemicals" [censored] is just enviromentalists propaganda. It does contain what ever was in the formation and that is considered hazardous. It uses a lot of water, and during the drought and oil boom it was a problem. But now that aquifers are full again and the oil bust, no one notices.

Choke is just in a bad spot. Not enough drainage to keep it constant level and the City of Corpus Christi has the dumbest water plan.

Do you want to know more about it? It's hauled to a disposal well where it is pumped about 10,000 feet underground and yes, forgotten. Evaporation rates are high, look at Choke Canyon Res., and if you will notice the evap ponds are everywhere, almost one for each well location.

It's not the sinister thing people think, they don't get water without paying for it, and if they are taking water from Choke, you need to talk to the City of Corpus Christi about that.

Choke is a really screwed up thing and I don't think we will ever get normal levels (consistent) from it. I was digging through some articles last year and found where it was written that they have to let out of it, the same flow that is coming into it. Now this might be just during the shrimp breeding season or special times, it was written to intelligently for me to fully understand.



So anyways, it's been drug off topic enough now. Anybody fishing it?

Catfishing must be good, damn cleaning station always has people cleaning cats at the end of the day.

I've always found the catfish to be easier to catch than the bass, lots of dinkers; but every now and then you can catch a few better ones.

I'd like to learn the gaspergoo fishing down by the dam, when they are spawning. That sounds like more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Fished it last month. Crappie bite was excellent most in the 13in range with really thick fillets

Amen Jimbo, I agree with you. Gonna take one hell of a Katrina in the right spot to fill that lake again. Then it will have to probably be restocked by TPWD.

When and if it ever fills up again, there will be no need for more stocking. A year after it fills it will be just like the last time it was full. Tournaments will return, and reports of 10's will be made again. It's amazing what all the new water does for fishing.

Fished today. Caught a carp load of dink bass on points. Went to where I caught some whites last week and caught 4 gaspergoo and a nice catfish for dinner. There were some ol boys at the cleaning station cleaning 100 catfish, so I guess the catfishing is on fire.

Goo and catfish caught on slabs. Dinks caught on............ who cares!

Goos by the dam?

Yes sir, bout 30 ft deep. Going to fry them up tonight!

I have some cousins that catch the heck out of them and they really like them.

If y'all have never fried up gaspergoo, you're missing out!

I have always wanted to fish Choke but never made it down there. Thinking about grabbing the kids, loading the boat and giving it a run! We will be fishing for catfish, are there any spots you guys could recommend ? We will be rod and reel fishing , but might also throw a few jugs out as well. Also which boat ramp to launch from? Thanks guys!

Not many ramps to pick from, I'd go to either Calliham first and 99 bridge second. There's also Mason Point, but it puts you right in the middle of a stump field (99 bridge pretty much does too, just not as bad).

Launch your boat and head for the sticks, there's plenty to tie up to. Fish for 20 mins and if you aren't catching them, move shallower or deeper. Sometimes they are really shallow and sometimes they are deeper.

If the fishing is real slow you could try to find some gators to look at, they can be challenging to find though since you're not familiar with the lake.

Went with a guide a few year ago and we fished the coves on the south side of the lake with punch bait using slip corks. Fished in two to four feet of water and caught all we wanted to clean.

You guys catching the goos on worms?

Thanks for the info guys.... just pulled Google maps and had a look. Is it possible to run your boat in there without ripping off your transducer or punching a hole in your hull? It looks bad!

Looks even worse in person. Parts you can drive safely and parts are idle only...

If they'd ever fix South Shore ramp you could run it fairly safely; but they don't.

Only fix for south shore is a bunch of water. The end of the ramp is high and dry.

They said that the sand had washed out from underneath it and it was basically hollow. Same thing started to happen at Calliham and they pumped some kind of expansive foam underneath it.


Last time I was there there was still water over the main lake ramp and the cove ramp was out of the water.

It was sure convenient when it was open.

TPWD currently has bids out to fix the ramp at South Shore.

Really?

Great!

water wells drilled and water piped via 4" poly into the tanks. Water is for sale for fracing, or for completions/production work.

This water is not produced water. It's fresh water, and it's for sale. When you open a well up, yes, the water is recoverable and treatable...almost clean enough to irrigate farms with, if not cleaner. Flowback water can be hauled off to SWD's and pumped downhole, but only permitted per well, per barrel, per day, and at a regulated pressure monitored by the TXRRC. Can the city of corpus elect to sell water out of choke directly? Typically, no, bc it's "on-channel"...but it can be permitted in special situations. But folks, you can frac 20 wells out of the lake before you surpass what is lost to evaporation daily.

I imagine the evaporation loss is huge. Sure do wish the lake were in a better recharge zone.


And Parttime, to answer your question. Most use minnows.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/business/bidops/current_bid_opportunities/construction/

Yep.

Thanks!

30 minutes less drive time!

Sure would be nice if the contract included extending the ramp like they did at Cassels-Boykin park on Sam Rayburn. They pushed pre made concrete lanes off the end of the existing ramp.

Went to Choke for the first time last weekend! Very nice park and nice facilities. The water is very low and parts near Mason's Point were almost completely choked out with weeds. We caught about 15 small catfish, the biggest was about 3 lbs. Saw some huge gators and had about 15 javelinas join us for breakfast. Also had a raccoon tear into out bait cooler and eat all our bait. All in all great trip although I wish the cats had been bigger.

One thing I also was kind of shocked to see were all the largemouths that had been filleted in the fish buckets at the cleaning stations. There were some nice 3-4 pounders in there! Oh well to each there own I guess.

It happens and as long as they were abiding the law not much can be said.

I had a water engineer tell me a few years ago that they could not have possibly put the lake in a worse spot for runoff or recharge. Must've been some money and a politicians family's land involved.

Back when they were building the lake my brother had bought a lot near what is now Calliham and we would go there on weekends clearing the land and putting in fence post.
We were right next to the proposed park at that time and we got to know the TPWD biologist who was in charge of the area.
He took us for a guided tour of the lake bed and showed us the rearing ponds and showed us the river channel.
At that time I thought WTH! The river was just a trickle and hardly anything you could even imagine as flow. It looked just like it was, a shallow stagnant creek.....I thought at that time, "good luck filling up this lake with that!"

Jimbo, you have any pics of that sucker before it filled?


I was sure hoping this little tropical depression was gonna head Choke's direction, as usual, not happening.

No, that day we met up with that biologist we were taking a break from working, and being before iphones and such we didn't have a camera.
He saw us working and stopped by to shoot the bull, and he then asked if we'd like to see the lake? We jumped into his truck and he took us for a long ride and showed off his living quarters, which was a house where the main park is located.
He then drove us around what was then just roads going through pastures, so not a lot to see actually if you know what south Texas brush country looks like, it's all pretty much the same.
Down by the dam you could see the big earth movers working, and plenty of good old south Texas dust.
He told us all about the plans for the lake, and talked wildlife etc. and history of the area. The guy was a fountain of information to say the least.
What I remember the most was he showed us pictures of his wife...She was an ex Dallas Cowboys cheerleader!

My family has a ranch close to Lake CC, and when I was a little kid, I remember one weekend we left the ranch and drove up to Three Rivers because my grandfather and dad wanted to see the Choke Canyon project. We drove out on a place you could look out at the dam build, somewhere close to where Southshore is, may have been the actual park already built at that point, I cant remember, but I do remember the hole in the ground and the amount of dirt moving blew my little kid mind. It is probably one of my earlier memories.

Then it was impounded and took forever to fill. Then a big storm flooded it and I was an older kid and it was over pool...not sure why we were there, but I remember some of the campsites being underwater.

If you will recall. TP&W opened the rearing ponds before the lake caught water due to fish growing and the ponds drying up. I remember the catch what you can.

Lot of politics involved with that lake, and one of the big reasons it is where it's at was to protect Three Rivers from being in the bullseye of the Frio river when the floods came.
They still have to worry about the Atascosa, and the Nueces to the south but they have the levee to protect the town, and they still dodge a bullet when the floods come.

We were down there working on building my brothers house and we would go down to the river bed when they opened it up to fishing. No limits, take what you catch, but it was a circus and we found the fishing wasn't all that great, and didn't live up to the hype.

Too expensive a lake to fish right now and being stupid doesn't help. Last time I went I was bound and determined to go up into possum. Turned off the channel and got hung the motor hung up on a huge floater. Cost me two transducers, mph think, and a prop. My fault I know but with it low like it is there has to be no pressure in that area and I never found out if there were fish there or not.

Sorry, but I'm taking a trip down memory lane guys.
I remember when the lake first filled, we launched out of Mason Point, and when you stood on the ramp and looked toward the water, all you could see was a cleared area directly in front of the ramp maybe 75 yards out. There was nothing but jungle and some ribbons marking a lane to follow.
We launched and tried to find our way toward the main lake, and it was like being in the Amazon caught in a maze of trees.
All the leaves were on the living trees which made it spooky as you would turn off the channel and end up in a dead end not knowing where you were.
This was before GPS by the way, so no help there, you had to use your senses.
Going back, trying to get to the ramp before dark was even more challenging.
Saw a huge eagles nest which we used as a reference point, so thanks to that eagle.
Most all of the area of the lake except for the dam area was left untouched and spared the bulldozer, so that is one reason there are so many widow makers out there now.

It's the most dangerous part of the lake (mason point)! When guys ask for info I always tell them to avoid this area or idle only through it, HUGE trees in this zone. If the lake ever fills again, parts will be jungle like again.


Opossum sucks unless it has some water in it, right now you couldn't get very far up it.

I fished possum a couple times when the water first came down in maybe late 2013, it was so low you could see exactly where the creek channel wandered all through there. Muddy as hell and didn't catch a thing. When the water was up it was my go to spot.

To me the most dangerous part of the lake is the trip from Calliham to Possum. Navigating from Calliham to the upper river channel was fine, so long as you knew where you were going and had your previous paths marked on your unit.

Here is an old article with some history and photos taken just before impoundment.

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/choke/

Thanks, awesome site! The size of that chain...

Yep I remember those days, all you could see was trees and more trees. They had cut boat lanes so they were called marked with ribbons. But once you got on the fish, hold on to your rod it was a blast. Awh, the good old days...

Would be nice if they could cut some boat lanes again now that the lake is low. Maybe one straight from Calliham to 99 via Mason Point and another from Calliham to Opposum.

Nooooooooo, don't make 'possum easier to get to! Took me forever to learn the senderos/road beds to run to get back there safely.

Agree on no boat lanes. But since I lost my waypoints when I got my new unit I will have to follow someone in when the water gets right again. If that ever happens.

From the Mouth of Possum back is going to be a different lake if it ever fills up again. Some parts of that area have been out of the water going on 5-6 years now.

Fished for a half day yesterday. Caught 15 blacks and 20 ish whites with 1 bass over 5 lbs. it was a fun day out there with my wife!

Thanks for the report!

Anybody been lately? Last few trips for me were to fill the freezer with catfish which turned out pretty good. Now its time to get back to the green ones.

Went last weekend looking for crappie at the 99bridge and mason point. Fished 2 days and not a single crappie but did catch lots of eater cats

Were the cats biting at mason or or did u have to move around a lot..gonna be at choke all this wknd

Tied off to the biggest dead tree right in front of the ramp and cast tward the point. Be careful the tree with the red jug hanging from it there are big stumps just under the surface all around it and the water looks like chocolate milk. Good luck and post a report

Cat fishing is too easy there, problem is size. If you throw back all the 12 to 13 inchers, you are not bringing in much to clean, or at least that's how it has been for me. The bass should be grouped up off-shore, I'm looking forward to getting out deep and finding them.

Thanks for the info...will report Monday or Tuesday

Will be there some time this weekend catfishing. The lake is at a similar level now I learned it and grew up fishing it. I sure do miss it being full, it was so easy to ravel on the lake full just drive wherever.

The good news is....at least it won't be hot also plenty of trees to tie up to, sure do keep hoping one of those hurricanes come this direction.

A small chance of that hurricane late next week.

Yep, pretty sad when you have to hope for a natural disaster to come through the state. This is the latest prediction for it, lol.

We caught a 2 man limit on Saturday..took us 8.5 hrs. All fish caught on punch bait in 2 to 8 ft of water..shallow fish felt very warm..fish near pt at 3 fingers. Tons of small ones..keepers were between 13 and 16 inches..both channel and blue...huggers were catching bigger blues on fresh carp.

Good deal! Thanx for the report

Caught another 2 man limit on Sunday...near three fingers pt. There is an orange safety cone in a tree..fished near it in 6 to 8 ft of water...guys running jugs using carp caught bigger fish and rod and reel with cut shad in 40 ft near dam produced some bigger fish

We fished out of 99 bridge on Saturday morning. Ran towards the main lake. Be carefull if you go, lake is about a foot or so lower than it was a month ago and there are several new day ruiners hiding under the surface. We fished from just after daylight till 10 and kept 14 cats from 14-18 inches and threw about that many back. Observed some monster gators strutting their stuff and making a lot of growling kind of noises, not sure when their mating season is, but it reminded me of something like that, never heard them make so much noise before.

Looks like some of the "art" work my grandson does. Main problem is making him use paper instead of the wall's.

Well here is the latest I could find. Sounds promising to me.

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2017/08/2...ll-to-end-week/

And to make not good is that I am moving my daughter into her college dorm this weekend.

If this is accurate: https://www.windy.com/?rain,28.507,-93.955,7

(Click arrow to start animation)

I hope your link is the right one, starting to sound like it's gonna move closer to Houston. Hopefully people are smart enough to take heed.

I fished Choke this past Saturday (9/2/17) and was pretty disappointed. Fish pretty much had lock-jaw. I did manage a small limit--nothing to write home about (9/10 lbs). The water was 82/84 and down another 2 feet than it was in May when I was there last. Water was pretty stained throughout the lake. Looks as though the wind/waves from Harvey got pretty rough, as several places it looks like the waves pushed the reeds and brush over. The hydrilla is taking over many places close to Calliham. Caught and missed a few with a Whopper Plopper early up close to the grass. They would not touch a frog--Also caught a couple on a wacky rig on grass edges. Caught a couple on a drop shot in 20+ feet near the dam in open water. Lost a good one on a jig next to grass/wood late.

Watched a club from SA weigh-in and they did not fair any better than I. I think the guy that won had 3 fish but was penalized for a short fish and another dead one and only ended up with about 4 lbs.

Thanks for the report, I'm going Sunday. I'll probably fish deep most of the day, if that doesn't work out I might punch some mats. Last few months I've tried frogging with the same luck as you. A lot of good looking frog water, not sure why they won't hit it.

We fished 19 Aug and our club had 7 limits for 21 guys. Biggest was a 4+. Spinnerbaits and craw baits tossed on top of Hydrilla and pulled to edge and drop seemed to account for most limits. Bite slowed at around 9:30 then the hardwoods were the ticket. North Shore was best area