Are the grass carp gone? if not, they will clean it out again. Stupidest move TPWD ever made. That little catch and release lake was awesome back in the days of vegetation.

Wow, this is a bummer. Heading down to Purtis this weekend hoping to let my sons (10 and 11) catch their first bass ever. I was not aware of the grass carp fiasco. It used to be a great lake on flukes, senkos and frogs. dangit.

i dot get why they do this, vegitations makes fishing great, clears up the water, i think it looks better than a lake with mud bottom and no plants.

i used to go every sumemr a kid lots of good bass and huge! bluegils where the paddle boats were on that little dock in the grass

I am amazed at how someone, can make the descesion to remove the grass from a lake that is primarily for fishing. I have often thought how much I would enjoy talking to the person responsible, in person. He could not have been a fisherman. Right after they killed it, I asked them why and the responce was it was crowding out the swim area. I loved night fishing on that lake. My biggest came at 1:30 in the morning: 28-1/2 inch, 12-1/2 lbs. The revenue from entry fees into the lake has got to show how big of a mistake it was.

I agree but I also remember reading on here many years ago regarding how bad the grass was in the lake and that some parts were almost unfishable (I'm not saying it was, just read alot about it). I was only fortunate enough to fish it one time before they put the carp in it and it was certainly better fishing then.

It wasnt just carp I saw them on more than one occasion spraying the floating hydrilla i live 3 mins away and dont waste my time there

I one believed the biologist for the lake when they said the reason the pads were gone was that just after they introduced the carp, the lake was hit with three huge floods in less than a month that scoured all the remaining grass and pads. They told me that the pad root systems were still there and that when the lake got low, the mud flats would get exposed and that's what the root systems would need to start growing again. Well.... The lake got low, mud flats exposed, water came back up and no pads. Hmmm, ya think maybe they sterilized the chit out of it????

The countless stories of state and local wildlife departments adding grass carp to fisheries to "control" vegetation is a bad joke. Do they not read reports from other departments??? Can they be that blind to the damage these bonehead maneuvers create? I don't get it. It's not just here but it's nationwide. Then they act like they didn't know the eradication was going to happen in their lake. Really? And you're an expert? It's easier and cheaper to destroy it than to manage it.

The biggest reason for the grass kill was because Purtis is a state park, i.e. campers and bank fishermen. The areas around the camping areas was unfishable from the bank so they felt it was in the best interest to help the campers and bankers out since they are the biggest source of revenue for the part. I see their point but it sucks for the bass fishermen.

I hate that but it makes sense in a perverse way. Unfortunately, we are the bass fishermen it sucks for. I might load up and go to Lake Athens to fish if it is as bad as it sounds.

According to TP&W the grass carp are near the end of their life cycle (they don't reproduce naturally in this lake)and there's no plan to introduce more or spray for vegetation. A few years back a huge watershed pretty much stripped the lake bare of vegetation and along with the carp and spraying really messed up the bass fishing. Some submerged hydrilla is beginning to show up in areas. Its a little sparse but its a good sign of things to come. There's lots of shoreline vegetation but not necessarily the best habitat for bass. My advice is to cover all the high percentage spots....points, humps, creek bends. There's lots of timber still standing along the creeks. I average 5 - 15 bass per trip (4 to 6 hours) almost all from 1 to 6 lbs. My best is 12lb. 13oz. on a Mann's Deep 10+. Caught a 10lb. 2oz. last June on a black and blue flake trick worm. Still has some big bass in it but they're hard to catch. Just sayin

How's the lake level? It's been a couple years since I've been there and it was quite low back then.

Does anyone know if Purtis Creek is full? I am head out there late next week

It was full 3 weeks ago when I took the wife down there Crappie fishing.