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SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS #11067554 08/27/15 07:37 PM
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yakkityyak Offline OP
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Anyone fish some of the soil conservation tanks? I know of one thats dam is on the list to be repaired/replaced. This particular tank is quite large, about 25 acres. the dam is a 50 year dam that is 70 years old and I'd like to get a line in before they start construction. This tank is well hidden from public eye and seems as if it hadn't had much fishing pressure. I only assume this because it is not easy to get to. There weren't many signs of human evidence... beer cans, monofiliment, styrofoam bait cups, etc...
It sits on Private Property, and is surrounded by about a 250 acre abandoned farm. I think it's one of those farms the government pays the owner not to grow anything. There's an old overgrown road leading to it, but it is gated about a 3/4 mile from the tank. I would really like to get my kayak in there.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11067637 08/27/15 08:19 PM
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Double K Outdoors Offline
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If the tank is surrounded by that kind of land... I would be hesitant to fish it. If the land around it is private they probably aren't going to want you out there. I'm sure the fishing is awesome, but I think you would be taking a risk. If I see private property all around the pond/tank. I assume it's off limits. you may be able to make a few phone calls to the city it's in and find out for sure though.


~You won't catch any fish if you don't try!
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Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11067666 08/27/15 08:32 PM
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MrWood Offline
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Does anyone know where I could find a list of these tanks? I would be curious to know if I have any around my area.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11071016 08/29/15 02:49 PM
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Bill77 Offline
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Most of the soil conservation lakes were built in the 60's on private lands. There are several in my county (Lamar), but I know of none that are open to public fishing. Some of these small lakes cross property boundaries and are shared by more than one owner. One of these lakes was planned to be built on property that I now own, but it never materialized. NRCS maintains these lakes (in a lackadaisical manner), and they might be able to provide more info as to location and owner info if you're interested in pursuing permission to fish.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11074503 08/31/15 03:29 PM
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Dan90210 ☮ Offline
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These lakes are like the bigfoot of the fishing world.

Lots of people claim they have seen one, but no one has any proof.

There are a few in Denton that are public, but the vast majority are on private land.

Pretty sure some of the lakes with the Private Water Fishing outfit are soil conservation lakes.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11075081 08/31/15 08:49 PM
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salex Offline
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I am unaware of any of the soil conversation lakes that are open to the public. The lakes were built by the federal government to slow erosion in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. They were built on private land and thus "owned" by individual landowners. Most are not good fisheries as they were not designed to grow fish. they were designed to stop erosion. Their life span was designed to be approx 50 years. Most are at least 50 years already. The great news is that for the most part, our federal government funded some incredibly well built dams, overflow pipes, and emergency spillways that money could buy. These were done right!

I love the Bigfoot analogy. Very funny.

We lease 69 private lakes and 7 of them are soil conservation lakes. Six of them are in the Dallas area and one of them is 1/2 way between Houston and San Antonio.


Steve Alexander
salexander@privatewaterfishing.com
www.privatewaterfishing.com

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: salex] #11075289 08/31/15 10:49 PM
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Not to try and split hairs....

But, "Soil Conservation Lake" can fall into several categories, not all of which were primarily built for the control of soil erosion. The erosion control types would usually be designated as "soil bank" ponds or lakes and by now would have all filled in enough to be either a swamp or dry land. The ones typically referred to as "fishing lakes" were usually built for flood control and were called "floodwater retarding structures." These lakes can swell several times in size very quickly with heavy rainfall and then slowly release the water over time, helping to prevent flooding in the watershed. If you look at them, you can usually see the "big lake" area surrounding the "small lake" that stays full, as well as the type of device employed to release the water slowly. These range in size (the small lake part) from around 5 to maybe over 40 acres and many have managed fisheries.

All of both types and others I've been to were on private land. Most were paid for entirely or partly by government grants of one type or another. Usually the fishery aspect is the responsibility of the landowner and any uses the landowner has for the water body must not interfere with the primary designation for that water body. Say, you couldn't stopper the lake when it was filled up and keep it full, you have to let it slowly drain back to its normal pool.

A lot of them are very poor fisheries because they typically have a lot of rough fish, but some of the best bass, crappie and sunfish fishing I've done in my life has been in some of these type lakes.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11076396 09/01/15 02:24 PM
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There is one in Burnet. A friend of mine family owns the land. I have fished it a bunch. Very over populated.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11077051 09/01/15 08:25 PM
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BrahmanTx Offline
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I had access to one several years ago until the land was sold. We pulled several 8lb bass from it. Like said earlier, the dams were built very well. Every so often, a crew comes in and clears the dam from trees and overgrowth. But it is like any other pond on private property. You need permission or your trespassing.


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Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11084457 09/05/15 03:46 AM
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Originally Posted By: yakkityyak
Anyone fish some of the soil conservation tanks? I know of one thats dam is on the list to be repaired/replaced. This particular tank is quite large, about 25 acres. the dam is a 50 year dam that is 70 years old and I'd like to get a line in before they start construction. This tank is well hidden from public eye and seems as if it hadn't had much fishing pressure. I only assume this because it is not easy to get to. There weren't many signs of human evidence... beer cans, monofiliment, styrofoam bait cups, etc...
It sits on Private Property, and is surrounded by about a 250 acre abandoned farm. I think it's one of those farms the government pays the owner not to grow anything. There's an old overgrown road leading to it, but it is gated about a 3/4 mile from the tank. I would really like to get my kayak in there.


I know of one, but you'll need to PM for details. It's about 25mins from downtown Dallas.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11087526 09/07/15 03:00 AM
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A friend of mine had one on his property. It was silted in and max depth was 3ft.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11094964 09/10/15 08:22 PM
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Double K Outdoors Offline
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I've only found one... and you better believe that I'm keeping my mouth shut on the location. It's a hidden gem that a friend of mine found and it fishes very well. It fluctuates with the amount of rain that we receive. When we were getting hit with all the rains it was about 8-10 feet higher than normal and now it's about 5-6 feet low. When the waters up... I'm there. I think most people have the same logic as me though. If one person knows the location, soon 400 will and your honey hole will be just a hole.


~You won't catch any fish if you don't try!
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Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11095697 09/11/15 02:24 AM
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Daniel Mtanous Offline
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@BankBassin I seriously doubt the forum would warrant a mass migration of invasive fishermen.

Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11105249 09/15/15 06:27 PM
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Since I like things the way they are... I'm not willing to risk it. Call it what you want, but there's a bunch of people that when the find a honey hole, they don't tell people about it.


~You won't catch any fish if you don't try!
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Re: SOIL CONSERVATION TANKS [Re: yakkityyak] #11109716 09/17/15 05:57 PM
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Dan90210 ☮ Offline
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I got to fish a real life Conservation Lake few weeks ago.

My buddies co-workers family owns it.

It was pretty great! No huge bass but they were mostly around 2-3lbs.

Fished for the "cycle" in that I caught bass, bluegill, crappie (a huge one), and a catfish all on jigs.

Would be a great lake for Salexs stable but I guess the owners are not interested in strangers on their land... I can understand that.

Boy it was great though. And they dont even manage it, its just pretty healthy on its own like that. Very lucky.

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