Got a really cool look inside the Dam on The Beautiful Lake fork via tour with the Lake Fork Chamber of Commerce. The Sabine River Authority are some really smart folks. It was really an honor to find out that we were one of the first groups since 9/11 to tour the dam. Turns out alligator, giant Drum, Carp and Gar like to hang out on the discharge side of the spill way no shocker there. However I did learn that Lake Fork reservoir was originally designed to aid as a cooling pool for a nuclear power plant. Upon completion of the dam the guys that were fronting the bill for the power plant backed out of the project leaving a nice 27,000acre-ft lake for Dallas to buy water rights to, entitling them 70% of the water in the lake every year no matter what the level of the lake. But no need to worry the SRA assures us that they never pumped water in to fill the lake to being with. Also sometime in the coming weeks the SRA is going to be stripping the dirt off the south side of the entire wall of the dam to reinforce and restructure the clay that sits beneath the grass adjacent to the canal fed by the spill way. Apparently when they built the dam they used a clay that dissolves in water its not leaking or weak they go on to say. And since tone is hard to pick up on in print I'm not at all denigrating the SRA they know what they are doing and have established an open line of communication with the general public to put to ease growing disinformation. Apparently a lot of regular people like you or I sometimes go around spreading disinformation and misleading ideas like one I am guilty of a more common idea or statement like "Why do they always open the gates when we get more than a couple inches high? They 'ought to leave it alone!" or something to the like. I suppose I'm rambling if you would like to ask them any question the SRA has an open line at http://www.sra.dst.tx.us/aboutsra/contact_us/staff.asp also some very interesting water data graphs of numerous lakes in Texas https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/fork https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/statewide the first one is for fork the second is an overview of water data. Shout out to Steve Chick for his Lake fork Water Report that he puts together every month that guy is a true guru

Also There may be large hybrid white bass in the lake. a buddy of mine and I went out Thursday night and hit some dock lights to get a quick bite before work Friday morning. We were only out till 2-3 am no LMB surprisingly not surprising sand bass were rampant... large sand bass that weighed 6lbs and measured 20inches we put 20 in the boat smallest was just over 14 inches and 4 measured over 18. Took home everything we caught filleted em' and had bout 5 lbs a piece in free tacos! cook em all I say. any way while I was cleaning fish we had a discussion that these big mother sons have got to be hybrids unfortunately between fish guts and one dead cell phone we manged to take one horrible picture [img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._49400199170065[/img]
[img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._28902815173004[/img]
that's my buddies bag of meat mine filled the same quart bag. that was what was left by the time we snapped a picture of these supposed hybrids any comments to the validity to that statement would be obliged. the one fixin to get the blade is one of these "Hybrids". Now I'm no ichthyologist but these fish on this table look like they beat the water body records here
https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=0433 for white bass.

maybe I'm in the wrong here about classification of species?
This is what the regulation is for these fish and what I try to go on.

White, striped and yellow bass
For striped and hybrid striped bass, minimum length limit = 18 inches and daily bag limit = 5 in any combination. For white bass, minimum length = 10 inches and daily bag is 25. There are no bag or size limits for yellow bass. http://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/fishregs2.php?water=0433

I also use several of the posters around boat launch areas as a quick refresher on what each different variation of bass and catfish look like. Complaisance breeds disaster and I don't want to be on the wrong side of the TPWD because of a lame excuse like oh sorry I thought I knew what I was talking about...Rambling again...
Food for Thought some people have reported seeing some water craft turning lose a questionable variation of fish...
but I'd take some things with a grain of salt.

Thoughts?

Just big Lake Fork sand bass. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the state record sand bass resides in the lake.

A 6lb. Sandy would be a State record.

After my fiasco I'd say you're correct Gamblinman. I'd wager the state record still makes a nice fish taco. ha

Was that y'all on the school bus? We tried to moon y'all.

hahaha didn't see the moon however some of the ladies did happen to make a comment about a small little tiny.... fish that she saw sorry corny joke but yes that was us on the yellow non magical school bus.

Lol!

We were wondering what was going on.

Thanks for the indepth report.

I suppose they didn't allow pics...

yes I believe the reason for the lack of a bigger state record is the lack of care people have for this invasive species. Maybe some folks you know have higher admiration for them but in my circles they are often regarded as a "Trash" fish no more use other than for chum. I think if some people took more sandies to a check-it-stick and official scales we'd see a much heavier state record.

Yes glad to even see someone read it. No problem and unfortunately not it would've made for a great angle to the report but a strict policy is no photography. For them it's not the pictures of course its the audience the pictures might reach and well now adays it's unfortunate but you can never be to careful.

Any pics of that 6 lb white bass? That's a hawg. State record is 5.56. I know Fork has some big uns.

so this is the best picture we got of the good ones didnt bother to weigh before we filleted and several more are either out of frame or already got the blade

Nice write up and congratulations on a good trip. Those are some nice sized sandbass but 6lbs seems like a stretch unless you had one on a scale. and I hope you did! But, most of the big ones people have been catching that are 14-19" are between 1.5 and 3lbs on a scale and if not they tend to get the ol Roland Martin treatment... "3,4,5,6-7lbs!"

I'm sure there are a few bigger ones than that caught, but just wanting to put it in perspective for those that make special a trip expecting 5-6lb sandbass.

well i do not have a certified scale as a matter of fact I use an analog scale by Rapala, it will give me a ball park better than my educated guess(if it's still in a ball park area of measurement) it also makes for a nice set of grippers ... a few factors such as lighting and lack of attention to detail and old hammey down equipment probably contributed to a less than accurate analysis of the true weight of these fish. Any how the biggest one we caught measured 20 or so inches and was nudging the 5 3/4-6 lb line on the scales. Again we didn't bother to bring them into anything more than the cutting board. If however my scales do add a few lbs on to some fish I'm taking home to eat you wont here me complain haha

Lol that's awesome. I was just curious.

Again, congratulations on some nice fish and a good time!

I thought I was in the Bass Section.