So the next public hearing on Decker Lake is scheduled for October 24th at Decker Middle School (8104 Decker Ln, Austin, TX 78724) at 6:00 pm. We need to get as many people as we can to this meeting to try and keep them from ruining yet another lake.
Thanks,
James

Please fill me on this info, links, etc, and I'll add a blurb to my fishing page. Thx!

There's a "Save Decker Lake" page on Facebook as well, Andy Myers is doing some great work there keeping everyone updated and going out of his way to help protect that amazing fishery.

Save Decker Lake FB page

^^^ Thanks!

So rather than reading a years worth of data off of a Facebook page...can you summarize what actually is going on at Decker?

Basically, from what I gather, Decker is a power plant lake which no longer uses the power plant. Therefore, the city of Austin has proposals/plans to turn it into something else. (I.E. Park, Golf course, ETC.) Don't quote me though.

Read a while back one option was to drain it.

Their proposal is to drain the lake and make several ponds for golf courses.
JR

That's one of them. They have a few options

1 is to keep the lake as-is, making a few new parks/trails and updating the existing one. They'll clear out a forest area for a golf course.

2 is to drain the lake and make a few different parks with ponds and trails. The golf course will still be built in the forested area.

3 is to drain the lake and make the golf course where the lake used to be.


It'd be a shame to lose yet another lake, especially one with some amazing fishing to be had! Up in my area we've got Northlake, which was much the same situation. My granddad has tons of stories from that lake and I'll never be able to fish it. I'd hate to see it happen to Decker.

It's going to boil down one simple fact. "MONEY"! What ever plan will benefit the City of Austin better money wise will be the plan the city will choose.




Side Note: Great Lake. I have fished Decker several times over the years!

Totally Agree! Would love to see the lake left alone and a park being made around it. Kayaked and fished Decker several times a year!

Our elected prostitutes will figure out how to turn it into a money grab.

You spelled a$$holes wrong in your statement above. Just thought I would clarify!!

We need a good showing on October 24th.
Holler if anyone wants some #SaveDeckerLake bumper stickers.

Ditto, everyone should go to the meeting next Wednesday.

The main issue is that Lake Long (Decker) only exists because water has been pumped up from the Colorado, and last I heard, no one actually knew how much that cost. It could be incredibly expensive, since Decker Creek doesn't supply enough water to keep the lake filled. And those of use who have been paying to use the boat ramp every weekend might not be putting enough dough in the coffers for the electricity required to pump 1200 acres of water uphill.

Here's the PDF from the second presentation:
https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/fi...NAL_reduced.pdf

They've been trying very hard to hide the words "golf course" from the plan options, because everyone hates golf. But if you squint, you can see the tiny square icon for a golf course in the diagrams for concepts 2 and 3B.

From the folks I talked with at that last meeting, it seems that Decker/Lake Long is not in jeopardy. It turns out they talked with Austin Power and even after the city converts to all green energy and fluffy bunnies, they'll still need a cooling lake from time to time.


So draining the lake is out of the question. The current local politics issue is whether or not a private golf course should be allowed to develop on the area.


If you should care about that issue, there's a public feedback survey here:
Decker Lake Master Plan Survey

Great news for sure! We've effectively saved Decker Lake! If anyone takes that survey, which I highly recommend you do, be sure to mention the lack of bank access. From what it seems on the map, they only want you to fish in "designated areas" which are sorely lacking and in terrible places.

Decker used to be such a fun lake when it had hydrilla. Once they closed the park at night and killed off the hydrilla, enter all the slime... it really dropped off. Then the plant stopped generating and I basically stopped fishing it. Still a decent lake if you can avoid getting run over by lake lice, but nothing like it used to be. Seems to be a recurring theme in Austin.

Seems to be a recurring theme all over Texas. Someone please chime in with a "my lake is better than it used to be" story.

According to TPWD, there were 47.5 acres of hydrilla, 50.1 acres of coontail, and a much smaller acreage of a few other species in a September 2018 survey. In November 2018, the catch rate of LMB was one of the highest recorded for any lake. All the vegetation to the right of the ramp was full of 2-4- pound LMB. Other areas with vegetation were also full of LMB. Recent surveys have shown good channel catfish, and hybrid populations.

Seems to be a recurring theme all over Texas. Someone please chime in with a "my lake is better than it used to be" story.
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I don't know how good Lake Travis was 15 years ago, but I know what it was like 7 or 8 years ago, and the fishing is better now than it was then. Tons of small bass (meaning we've had great spawns) and yesterday there were more shad than I've ever seen. With the lake full now we should have an awesome spawn. My challenge is learning to fish these deep, clear lakes.

I've only been on Decker once in the last three months, but I can tell you for sure...it has TONS of grass in it. It's on my list of lakes to learn around here.