How’s the bass fishing at Purtis Creek? Looking to try some new places!

TPWD's biggest mistake (that I'm aware of).

Abbreviated version: used to be a great lake. Grass killed. Now a bit of a mud hole. You can still stumble across a big one now and then, but numbers are down as is overall size.

Very little structure to the lake--relatively shallow with few points, humps, etc. Quite a bit of timber, which is now the primary cover.

Agreed. In the late 1990s and early 2000s when the lake was full of grass it was a phenomenal fishery. Post grass carp and it is barely a shadow of its former self.

Purtis was an awsome fishery when it had grass. Killing the grass has to be one of the all time mistakes for TP&W.

No mistake they knew grass carp would destroy the lake’s fishing.
J D

What would be their motivation to purposefully drastically reduce their visitor revenue by hindering the fishing?

They underestimated the voracity and lifespan of the grass carp. Which is ironic, that’s Biology 101
There was flooding and spillway/dam issues

Caught my personal best there in the late 90's. Last two times I've been it was horrible.

SE Kansas grass grower

I think their motivation was camping, swimming, bank fishing. you almost had to fish from a boat before the grass was killed and swimming was out of the question. It was an AWESOME fishery!!

It was my favorite lake for many years in the 90's. TP&W then killed off all the grass (by introducing grass carp)and that was the end of the fishery there. A friend of mine caught a SAL there in the mid 90's, i think it was the lake record for about a week then someone broke it. As my one friend now calls it Pitiful Creek.

Very sad what they did to that lake!

I once caught a 12.3 there one one cast and an 8 'lber on the next cast.

The last time I was on the lake, it was truly sad.

Why cant they "fix" the lake if they broke it?

Hold a bow hunting tourney and kill the grass carp since they know they added too many... take em out. Then help get the grass going again with some plantings.

That would mean admitting they were wrong. And that hydrilla is actually good for lakes and not harmful.

Yes, people have proposed bow hunting tournaments.
The grass carp are hopefully at the end of their life cycle and reportedly sterile. If this sounds like a real life Jurassic Park situation, it is.

The fenced in plantings at the lake are a sad sight to see, but glad they are trying.

I believe they held a grass tournament bow hunting one year on Conroe

I have heard they are killing the grass at Athens which to me is like a big Purtis Creek, they have not learned a thing...There are so many lakes around that people say "when the grass was healthy, the fishing was great" The hydrilla haters seem to trump the fisherman.