I've lived near it since 2004 and back then you could still catch LMB's and plenty of them, it was pretty much producing sizes and number equivalent to Fork. It is an extremely muddy lake and that can be attributed to the fact it is mostly surrounded by farmland. The droughts we had in the mid 2000's I think is what really hurt the LMB population, it just never seemed like the same lake after that. It was falling at a rate; even in the springtime, that probably would have left LMB beds high and dry before the fry could hatch. I think we had a stretch for of about two or three years where there probably wasn't much if any LMB hatch. Also the soil that makes this lake up is not real conducive to LMB's reproducing once it pulls away from the outer reaches where there is some sandy soil and vegetation. It's mostly soft gray and red clay mud once it gets so low.

Two of my top three biggest bass came from Cooper. Probably caught more 7-8lb fish in Cooper than any other lake for that matter. Fished it quite a bit in the early to mid 2000's. There were pond dams galore in the forest that held big bass. If you could just get to the pond dams, you were in great shape but it wasn't easy on the boat. The intersecting boat lanes in that forest always held fish. It even had a ton of hydrilla in spots. DD22's in the river channel (even thought it was only 10ft deep), green pumpkin jigs, and tubes dropped straight down into the bushiest trees.

and yet here you are....posting about it

Coooer is the poster child of Corp of Engineers mis management. Fished it since it opened, full of hydrilla and active bass, you could fish several of the islands and catch 100 fish at day. Spring tournaments took over 20 pounds to get a check.
The Corp kept the lake level constant for about 5 years, then they started dropping the water level every spring. Killing the hydrilla exposing the banks to wind erosion and all the mud, ruining spawns year after year, the original brood fish aged and died, with very little filling the void.

The next Fork was killed a quickly.

Maybe you’re not aware that the lake was built for Irving water source. It’s not mismanagement it’s just not managed for what you think it is.

Lol yup

A few years ago it was 14 feet low. All boat ramps were closed. Then within about a month it was 8 feet high. Changes like that ruined LMB fishing

I grew up a mile from Johns Creek ramp and have spent lots of hours on that lake. Like others have mentioned, the early 2000s were something special. There are still bass in it, but it’s nothing like it used to be. It has silted in and that’s the biggest problem.

I hit it just before Christmas and fished the area between the main lake and the Tira boat ramp with a crankbait I was making contact with the bottom. Every time that crankbait hit the bottom it would come back with the bill loaded with mud. I'm going to fish it some this week and I think I'm going to hit some of the tributary creeks hopefully to find a harder bottom and some fish. Those fingerlings they put in it a couple of years ago ought to be starting to reach adult size if there are any of them left. I still think it can be a very viable bass lake but it's going to need regular stocking to make it that way. I think the forage is there to support trophy size LMB's, it just doesn't have very good habitat to support LMB reproduction.