I tried to get a reservation this morning right after 7a for OCT 2. It showed still available/open. I filled in everything and hit submit and it just went back to the top of the page. I waited a couple minutes and didn't see an email confirmation so I submitted again and it did the same thing. Check email again around 8 and still no confirmations and it shows booked up for the OCT 2 now. I assume I did NOT get a reservation. I am glad it is reopening and appreciate the headaches the organizers are dealing with though to allow it to reopen. I will try again on another day.

So far I am mostly hearing 100 boats, nonrefundable $40 reservation, idle only during fog. Tournaments seem a toss up.

I would like to ask to not start weigh in Tournaments until the water cools down. It will still be summer time water temps(over 100 at discharge and 90 at intake currently) out there in Oct. It would be nice to focus on the shallow bass and not rip the deep guys up until there is less of a temperature stratification. No one is sure why the larger bass population has disappeared out there but catching them in hot surface water when they are 30 -50 ft down that can not be good for them. We really considered waiting until November to open to let the bass that have been deep come up shallow and get to feed some before feeling fishing pressure.

Also a consideration would be 3 bass limits instead of 5. With a 50 boat tournament that is 100 bass that did not have to spend all day in a livewell.

PM me about reservations to keep people from having to check what latest post is about for them.

There are deep bass there year round. I've caught them in 30'-50' when the water temps were in the 100's and when they were in the 70-80's

Its all about fish care. You have to fiz fish constantly, not at the end of the day so they will swim back down.

Really would much rather keep it with state regs. 5 fish and 14" minimum
Tournaments are going to happen.. They were goin on when it first reopened even though they weren't allowed. the big tournaments probably do better at fish care then the 10 others you get on any given weekend.

Eliminating the smaller tournaments would be the biggest benefit. Then you don't have 3 clubs going at once mixed with the regular people, all the weigh in setups etc. Set a tournament minimum and only a few will qualify. That alone will take away a huge headache as well as some folks that are more serious than they should be.

I have no authority to tell anyone how to run their tournaments. Just my suggestions. If you want to catch 50 bass from 50 ft, fizz all the them and rotate the largest 5 through your iced lived well all day you can. I know there are bass deep year round. In the summer they are skinny and pale. In the winter they are fat.
I believe and it is just my personal hypothesis that when those bass are pulled from 50 ft up into 100 degree water, even though you fizz them so they do not float, they do not survive more than a few hours. If you have caught some in that situation and gone back the next week and caught the same fish then I am wrong. We know from a study that threadfin shad die in 102 f degree water not matter what. I do not know the bass mortality temp but sudden temp changes are very hard on any fish. Plenty of bass under 20 feet to be caught until the lake at least gets into the 80s. Just my opinion.

But then less guys could send it and swing for the fences to get 5x3 and make the water their stadium.

Can't wait to see all the FB and Instagram posts that weekend of people who boxed their fish with no tournament going on. #doitforthegram #checkoutmy12poundlimit

Every club in north Texas is scrambling to set tournament dates for October and beyond right now... you can bet on that.

I’ve said this many times, charge a $150 tournament permit fee and you cut out 99% of the tournaments. It’s real easy to enforce with the staff already there… if a weigh in is set up and they don’t have a permit you don’t allow them to proceed under penalty of being banned from the lake.

They gotta get a picture of their best 5….

I have done my own research and found a study so I am an expert now.
Actually this study does show variables of 5 day survivals and should be useful for those keeping bass in live wells in warmer temp and from differential temps. 33 C is 91 f and 29 C is 84 f so you do not have to look it up. No depth change or fizzing just temps. Having livewell at 77 f with 84 f lake temp reduced the 2 out of 5 mortality from 88% to 13% compared to livewell same temp as lake (table3.3). So even well into November cooling your livewell out here is needed.
Livewell study

It’s just a lake fellas. Don't try to micro manage the hell outta it.

Great news,will take pressure off of the good lakes.

All this just to catch 2 pounders......

They gotta show the grind bruh....it's all about the grind. Those 2 boat tournaments are big deals and they gotta bring their A game, fish their guts out, give 110% and leave it all out there on the water.

That hurt, your going to jinx me. Never fished it, and hopefully I will get a chance to have a good day out there..