I’m just curious, do any of y’all pay any attention to those reports that TPWD puts up weekly? Do they alter whether you are going or not?

They’re usually spot on

I signed up for the email of the reports, easy to peruse at work... while I'm not paying attention so much to the "fishing report" itself, I primarily look at this section for the lakes I tend to fish; "GOOD. Water lightly stained; 80 degrees; 1.83 feet below pool." - Lavon... I think they are a value from the standpoint TPWD is providing some lake information...

Yeh.

I think they were better when JP was overseeing them a few years back.

For my little lake, the fishing report is supplied by a local sandbass guide. So the info is helpful for fun fishing, but it would give basic info. No specifics to landmarks, or parts of the lake. But this doesn't give much help to the Green fish hunter. Some are prob better, and some are probably worse. I would say you would be better off striking up a conversation with a local at the lake, or ping a friend in that area for better info. From what I see, if you are not hearing anything negative at all "it's really good for some"..

Here is an example of the recent report for Grapevine lake from online.
Sep 4, 2024
FAIR. Water normal stain; 83 degrees; 0.45 feet below pool. There are large active schools of white bass on the flats in 18-22 feet of water hitting jigging spoons. Some catches of blue catfish mixed in with the sandies. Report by Omar Cotter, Luck O’the Irish Fishing Guide Service.

I stopped paying attention to them a few years ago after a trip to Gibbons Creek. The weekly reports said they were catching them in the warm water discharge. I pulled the boat all the way down on a freezing miserable day to meet a buddy. Found out from the gate attendant, that they hadn’t produced electricity in two years! Needless to say we froze and didn’t catch a thing. I sent a nasty email to TPWD about copying and pasting old out dated reports like they were current and never got a reply. I got the feeling someone was just reposting historical reports based on the time of year and not what was actually going on that week.

I thought they had someone over seas doing them or plugged into some AI app that generated them, it was pretty hilarious what some of them said at certain times of the year. Maybe they actually changed them to be updated by a live person in Texas again but I've not payed attention to them for a decade plus, the last time I remember them accurate and helpful was the early 2000's

Probably depends on the lake but I have met the two guys that do lake bastrop. Fished the same small tournament trail with one recently. Both really nice guys and can hammer them. Neither work for tpwd. I suspect anyone could sign up or provide the report so if you don't like your local lakes maybe see if you can be the reporter.

I POST the TPW Reports for Fork and Bois D Arc and they are exactly what I am doing to catch BASS.

They do not like us to promote lure companies and or baits.

I have listed them before and they were not in the report. They use to let them in the report.

Colors sometimes gets added but most fisherman have their own color choices vs mine.

I try and keep it fresh and current although you will see a chatter bait in most all my reports cause I catch them on it everyday year round.

I know the guy that does some of the reports for FCL. He is not overseas.

I quit looking at them years ago. Cooper was 14 feet low and all boat ramps were closed. The report said sand bass were biting on the mid lake humps. You couldn't get to the humps unless you were in a kayak. This was before kayaks became popular.

Fishing has been poor to excellent in zero to 20ft of water on topwaters, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, soft plastics, jigs, and live bait.

Apply to your favorite fishing area ....

About 10 years back, If I had a good showing on the Friday night tournament, I would often find the baits tied on the rods strapped to my deck would be mentioned on the Lewisville report.

I don't, many are out of date, and weather changes everything. So to me if your reading those you might get bad information that will waste your time.