I found an interesting article online titled the age of the super trout.
It basically discusses how Braunig and Calaveras used to have an abundance of these super sized corvina sea trout back in the 80's and 90's...
I'm just wondering if anyone on here ever got to experience catching these.

Never had caught one. Also since the 90's I do not think a Corvina has been caught at either lake.
'

Stocking history for Calaveras:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/stock_bywater.php?WB_code=0131

Stocking history for Victor Braunig:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/stock_bywater.php?WB_code=0106

They quit stocking them in fear that some idiot would put them into the bays, apparently they can carry a disease that would wipe out the trout in the gulf.

Caught a bunch of them back in the day.. Caught several double digit fish.. One about fifteen..

Pull like a train!

That's awesome!

I have a 20 pounder on the wall.

Caught a bunch back in the day. Hard fight for about 2-3 minutes then would tire out. We would catch them schooling along the dam at night. Baitfish would be boiling along the banks when the corvina were coming through. They would thrash anything in front of them. We would normally have 4 lines out and all 4 would go down. Caught most of ours on live tilapia about the size of your hand. I never caught one under 10 lbs. Most were between 10-15.

Stocked some nile perch too. Anyone ever catch one of those?

Tarpon fingerling were stocked in the 80's. Attached is the state page showing a lake record.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=0106

The tarpon eventually died off. From what I was told, the stocking was done by mistake. "allegedly" a truck broke down nearby on 281 that was carrying the fingerlings to the gulf. Game wardens picked up the fingerling and threw them in the lake. Only ones I ever saw were at sunset or early mornings. You could see a couple of them feeding or just rolling at the surface of the lake.

I had heard that also about the stocking truck breaking down, but did not know if it was true or not!

I had heard that also about the stocking truck breaking down, but did not know if it was true or not! [/quote]

I was a park ranger for SARA at both lakes back in the '90's so that was my source, for what it's worth

I was a park ranger for SARA at both lakes back in the '90's so that was my source, for what it's worth [/quote]



Bet you had your hands full with the campers, etc. Your source was probably 100 percent accurate. My source was a lady that worked the pay window at the entrance gate at Calaveras years and years ago.

The corvina were brought from the Salton Sea as an a project to see if they would become viable as a Texas gamefish. They were indeed in large numbers in Calaveras but they didn’t spawn and the experiment ended. The only quirky rumor I heard was there tried to acclimate flounder to freshwater and it proved not to be viable so the brood stock was released in Town Lake. These things seem far fetched but redfish in Calaveras, and in Fairfield a long time ago stretched quite a few lines.

Back in the day they had a biologist checking creels at the boat launch, so I talked to the biologist after he checked my catch and I asked what was the deal why they decided to stop stocking the corvina which was pretty abrupt and no fanfare as to why.
Don't know if he was just tired of people asking and made up a story, or if it was legit, but he told me they (TPWD) was afraid that the corvina would escape through the gates of the dam, and get into the creek below and end up in the S A River and end up in the bay, and that their fear was they would hybridize with native speckled trout and dominate the species.
Sounded good to me so I took him for his word right or wrong.

A LOT of the TPWD experiments back in the day were feared to escape in to the SA River and eventually in to the bay systems.

I began fishing Calaveras back in the early 70's.
It was one heck of a bass lake and crappie fishing was insane.
By the mid to late 70's,TPWD was getting all into the stocking of the Florida strain bass and that was probably as far as they should have gone, but then someone there decided it was a good idea to use Calaveras and Braunig as test lakes for experimenting to see what all we can dump into the lake and see what happens.
Ever wonder where the "crappie wall" got it's name? Hot water discharge pond?
Also the killing off of all the coontail moss, duckweed, and all vegetation didn't help either.
Lots of fond memories of those by gone days!

Caught many corvina at Calaveras night fishing off the point to the right of the entrance and along the dam. Fun fish. They hit like a freight train, stripped lots of line, and maybe because I used lighter tackle, they fought up until you landed them. Also, the size of the baits those things would hit was amazing, a 12in 1lb shad wasn't too big, knew some flathead guys that caught a few on 2lb carp. Miss those nights.

Yes Sir. Those were the greatest days of both lakes back then!

I really miss those fishing days, I would routinely catch my daily 3 day bag limit and freak the neighbors out when I hung them from the tree
in the front yard.

Does anyone still catch any bass in either lake? Or I guess more the question...does anyone even try?