You east Texas guys can't handle not having grass to mow with a c-rig. Or docks to flip.

+1 The rip off starts when you enter the gate with the fees and continues as you catch dozens of spotted bass which you can't even keep or weigh in if its a tourney. I have had good days out there and caught my PB out of AH but those days are few and far inbetween unless you know the lake very well. You have to invest alot of time in this lake to get much out, it's not like the stories I hear from 5 years ago. Try shad color spinnerbaits around the creek bends was what I was hearing yesterday when I was out there. We had minimal luck fishing soft plastics off deep points. I think its worth a couple extra hours to drive somewhere else, but NW Texas doesn't have much to work with.

How is he a crying greenhorn... thats better advice than some people have given.

Please point out the advice in this post ! I looked but i got lost in all of the crying as well.
The cost at the gate is a dirrect result of the price that the city of lubbock paid to build the lake and settle lawsuits with many oil companies that filed on the city of lubbock on completion of the damn.
If you want to blame someone for the lack of managment on henry blame texas parks and wildlife.
And if I was on the Texas Tech fishing team I would just continue to tell all of the other members how awful the lake is, make sure that it remains on the schedule, sneak down here enough to get on some fish, and then kick all their crying butts when it came tornament time.
All of you west and north texans need to realize were the hell you live and the verry limited fishing opportunities you have and just deal with it.
Maybe if you all spent a little more time fishing henry instead of crying about her on this forum you would relize how much this lake can sharpen your skills, while still offering you the chance at a fish of a life time.
As of lately the lake has been fishing beter for me than it has in months. Any one who would like some help with what has been working for me PM me, I would be glad to help.

Concerned about the cost buy an annual permit. All lakes have good days and bad days. You here the same complaints on here about Fork,Hubbard,Ray Roberts ect.. weather has here in the plains has a similar effect as opening the gates on a lake in the DFW area. High winds create currents similar to the gates being open on a big lake and the fish reposition themselves. We have gin clear water for most of the year and sustained winds in the late winter early spring that limits great days on the lake. The fish are there just more educated to the pressure of the lake.

By the way there was a 14 pound fish caught and weighed on certified scales at AH last month.... I beleive the pictures ar up at burnhams and the old Gringo... Wish it was me....but it could have been any of us!!!

pm me ill give you some locations and what worked best for me. that lake has plateaued on its production. some big fish still come from there but not as often as in the past. not sure why this is. maybe the spots are eating up the forage. id like to know that answer if someone knows. but like someone said, that lake takes so much patience and dedication to figure it out, but when you do, you will be saying how great of a lake it is. and heres a little known fact about AH great gar bow fishing!

Daayam that's a big fish, they submit it to sharelunker?

Sorry to poke your sweet spot there Deadstick. Btw, my partner and I had top overall 2-day weight in the tech club tourny this year and I've caught a 10lber out of it. Regardless, my grudge against the lake is that it is so difficult to be successful and enjoy yourself catching numbers of good fish there on top of how much money it takes to launch. I never have $50 on hand to buy the �annual� permit that expires at a set date, not from date of purchase.

I do agree though that TPWD may need to re-evaluate their management policies. That lake get's such incredible presure during the the high parts of the year I don't know how much management policies will effect fishing success.

No the fish wasnt submited, and if I am lucky enough to catch a sharelunker this year I will not be submiting it to the sharelunker program either. All trophy lakes go through boom and bust stages. I dont think anyone expected alanhenry to go through this stage so quickly. the lake is so small compared to other texas trouphy lakes. I dont think alot of people realize how much fishing and recreational trafic efects the fishing.
I dont beleive that there is one true reason that we can blame on the decline of large mouth catches
I do beleive that your average weekend angler that is not used to the abrupt depth changes of a lake like henry can easily miss out on some very good fishing out in deeper depths.
alanhenry offers some unreal deep structure fishing, but it is so important to figure out were the spot with in a spot is on the structure you are fishing and really concentrate on it.
The spot population really is completly out of control. even if changes were made I beleive it would take a verry long time to thin down the herd to were it actually made a difference in your fishing. Every time im fishing over one of my holes and I catch a spot I just cant help but think of a big old fat florica strain nosing down on my bait and then Bam one of those little turds swoops in to take it...lol
another thing that I have been thinking about lately is how little any fish needs to chase or think twice about an anglers offering when they could probably just hold their mouth open and let their meals just stumble one in. I have never seen a lake so choked with shad... its crazy.
I trully beleive that Henry has more pottential than alot of other trophy lakes in the state to produce a fish that exceeds 18-20 pounds and that is why no mater how many 5-10 pound fish other area lakes may be producing I will always devote a great deal of time to henry

Great post Deadstick sounds like you have a lot more knowledge about the lake than most, and you bring up some points I was wondering about. First off why doesn't TPWD lower the length requirements on spots? Have locals tried to get it changed/should it change? Second I have heard there was a petition to re-stock the lake? If/when will that get done? Third, did the sharelunker program effectively take most of the sharelunkers out of the lake? I have heard some of the same fish not turned in to TPWD were caught in back to back years with tags on them. I agree it has potential to produce monster fish but it seems like there needs to be some better management principles placed out there...

unless somebody that fishes alanhenry has some pull with a high up parks and wild life official I dont se things changing anytime soon. The only thing we all can do is allways stop and talk to the fish survey guy at the ramp when he is there. every time I se him I tell him I caught about 30 16-17 inch spots and not one largemouth while I was out...lol
Ive heard all the rumors about the lunker program but I dont know how much truth there is to any of it. I beleive ttufisherman caught a lunker that had been entered into the program 2 times previously. That is a testament to the care that the people in the program give to the fish,( Sadly, I beleive she died on her last trip back to the lake) judging by the number of lunkers entered and the lack of increase in the trophy population I just dont beleive the program has positively affected AH, so if I catch a lunker I will return her back to do her thing in AH, Also I am as guilty as alot of others when it comes to transfering a few trophy fish to private waters...I have not done this in quite some time and do not plan to anytime soon.

I guess I was lucky, the 2 I had were both lmb. I DO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT THE LAKE.

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Well, except Clyde Cash was my cousin and we own the land on Gobbler as you cross the bridge and have the private umpaved launch reamp there. OH, and I have video of the lake at 20', 30', 42' and 53', caught a 5 lb smallie in midOctober 1997 then the weekend after that, caught the Lewisville lmb record that KVD broke, OH, and when I put the DVD together, it will have 28 springs and 10 tank dams put on it (one of which is in Gobbler and produced a 10lb native lmb in 1969 in a 1/2 acre stock tank.

And the list goes on. I haven't been on the lake in a while, because of my health, but it is improving and I will start getting back out there, hopefully, soon.

Y'all go ahead and tell everyone that the lake stinks, fine by me.

Tight lines, keep safe and godo luck.

Thad Rains

first fish out of AH was on Julhy 4, 1996 and weighed 5 lbs, 20" long. 1rst small mouth was a keeper, 3-12 on deliar, but we called her 5 lbs when she came aboard, 20X14 or so, but who knows. MOF, I haven't caught a spot out of that lake since I have been fishing it, only lmb and the one smallie. HMMMMMM, wonder why that is? Fished it 2 years ago, 3 times and no Alabama or KY spots, just lmb. Hmmm, dunno why. LOL.

tr

for a fun day at the lake, i think i would avoid henry. while there is the chance of hooking into a toad, i think its a very tough lake to fish. id head to ute, or you could wake up real early and head farther south to get to Ivie or Hubbard Creek. just sayin.

Agreed. I dont think anything will be done soon either. I have tried emailing, but maybe I need to make some phone calls and find people that can give us some answers.

On the note about the fish... from what Phillip Pool (who caught the fish third) said, he released it back into the lake alive and healthy. It looked fine when I put her back too.

Who knows...

Hey Clint, Charlie Munger is the TPWD biologist in charge of Alan Henry. He likes chatting with people about the lakes and I'm sure he'd talk with you about the management policies and what's being considered.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/about/divisions/inland_fisheries/offices/if1.phtml

Last I heard from him, they're just monitoring the fish in Henry and don't plan on stocking soon. But, I�ve read the 2005-06 TPWD performance report on the lake (I think this is the newest one they have available) and the numbers are pointing downwards a little bit. The average size of fish they got in their 2006 electrofishing samples went down from 03 & 05 and the % of the fish they caught with Florida genes fell from 63% to 57%. The size and genetic data are related and this may bring up a case for restocking Florida strains soon. I not sure what the criteria for stocking a lake are for the department though. I�d vote for increased Florida stocking and reduced length limits on spots.