Let me correct the author of this thread. Not speckled trout. They were Orangemouth Corvina, big difference. I caught many many of these bad boys, they were lots of fun.

The Tarpon are all long gone and did not last long. The last of them was 3 years after they were last stocked. Most of them were in the 20 to 40lbs class and most folks never had the tackle to reel them in. Many a busted rods or full rod & reels going over board, lol. The corvina's are all gone from both lakes (Braunig & Calaveras). The last of them went 17 lbs. to 21 lbs. They were big!

Hybrid Stripers seems to be oin the down side. You use to go out there and limit out within an hour to two. Makes you wonder if there still stocking them.

Redfish are still there at both lakes but like the Hybrid Stripers there is no more BIG REDFISH at either lake. I use to average 21 to 23 lbs. reds. The rat reds now a days are 4 to 8 lbs., when long ago we were culling 12 to 17lbs. reds, lol. Now seems all there is is 12 to 17 lbs. reds. That leaves me to believe the game wardens are not handing out tickets like they used to for under sized fish.

Been fishing Braunig and Calaveras since early 80's for these fish.

Good post DavidT and welcome to TFF!

There are crappie in that lake, and I guess it depends on the defenition of good. Limiting out is good to me. And I'm not saying I limit out....I have in the spring when it's easier, but I have seen a gentleman over the past couple years limit out quite a few times in the river below pops from December thru March. Just gotta put the time in and find them. Furthermore, when you do find them, they have some shoulders on em. Does it compare to some other prime crappie lakes? Of course not. But 25 from Medina taste the same as 25 from Choke....probably better because they were cheaper

There are no fish in Medina.....;)

Yep, and I'm hoping those non existent crappie are up shallow in a couple of days....:)

ive caught striper , crappie , and blues at joes place marina on medina lake.

If I see one most post on here that is not related to the topic I will delete the entire thread. There are several on here who wish to duke it out about bank fishing, STOP! send each other a PM or work it out offline. the rest of us do not care to see your chest thumping and, as a moderator, we will not tolerate it.

there are both bank and boat fisherman that dont take their trash with them. the lakes should be stocked with corvina again. you used to be able to catch them with big top waters or live bait on the bottom.i rememember an old man called sarge that taught me how to fish these lakes in the late 80s.he would always greet people with a "my friend"

ive seen garbage over on the crappie wall when i used to go fish for reds there a few years back. its not just the bank fisherman that litter its both.

were you ever lucky enough to hook onto a corvina? i enjoy fishing for bass , but a drag pulling red or corvina is what i would rather hook onto. calaveras and braunig give all fisherman a chance to catch at least a 15# fish on a regular basis without having to spend the time or money of driving to the coast. it can be done in one afternoon. the longest red ive caught was a 41" from the dead tree point at braunig. i caught a fat 38" from bob hall pier that went over 30#s but i hurried to release it so i did not weigh him.

I would agree that some of the previous stockings in the lake (back in the 80's) were probablly not the smartest thing to do, but overall, I doubt that they had any major negative effects on the lake. Most probablly died during the first winter of their stocking so there wasn't enough time to cause any damage.

One thing that you may not consider as being the "downfall" of these San Antonio area powerplant lakes is water temperature. Back in the "hayday" of these lakes when there were a ton of bass and crappie, San Antonio wasn't as big of a city as it is now. Becuase the population was smaller, there was less energy demand, hence less power generation occuring at the lake (which also led to the kill off of most of the exotic stocked species). Today, there are huge energy demands in San Antonio so the generators are running a lot more, and there are plans for another generator to be built on Calaveras. The increase in generation results in increases in water temperatures. Granted bass and crappie like warmwater, but too warm of temperatures for too long is bad.

Granted there probablly was some ill advised "tinkering" of these lakes back in the day, but TPWD has no control of the thermostat on these lakes...

Just some food for thought.

I say bring the exotic stocking back...I would love a chance to catch corvina or nile perch...I never understood why they didn't stock corvina at Fairfield too...why not stock some barramundi...they would do great in the warm lakes and provide a better summer fishing option over the redfish that get kinda feeble (at least at Fairfield I can't speak for Cala or Braun)...

Last time I checked just about every Texas Lake catered to the bass fishermen...I mean you guys even have a state funded share lunker program... my license helps pay for and I don't even bass fish.

in 1994 or 1995 i waded out a tilapia that was around a pound n a half in the afternoon at calaveras. i had it on a 12' rod with a penn 330 gti w 330 yards of 30# big game. we caught reds ranging from 13#s - 19#s during the afternoon. at around 10:30 that evening my 330 goes off screaming. i had too take the rod holder out of the ground to get my rod out. i tightened up on the drag and the fish just headed straight to the dam. it kept stripping line so i kept increasing the drag pressure. i locked it down cause i was nearing the end of my line hoping it would turn him,but it didnt he just headed straight towards the dam. the line snapped and ive never hooked anything like that again. it also happened to a friend of mine at braunig but he had a penn 309 and he was using huge gizzard shad.

this happened in grannys cove. ive caught a 41" red at braunig ,but it was nothing compared to this other fish. and i caught the 41 on a smaller rod n reel a 975 international with 20# big game on a 10' rod

Wow...who knows what that was. If it was a tarpon it should have jumped, but you never know. I can't see a red doing that to that kind of tackle, unless it was a huge red....even then I don't know.