Found this newspaper clipping in my old fishing draw dated 1978. For the oldtimers, it will bring back memories, for the newcomers, they will wonder "what happened to Calaveras.
Choke Canyon hadn't been built at the time.
Roger

Wow. I was not yet born in '78 but I have never caught a bass from Calaveras. 1 From Braunig.
I guess the Reds and all the other exotics decimated the population.
I did catch several fingerlings in the cast net at Braunig one night. Are they stocking them?

Before the tilapia, Calaveras had a lot of weedbeds & looked like a bass lake. We even caught crappie from the crappiewall.
Overnight, the tilapia multiplied like crazy..weed beds
were gone & huge schools of tilapia were everywhere. Then came the redfish & corbina..they ate well. TP&W have stocked LB, but I doubt that it will ever be a bass lake again.

I used to catch big bass from the dam late at night in the hot summer on big lizards. The bite would come about midnight and I would fish till 2:00am, and go to work the next day. I was younger then. I also caught crappie under the bridge every night and that has all changed. I have not been back in a long time but that lake had fish and was good but not so more.

Tight Lines Fellows.

Thanks for the memories roger and yes Calaveras was the best bass lake in all of Texas and probably a large part of the U.S. back then.

I remember those long lines of bass boats and people trying to get in and launch backed up to 1604.

Those weed beds were duckweed and coontail moss, and in the heat of summer you could fish around the mats and catch a limit of bass. Late evening you had a fantastic top water bite, and if you dropped a worm into the pockets of the grass and moss you would get your arm ranked out of socket.

All I can say is the crappie fishing was out of this world as far as numbers and size during the spring, and all you needed to do is find a Christmas tree or other structure like the crappie wall and it was lights out action.

Everyone thinks the reds are so great, but I'd take the old lake without the reds anyday, having seen it both ways.

A side note: Have ya'll seen where they are going to shut down the Deeley power plant? That might just do in the talapia, plecos, and possibly the reds, with one hard freeze, so we may have the old lake back afterall.

I to remember those old days on Cally as well and can relate to all of the above. I did hear "Jimbo" on the news that they were going to close down one of the plants on Cally because of air quality issues. I have always felt that two plants on that lake were one to many. Closing down the one plant will defiantly be a plus for the lake and fishing.

that's an interesting read. i used to hear stories about broomstick fishing in the reeds for some monster bass.
i see mcqueeney is on that list, too bad its not an option anymore either. amazing how things change. i wonder how many bass guys plan trips to lake corpus cristi. its actually not a bad bass lake, just overshadowed by choke.

Don't remember where I read it, but it was recent, and they said by 2018 the Deeley coal plant would close due to the alterantive energy sources, whatever that is would be on line, and we wouldn't be using coal powered plants any longer.


Found it!

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/CPS...SE3pc3-4Cg.cspx

Back on topic, it should be noted that small local bass clubs were plentiful and it was popular back then to belong to a bass club, and just fish for the fun of it and trophies.

The big money tournaments kind of killed the bass clubs although there are still some of the older clubs around.

It cost a lot of money to fish just for fun, even back then, and then guys started fishing money tournaments and the club tournaments kind of lost their appeal of only fishing for club bragging rights.

I think we lost something there that we won't ever get back, and that's just fishing for fun and comraderie.

Out here in universal city, fishing was big back during those years. Elroy Kruger had his guide & tackle shop here, Anchor Marine & several other boat & tackle shops existed. Lots of fishing clinics. Those were good years to be raising a son that loved fishing.

I did some taxidermy work mounting fish and would go there to pick up and drop off, and Elroy would seem to always have a monster bass or two in one of those huge ice chest that everyone would drop by just to look at and then swap fish stories while drinking a cup of coffee that he always made sure was freshly brewed.

It was a nice place to hang out on those nasty January mornings that was too miserable to be out on the lake, but someone always braved it, and it payed off in a big way.

You are right about that being the golden years of bass fishing and for raising a fishing partner.

Kids now days are missing out, because going to Academy to get your fishing tackle is just not the same.

I tell ya what Jimbo. I wouldn't mind that lake going back to the way it was either. I do enjoy fishing for the reds, but honestly, the best way to catch them is also the most boring in my opinion...trolling/downrigging. They take on very different habits in that lake compared to saltwater. If I could catch them tailing/or real shallow in that lake, it would be more fun. If someone handed me the option today, keep the reds, tilapia, or trade them for the bass and crappie like ya'll talk about. I'd take that trade in a heart beat. Especially the crappie. I figure that the catfishing would still be good too. Same with the bream fishing. You have a good point about a hard freeze taking out the tilapia and plecos. Minus one power plant, it would probably effect that temperature buffer during the winter.

Yep Kyle there are a lot of folks who weren't around back in those days and don't remember fishing the shallow coves with the moss and the water being so clear you could see those big hawg bass fanning their nests, and some actually believe it was the water temperature alone that was the demise of the bass fishery, and granted that had a lot to do with it because it encouraged the talapia to have a breeding explosion, and compete with the largemouth bass for breeding areas.

The talapia were so prolific and grew so fast, they outnumbered the bass and took over a cove, and in doing so crowded out the bass and distroyed their nests when they did manage to spawn.

I've seen it first hand and don't need a biology degree in fisheries management to know what I'm talking about, but just years of experience and seeing it.

It's about numbers, and cooler water temperatures (once the plant shuts down) will bring those numbers down. The reds depend on the prolific spawns of the talapia and shad to survive, and it was the main reason why TPWD stocked them in the first place, so one good hard freeze could put a crimp in those numbers as well, and if that happens, stocking those reds when you won't have the forage isn't going to make much sense either.

I don't think it will ever go back completely, but getting rid of the talapia and the plecos would be a good start, and a chance to get some new aquatic vegetation established in a baren sea would be a good thing, especially for the bass fishing.

I'll bet you the water clarity improves when the plant shuts down too. it's my understanding that it's warm enough that the algea never dies back yearly so thats why the lake has that murky green color to it at all times.

Jim/Roger you left out good ol Wess Radcliff. He worked at Anchor Marine for years and also fished as a pro on the Bass Circuit. He never let being a pro interfere with having fun. Telling about Elroy brewing fresh Coffee every day does bring back the memories. Like Kyle says it would be great to bring back Cally like the good old days back then. As a side note I ran into Wess the other day and he is doing fine.