After a several year hiatus, finally got my boat in running order again this winter and am ready to hit the lake on Friday to do some scouting. Anyone catching Crappie at Benbrook have any advice?

sink some trees in 20' of water. you will catch them there all year.

Thanks. I'll have to find some leftover xmas trees or build a crappie condo. Didn't know if the corp was ok with such things. Any recommendations for camping? Launching this Friday out of Mustang since its closest and has the "for sure" ramp, but not sure if thats the best spot for camping trips.

best find Pat out there somewhere and pick his brain a bit
and that my friend is sound advice on the Brook

Most of the people I saw fishing were near the dam. The Longhorn park ramp was open Tuesday when I drove by. The ramp at the marina is open and would appreciate the business and Mustang park is always accessible.

They sell minnows @ the marina?

They do. And at the Texico station on 1187 near Granbury rd and I think it's a shell station corner of 1187 & 377.

Looks like the way the lake level is dropping the Longhorn ramp may not be open very long.

Thank you for the info. Mustang is the closest ramp for me anyway so i'll probably use that location the most. I will pay the marina a visit for minnows though. If you see a blue Tracker ProTeam 175 out there be sure to wave

I was by the dam area this afternoon. The ramp at the dam looked as if the concrete ended about 2' from the lake. It looked as if there was a pebble surface between the end of the concrete ramp and the lake.

If this is the case I don't think I would be using these two ramps unless I had a very small, light weight boat.

It is a shame that the lake has been drawn down this much. That was a great lake for fishing in the eighties when I kept my boat there.

Now that Ft. Worth and Arlington are using it for their water supply the water levels will drop even lower.

I've been watching lake levels on http://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/statewide for a while and BB has been on the rise till last week. I've been fishing it when low for so long that I'm more accustom to the lower level. I appreciate the higher level for access and the marina but I don't think the fish care.

was there yesterday talking to the guys at the marina. Lake level is about 3' low.

The lower levels should make it easier to find the fish as they have less surface area in which to live and forage.

However it does move them out of the areas where they were found before the water levels dropped. I can tell by looking at the lake that many of the areas I fished for crappie there in the 80's would be dry or only have a few feet of water today.

But I suspect the main concern is access for launching boats. I know I would not try to launch my boat from the dam launch.

As to the marina, I wanted to get a slip there last August when I bought my new boat. But I was told that I would not be able to use my boat some months if I kept it there due to the water level problems.

So I had to select another lake where I could use my boat the entire year.

It's not the lake level that concerned me today. Was the wind. 17 ft aluminum boat and 3+ ft swells with whitecaps don't mix. My wife called it quits as soon as the first one busted over the bow. Luckily we were already headed back to mustang by then. Today was more for lake testing my boat as she's been dry for about 6 yrs. No leaks, Livewell pumps and bilge pumps work. Motor ran good but took a while to start after sitting cold. Tried to get some nibbles in the trees around holiday to no success. I'll be back out for sure.

Next time i'm sinking a tree for a honey hole

Yes that lake can produce some large waves with wind. I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it.

I bought a 17' deep V fiberglass boat to fish it in the 80's after trying a friend's aluminum boat fishing it.

The deep v weighed 3900 #'s empty so it was able to handle the wave action generated on the lake. So the wind did not bother me much but I would still get into the sheltered coves to fish if the wind was very strong.

I am now fishing a 20' pontoon and have trouble with the waves on Joe Pool. I probably would not be able to fish Benbrook in the wind with this pontoon as it sits on the top of the water. So waves toss it around, making a very uncomfortable ride.

When I fished the lake in '86 there was a concrete structure on the west side of the lake near the dam. There were three large walls and a short wall making a well. I would place the bow of my boat over the shorter wall and fish the center of the well. It always produced some nice sized crappies.

Another good place to fish was the small cove just past the launch area by the dam. Somebody had created a stake bed in the cove. I would anchor over the stake bed and fish all sides of the boat. I would usually catch 10-15 keepers from that location first, then move to the concrete walls to finish out my limit.

Both locations may be too shallow to be any good under current weather conditions. But both are worth checking out to see if they have enough water.

One side of the small cove had a ridge leading down to deep water. So that might be a good place to set a brush pile if one is not there now. Assuming, of course, the water level is high enough to do any good.

I enjoyed fishing Benbrook and was sad to find the water levels were too low to use the marina the year around. But as stated previously, I had forgotten about the wind, so with this pontoon it's probably good I could not go there.

Keep us informed on your progress. I enjoy reading about the lake, even if I don't fish it now.

Ed