Bois d'Arc Ever Gonna Fill?

Dropped 3' in the last 6 months. I see a lakefront property fire sale coming if it doesnt make it this spring.

Won't fill up if they keep pumping out the water........ That lake will never have any real lake front property as it will always be low.

I hope this is not the case but I do have my doubts that it will remain at a more constant level.

I have a buddy that lives there. He is not expecting it to fill very soon.

It's Cooper lake made over again.

We have flooding in that area every five years or so; it'll fill then.

They said that about Lake Optima. https://kfor.com/news/the-lake-that...er-look-into-the-history-of-optima-lake/

There was a graphic on the NTMWD at one point that stated the needed water levels for the ramps to be opened. It needs to be at least 529.00 to open two of the three ramps. The north ramp would open at 532.00. Bottom of the two south ramps was 521.00 and bottom of the north ramp is 528.00. I will post the graphic if I can find it. This thing isn't going to open unless they get a flood.

Found it.

I hope Ralph Hall will have better prospects.

Interesting. It was 1/2 above the minimum staff recommendation for opening 6 months ago.

North Texas Municipal Water District fooled a lot of people on this one .

There's a lot of lakes that need filling up,just look at Texas lake levels.Amistad,Falcon,OH Ivie,Hubbard creek,lake Travis and many more.

I think once it gets full it will hold it's elevation much better than Cooper. You can look at it now on the Navionics website and it it is built more like Lake of the Pines than Cooper. It's more of a bowl shaped lake, not a lake with large areas of shallow flats like Cooper. Cooper just evaporates its self to death in the hot summer months. If you try to look at Bois Darc on Navionics you'll have to zoom in a time or two before it shows up.

Cooper gets drained to give water to the DFW area. It does evaporates some but they suck it dry. I don't think it would evaporate 14 feet low like it was a few years ago.

So are we declaring it dead too

Dropping every day as they pump water. Talked to a fellow TFF’er and he said it’s still 6 feet below the ramp.

As a mostly kayaker, I am smiling as I type this.

So you can fish out of a kayak???

I just looked and the website still says "Not open for recreation"

Dont get caught.

Is the lake level suppose to be all the way to Bonham spillway?

Not yet, but I have the feeling that boats will be able to launch from the short ramps maybe 3-4 months a year.

So let me ask if the lake fills up and they allow people to start fishing are they going to shut the lake down when it gets back below whatever level it has to get to open?

Since they built the ramps so shallow it will likely have to be shut down once the water falls 3-4 feet low.

I will guess that you can still bank fish/float tube/and such with the ramps closed.

So the engineers screwed the pooch, is that the idea

I think it’s by design.
They knew what they were doing with those baby Trex arm ramps.
The regulations/limit rules on that lake and laughably short ramps all appear to restrict, and almost eliminate warm weather tournaments.

I talked to a civil engineer about it and if it lost water level to just the pumping from month to month it would be barely noticeable. The problem Cooper has is about a third of it is two to three feet deep when it is at pool stage. There is another big section of it that is about five to six feet deep at pool stage. As summer comes on the two to three foot section really heats up and starts to evaporate and as that process begins the five to six foot section begins to become shallow enough to come into the process of over heating. During the drought of 2006 we lost over 2/3's of the lake because of that.
A lot of that could be stopped if they'd let it fill to the top of the spillway, that would allow those shallow flats to become deep enough to not be so susceptible to the heat but they say the dam is not designed to hold that pressure. This past spring when all the rains finally ended they left Cooper a foot high instead of draining it back to pool stage, it definitely made a difference. The discussion I had with the civil engineer we were actually talking about Fork and it gets pumped at the same rate as Cooper. He said Fork looses about a 1/10 of an inch to DFW pumping per month.

That's great.

I think they have length restrictions on the private docks. Better hope it's next to a creek channel if you buy and build. Might not be usable half the year.

All I know is the 90” wide pipe will hold a lot water that runs all the way to McKinney .

There are only three half decent feeder creek channels on the whole lake.
You would think a lake that size would have more feeder creeks, but it doesn’t, its kind of weird.

I remember when Cooper filled. At that point I was driving from Greenville to Paris every day on 24. There'd be folks parked on the shoulders of the highway with jon boat rigs sneaking into the lake from Doctor's and John's Creeks. If my memory serves me correctly there were some fines issued for that.

They pump a lot of water year round into Lewisville from Cooper from what I understand. That definitely can't help!

There is a discharge on Lavon that comes from Cooper. Unaware of one running to Lewy.

Irving owns the water right for lake Cooper/chapman from what I understand. There is a spillway on doe creek that is on daily pumping in anywhere from 30-100 cfs. It states on there that it is city of Irving water. That water is held in Lewisville and then released down the elm fork into Irving .

Here is the link
https://www.cityofirving.org/Archive/ViewFile/Item/2150

I know when Lavon is at its lowest you can see water running towards the main lake on the east side of the 380 bridge down the old creek bed.

We have too many people in Texas. That's the problem. We built lakes when we had 10-12 million people. Now we have 30 million. The answer isn't one medium-sized lake that won't fill.

DFW is plagued by regular, cyclical drought.....it'll only get worse as more and more concrete gets paved over the north central Texas soil.

Have Abbott send 20 million illegals back to Mexico, problem solved.

If they would enforce watering restrictions, quit watering concrete and plant the right plants - well, that would go a long way....

Abbott has it figured out for sure

Damn who.knew?.....not only do bass fishermen know more about stocking and maintaining than fisheries biologists but they now know more about how to build lakes.

Absolutely; In addition, many HOA’s are a problem…not allowing artificial turf, rock yards; and instead demanding lush green grass.

Just looked at the forecast for next week. It’s probably going to catch some water.

That will suck for property buyers and there have been a ton already. Lake mostly is being marketed as luxury lake living. High dollar residential, commercial and recreational development mostly. I've seen development plans and there's a lot planned all over the lake.

I know 2 people that regret buying on the lake. Both are worried it is going to be cooper 2.0.

We worked on that pipeline for a year, it will carry lots of water, hopefully that lake will not experience drastic changes in the water level.

With the population explosion in Texas and the weather patterns there are probably gonna be lots of mad lot owners at lots of lakes going forward.

One must head east of Winnsboro for reliably consistent lake levels.

and those are only somewhat reliable.

Gonna be nuts when it opens. Only 3 public boat ramps with a max of 50 spaces each. Tourneys already scheduled early spring too. Should work out real nice.

Considering these were the initial asks on the first development and some lots are rumored to have resold for double their initial selling price, there will be probably be some disappointed people who bought luxury "lake front" property.

98% won’t be fishermen or ever touch the water.
All they will do is look at it and complain if they see vegetation.

Their children/grandkids will be out on the jetskis/wakeboat/pontoon over spring break and the summer.

Look at lot 63's price back then. Lot 63 was just recently relisted for 450k.

They are definitely letting water out, its not rising any https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/bois-darc

Sounds like they are ruining the lake before it opens up for fishing.

Pool is 534 feet, as of the latest water level readings its at 526.67 feet. Still got 7.33 feet to go for pool stage.

This lake is doomed before it even opened

Cooper 2.0

Nah. Cooper in the prime was up there with the best for giant fish. GoPros and social media will never allow this lake to come close.

After they burn down west texas the traveling circus will need to find somewhere else to ruin

Only a sustained ten day solid soaking/flooding will fill it up.

Today 526.77 need 534. Difference of 7.23 feet.....

With the large amount of factories, businesses, houses and people moving into Collin and Grayson County, those lakes in that area are going to be leaned on A Lot for their water needs.

3' down from 6 months ago. Year behind scheduled opening and no telling when now. Think it needs to rise another 4' before they can open 2 of the 3 ramps. Noth ramp may never open at this rate.
Real bummer.

@ 326.91 this morning. 7.09 below pool.

Pathetic. Should be full.

As of this morning still holding @ 526.91. Unless the forecast changed over night it will probably be 10 days or so before we see anything that will move the needle some more.

Don’t forget flat bills, pony tails (so g@y its unbelievable) and the word “bro” 8,000 times.

The 2 closet "major" lakes, Lavon and Texoma have risen significantly since the end of October. Lavon 5 feet and Texoma 3+ feet.

Lake Bonham is 100% full as well.

Wonder why this lake will not rise?

Because it has a 9' diameter water leak

Seriously!? That's not a leak, that's a crater.

What?!

Something about Bois d'Arc has seemed odd from the very beginning. Why would the controlling authority announce that no one would be allowed on the lake until it is basically full? We were all fishing Fork when it was 7 feet low and running Bob Sandlin when it was 11 feet low.

Almost all lakes have timber, floaters, and underwater hazards. Fork, Naconiche, Palestine, Rayburn, Martin Creek, Quitman, Houston County, Pines, all of them.

It seems like for some reason "they" don't want the lake to open anytime soon.

Agree. They also have changed opening required level several times. I believe it still needs to be up 3 more feet before ramps are usable. I don't see that happening very soon and if it does only 2 of the 3 ramp locations would be open. North ramp has a long way to go before water reaches it. I'm now hearing 532 is opening level with pool level being 534.

Ok, 90" pipe, not quite 9'....

The world has had a lot of lawyers and changing of the guards since fork opened.

Yes, they only allowed row boats, canoes, and kayaks on Ray Roberts until it officially opened.

Guess they are now going full on restriction of navigable waterways until Jim Bob ramp authority says so.

State contributing to little Timmy staying indoors on his iPad touch screen.

Me and a buddy fished Roberts when those rules were in play. Fishing was awesome!

I will go by in the next couple of days and get a picture of the ramp at the bridge.

I don't doubt that the ramps have little water on them. My question is why isn't the lake being allowed to come up? How much water is being pumped out when Dallas lakes are already in good shape? I guess a second question is why the ramps weren't built deeper for low water conditions.

Easy answer is that the lake was built as an efficient water supply for northern Collin County/Greyson.....not for fishing/boating

The design of the ramps and significant fishing regulations are clearly purposeful to minimize recreational use.....and to in all practicality eliminate tournaments in warm weather months.

A lot of folks like myself were fishing Fork from 2 man Water Spiders when it was still 12 feet low

I think y’all got scammed when they built this lake.

like someone said, bonham is full, bonham feeds into bois d'arc, we are just now going into springtime rainy season (I am seeing 5 days out of the next 10, rain).
fri/sat/sun next week are showing up to 3" right now, this weekend should be at least an inch and we are super saturated in the area.

bonham has a habit of getting too full this time of yr. if we get normal or just above wetness.

no idea if they are pumping but there is a good chance bonham will add some within the next month or so, then let's see what happens.

I don't plan on trying to get on it till the "newness" wears off some, or take the 2 man and hang in the trees west of the bridge.

We ran and fished Fork two years ago when it was 7-8 feet low. There were just as many lawyers then as there are now.

Touché

Let me tell you that bunch right there has a lot more on staff than SRA and couldn’t muster up enough common sense to open a fence gate between the best of them either.

I haven't seen the ramps for a while now, the way they are built the lake needs to be at least 3/4 or more full to be usable imo. the ones at the bridge are not all that long.

The water is 6' deep on two of the ramps and a foot off the other.

Sounds like it isnt a "launchable or not" issue.

Gonna be a line every morning for those 100 parking spots.

They built a new lake, so there was no pesky water to get in the way. Wouldn't that be the time to make ramps that extend plenty deep?

What is the goal? To keep those dang taxpayers from coming out and trying to use the lake their dollars bought?

It's actually a privately owned lake.

Well, there you go.

You sure about that?

https://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterdistricts

Sounds private to me, “provides limited services”.

"A water district is a local, governmental entity"

it's a business, no matter who runs it.

https://www.ntmwd.com/

this is the one I will go get well readings for today, end of month every month on wells we can't be charged for our water use. they are intertwined.




the bean counters run things, make no mistake dolah, dolah bills matter.

I don't see much if any revenue coming from opening any lake for rec. use, not sure if anyone has even bid on the marina contract. selling water is a way to recoup some of the up front expense. my best guess any way.

Yes, accountants and attorneys replaced common sense and doing what's best for most with their perspective of the world around 1997/1998.
It can be dangerous (Columbia Health, Health South, Enron, Tenet, World Comm, Boeing, etc)

on a bright note, we are saturated still and looks like maybe up to 2" this weekend, next weekend maybe more.

stay tuned!

Which can regulate access.

Of course government can regulate access and use by the taxpayers who funded the building of the lake and its ongoing operation. Remember when parks and boat ramps were closed during covid?

Yeah, that was stupid. No matter your opinion on vaccines, getting outside was a good idea.

Grapevine, Lavon, and Ray Hubbard are 100% full. Lewisville is 6 inches low and almost 98% full. Where is the water from Bois d'Arc going?

Eagle Mountain is at 72.6% came up a tad bit over the past month
Bridgeport is at 56.2% been staying around that level for some time
Lake Worth is at 59.5% which seems to be the yearly average; wish it would come up and stay up

Is water from Bois d'Arc pumped to those lakes? If not, where is the water going?

I'm not talking about every lake in North Texas being full. I'm just wondering about water pumped from Bois d'Arc.

Not too sure, but I wanted to post those to share that not all lakes are filling up no mater the water we're getting.

And lake Bonham, which is located at the upper end of Bois d Arc is 100% full.

I’m starting to feel bad for Lake Bonham and her inhabitants.

That reservoir was almost always a consistent water level. Its only a matter of time that Lake Bonham will become BDA’s water source milkshake.

I think most don't realize how much the DFW metroplex has grown over the last several years. Most of that water is going to homes. A 90 inch pipe will suck a lot of water out.

Another reason that the metroplex should be monitoring how the water is used...... Concrete won't grow no matter how much you water it and there are drought resistant plants that can be planted instead of St. Augustine.

They built this lake 4 water supply not bass fishing. I drove around it a couple times. The couple boat ramps I've seen will park about 20 trailers.

Should be astroturf and rock gardens from Amarillo to Tyler.

I get that. Where does the water from Bois d'Arc go when the Dallas lakes are already full? Is it flowing over the Ray Hubbard spillway into the river?

The whole Bois d'Arc situation has been weird since the lake was being built. NTWRD announced that the lake would remain closed to the public until it is full, or at least fuller than other lakes in the region. Do fishermen somehow keep them from being able to release water from the lake? It doesn't seem to stop things on Fork and other lakes.

Good question.. I haven't done the research to know if this directly goes into the area lakes or if it goes straight to treatment plants and then to homes

Its been posted several times. It goes straight to a treatment plant and then to the 500,000 new homes that have been built in the last 10 years. It sucks that we haven't had many rains over the watershed since last spring but that seems to be changing. Just going to have to be patient.

[quote=Chris B]Its been posted several times. It goes straight to a treatment plant and then to the 500,000 new homes that have been built in the last 10 years. It sucks that we haven't had many rains over the watershed since last spring but that seems to be changing. Just going to have to be patient.[/quote

Well the rain we have had hasn't done much. Pretty wet January and the needle didn't move much. Actually, it's down from where it was 3 months ago. Sucks.

I'm not that far from the lake. We only got a 1/2" out of that last rain.

Texoma is full and Ray Roberts is almost 98% full. That's 100,000 surface acres of water. Are Grapevine, Lavon, and Hubbard just exactly full or is water overflowing from them? I guess I'm wondering if Bois d'Arc is supplying all of Dallas and North Texas since those lakes don't seem like they are being drawn down to supply all the new homes.

This may start being a problem if we hit may or June and it's still 4'+ low unless there's lots of rain over the next 3 mths , who knows when it will open, not this year for sure pretty sad deal for those living around there anxious to go fish it.

I am just north of it, I manage about 2,000 acres in the red area. we have not had near our normal rain here, el nino screwed us this yr. spring should be better.

Lavon is just barely shy of plum full. But realize, we've had a ton of rain in that watershed. They are still running the pumps hard, day and night for the plant down here! That service reservoir for the Leonard plant looks huge! The treated water from both are supplying the massively growing northern suburbs!

I think this may be the answer to where the water is going. That's a lot of water!!

Yes...No...Maybe...I don't know. Its possible.

Grapevine is flowing over the spillway. So are Lavon, Ray Hubbard, Cedar Creek, Palestine, Tawakoni, Cooper, Pines, Fork, and...what other lakes supply the Dallas area?

Does NTWMD make money selling water from those lakes, or just Bois d'Arc? From a distance it makes me wonder why one lake is being drawn down when all the rest are full and overflowing.

NTWMD doesn't own those lakes.

And the Dallas area doesn't only get water from Bois d'Arc/NTMWD. All the other lakes are not only full, but water is being "lost" downstream over spillways. Is there some sort of agreement that water from those lakes won't be pumped until NTMWD sells enough water from Bois d'Arc to recoup construction costs?

NTMWD isn't a for-profit corporation. It's a government agency beholden to its constituents, the taxpayers. It seems that making money selling water ought to be balanced against benefitting those taxpayers by allowing them access to the lake they paid to build.

Takes a lot of water to fill a brand new lake. Just haven't had that big flooding rain up here. Got about a tenth of an inch today.

Hubbard and Lavon are not losing water, they jus
t recently filled up and are holding at 2-4 inches into flood pool. The rain is falling, but we are still in a drought. Yes, it sucks that they are piping so much water from the new lake! In addition to Leonard, they have a HUGE facility here in Wylie that sucks a ton of water out of those two lakes and by balancing reservoirs, Cooper and Texoma!

They will take resources from poorer counties to higher dollar counties.
Been that way for hundreds of years.

The report that was posted in this thread says NTWMD pumped 10 billion gallons to the Leonard plant between March and September of last year. A million gallons is 3.07 acre feet, so 10 billion would be 30,700 acre feet. Bois d'Arc capacity when full will be 367 000 acre feet, so during that period close to one tenth of the lake was pumped out.

Every other lake from Texoma south and from Dallas to the east is full. Bonham, just upstream, is full. We know this isn't just a matter of not enough rain because of not only empirical evidence and common sense, but because the water district told us. It's not hard to figure out that pumping the lake out has been the plan all along. That's why we were told from the time the project started that it would be closed to the public until it reached a level, in terms of feet below capacity, that is much higher than every other lake in the area.

Other lakes in the north and northeast Texas area dwarf Bois d'Arc. The water from the lake isn't "needed" to meet water needs. The water is being sold for revenue. That much seems obvious.

@Razorback,

Are you contending they are selling water out of the district? Where else could they be sending water without direct pipelines to established entities? I'm no special pleader, I just live nearby and can't understand the conspiracy... They have a huge set of Municipalities and some very large Special Utility Districts in massively expanding communities.

https://www.ntmwd.com/our-water-system/

No, I'm not saying they are selling it out of district.

Do you think Bois d'Arc is the only lake that provides water for those cities? Of course not. Where did they get water before Bois d'Arc was built? There are pipelines from other lakes, lakes that are full and overflowing. We've had substantial rain throughout all of north and northeast Texas. Every other lake in the "rectangle" from Texoma to Dallas to the Louisiana line to Texarkana is at least 100% full, some a foot or more above full. So why has Bois d'Arc only risen less than an inch since the rains started? In the last two days it has come up one-eighth of an inch. Even if there was no runoff at all, the rain that has fallen directly on the surface would have brought it up a lot more than that.

I'm asking questions. One is if a "deal" was made...within the district...to use water from Bois d'Arc long enough to let NTWMD sell it and generate revenue, maybe to recoup cost of construction. If that's the case, the revenue doesn't help taxpayers any more than if the water came from other lakes. It only helps the water district's bottom line.

One thought is they are keeping levels low (by pumping water) while construction of the lots initiates.
Easier to run sewer lines and deeper cables when the water table is low.

That’s not how any of this works. No

Okay, explain how it works since you know.

If a “deal” was made? With who??? They own the lake and the water. They own water at cooper, lavon, Texoma, east fork of the trinity, and the main trinity all in which they get water from. Who would this secret deal be with? Why would they need to “make” their money back on the lake? They produce water to send to customers. Where they get it from is of no consequence to anyone. They sell water, where they “recoup” their cost doesn’t matter. The lake cost what it cost. It’s a silly conspiracy theory. The lake will fill up when it fills up. NTMWD has too many lawyers or the public would already be enjoying the water. I actually look forward to Ralph Hall opening more. They’re putting in a camp site with RV spot and seem to be less worried about monitoring and playing big brother with absolutely every activity on the lake.

But the idea they’re taking more water from bois d arc to get their “money back” is foolish. Government spends money they do not really look at things as investment that need a roi. They just have cost.

I guess maybe we are rattling their cage a little bit. They still post the current depth and pool stage numbers but they took down the chart/graph on the Bois D'arc website.

Bois D'arc Lake Level

Who said there was a secret deal or conspiracy? I asked why Bois d'Arc continues to be drawn down while other, larger lakes are overflowing. Between Texoma, Lavon, and Cooper alone that's 115,000 surface acres of water. All three of those lakes are full, so why is a 16,000 acre lake that is 7 feet low being pumped out for water needs?

Call it a deal, a plan, or whatever you want. Just ask yourself the question.

they will let you know when they are ready for the public to come fish.

maybe they dont want folks screwing with this years spawn

I don’t believe that will happen for quite some time. They will continue to move the goal line.

I'm good with that.

Look at the water shed of lavon and Texoma compared to bois d arc.

The folks I know in that area around the lake said for years “it will never fill up not a big enough water shed” while I do not believe that it is telling that it’s taking longer than the TFF wants it to. Like anyone with common sense has said for months now. Lakes fill with big rains. We’ve had nothing but soakers for a long time give us a few big rains this spring and that thing fills.

The biggest question for me is not when it will open but rather how often will it close? I suspect this lake might be closed quite often in the late summer / fall.

What I find the amusing though is that Dallas has around 30 lakes within 2 hours. It's the most resource rich major metro area (lake wise) in the region. Look within a few hundred miles either way and let me know who has it better. Sometimes a little perspective helps with the anxiety. lol

I want lakefront on Ralph hall! Close enough to Greenville for my hospital duties… far enough away from humanity to stay peaceful!

Yep if they’re worried about using the launch at a certain level good possibility of frequent closures. The answer to that will be private ramps.

Every lake in the area is close to full, full or releasing water.

Texoma 100%, Pat Mayes 95.2% full. Wright Patman 100%, Lavon 100% and releasing water, Lake Cooper 100%, Ray Roberts 98.3%, Lake Hugo in Okla, 1.32 feet above full pool, Broken Bow 100%.

And here sits Bois d Empty rising a total of .03 feet in the past 90 days.

Not sure how only Bois d Arc's water shed has not caught any water.

It's only a matter of time until BDA starts drawing down Lake Bonham (also currently at 100%).

Lake Bonham is BDAs best watershed.

You're thinking about this too logically.

If Bois D Arc creek is not running good after it rains its not gonna come up. The other creeks don't catch enough water to bring it up

BDA has three other somewhat major creeks (Honey Grove, Yoakum, and Pettigrew), but they are not substantial by any means.

That's what I am saying. Everybody wonders why it's not filling up. No big rains to make it run and them pumping it out making it get low quik

Like said before, Lake Bonham gates need to be opened some to help fill Bois D Arc....

How can they let water out of Bonham? There no "gates"

A foot of water off Bonham only gets you about an inch on bda. Not that you can release off of it since it just has a big overflow tube.

well, ok then. So Bonham is blocking a good bit of Bois D Arc watershed. Not good...

It will fill every five years or so when that area floods. Otherwise a downhill pipe from Pat Mayse or an uphill pipe from Red River/Texoma…or simply allow every resident in Collin County to have astroturf rock gardens instead of stupid thirsty St Augustine.

took these yesterday

Looks like time to open it to the public.

Easy launch for float tubes, kayaks, and other hand carry vessels.

So is this lake a bust for property owners? Sounds like since it doesn't have a great watershed most of the ramps/docks are going to be high out of the water.

I don't think so; most that purchase property on lakes like this do so for the view, and that's it. This situation might be perfect for them.

That is a very good point.

Maybe they just need to redefine what "full" means for this lake. They thought it would fill to XYZ feet. Those are best guesses.

Seems like what it is at now is a more reasonable expectation of full pool.

Why they made the ramps so short when building a brand new lake is something to wonder about. Why would the state build a public reservoir that is designed so the public can't launch if it is even moderately low? How would making the ramps longer affect the ability to pump water?

The state has built a lot of lakes. They all seem OK. I can't imagine that they built this one wrong.Then again I'm not a lake builder guy. I am just a fisherman.

We have accurate weather data and creek/river flow rates going back decades, along with precise population growth projections and water consumption rates.
They knew exactly what they are doing. The lake level is likely within an inch or two of where they want it right now.

I didn't say the state built the lake wrong, I just wonder why the ramps aren't usable when 7 feet low. The government-built ramps at lakes like Fork, Rayburn, Sandlin, and Pines can be used at much lower levels. Fork was about 7-8 feet low for Bass Champs last year but there was no problem launching at the 515 public ramp. When Lake Tyler was 9-11 feet low years ago the city extended the ramp and dug a channel to the main lake. It would make sense to make the ramps longer when there's no water to get in the way.

The state didn't build this lake.
The lake is not a public lake.
It is a private lake built by a business (NTMWD) using money from loans they got that they are paying back by selling the water.
It was not built with public tax dollars.
The private water district could have built no ramps and said the public is not allowed to use it at all.

Maybe everyone should be happy that some ramps were built and that eventually it will fill and the public will be allowed to fish it.
Lets not forget that the watershed is pretty small, and despite several rain events in the area there hasn't been much runoff.

NTMWD is a government entity. It's a division of and under authority of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). It is not a private, for-profit corporation.

https://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterdistricts

Tell me you bought a lake front lot without telling me you bought a lake front lot.

Fat pipe in a little lake.

Yep. But our tax money has stocked the fire out of the lake and I’d be willing to bet that NT pitched the recreational and real estate economic impacts to the residents of fannin county as they bent them over.

But yes it is a small water shed. It will fill when it fills.

That’s funny right there.

Yes, but we can drive on the tollway expansion areas before they put the toll booths/toll scanners in.
I remember driving on George Bush from Preston all the way to 635 for two months for free before they put the tollbooths in. If it is a navigable water way and the bridge over the lake is most certainly public land.

We should be able to fish from the bridge and launch hand carried watercraft from the bridge rip rap right now.

Many don’t understand the difference between public and private.

I’m really confused. Is this lake private or public? If it’s private, why would they put ramps in for the public to access?

It is a public lake, just as Lake Bonham, Texoma, Bob Sandlin are public.

It is not semi private like Squaw with an entry fee.

It is not semi private like Moss or Nocona (annual fee)

It is not a fully private lake like Cherokee, Fairfield, or Kiowa.

It's a public lake. TCEQ is a Texas government agency. That's why its web address ends in texas.gov. NTMWD is also a government agency. It operates and is under the authority of TCEQ. How did the idea that it is a private, non-government business that built a private lake get started? Because it sold bonds? Your city and school district sell bonds, too. Are the local elementary and high schools private?

There are going to be a lot of unhappy people when the lake does open up. There is only enough parking for 50 or so boats, maybe not even that many. Multiply that by 3 boat ramps 1 of which may never open and there are going to be more boats than space. Plus I bet anyone not using the proper parking lot will be ticketed if you park on the grass or beside the road.

The term “public” is mis construed.

It’s owned and operated by a municipality. So is their waste water treatment plants but there is a guard shack to get past.
Texoma is owned by the corps of engineers.
Bonham by the city of bonham. City of bonham allows people to access with a fee. If it was “public” like you imply it would be free.

Lake Edgewood for example. No public access, used to be but the city got fed up and shut it down, now if you don’t own adjoining property no access. Maybe you guys should go explain to the city of Edgewood that it’s public property not the city of the Edgewood property.

In the ealy to mid 80's I fished both the "old" and "new" city lakes in Edgewood quite a bit. The "old" one had been purchased by a citizen and the fishing was really good. The "new" city lake was pretty new and the fishing was decent at the time.

I had no idea they closed public access to the city lake.

If it’s public, why aren’t you guys out boating on it?

Texoma isn’t free, every boat ramp on the lake has a use fee. Granted it’s all honor system except Highport.

Public doesn’t always = free access

I’ve been charged by COE, U.S Forest Service, Nat’l Park Service among other fed, state and municipal governments to access a lake. Sure there are many lakes that don’t charge - many times because they don’t want to administer the fee. If you’re paying a small fee of less than $20 I still see it as a public lake.

Now obviously some governments only own the park and boat ramp but no other land (usually the ones with houses everywhere) others (many times COE) own some land within the projects area for other land based recreational opportunity. There are some absolute gems on USFS lands, many overlook.