Posted By: ETFK
Lake fork dam - 07/01/17 10:53 PM
Got a really cool look inside the Dam on The Beautiful Lake fork via tour with the Lake Fork Chamber of Commerce. The Sabine River Authority are some really smart folks. It was really an honor to find out that we were one of the first groups since 9/11 to tour the dam. Turns out alligator, giant Drum, Carp and Gar like to hang out on the discharge side of the spill way no shocker there. However I did learn that Lake Fork reservoir was originally designed to aid as a cooling pool for a nuclear power plant. Upon completion of the dam the guys that were fronting the bill for the power plant backed out of the project leaving a nice 27,000acre-ft lake for Dallas to buy water rights to, entitling them 70% of the water in the lake every year no matter what the level of the lake. But no need to worry the SRA assures us that they never pumped water in to fill the lake to being with. Also sometime in the coming weeks the SRA is going to be stripping the dirt off the south side of the entire wall of the dam to reinforce and restructure the clay that sits beneath the grass adjacent to the canal fed by the spill way. Apparently when they built the dam they used a clay that dissolves in water its not leaking or weak they go on to say. And since tone is hard to pick up on in print I'm not at all denigrating the SRA they know what they are doing and have established an open line of communication with the general public to put to ease growing disinformation. Apparently a lot of regular people like you or I sometimes go around spreading disinformation and misleading ideas like one I am guilty of a more common idea or statement like "Why do they always open the gates when we get more than a couple inches high? They 'ought to leave it alone!" or something to the like. I suppose I'm rambling if you would like to ask them any question the SRA has an open line at http://www.sra.dst.tx.us/aboutsra/contact_us/staff.asp also some very interesting water data graphs of numerous lakes in Texas https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/fork https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/statewide the first one is for fork the second is an overview of water data. Shout out to Steve Chick for his Lake fork Water Report that he puts together every month that guy is a true guru
Also There may be large hybrid white bass in the lake. a buddy of mine and I went out Thursday night and hit some dock lights to get a quick bite before work Friday morning. We were only out till 2-3 am no LMB surprisingly not surprising sand bass were rampant... large sand bass that weighed 6lbs and measured 20inches we put 20 in the boat smallest was just over 14 inches and 4 measured over 18. Took home everything we caught filleted em' and had bout 5 lbs a piece in free tacos! cook em all I say. any way while I was cleaning fish we had a discussion that these big mother sons have got to be hybrids unfortunately between fish guts and one dead cell phone we manged to take one horrible picture [img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._49400199170065[/img]
[img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._28902815173004[/img]
that's my buddies bag of meat mine filled the same quart bag. that was what was left by the time we snapped a picture of these supposed hybrids any comments to the validity to that statement would be obliged. the one fixin to get the blade is one of these "Hybrids". Now I'm no ichthyologist but these fish on this table look like they beat the water body records here
https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=0433 for white bass.
maybe I'm in the wrong here about classification of species?
This is what the regulation is for these fish and what I try to go on.
White, striped and yellow bass
For striped and hybrid striped bass, minimum length limit = 18 inches and daily bag limit = 5 in any combination. For white bass, minimum length = 10 inches and daily bag is 25. There are no bag or size limits for yellow bass. http://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/fishregs2.php?water=0433
I also use several of the posters around boat launch areas as a quick refresher on what each different variation of bass and catfish look like. Complaisance breeds disaster and I don't want to be on the wrong side of the TPWD because of a lame excuse like oh sorry I thought I knew what I was talking about...Rambling again...
Food for Thought some people have reported seeing some water craft turning lose a questionable variation of fish...
but I'd take some things with a grain of salt.
Thoughts?
Also There may be large hybrid white bass in the lake. a buddy of mine and I went out Thursday night and hit some dock lights to get a quick bite before work Friday morning. We were only out till 2-3 am no LMB surprisingly not surprising sand bass were rampant... large sand bass that weighed 6lbs and measured 20inches we put 20 in the boat smallest was just over 14 inches and 4 measured over 18. Took home everything we caught filleted em' and had bout 5 lbs a piece in free tacos! cook em all I say. any way while I was cleaning fish we had a discussion that these big mother sons have got to be hybrids unfortunately between fish guts and one dead cell phone we manged to take one horrible picture [img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._49400199170065[/img]
[img]http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics..._28902815173004[/img]
that's my buddies bag of meat mine filled the same quart bag. that was what was left by the time we snapped a picture of these supposed hybrids any comments to the validity to that statement would be obliged. the one fixin to get the blade is one of these "Hybrids". Now I'm no ichthyologist but these fish on this table look like they beat the water body records here
https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=0433 for white bass.
maybe I'm in the wrong here about classification of species?
This is what the regulation is for these fish and what I try to go on.
White, striped and yellow bass
For striped and hybrid striped bass, minimum length limit = 18 inches and daily bag limit = 5 in any combination. For white bass, minimum length = 10 inches and daily bag is 25. There are no bag or size limits for yellow bass. http://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/fishregs2.php?water=0433
I also use several of the posters around boat launch areas as a quick refresher on what each different variation of bass and catfish look like. Complaisance breeds disaster and I don't want to be on the wrong side of the TPWD because of a lame excuse like oh sorry I thought I knew what I was talking about...Rambling again...
Food for Thought some people have reported seeing some water craft turning lose a questionable variation of fish...
but I'd take some things with a grain of salt.
Thoughts?