Fishing every lake in Texas….ambitious sounding to some, crazy to others. How many lakes does Texas have anyway? I really had no idea despite wanting to fish all of them. To achieve the goal, to even gauge the feasibility, some research was in order.
First, private lakes were excluded because nearly all of them are inaccessible to general anglers like me. Memberships are available via clubs or organizations to access select waterbodies—some producing awesome, trophy largemouth–but prices tend to be out of reach for most (me included). Also, little to no data is maintained on private waters in Texas at the state, local or national level.
Early searches through entities such as the Texas Water Development Board and their Water Data for Texas page turned up a list numbering around 120 lakes. There is a great deal of information available, particularly current water levels and graphs depicting water levels over time. I use this site all the time for checking how rain has been affecting lakes in a particular area or to gauge which areas of a lake may be accessible at a given time of year. However, there were obviously public lakes missing from the list so more research was in order.
I reached out to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) for a definitive list and received a surprising answer from several folks in both Fisheries and Public Records/Data that I spoke with: they didn’t exactly have a list. They do maintain a list of where fish were stocked each year for the past fifty some odd years, which has proven to be a tremendous help.
Rather than being deterred, I was motivated. Surely, someone within the great state of Texas maintains a list of public lakes. They don’t–at least not as of this writing.
It turns out that the concept of “public” isn’t as clear cut as it sounds. The actual water in a particular reservoir may be owned by a public entity, but the access may be restricted. Lakes, even large public ones, are occasionally bought and sold, such as was the case with Lake Diversion near Wichita Falls. Impounded in 1924, it was operated for water supply, flood control and recreation for decades through agreements between the water improvement district and the property owner. Located on the famed W.T. Waggoner ranch, the property sold in 2016 with the lake being closed to the public in early 2017 by the new owner.
While having a 3,400 acre lake switch from public to private access is a rare example, smaller lakes are sold, and more often bought, with decent regularity. As municipalities in Texas grow at record rates, water and recreation needs increase. Entities often acquire tracts of land with lakes and river access for conversion to parkland or to secure water rights. New lakes may also “come online”, though the process often takes 30 years or longer to come to fruition. Near Bonham, northeast of Dallas, Bois D’arc Lake, a 16,000 acre reservoir, broke ground in 2018 to help meet the growing demands of the metropolitan area, supplying enough water for 1.7 million residents.
Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Squaw Creek Reservoir near Granbury was closed to the public over security concerns due to its use as a cooling lake for the neighboring Comanche Peak nuclear power plant. Luminant reopened the reservoir in 2010 for limited use by employees and special guests with expansion to the full public via a reservation process with steep launch fees a few years later.
Piecing together several resources and combing through records on individual waterbodies yielded a total of over 1,080 public lakes in Texas. However, many of those are very small within community parks and stocked by TPWD as part of their Neighborhood Fishin’ program. Despite my enthusiasm, fishing 1,000 lakes seemed nearly impossible given the size of our state. After building a database populated with lake stats, I considered what would be a manageable number while still being meaningful.
Small lakes have long been my favorite, often those on the backroads or tucked away near small towns to serve as their lone supply of water. Kayak fishing, my usual method, lends itself well to these types of lakes since access is often limited and many lack well-maintained boat ramps or even decent bank access. I eventually settled on a lake size of ten acres or larger, yielding approximately 450 public lakes. A ten acre lake doesn’t mean much to many anglers, particularly those with high-powered bass rigs or those that prefer to fish the same lake repeatedly until they have it mastered. Nonetheless, it is these 450 or so water bodies that I will attempt to present in detail so that other anglers may be able to discover new water, be it in their backyard or on the other side of the state. I apologize in advance if I reveal a lake that may be your secret spot—I have my own which will be revealed, as well. Also, it’s not my intent to provide a review on the quality of the fishery, only to disclose the bounty of public water in our state and compile the resources I’ve pieced together in my travels.
I’ve already fished a significant number of these 450 lakes in order to build an inventory for posts and reports. I hope to share maps, pics, videos and useful information about not just the lake, but the surrounding area itself. In between, look for relevant news, guest posts, prominent events, data analysis or tips on how to make tools and information already available work to your benefit. I’ll do my best to keep current on lakes added or subtracted from the list and update lake posts, as needed.
Occasionally, I’ll also share information on fishing the beautiful rivers of Texas, lakes across the Texas border or the bountiful Gulf Coast—an amazing experience in itself, but one that I’m only able to take part in a few times a year.
Let’s go fishing!