Bois 'dArc Lake update

Dan Bennett of Pottsboro hasn’t started doing a rain dance just yet, but it’s heavy on his mind. With summer’s oppressive heat bearing down and much of the state in some stage of drought, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department district fisheries biologist and others with close ties to Bois ‘d Arc Lake in Fannin County are hoping for some significant moisture soon.

Bois ‘d Arc is Texas’ newest freshwater reservoir. It’s the first major impoundment built statewide since 19,000-acre Lake O.H Ivie opened to the public in 1990. The North Texas Municipal Water District broke ground on construction of the 16,650-acre water supply reservoir in May 2018 and the project is nearing 100 percent complete. The dam began capturing inflow from Bois ‘d Arc Creek and other tributaries in April 2021. As of June 8, the 13-mile long reservoir had filled to about 41.4 percent of its full capacity with a mean water level of 516.96. The lake’s last significant rise occurred this spring, when the level jumped about seven feet. “Right now it is about 17 feet from being full (534.00),” Bennett said. “It’s still got a long way to go. We had hoped to see it closer to full by now and hopefully open up in September ahead of the early teal season, but I’m not sure that will happen now. Things have turned off dry and every bit of rain we get is soaking in. We need some of those big, five-six inch downpours. That would start some run off and bring it up in a hurry.” With Mother Nature in control, it is anybody’s guess when significant rains might come. The good news is the reservoir won’t necessarily need to fill to full capacity for the NTMWD to give recreational users the green light to launch boats from the three public ramps, according to lake operations manager Jennifer Stanley.

Stanley says a water level of 524.00 — 10 feet below full pool — is the magic number at which the boat ramps will be considered functional. The lake will need to rise about seven more feet to reach that level. However, Stanley also pointed out that water level isn’t the only factor that will be considered before the lake is officially opened to the public. “There are several other key components to it,” she said. “The lake needs to be deemed safe, meaning there can’t be a bunch of logs and other debris floating around that boaters could hit. We also need to be sure our county law enforcement and state game wardens are made ready before it goes to NTMWD Board of Director for final approval.”

Stanley said it is possible the lake could open sometime this autumn, but she is not hedging her bets. “Several things have to fall into place over the next few months and I’m afraid we’re fixing to hit a dry spell with the weather,” she said. “It could happen, but I’m guessing it will be sometime in 2023. We’ll just have to wait and see. There are a lot of unknowns right now.”

Ready to Fish

One thing for certain is anglers around the region and beyond are anxiously awaiting the opening of Texas newest fishing lake. Virgin fisheries have a history producing fast action early on, largely because the fish are not accustomed to seeing artificial lures or the hearing the drone of boat traffic. The lack of education makes them easy to fool. Bennett and his staff have spent the last several years digging deep into their bag of tricks make sure anglers find something special once Bois ‘d Arc opens to the public. He expects the lake to produce exceptional fishing for crappie and channel catfish, but says hopes are especially high that the lake will eventually become a destination for trophy bass hunters.

“It should be an excellent bass lake,” he said. “We’ve done everything we possibly could to facilitate that.”

Habitat: Laying the Foundation

TPWD worked closely with the NTMWB engineers during the pre-inundation stages to ensure clearing crews left behind as much valuable fish habitat as possible. Bennett says the lower portion of the reservoir east of the FM 987 bridge towards the dam underwent major clearing, but much of the downed timber was bulldozed into brush piles and windrows that will be engulfed by water when the lake fills. The biologist said most of the structures are 30-100 feet long and 15-20 feet tall.

“There are more than 40 of them (brush piles) and they should hold a lot of fish out there on the main lake for a long time,” Bennett said. “They also piled up quite a bit of busted concrete chunks and rock.”

Bennett says GPS coordinates of all of the sweet spots will eventually be listed for public access on the TPWD website. The lake’s upper (western) reaches looks really fishy, Bennett said. Fed by Bois ‘d Arc Creek, the area spans about 7,000 acres and was pretty much left untouched by ‘dozer crews, except for the construction of a three and a half-mile long boat lane that spans about 1,000 feet wide. Bennett described the upper end as classic northeast Texas bottomland habitat comprised of big cottonwoods, elm, cedars and a variety of oaks. The timber extends for three and a half miles once the boat lane plays out with about a half mile of timber on either side of the lane itself.

“Once it floods it’s going be like jungle up there,” Bennett said. “The creek itself should be about 10-15 feet deep with lots of good spawning flats on both sides.” Bennett said native aquatic vegetation including coontail has already established. Hydrilla has not found its way into the lake yet, but he suspects it will because several smaller lakes in the area have it.

The biologist described the current water clarity as “stained” due to rich nutrients being displaced into the water from decomposing terrestrial vegetation flooded thus far.

“It’s going to be a really fertile lake,” he said.

A Bass Haven

At heart of TPWD’s bass management plan are early stocking of nearly 100,000 pure Florida bass collected from spawns of Toyota Legacy ShareLunkers. Legacy Lunkers are female bass weighing upwards of 13 pounds that are caught from Texas lakes and loaned to the state for spawning and genetics research.

In Fall 2019, nearly 2,100 advanced growth (six inches or longer) Share-Lunker offspring were stocked in four pre-existing stock tanks that will be inundated once the lake fills. The nursery ponds, ranging three to seven acres in size, were poisoned with rotenone to kill out any existing fish before the Floridas were stocked, along with forage species including bluegill, threadfin shad and fathead minnows. In 2020, TPWD added nearly 1,100, two-year old ShareLunkers to a main lake pool near the dam. An additional 92,800 ShareLunkers from fingerling size to 16 inches were stocked in the main lake in 2021. Bennett said the nursery pond bass have fared extremely well. In Dec. 2021, fisheries staff used rod and reel to sample growth rates. They saw a few bass that had reached the four-pound range in just 2 1/2 years.

“That’s tremendous growth,” Bennett said. “A bass is typically about 14 inches and will weigh around two pounds at that age.”

Ducks Galore

Like fishermen, duck hunters are chomping at the bit to test the water of Texas’ newest freshwater reservoir. Waterfowlers are anticipating big things from the lake’s upper reaches, which has been designated as a TPWD wildlife management area.

“The duck hunters can’t wait to get out there,” said Jason Stroup, Bois ‘d Arc lake permit supervisor. “We’ve been hearing from a lot of hunters that the birds have been using it like a sanctuary. It should just get better as more of that timber floods.”

We just need to some big rain to do it. To learn more about Bois ‘d Arc Lake and get future updates, check boisdarcklake. org. — Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@ yahoo.com.