Corpusfishing.com

spooledagain · Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:40 am Post subject: Lake Mathis

Wish I could give a better report from Lake Corpus, but there is nearly nothing to report.

Crappie have disappeared. There was a tournament last weekend. No crappie caught. The 1st and 2nd place for the best Black Bass stringer only had one stringer, no second place.

There are plenty of flatheads and channels to be had. Shrimp is working best and I found that the Fish Bites Catfish formula is killer.

Sorry, but I gues I'd better head down this week and take in some salty piscus. OR is that piscii?
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Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12865

Thanks for the report and send us one if you get to fish the salt too! It helps keep the reports updated Wink

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R.Arnold · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:15 am Post subject:

Yep, I've gone a few times to a great crappie spot and it's only been a crappy spot so far. Lots of minnows, no fish. The crappie may have took a beating when the lake was nearly dry. Let us know when it turns in.

BIG LONG · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:53 am Post subject:

I'm headed up Friday for the weekend. If I find them illusive crappie I'll give ya a report. Going to use my secret gold fish lure Smile

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spooledagain · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:37 am Post subject:

The surface water temps up here are approaching the mid 70's. Near bottom temps are still under 60 degrees. I see fish layered in the top five feet of the water column. I haven't seen any chad. No turtles. No schools of any sort of fish. I do believe that this lake has died. Oligotrophic. The only survivors are the cats. They could live in wet mud. Too bad.

When the lake turns over, if there is no improvement in the catch rate, that will be a certain indicator of the impact that draining/drought have had on it. When the lake levels reached their lowest and the summer heat raised the water temps, acidic conditions prevailed and O2 levels bottom out, ad to that, the predation occurred in open waters where there was no protection for the forage fish it slid into this dead sea system.

It will take a replant and several years for it to come back, I'm afraid. And such a beautiful oasis at the foot of the hill country.

On the bright side, the low water levels created an explosion of willow growth way out into the normal lake level limits. This will provide very adequate hiding places for forage fish to make a big comeback.

Now all we have to do is encourage F&G to restock before the El Nino dries up the area again this year or next.
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ltorna1 · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 3240

Thanks for the report. We sampled fish there this past fall. It wasn't all doom and gloom. We had to stick to the shallow parts of the lake where we could walk and pull a seine or use our electrofisher. It was is hard because of the dramatic slope of most of the shore line when the lake is full. We found good numbers of sheepshead-minnows, many species of shiners, thousands of mosquito fish, plus good numbers of juvenile sunfish (2-3 species) and Rio Grande Cichlids. We didn't get any crappies, but it was a good sign to see all the juveniles of the other species, especially since they have much more hiding space to grow up in and a seemingly healthy food source. Lots of tadpoles too. I think the lake will rebound nicely.
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Finsonpins · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:47 pm Post subject:

I spent a quite a bit of time out on that lake on the kayak last year and it tough for crappie. I never could get on them consistently anywhere. Gar on the other hand are plentiful and its pretty fun getting the yak dragged around the lake by the big ones.

topdog15 · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 6:34 am Post subject:

cdhknives · Flour Bluffian in training Joined: 03 Aug 2012 Posts: 297

We also scored zero this spring crappie fishing. No cats either. Growing up we would always leave our last minnow on the hook and let it dangle in a rod holder overnight...50%+ we'd have a catfish the next morning. This year, nada. Minnows falling off hooks from wear and tear. Not even perch to knock them off once in a while.

No one I know caught white bass up the Nueces river this spring either.

I don't know where y'all were doing your population study, but in the Arrowhead Subdivision area where my parents still live it's dead. Gar and turtles. Nothing else.

All the willows choke out the lake too. Ever fought your way into the middle of one of those willow clumps? Dead, stagnant water. Not a fish haven...mosquitos, maybe. I fished them for years and never pulled a bass of any size out from near one.

Too much organic material getting flooded too fast...decomp eats up the O2 and there wasn't much left to begin with. Simple math sez the lake volume was so low for so long the population would have stabilized at that level...now with many times the water volume to disperse in...well in 3 years maybe it'll be back but for my money I bet anyone it won't make it half that long before it's back to extreme low.

I grew up on that lake and the mismanagement genuinely hurts...
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