Just add water

Excitement continues to build in anticipation of the opening of Texas’ newest recreational reservoir, Bois d’Arc Lake. Just don’t get your hopes up too high about getting the green light to go fishing or boating on the 16,650-acre reservoir in Fannin County anytime soon.

The North Texas Municipal Water District has the reins on that decision, but Mother Nature holds the trump card that will ultimately put the ball in motion.

Bois d’Arc (pronounced “Bow-Dark”) is the first major impoundment built statewide since 19,000-acre Lake O.H Ivie opened in 1990. Crews began construction of the new reservoir in May 2018. The dam started capturing inflow from Bois d’ Arc Creek and other tributaries in April 2021.

Filling has been slow process. The lake is currently about 79.5 percent of full capacity with a water level of 529.21 as of May 17. That’s about 4.79 feet below full conservation pool, 534.00.

Though the boat ramps are now functional, the current water level is still shy of the mark the NTMWD says will be required before the general public gets access to the lake, according to Dan Bennett, the fisheries biologist that will oversee the reservoir for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Bennett says rain — and lots of it — is the missing link in the equation. The lake’s last significant rise came in February 2023, when it jumped about four feet.

“The NTMWD plans to open the lake once the level reaches approximately two feet below the conservation elevation,” Bennett said. “Right now the lake is close to five feet below full, so we lack about three feet.”

Bennett says five feet might not sound like much, but it is on body of water the size of Bois d’Arc. The volume of water in those last five feet makes up almost 25 percent of the total volume of the lake, he said.

“It is going to take some long, hard rains on the watershed to fill it on up,” he said. “There’s been some rains around us but unfortunately they haven’t lasted long enough to result in much runoff. That could change in between now and the end of June, but you just never know with Mother Nature. If it turns out to be a dry summer, it could be fall or even later before catches enough water. Once it does catch enough water, logs and other debris will need to be cleared before it safe to open. There are some big floaters out there right now.”

A Bass Fishing Mecca Bois d’Arc is sure to be popular with bass anglers, many of which drive high-powered rigs strapped with outboard engines capable of pushing them beyond 70 mph. It might be wise for the NTMWD to implement sort of maximum speed limit on the lake once it opens, at least during the early days.

The lake currently has three boat ramps and enough parking spots to accommodate about 150 vehicles/boat trailers. Knowing Texas bass anglers, and the lake’s close proximity to the concrete jungles of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, those spots are likely to fill quickly with anglers who are eager to soak their baits in front of an army of dumb fish.

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 really easy to fool for quite awhile.

All Stocked Up Bennett and his staff have spent the last several years digging deep into their tool boxes to make sure anglers find something really special once Bois ‘d Arc does open 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.”

TPWD has stocked the lake with nearly 375,000 advanced growth (6 inches) and fingerling offspring from Toyota Legacy Lunkers. 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. Additionally, the lake has received nearly 700 adult female brood fish retired from TPWD’s Florida bass hatchery program.

In Fall 2019, nearly 2,100 advanced growth (six inches or longer) ShareLunker offspring were stocked in four pre-existing stock tanks that are now under several feet of water. The nursery ponds, ranging 3-7 acres in size, were poisoned with rotenone to clear out any existing fish before the Floridas were stocked. Forage species including bluegill, threadfin shad and fathead minnows were added to keep the bass fat and sassy.

Bennett says many of those bass have since spawned, as evidenced by recent electrofishing surveys and genetics testing of DNA samples from collected fish.

Based on those findings, the biologist believes roughly 60 percent of the bass in lake right now possess genes from the fish TPWD stocked. He believes about 20 percent are pure Florida bass, while others are first or second generation Florida hybrids.

Translation: Bois d’Arc the goods to grow some giants.

“We know from research that Florida bass and their hybrids have the highest likelihood of reaching that 13 pound size or larger, so we could of say that approximately 47 percent of bass in Bois d’ Arc have the potential to reach that size,” Bennett said. “With the amount of forage and habitat available in the lake these first few years, I suspect a good portion of those fish will get to that size and beyond.”

Bennett also expects the lake to maintain excellent crappie and channel catfish fisheries, thanks in part to native populations that existed in the Bois d’Arc Creek watershed before the lake filled. Additionally, TPWD has stocked the lake with more than 400,000 channel cat fingerlings and dozens of 8-10 pound brood fish retired from TPWD hatcheries.

“The catfish and crappie are abundant,” Bennett said. “Crappie do really well in some of the smaller lakes in the area, so we believe Bois d’Arc is going to have a tremendous crappie fishery.”

Habitat: It’s a Jungle out There Bennett says construction crews did a great job of leaving an abundance of valuable habitat in the lake that should allow fish populations to flourish for a long time.

About 7,000 acres of bottomland hardwoods and underbrush at the lake’s upper reaches west of the FM 987 bridge was left untouched by bulldozers, except for a 3 1/2-mile long boat lane that is about 1,000 feet wide. He described the area as jungle that is still too dense to penetrate by boat in lots of places. It should be a flipper’s paradise with gobs of ideal spawning habitat The 6,500-acre lake proper east of the FM 987 was cleared of brush and timber, but the valuable cover didn’t go to waste. Bennett says ‘dozer operators pushed a lot of the timber in brush piles and windrows. There are about 40 total. The structures range from 30-100 feet long and 15-20 feet tall.

GPS coordinates for all of the brush piles and numerous chunk concrete piles are currently available on an interactive map on the TPWD website, tpwd.texas. gov/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/fish_ attractors.phtml.

For more information or updates about the lake’s opening, check boisdarclake.org.

--- Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.