Rodemacher/Cleco Lake Map
 

A friend of mine that works for the power plant sent this to me. Thought I would post it up incase any guys around this area was interested.

I caught a lot of quality bass from this lake back in the mid to late 90's, largest was a 12lb. When they introduced carp?? to eat the grass, the fishing petered out. Has this lake made a rebound???

Not really. Very little grass so the lake stays muddy. I'm sure it still holds some quality fish I just have to learn to fish it. The deep water standing timber looks really good it's just not the type of fishing I'm used to doing. Time to learn some new techniques I guess. My buddy has worked for the plant for 27 years and he said that back in the 90's it was nothing to catch 20 bass on his lunch break fishing from the bank. He caught an 8 1/2 lbr on his lunch break. he was gona eat the fish. The guys he worked with wouldn't let him. They took the fish and pooled their money together and got it mounted for him.

That was nice of them to mount it for him. My wife wanted me to mount an 8lb. I caught, but I told her that I know there are bigger ones in there and sure enough, I got my 12lb. the very next trip. I had my 17 year old son due to be born and my fish coming home from the taxidermist all in the same week. Hahah it was a great week. I never did real well in the deep water trees, but I caught a few on rattle traps. Without caroling a lizard in the grass, I would be lost over there. I always caught bigger fish on the cold water side, but more bass on the hot water side.

X2 !

Pre 2000 or so use to rock there !

Damn the carp !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LDWF has ruined more good bass lakes by introducing carp to control grass than carter has pills.
Here is what texas has done w/ their power plant lakes.
http://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/...lakes/braunig/
I have fished this lake a few times and loved it.
They killed the grass stocked the lakes w/ tilapia. Stocked the hybrids and red fish to control the tilapia. strict limits on reds and stripers but you can cast net tilapia till you get tired.

Just saw the post, I used to work over in that area and fished Lake Calaveras a couple times which is next door to Braunig Lake. We tried for bass but ended up targeting the redfish and catfish. Fishing was great and cast netting for tilapia are great cut bait for jug lines. I agree with the grass carp and take part in some bow-fishing activities when time allows.

Wanted to respond to this post, but forgot about it until now. Live near Rodemacher. Cleco overstocked the number of grass carp for the lake acreage, so that definitely has been one problem. But the bigger problem was the clearcut of land in the lake drainage. THAT'S the real reason why the lake stays muddy.

There has been succession growth in the drainage area, so the amount of silt coming into the lake is on the decline. The grass is also coming back. Last fall the water was a bit clearer - greenish to be exact - visibility about 1 foot. Then all this rain has muddied things back up.

Cleco recognized their issues with the lake and sought means to mitigate. The first proposal from LDWF - IMO, the best solution - was to drop a few tons of gypsum into the lake. Instead, they listened to some professor from Texas who suggested using this new technology that places an ionic charge on water. As water is used to cool, it's given a charge as it's pumped back into the lake. The charged water binds with suspended clay particles and drops out.

The problem is that the existing loose clay sediments needed to be bonded. That's what the gypsum would've done. This technology will work but without the gypsum solution, it'll just take much longer (and cost more money!).

As for the grass carp, the district biologist told me that LDWF suggested far fewer carp than what was stocked. But since Cleco is a private lake, it was their call.

BTW, grass carp may be saving more lakes in the Cenla area than ruining. The hydrilla they eat is good for bass, but too much of it builds up and soon you have vast islands where giant salvania takes hold. If the hydrilla is controlled, the salvania is limited to shorelines where spraying has been very effective.

Great post

Good read for sure ! Thanks for posting !