Freshwater equals more spots

By Nate Skinner tar outdoor newS

Over the years, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has stocked several freshwater power plant lakes, as well as various small ponds and reservoirs, with red drum to create unique angling opportunities for anglers. Although some freshwater bodies of water may still contain small populations of redfish, Calaveras Lake and Braunig Lake are the only two lakes that receive annual redfish stockings.

Anglers chasing reds on these lakes have been consistently catching redfish sporting multiple spots — noticeably more than most reds caught along the coast — with some containing as many as 100 or more.

According to the Mitchell Nisbet, the TPWD Inland Fisheries San Antonio district manager and biologist, Calaveras and Braunig lakes receive a combined total of 1 million red drum fingerlings each fall. About one-third of these fish go to Braunig, while the remaining two-thirds end up in Calaveras.

Nisbet said TPWD has been stocking red drum in these lakes since the mid 1970s. The fingerlings are a product of the same hatchery efforts that stock coastal estuaries, most typically coming from the Perry R. Bass Marine Hatchery.

Stocking Calaveras and Braunig involves a fairly lengthy process, as the fingerlings must slowly become acclimated to freshwater before officials release them into the lakes. The fish receive a slow trickle of freshwater from the reservoirs while they become acclimated to the lower salinity in tanks on the trucks transported in.

“Because the chemistry and salinity of the water in Calaveras and Braunig reservoirs are different from coastal estuaries, the red drum inhabiting these lakes are unable to spawn,” Nisbet said. “Therefore, annual stockings allow these bodies of water to maintain a sustainable population of red drum. Significant stockings comparable to what we have today began occurring from the early 1990s through the early 2000s, and nearly 1 million fingerings have been stocked annually since about 2006.”