Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn hold first and second among 26 ranked Texas waters, with a largemouth per 72 to 76 minutes of all fishing. In full-year Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) creel surveys from 2003 to 2022, anglers caught 0.83 largemouth per hour of all fishing on Toledo Bend and 0.79 on Sam Rayburn. The median ranked water ran 0.32. Ranking each water's latest survey puts Rayburn first of the 26 at 0.86 and Toledo Bend second at 0.56, narrowly ahead of O.H. Ivie's 0.55.
ITwo Big Lakes
Toledo Bend and Rayburn Ran About 2.5 Times the Median
That lead over the median water includes every angler's hours, and these figures do not measure a bass angler's own edge on these two lakes. TPWD conducted the surveys held in CreelCat, a national creel catalog maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. Every rate here divides bass caught by the hours of every angler on the water, including crappie and catfish anglers. Bass caught includes both kept and released fish with tournament fish counted too. We included surveys covering 340 days or more of TPWD's June to May survey year. A water makes the ranking with two or more usable surveys and at least 50,000 pooled angler hours.
Swipe table to see every column
| Rank | Water | County | Surveys | Survey years | Bass caught | Angler hours | Bass per hour | Minutes per bass | Kept % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toledo Bend | Sabine | 3 | 2013, 2015, 2019 | 1,071,000 | 1,292,000 | 0.83 | 72 | 23.1 |
| 2 | Sam Rayburn | Angelina | 7 | 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2018 | 3,230,000 | 4,081,000 | 0.79 | 76 | 23.6 |
| 3 | Waco | McLennan | 2 | 2007, 2011 | 322,100 | 417,000 | 0.77 | 78 | 9.4 |
| 4 | Athens | Henderson | 2 | 2017, 2020 | 132,400 | 194,000 | 0.68 | 88 | 2.5 |
| 5 | Cypress Springs | Franklin | 2 | 2006, 2014 | 50,100 | 79,000 | 0.64 | 94 | 21.9 |
| 6 | Lake O' the Pines | Marion | 2 | 2010, 2018 | 246,500 | 448,000 | 0.55 | 109 | 15.3 |
| 7 | Gilmer | Upshur | 3 | 2005, 2012, 2020 | 62,700 | 130,000 | 0.48 | 125 | 1 |
| 8 | Fork | Wood | 13 | 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 | 4,594,600 | 9,776,000 | 0.47 | 128 | 9.3 |
| 9 | Caddo | Harrison | 3 | 2009, 2017, 2021 | 134,300 | 322,000 | 0.42 | 144 | 12.7 |
| 10 | O.H. Ivie | Concho | 10 | 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2019 | 424,200 | 1,048,000 | 0.4 | 148 | 12.1 |
| 11 | Amon G. Carter | Montague | 2 | 2007, 2010 | 44,000 | 111,000 | 0.4 | 151 | 16.9 |
| 12 | Graham | Young | 3 | 2008, 2013, 2021 | 63,400 | 169,000 | 0.38 | 160 | 17.2 |
| 13 | Choke Canyon | Live Oak | 6 | 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 | 517,700 | 1,587,000 | 0.33 | 184 | 12.4 |
| 14 | Belton | Bell | 3 | 2003, 2010, 2014 | 191,100 | 610,000 | 0.31 | 191 | 25.8 |
| 15 | Wright Patman | Bowie | 2 | 2008, 2016 | 104,200 | 387,000 | 0.27 | 223 | 24.7 |
| 16 | Conroe | Montgomery | 6 | 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2021 | 441,700 | 1,711,000 | 0.26 | 232 | 13.9 |
| 17 | Fort Phantom Hill | Jones | 2 | 2016, 2021 | 32,000 | 143,000 | 0.22 | 269 | 28.8 |
| 18 | Houston | Harris | 3 | 2005, 2010, 2013 | 35,400 | 159,000 | 0.22 | 269 | 14.4 |
| 19 | Palestine | Henderson | 4 | 2005, 2009, 2013, 2021 | 160,900 | 956,000 | 0.17 | 356 | 20.1 |
| 20 | Richland Chambers | Navarro | 2 | 2006, 2018 | 23,100 | 159,000 | 0.15 | 411 | 21.6 |
| 21 | Nasworthy | Tom Green | 2 | 2018, 2021 | 20,100 | 166,000 | 0.12 | 496 | 6 |
| 22 | Lewisville | Denton | 2 | 2011, 2018 | 37,100 | 319,000 | 0.12 | 516 | 13.4 |
| 23 | Livingston | San Jacinto | 2 | 2007, 2011 | 12,000 | 171,000 | 0.07 | 857 | 12.8 |
| 24 | Somerville | Burleson | 3 | 2009, 2014, 2020 | 34,800 | 504,000 | 0.07 | 870 | 16.6 |
| 25 | Tawakoni | Hunt | 4 | 2008, 2013, 2017, 2021 | 36,800 | 805,000 | 0.05 | 1,312 | 23.1 |
| 26 | Kirby | Taylor | 3 | 2005, 2010, 2019 | 4,300 | 129,000 | 0.03 | 1,811 | 10.3 |
IIFresh Survey Check
Rayburn and Toledo Bend Led the Latest Surveys for All 26
A pooled rate can mask a lake's slowdown. We then ranked each water using only its latest usable survey. Among the 19 ranked waters with a usable survey from 2016 on, Rayburn's 2018 survey led and Toledo Bend's 2019 survey followed. O.H. Ivie placed third in 2019, rising from tenth on the pooled list. Athens followed at 0.54 and Caddo at 0.53.
Athens had the best single survey of any ranked water since 2016, reaching 0.90 in 2017 on about 78,000 angler hours. Its rate was 0.54 in the 2020 survey.
Rayburn beat 0.6 bass per hour on 6 of its 7 surveys, with its lowest rate at 0.52 in 2006. Toledo Bend beat 0.6 on 2 of its 3 surveys, and its latest missed. Fork beat 0.6 on 2 of 13, with its 2020 survey lowest at 0.13.
Seven ranked waters lack a usable survey from 2016 on, and their best latest result was Amon G. Carter's 0.50 in 2010. Waco ranks third on the pooled list at 0.77, though its surveys are from 2007 and 2011.
Swipe table to see every column
| Latest-survey rank | Water | Latest survey year | Bass per hour | Angler hours | Pooled rank of 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Rayburn | 2,018 | 0.86 | 515,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Toledo Bend | 2,019 | 0.56 | 345,000 | 1 |
| 3 | O.H. Ivie | 2,019 | 0.55 | 133,000 | 10 |
| 4 | Athens | 2,020 | 0.54 | 115,000 | 4 |
| 5 | Caddo | 2,021 | 0.53 | 108,000 | 9 |
| 6 | Lake O' the Pines | 2,018 | 0.53 | 181,000 | 6 |
| 7 | Graham | 2,021 | 0.5 | 63,000 | 12 |
| 8 | Fort Phantom Hill | 2,021 | 0.46 | 64,000 | 17 |
| 9 | Wright Patman | 2,016 | 0.41 | 148,000 | 15 |
| 10 | Gilmer | 2,020 | 0.36 | 47,000 | 7 |
| 11 | Conroe | 2,021 | 0.28 | 471,000 | 16 |
| 12 | Richland Chambers | 2,018 | 0.25 | 55,000 | 20 |
| 13 | Palestine | 2,021 | 0.21 | 239,000 | 19 |
| 14 | Fork | 2,020 | 0.13 | 838,000 | 8 |
| 15 | Tawakoni | 2,021 | 0.09 | 155,000 | 25 |
| 16 | Lewisville | 2,018 | 0.08 | 134,000 | 22 |
| 17 | Somerville | 2,020 | 0.07 | 360,000 | 24 |
| 18 | Nasworthy | 2,021 | 0.05 | 85,000 | 21 |
| 19 | Kirby | 2,019 | 0.01 | 50,000 | 26 |
IIIFarther Down
Waco and Athens Follow While Fork Has the Deepest Record
Waco comes after the two giants on the pooled list while Athens ranks fourth at 0.68. Fork ranks eighth at 0.47, or a bass every 128 minutes. Its 13 surveys cover 9,776,000 angler hours, and no ranked water has more data.
Two more waters meet the hours and survey-count rules but appear separately without ranks. Coleto Creek in Goliad County averaged 1.02 bass per hour over its 2005 and 2012 surveys, which would make it first. TPWD's summaries do not confirm either survey as full-year and describe only part-year creels there. Those creels covered January to June in 2021 and 2025, and the 2021 survey ran 175 days with a rate of 0.3 bass per hour. Arrowhead in Clay County has that same gap, with a March to May creel from 2023. We show both separately.
Kept shares vary a lot. Anglers kept 23.1% of their bass catch on Toledo Bend and 23.6% on Rayburn, compared with 9.3% on Fork and 2.5% on Athens. Those shares count tournament fish weighed in and released, which TPWD calls harvest. Tournament fish made up 43,983 of the 130,767 bass kept on Toledo Bend in 2013-14.
Swipe table to see every column
| Water | County | Surveys | Survey years | Bass caught | Angler hours | Bass per hour | Minutes per bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coleto Creek | Goliad | 2 | 2005, 2012 | 128,200 | 125,000 | 1.02 | 59 |
| Arrowhead | Clay | 2 | 2007, 2018 | 51,600 | 304,000 | 0.17 | 353 |
IVToledo Bend Review
Older Rows Combined Louisiana Hours With Almost No Bass
Combining every Toledo Bend row in CreelCat that lists any bass drops the lake to 0.24 bass per hour, or about one every 4.2 hours. Of the six 2005 to 2010 surveys CreelCat records as stratified across the Texas and Louisiana sides, four list bass and pull the pooled rate down to 0.24 (2005-06, 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10) while two list none (2007-08 and 2010-11). For the three seasons covered by TPWD's 2009 report, those angler hours are 1.7 to 2.7 times TPWD's Texas-side totals. In 2008-09 CreelCat shows 59 largemouth caught alongside 673,720 angler hours. TPWD put Texas-side hours at 391,915 that season. The three surveys we can check against TPWD's report do not match its figures, so we excluded all six rows using that design.
We kept the Toledo Bend surveys from 2013-14, 2015-16, and 2019-20. Those hours agree exactly with TPWD's Texas-side totals. The Toledo Bend rate used here covers the Texas side, which TPWD lists at 70,469 acres.
We excluded the 2011-12 Toledo Bend survey too. CreelCat calls it a full year, but TPWD's 2011 summary says "Anglers were surveyed from June to August 2011 and March to May 2012 with a creel survey." We checked TPWD's lake survey summaries for 43 Texas waters and found 4 surveys listed by CreelCat as June to May that TPWD describes as part-year. We excluded all 4.
Swipe table to see every column
| Survey year | CreelCat angler hours | TPWD Texas-side hours | CreelCat bass caught | Used in ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06 | 1,100,059 | not in reports read | 13,806 | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2006-07 | 1,152,653 | not in reports read | 2,113 | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2007-08 | 885,210 | 324,205 | no bass row | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2008-09 | 673,720 | 391,915 | 59 | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2009-10 | 859,274 | 476,589 | 20 | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2010-11 | 312,653 | not in reports read | no bass row | no, Texas and Louisiana design |
| 2011-12 | 141,767 | not in reports read | 145,893 | no, part-year |
| 2013-14 | 535,642 | 535,642 | 458,496 | yes |
| 2015-16 | 411,413 | 411,413 | 420,071 | yes |
| 2019-20 | 345,319 | 345,319 | 192,394 | yes |
VTotal Fishing Hours
Lakes With Most Effort on Bass Get an All-Angler Boost
The rate for a bass angler alone runs higher. In 2009-10 TPWD measured 1.09 black bass per hour for bass anglers on Toledo Bend, and its 2009 survey summary for the lake states "The black bass fishery was most popular (76.3% of total fishing effort)." Lakes with most fishing effort aimed at bass get a higher all-angler rate.
The catch totals and angler hours used in each rate are TPWD estimates from roving and access-point surveys, each with sampling error of its own. One new survey can shift a water with two surveys by several places. We excluded 141 of 281 Texas surveys from 2003 to 2022 because they covered fewer than 340 days. We removed another 12 for the Toledo Bend design and TPWD's part-year descriptions, plus unusable 2010 rows for Richland Chambers and Possum Kingdom. Many survey years have no TPWD summary we could read, so a few part-year surveys may still remain.
VIChoosing a Reservoir
Begin With the Two Big East Texas Reservoirs
Our read is that Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend belong at the start, the top two of 26 ranked waters on pooled surveys and on each water's latest survey. Rayburn's record is longer and steadier. Toledo Bend fell to 0.56 in its latest survey, so check TPWD's next creel before making plans around its pooled rate. Before you trust any other lake's rank, check how many surveys support it and how old its latest one is.
NOTES AND SOURCES
- Source: U.S. Geological Survey, The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat), ScienceBase data release.
- Also: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Toledo Bend Reservoir 2009 Fisheries Management Survey Report.
- Also: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, lake survey reports index (creel survey months by lake).
- Scope: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department angler intercept creel surveys compiled in CreelCat, survey years 2003 to 2022 (each runs June to May), full-year surveys only (340 days or more). One row per survey. Waters are ranked when they have two or more usable full-year surveys and 50,000 or more pooled angler hours, unless TPWD's summaries confirm none of their surveys as full-year and describe only part-year creels there.
- Method: DERIVED. Bass per hour = largemouth bass caught (kept plus released, species-level CreelCat rows, which include tournament anglers) summed over a water's usable surveys, divided by the summed angler hours of all anglers on that water, whatever they fished for. Minutes per bass = 60 divided by that rate. Kept share = bass kept divided by bass caught, where kept includes tournament fish weighed in and released (TPWD counts them as harvest). Catch and hours are TPWD expanded estimates (SAMPLED). Survey months were checked against TPWD lake survey summaries where one exists.
- Limits: Bass per hour divides bass caught by the hours of every angler on the water, including crappie and catfish anglers. A bass angler's own rate runs higher, and lakes where more of the effort goes to bass look better on this measure.
- Limits: Catch and hours are TPWD estimates from roving or access-point creel surveys, each with its own sampling error. A water with two surveys can move several places on one new survey.
- Limits: Survey years differ by water. Sam Rayburn has seven usable surveys from 2005 to 2018, Fork has 13 from 2005 to 2020 and some waters have two.
- Limits: Six Toledo Bend surveys from 2005 to 2010 used a design stratified across the Texas and Louisiana sides and were left out. In the three seasons TPWD's 2009 report covers, their effort runs 1.7 to 2.7 times TPWD's Texas-side totals while their bass catch is near zero. The surveys kept for Toledo Bend match TPWD's Texas-side hours exactly, on water TPWD puts at 70,469 acres.
- Limits: Four surveys that CreelCat lists as running June to May were dropped because TPWD's own summaries describe part-year creels. Many other survey years have no TPWD summary page we could read, so a few part-year surveys may remain.
- Limits: Coleto Creek pools 1.02 bass an hour over its 2005 and 2012 surveys, but no TPWD summary confirms either one as full-year and TPWD's later creels there ran January to June. Its 2021 survey of 175 days came out at 0.3 bass an hour. Coleto Creek and Arrowhead are listed apart and not ranked, because TPWD's summaries confirm none of their surveys as full-year and describe only part-year creels on those two waters.
- Limits: Kept shares include tournament fish weighed in and released, which TPWD counts as harvest. On Toledo Bend in 2013-14 those were 43,983 of the 130,767 bass kept.
- Limits: The ranking is our arithmetic on agency estimates. It is a first pass and has not been peer reviewed.
Fully Drawn Research is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency, transportation agency, mapping provider or outfitter. Fully Drawn Research is an independent data and analysis desk. This paper reports FDR's own analysis of public agency and survey data. Harvest, catch and survey figures describe what hunters and anglers reported or what agencies counted or estimated, not how many animals or fish are present, and they reflect regulations and hunter or angler choices as well as wildlife numbers.
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