Over 18,000 Lone Star Bass, 41 catfish released into Lake Bryan

Visitors go fishing in the Fisherman's Cove area of Lake Bryan on Wednesday. The lake was recently stocked with Lone Star Bass fingerlings and brood catfish.

Visitors go fishing in the Fisherman's Cove area of Lake Bryan on Wednesday.

A continued effort to improve fishing at Lake Bryan is being made through a partnership between Bryan Texas Utilities and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries Division.

One step toward that goal was taken to strengthen Lake Bryan's aquatic ecosystem on May 23 when TPWD released over 18,000 Lone Star Bass fingerlings into the lake. On June 1, 41 brood catfish that weighed around 20 pounds each were added in various locations of the lake.

"At one point, probably 20 years ago, Lake Bryan was a decent fishery," said Niki Ragan-Harbison, a fisheries biologist for the College Station-Houston Inland Fisheries Division District. "It was a good place to go catch a fish and we’re trying to get it back to that."

Lone Star Bass are a relatively new species and are descendants of Florida largemouth bass. These fish come from the John D. Parker East Texas State Fish Hatchery in Brookeland. TPWD stocking history shows just over 18,000 Lone Star Bass fingerlings also were released into Lake Bryan in 2022.

"They have the definite genetic potential to be larger largemouth bass," Ragan-Harbison said.

The 41 brood catfish are adults who were being phased out of reproduction at a hatchery in San Marcos.

"Lake Bryan doesn't have the best channel catfish population," Ragan-Harbison said. "We’ve stocked it before in the past, but we figured these bigger fish, especially with the spawning structures we put out there with BTU last fall, it would be great to have these big fish out there."

An Italian fisherman caught a catfish that would have broken the world record for the largest ever to be caught, but lost out on the milestone after setting the monster fish free.

Lake Bryan was created in the 1970s as a cooling source for the Roland C. Dansby Power Plant's steam unit. It is still used as a cooling source today, and the land where the lake sits is owned by BTU and the city of Bryan. Since the lake is Brazos County's largest body of water with public access, Brown noted city officials have long made it available for community use.

"That's why we do have the public park and why we want to improve the fishing because we know fishing is a favorite pastime of Texans and Americans, so that's something that we want to really focus on," said Meagan Brown, BTU's public information officer.

Improving the quality of fishing at Lake Bryan has been an ongoing process since BTU renovated the lake's public park in 2018, according to a 2022 TPWD report co-authored by Ragan-Harbison.

The lake's primary sport fishes include largemouth bass, blue catfish and channel catfish. There are also a variety of small sunfish, and Ragan-Harbison said the lake has a good number of tilapia. Black and white crappies are also found in the lake. And although red drum were stocked annually in the lake from 2015-20, a TPWD report said the stockings were unsuccessful, presumably due to limited forage during youth stages.

Most lakes in the area are hypereutrophic and have nutrients flow in from watershed, Ragan-Harbison explained, but since there's no natural water sources that flow into it, Lake Bryan isn't the most productive lake. It tends to be saltier and has a higher pH level.

"We’re not fed by a river or stream or any natural source like that, so that kind of changes the makeup of the water as far as the salinity and how warm or cool or what ends up coming into the lake by virtue of natural river-fed sources," Brown said. "You might get different species of fish or different species of animals. We don't really have that at Lake Bryan, so I think it's a lot about cultivating what would be good to support in this lake since it's unique not being fed by streams or rivers."

Vegetation work will be done at the lake in the near future to add to the base of the food chain, give fish more places to live in and attract bugs for them to eat, Ragan-Harbison said. Brown noted the lake has been fertilized in recent years to improve vegetation grown and fish habitats. TPWD's report showed Lake Bryan continues to have limited nutrients due to its small watershed and groundwater source, which hampers primary production and ultimately an abundance of sport fish at higher trophic levels.

Last October, over 100 artificial structures were placed in various parts of the lake in collaboration with BTU, TPWD and Major League Fishing's Fisheries Management Division. Lowe's in Bryan donated over 100 cinder blocks for MossBack structures and gravel to fill spawning beds. A barge with a hydraulic lift was used to dump the structures into the lake.

"Any structure is better than none," Ragan-Harbison said. "Natural is the best, but when you don't have the option for natural structures these artificial fish attractors are better than nothing. They help congregate fish, it gives ambush predators places to hide and attack prey fish from, and it helps people catch them better."

Both park staff and local game wardens have told TPWD they’ve seen more anglers at Lake Bryan and anglers having more success catching larger fish, Ragan-Harbison noted. She said samples over the last few years have indicated an increase in growth rates.

"The growth rates for our largemouth bass are on par with our other reservoirs," Ragan-Harbison said, "which is pretty nice because it had kind of declined there for a while."

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Alex Miller is the digital content coordinator and do-it-all reporter for The Eagle. Follow him on Twitter @AlexMill20.

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