# Lake Livingston Silting Problems



## BDGreen (Jul 20, 2019)

My family has owned a home on the north end of Lake Livingston since the late 70's and have always enjoyed some pretty good fishing on that end of the lake. The last few years silting has become a huge problem. Getting into Caney Creek or White Rock Creek is a nightmare now. Recently, my brother was following the channel markers leading from the north of the 356 bridge into the river channel and destroyed the lower unit on his boat. My brother in law and I took my recently purchased Shallow Sport into Caney Creek and got stuck on a sandbar way up in the creek last week. Calls to the TRA and the state fall on deaf ears. Have any of you run into silting problems where you fish?


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## atcfisherman (Oct 5, 2006)

We have a lake house on the White Rock creek side right in the Oak Ridge subdivision right after going over the creak on 356. We fish Caney Creek often and have found it difficult at times to get into it. It seems like the last 5 years silting has caused problems there. If they ever lower the lake for repairs to the dam, we are going to go try and make our own channel over there. But it will silt in again unless someone with a backhoe could get there on a barge.


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Its bad since all the flooding recent years. Point Blank is getting bad too. Not only coming down river the creeks with all the sugar sand washing down is bad.


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## Jigger (Feb 12, 2009)

I would like to crappie fish on Livingston and know nothing about north of the island. I guess when I get ready, I be asking about some safe zones.


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## BDGreen (Jul 20, 2019)

Do y'all know of any groups getting together to try and get some help with this?


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## shade (Aug 12, 2010)

*silting*

friends have a place on white rock. channel used to be 15' deep now maybe 4' on a good day. your fighting mother nature and any digging dredging is only a temporary fix.


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## nikki (Apr 14, 2011)

shade said:


> friends have a place on white rock. channel used to be 15' deep now maybe 4' on a good day. your fighting mother nature and any digging dredging is only a temporary fix.


Mother nature took care of it for centuries until man changed it with the dam, same on all our lakes, they just can't be flushed with occasional flooding.


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

I have seen the mouth of Caney silt in back in the 70's after huge floods. It will eventually open back up on its own.


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## Captain Marty (Jul 14, 2006)

*Kickapoo Creek*

My parents built a house in Carolina Cove back in the 70's. They lived there until 2003. The fishing for white bass and crappie was great until the floods in the 80's. The mouth of Carolina creek was filled in and fishing went down hill.

I now live in Onalaska, just off of Kickapoo Creek. The creek is filled in just north of the 190 bridge. It is filled in the sand and very dangerous to navigate into the creek. The creek north of the 190 bridge is DEAD. I fished the upper end of the creek yesterday for three hours and didn't get a bite.


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## SD Hawkins (Jan 2, 2008)

We fished a tourney on Livingston some years back and we managed a limit in the area above 190, fishiest place we saw that day, was too windy to go S. I will agree with Martys report though if he spent that much time up there.

Kinda the same thing over here, mouths of many cuts in the San Jac silted in. I watched two residents right before Harvey try to shore up a cut. They had a backhoe all the way in there and were trying to put a wooden bulkhead in. Worked their az off on it, cant tell they did anything. We jump that sandbar now.


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## Poppahobbs (Nov 8, 2006)

I just wanted to add I live in Yaupon Cove on Kickapoo creek since the weather has been so unsettled the crappie have shut down but for about 3 weeks prior to this we were catching good messes o 1/16 &1/8 oz jigs.various colors but for me mostly pink head chartreuse and black body but do have to know where the shallow spots are. Be safe. Also the will bite again when the water warms.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I used to fish for LMB up Caney creek in the 70s and it and Dad's creek were pretty deep and LMB fishing was very good. I have seen it silt in too much to navigate and then a few years later open up again, but never as deep as before. 
As far as north of 190 on Kickapoo when the water gets down into the 51 degrees or lower range I have traveled the creek with Downscan and side scan and rod and it's like the fish vanished!


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

Captain Marty said:


> My parents built a house in Carolina Cove back in the 70's. They lived there until 2003. The fishing for white bass and crappie was great until the floods in the 80's. The mouth of Carolina creek was filled in and fishing went down hill.
> 
> I now live in Onalaska, just off of Kickapoo Creek. The creek is filled in just north of the 190 bridge. It is filled in the sand and very dangerous to navigate into the creek. The creek north of the 190 bridge is DEAD. I fished the upper end of the creek yesterday for three hours and didn't get a bite.


I wouldnâ€™t go as far as to say itâ€™s dead. The recent rainfall we have had get the creek running and off color which will slow the bite. There have been some good catches of crappie caught up Kickapoo earlier this year before the stained water. I think the floods last year prompted a lot of our whites to go through the gates and down river. The lake was full of small white bass late in the year but those fish wonâ€™t be big enough to make a spawning run up the creeks this year. There is still a good route to run from 190 north up Kickapoo creek but you have to know where youâ€™re going. You donâ€™t have much room for error.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

*Study Results Coming Soon*

The TRA has completed a study to update the silting profile in the Livingston watershed. The data is in and the report is being assembled now. A spring publication of the report is expected. The last official study was done in 1991.

The TRA has promised to bring the results to an upcoming Hookers meeting for review. That should be a most interesting meeting. Stay tuned...


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## SetDaHook (Oct 21, 2010)

Captain Marty said:


> My parents built a house in Carolina Cove back in the 70's. They lived there until 2003. The fishing for white bass and crappie was great until the floods in the 80's. The mouth of Carolina creek was filled in and fishing went down hill.
> 
> I now live in Onalaska, just off of Kickapoo Creek. The creek is filled in just north of the 190 bridge. It is filled in the sand and very dangerous to navigate into the creek. The creek north of the 190 bridge is DEAD. I fished the upper end of the creek yesterday for three hours and didn't get a bite.


Captain....where is it silted in the worst? Is it the "S" curve, or before or after? I ran up there several times in the fall of 2019 and never had a problem and I had a keen eye on the depthfinder since the big floods in 2018.


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## Beaux (Oct 11, 2012)

You can barely get into the mouth of whites or nelson's even with a mud boat.


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

SetDaHook said:


> Captain....where is it silted in the worst? Is it the "S" curve, or before or after? I ran up there several times in the fall of 2019 and never had a problem and I had a keen eye on the depthfinder since the big floods in 2018.


It gets a little shallow in the "S" curve but I've never had any trouble running it.


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## BDGreen (Jul 20, 2019)

Meadowlark said:


> The TRA has completed a study to update the silting profile in the Livingston watershed. The data is in and the report is being assembled now. A spring publication of the report is expected. The last official study was done in 1991.
> 
> The TRA has promised to bring the results to an upcoming Hookers meeting for review. That should be a most interesting meeting. Stay tuned...


Good to hear. I hope they also have a plan to address the problem.


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## jas415 (May 25, 2009)

*silting*

I am a water district director in the Spring area, and we have been interacting a bit with the Harris County Flood control district for the last two years regarding silting in Spring and Cypress creeks. If what they say is true, channeling, chanellizing, or re-channeling a creek or river is a federal issue. HCFCD can only clear debris, which sometimes will mean 30-50' either side of the centerline of all sand, etc.. 
We have 4 stocked amenity detention ponds that have silted in over the past 20 years so that we have less then the 6-10' depths. We considered buying a barge mounted dredge. As those ponds are withing the 100 year flood plain, it gets 'red tape' constipated quickly. 
The TRA has the money and with all the billions floating around in Texas for flood control it would make great sense (something most bureaucrats dont posses), to clear and deepen the feeder creeks and steams on upper Livingston. creating more 'lake capacity' (detention). The real issue is what and how do you re-locate the dredged material to other places without harming the new location. 
Quite often FEMA gets its petty **** involved and that dredged material is somehow classified toxic so it has to be disposed of in some very expensive way so the 'friends' of FEMA get paid.
These small pontoon mounted dredges can only pump 300-400 feet, and get in the $110K range very quickly. I suppose several landowners, water front types could get together and rent or buy one for a year and just do it but I would wager a lot of money the TRA will be on you like a duck on a June bug.


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## SetDaHook (Oct 21, 2010)

jas415 said:


> I am a water district director in the Spring area, and we have been interacting a bit with the Harris County Flood control district for the last two years regarding silting in Spring and Cypress creeks. If what they say is true, channeling, chanellizing, or re-channeling a creek or river is a federal issue. HCFCD can only clear debris, which sometimes will mean 30-50' either side of the centerline of all sand, etc..
> We have 4 stocked amenity detention ponds that have silted in over the past 20 years so that we have less then the 6-10' depths. We considered buying a barge mounted dredge. As those ponds are withing the 100 year flood plain, it gets 'red tape' constipated quickly.
> The TRA has the money and with all the billions floating around in Texas for flood control it would make great sense (something most bureaucrats dont posses), to clear and deepen the feeder creeks and steams on upper Livingston. creating more 'lake capacity' (detention). The real issue is what and how do you re-locate the dredged material to other places without harming the new location.
> Quite often FEMA gets its petty **** involved and that dredged material is somehow classified toxic so it has to be disposed of in some very expensive way so the 'friends' of FEMA get paid.
> These small pontoon mounted dredges can only pump 300-400 feet, and get in the $110K range very quickly. I suppose several landowners, water front types could get together and rent or buy one for a year and just do it but I would wager a lot of money the TRA will be on you like a duck on a June bug.


I live on Lake Livingston and my experience with the TRA is that they are not interested in the well-being of the property owners or the lake as a recreational facility. To them, it is simply water storage to be sold downstream. But you are correct that the more silting, the less water storage so you would think the TRA would have concerns about that. In my experience they are more concerned with a property owner scooping out a few wheel barrows full of sand out of the lake so they can show up in their little white trucks and write you a citation.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

With the last several years the flooding in drastic fashion lasting for months at a time with high water levels for extended periods makes predicting what will be effective hard to determine, especially for those committing $ and resources. 
The creek across from my house cut into the high bank during Harvey and eroded part of the road, the city has tried hard to effectively repair and shore it up, as city electric trucks make a twice a day trip on it.
But it seems the landscape has been altered in a way simple fill with concrete and dirt will never fix. 
They are now faced with some sort of expensive solution, expensive pile driving and erosion control measures, or continued short term fixes, or closing the road and make the back way in the front entrance. All of them costly.
I see the same effects on infrastructure near waterways and lakes themselves all over. The massive amounts of derbies and silt the Trinity has been dumping are probably here to stay. I'm working to adjust to the new normal fishing, as it has changed fishing for me some.
On a different note.
The red buds are blooming, but I have not found spawning white bass yet, just some reports of small males.
Should be soon!


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

Seeing reports of spawning on the Sabine and the Angelina. I hope weâ€™re just behind those two


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I'm headed that way as soon as the weather allows. It's got be going on somewhere, lol!


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

shadslinger said:


> I'm headed that way as soon as the weather allows. It's got be going on somewhere, lol!


I need to get going myself!!!!!!!

I haven't been on the river since fall. If I don't hurry I'm going to miss prime Gou fish time too!!!! I'm still on the hunt for that big big one!!!!!!


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## TimWalker (12 mo ago)

I’m new to the website. Did TRA make any announcement on the silting issue? I live in Glen Cove over by the Blanchard boat ramp and the sand bar at the entrance to our little cove has grown during the past couple of winter storms.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

It has really silted in a lot since the floods in the last ten years, we are now going on two years without a major flood and fishing is improving on the south end, but all of the flats I used to drift have lost all of their contour lines and become thickly silted. Drift fishing them seems to have suffered too, but I hope this next couple of months produces a lot of big blues.
The white bass and crappie have rebounded very well the last two years on the south end where I fish, a lot of smaller cats but big ones are hard to come by. The silting in of creek mouths is not going away and nobody is going to throw money at it because it would be cost prohibitive and only a short term, maybe months long, fix.
Nature may have her way with it and somehow a weird coincidence occurs where all of the creeks had major floods up stream while the river and lake received none and the lake level was 3' low..
Looks to me like property owners will have to band together to resolve entry ways issues related to silting, because TRA and the City of Houston are not going to do any dredging and the fishermen will have to continue to augment structure by sinking brushpiles. The Trinity watershed is unique in how fast the silting is aging the lake. Any report done more than two years ago might not be accurate.


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## Gofish2day (May 9, 2006)

Something else silted in greatly is the Lake Livingston Dam. It was filling in before the elect turbine. The Turbine install made it worse.
Above the cable is very shallow. No more deep hole on the east side.


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