Largemouth bass

This is the most sought after sport fish in Texas and, in most pond environments, is the primary predator. The northern largemouth bass species is native to Texas and is a widely stocked fish. While the Florida bass subspecies grows to a larger size, it’s very sensitive to cold temperatures and is more difficult to catch. Stocking Florida bass requires a lake of greater depth due to their temperature sensitivity.

Channel and Blue Catfish

Channel and blue catfish do well in most pond environments and can be stocked in ponds of any size or as a supplement to bass and forage populations in ponds larger than 1 acre. Channel catfish are readily available for stocking and can grow quickly to a harvestable size when fed commercial feed. Pond owners wanting very large catfish can stock blue catfish, however, very large Blue catfish primarily consume fish and will compete with other sport fish for prey. In ponds being managed primarily for bass fishing, channel catfish are the preferred species.

Bluegill

Bluegill has a reputation for overpopulation, but the bluegill is a fine sport fish and one of the only fish species which can produce the large numbers of small fish needed to provide food for bass. Absent bluegill, a quality bass population will probably not develop.

Redear sunfish

This species can be stocked with bluegill in Texas ponds as supplemental forage. There also a fine sport fish and can increase angling opportunities. Because they eat snails they may also reduce fish parasites within a pond or lake.

Hybrid Striped Bass

This bass species are another sport fish that can be stocked in any size pond to provide additional sportfishing. Hybrid striped bass will not reproduce in ponds. It is best to consult a biologist if you have plans to stock this species of bass.

Fathead Minnow

The fathead minnow is a relatively slow swimmer and very little verbal to predation. They’re useful in a catfish stocked pond that is not being fed commercially or in new bass ponds to increase first-year growth. After bass populations have been established, there are no long-term benefits of continuing to stock with fathead minnows.

2 Species Widely Stocked but Considered Undesirable

Crappie

Crappie will compete with bass for food, eat the small bass, and tend to overpopulate and become stunted. If you are wanting to stock crappie, it’s best to allocate a pond just for this species.

Flathead Catfish–(also known as Yellow Catfish)

Do not confuse this sub species of catfish with channel or blue cat. This predator consumes large numbers of all species of fish, including largemouth bass.

Corn is obviously the most common deer supplement. At around $5 a bag, it’s cheap and easy to buy at any Tractor Supply or Wal-Mart, and easy to distribute or load into a feeder. But corn is also the poorest human-provided nutrition source for whitetail. Corn is low in protein and does not provide nutritional levels needed to develop bone and muscle. While corn is a cheap method to bait and hold deer in an area, commercial protein pellets and establishing food plots can accomplish the same result as well as increasing nutrition and total available quantity of food. Better food source(s)- and more of it – means healthier and higher numbers of offspring and larger wildlife populations on your place. Commercial feed pellets are high protein and can be distributed like corn. Food plots should be planted on a split season growing cycle: one planting in early spring for summer months and one in early fall for winter consumption. Rye, wheat and peas are common cool season plantings, and vetch and sunflowers warm season plantings.

Of the two seasons, the summer months are the most stressful dietary period for whitetail. Summer food supplementation is most critical due to fawns being born and nursed and bucks adding antler growth.

Planted Millet

For waterfowl, dove and songbirds, establishing food plots is most important during migratory and winter months when food sources are scarce. Bird food plots can be established by shallow discing and sowing with seed-producing plants like sunflower, pea and millet.

Locate food plots near surface water sources and in narrow strips and – for deer – adjacent to escape cover. Of course make sure game food plots are protected from cattle on your property so all production is available for wildlife.

The size of your pond or lake is the major factor that will determine the species and quantity of fish to stock, the degree of management needed to maintain these fish, and how many fish you can harvest each year.

If you are controlling the initial stocking of a pond or lake, in very small ponds it’s usually best to stock only catfish since they provide more fishing recreation, food for the table, and can be fed commercially prepared feed. Many existing farm ponds – especially those built simply for cattle watering – will have a variety of fish brought in by drainage, and by eggs sticking to the feet of waterfowl or birds from neighboring stocked ponds. Ponds and lakes larger than one surface acre or greater are more suitable for multiple species. The type species you may stock will be dependent on water depth, temperature, and oxygen content; live floating, submerged, and emergent vegetation; dead standing or fallen timber, and artificial cover such as sunken concrete blocks, rocks, and other structure constructed of plastic, PVC pipe, or other man made materials. Learning the habitat requirements and preferences of common fishes will help land owners to not only manage the needs of various life stages of those fishes but also provide habitat that improves angler success. For Texas ponds, warm season water temperatures are too high and oxygen to low for non-native rainbow trout. Hybrid striped bass do not reproduce, so do they do not need spawning habitat, but they do need deep, open water and adequate forage production in those habitats.

Create Fish Habitat

A firm, gravel substrate is ideal for nest spawners such as largemouth bass and sunfish. A 10′ x 10′ area of gravel 3 to 6 inches thick can be added where water will be 3 to 4 feet deep during the spring. Gravel can be placed on plastic sheeting or some other barrier to avoid sinking into the bottom sediments over time. Nesting largemouth bass prefer sites near large simple structures such as natural logs or pressure-treated lumber held in place on the bottom by concrete blocks; this provides adults with cover especially from bird predators in clearwater. Adult fish prefer areas that offer rapid change in water depth and irregular bottom contours. Many ponds that were built to accommodate livestock watering or bowl shaped offering little habitat complexity. Adding artificial cover is excellent, low-maintenance alternative to plants for providing sanctuary for prey fishes and cover for predatory fishes from which to ambush their prey. Artificial cover serves to increase angler catch rates by congregating fish is smaller, more serviceable areas. Over time, a pond owner can receive more maintenance-free recreation from an artificial structure them from introducing live plants that might grow out of control. It is also important to know that fish of different sizes and lifestages require different kinds of habitat. Young bass and sunfish need tight spaces within which the hide and feed. Christmas trees, rock piles, and thin brush serve this purpose well. Adult bass preferred large interstitial spaces that allow hiding as well as freedom to maneuver and travel within the cover. As mentioned, brush and trees with larger, open limbs, large rocks, and PVC structures work well. When cutting and sinking brush, remember to use hardwood trees such as Mesquite, Oasge, Cedar or Oak, that will resist decay longer than softwoods like Ash, Pine, Elm or Hackberry.

Varied lake topography

Ponds in different parts of Texas experience varied annual rainfall and evaporation rates. While East Texas ponds are usually full most of the year, South and West Texas ponds tend to experience drastic drawdowns during the summer months. These drawdowns concentrate fish in small areas and current reduce populations through either predication or oxygen depletion. If building new, in designing your lake or pond, you can minimize the impact of such drawdowns by providing water 11 to 15 feet depth in one section of the pond, and by sizing the pond appropriately to the drainage area (the watershed), and by constructing a quality, well cored dam.

Paved county road on 2 sides

2000 SF barn

Pipe corrals/chutes

Hay meadow

Water meter and electric pole in place on property

Concrete drive/RV pad

New surveyed private lakesite in woods

Creek, 2 ponds

Ag exemption

Quiet area with excellent neighbors

(Pre Lake Price) $200,000

Call 903-439-4936 for directions to view and more details

Pre arranged financing with 15% down

9.998 Acres of sandy loam soil

Mostly wooded with hilltop building site at back of property

Located between Sulphur Springs & Winnsboro

8 minutes to Lake Fork

Paved county road frontage

Water, electric and phone at property

Wireless broadband internet available

630 feet of road frontage

$41,600

Call 903-439-4936 to view this property

Local land financing pre-arranged for this property

Rural land lenders and community banks fund land purchases in their area and surrounding counties because they know land values and the demand and trends of land in their own backyard. That comfort and level of safety for a bank translates into lower rates, lower down payments and longer loan terms.

Many rural lenders currently prefer loaning on land over other assets right now- especially parcels that are improved in the sense of having utilities, current surveys, good fencing and ponds and lakes – a good indicator of the stability of land as their collateral.

We can put you in contact with the lenders we use on a regular basis for financing Texas rural land purchases.

To apply, you create a wildlife management plan for your property. It’s not a complex plan as you are basically outlining for the appraisal district your practices you will be undertaking towards managing wildlife on your land. There is a list of 7 practices that qualify: you will be confirming that you will undertake 3 practices out of the 7 on an ongoing basis to qualify your land.

Some examples are: supplemental feeding such as corn feeders or planting small patches of wheat or peas for deer, creating a new water source, creating shelters like birdhouses or brush piles and by census counts.

Your management plan can be submitted to the appraisal district on a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife management form. You are not required to consult with TPWD or have them approve your plan.

The appraisal district and chief appraiser will primarily be looking to see that you meet the criteria for a wildlife management exemption status by currently being in agricultural or timber appraisal and that you have completed the form and stated your management practices you intend to undertake for your property.

You may choose to manage for what is considered non-game wildlife like rabbit, squirrel and songbirds. Creating brush piles and box houses for habitat and control of predators (trapping) are good practices that can increase wildlife populations especially on smaller acreage properties. Managing for fish however does not qualify for wildlife management, but may qualify as aquaculture.

When to use Wildlife Management Exemption over an Agricultural Exemption

Since the property tax savings are the same with either exemption, the answer depends on your use of the land. If you primarily feed deer or create habitat for birds as opposed to baling hay or running cattle, you may be already conducting most – or all – of the required practices to qualify for a wildlife management use. Properties that are presently under timber exemption would be natural candidates as little or no hay production or grazing of animals is typically possible. Since the base exemption is agriculture, regardless of whether in a wildlife or timber use, you can always change from wildlife to some other agricultural practice. You can still have cattle or bale grass while under wildlife exemption and in fact managed grazing is often beneficial to maintaining productive wildlife habitat. 

While you want to make sure the type exemption you apply for reflects your actual use of the property, don’t make it a complex process. Unless you are making a intensive change from one type use to the other – say, all cattle grazing to all wildlife management, there is very little reason to make application to change the use exemption. And since all exemptions originate from an agricultural base exemption, there is typically no additional tax savings to be had by switching unless you change your use of the land substantially. If you question whether your new use would be considered a substantial change, you can always informally ask the appraisal district if a new application – and different type exemption – is necessary.

Also, before you change any use status, keep in mind that the uses of your property are not mutually exclusive, so if you are grazing cattle it does not preclude you from planting supplemental crops for deer or adding water features for wildlife.

Good perimeter fencing

Cross fenced

Sandy loam soil

FM and paved County Road frontage on 2 sides

Water, electric and phone on property

Small storage/tack barn

Pipe fencing along entrance

Nice build site with Pine and Magnolia trees

Wireless broadband internet available

5 minutes to Lake Fork

Between Sulphur Springs and Winnsboro

$88,200

Call 903-439-4936 for directions to view

Pre-arranged financing for this property:

15% down – $531/month (20 yr @ 6%)  or

(depending on buyer credit) 10% down – $563/month (20 yr @ 6%)

Small lakes and ponds

Large lakesite potential

Deer and dove on property

Workshop with 8 car garage

Covered equipment parking

3800′ landing strip

Fenced, cross-fenced and surveyed

Frontage on State Hwy 11

Located between Commerce  and Sulphur Springs

1 Hr, 20 Min E of Dallas

$1,890,000

For appointment to tour this ranch: CALL 903-439-4936