Lake Alan Henry

(I got lots of pics below if you want to skip the long-winded summary)

I woke up Saturday morning and spontaneously decided on a trip to check out Lake Alan Henry which is just SE of Post, TX near Justiceburg, TX (about 175 miles from my place) or 50 miles SE of Lubbock. When on the road, I phoned David Drummond and asked if he'd like to go along. He did, so we met up at the gate entrance to the only boat ramp and public area open on the lake.

A quick side note here is that the lake is entirely owned by the city of Lubbock. There are no state facilities whatsoever. The campsites are primitive with only porta-johns available...and nothing else. However, the boat ramp and parking areas are pretty nice. There is a pretty nice fishing barge too. A little cafe/bait shop place by the gate entrance is about the only civilization out there...which is a good thing in my opinion. :-)

The lake was pretty busy being a 3-day weekend. But, everybody was well behaved and relaxed for the most part which is a polar opposite of what you experience with the lakes around Dallas. In fact, the place didn't even get trashed up as they do back in my old stomping grounds.

After David and I explored some of the camping areas and discovered some good bank fishing spots, we started chunking some spinnerbaits and twitch baits and catching a few big warmouth perch and a couple of bass. The water was absoltely pristine and crystal clear...almost a tropical characteristic. It was pretty cool being able to see so deeply and watch the fish fight in the water. This would be an awesome lake to scuba dive in.

Nightfall came and we setup on the fishing barge with some stink bait and nightcrawlers. David chummed the water by taking his shoes off and sticking his feet in the water. LOL!! Unfortunately, even that wasn't enough to get the fish to bite. ;-) Nobody was catching anything and these idiots kept throwing nets in the water to catch baitfish. That certainly didn't help matters. With such clear water and favorable structure near the bank (50 foot water rapidly coming up to a flat with lots of pond weed), I chunked a black spinnerbait in hopes of snagging a couple of good-sized bass moving in night to feed along that drop-off and weed line. Nope....nada. So, we called it a night and headed back to the cabin at the cafe/bait place and crashed.

The next day was kind of nuts as alot of people showed up. I was able to snag a couple of pretty nice, chunky bass in that same spot I mentioned above on some red shad worms along the edges of the pond weed. We found another quieter spot down the bank a ways where I deployed my belly boat (fishing float tube). I paddled out a ways working that same red shad worm along the drop offs on a couple of points and working it through the tops of th submereged mesquite trees in about 20 foot of water. I was able to catch a couple of decent bass doing that and lost a much bigger one as he bulldozed into one of those submerged trees and got away. Soon, our fishing spot got noisy as more people showed up, so we spent the rest the day doing some hiking and exploring. We headed home in the late afternoon.

All in all, a VERY relaxing and enjoyable weekend for me. I haven't had one of those in a very long time. The lake is absolutely beautiful and pristine. I was very impressed with the quality of the fishery aspect of it as well as the incredible views. Since I love to bass fish so much, this is a real dream lake. It is definitely a "Lake Fork of the West". The lake record is just over 15 pounds and I saw plenty of pictures of 10-plus pound bass on the wall as well as the quality of the ones I caught. I saw a couple of pictures of humongous crappie too that looked like bass! They were really some monsters.

With the lake experiencing a great deal less fishing pressure than Lake Fork has experienced over the years, it should continue to get even better and possibly rival Fork. I know that this sounds like sacrilege to my bass-fishing bretheren out there, but mark my words, it will. It's got all of the ingredients for it. With the deep, clear fertile water, it has some characteristics of the western US lakes that produce monster largemouth.

Besides, does Lake Fork have smallmouth bass? Nope. But Lake Alan Henry does! TP&W stocked about 150,000 fingerlings in 1993/1994. I have caught these little ferocious monsters before and pound-for-pound, they fight harder than any other game fish. They have different habits than largemouth and require unique techniques to catch them. I'm looking forward to that!!

Speaking of stockings, TP&W stocked about 150,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings in 1993/1994 with about 2,000 in 2004. It is going to be an incredible bass fishery for many years to come. It's also oriented E-W and being a narrow canyon lake, most all of it is well protected from the wind and free from monster waves on strong, windy days.

Needless to say, my fever to get another bass boat is very high right now. LOL!! I got to get a tow vehicle first and make sure my financial/job situation is stable by next summer. By then, if everything is cool, I'll take the plunge and get a good bass boat. One thing is for sure, it WILL happen. :-)

Ok, SOME PICS!!

As David and I drove around, we saw this dude on one of the trails. I couldn't get out of the van soon enough to get a good pic! He's got about 10 rattles...a pretty mature rattlesnake. How cool is that? (5786)

As I try to get closer for a better picture, he reacts to me and coils up. I didn't advance much further and gave him his space. He slowly backed up into the grass and disappeared. I was pretty darned excited to finally get to see a rattlesnake this close in the open and with a good camera in hand. (5787)


Not sure what kind of catcus this is, but they were fairly common. I'll nickname it a "Texas Hat Tree". :-) (5792)

From one of the campsites closest to the dam. The Texas flag is illlumintaed at night. Check out those large houses up there. If I could only win the lottery.... ;-) I'll be trying for a much better shot of this in the future. (5794)


A morning view from another campsite. (5798)


A future meal for a rattlesnake. (5808)


A cluster of cactus with alot of prickly pears. (5814)


Another great view from one of the hiking trails. (5815)


A pretty interesting rock formation which we think is caused by both wind and rain. (5817)


Some interesting rocks shaped by wind and rain around the formation in the pic above.. (5820)


Another one. (5821)


A few more. What struck me was thinking of how long it took to make this. We were very careful not to disturb anything. (5822)


David contemplates an attempt to fly like a buzzard. (5825)


Another incredible view....without our daredevil above. (5828)


One last unusual rock formation. (5831)


My attempt at some inspirational photography. I thought it cool that this lone flower was growing on this rock 200 feet up in the air. (5832)


Another great view. (5834)


David was standing on that rock earlier. (5835)


THE END.