Champion Lake

[Deer Slayer]

Has anyone ever fished Champion Lake outside of Dayton. Any info will be appreciated, ie, speices of fish, lake depth, etc. It is part of the Trinity River Refuge. Also, Pickets Bayou. Many years ago the Bayou was a good place to bank fish. Can you still get to it and if so how?

[bh89-2]

Yes I have fished and hunted it many times.  The lake used to be privately owned, but is now owned by the US Corps. of Engineers.  If coming from Dayton on FM 1409 GO PAST the lake on your left and you will come to a sharp right hand turn with a road to the left.  The road have numerous hourses on it, but it is the access road for the lake.  Take this road and it will dead-end into the lake on your left.  At the end of this road the Corps. has a put in a boat ramp that is pretty good.  The lake in general is very shallow and during the summer has a lot of hydrilla and Aligators.  You can put a full size bass boat in the lake, however there is really not enough room to run it and a smaller boat with a troll motor is sufficient.  I don't know if they have limited the HP of the motors yet or not, but you won't need a gas motor.  Bass are pentyful and during the spawn Crappie around cypress knees are good.  Catfish are good in the deeper holes, manly at the Damn end.  Most bass are in the 1lb pound range with a few larger ones mixed in.  When the Trinity is out of flood dtage the river will splill into this lake.  There are a few scum-bags from the Trinity River Bottoms that come down there from time to time so I would not leave my vehicle parked overnight.

One note, when you get to the end of the road where the lake is, there is a bayou on your right.  That is Picketts Bayou and access to the bayou from the right side fo the road is a private fishing and hunting club.  Stay to the left at the end of the road and the lake is free fishing for all.  If you want to fish Picketts, you have to acces it from Trinity river and it requires a small boat and some luck that there is not a log jam.  Picketts is very good fishing.  Picketts and Champion used to be joined, however Picketts was damned at the end fo the road mentioned above and this created Champion Lake.

If you want more details PM me and I'll give you a phone number to call me. 

[bronco1]

Champion Lake is now part of the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, and just this year they took ownership of the previously private Pickets Bayou boat ramp as well as 1 mile of Pickets Bayou. Here are a couple of links for furthur info on both.

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[bh89-2]

Champion Lake is now part of the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, and just this year they took ownership of the previously private Pickets Bayou boat ramp as well as 1 mile of Pickets Bayou. Here are a couple of links for furthur info on both.

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Thanks for the info.  I did not know they took that part.  That is good because I know a little pond just down form their that is full of big bass and not visible from the water.

[ropinfool52]

I tell you right now champion is right in my back door and the fish ain't really all that great you pretty much got to fish the dam or picketts