Lone Star Lake should be a hot spot for largemouth bass this year.

Richard Sanders, district fisheries biologist for Wildlife and Parks, did electrofishing and gill netting at the lake in southwest Douglas County late last year and sampled bass at a rate of 125 per hour.

“Rates exceeding 75 per hour are good,” Sanders said.

Spillway repair about four years ago required that the water level to be lowered allowed terrestrial vegetation to colonize in exposed basin areas.

When the lake was refilled, largemouth bass took advantage of the enhanced shoreline cover by producing more young.

“Many of these young survived, thus increasing the bass population,” Sanders said.

The bulk of bass sampled ranged from 12 to 15 inches in length and were in good condition, prompting Sanders to label largemouth bass fishing as potential excellent.

“It appears bluegill benefited from the drawdown also,” Sanders said. “Numerous specimens were captured in trap nets, but most were small so angling for bluegill will be fair, at best.”

Lone Star boasts black and white crappie, and sample catches of both species have been down over the past five years.

“However, with return to normal runoff conditions in 2004 after two dry years, crappie reproduction increased as higher numbers of juvenile fish were observed,” Sanders said.

Most adult fish sampled were 8 to 10 inches long. Body condition varied from poor to fair.

“Anglers have been catching crappie this winter and in general crappie fishing should be fair,” Sanders said.

Most channel catfish sampled were 11 to 16 inches and in good condition. Nearly a third of the samplings were 17 inches or longer, and Sanders predicts angling for channel catfish will be good.

A 15-inch minimum length limit on channel cats went into effect at the lake Jan. 1.

The lake’s wiper fishery appears to be on the upswing, Sanders noted, after intermediate-sized wiper were stocked during the last three years.

Wipers captured in gill nets ranged from 8 to 25 inches long, with 15 percent of the catch exceeding 20 inches.

Lake users may have noticed an increased amount of aquatic vegetation at Lone Star.

The vegetation provides nursery habitat for sportfish, substrate for important food chain organisms and it functions as a bio-filter to clean the water.

However, too much vegetation can negatively impact the fishery and impede anglers so Sanders will stock a few grass carp periodically into Lone Star in order to manage the vegetation.

Douglas County no longer requires anglers to purchase county fishing licenses or boat permits at Lone Star Lake. Anglers are still required, however, to possess a state fishing license.