Soil conservation lake

[quackerback]

I have been told that soil conservation lakes are made by tax dollars and can be fished by the public. Can anyone on here confirm or deny this. It sounds unrealistic to me.

[Acuna]

Although that technically may or may not be true (I don't know the answer), you still have to get across somebody's property to fish it and I without some sort of easement or public access specifically granted and recorded in the deed records you are going to be out of luck because you will be trespassing.

I would liken it to some of the public land out west- its public, but due to the fact that it is completely surrounded by private property, the general public cannot access it.

And my gut tells me NO- even though tax dollars built the scl, it is still private property.

[cosmiccowboy]

I have been told that soil conservation lakes are made by tax dollars and can be fished by the public. Can anyone on here confirm or deny this. It sounds unrealistic to me.

USDA may cost share but they don't pay 100% and private property is private property.

[Randy]

My folks have one on our place and its very much private.

[jerp]

I have been told that soil conservation lakes are made by tax dollars and can be fished by the public. Can anyone on here confirm or deny this. It sounds unrealistic to me.

Operating on that theory got me in trouble once back in college. There was a beautiful soil conservation lake - I think it was built by the CCC or WPA back in the 30's - near a place I DID have permission to fish. We reasoned that since it was built with public money it must be open to everybody so we hopped the fence, hiked down to it and started casting. About 30 minutes later a contrary opinion on the access question was expressed to us by the landowner who'd arrived on an ancient tractor and was carrying what looked like Jed Clampett's shotgun. He said he'd shot tresspassers before and would do it again if we didn't leave. We left. Fast.

[BrianL]

100% private. Soil conservation is an assistance program where they will pay 50% of the first "x" yards of dirt moved. The other 50% is paid by the landowner.

On a pool I wanted to build, the assistance was going to pay $2500, and my part was $25,000.00.

[txfireguy2003]

I know of a deal where these ponds are put in, and as part of the deal, they put in "draft pipes" in the bottom of the pond. They are designed so that local volunteer fire departments can use the tank as a water source. Supposedly, the VFD is supposed to have access to the pipes so they can just hook a pumper up and have virtually unlimited water. It's great in theory, but in practice, the land owner always has a fence around the property and the VFD has to cut the fence to get at the pipes. They are almost never used. As far as fishing, I have no idea.

[ronny]

We have 2 and they are very private.

[hopco.boy]

ya, there are a lot of them out here where me and ronny live. they aint public. but sneakin in fishin and not gettin caught sure is fun.

[Big Daddy]

When we built our lake in 2000 they were offering about $2000 of a lake that cost me little over $ 30,000 to build. Their was way to many stipulations and paperwork. One good thng they did was stake it out for free and help design and dam calculations. It's the best $$ I have spent.

[Tejas Wildlife]

Randy & Ronnie (sounds like a couple of Country singers, doesn't it?) are correct. We have one on our property too.

[Tejas Wildlife]

Sorry Ronny, screwed up the spelling of your name too.