Lake Athens Will Provide Clear-Water Change for Stage Three Championship Round

ATHENS, Texas – Everyone knows that “everything’s bigger in Texas.” But at the upcoming General Tire Stage Three Presented by TrueTimber on Lake Fork, the final 10 anglers qualifying to compete in the Championship Round will find themselves on a much smaller fishery in size – but what it lacks in acreage, it makes up for in impressive “bigger in Texas” bass genetics.

The Championship Round of Stage Three will be contested on Lake Athens, an impoundment of Flat Creek (a tributary of the Neches River) an hour due south of Lake Fork on Highway 19. At 1,799 acres, Lake Athens is roughly 6 percent the size of Lake Fork, but in terms of big-fish potential, it has some broad shoulders:

• The lake record is a 14-pound, 3-ouncer, caught in May of 1988 by Texas angler David Weaver.
• The fishery has produced 52 Toyota ShareLunker bass (fish weighing 8 pounds or more), including three “Legend/Legacy” fish (over 13 pounds).
• Lake Athens’ 10-pounder-per-acre average (using ShareLunker entries) is one 10-pounder per 106 surface acres, which isn’t a far cry below that of the legendary Lake Fork (a 10-pounder per 93 acres).

“Athens is a phenomenal lake,” said MLF pro Jeff Sprague, a lifetime resident of Lake Fork. “It’s just an awesome place to go fishing – there are probably more bass per capita in that lake than any lake I can think of. It’ll be a great lake for a championship day.”

All About Athens

Lake Athens was created in 1962 as a water-supply source for the City of Athens, and first stocked with Florida-strain largemouth fingerlings in 1978. Since that initial stocking, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) has nourished the fishery with several million largemouth fry and 2-inch fingerlings that are the progeny of ShareLunker fish.

Athens has also received several stockings of 3- to 5-pound pure Florida-strain adult largemouth, and multiple “retiree” broodstock fish from the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center hatchery located on the north side of the lake.   

“Lake Athens is the poster child for TPW and their hatchery program,” Sprague said. “You think about the genetics and the fish that swim in that lake, it’s pretty hard to not get over-excited about the possibility of competing for a championship there.”  

Athens is Vastly Different than Lake Fork

Besides the glaring size difference between Lake Fork and Athens, the anglers who qualify into the Stage Three championship will discover quickly that it’s not just the surface acreage that’s different on Athens.

Where the water in Lake Fork is turbid, and the lake is crisscrossed with shallow creek channels and a proliferation of flooded timber, Athens’ largemouth fishery is the model of diversity in vegetation: it’s loaded with eelgrass, coon tail, pond weed, alligator weed, lily pads, lotus, etc. Consequently, the water is much cleaner, with substantially better visibility.

“We’ve had some rain events here recently so the water has been a little more turbid, but if we have a calm, sunny day (during the Championship Round), you’ll be able to see fish on beds in 4 to 5 feet of water,” said TWP biologist Jake Norman.

The bathymetry of Athens is different, too. With few creek channels and a small amount of standing timber in the midlake section, the bottom tapers off the bank gradually to a depth of 50 feet at its deepest point. The final 10 anglers will find shallow, tapering flats, hundreds of boat docks, and an abundance of in-shape shoreline with a proliferation of vegetation.

“Whatever these guys learn on Lake Fork won’t help them much on Athens,” said biologist Steven Bardin. “It’s really a neat, unique fishery because it’s covered in eelgrass and vegetation. It has a great forage population – it’s known in the state for its bluegill and redear fisheries, and it has a good threadfin shad population.”

Shaping Up for a Slugfest

Barring a dramatic weather event, Stage Three’s final 10 anglers should find fish on beds for the March 18 Championship Round.

“That spawn is just starting here,” Norman reported as he trolled around Lake Athens. “I’m seeing males on beds, and a few abandoned beds already, too. I think (the Championship Round) will see some fish still staging, but a lot of fish up shallow and a lot of fish on beds. I’d expect the fishing to be really good.”  

Stage Three Begins Friday, March 13

Action on Lake Fork begins Friday, March 13 in the first Qualifying Round of the General Tire Stage Three Presented by TrueTimber. The competition will shift to Lake Athens on Wednesday, March 18 for the Championship Round.

Competition time for the event is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; catch all the action on the MLF NOW! live stream, starting at 9:45 a.m. daily.