Lake Bastrop is a reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 on Spicer Creek in the Colorado River

Colorado River (Texas)

The Colorado River is a river that runs through the U.S. state of Texas; it should not be confused with the much longer Colorado River which flows from Colorado into the Gulf of California....

 basin 3 miles (5 km) northeast of the town of Bastrop

Bastrop, Texas

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there are 5340 people in Bastrop, organized into 2034 households and 1336 families. The population density is 734.8 people per square mile . There are 2,239 housing units at an average density of 308.1 per square mile...

 in central Bastrop County

Bastrop County, Texas

Bastrop County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2006, the population was 71,700. Its county seat is Bastrop. Bastrop County is named for Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop , an early Dutch settler who assisted Stephen F...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, USA. The reservoir was formed in 1964 by the construction of a dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority

Lower Colorado River Authority

The Lower Colorado River Authority or LCRA is a nonprofit public utility that was created in November 1934 by the Texas Legislature. LCRA's mission is to protect people, property and the environment by providing public services for more than one million people in Central and Southeast Texas...

. The lake serves primarily as a power plant cooling pond for the Sim Gideon Power Plant

Sim Gideon Power Plant

The Sim Gideon Power Plant is a natural gas fired power plant located near Bastrop, Texas in Bastrop County, Texas. It is owned and operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority...

 operated by the LCRA and the Lost Pines Power Project 1

Lost Pines Power Project 1

The Lost Pines Power Project 1 is a natural gas fired power plant located near Bastrop, Texas in Bastrop County, Texas. It is owned by GenTex Power Corporation, a wholly owned affiliate of the Lower Colorado River Authority. The plant, along with Sim Gideon Power Plant, is part of the Lost Pines...

, owned by GenTex Power Corporation, a wholly owned affiliate of the LCRA. Lake Bastrop also serves as a venue for outdoor recreation, including fishing, boating, swimming, camping and picnicking, and is maintained at a constant level year round.

Approximately one quarter of the shoreline of the Lake is privately owned by the Capitol Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. This property is used for the Lost Pines Scout Reservation, consisting of Camp Tom Wooten, for Cub Scouts and Camp Lost Pines, for Boy Scouts. The scouts leased the property from the LCRA starting in 1965, buying the land in the late 1990s.

Fish populations

Lake Bastrop has been stocked with species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. Fish present in Lake Bastrop include catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

, crappie

Crappie

Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...

, perch

Perch

Perch is a common name for fish of the genus Perca, freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which there are three species in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perciformes, from the Greek perke meaning spotted, and the...

, sunfish

Centrarchidae

The sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...

, carp

Carp

Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...

, and largemouth bass

Largemouth bass

The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...

.

Recreational uses

The Lower Colorado River Authority maintains two public parks on the lake, both of which provide camp sites for rent.

External links

• South Shore Park - Lower Colorado River Authority
• North Shore Park - Lower Colorado River Authority
• Lake Bastrop - Texas Parks & Wildlife
• Lake Bastrop - Handbook of Texas Online
• http://www.bsacac.org- Capitol Area Council-Boy Scouts of America