Lake Fork Reservoir Water Level
Lake Fork Reservoir is at 399.00 ft today (Oct 6), 4.00 ft below its 403 ft full pool, up 0.57 ft this week.
Texas · Lake Fork Creek
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Water level history
About Lake Fork Reservoir
Lake Fork Reservoir is a reservoir on the Lake Fork Creek in Texas, operated by Sabine River Authority. It's Texas's premier trophy-bass lake. Its full summer pool sits at 403 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the Texas Water Development Board and update daily.
Understanding Lake Fork Reservoir's water level
Lake Fork was built to store water for cities and industry, and its level answers mostly to rainfall, evaporation and withdrawals. The Sabine River Authority of Texas built the dam on Lake Fork Creek, a tributary that joins the Sabine downstream, about five miles west of Quitman. Construction began in the fall of 1975 and the dam closed in February 1980, but the lake took until December 1985 to reach its 403 foot conservation pool. The project was first financed through a 1974 agreement with three Texas electric utilities that wanted water for a generating plant. In 1981 the City of Dallas took over the utilities' rights, and it remains the largest customer with 120,000 acre-feet a year under contract. Thirteen other cities, water suppliers, utility districts and one industry also hold contracts, Longview among the largest. The authority rates the lake's firm yield at 188,660 acre-feet a year, about 168 million gallons a day.
The dam is a 12,410 foot rolled earthfill embankment faced on the lake side with two feet of soil cement. Water leaves over a concrete ogee weir with a crest at 385 feet, controlled by five steel tainter gates 40 feet wide and 20 feet high whose tops sit at 405 feet. The spillway is designed to pass 81,900 cubic feet per second. In normal years the lake rides close to full; Texas Parks and Wildlife describes its usual fluctuation as two to four feet. The Texas Water Development Board's daily record, which begins in October 1988, shows a high of 405.14 feet on 28 December 2015 and a low of 395.26 feet on 3 December 2011, at the bottom of a drought that kept the lake below full from 2011 until May 2015. In August 2022 it nearly matched that low again at 395.37 feet.
That 2022 low came partly by design. A wind and wave event in the fall of 2021 damaged the soil cement on the dam's upstream face, and in December 2021 the authority's board approved lowering the lake an extra three feet so crews and divers could make repairs. The lake was held near 397 feet into early 2022, released from that hold once above water work was done by 1 April, and then sank further through a hot, dry summer. It did not return to conservation pool until early 2024. For anglers, water level shapes the most famous bass fishery in Texas. Lake Fork has held the state record largemouth, 18.18 pounds caught by Barry St. Clair on 24 January 1992, and TPWD biologists tie recent declines in bass numbers to lost vegetation and more variable water levels. TPWD warns that submerged timber is a real hazard anywhere on the lake, which is why buoyed boat lanes run through it.
Lake Fork Reservoir — frequently asked
What is Lake Fork's full pool elevation?
Conservation pool is 403.0 feet above sea level. The dam's tainter gates top out at 405 feet, and the maximum design water surface is 407.9 feet. At 403 feet the original survey measured 27,690 surface acres and 675,819 acre-feet of storage; newer TWDB and TPWD surveys put the surface area closer to 26,800 to 26,900 acres, and TWDB now counts 606,088 acre-feet of conservation storage above the 360 foot dead pool.
What is the record high level at Lake Fork?
In TWDB's daily record, which starts in October 1988, the highest reading is 405.14 feet on 28 December 2015, about two feet over conservation pool. That came the same year the lake finally refilled after the 2011 to 2015 drought. Other high marks in the record include 405.10 feet in May 1990 and 405.04 feet in February 2001.
What is the lowest Lake Fork has ever been?
The lowest daily reading since level records began in 1988 is 395.26 feet on 3 December 2011, nearly eight feet below conservation pool, during the drought that TPWD says ended when the lake recovered in May 2015. Levels near 395.4 feet returned in December 2014 and again in August 2022, when a planned drawdown for dam repairs ran into a hot, dry summer.
Why was Lake Fork drawn down in 2021 and 2022?
High wind and waves in the fall of 2021 eroded the soil cement armoring the dam's upstream slope, some of it underwater. The lake was already about three feet low, and in December 2021 the Sabine River Authority board approved dropping it another three feet. It was held near 397 feet until above-water repairs were finished in April 2022. Divers finished the underwater work while the lake refilled, which took until early 2024.
Why is Lake Fork low?
Lake Fork exists to store water for cities and industry, so it drops when evaporation and supply withdrawals outpace inflow from Lake Fork Creek, Caney Creek and their tributaries, and it only comes back with rain. In 2013 a Dallas Water Utilities official estimated that even a worst case of continued drought with maximum withdrawals would lower the lake less than a foot a year.
What are the bass regulations on Lake Fork?
Largemouth bass fall under a 16 to 24 inch slot: fish 16 inches or shorter and 24 inches or longer may be kept, but only one bass 24 inches or longer per day, within a five bass daily bag. TPWD has used some form of slot limit here since 1985, tightening it in steps until the current 16 to 24 inch rule arrived in 2000. Crappie also carry a special winter rule that requires keeping every crappie caught December through February.
How many of Texas's biggest bass came from Lake Fork?
TPWD's 2021 survey report counts 7 of the top 10, 13 of the top 20 and 24 of the 40 heaviest documented largemouth bass in Texas from Lake Fork, including the 18.18 pound state record from January 1992. The same report credits the lake with 45 percent of all ShareLunker entries since the program began in 1986. TPWD has stocked more than 15.5 million Florida largemouth bass here.
Other lakes near Lake Fork Reservoir
- Lake GeorgetownTX
- Cooper Lake (Jim Chapman Lake)TX
- Grapevine LakeTX
- Lake ConroeTX
- Joe Pool LakeTX
- Canyon LakeTX
See current levels for all 27 Texas lakes and reservoirs →
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