Eunice City Lake restocked

Eunice City Lake is full of fish.
Jody David, fisheries manager at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Opelousas office, said, “We saw a lot of different species that we did not stock. That’s going to be a given because Bayou des Cannes is right next to the lake. You are going to get other species of fish in there. We found we had other species of shad, garfish, and bullhead catfish when we sampled last year.
He added, “All the fish we stocked were also there in big numbers, a couple of big bass, lots of forage species. It was a good thing to see.”
In May 2000, the lake was heavily damaged after a Union Pacific Railroad train derailment that potentially released hazardous materials and chemicals into the surrounding area and waterway. The lake remained closed for many years following the incident, and in 2011, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation, in cooperation with the department and the City of Eunice, launched a plan to rehabilitate the lake. More than $1 million went into restoring the lake, and the funds for the project came from the train derailment litigation.
The 44-acre lake reaches a depth of seven to eight feet where it dog-legs behind the Eunice Country Club’s golf course. At the front of the lake, the lake is about five feet deep, and near the cypress stumps at the entrance to the lake, water depths are about two feet.
David spoke at Thursday’s Kiwanis Club meeting, and he gave the members an update on the lake, which reopened in August 2014.
“The fish are biting right now,” he said. “The crappie are really biting. They are getting ready to spawn. Miller’s Lake is hot right now. Spring Bayou is hot right now. Those are two tips I can give you right there.”
The fisheries manager oversees public waters in nine area parishes, including Eunice City Lake. With the restoration, the department assisted with stocking the lake and improving the habitat.
“It took a while for the lake to fill back up in 2012 to 2013,” David said.
In 2013, the department stocked the lake with forage species — 100,000 blue gill, 35,000 red-ear sunfish and 6,100 thread-fin shad. The following year, only bass were stocked, and 16,000 three- to six-inch fish were put in the lake. In 2015, 100 brood stock bass, ranging from two to six pounds, were also placed in the waterway, and 4,600 channel catfish were added in the fall.
“The idea behind stocking, the idea that popped up, was to have the lake be a catch and harvest lake,” David said. “People like to go fish and take fish home.”
He added, “We want to give people the opportunity to catch fish and harvest fish. That was what this is all about.”
David said sampling of the lake will continue on an as-needed basis, and the department will stock the fishery again if need.
“We are excited and hope people come out and have success,” he said. “The new lake, when we restock or renovate a lake, it should boom for the next five or six years. It’ll peter out but we can pick it back up. I hope to see people out there in the spring when it warms up. It’s a very nice facility.”