I live reasonably close to mackenzie, but have never been. Is there any reasonable shore fishing (or boat) on the lake? Can it be hunted?

Tulia or Silverton?

I never fished the lake when I lived in Tulia. We only water skied or road jet skis. But it's been 25+ years since I was last there.

Does it still have the long and relatively steep boat ramp?

So the main boat ramp we generally used is here

Ramp 1

There's another ramp we never used , here

Ramp 2

And there's another road down to the lake, which is very long and steep, here.

Road / ramp

But I don't think we ever used it as a boat ramp. It would always erode horribly, so you needed a pickup t drive down it. There used to be a narrow beach at the bottom, and in recent years it's a very wide beach. So there is certainly good access there.

The north shore is mostly private residences, your access will all be on the south shore.

Like La Fours, we never fished there, but there has been some decent fishing in the past. The Marina has a web site, though it appears to be at least a year out of date. I'd just give them a call to see what's up.

http://lakemackenzie.com/

It's a pretty little lake. Back when we skiied a lot, the canyon walls would break the wind and give pretty smooth skiing. There used to be a huge colony of cliff swallows on the south shore canyon wall, about here:

swallows

The road (highway 207) below the dam is very, very pretty country. It's worth going over just for that little drive. Continue on north on 207 and there is a neat overlook on the south rim of the Palo Duro Canyon.

overlook

We always stoppd in Tulia at El Camino for Mexican food, my wife loves the Chile Rellenos.

You're not the first person to reccomennd the chili rellenos.

Well, I guess I'll have to just get over there and wander around and see what I can get in to

Taken from the Highway 207 entrance, March 2013. Looking west-southwest

I've been living in the panhandle for 22 years, and if anyone told me there was decent fishing ANYWHERE in the panhandle, I would laugh at them...

I loved El Camino when when I lived in Tulia.

quote:

---

I've been living in the panhandle for 22 years, and if anyone told me there was decent fishing ANYWHERE in the panhandle, I would laugh at them...

---

I realize this is Meredith, not Mackenzie, but....

https://www.facebook.com/TPWDInlandFisheriesTexasHighPlains/?fref=ts

quote:

---

March 11:

Since I have received numerous questions about re-stocking Meredith I thought I would address it here as opposed to answering each question.

We have not yet stocked Meredith with game fish (Walleye and bass)....

Since everything looks good so far; lots of bait fish, NO golden algae, and improved water quality. We have requested fish to begin stocking the lake this spring and summer. We do not yet know how many fish we will actually get, but to begin the re-stoking process we have requested walleye and bass.

Currently, lake sampling surveys have shown that the channel catfish populations appear to be recovering well on their own. Additional surveys will help us determine several things; what if any additional fish species survived the golden algae blooms, the high salt levels, and the drought. If these surveys indicate the need, we could be stocking other species in the coming years. However, some popular game fish species are not produced by any hatcheries, and we will have to collect these from other sources and "let nature take it's course".

I wish the recovery process for a lake was quick and easy, but unfortunately it is a long slow process. It took years for the lake to become the walleye fishery that it was, and it will take us awhile to get it back to that level. Rest assured that rebuilding the fisheries at Lake Meredith is a top priority for us.

---

quote:

---

April 6:

It looks like the first of the Walleye will be arriving at Lake Meredith this afternoon. I'm not sure how many we will be getting in this load, but we are hoping for about 1.5 million fry (newly hatched baby fish).

---

El Camino Rellenos........mmmmmmmmmmm

quote:

---

quote:

---

I've been living in the panhandle for 22 years, and if anyone told me there was decent fishing ANYWHERE in the panhandle, I would laugh at them...

---

---

Nice picture. A private pond somewhere?

I have fished Meredith, Mackenzie, Greenbelt, Fryer, and Palo Duro, and have never seen anything resembling a fish. I finally just gave up and started going to New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and East Texas to get my fishing fix.

Conchas Lake had some good fishing back in the 80's. My grandparents fished there a ton. Walleye and bass especially. I miss going there. There was a Mexican food place we would stop at in Tucumcari that was awesome. Can't remember the name.

quote:

---

72.02' low. No report available.

---

Mackenzie fishing report

Would you even be able to launch a boat with that water level?


ETA - used to bank fish at Mackenzie 35-40 years ago and access was very limited. Caught a few catfish but never any more than 2 or 3 on a day trip. But that was when it was reasonably close to capacity. I have no idea what conditions would be with that low level.

Sunray, that's off of the LM marina web site.
Agent-maroon, the east ramp is open, I'm pretty sure.

quote:

---

I live reasonably close to mackenzie, but have never been. Is there any reasonable shore fishing (or boat) on the lake? Can it be hunted?

---

Never heard of anyone duck hunting there. Not sure there is any access.

That must be one very long ramp...

The lake was even lower a few years ago. They extended the ramp then. It's always been a really long ramp. Were the lake to ever fill it would be well over 100 feet deep at the ramp.

Between this weekends rain and some more on Wednesday...

I spent quite a bit of time out at Mackenzie last summer before I moved down to college station, but we always used ramp 1 as canyon ag pointed out. Ramp 2 by the crappie house is fine as well, but it's full of pot holes. As far as the fishing goes, we caught lots of bass around the islands in the middle on Texas rigged worms and rattle traps. Cope Creek on the far west part of the lake has lots of flooded timber and brush from when the lake was really low. It was loaded with crappie last summer and probably some bass this time of year since the water temperature is lower. It's a beautiful little lake, you should have lots of fun fishing it.