I hope you don't sell real estate

Ragoo said:

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Boathouses are ugly?
Why would you go thru the expense of living on the water only to keep your boat trailered?

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This. My buddy who has a house on Cedar Creek got his boathouse built over the past winter and it's much better than having to launch a boat every day. It's also a great spot to sit in the afternoons. I was up there this past weekend and got to enjoy it.

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Yes, they are. I'd rather have a nice view and have to drive around the corner to put a boat in than to have to look at an ugly, blocky structure all the time. You might even be surprised at the number of people who have lake houses and...wait for it...NO BOAT.

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Before the boathouse, going out meant hooking the boat up to the truck, pulling it out of the garage, backing it down the ramp (he has one on his 1 acre lot), backing the boat off and floating around while another person pulled the truck out and parked it at the top of the ramp, pulling up to the bulkhead to let the driver of the truck on, and then taking off. Getting back, it was the reverse of that.

With a boathouse, we carried the ice chest down to the dock, put ice chest on boat, lowered boat into water, backed out and took off. When we got back, we pulled into the slip, raised up the boat, and carried ice chest back to the house. Yesterday morning, I wanted to go ride the jetski before I drove back home, so I went down to the dock, hopped on the jetski, lowered it, and backed out. Took me less than 5 minutes from the moment I put my swimsuit on to me out on the water playing around.

Boathouses can also be a wind block besides being an eye sore when gazing out onto the lake. My boat hangs in a marina two minutes away.

By the way, the Trinity River Authority controls the status of any piers or boathouses being approved for construction. They do not allow new construction of two story boathouses, they limit the length of the piers and it all must be built 10' inside your property line - all in order to not be a hindrance to your neighbor. So you may be lucky and find one that is grandfathered.

Tarrant Regional Water District does the same for Cedar Creek, and any company who builds docks knows the ins and outs of what is required. My buddy had to have his moved over to meet certain distances inside his property, which wasn't a big deal. They did have to dredge more than the would have if it would have gone in the area he wanted it, but again, it wasn't that big of a deal. He is going to put stairs from his bulkhead down to an area, and he now knows it's shallow enough for a swim area. The neighbor on one side has something similar, and the neighbor on the other side has a beach entry area for his.

Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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I don't mean to be rude but is this a real question? I mean, of course there's alligators in Livingston. There's alligators in Conroe too.

TarponChaser said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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I don't mean to be rude but is this a real question? I mean, of course there's alligators in Livingston. There's alligators in Conroe too.

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A better question is what is the best way to prepare gator?

ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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Haven't seen a single one in the +/- 100 weekends we've spent up there. But we hang out in Beacon Bay, Pine Island or the dam. All deep water other than partying at the island.

I never saw any in my time growing up there but the GWs we'd talk to had seen them.

brs4688 said:

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TarponChaser said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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I don't mean to be rude but is this a real question? I mean, of course there's alligators in Livingston. There's alligators in Conroe too.

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A better question is what is the best way to prepare gator?

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Fried is my preferred method. Don't want them too big either, 6-8' max.

North end of Conroe is quieter. South end is the party end, and can have way too much boat traffic on peak weekends.

Buck Turgidson said:

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North end of Conroe is quieter. South end is the party end, and can have way too much boat traffic on peak weekends.

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We had our boat at EZ Valet for years. Enjoyed that and going north of the bridge. But that space was just so small compared to the vastness of Livingston.

Have a photo somewhere showing a 6 footer off my bulkhead years ago during a drought and lots of sandbars surfacing with the lake level low.

Heard a 10 footer was spotted this year off of Cape Royale.

A retired local doctor had a framed newspaper article with photo in his waiting room showing a 12 footer caught at Point Blank with a bunch of little kids sitting on it for the photo op.

As noted above, gators are in the majority of waterways in Texas near the gulf.

It's been years now, but I've seen gators in Cape Royale on the west side of this cove.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cape+Royale+Marina/@30.6530781,-95.1239137,699m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x86477cf4c7fb7d37:0x2a78bceb4451004e!8m2!3d30.6530781!4d-95.121725

Lake Livingston State Park has signs warning about gators, IIRC.

Also this:

https://abc13.com/conroe-man-gators-big-alligators-in-lake-livingston/3599799/

Anagrammatic Nudist said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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Haven't seen a single one in the +/- 100 weekends we've spent up there. But we hang out in Beacon Bay, Pine Island or the dam. All deep water other than partying at the island.

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By "partying at the island," do you mean actually going on the island and doing something interesting, or just anchoring a boat? I couldn't care less about boating, but is Pine Island itself interesting?

Win At Life said:

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It's been years now, but I've seen gators in Cape Royale on the west side of this cove.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cape+Royale+Marina/@30.6530781,-95.1239137,699m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x86477cf4c7fb7d37:0x2a78bceb4451004e!8m2!3d30.6530781!4d-95.121725

Lake Livingston State Park has signs warning about gators, IIRC.

Also this:

https://abc13.com/conroe-man-gators-big-alligators-in-lake-livingston/3599799/

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I've seen them in Lake Raven, Lake Houston, San Bernard Wildlife Refuge.... They're in every body of water in SE Texas; I don't know why people are worried about them.

94chem said:

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Anagrammatic Nudist said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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Haven't seen a single one in the +/- 100 weekends we've spent up there. But we hang out in Beacon Bay, Pine Island or the dam. All deep water other than partying at the island.

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By "partying at the island," do you mean actually going on the island and doing something interesting, or just anchoring a boat? I couldn't care less about boating, but is Pine Island itself interesting?

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I spent almost every weekend from around May-August going out to Pine Island from age 8-13. Many times we actually went into the island and walked around. It got a little scary there at times because I didn't have a clue what we would come across. IIRC, there were some ponds in it and it was very hilly.

Bald eagles nest on pine island which is always nice to see them.

94chem said:

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Anagrammatic Nudist said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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Haven't seen a single one in the +/- 100 weekends we've spent up there. But we hang out in Beacon Bay, Pine Island or the dam. All deep water other than partying at the island.

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By "partying at the island," do you mean actually going on the island and doing something interesting, or just anchoring a boat? I couldn't care less about boating, but is Pine Island itself interesting?

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Other than a sandy beach in a few areas, the island is inaccessible. Yes, anchoring, some cold ones, and yacht rock blasting is my 42 year old version of partying.

My back yard.





Oops. Meant to post this on the best fish n chips thread.

Anagrammatic Nudist said:

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94chem said:

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Anagrammatic Nudist said:

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ReloadAg said:

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Is it true there's alligators in Livingston?

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Haven't seen a single one in the +/- 100 weekends we've spent up there. But we hang out in Beacon Bay, Pine Island or the dam. All deep water other than partying at the island.

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By "partying at the island," do you mean actually going on the island and doing something interesting, or just anchoring a boat? I couldn't care less about boating, but is Pine Island itself interesting?

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Other than a sandy beach in a few areas, the island is inaccessible. Yes, anchoring, some cold ones, and yacht rock blasting is my 42 year old version of partying.

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Ha. Thanks. I saw a YouTuber taking his kayak out there. It's about 2 miles from the state park. I don't know that I'd take a kayak that far in open water. In fact, no way.

Sorry for the poor quality, had to take screenshots from my video, but this dude has a slide he loves to sit on up off Kickapoo Creek on Livingston.

He was moving into the water as we came around the bend already so didn't get a great view but I'm guessing 10-12'. So yes, definitely gators in Livingston.

And to the points made about the space on Livingston, can't put enough value on not having to dodge dumb@ss drunk first time boaters on Conroe. BIL has a boat in a slip on Conroe and FIL has a house on Livingston. We've never felt like there were too many boaters on Livingston, not so for Conroe.

To me, it comes down to two things, budget and if you want a lake house with restaurants/bars close by or a get away to the country lake house. Both are great, just depends on what you're willing to drop for a lake house and what you want out of it.

Don't let that come off as bashing Conroe, love the lake and living in Montgomery it's really convenient. It's just a lot to handle on big boating weekends but definitely has it's perks.

Lester Freamon said:

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And to the points made about the space on Livingston, can't put enough value on not having to dodge dumb@ss drunk first time voters on Conroe. BIL has a boat in a slip on Conroe and FIL has a house on Livingston. We've never felt like there were too many boaters on Livingston, not so for Conroe.

To me, it comes down to two things, budget and if you want a lake house with restaurants/bars close by or a get away to the country lake house. Both are great, just depends on what you're willing to drop for a lake house and what you want out of it.

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This pretty much nails it. Different strokes for different folks. We've enjoyed both.

The beach in the middle where the red/white boat with the red top is where we used to anchor back in the day, if that's the side of the island that faces north. Memories...

My parents used to drop me off on the backside, the cove, and they'd go around to the party side and hang out w friends. I'd walk around with a bowfishing setup shooting carp and gar in the shallows. I miss that place.

Shoot that MF

We boat on Conroe. But try to avoid weekends. Water on the weekend is okay for Watersports until about 11.

Weekdays are nice but I watch the winds. If they are over 10 kts it's gonna be rough.

I have nightmares about the gators but there has only been one fatality from a gator attack in Texas in the last 100 years. According to google.

E said:

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My parents retired on Cape Royale at Lake Livingston for a few years recently and we all loved it. They looked at properties on both Conroe and Livingston, but decided on Livingston as it fit their lifestyle much better.

Livingston is much larger and far less populated so its not going to be jam packed with people and boaters. They aren't big nightlife people so not having many restaurants nearby wasn't an issue. Price is much lower at Livingston as well.

The drive is only like 20 mins longer going from Houston so its almost negligible when you are going for just the weekend or vacation. Distance was never an issue until they would drive to Sugar Land to visit family, but even then a drive from Conroe is long as well.

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Spent a good bit of my childhood in the Cape. My grandparents lived there and my folks and aunt and uncle had a place there. Aunt and uncle still do, but my parents sold and grandfather moved to Sugarland to be closer to his kids in his old age. My grandfather had a big hand in getting the marina there built.

If the choice is between Conroe and Livingston, I pick Livingston. Easy decision.