A 41,356-acre Freestone County trophy lake. Punch the Richland arm hydrilla in summer, spoon the Trinity River levee all winter.
Richland-Chambers is 41,356 acres in Freestone County carrying a TPWD Tier 3A Trophy Bass designation, and it gets a fraction of the attention that Fork and Texoma pull. That is the whole appeal. You get a genuine big-fish lake, 75 feet deep at its deepest, managed by the Tarrant Regional Water District, with a lake record of 14.25 pounds, and you are not fighting a hundred boats for the same grass line.
The tradeoff is that this is a big, spread-out reservoir with two long arms and a lot of water that looks the same. Nothing about it hands you a spot. But there are two features that do almost all the work here: the hydrilla on the south bank of the Richland arm, and the Trinity River levee. Learn those two, and you have a year-round plan.
At the confluence of the Richland and Chambers arms sits an old crescent-shaped levee, now underwater. It is the single most distinctive piece of structure on the lake. It gives you hard bottom, a defined face and a top edge in a reservoir that is otherwise heavy on silt, and bass use it in every cold-water month.
Two things make it worth learning. First, it holds larger spawning largemouth in March and April, because the hard substrate beats the soft, silty bottom nearby. Second, it is the winter money spot. From December through February, when the water sits between 40 and 52 degrees, a 1 oz chrome Hopkins jigging spoon dropped vertically on the levee and the associated rock piles in 16 to 22 feet is the highest-confidence pattern on the lake. If your electronics show a cluster of fish stacked off the face, drop straight down on them and rip the spoon a couple of feet. Cold, tight-schooled fish will not chase far, and the spoon puts a flashing bait in their face without asking them to.
When the spoon bite goes quiet, work the levee face with a Strike King 6XD in Sexy Shad or chartreuse, or drag a Carolina rig with a green pumpkin bull worm and a 3/4 oz tungsten weight across the transitions in 14 to 20 feet. Slow, low and deliberate. Winter fish here move very little.
There is not grass everywhere on Richland-Chambers. The hydrilla is concentrated on the south bank of the Richland arm, and there are two zones worth your day: the stretch from Midway Marina west to the railroad trestle, and the run from the 7L ramp to Pin Oak Creek. Big Cedar Creek arm has native pondweeds instead, and generally clearer water.
Because the vegetation is limited, it stacks fish. That is also why the pre-spawn plan here is simple: find the clearest water you can, and fish the grass in it. Clarity across the lake runs 1 to 4 feet and changes arm to arm, with the south bank Richland arm typically clearest. Limited-vegetation zones in cleaner water hold staging fish earlier and more predictably than the murkier pockets.
From February into March, at 52 to 62 degrees, rip a 3/4 oz Rat-L-Trap along the hydrilla edges in 6 to 12 feet. Chrome and blue in the cleaner water, red and chrome over emerging grass in 2 to 5 feet. The point of a lipless bait here is that it lets you cover a mile of grass line and find which section has fish before you slow down. Once you get a bite, drag a 3/4 oz green pumpkin football jig along the channel swings next to that same vegetation in 8 to 14 feet. That is where the bigger staging fish sit.
March and April, 62 to 70 degrees, 2 to 6 feet. The Big Cedar Creek arm with its native pondweeds and the Chambers Creek arm are the primary spawning areas, and Big Cedar's clearer water makes it easier to fish deliberately.
A 5-inch Senko on a wacky rig in green pumpkin or watermelon red, dropped into vegetation pockets and worked over hydrilla flats in 1 to 4 feet, is the highest-percentage bait. In the stained pockets where you cannot see a bed, you are blind fishing, and a 6-inch Texas-rigged lizard in pumpkin or green covers a protected cove better than a subtle bait does. A Junebug Brush Hog on a 3/8 oz Texas rig picks off fish holding on hydrilla mat edges in 3 to 7 feet, just off the beds.
Don't ignore the levee during the spawn. Those fish are on hard bottom, they tend to run bigger, and most anglers drive past them on the way to the creeks.
April into May, 68 to 76 degrees, the fish pull out of the pockets and set up on the outer edges of the hydrilla and pondweed. Get there at dawn with a 5-inch Whopper Plopper in bone or white and run it right along the grass edge. A Booyah Pad Crasher over the mat surface and a white Horny Toad on the open edges cover the same water when the fish want something quieter.
When the sun gets up, a 3/8 oz white and chartreuse swim jig along the outer grass line keeps the day going. This is also when a ChatterBait starts earning bites, which matters, because that bait is about to become the fall pattern.
May through September, with water temperatures from 80 to 90 degrees, the primary pattern here is punching the hydrilla mats on the south bank of the Richland arm. This is the highest-confidence pattern on the entire lake. A 4-inch Zoom Super Chunk in green pumpkin with red flake behind a 1 oz tungsten weight and a 5/0 EWG hook, punched through the canopy into 4 to 8 feet. Black and blue on a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver is the other proven color, and in thick mats you may need 1.5 to 2 oz to get through. Use 65 lb braid. There is no finesse version of this and no reason to want one.
Why it works: the mats are the only real shade and cover on a lake where the summer clarity gets thin and the sun is brutal. Fish get under the canopy and stay there. You are not looking for a strike zone, you are dropping the bait into the room they are already sitting in.
The offshore half of summer is the levee again. Vertical-jig a chrome spoon on the levee structure and rock piles in 14 to 20 feet, or a 3/4 oz hammered chrome spoon deeper, 20 to 35 feet, when the schools pull down. A 6XD on the channel ledges and the levee face covers 12 to 18 feet, and an 8-inch Junebug bull worm on a 1 oz Carolina rig dragged across the deep levee transitions in 15 to 25 feet picks apart a spot the crankbait ran over.
September through November, 65 to 80 degrees, 4 to 18 feet. This is reaction-bait season. A 1/2 oz Jack Hammer ChatterBait in white and chartreuse is the dominant fall bait, thrown at docks and any solid structure where shad get pinned. As the water cools, bass slide out of the mat interiors and onto the edges, which is exactly where a 3/8 oz white and chartreuse swim jig and a Sexy Shad KVD 2.5 crankbait on the hydrilla point transitions in 6 to 12 feet do their damage. A 1/2 oz gold and black-back Rat-L-Trap over the top of the grass in 1 to 5 feet handles the shallowest shad activity.
Fall is also when the white bass and hybrid stripers give you a bonus. They school from the US-287 bridge down to the dam, and the way to find them is to watch for working birds. When you see them, a 3/4 oz chrome and blue Rat-L-Trap thrown into the boil will get bit immediately. The hybrids stage in that same stretch again from December through February, so it is worth a look on winter trips when the bass bite is slow.
Pick one arm. Do not try to see the whole lake.
Standard TPWD statewide rules apply here. The Tier 3A Trophy Bass designation is a management classification, not a separate rule set, so verify current statewide limits before you go and fish accordingly.
It's a crescent-shaped underwater levee at the confluence of the Richland and Chambers arms, and it's unique to this lake. It gives you hard substrate and a defined face in an otherwise silty reservoir. It's the primary winter structure, holds larger spawning bass in spring, and produces all summer on a jigging spoon and deep crankbait.
It's limited and concentrated on the south bank of the Richland arm. The two main zones are Midway Marina west to the railroad trestle, and the 7L ramp to Pin Oak Creek. Big Cedar Creek arm has native pondweeds instead of hydrilla.
Punching the hydrilla mats on the south bank Richland arm. A 4-inch Zoom Super Chunk in green pumpkin with red flake, a 1 oz tungsten weight and a 5/0 EWG hook, dropped into 4 to 8 feet. Black and blue on a Smallie Beaver is the other proven color. Use 65 lb braid, and go to 1.5 or 2 oz if the mats are thick.
Cloudy to moderately clear, roughly 1 to 4 feet of visibility, and it varies by arm. The south bank of the Richland arm is usually the clearest. That matters most in pre-spawn, when the cleanest water with vegetation holds staging fish earliest and most predictably.
14.25 pounds. The lake also carries a TPWD Tier 3A Trophy Bass designation, which is why it deserves more attention than it gets.
Yes. They school from the US-287 bridge down to the dam. In fall, watch for working birds and throw a 3/4 oz chrome and blue Rat-L-Trap into the schools. Hybrids stage in that same stretch again from December through February.
Big Cedar Creek arm and Chambers Creek arm are the primary spawning areas, in 2 to 6 feet at 62 to 70 degrees. A 5-inch Senko on a wacky rig in green pumpkin or watermelon red is the go-to. In stained pockets where you can't see beds, a 6-inch Texas-rigged lizard covers water better. The levee also holds bigger spawners on hard bottom.
Standard TPWD rules apply. The lake is managed with the Tarrant Regional Water District and carries a Tier 3A Trophy Bass designation, which is a management classification rather than a separate rule set. Check current statewide limits before you launch.