Lake Granbury is a North Texas

North Texas

North Texas is a distinct cultural and geographic area forming the central-northeastern section of the U.S. state of Texas. North Texas is generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, and north of Waco...

 reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 near Granbury, Texas

Granbury, Texas

Granbury is a city in Hood County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 5,718. It is the county seat of Hood County and the principal city of the Micropolitan Statistical Area....

. It was created in 1969 and is one of three lakes damming the Brazos River

Brazos River

The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...

.

Lake Granbury is contained by the De Cordova Bend Dam

De Cordova Bend Dam

The De Cordova Bend Dam is a man-made dam on the Brazos River in Hood County, Texas, United States, controlled by the Brazos River Authority. De Cordova Bend Dam forms the Lake Granbury...

 and is a long, narrow lake, encompassing by 103 miles (221 km) of shoreline.

The lake is controlled by the Brazos River Authority

Brazos River Authority

The Brazos River Authority or BRA was created in 1929 by the Texas Legislature as a quasi-governmental entity to manage the Brazos River as a water resource in Texas. It was originally named the Brazos River Conservation and Reclamation District and renamed to the current name in 1953...

 in Granbury.

History

The lake was first proposed in the late 1950s. Construction began on the Cordova Bend Dam on December 15, 1966 by Zachry Construction Company.. Impoundment of water began on September 15, 1969.

The proposed construction of the De Cordova Bend Dam in the mid-1950s became the impetus for John Graves' book, Goodbye to a River

Goodbye to a River

Goodbye to a River is a book by John Graves, published in 1960. It is a "semi-historical" account of a canoe trip made by the author during the fall of 1957 down a stretch of the Brazos River in North Central Texas, between Possum Kingdom Dam and Lake Whitney...

.

Fish populations

• Largemouth bass
  Largemouth bass
  The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
  
  
• Striped bass
  Striped bass
  The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
  
  
• White bass
  White bass
  The white bass or sand bass The white bass or sand bass The white bass or sand bass (MoroneIt is the state fish of Oklahoma.- Range :White bass are distributed widely across the United States, particularly in the midwest. They are very abundant in Pennsylvania and the area around Lake Erie...
  
  
• Channel catfish
  Channel catfish
  Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States they are the most fished catfish species with approximately 8...
  
  
• Flathead catfish
  Flathead catfish
  The flathead catfish , also called the yellow cat, opelousas, and shovelhead cat, are large North American freshwater catfish. This is the only species of the genus Pylodictis...
  
  
• White crappie
• Sunfish
  Centrarchidae
  The sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...
  
  
• Longnose Gar
  Longnose gar
  The longnose gar, Lepisosteus osseus, is a primitive ray-finned fish of the gar family. It is also known as the needlenose gar.- Description :...
  
  

The lake is annually stocked with bass and in past years with catfish.

External links

• Lake Granbury - Texas Parks and Wildlife