Great fishing
Written: Feb 05 '06 (Updated Feb 06 '06)
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Pros: Great fishing, and great fishing
Cons: RV sites vary....GREATLY
The Bottom Line: Almost anyone will enjoy this park. One trip isn't enough.
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| jlundquist1's Full Review: Fairfield Lake State Park |
Shortly after we purchased our pop up camper a man at a campground gave me some advice. It's a dangerous hobby he told me. With RV'ing, you'll never have enough. You'll want a pop up, then a bumper pull then a fifth wheel. Then you'll need a boat and it's all over. He was right! We had been planning to buy a canoe for over a year, and in Feb. we did and headed out to Fairfield for our first trip. What a great trip it was.
Fairfield is a great park. It's what I would consider as one of Texas's larger parks with 1460 acres of park spread among the medium sized 2400 acre Fairfield Lake. This lake is man made as are almost all in Texas, serving as a coolant lake for TXU's Big Brown power plant. The generating plant uses the lake water as coolant and the warm water provides great angling year round. You can fish for monster large mouth (black) bass, hybrid striped bass, crappie, all types of catfish, blue tilapia ( a non-game fish), and Red Drum. Normally Red Drum are found in Texas coastal waters but the lake is stocked with them due to the warm water and I believe the lake record is 35 lbs. The heated water also allows bass to feed vigorously year round and the size limit is 18'' accordingly. The park website states that almost every weekend they hold fishing tournaments.
We trekked out on a chilly Feb. weekend to try out the new canoe and for our first overnight trip of the year. Fairfield boasts the typical Texas state park essentials: good camping, good fishing, clean bathrooms, hiking, etc. This park has 130 water/electric sites (no full hookups from what we saw) along with several areas marked for primitive camping. In the summer, I'd guess that reservations are a necessity, although with so many sites you can always hope for a cancellation. There are two public boat ramps with bathrooms and fish cleaning areas nearby. There are also two day use areas containing plenty of picknick areas. Strangely I can't find a fee list for this park on the web. I know that there is a $4 per person/day entrance fee (waived if you have a Texas state parks pass) and we paid $18/night for a water/electric site. The park also has a group dining hall near one boat ramp.
When we camped the only area open was Cooks Ferry. This appears to be the largest of three camping areas. I can only judge our experience on that since the other two areas were closed for the winter. For the whole park there are only three bathrooms with showers (more without). In our area the bath house with showers had 2 toilet stalls and four shower stalls. If this holds true for the other areas I can imagine that when the park is full there could be a long line during peak times for a shower. The facilities were cleaned daily as with any Texas state park.
The RV sites looked to be hit or miss. We stayed in a lake front drive through site which was great. Our site had ample space for any size camper. It had a fairly level pad with the typical pick nick table, BBQ, and lantern post. It even had extra paved parking. Most of the pull through sites looked the same. The back in sites varied.....severely. Some were level asphalt long enough for the largest bus conversion with extra parking, while some were very small, barely large enough for a pop up and no extra parking. If you can, during peak times, definitely pick your site in advance or caveat emptor. The dump station is a decent drive away. Most of the sites are NOT lake front (contradictory to what the park web site states) although all are very close. What we liked is that the park is pretty much divided into two parts: day use and overnight use. This is good since Fairfield is an anglers lake and lots more people will come to put a boat in than will to stay the night. The park has two playgrounds which have out dated equipment, but the kids shouldn't care. There's so much more to do that slide and swing.
There's something spiritual about the smell of wet leaves and Fairfield overflowed with it. The park is full of more types of oak than one can imagine along with cypress, cedar and holly. Fairfield claims 15 miles of hiking trails with an abundance of wildlife and birds. We never went on any of the trails but we did see several species of duck in the water along with lots of pelicans!!! Speaking of birds in the winter you may see a bald eagle (I think we did during a day of paddling on the West shoreline).
Ok, now the important part. Fairfield is a fishing lake no doubt!! The power plant warms the water year round. While we were out in the canoe we went all over the lake. I hear fish school around the hot water discharge although we didn't catch any and either did the folks around us. This lake is a bass lovers dream though with several areas of grassy weeds, submerged timers, and quiet coves where we saw many bass taken. I lost a BIG one right off the shore from where we camped and caught a 16'' large mouth from the shore near one of the boat ramps. There are ample places to fish from land and a boat is definitely not needed to land a big catch here.
Fairfield could potentially be a bit noisy because there are so many camping spots (130) and it's well known for it's good fishing. You're sure to hear alot of boat motors on the lake on weekends and although we had fun paddling I can see where it could get dangerous with so much horsepower during busy times. I also read someone else's blog about nightime noise due to the power plant at Fairfield. If I listened hard enough I could notice, only at night, a hum. Nothing loud enough to disturb us, and frankly if that's what we had to sacrifice for the great fishing it provided I was content.
This is a great park and shouldn't be missed. Be sure to pick your spot in advance though if you have any type of RV.
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: Anytime
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Campgrounds & Lodging
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Epinions.com ID:
jlundquist1
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Member: J Lundquist
Location: Central Texas
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
We camp ALOT!, we're frugal and we love bargains.
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