Lake Conroe?? (Houston, Cleveland, Livingston: homes, subdivision, living)

[StepRN3]

Is Lake Conroe a nice lake for boating? Is it clean? Any information would be helpful.

[booker_one]

it is ok. it is not real clean. it gets pretty crowded on weekends.

[desertsun41]

It is clear. Clean can be described in a few different ways. The lake is beautiful. Very very beautiful. It does get very crowded during the summer especially on weekends and holidays. All that boating pressure has it's problems. You do have idiots who release their waste believe it or not right into the open water. You have all the older 2 stroke engines that spit unburned gas and oil out the exaust which is what a 2 stroke does under normal running operation. Then you have the fuel stations on the water. Most have young kids who dont have any work ethics or care about the environment and will ruteenly spill gas into the water while filling your boat. Fuel floats. One can see the rainbow color streams floating too often. That makes me so mad.

And then you have some older homes built close to the water's edge with antique septic systems and even worse, cess pools. These were built before the health dept adopted any codes on waste standards. These old septics leak/leach phosphates among other things into the water. These phosphates are the cause of over growth of lilly pads and other aquatic weeds in the shallows. Well these weeds are a Bass Fishermens best friend but boaters hate them.

Despite the problems, which I see as few, tell the hundreds of swimmers, fishermen, boaters and jet skiers that there are any problems with Lake Conroe.

If you want to have some fun on an even bigger lake, like 4 times bigger, try Lake Livingston. It's about a half hour east. The water is naturally stained a darker brown but the Catfishing is the best on the face of the earth. And on any givin busy weekend, you will get the feeling of having the entire lake to yourself. I love my Lake Livingston !!

[booker_one]

i thought lake livingston was a lot farther than a half hour away.....where are you talking about entering the lake desert? and i guess i am comparing lake conroe to lakes north of texas.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by booker_one

i thought lake livingston was a lot farther than a half hour away.....where are you talking about entering the lake desert? and i guess i am comparing lake conroe to lakes north of texas.

Oh I could be off a little bit on the travel time. But I doubt by much...maybe 40 minutes at the most from April sound to Coldspring? Hey you guys drive real fast on those FM roads.

What do you mean by entering the lake? Do you mean my access? We are right on Lake Livingston but also have a community dock and park.

[Turk]

Lake conroe (and parts of Livingston) used to be bad with sections of the lake having tree stumps just below the water line. From what i understand, after Rita while they had the water so low they cut the tree stumps down further, so either lake shouldn't be as bad as they used to be.

Both lakes provides drinking water for Houston, so they water obviously isn't to dirty. I don't know why it wouldn't be nice for boating. Seems like more people from Houston hit Lake Conroe than hit Lake Houston.

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Oh I could be off a little bit on the travel time. But I doubt by much...maybe 40 minutes at the most from April sound to Coldspring? Hey you guys drive real fast on those FM roads.

April Sound is on the west side of LC. It take me 50+ minutes on a good day to make it from Cleveland to April sound.

Its more than 30 minutes from Livingston to conroe. Driving from houston the travel time would differ by about 30 minutes though, generally speaking.
If you are already near Conroe and want to go check out Lake Livingston the two routes I suggest at either 45N to New Waverly, and take SH150 over to Coldsprings. from there you can take a couple different roads to see different parts of the lake, and I don't remember the FM roads to take from there, so you'll have to look it up on a map. Probably 45-60 minute trip there, but I think by far the shorter route.
Your other option is go to huntsville and take US190 east to the lake. Onalaska is the town that sit on the lake on the Northeast side, some nice views of the lake over there. This is probably a 70-95 minute drive. I've never made this drive, so I am guessing.

Coming from houston? Take us59 North and I think you want FM 1988 (check a map and verify) to take you north to the lake. There are some other routes, but I have them memorized by sight and not the road number.

[booker_one]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Oh I could be off a little bit on the travel time. But I doubt by much...maybe 40 minutes at the most from April sound to Coldspring? Hey you guys drive real fast on those FM roads.

What do you mean by entering the lake? Do you mean my access? We are right on Lake Livingston but also have a community dock and park.

yes i mean your access. i don't know much about lake livingston as far as the size of it or the towns located around it goes. i just thought there may be closer access than i thought if it is only 30 minutes away. thanks.

[desertsun41]

Using Turks instructions will give you several access points. Very close to my subdivision is Brouders (spelling?) Marina which is the most popular. On the west side Holiday Shores have several launch areas. Onalaska where the old KOA is there are at least 2 launch areas.

As Turk said, after Hurricane Rita when the winds blew the rip-rap off of the dam and the water went down 4' they did indeed cut many of those stumps down. I dont know of any stump navigational problems on the south side of Lake Livingston. The locals tell me navigation anywhere above the 190 Onalaska bridge was suicide. Shame on the TRA for leaving those stumps in such a large area that was to be no more then 4' deep at capacity. Anyway the removal of those stumps actually increased the value of all lake front properties above the 190 bridge.

Turk I still think I made that drive quicker then you said. But when Im down there life slows down for me and I forget about the clock.

[Turk]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Using Turks instructions will give you several access points. Very close to my subdivision is Brouders (spelling?) Marina which is the most popular. On the west side Holiday Shores have several launch areas. Onalaska where the old KOA is there are at least 2 launch areas.

As Turk said, after Hurricane Rita when the winds blew the rip-rap off of the dam and the water went down 4' they did indeed cut many of those stumps down. I dont know of any stump navigational problems on the south side of Lake Livingston. The locals tell me navigation anywhere above the 190 Onalaska bridge was suicide. Shame on the TRA for leaving those stumps in such a large area that was to be no more then 4' deep at capacity. Anyway the removal of those stumps actually increased the value of all lake front properties above the 190 bridge.

Turk I still think I made that drive quicker then you said. But when Im down there life slows down for me and I forget about the clock.

Browders is how I think its spelled. I think... And yeah its probably the most popular spot on the lake. I've always enjoyed Wolfe Creek park which has boat access.

I just google mapped SH 105 @ I45 to SH150@ SH 156 in coldspring and by going on FM 1097 at Willis to SH 150, it was 34 miles and 40 minutes. And April sound as you used earlier is about 10 minutes west of my starting point, not to mention at least another 5 minutes short of and lake Livingston access. Granted depends on flow of traffic and so on, but as a rough guide my times seems surprisingly on the mark to me. I'm not doubting ya, I'm just saying thats more of a real world time frame in my opinion.