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Spotlight on Wright Patman Lake: Visitor's guide, history, boating, hunting, fishing and scenery
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May 22, 2024
This video is about Wright Patman Lake in North East Texas. This is a sportsman's paradise, with over 20,000 acres of hunting and fishing waterways, and over 70,000 acres of wooded shore to explore. Start your planning here: https://www.wrightpatman.com/ In this video: 0:00 - About Wright Patman Lake 0:29 - History of Wright Patman Lake 2:56 - Scenery Around Wright Patman Lake 3:14 - Fishing Wright Patman Lake 4:32 - Access and Boat Ramps 5:15 - Hiking Wright Patman Lake Brought to you by LakeHub. We are sharing the joy of lake life! Learn more at https://LakeHub.com
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0:00
What's up everybody it's Simon from LakeHub. Today I am just southwest of the Oklahoma
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Arkansas Texas line at Wright-Patman Lake. Wright-Patman Lake is about 20,000 acres
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There's about 170 miles of shoreline, a 40 foot max depth. I'm going to tell you if you're an
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outdoorsman or outdoorswoman this is a great lake. Between fishing and hunting this is a
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sportsman's paradise. This lake was originally built in the 1940s and 50s by the U.S. Army
0:34
Corps of Engineers. It was originally called Texarkana Reservoir. It was built mainly for
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flood control. It was renamed for Congressman Wright-Patman in the 1970s. Wright-Patman Lake
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is fed by the Sulphur River and it is wild. It is rural. It's fun to explore but it's not a
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boating tourist come out and have a vacation lake. It is a go fishing go hunt some ducks lake
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Like much of the Arklatex region of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, the original inhabitants in this area were the Caddo Nation. The Caddo Nation was this
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conglomerate of Indian tribes that all kind of worked together and post-treaty the Caddo
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have moved to Oklahoma. But those are the original OG inhabitants in this area
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What's kind of interesting about western Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, east Texas, is that it was never really frontier country. It was kind of like this kind of no man's land for a
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long time. It was kind of agreed upon that it's not really French, it's not really Spanish, and
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then you know for a time it wasn't really Mexico. And then you know part of the settlements kind of
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voted for statehood and joined Texas. But it's always been this kind of like it's it's not
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really frontier. There's just kind of people moving in and stuff and what was part of the
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culture is that southerners with money relocated here to expand their you know plantation
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opportunities basically. So a lot of a lot of the old money is going to be you know back in the day
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was corn, hogs, that sort of thing. These days this area is all about timber. There are lots of
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people who grow pine, southern pine trees on their land and produce this area produces a lot of
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timber. There's you know paper mills, sawmills, and you see logging trucks all the time out around
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Wright-Patman Lake. As far as the scenery around the lake itself, a lot of deciduous trees. Late
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fall we're coming into winter and so not a lot of green going on. This lake is really really really
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pretty when everything's green because a lot of times you'll have fog on the lake and it's just
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it looks really really scenic. It's really cool. For fishing, great fishing lake. A lot of people
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fish this lake for catfish, especially locals love this lake for catfish. Been told, haven't tried
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myself, but been told that they have a unique flavor because of the Sulphur River. Don't know
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how different and don't know in what way, not yet. Maybe I'll come out here in the springtime and fish
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Besides catfish you have all the usuals. You have largemouth bass, you have white bass
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and of course crappie. There are a lot of like islands and kind of a lot of brush, you know
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high brush, low brush, kind of islands of brush. So to me, just eyeball test, it looks like a really
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really good crappie lake. Being a flood control river, the lake level varies quite a bit here
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We're kind of getting downstream. The closer you get to the Gulf, the closer you get to Louisiana
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the more you know the the fluctuations from other lakes upstream are going to affect this lake. And
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so because of that, the fishing changes all the time, right? Because if your lake level changes, then
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your depths change, and then the structure at those depths change. And so you really kind of have to
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be on your toes if you like fishing. Shore access is pretty limited here. Again, it's a rural lake
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There are boat ramps. I'm standing on one right here. It's unimproved. It's a dirt boat ramp and
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it's muddy, you know, so you kind of got to watch it. But really, if you can get on the water
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that's the best way to enjoy this lake. Whether you're hunting or you're fishing, get on
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the water. Get mobile because the shore access is rural and difficult. Wherever there is access
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there's often a boat ramp. So there are lots of boat ramps, but they're just not, you know, big
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slick, you know, marina boat ramps. You know, it's a way to get your boat in the water
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That's it. Nothing fancy. There are lots of hiking trails around here if you're into that
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It's just a matter of, you know, when and where and all that kind of stuff. They're kind of
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you know, again dispersed. It's Army Corps land. There's a lot of places where people have even
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kind of made trails just for the purpose of access or hunting or even, you know, kind of four-wheeling
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So there are official and unofficial trails. There are, there's lots and lots of land to explore
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Like to the tune of like 70 to 80,000 acres of land to explore around here. A lot of it is
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huntable through the Army Corps of Engineers. And of course on the lake, it's a really awesome
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bird lake. So bird watching, lots of bird activity on the lake. Waterfowl, a really popular spot for
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duck hunting, especially for Texarkana. And I've personally, I hunt deer out in this area
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and I've seen bald eagles and that is a sight to see right there. So if you're the outdoor sporting
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type, come on out and visit Wright-Patman Lake in Northeast Texas. Catch some fish, bag some ducks
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have some fun outside, and we'll see you out there
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