Recovered from algae fish kills and drought, this lake as reclaimed its glory of old.
Story and Photography by Brian Hughes

I’ve often said that Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. I used those words in reference to fishing when asked about a couple of specific situations.
Often I’d get asked how fish came to be in a newly created farm pond or golf course water hazard when no stocking efforts were made. The answer? Mother Nature abhors a vacuum.
Another circumstance involves a piece of good cover on a lake or river. Given that everything a fish needs is present, you can consistently catch fish off of one of these “spots” time after time, even when you don’t release the fish back into the water. Why? Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. If you remove a fish from a prime location, another will come along and take its place.
Recently however, I had a chance to experience this wonder of Mother Nature on a scale I could never imagine. It happened at Possum Kingdom Lake.
Popularly known as “P.K.” Possum Kingdom is a reservoir on the Brazos River located primarily in Palo Pinto County Texas. A search of the interwebs tells us that it was the first water supply reservoir constructed in the Brazos River basin. It has an area of approximately 17,000 acres, with 310 miles of shoreline. Containing 750,000 acre feet of water, 550,000 acre feet are available for water supply usage.
Wikipedia reveals that PK was a project of the Brazos River Authority and the Works Progress Administration. The lake was originally created from the Morris Sheppard Dam. Begun in 1936 and completed in 1941, the dam is 2,700 feet long and 190 feet high. The construction is unique with buttressed arched wings on either side of the nine spillway gates rather than the usual filled concrete. Morris Sheppard was in 1938 one of Texas’ United States Senators, and the dam was named for him in honor of his efforts in obtaining funding for the project.

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