Lake Corpus Christi

Lake Corpus Christi is a reservoir in coastal southern Texas. The lake was created in by the impounding of Wesley E. Seale Dam. The lake and the dam that creates it are managed by the City of Corpus Christi. Lake Corpus Christi was originally known as Lake Lovenskiold. It is often referred to as Lake Mathis because of its location.

It is an artificial lake owned by the city of Corpus Christi, four miles southwest of Mathis on the Nueces River at the intersection of the Live Oak, San Patricio, and Jim Wells county lines (at 28°03' N, 97°52' W). The lake has a conservation surface area of 19,336 acres, a drainage area of 16,656 square miles, and a conservation storage capacity of 269,900 acre-feet. It serves as a source of municipal water supply. Wesley E. Seale Dam, a seventy-five-foot-high earthen dam, was engineered by Ambursen Engineering and constructed by Henry B. Zachry. The resulting lake submerged the old Mathis Dam. In 1934 the state leased 288 acres surrounding the lake from the city of Corpus Christi for a park. Around the lake, flat to rolling terrain is surfaced by deep, fine sandy loam that supports hardwood forest, brush, and grasses.

Lake Corpus Christi provides drinking water for the city of Corpus Christi. The reservoir also provides good fishing opportunities, especially for largemouth bass and catfish. Lake Corpus Christi State Recreation Area provides camping and picnicking areas and two fishing piers.

Lake Corpus Christi has been stocked with species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. Fish present in Lake Corpus Christi include crappie, white bass, catfish, and largemouth bass, Lepomis|sunfish, bluegill and Alligator Gar. Plant life in the lake includes water stargrass, Pistia|water lettuce, water hyacinth, American pondweed, Ceratophyllum|coontail, Juncaceae|rushes, and Typha|cattail. The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) also inhabit the lake.