I know this is not Baja related, but I like it here in the Baja forum so I'll ask it here.
How long is the boating season here in Dallas? Do you winterize? If so what month? What about lakes around here? Nicole lives on Joe Pool & I'm thinking that will be home base, but where else is there to go close that is worth a crap?
Is Lake Travis boatable in the winter months?

You have lake dallas aka lewisville lake, lake texoma lake grapevine. I was boating in November a year ago on lewisville. For a website with more local info on the dallas and texas lakes check out www.lakepirates.com lots of good info on the other lakes as well.

I boat from April thru october, I dont winterize, because occasionally we go out for a few beers on the water, local cool lakes are, Possum Kingdom , Eagle Mountain, Lewisville, are all pretty cool, Pretty cool bars on Lewisville and one on Eagle Mountain, Lots of Bajas around here

We don't really winterize much either. If it's going to freeze, you might just put a light bulb in the engine compartment overnight. I can't speak much for the lakes in the Dallas area because I haven't been to many. Lake Travis is boatable in the winter although it's down quite a bit right now but I heard it came up a foot or so just recently. We had a small Baja get together last year on Travis in November. We typically boat frequently through November and then maybe a trip or two in Dec/Jan. Feb seems to be the only month we really take a break but with Texas weather you just never know!

You're in luck at Joe Pool, It's about the only lake in the area that not in real bad shape, drought, water level wise. Last I heard it was about 90% full.

Be sure and make a trip up to Texoma.

Here's a handy link for you, area lake's.
http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/cgi...l?page=Reports

Hey Jason. Funny you should bring up that subject. I am discussing that with Perry right now. I have my 26' Donzi on Lake Ray Hubbard on a boat lift. I have had boats in the past that have been in the water, not on a lift. I have had plastic enclosures made so winter boating was something I am used to. But now my boat is out of the water. Being in the water helped prevent freezing somewhat. But I don't have that now. I don't want to winterize it so I can take it out this winter. There are great bars on Ray Hubbard now. I was going to get a heater and then Perry suggested that I get a couple of those hot rocks they sell at pet stores for reptiles. He even said some guys put magnets on them and stick them to their engines. He said that the idea was not to get hot, but not to get cold. Seems some heaters are too hot and then condensation occurs. This sounds good in theory. I am wondering if anyone else has had experience with this. What ever i do I am going to put it on an inverter and run it off my batteries. That way in case there is a black out from an ice storm, what ever is preventing my engine from freezing will not fail. that is not an option. What say you?

Wow, 2006 & I have yet to winterize my boat. I wound up using a ceramic heater with a built in thermostat.

You can be on the lake in April, and in the water by May. The water is generally warm up through October, and like others have said you can still find great days in November. Joe pool is kind of small in my opinion, especially for a go fast. Lewisville and Hubbard are both within 30 minutes of downtown Dallas (probably an hour from Joe Pool). You can be to Texoma in maybe an hour and a half. Possum Kingdom and Travis are somewhere around 3 hours. I'm of the mindset better safe than sorry, so I winterize here in Dallas. I figure I'm already in there servicing it, so why not remove the hoses, dump in some antifreeze, and pop on a new impeller. I don't worry about running antifreeze through the engine though, just dump it in the manifold and let it run out the bilge then wipe it all down. Hope that helps.

Ha, I just realized this thread is 5 years old!