Custom Boathouses
Entertainment-grade boathouses on Lake Bastrop — open-gable cooling for Lost Pines summers, lifts, lighting and heavy substructures, set to a waterline that stays put.
Lakes We Serve · Bastrop County, TX
Lake Bastrop is an LCRA lake, and that changes everything.
No Corps of Engineers. No flood-control mission. LCRA owns the dam, the lake and the lakebed — so the permission you need comes from LCRA Real Estate Services, and the water under your dock barely moves.
Permission, Not a Corps Permit
LCRA owns the ground under the water.
That single fact is the whole permitting story at Bastrop — and the reason Highland Lakes advice does not apply here.
The Lower Colorado River Authority owns the dam, the lake and the lakebed at Lake Bastrop, and holds the water right — Permit No. 2054, granted in 1963. There is no Corps of Engineers involvement and no flood-control mission on this water at all.
Because LCRA owns the lakebed, an owner needs written permission from LCRA Real Estate Services (800-776-5272) before placing a fixed dock — or a floating dock's anchors — over LCRA-owned submerged land. That is a different process from a Corps shoreline use permit, and it is the one that applies here.
One trap worth naming: LCRA's published residential-dock rules, including the well-known 1,500-square-foot no-permit threshold and the Safety Standards for Residential Docks, are written for the Highland Lakes — Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Travis. They are not Bastrop guidance. Anyone quoting those numbers at you for a Bastrop dock is reading the wrong document. The Bastrop answer has to come from LCRA directly.
What We Build Here
Waterfront work on Lake Bastrop.
Steady water is a builder's gift. Every service below is engineered to it, and each has a dedicated page.
Boat Docks & Piers
Fixed piers make real sense on a lake this stable — decks built tight to the water instead of ramped for a thirty-foot swing.
Seawalls & Bulkheads
Full-height bulkheads and retaining walls in galvanized steel, vinyl, FRP composite or heavy timber, matched to Lost Pines sand and the bank behind it.
Precision Dredging
Slip and shoreline dredging where vegetation and sediment have closed in, with material pumped for backfill reuse rather than trucked away.
Why the Design Is Different
What a level that never drops changes.
Bastrop sits at 450 feet msl and, per TPWD, rarely moves more than a foot or two. LCRA pumps water up from the Colorado River to hold it there for cooling.
1
Fixed beats floating
On a Corps flood-control reservoir, a fixed deck is a compromise. Here it is the right answer — pile heights, walkway slopes and bumper lines can be set to an elevation that will still be correct next summer.
2
Bulkheads can be built to full height
A wall does not have to be over-designed for a twenty-foot drawdown that exposes its footing. The retention problem at Bastrop is soil and drainage, not water-level extremes.
3
The vegetation is the real obstacle
Hydrilla, coontail, southern and marine naiad and pondweed grow thick in this clear, warm water. Slip layout, depth and dredging matter far more here than freeboard does.
Know the Water
906 acres in the Lost Pines.
A small, clear-to-slightly-stained cooling lake on Spicer Creek, a Piney Creek tributary of the Colorado.
Bastrop is 60 feet at its deepest, with well-defined creek channels, humps and drop-offs, a limited amount of standing timber in some coves, and a warm-water discharge canal that keeps it fishable year-round. It is the odd one out among Central Texas lakes: not a Corps lake, not a flood-control lake, and about the steadiest water level in the region.
Privately buildable shoreline is limited. LCRA's North Shore Park and South Shore Park take up much of the usable bank, and a large stretch of the rest is the Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts' Lost Pines Scout Reservation. What private lakefront there is sits on water that essentially never drops — a genuinely different design problem from a Corps reservoir, and a considerably friendlier one.
The lake serves Bastrop, Camp Swift, Elgin, Paige, Cedar Creek, Smithville and Wyldwood, with public access through the two LCRA parks.
Questions We Hear
Lake Bastrop FAQ.
Who gives permission for a dock at Lake Bastrop?
LCRA. Because LCRA owns the lakebed, you need written permission from LCRA Real Estate Services — 800-776-5272 — before a fixed dock, or a floating dock's anchors, go over LCRA-owned submerged land. Shoretech works that into the project rather than leaving it to the owner.
Do the LCRA dock rules I found online apply to my Bastrop lot?
Probably not. The published residential-dock standards — the 1,500-square-foot no-permit threshold and the Safety Standards for Residential Docks — are written for the Highland Lakes: Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Travis. Bastrop is a separate LCRA lake, so get the answer from LCRA directly.
Is a Corps of Engineers permit involved?
No. There is no Corps involvement at Lake Bastrop and no flood-control mission. If you have owned property on a Corps reservoir before, set that rulebook down — it does not govern here.
Does the steady level make a project cheaper?
Often, yes. Piles do not need the extra length a big drawdown demands, walkways do not need to work at two extremes, and a fixed structure can be set tight to the water. The budget tends to move toward the parts you actually use — decking, lifts, cover and finish.
Nearby Water
More lakes in this region.
Start With a Conversation
Planning a project on Lake Bastrop?
Tell Dave about the frontage, the depth off your bank, and what you want the finished waterfront to do. The design follows from there.