duskytail darter

Rock Creek in Mccreary co has a good 30 miles of lovely habitat for the little fish. I do not know why they are not there already other than it has not been "studied". If not, it would be the perfect place for them to be with less predators and pristine water that supports rainbow trout that we stock. I am sure that the miles that they have swam into with the lake being down will be flooded this spring and they will have a tough time sticking to the bottom until the waters go down. I have caught log perch in the lake at the mouth of fishing creek, so that being said I still question that the darter cannot live when the water is backed up to a level that was here for 40 years. Ok i might be wrong!! I am open to opinions

My thinking is along the same lines as you but I won't speak it too loudly though because I just don't know enough about it to say for sure. Those areas WILL come up like they have every year with the spring rains. I do not understand how drawing back down quickly helps when they've already been flushed out. But if there is more to it than that, then people smarter than me need to make the call. The current levels are fine with me as long as they do not draw down too fast in late summer. Even then, the current size of the stripers should be able to handle another year. It's the walleye that could suffer. There has to be some sort of balance between the the Darter in the Spring and the Walleye in the late summer. Bass guys should like the idea of keeping things steady for one more Bass spawn. I'll be fine with it if they can prevent a die off this year and get the Darter deal solved for next year.

It would be nice if the lake would stay stable for a spawn. However, if we get a raise way above 705 during spawning time, I doubt the COE would hesitate to pull it back down off of the fish nests back to 705.

I am of the opinion that the Dusky Tail Darter is a front to distract the public from the real reason the lake won't be raised, THE DAM! There are issues with the dam and I believe this is the reason the lake will not be raised and not this darter. The darter is a scape goat pure and simple. I'll reference and base my opinion on this: The dam was completed in 1951. First signs of seepage and embankment problems were discovered or at least reported 17 years later in 1968. It was likely the seepage problem was already present from day 1 and either was unknown or unreported until 1968. regardless, 1st signs reported in 1968. A grouting project was started in 1968 through 1970 as a temporary fix, now it is most likely that the problem was known before 1968 since the grouting project started almost immediately upon the "discovery" of the problem. in 1970 the grouting was complete and considered fixed. A "long-term" fix was planned and construction of a seepage cut-off wall started in 1975 and was done by 1979. These "fixes" didn't fix anything, the seepage continued and actually increased. Now we have this new fix that will only be temporary as well at a cost of $580 Million. So in my opinion as a geologist, the karst topography will eventually win out. You cannot stop carbonic dissolution of the limestone in this area, the water will find a work around and continue to dissolve and underflow the dam, which will eventually become structurally unsound and in order to prevent catastrophic failure I am of the opinion that a new dam will one day have to be constructed. As I have stated several times, this is my opinion and I honestly hope I'm wrong, I want to see the lake come back up and thrive!

Darters make excellent live bait for smallmouth. I read one time that darters are a natural enemy of smallmouth because the rob eggs from smallmouth beds. I know if you drop a darter down close to a smallmouth you best have a good grip on your rod.