Barren Information???

[smashdn]

I would say yes and no. The fish that did spawn would lose their nests, or I should say their first nesting attempts. I am of the understanding that a fish may spawn but not necesarrily lay all of her eggs as evidence by people catching fisht hat still have some eggs in them on into summer. So while they may not be able to make as strong a run on their second attempt at a spawn I would think that some fish would find some success.

Plus due to the fact that not all fish go at the same time the class would not be "lost." On Barren there really is not much cover to provide suitable spawning habitat with the lake 15 foot below summer pool as it is in your scenario so again I would think that some fish would not spawn at that time due to the lack of cover and those that do not would be able to make at least some headway when conditions improve.

[GeoFisher]

Sarcasm, look in to it. I fish the lake probably once a week and hunt there atleast that much in the winter. I was a little puzzled as to why they brought it up to summer pool so quickly and as to why they didn't keep it about 5 or 6 foot down from summer as a kind of buffer. The COE doesn't have a problem letting water rip downstream when they need to. For the last two to three weeks the lake has been on a steady rise of 1 to 2 feet a week. And the outflow has been minimal at best, whereas before it was lapping into the cowpasture just downstream form the dam. I check the outflow and lake level everyday so I have a pretty good handle on what has been going on over there. Now as far as COE's motives or reasoning I can't tell you. However, I can get people who don't read in to posts very well riled up when they can't recognize sarcasm. I am sure that the rain may have had something to do with the lake filling up but I never made the connection, "thanks mr. obvious, your a lifesaver."

Well.......you've made 50 posts, and I have not read many of your other posts, and the sarcasm was not very apparent..........sorry.

[fishincreek]

I missed it too. Either way, high brown water and these cool temps can't help things.

[Joel_FOM]

I was in the COE office today on other business and they told me that they are dropping the bottom out of Barren starting today. They want to hit summer pool this weekend.

[smashdn]

I was in the COE office today on other business and they told me that they are dropping the bottom out of Barren starting today. They want to hit summer pool this weekend.

Figures. Why couldn't they just not hold as much water back to begin with? That way we would only have to worry about catching fish on the rise. Now we have to try and catch fish on a fast rise and on falling waters. If there was a better way to screw up the fishing at Barren I think the Corp would be all over it. It just seems so simple to think that yes we will have rains in the spring that will bring the lake up, so why not just not bring it to summer pool so quickly and keep it 5 to 8 foot below summer pool until the spring rains have tapered off somewhat? Plus let some water go too.

Bassbug that was an excellent question. My answer was just my educated opinion. To get more opinions and answers to your question you may want to post it on crappie.com forums. That is where I spend the bulk of my time as crappie are the fish that I target most. I do find this site useful for the lake levels, but the fishing reports seem pretty useless to me with the exception of Dave Stewart's as his and the lake cumberland report are the only ones that seem to get updated with any regularity.

[Joel_FOM]

I was in the COE office today on other business and they told me that they are dropping the bottom out of Barren starting today. They want to hit summer pool this weekend.

Update - the lady told me that yesterday at the COE office, but I just checked the usgs website and the water is still rising slowly. Go figure.

[bassbug48]

Yes but I do think they increased the Outflow CFS not sure what the relationship of 1910 CFS would + in inches per 24 hrs.. Anyone care to take a stab at this one..

[buzzking]

I'll take a stab at it. I've never been down there to take a look at the outflow channel but based on what it looks like at the road I would be willing to bet that based on the channel size and depth full outflow wide open with say summer pool head on the outflow would be some where in the 4-6K cfs rate. I would guess that 1900cfs would rival if not be less than what is inflowing into the lake right now. IF they have to keep it at 1900 due to downstream conditions I would look to see if level tomorrow and start falling friday, probably .3-.5 ft/day if kept at 1900. But everyday we get no rain they could open it up more.

[bassbug48]

Wow what he said......Looks like you are correct today opened up more @ 3235 cfs
draw down in last 24 hr. @ .2!!! (buzzking knows his hydro-dynamics)..You impressed me!!!!

[mkmsports41]

Hopefully dropping the lake right now wont hurt the spawn too terrible. I I know fish are shallow but I have not heard of fish being caught on bed yet. But I think it will be within the week before you catch fish actually on bed. But I may be wrong.
I think, or I hope, the core learned its lesson two years ago when the lake stayed 7-8ft below summer pool all summer long. I beleive That spawn was bad as well. It stayed low alot longer than normal, and had a drastic 15ft rise and stopped, then they could never make summer pool. I caught several fish at the top end of skaggs that were full of eggs in late May. I question if those eggs were ever succesfull. I say not.

[ironhead70]

ne one been busting ne thing on top water yet

[fishincreek]

Fish Friday night(4/17). Lower end (dam) was 63 degrees. Water decent color with plenty of debris. Would to term the action as :slow.