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Post by Fenwick on Jan 28, 2016 11:56:43 GMT -6
The Corps is really rockin' out with four Tainter gates open .50 feet each and 1980 cfps from the dam since Wednesday afternoon. Aaron reports that tubing down the Spillway is a blast but the chilly water requires a wet suit. As for that kind of flow moving some silt from the Evening Hole, well, where's it gonna go? The long pool below the Evening Hole bridge already had a considerable bed of silt for years and the long stretches below the rapids at the end of that were silty already so it's not as if the silt becomes suspended in the current and gets magically carried beyond Zone 3. Maybe the ODWC will have the Tonka Toys back in the water above the Evening Hole bridge to dig out some of it. Not so much to channelize the river but just to de-muck the area a bit for a better habitat. Prolly one more thing to add to the ODWC / Foundation's desires to create a better overall Evening Hole habitat which was their intentions prior to this new flood.
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Post by jonbo on Jan 28, 2016 12:40:55 GMT -6
Well, they seem to be doing just what I'd hoped. I'm extremely curious to see if it does any good (for the Evening Hole, that is!)
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Post by Aaron on Jan 28, 2016 21:02:56 GMT -6
It's hard to tell what the Evening Hole will end up looking like. We talked with some of the State guys yesterday and they were saying that the Corp were the ones who re-channeled the river to hug the bluffs. You can see the straight shot they created from one of the pics posted yesterday. From what they were saying, once the water is down and the flows are back low, they will get back in the EH and rework the stream. Not sure anyone knows how, but it sounds like they may re-flow quite a bit. There may be a man made island around the bluffs with two channels, remade to stay out of the trees and "wetlands". To be honest, I think it will all take shape once they get the equipment in there. It's a toss up on how it will end up, but from looking at the flows from a high vantage point, it looks like we will have another shot at a "Lost Creek". We should probably call it "Lost and Found Creek".
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Post by Fenwick on Jan 28, 2016 22:54:33 GMT -6
Thanks for the update Aaron. Looks like time will tell about all this.
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Post by golferjeff on Jan 29, 2016 8:35:59 GMT -6
Love the 'Lost and Found' idea. I also know there is a monetary incentive to restore the wetlands and keep the river out of the cypress. FEMA works in strange ways. I hope all the red-tape bureaucratic stuff gets worked out and we have a great river to fish sometime in late winter.
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Post by Fenwick on Jan 29, 2016 17:06:36 GMT -6
Y'all should be used to clicking on the foundation site as well as the Beavers Bend State Park facebook page to get the most recent updates along with newly posted photos. The reservoir levels are almost down to normal too.
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Post by treyprey on Jan 29, 2016 21:31:02 GMT -6
Y'all should be used to clicking on the foundation site as well as the Beavers Bend State Park facebook page to get the most recent updates along with newly posted photos. The reservoir levels are almost down to normal too. I've had all the websites and Facebook page open constantly for the past couple weeks ? Still love reading everyone's thoughts on here
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Post by dlinzy on Jan 30, 2016 9:08:00 GMT -6
I wonder what has settled in the 40 ft. hole and if it's the 4 ft. hole now. Maybe someone will run a kayak over it with a good graph. It would be good to know how deep the Cold Hole is as well.
And now for Deep Thoughts...
D
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Post by golferjeff on Jan 30, 2016 22:00:45 GMT -6
By Jack Handy
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Post by soonerlongbow on Jan 31, 2016 8:43:35 GMT -6
Speaking of the wetlands. Does anyone ever head back in there? I'm sure it's too warm in summer for trout but should hold fish in winter & bass in warm months.
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Post by Fenwick on Jan 31, 2016 13:05:10 GMT -6
I'm curious about the so called wetlands. For discussion purposes I'm going to assume in this instance the wetlands means the environment along the roadway on the river side of the woods from the Cold Hole bridge location down to the Evening Hole bridge. That would include the environs of Lost Creek and the woods below that which ran down to the Evening Hole bridge and also the long slack water pool that once ran parallel to the river. The May flood left that wooded area pretty much wrecked and eliminated the earthen strip between the long slack water pool and the river itself. Park Rangers expressed concern that the surviving trees might be lost due to root systems being suffocated by being buried by so much rocky, gravelly debris. The ruined slack water pool was once a home for so many non-trouty creatures as well. I was astonished at the sight of the post May flood Lost Creek and Bluffs area when I first saw it in June. In October I was amazed at the fast re-growth of grasses and brush within the wet woods set behind the former slack water pool. The natural abatis throughout was a bit of a challenge to negotiate at times. I'm wondering how it is decided what gets left to nature to reclaim and restore and what man-made designs have to be applied back there since the term "wetlands restoration" has been brought up as a requirement by certain higher authorities. Hm? Anyone?
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Post by soonerlongbow on Jan 31, 2016 15:36:52 GMT -6
I was thinking they meant the slack area to the south and east of cold Hole/The Bluffs. The last time we were there (pre-flood summer of '14) it was plum full of lilly pads & cypress trees.
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Post by golferjeff on Feb 1, 2016 8:12:37 GMT -6
FYI - wetlands in this instance is the area between the river and roadway. It does include the area back by lost creek and to the west of lost creek. Most of the cypress is also considered wetlands. I have not heard anything about the area below the dam and upstream of the bend/bluffs. It does fish well at times - ask Peter
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Post by Fenwick on Feb 1, 2016 9:15:14 GMT -6
At long last the Tainter gates are closed and the reservoir level is very close to it's normal elevation of 599.50. That double dose stocking was two weeks ago and if the ODWC keeps to it's normal schedule Zone 1 will receive another normal stocking this week. What with the park being closed for at least another week that means the trout will have a chance to move unmolested into locations known and unknown. The power generation station gates are still wide open and so Zone 2 and 3 remain inundated for the time being. If electricity demands are low perhaps those gates will soon close and Zone 2 and 3 can be explored. UPDATE: Well whaddya know, I checked the Corps page again at 10:45 am and it appears the outflow from the power generation station has been dialed back by roughly half.
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Post by jonbo on Feb 1, 2016 12:15:29 GMT -6
...and it's tomorrow (Tuesday) the fill earth for the Evening Hole bridge approach is supposed to be delivered. It looks like everything is progressing nicely. I'm guessing we'll be able to start fishing, if we choose, by about the end of next week.
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Post by Fenwick on Feb 1, 2016 14:26:37 GMT -6
Judging from the flow numbers on the Corps page it now appears the power generation stations gates are closed and what's coming from the dam is from the soda straw that sticks out. Can the five weeks of flooding be over? Time for the trout and who knows what that came from the reservoir to settle in. First one of you guys to land and post a photo of a newly caught Spillway / Cold Hole / Bluffs / Evening Hole bowfin, gar, drum, spoonbill, striper, northern snakehead, cuttyrainbrown or any other "gee, wasn't really expecting to find one of those here" kinds of fish gets to buy me pizza and beer. Deal? Walleye, bass, catfish and carp don't count. They're not unusual enough.
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Post by frreed on Feb 1, 2016 14:40:33 GMT -6
It should be fun, but I hope the number of stripers that got through were limited. They just love fresh trout. A few years ago a "guide" was busted for using some stocker rainbows as bait for stripers below Possum Kingdom. A few of them could do some serious damage to the trout population in short order.
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Post by dannys on Feb 1, 2016 15:30:48 GMT -6
We have the Stripers in the Guadalupe, but they pretty much stay in the slow-flow deeper areas. Apparently, they don't like quicker water (lazy by nature?) Ours got in the tailrace from past floods/heavy releases. Some folks have caught a Rainbow only to end up with a Striper attacking and taking some or all of it. Catch and keep is ENCOURAGED, as long as they a of legal size.
As a side note, we had a poacher busted by TPWD the other day. Seems he is a long time poacher and trespasser on private property. While folks knew of him, he was always quick to exit before any thing could be done. A guide called the local Game Warden this time and the Warden was waiting for him. BUSTED--YEA!!!!
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Post by Fenwick on Feb 1, 2016 19:36:07 GMT -6
Browsing assorted sites about the fish resident to Broken Bow Reservoir I've seen it stated that northern snakeheads have not yet been found and that hybrid stripers are not stocked by the ODWC but rather were "introduced" by other means. Must be those pesky eagles flying around from lake to lake toting stripers in their talons and dropping them off here and there.
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Post by Fenwick on Feb 2, 2016 9:00:05 GMT -6
Oh well, it's Tuesday morning and though the Tainter gates remain closed the power generation station is wide open again inundating Zone 2 and 3. Reservoir release is 6200 cubic feet per second on Tuesday 02Feb16 Time: 0800 hours.
Speaking of poachers taking out what they shouldn't, let me ask about the opposite illegal activity, "introducing" fish that shouldn't be placed into a body of water. Do these guys drive away from one body of water carrying fish in their live bait wells or even in buckets hoping to get to another body of water in order to stock it in amateur fashion? I can't imagine amateurs intent on surreptitious stocking work with large mobile aeration tanks loaded with lots of egg laden fish of one kind or another. I'm wondering how they do that. It's only a matter of time before the invasive northern snakeheads and those leaping kinds of carp show up in the Mountain Fork and it won't be by legitimate official means. I used to live in D.C. and it is suspected northern snakeheads first showed up in suburban waters and the Potomac via the crudest way possible, live snakeheads bought at an Asian market ( illegal in itself) were put in a bucket of water and set free into the river by uninformed folks hoping to have a home country delicacy readily available nearby.
I suppose "invasive species" ought to be a board topic unto itself. I've read that officials are trying to eradicate brook trout from certain western waters since the "introduced" brookies are voraciously gobbling up the native species thus destroying the original native populations. When I was a kid I spent a few weeks each summer at Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire where I caught my first trout all those years ago. The extinct Sunapee trout once existed there until lake trout were introduced. The rare Sunapee strain of trout are still found in some waters in Maine but that's about it, no longer in their original location.
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Post by golferjeff on Feb 2, 2016 11:37:07 GMT -6
I don't think it is the bucket brigade of the 19th century.... I would bet more on using live bait and bait freeing itself and propogating. I know people put catfish in small waterways, then they escape into larger waterways, populating as they go.
The Brookies out west simply outcompete the less aggressive and lighter spawning cutthroats. Since they tend to want to live in the same (cold, clean, oxygenated) water, they fight for food and habitat. Yellowstone Park is ground zero - Slough, Soda Butte, and Lamar rivers. Eradication of rainbows and brookies is being actively discussed.
Good news - the leaping carp like water 65 degrees and warmer. Maybe downstream in the Little river, but not likely to move up to our part. They have been netted in the Red, so it is just a matter of time.
Rotenone the entire planet and re-stock with natives......
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Post by Fenwick on Feb 2, 2016 11:59:26 GMT -6
Good thing our trouty stretch of the LMF is too cold to suit the warmer water nuisance types...the finned variety I mean. Not much we can do about the two legged kind. The power generation faucets are closed again. Guess they are gonna let the computers decide about electricity needs now. The park facebook page features some new updates regarding the water line and Evening Hole bridge fixit's. Almost there.
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Post by treyprey on Feb 2, 2016 17:54:17 GMT -6
As some of you may have seen already, they posted on the beavers bend state park Facebook page that they had completely repaired the water main and had the rest of the materials to fill in the approaches at evening hole bridge coming in today. Well, I messaged them and asked if that meant the park would be open this weekend, or at least by Monday next week. They replied and said the guy/people who are supposed to come and "flush"sanitize the water main told the park that for whatever reason that they didn't want to do it until Monday... Which is ridiculous. I asked if that meant the park would be closed until the water main is sanitized and they haven't replied. Personally, the cabins having running water doesn't effect my fishing one bit... Lol I just want them to open the roads so I can see/fish the river
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Post by frreed on Feb 2, 2016 18:54:24 GMT -6
Patience Grasshopper. The park is much more than the fishing at LMFR. They have to make sure that all the facilities are up and running.
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Post by Aaron on Feb 2, 2016 22:50:25 GMT -6
I wouldn't expect any opening until the water is fully operational and quality verified, along with the approaches to the bridges in a somewhat useable state. They were saying to expect an asphalt approach sometime in the future, but they didn't have a timeframe, which is understandable. Good news is, we are looking a days, not weeks until the gates open.
Word to the wise: Get your gear before you come. You will not be happy with your selection if you come unprepared. Not sure Three Rivers will have anything for you(I'll let Pat or the Kings talk about that), and Beavers Bend Fly Shop is just in the approval phase of building. Just waiting on the local Corp OK for the site and plans. PREPARE TO HAVE ALL YOUR FLIES AND GEAR PRIOR TO GETTING TO THE RIVER!!! Look for the shop to be rebuilt and open some time in March. Keep your fingers crossed!
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