Must lower the lake from 7 acres to 4. Has been an excellent LMB and crappie lake. We were going to remove thousands of crappie this spring to allow bigger growth but the lake has dropped almost half and we cannot raise it back up. How will this impact our lake and what can we do if anything?
I'm guessing that the forced crowding of your current fish population into a much smaller area will lead to "survial of the biggest", especially if there is not a lot of cover for your smaller fish to hide. Big fish booms tend to follow prolonged low water levels once the water level comes back up.
I agree, a lot of of smaller lakes are managed that way. They are drained down a by a 1/3 or so to concentrate the fish more and allow higher predation rates on the BG and BCP by the LMB.
we raised the lake 4 yrs ago and the dam is leaking at the original level without a budget to fix it. It is permanent
You will have 7 acres of fish (biomass) in 4 acres of water (carrying capacity). Not a real good idea with prolonged ice or summer thermocline as both reduce DO. I would start catching and removing fish. Good news is the predators should be fat.