I believe it's just related to a lack of rain. I knew a few years back that we had a series of summers with little to no rain so I looked up what the drought status was for that time in 2009 and found this:
http://www.deq.state.va.us/export/sites/default/waterresources/pdf/DMTF_Report_3-15-2009.pdfApparently a lot of the rivers and streams around the state were quite low around the time this pic of the lake was taken. There is a picture dated April 2009 where the lake has significantly more water in it, not to half full but getting there.
The fluctuation is one reason I was thinking of a fishery sustained by a stocking program. I would be a lot more frustrated with a dry spell hitting and destroying a fishery that'd been growing for two or three years as opposed to one with, say, channel catfish that were going to be fished out eventually anyway. I don't think losing water over winter would be an issue so if there was water in late October or November then I could put some trout in, if it'd been a dry year they'd be skipped or added when the level came up some. They wouldn't make it past June anyway so if the lake dried up late summer they'd already be gone. Has anyone ever done a bullhead based fishery? They could just burrow into the mud until the lake filled back up
