Well, "we're pregnant" as they say. Once you have a Komatsu 200 series track hoe with 52" bucket cut your levee there ain't no turnin' back. This happened last Wednesday then I was out of town from Thursday through yesterday and can't wait to get back out there. There's about 2/3 acre of 3-5 foot depth water left from what was about 7.8 acres. I will apply rotenone this weekend and see what comes up (more photos to come). The caretaker said 20 grass carp didn't make it (presumably died of asphyxiation) and he swears they weighed 40 or 50 pounds apiece. I guess I'll find out soon enough because he could only get about half of them out and the others are floating and stinking. He said we lost one bass he pulled out of there and it was nearly 8 pounds! He says you can see all sorts of fish - catfish, bass, sunfish, swimming around and piping from time to time. I started the project in late August by building a 4" PVC siphon and it pulled the lake down about 4 feet before it quit. After many futile attempts to restart it I called in the big guns. You can see what 50+ years of siltation will do but frankly I was surprised at the depth especially near the levee where it is easily 18 feet in spots. This project was precipitated by extensive beaver damage to the levee, tree growth on the back side and out-of-balance fish populations. Also I want to create better structure. I opted for the expensive nuclear option but I only want to do this once. I'll have my forage fish (CNBG, RES, FH) stocked in mid-October then LMB in May. I'm conidering TS in march but am undecided yet. Regardless, I've got enough water now and a good enough watershed that there ought to be plenty of water for stocking in October. I'll attempt to post some photos in the series of what transpired last Wednesday. It's amazing how quickly 7 million gallons of water can move through a big cut in your levee.
Aerial of my lakes. The large one (7.8 acres) is the subject.
Water level prior to cutting levee.
Levee Breach
Flowing nicely!
Dropping fast...
Stumps popping up.
Look to the right of the track hoe and you can see multiple beaver holes in the levee.
Test hole dug in front of levee where it's shallow. Good clay content! This will be dug out and used to widen the levee 5:1.
View from front yard (levee is to the left). Notice water level from siphoning now freshly drained area probably 10 feet deep at bottom of old creek bed.
