Well, we aren't completely sure just what water level is full pool at our pond. With all the work we did on the drain box and installing the shutters, we have the water at the level that we think is normal. I could raise it at least another foot and I think it would still be safe for the dam. But, the reason we haven't raised it is because we want to leave a margin of safety in case of a massive rain event.

I suppose your question would raise another question for me - what exactly is full pool? How does one determine that?

If my water were to rise another 3 feet from what the level is currently, it would begin to pour in over the top of the drain box (a 6' x 9' concrete structure that is completely open at the top). I've only seen it that way once - and our spillway area was running water at about a 3 inch depth. We believe that the spillway area is really intended to run only for emergencies and not normal levels. This was a 100-year flood event and our drain box was pretty much at capacity. At this event, we observed that water was only about 2 feet from over-topping the dam.

So, currently, our water level is 5-6 feet below the top of the dam. That feels right but, someday I'll get Greg Grimes to come and look...when I'm not too broke to pay him.

If you're too scared to throw that bait where the fish are, why did you tie it on?