Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry 6 ft of water siphoned out (need help)

Our lake is 4-5 acres and about 20 feet at the deepest. Last year in Feb or March we got a 10 inch rain and it filled our lake up fast enough to create a siphon on the drain pipe. (the pipe pulls water from 8-12 feet below the surface) We showed up a few days after the rain and the lake had quit siphoning. In 2015, we finally started catching some bigger bass. We caught around 15 that were over 4 lbs with the biggest being 8. We were catching 1 about every other trip. In 2016, after the lake lost the water, we caught 3 (2- 6's and a 7) with the last one being caught on July 31st. We also had trouble getting a bloom last year. The overall fishing has gotten worse since then. We only catch 2 or 3 little ones each time we go this year. We tested the water with a test strip and got a 6.5 PH and a 50 on the alkilinity. We have a water test coming back in any day and we already have lime to spread in the lake. My question is could the pipe have siphoned off the good water and left us with the water from the bottom that isn't as good? I am not very knowledgeable with water chemistry for a lake. Any info would be much appreciated.Thanks!

My question is could the pipe have siphoned off the good water and left us with the water from the bottom that isn't as good?

Not likely as it drains from 8-12 and the new water would be on top. Post water test results. Also what are your complete fishing results not just big fish?

Ok thanks...I will post water results when they come in. Fishing has been extremely slow since last summer. We have days when they are hard to catch but we would also have days of 10-20 fish of all sizes. The ones we are catching now look good. I'm not sure what their relative weight is but by the looks of them I would say most are 90%-100% of weight.

Got the water test back. Now I'm really not sure what to do next.
PH is 7.2
Alkalinity is 81 (should we still add lime)
Hardness is 82.4 (not really sure what # this should be)

Can alkalinity rise on its own? We did a water test in 2014 and got close to a 60 then.

Any info would be appreciated.

Those #s are all good ! If you have ag lime go ahead and use it. It will not hurt in your situation. Ak of 200 is optimum but anything over 20 is tolerable.


See this from LSU which has ranges in the Water analyses

Ok thx for the help. I guess we just forgot how to fish. Can you give me an idea of what your next step would be? I mean, I'm sure it could be lots of things wrong that could be affecting the fish but what do we do now?

IMO an electro-fishing survey would provide you some valuable info on numbers and size classes of the species present. Once you have that data, the path forward should be more clearly defined.

Just my 1 cent...

Help me understand - your title says "6 ft of water siphoned out". Are you saying the siphon took your water 6 ft below normal level? or do you mean the flood water got 6 ft over the primary spillway?

Ok...we are working on getting that setup. Our lake is in the woods and down in a hole. (Hard to get a boat that size in and out)
I mean the lake level rose high enough to fill the overflow pipe completely. When the rain stopped and the water fell, the pipe created a suction since the pipe pulls from the middle of the water and drained the lake 6ft below normal level. We have since drilled several holes in the pipe that T's off and sticks out the top of the levee to allow the pipe to get air. Hope that clears it up.