Pumped the final 3' down the last couple of days and am back to normal pool. I have lovely coffee colored water from nutrients but it is clear coffee if that makes sense.
We got some work done where water flow removed some areas of earth, although fairly minor, I leveled, spread grass seed and put erosion blankets down while it's wet.
I have observed a few good SMB, a few yoy SMB, LOTS of RES YOY and a few adults. I'm not seeing the masses of FHM adults I was but large numbers of fry of all sizes. I have not seen a single YP yet but Cloverleaf traps will tell me what's up there.
We made a trek down stream today which in NW KS is wide open, flat pasture for the most part and I was able to spot and collect some specimens of several species (all high n dry btw). I found about 40 YOY SMB, 1 adult SMB, 3 BG, 1 RES adult and 2 5-6" YP.
We went nearly 5 miles until we came to a CRP field that had a sharp draw. The flow was very wide in this basin but slow so water was not "fast and furious". Not sure how much further measurable water went so what we found is probably incomplete but most of the fish I found were in about a half-mile stretch where it was really wide, like 250-300 yards wide. Amazing how fast she soaked in. Had hopes of finding a pool or 2 that may have supported life. Not sure that many fish left with water flow so maybe I have more left than I know??
I did find a dozen or so Tilapia UPSTREAM in my sediment pond so I know which way they wanted to go. When water level was down to a small area I was able to net and toss those back in to pond.
Life goes forward and fall net samples will hopefully give me a partial idea of where I go from here.
