Management of lake Conway or lack there of.

Lake Conway’s water level is managed in accordance to theLake Conway Management Plan that was adopted January 8^th, 1976. Very little has changed. Dan, you should know that Lake Conway hasbeen kept at 262.0 feet msl from November 15^th to April 15^thfrom 1976 to 2002 and November 15^th to March 15^th from2002 to the present. So when you say,“the lake is like 6-7 inches below normal right now” this is an inaccurate andmisleading statement. The lake iscurrently being maintained 1 foot lower than 263.0 feet msl (normal pool), butthis is the standard operating procedure of this lake and has been for over 30years. Since Matt Horton started as LakeManager in 2008, the lake has never dropped below normal pool (263.0 ft. msl)or normal winter pool (262.0 ft. MSL) due to improper operation of the spillwaygates. Matt Horton monitors the lake’swater level and weather forecasts 7 days a week and if he is out of town, thereis always AGFC personnel monitoring the lake. People who peruse this message board look up to you and when you arespreading misinformation, it is doing a disservice to Lake Conway. Lkconwayguru, it is uncalled for and reflectspoorly on yourself to call the lake manager “mediocre at best.” I am Matt Horton’s supervisor and I take offenseto your comments about him on this message board. Matt Horton is one of the hardest workingbiologists that I have ever been around. He routinely works a 50+ hour weeks (gets paid for only 40), includingmany hours on the weekend. In 2012 heworked 75 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. That sounds like someone who works weekends.
Matt Horton has mentioned to a member of the Lake ConwayBass Club that he would be glad to recruit the assistance of the club’s membersto help mark boat trails on the lake and that he will contact them if he wouldbe available to work on a weekend.
For as poorly a managed fishery as Lake Conway is, it suredoes produce a “mess” of crappie. Thereare tons of reports on this message board of people catching limits of crappie. Lake Conway has the highest crappieevaluation score of any lake in Arkansas for the past 10 years. It routinely out scores other crappiefisheries around the state.

If anyone has a question, concern, comment or noticessomething that needs repair please just give us a call or send us anemail. If you want to know why or whynot something is being done on one of our lakes or rivers just ask us and wewill be glad to provide you with that information. We respond to every inquiry that comes throughour office. Please don’t rush tojudgment and post false information on these types of public forums withoutfirst obtaining the facts. Keep in mind,there are three of us working in District 10 and we manage all water bodies(over 30 lakes and numerous streams and rivers) within the 6 counties in ourdistrict. I would be glad to discuss anyissues that someone has with Lake Conway or any other lake in my district. Please feel free to call me or better yet,come by the office.
Matt Schroeder (FisheriesManagement Biologist)
213 A Highway 89 South
Mayflower, AR 72106
1-877-470-3309 (ext1204)

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Originally Posted by D10

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What's this?


C.J.

Where the little smily face with the tears. I think it sad that you and your other two people can take care of all this and run it right. "Keep in mind,there are three of us working in District 10 and we manage all water bodies(over 30 lakes and numerous streams and rivers) within the 6 counties in ourdistrict" It sad you can say you do the upmost for the over 30 lakes you work, you 40+ hours a week, you have spent less then 10 hour a week on each week on you 30 lakes a mo and you can't manage squat in 10 hour you or I can. I can't say I have seen conway what I say full, Now I don't live there so maybe text time I go by have look a little closer at it's hight. I call it very poor management

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Originally Posted by D10

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I am no statistician and am not trying going to pick your bar chart apart. I have no idea how you came to your conclusion with these numbers but I have grown up fishing Cargile and there is no way you can convince me that Cargile has a higher "crappie assessment score" than some of these listed. Cargile is a pond compared to other lakes I realize, but even if you are saying how many crappie are per square foot or acre or whatever, it still could not come out with Cargile being the 5th highest on your list. Cargile is a joke. I realize that this thread is about Conway but Cargile is in the same position. You can claim whatever you want but I have been on that lake all my life and it has always lacked in my opinion. Yes people catch fish but it def cant be listed as having the 5th highest crappie assessment score.
I would be interested to know how you come up with this assessment and your numbers???

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Originally Posted by largemouth8

I am no statistician and am not trying going to pick your bar chart apart. I have no idea how you came to your conclusion with these numbers but I have grown up fishing Cargile and there is no way you can convince me that Cargile has a higher "crappie assessment score" than some of these listed. Cargile is a pond compared to other lakes I realize, but even if you are saying how many crappie are per square foot or acre or whatever, it still could not come out with Cargile being the 5th highest on your list. Cargile is a joke. I realize that this thread is about Conway but Cargile is in the same position. You can claim whatever you want but I have been on that lake all my life and it has always lacked in my opinion. Yes people catch fish but it def cant be listed as having the 5th highest crappie assessment score.
I would be interested to know how you come up with this assessment and your numbers???

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X2 Pickthorne. Gotta be a mistake


C.J.

i apoligize for misleading,what i mean is all fisherman and most boathouse owners would like to do away from 1' low wintertime level,and i do know matt stays on top the gates according to policy.i thought that was the overall goal of the 263 level year round. and with the improvements of grassy lake road and palarm creek chokepoints cleared there would be room to deviate.the lake today is back close to the 1' low normal.... wintertime level

The AGFC monitors crappie populations with a standardised trap net sample. The figure above are the mean crappie assessment scores over the last 10 years. The crappie assessment is based on 5 components:1) density, 2) growth, 3) size structure, 4) age structure, 5) recruitment. The scores of these individual compnents are weighted and added together to get the crappie assessment score. Trap netting effeciency is greater in some lakes than others. Feel free to call me and discuss this further.

Matt Schroeder
1-877-470-3309 (ext 1204)

Dan, thank you for the appology. We have the same goals as far as water level management on Lake Conway. We would also like to keep the lake level at 263.0 year around. We are still waiting for the final hydrology study report. If is concludes that we can keep the lake at 263.0 year around, by all means we will keep it at that level.

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Originally Posted by D10

The AGFC monitors crappie populations with a standardised trap net sample. The figure above are the mean crappie assessment scores over the last 10 years. The crappie assessment is based on 5 components:1) density, 2) growth, 3) size structure, 4) age structure, 5) recruitment. The scores of these individual compnents are weighted and added together to get the crappie assessment score. Trap netting effeciency is greater in some lakes than others. Feel free to call me and discuss this further.

Matt Schroeder
1-877-470-3309 (ext 1204)

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Thank you for the explanation. I am sure you have a process and it is a legit one; just hard to agree with it from a fishermans standpoint. I guess you catch more with a net than I do with my single hook though :dono :fish