We are lucky to have only "Slight" variations in water depth...a 4 foot change in a 20ft lake is pretty much the same as a 20 foot change in a 100 foot lake.
Changes in a Walleye brood lake can make or break it, especially at the wrong times.
CJ is one of eight brood lakes in Ohio, they have been chosen to supply Purebred Walleye Eggs and Milt for Lake Erie, Ohio Brood lake Stocking progams, and Saugeye stocking in other Ohio lakes.
Quite a few of us have spent the better part of 13 years to keep the lake healthy and stabilized.
The ODNR wanted this...so did the COE.
Brood lakes get 100 fingerlings per acre yearly. Less than 3% of those fingerlings make it to a legal 15 inch fish.
Some years when harvest and growing conditions are good the brood lakes can get double, or if harvest is not good, they get less.
Walleye are grown in outdoor ponds, and they are ravenous. Once they get to fingerling size the weather has to be perfect for bugs to hatch and fall into the ponds...if not, the Walleye cannibalize each other. If you get bad weather in Spring they die. The ODNR spends huge money to raise the Walleye and keep the program going. Keeping Erie productive and pure is the number 1 reason...that is how much money Erie provides for Ohio and they will do whatever to keep it healthy.
When they drop the water level at or below winter pool in the Spring, especially when the plug should be in, it does not allow the Gators to get up in the creeks to spawn and supplement what is stocked. Same with feeder carp, WB, and other baitfish.
Springfield and CJ has not been close to flooding in my lifetime, and with the COE using outdated guidelines, they could really help CJ even more with a smidgen more common sense.
Oh, and they already missed this years spawn...the creeks were all low, since the COE up here likes flooding you guys to the South, by dumping water into the Mad River when you are flooded.