Is It Time for a Lake Conway Draw Down?

I for one think it is the perfect time for this to happen and here is why.

Allow folks who lost property in the bottom of the lake to maybe find it.

Allow for a cleanup of sunken debris along banks...now covering spawning habitat. From what I saw still sunken and now laying on the banks we will all be eating cardboard flavored bluegill and bass coming from the Hwy 89 Bay.

During the cleanup last Sat which was a great help...There is still so much sunken debris covering spawning habitat we could not get to that needs to be picked up to help fish have more natural spawning habitat.

Its pretty bad when you drop your trolling motor along the bank and two out of three times your TM Skeg picks up a shingle and piece of finishing board that has sunken.

While boat trails are not marked too bad... some more work can be done.

Draw Downs always increase good vegetation growth and increase nutrient's in a lake and aid in the coming spawns.

Maybe a good drum kill off can be done also them things are getting worse every year.

I have lived through three draw downs on Lake Conway and the fishing has been great during and shortly afterwards also with the help of our Game and Fish Management stocking programs. It will not hurt the lake but can only help and give us the chance to make it better.

Dock owner can make repairs.

Boatramps can be worked on.

Dam fixtures can be made.

The lake bottom closest to the oil spill bay can be examined better.

After a major tornado and oil spill the year before...Don't it make good sense to draw the lake down and just take a look at what we got. I think it does.

The list goes on and on. Draw it Down... Comments?

They help fishing on Nimrod for sure.

Im glad you brought this up. There has been rumors of a draw down on Conway for months, but no plans of one as far as I know?

D-10 who is in control of draw downs on Conway? I am glad you are on here to lend an ear and I understand you are a busy AGFC Rep and some of the problems are beyond your scope of operations. But maybe you can lead us in the right directions to voice our concerns. Thanks Matt

Russ that would be us in District 10 (Tom, Matt, and I). A lot of planning goes into a drawdown. We like to accomplish as many projects as possible when the water is down. The most bang for the buck. We have several projects that we would like to get accomplished during a drawdown: fix boat trails including removing some stumps, dredging certain areas of the lake, and replacing the dam with a spillway. I don't know when the next drawdown will be. We would like to wait to do a drawdown when we could accomplish those three goals. That more than likely won't happen. More than likely we will be able to work on the boat trails and stumps on the next drawdown. Dredging and replacing the dam will cost some serious cash. This will need by in by our Administration and the Commisioners. I will be sure to inform y'all as some as I know for sure that we will be having a drawdown.

We would also like to get a handle on the dilapidated structures around the lake. Lake Conway is a beast. When you are dealing with a lake that is over 65 years old, things need some attention and we in District 10 are well aware.

Well I understand your need for cash for those expenses and need to be ready for that kind of work. But what about a semi draw down this Fall/Winter. Would this cost that much to do? Maybe just a tad more than a normal winter draw down...enough so folks who would like to repair their docks and clean up could be done. Don't haft to do a full draw down... but just enuff where folks can make repairs, clean up the banks more easily, and we can still get up Gold creek and fish. HAHA!!! Everybody Happy Happy Happy. Just something for you to think about Matt. You know you got some help. And thanks for listening.

Russ there are two problems with what you proposed. The first is that there is no such thing as a partial drawdown on Lake Conway. The least that we could drop it is 6'. The second problem is that Conway is so flashy with water rise, that we would need to drop it all the way so that the ground would have a chance harden enough so that we could work on the lake bed. We would like to do a partial drawdown but it isn't very practice for getting work done.

Thanks Matt for everything you do and working with us sportsmen first hand. I basically agree with the OP, and taking his and Matt's considerations together I think it would be a great idea to draw down when District 10 deems the time is right and then:

Work on the dam
Clean up existing banks/structures
Possibly improve boat trails (there has to be a deep freeze/tree/who knows what lurking in there waiting to eat a lower unit

Also, what is the long term plan regarding silt accumulation in the lake? We're a generation away from wade fishing the whole place.