Poor choices!!

Well the game and fish seem to have made another one of their poor choices again, last week when they were calling for a lot of rain the ag&fc went and pulled the drain plug on lake Conway and let out a tremendous amount of water dropping the lake below its normal pool level, then the rain never materialized. Well they went and done it again this week, they are really screwing up the spawn, they now have the lake about two feet below normal pool level, the water has been in the upper 60's for about two weeks now and I have been catching bass and crappie that had released their eggs already, well having known that some of these fish I caught came out of water that was only a a foot and a half deep, and that the lake is 2 foot low it just stands to reason that the eggs that were dropped in the shallow water are now on dry ground,and are wasted. One is left to wonder where the logic is in letting all the water out during the spawn. On lakes like Conway where they do not restock certain species of fish as often as they should and rely heavily on natural restocking, one would think that they would take into consideration the fish and the habitat that is screwed up by the senseless yo yoing of the water levels. Total confusion for the fish and total frustration for the fisherman, Conway is a very treacherous lake when it is a normanl pool, drop the water two additional feet and just imagine how bad it is.

I don't like it either, BUT to them it is not about the spawn it's about flood control.

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Originally Posted by Roughneck

I don't like it either, BUT to them it is not about the spawn it's about flood control.

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I know, but Conway was never ment to be used for flood control.

Lake Conway can only hold so much water. AGFC might get in hot water if Conway Lake backed up in some houses. Crappie tend to overpopulate in most waters that are fertile, only a fraction of the spawn is needed. Would it be better if it rose they spawned then it fell after they spawned? I hear folks every spring whining about the COE lowering this lake and killing the spawn. We never ever have lost a spawn to my knowledge and have had too many small Crappie forever. Crappie fry hatch out in a few days and most will leave with the water.

Black crappie females produce between 11,000 and 188,000 eggs; white crappie females produce between 2,900 and 91,700 eggs. Eggs for both species hatch
within 3 to 5 days. Crappie fry feed on yolk sac for 3 to 5 days, and then they leave the nest.

So if you have been catching these post spawn females for more than a week, then the babies will be fine. And as I remember, fish don't all spawn at the same exact time. I have caught fish on the same spawning areas from Late March untill mid May in previous years, females and males alike, and females having and not having eggs throughout that period.

Also, if the AGFC didn't manage the water levels on the lake, did you ever stop to think that if the water topped the dam, it might wash out, thus draining the entire lake. And then what would the fishermen have to say?

They are danged if they do, and danged if they don't.

Per a reliable source, water is back up at Conway and slightly out of its banks.

Attachment 85899

However it's not as high as last year.

I stand with the guru,,,Lake Conway needs a spillway so that it may regulate itself! And that pic is from last April, not this year, the water never got over 3 feet high this morning. Last April it was around 7ft high.

I believe if you read RCC's post you'll see that he meant the pic was from last year. And a lake that regulates itself will cause more flooding, maybe not at the lake, but definitely more flooding downstream.

While we were moving the in-laws out last year, the authorities told us the dam had to remain closed to keep the arkansas river from backing into the lake and that we had just a short time before mandatory evacuation if the water from the river breached the dam backwards. If there would have been a spillway any lower than the dam fully closed, the flooding would have been worse. Hope it never happens again.

The water is exactly as I said. Slightly out of its banks (up to the base on the porch swing), not like it was last year in the pic.

Interesting numbers and statistic however if one day the eggs are released in a foot of water and the next day the lake drops 2 foot that means the eggs are 1 foot above the water level on dry ground. Lake Conway has and never was intended as a flood control lake. I don't want nobody to have water in thier house but a surveyor could have told them they are building in a flood plain and to build up their lot and not to build 100feet from the waters edge. They are predicting the Arkansas river will get super high and possibly back up into lake Conway before it is all said and done. They won't keep the water from backing up into lake Conway if they run and close the spillway. This is all happening because of the newly formed lake Conway home owners association leaning on the game and fish wanting to control the lake, and it's working out for them. They are running the water levels in a manner to make the home owners association happy and not thinking about the lake or it resources. I am saying this as a personal observation and by having experience on this lake day in and day out, I have been on this lake for half as many year as the lake is old.

The state and Game and fish have made allot of money over the years off this lake selling the land around it, land that should have been kept sacred and for public use only. Now they have a big mess and soon there will be no natural shore line left for the public and will all be looking at a bunch of boat docks run down boat docks, and trailers and houses all with run down ceptic tanks right next to the water. It's sad. Ive seen way too much land sold off over the years around the lake and natural shoreline destroyed.