Beaver Tailwaters Temperature Update

[Zack Hoyt]

I received this email from Christy yesterday evening.

Hello All,

I’m sure a lot of you are aware of the situation at Beaver Tailwater. The COE has had a mechanical failure of both turbines at the Dam and has started releasing water from only the spillway gate. The major concern of course, has been high water temperatures in the tailwater. Trust me, I am as concerned as anyone about the implications this has for the trout fishery. I assure you, AGFC has been aware of this since nearly minute one and have been closely monitoring the situation. With the lake at the top of the flood pool, and water still coming in to the lake, the COE has no choice at this time but to release water from the flood gates. However, I would like to point out that they have considered every alternative we have offered in an attempt to alleviate the situation; unfortunately at this time they are still trying to come up with an alternative that will not be unsafe to overall Dam operations.

Personnel from our Program have been on the tailwater the past two days checking temperatures. Yesterday, temperatures from the Dam downstream to Bertrand Access ranged from 75.6 F at the dam to 78.3 F at Bertrand. All temperature readings we took, regardless of whether they were taken right bank, left bank, surface, or bottom, were within that range. Today, we floated that same stretch and temperatures were slightly cooler (73.6 F) due to overnight temperatures being lower. We also floated the stretch from Bertrand downstream to Houseman today. A bit of good news is that we found a lot of areas between the Hwy. 62 Bridge and Houseman Access where the temperatures approximately 12 ft. below the surface were in the 50-60 F range. That is great and I hope that means the lack of trout we saw over the last two days (dead or alive) is because they have sought refuge in the deeper, more cool water. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. We have only seen about 8 dead trout over the last two days (all catchable size (10”-11”) rainbow trout, some freshly dead some older). There is no way to attribute those few deaths to the high temperatures. Also, it’s not unusual to see a few dead fish anytime you float a river.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and will check temperatures and for stressed fish regularly until the situation with the turbines has been resolved.

I will send out a more detailed map of our temperature readings for anyone who is interested. I am still putting together all of the information. I appreciate the calls and concerns that have been expressed by everyone and please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I will get back to you with any answers ASAP.

Thanks,

Christy

Christy Graham

Trout Biologist Supervisor

[Feathers and Fins]

My guess and purely a guess will be the trout head to Tablerock to find deeper cooler water. This does not bode well for the Trout fishery for some time though. But if people wanted to catch them I would be running 5 to 7 colors of leadcore and a Panther Martin from Beaver Town out in to Tablerock. Could be some fantastic fishing.

[bfishn]

There might be a big wad in Blue Springs about now...

[Amery]

That is not good news, that tailwater could be considers my "home water". Looks like the fishing will be down all summer.

[Beaverdamstore]

Grab a garr fly. There are tons of them here now.

Jim

[PigSooner]

Hate to hear this....

[Quillback]

I wonder how long those generators will be down?

[Zack Hoyt]

Garr aren't going to help the trout population who are going to be cooking. Not to mention the recent planting of roe by TU. This could be a pretty negative thing for the tailwater ecosystem.

[rps]

I went up as far as old 62 bridge pilings today. Surface temp was 75 there and at Houseman. The Corps is not having their best year with White River generators, are they?

[Feathers and Fins]

Nope don't look like they are