Caney Generation & Center Hill
 

Hey Y'all,

I've been off the water for a while as my wife and I just had our first child. Yesterday, she "let me out to play" and I was all set to fish the Caney. Unfortunately, they were generating all day. I neglected to check the schedule and arrived disappointed.

Does anyone know if this is pretty standard for September? My parents are visiting next week and I was hoping to take my dad trout fishing. Should I expect them to be generating all day until further notice? I'm starting to wonder about a backup plan.

I ended up fishing Center Hill from my kayak. What a beautiful lake! It reminds me of lakes in upstate NY and Quebec (clear water, hills). In spite of the beauty, I had zero luck with rooster tails and cranks. Does anyone have any tips for Center Hill? It strikes me as a very deep so, maybe jigs and soft plastics?

On a side note, the day wasn't a total loss. I ended up catching a nice hybrid on Priest.

They are running the gens on the Caney right now due to all the rain we had last week. My guess is they will be pulling hard for the next couple of weeks. I most definitely would have a back up plan as I think you will be unable to wade the Caney for a while.

Roy

Roy- Do you know why they have had the lake higher than the usual 618 for construction? Has the lake level be allowed to raise some?

If you round to the nearest foot of elevation for a year to date idea of what water levels have been:

626ft - 15 days
627ft - 43 days
628ft - 47 days
629ft - 81 days
630ft - 29 days
631ft - 9 days
632ft - 9 days
633ft - 5 days
634ft - 3 days
635ft - 1 days
636ft - 2 days

This was as of Thursday.

Travis,
It is my understanding that the normal winter pool will be 620. Summer pool is 630. They were in the process of slowly pulling it down to the 620 level when we were hit with the 4+ inches of rain last week. I think they held the water on Centerhill for a few days to keep downstream flooding to a minimal. I would guess they will run the 6750 cfs until they get it back into the mid 620's. It appears they have stopped it from rising and it is now slowly falling. It looks as if they have got Great Falls back down now. Was up there Friday with Alphahawk and we noticed some large shad(hand size) floating dead on top of the water. I guess they are getting sucked through the sluice gate. Just odd to see a shad kill when they are that large. The fishing was fairly slow. Gens had only been running for about 24 hours when we went. I think the next couple of days fishing should get better. 1 problem( I have to work.)

I would expect constant generation for several weeks - maybe all the way into winter. It's going to take some time to get the lake back down to the winter pool level where they want it.

I don't know if the dead shad are coming through the dam, or if we're seeing fish getting killed off by low-oxygen water coming through the generators. I'm very concerned about that - I hope the oxygen added from the sluice is enough, because the quality of the water coming through the turbines is pretty terrible.

bd

That would suck incredibly. I actually had a day set aside for trout this weekend...:mad:

It better not screw my weekender up there at the end of Oct.

Congrats on the new little one Doc!

I did miss that in his post....sorry!! Congrats on the new fishing partner. Train them early and train them often!!!

Roy

Thanks, guys. I can't wait to take him out!

The water right now is falling at about a rate of 1.5 ft per 36 hrs. :mad:

IF they keep the schedule the same, no more rain and constant progress as is we are looking at a wading window maybe mid-Oct. That will depend on if the Corps decides to continue dropping on to winter pool. If that becomes the case then maybe last week of October it will hit winter pool.

Ofcourse there has to be no more rain between now and then...

Congratulations on the new addition. I forgot to ask for details the other day. I hope mamma, and the new born are doing well.

Yes, but did you factor in that any week now Great falls will also lower to winter pool which will dump a lot of water in Center Hill. According to past winter and summer pools, Great Falls will drop 15 feet to hit winter pool level of 785. Last year they started dropping the lake in the first week of October.

It did not affect it as much last year at least from what I remember. Went back and checked my records:

10/15, 10/16 the elevation was 627.60 and there were no problems wading most all day. Infact generation was (1) unit 3-5 am then nothing else all day.

Great Falls would have started their drop and already dumped 5-6ft at that point. By first of November GF was done dropping pretty much and Center Hill never raised above 627's until mid-Nov.

It did not affect it as much last year at least from what I remember. Went back and checked my records:

Travis, just curious how do you keep your records. I have thought about starting a fishing blog just so I could document my trips and remember from year to year what I was doing.

Do you use old fashioned paper or is there a computer program that you like?

Thanks,
Roy