Low Head Dams

[ejsell]

Three low head dams have been removed over this winter and a fourth is scheduled all within walking distance of my house. There was a ton of farm sediment built up behind them so even though the water was pretty shallow the muck and dams made about a mile and a half of river in town un-wadable and very stagnate. I've been eyeballing a few spots the past couple of weeks and they look like they are shaping up nicely for smallmouth habitat. Can't wait to try one spot in particular. Nice riffles and fast pools are becoming more evident after every blowout.

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[flav]

That's very cool.

There was a series of dams on the river where I grew up and over the last decade some of them have been removed. This past summer I returned and was able to wade and fish areas that were under deep water during my childhood and held mostly carp and bullheads. Now the river is rocky and quick, with riffles and pools full of spunky smallmouth in numbers and sizes I dreamed about as a kid. I hope your river can heal itself too.

Here's a pic of one of the sections I fished this summer. The dam was downstream, right where the river curves out of sight. The place I'm standing was once under about 5 feet of water. Now it's a nice riffle, and smallies grabbed my flies in just about every likely looking spot.

 

[rsagebrush]

I just love to fish for smallmouth! Glad your streams are coming back.

 

[flntknp17]

Lots of lowhead dams being taken out around Iowa. The amount of public anger nd outcry over it has caught me off guard. Obviously it’s good for safety and river health and fish.....but it’s bad for catfishing....if there isn’t a lowhead, how will people know where to leave all the worm containers and empty beer cans?

Matt

 

[rsagebrush]

I'm sure they will find a way, we have none around here but people manage two toss **** all over the place.

 

[ejsell]

Stopped yesterday and watched them packing loose dirt down for some reason where the dam and riffle structure used to be. He then moved down river with a big 6 wheeled dump truck following and spread boulders through a slightly deeper area.

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[ejsell]

Some more pics. I remember wanting to do this as a child.

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[corn fed fins]

The amount of time to start these projects is unbelievable. The funny thing is money never seems to be an issue. We have a section scheduled for improvement. The study took one year. Now it has been in engineering for 1 year. My last inquiry as to progress says one more year in engineering as the state is backed up. Don't ask about third party as CO apparently has problems with EVERY firm out there. Absolutely ridiculous. So just count your blessings that it's getting done.

 

[ejsell]

It took 11 years just to start moving dirt on this project. 12 years total when they are done. Most of the time was spent creating various options that were almost all shot down by special interest groups. This plan calls for taking out the 4 dams and "benching" a few hundred yards of river bank. The cost, not including the studies, is 6.5 million. All of which was covered by a temporary local sales tax. This project will supposedly lower a 100 year flood by a foot in our downtown area.

We have had two 100 year floods in the past 12 years and several 50 year floods. The only reason this one went through was because the county owned all the land which had been a tire dump years ago and was "cleaned" up in the late 90's. Over the last few weeks they have found over 100 tons of tires buried near the river bank. Someone told me yesterday there is a pit of car batteries buried on the property but they haven't found it yet.

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[ejsell]

Riverbed and banks are starting to come together. The concrete pillars in the background are the old storm drains. The tops were level with the ground when they started.

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[clouserguyky]

Good stuff. My favorite smallmouth river has a few low head dams still and I'm really hoping they take em out. Keep us posted on how things improve!

 

[dylar]

Every lowhead dam in America should be demolished yesterday. They're terribly destructive and they are freaking drowning machines.

 

[ejsell]

High water today.

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[ejsell]

River has crested to just about minor flood stage. Rain has stopped and our temps are jumping 30 degrees today. Looking bright and shiney. My dad said he got 4" of rain yesterday according to his rain gauge. That's about 100 miles away. Had we got that we would have been looking at major flood levels.

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[k_e_v]

Really interesting thread, thanks for the great pics!

 

[flav]

Yes, this has been a fun and interesting thread. I hope to see pictures of the river once it drops into fishable shape. It'll probably be a few years before fish populations recover, but I bet you find more fish than you would expect even this year.

 

[ejsell]

Water started going down mid week but then we got 2.5 inches of rain Thursday night. River spiked higher than it was last weekend. Now it's dropping again but they are calling for 3 inches of snow just north of us.

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[ejsell]

Water remained high most of May. I managed to get out yesterday morning a few miles down river from this area but the water was still about a foot high and muddy. Still managed to catch 4 rock bass and and a small mouth. Rain came in hard late in the afternoon and the gauge couldn't keep up. It topped out today after rising 12 feet in a really short time.

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[ejsell]

After several months of flooding we entered several months of very dry weather. Rain has been way below average. This is the finished area today with very low water.

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