# Cloudy Crystal



## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Looking into my cloudy crystal ball I am willing to go out on a limb to predict some welcome news.
The upper Trinity is now evened out with an average of 18,000 cfs flow from south of Dallas to Riverside.
The flow coming down river is now about 10,000 cfs less than what TRA is currently releasing.
The lake is still about 9 inches over full depending on how much wind is effecting the gauge at the dam.
So it looks like TRA may hold the outflow for a short time longer then start reducing it to match the incoming inflow.
The contractor building the power plant is working on the penstock inlet structure on the lake side of the dam. I am sure he would like to see the water level as low and as stable as possible so TRA will get the lake to the 131.0 point before tinkering with the gates. The 10,000 cfs excess above the inflow will not take long to get the 9 inches out of the lake.
If you are a tailrace junky or want to be one then the next three weeks will be your chance of a life time.
I shutter to even think about how many whites, blue cats and stripers will be taken out of the basin between now the middle of August. Labor Day might be too late but it might last that long.
As a disclaimer let me point out that if we get more heavy rains on the upper river every thing printed above is null and void. After all in is Texas. Only fools and Yankees predict Texas weather.


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## Ducktracker (Aug 1, 2011)

Always enjoy reading your thoughts. Thanks Sunbeam 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## MrTroutsnot (Dec 6, 2012)

Thanks for the wisdom sir!


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## Bankin' On It (Feb 14, 2013)

...and THAT'S the way it is. Thanks SB!


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

Got my long pole ready. Gonna try and catch me some nice strippers.


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## Mattsfishin (Aug 23, 2009)

I am waiting for them to shut the dam and divert the flow to the shoot when the flow goes down. Some of you may remember when they did that working on the weir. Like shooting ducks in a barrel.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

Mattsfishin said:


> I am waiting for them to shut the dam and divert the flow to the shoot when the flow goes down. Some of you may remember when they did that working on the weir. Like shooting ducks in a barrel.


I sure do remember that, there were some cats caught off the wing wall too.

Is that part of the plan for construction to shut the gates and divert thru the tube for awhile? That would be great if so.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The Tube, when flowing, is an incredible place to fish.
I have a lot of great fishing memories of catching really large fish there, on lighter tackle than can be used at the big gates.
Stripers in the teens, LMB to eight pounds, and everything else worth catching can be caught there.
The year I moved to Livingston on the first frosty day that was on the week end Ifelt in the air and drove down that pot hole road to the Tube bank fishing area and I was the second person there.
The first person there had ten stripers ( the limit was five then) on a stringer, eight to ten pounds a piece.

He looked at me and said, "Man they are biting I got ten white bass, you can keep twenty five right?".
I said, "No those are stripers and the limit is five, you have enough now to get you in big trouble".
He tried to continue to tell me they were white bass, yada, yada, yada.
I ignored him and saw the stripers in the clear water flowing out the gates chasing gizzard shad onto the rocks. 
Groups of ten or so fish would jam a school of gizzard shad that looked to be two pounds each into the wings of the outlet that were flooded rip rap at the time.
My first sight cast to a group with a one ounce trap broke a huge fight out between a big bunch of them and eventually got one in that taken it from another one and onto the bank.
About eight pounds.
I throw again and get broke off with the drag set light. 
I had on wading hip boots and at times groups of stripers would bump into me as they chased shad. 
Gizzard shad that were drawn to the flowing water (and before LA craw fish farmers used them up for craw fish food) were a yearly thing and these gizzard shad were trapped by a monster school of stripers.
I lost lures and landed my limit and looked up to see a crowd had gathered, and most were keeping over the limit.
I took my five and walked up the hill towards the parking lot and passed Bob Hall (the local game warden) going down the path to the fishing hole.
He gave me a hard stare and looked at five fish and kept going.
I went on to my truck and drove home.

I came back to see what had transpired and Warden Hall was still standing there, but with a thicket of confiscated fishing rods, a pile of fish, and a group of mighty sad looking folks. I stayed out of the way and drove on back. i heard later about $10,000 in fines and tackle confiscated was the end result. i'm glad everyone of them knew what they were doing and let the excitement of catching big stripers one after the other get to them.

I caught more and bigger stripers than those that day at the Tube, but like all striper fishing it was a super stand out day, they are the kind of fish that go crazy some days and you are lucky to be there.
In deep winter we would catch gizzard shad and use their gizzards to catch stripers there, but most of the time twin jigs would get it done.
And a Zara Spook.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

Yes Sir a whole lot more fun than throwing long rods at the cable. And like you said some times you could catch limits of crappie, white bass, stripers, and blues, with some big LMB thrown in all in the same spot at the same time. Never seen anything like it. My son was just talking about the big paddle fish he hooked there and fought when he was about seven or eight. We released it of course, good times indeed.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

brucevannguyen said:


> Got my long pole ready. Gonna try and catch me some nice strippers.


Say it ain't so Bruce!!! No matter how long your pole, leave those strippers alone!


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

:rotfl:


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

I mean stripers. They do look nice fat and big down there. I like to see that chit open. Gonna have my bucket of pop corn watching people from the bank throwing leads at boat. Last time they open that chit and I was fishing there got hit constantly with spinner bait bank fisherman.


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## Mattsfishin (Aug 23, 2009)

I have seen fights down there and I try to stay to the east side and give the bank beaters the other side. Sometimes that works and sometime it don't But when they hit my boat maybe it is time to snag a couple lines, tie them together and throw them over.


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

Dam auto correct. Stripers corrected to strippers. Chut corrected to chit.


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## Danny O (Apr 14, 2010)

Mattsfishin said:


> I am waiting for them to shut the dam and divert the flow to the shoot when the flow goes down. Some of you may remember when they did that working on the weir. Like shooting ducks in a barrel.


Ready Matt!


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

It was bad back in the day when there were less people fishing and no internet, I can't imagine what it will be like this time around.
I will say some folks were fishing above us today and saw we were in great action.
So they tried to slip in on it.
With the current as bad as it is they slipped anchor and were creeping between us and the bank we were casting to.

Very politely they cranked up and eased away as quietly as possible.
I sure appreciate folks who operate water craft with common courtesy and awareness of other boaters. 
I have been fishing the river for over a week and folks have been very considerate for the most part.
So I could be wrong and folks might get along so everyone can fish when the Tube opens.
I am looking forward to it.


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

Heck no loyd. That did not happen when I was there. Dumb arshs after dumb arshs keep coming over and anchor right in the middle where everyone was casting.
You ain't gonna catch me in that shoot if them striper were stacked from the bottom to the surface. I might die of a case call high blood pressure from dumb arshs people.


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Wear a hardhat and bullet proof vest when they open the chute!! LOL

Game Wardens will have a field day.


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## Cathunter (Apr 8, 2015)

are they planning on opening the chute during construction?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Cathunter they should open it when they have to divert the water from the lake when they start o. The hydroelectric plant 
I don't know if fishing will be allowed, I hope so!


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

I just love it when I peer into the future and it actually happens.
As predicted three days ago TRA has cut the flow to 20,000 cfs today.
They have the lake down to 4.5 inches over full. 
You can look for them to reduce the flow 5,000 to 7,000 cfs in steps over the next ten days. Maybe faster if the water coming down increases speed as the river drops. I don't have the hydrology laws or computing power capabilities to calculate how water flows against a horizontal head pressure.
As for as the bypass (tube) being used two things come into play. TRA may want to flush out the sand that has built up in the lower part on the canal. They only did this once in my memory.
The other reason that might come into play is the contractor may want to do some work in the basin floor right in front of the power house site on the east bank. Because of the long reach from shore to drive piling for the western most coffer dam wall they may want to put cranes in the basin. That will require laying an ample amount of crushed rock base to walk the cranes out to the work site.
Regardless of how or what they want to do it would greatly surprised me if there is any fishing north of a line from the corner of the Baker property to a point just above the bypass outlet on the west bank.
I can not visualize any insurance company allowing unsupervised boaters any where near the construction site. Remember the power turbine discharge will run parallel to the east bank and dump water almost at the Baker (Browder) east ramp.
The bridge will at best be the new "cable."
After construction is complete all water will dump out of the turbine discharge. Any flow above 15,000 cfs will be discharged through the gates. That means a huge eddy right in the middle of the existing basin with a very dangerous condition to any small boat.
I would no hesitate to say the fishing in the basin has only months before the wheels of progress grinds it to a total halt.


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

Can you put it in elementry words. Does all this you say mean bye bye fishing behind the cable where it is now. The new cable is where the bridge is ?


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

Awe man sounds like even if they do allow access it would likely only last until the first person that gets hurt sues. Then it would be all over for sure.

Those of us that remember what it's like, better make all the new memories you can while you can. Might just have to hit it again this weekend.


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

That will be a sad day but the fish will be there regardless. And with the direct flow from the discharge will change the layout beyond the bridge and create new deep water holes. Im just curious if all the ramps will shut down and also bank fishing.


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## Danny O (Apr 14, 2010)

Could be whoever owns the property east and west, south of the bridge, has a gold mine. Maybe some high roller 2Cool investors should purchase the property and set up camp!


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Remember not only will there be a power house located on the east bank there will also be a very large (99acres) transformer yard in what was once Southland Park. With transmission towers and access roads to boot.
There will be no access to any of that area including the east shore of the basin.
In these days and times Homeland Security will have that east bank closed at least to the east west Cold Springs road below the dam. No terrorist or fishermen allowed.
The land that Browder operates the east and west ramps belongs to the Baker estate. I did not see where that land ownership ever changed so it is still private. I do not believe the power plant operators can close access to private property so the ramps may survive.
The law in the State of Texas says if a single owner has deed to both banks of a stream he has owner ship of the stream bed. It can be closed or posted to trespassers. 
The state (TRA) owns both banks of the basin down to the Baker property line therefore they have control of the access to the water.
Now before you start quoting navigable waters statutes let me say that in the 70's I was party to filing 17 trespassing charges for folks going up to the Rocky Creek waterfalls.
Joe Nelson, the owner, and I ran cattle on that land. Joe closed it to the public and filed on anyone who came on the land. He won every case. 
So if the powers to be do not want boats or bodies in the basin they can close it.


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

SB It will be interesting to say the least. Please keep us posted on any news. In the meantime may need to look for a airboat to get there from 59!! But that ramp is gone probably.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Down to 18,000 cfs Thursday. That matches the Crockett flow. The next drop should be to 12/14000 cfs in about three days. Knowing that TRA does not like to pay OT so if they do not drop it again today they will wait until Monday.


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