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[#0000FF]Took a long Easter egg hunt with TubeBabe today. Didn’t find any eggs but got to drive around Jordanelle puddle and Deer Creek. Took some pics of current conditions. [/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Sad to see how low Jordy has actually dropped. The soft sand road from the end of the Rock Cliff ramp runs alongside the Provo River for over a quarter mile before finding the current shoreline of the lake. That is just past the old buoy line...where the depth was 55 feet when I last fished it through the ice.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Deer Creek is doing much better but still about 5-6 feet from full. Plenty of water to launch at Charleston…with good gravel launch area and good slope. The Island launch ramp is a good launch…with both courtesy docks and slips in the water.[/#0000FF]
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Thanks for the pictures of the current conditions.
I believe that is the lowest that Jordanelle has been since it was filled in the mid 90's. I knew they were supposed to start using more water out of Jordanelle but I didn't think it would be that much. We better hope for rain & runoff or there won't be much room to fish (safely) when the power squadron hits the pond.
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Jeez what are they using the water for? Shouldn't be that low when it's not even summer yet......
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[#0000FF]It may not be totally correct but my understanding was that Jordanelle was originally intended to catch and store excess runoff that would normally spill over Deer Creek in years of abundance and save it for years of less abundance.
I remember the lowest point it reached in late 2004, prior to the heavy snowfall that winter that refilled it to the brim again. Even then the water came well up toward the end of the Rock Cliff ramp. I'm guessing it is at least 25 to 30 feet lower this year than it got before.
Jordanelle is allowed to get lower in order to fill Deer Creek first. Besides being a supply of both culinary and irrigation water it also has to provide a heavier outflow during the June Sucker spawn.
In normal water years, Jordy fills rapidly during spring runoff and is usually at high water by early June. Not for the past two years and most likely not this year. We can only hope it gets enough additional water for the fishies to spawn and feed...and for the wacko power squadron to froth it up and pester the fishermen.
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They were heavily impacted by a lack of runoff last year. The camp hosts told us the way the season unfolded last year meant that as the snow melted much of it simply evaporated or soaked into dry land before reaching the reservoir. It would take a heavy run off this year to bring it back up. Just doesn't look like it is going to happen.
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The only possible silver lining with the water situation is that at Rock Cliffs and elsewhere, some new vegetation has regrown in the "former" lakebed. When (if) the lake returns to a full pool, these weeds will provide some additional structure for a couple of years and give the lake a shot in the arm for forage fish and also the bass.
Right now it is just quite depressing.
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Nice to see charleston area wet. I am thinking a little bass action this year will do me good.
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[#0000FF]That was my observation as well. I know you like to fish the area right out from the ramp and up to the river inlet during high water too. Good smallies and perch when conditions are right. But right now all you can see there are the stump fields...with lots of new weeds and greenery growing in.
Since there is still flooded structure at just about all depths in Jordanelle, there is hope that the perch will be able to bring off a decent spawn even in the low water. But if it comes back up next year they will have it much better with the newly flooded stuff.
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Thanks for the update. Nice pics
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[#484848]Still lots of snow at my place in the Uintas and expecting a bunch more in the next couple of days.[/#484848]
[#484848]We might have a slower than normal and bigger runoff than expected.[/#484848]
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[#0000FF]We can always hope. There is no doubt that the storms of the last month or so have added to the snow pack...and cancelled several of my planned fishing trips. A continuing wet spring will help.
One of the keys now is the way the runoff happens. Hopefully it is slow and measured rather than the result of a sudden heat wave.
By the way, had a report that Starvation is spilling.
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I ask the parks person I seen at the boat ramp if the lake (Jordanelle) was still going up [:/] he said it mite go up another foot but not much more..It was about 30' to 40' low still..
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