BigBendFishing.Net

WOW! A substantial increase since I saw it yesterday evening. HECK YEAH! Thanks for the pics.

Went by the ramp at bull headley this morning and the parking lot is flooded!

That is awesome! How long you think for the dusk to settle to start fishing in them?

Another photo from the highway 12 fish camp I think there will be water for a long time

You will be surprised by how much water gets soaked up when the trees start to sprout, but that is about as high as I've seen at the fish camp.

The gates were closed on Feb 26 on Miccosukee. the lake is way up but still 2.5-3' from going over the spillway on the N end. Still way better than it was and I'll take it! The boat traffic has been unreal in the last week or so. Everyday I see boats pass the house going to the lake. You can go just about anywhere depending on the size of your outboard. getting up on plane will be tough in some places like the middle to S gator hole. BEWARE- when the perm blinds were removed the lake was up. There are several that are still there, some are 2-20" above the water and several just below the water surface. can ruin a good day quick!

FWC did nothing but mess it up for the duck hunters and fisherman. Yeah, they did some spot burning of the tussics and waisted lots of state and county $$. Zero digging was done. If they would have closed the gates (like they said they would if we got rain in the meeting at the Monticello court house) when we got the 2 TS's it would of been full months ago. Instead they opened up a 36" pipe WIDE OPEN and blew out the back side of the spillway (150K in damage I was told. The project only had 200k budgeted). Then covered up the concrete pilling structure with rock...Lets not forget about the couple thousand carp they put in the lake a couple of months before they pulled the plug..It will come back but it will be a couple 2-3 yrs before the fishing is what it was in the last few yrs. Just in time for them to drain it again.....

I took these a week ago and it is a little higher now.

From Reeves landing





from the Gad (New Cypruss)








From the duck blind on the last Saturday of the season. The water was 8" deep then and 4' there now. Had to ride a 4 wheeler 20 minutes out to get to the boat/water.

micci_man wrote:The gates were closed on Feb 26 on Miccosukee. the lake is way up but still 2.5-3' from going over the spillway on the N end. Still way better than it was and I'll take it! The boat traffic has been unreal in the last week or so. Everyday I see boats pass the house going to the lake. You can go just about anywhere depending on the size of your outboard. getting up on plane will be tough in some places like the middle to S gator hole. BEWARE- when the perm blinds were removed the lake was up. There are several that are still there, some are 2-20" above the water and several just below the water surface. can ruin a good day quick!

FWC did nothing but mess it up for the duck hunters and fisherman. Yeah, they did some spot burning of the tussics and waisted lots of state and county $$. Zero digging was done. If they would have closed the gates (like they said they would if we got rain in the meeting at the Monticello court house) when we got the 2 TS's it would of been full months ago. Instead they opened up a 36" pipe WIDE OPEN and blew out the back side of the spillway (150K in damage I was told. The project only had 200k budgeted). Then covered up the concrete pilling structure with rock...Lets not forget about the couple thousand carp they put in the lake a couple of months before they pulled the plug..It will come back but it will be a couple 2-3 yrs before the fishing is what it was in the last few yrs. Just in time for them to drain it again.....

Micci_man- I'm sorry you feel that FWC has done nothing but be nuisance to fisherman and duck hunters. FWC followed all of the plans that were drawn up which were to expose the bottom of the lake and to let it dry which helped consolidate the dead plants and organic material, scrape the lake bottom, and burn areas of the lake bottom including woody tussocks. The sites to scrape the lake bottom were chosen based on public access points. The scraping of the muck allows hard sand to become exposed which is very important in regards to fish spawning habitat. The only reason the muck removal was not completed was because the spring rains arrived before the scraping and removal could begin. In regards to burning, they did a little more than spot burning! Over 2,000 acres were burned in addition to floating tussocks. In regards to the fish population, there have already been requests put into the fish hatchery for 200,000 Bluegill and 200,000 Black Crappie. These fish will be stocked within the next few months. The lake is back, everything looks great, and as a whole is a healthier lake because of the actions of the FWC. I hope this helps "clear the air" a little!!!

This subject is beating a dead horse, at least with us locals and I won't say much more but FWC said in the meeting that I attended that they would shut the gates if we got any amount of rain. We got plenty of it and they didn't do as they said. Heck, they even monitored the aquifer levels from a friends well and measured a 10' rise in it after Debbie.

They also said in the meeting that the damn around the baison should have never been built and I quote "people should not mess with mother nature". then a few minutes later they said and I quote "we are going to assimilate mother nature by drawing the lake down".

As far as the muck scraping goes, they would have to DIG deep to get through the feet of muck to find sand. When the lake is up and there are bluegill beds that were bigger than 2 acres in size. This has been the case for years past too. the fish were bedding just fine.

Drying up aquadic vegitation....that was their plan and main goal per the meeting. Guess what? it takes more than a year of being completely dry to kill off the pads. Most places were only without water for 2-4 months. The pads are back in most places and just inches below the surface and growing. the lake is unique and all of the cover and pads is what makes it that way. Not everyone can learn to fish it but the ones that know how to do really well with the bass and bream year after year when there is water.

Resotcking- they said they would so lets see. They said in the meeting that they already put in their order over in PC for bream and bass before the draw down. without restocking it would be years before the fishing is anywhere near what is was in the past years. It's still going to take 2-3 years for it to get back with stocking.

Now the big question......Is FWC going to drain it again in 5-6 years like they say they are????? Lets hope not because if they do they may as well keep is dry because it will only be a water hole with fish far and few between.



I'm glad it's back and so are lots of other folks near and far but when you are told things that don't happen, live right there, watch the little progress that did take place and then possibly see it go away again shortly after it gets right it gets aggravating.

For the record, I'm not taking it out on or mad at you and hope to see you out there one day. I'll buy you a beer or 3

Tommy