Flood-control lakes present crappie fishing challenge

Dereck Redwine is an engineering technician who works at the dam on Grenada Lake. It’s his job to maintain proper water levels at the big U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project.

That makes him the guy crappie anglers from all over the area call, wanting to know what the water level is going to be this spring.

That’s when he explains the ups and downs of the Hydraulic Rule Curve.

“There is no secret,” Redwine said. “We have a daily target rate that we try to maintain depending on the time of year. The curve not only applies to the lake here at Grenada but to all of the flood control lakes (going north along I-55, there’s Enid, Sardis and Arkabutla).

“They each have their own water levels that we try to achieve going from the summer pool in May to the conservation pool in February.”

The desired level for Grenada during the winter is 193 feet above sea level. That is considered the conservation pool, which allows the Corps enough storage space to collect the typical winter and spring rain run-off.

Beginning on the first of February, the lake is allowed to collect run-off at a measured pace until the summer pool is reached. The summer pool is 22 feet higher — 215 feet — and the Corps’ Rule Curve targets May 1 to reach this level.

“There’s a big difference in the surface area of this lake between conservation pool and summer pool,” said Redwine. “At conservation pool, we have 9,810 surface acres of water at Grenada. At summer pool, we have 35,820 acres. That means there’s a whole lot more water up on the banks at summer pool than during the winter and that’s what all the fuss from the crappie anglers is about — how high will the water be in the spring so we’ll know if it’s a good time to get out there and wade for them.”

Redwine said the Corps of Engineers only have so much control over the water levels in the lake.

“We are at the mercy of droughts and floods,” he said. “All of these Corps lakes are 100 percent flood control. We aren’t hydroelectric facilities so we don’t have power generation schedules to contend with like some of the other Corps lakes around the country. But if we’re maintaining our rule curve and we suddenly get five inches of rain across the area, that’s out of our control.”