Lake Athens Closed

FYI The Athens Municipal Water Authority has closed Lake Athens for traffic due to high water. The length of the closure will be weather dependent.

About right. I took vacation this week to whack Em. Guess I may go to Cedar Creek

So anyone wanna give me some tips on CCL? Only been there once. I'll launch from star harbor

Docks and points. square bill, shaky head, T-rig, Jig and have fun.

Star Harbor bye the damn? think thats been closed & Demo'd for 6-7 years and houses built on land

Cedar creek has been closed from High water.........................................................................Just kidding

There is a pay ramp in star harbor still. Launch there a month or so ago to go duck hunting. Have a buddy that lives in there

Be careful fishing any south east texas lake. Purtis is closed and Palestine maybe because they got hit hard.

Well that's a bummer.

Just when I get time off to go, everything is too full or too muddy.

Should've been here last week. That's what I always hear.

I'm sure the fish are still jumping in boats that are docked on Lake Athens.

I'll pull through the parking lot and try this

Just got back to the house after driving thru the parking lot
Got a 25# sack, they just jumped in the truck bed

just 25#? Must of not done it right.

THANK GOODNESS ITS CLOSED!!!!
Maybe the fish will be able to spawn without 60 to 80 boats on the lake every weekend,the longer its closed the better it is for the bass.Just sayin.

so does that mean you're going to do your part and not fish during the spawn on your home lake?

Yes Chris....Thanks for asking!!

Haha. Not me. If I see em....I catch em.

Then I release them.

60-80 boats. Several hundred thousand spawning bass. I think anglers are the least impactful thing to the spawn. I think muddy water is gonna cause the water temps to stay slightly cooler, increasing incubation time. The increase in incubation time means the dinner table for perch, carp, lizards, craws, whatever, is set for a thorough meal. Is taking momma off the bed for a minute or two gonna hurt anything? Doubtful. Hell, if we rip poppa off the bed, maybe he won't eat his young.

I dont know....maybe I'll go chase butterfly's or hug a tree instead.

Luckily, Athens won't get too muddy.
Those fish will spawn just fine.

*month and a half ago or so



(Just giving you a hard time.)

I was close!

Lake Athens is still closed.
the level has dropped slightly from yesterday.
No word on when they expect to re-open.
it is higher than it was back last Spring in May and it stayed closed for several days.

Thanks for the update! I've got my fingers crossed for Sunday!

You and 200 other boats!

I'll check again this afternoon.

Just talked to Bill, our great Lake Athens Lake patrol officer, and he expects the lake to be closed to all boat traffic well into next week. This weekend is definitely out.

Probably a good thing for the fish then

Nutman, I think it closed last spring because of the dam partially breaking up on AF&G, not because of Lake Athens' water level.

As I mentioned somewhere else, I did the math back then to determine the effects of all the water draining from AF&G into Lake Athens and assuming its shoreline didn't expand (it would), it would only have raised the lake by 17" or something like that. More likely, what the engineers might have thought was that if AF&G did give away totally, the water would have stacked up like a tsunami and it might have created problems at the boat ramp since it is not far away from the smaller lake's dam.

Go figure!

I think records from last spring show a 442'+ reading maybe it touched 443' very briefly.

Today, it is 441.67 at the 11:30 reading, down as you say from just under 442' as a high this rain event.

To me? This is incredible that a lake that is only 1.67' above its conservation level, is closed.

Some more rain expected over the next day or two then sunny for a bit!

Brad

I just drove through and it didn't look too bad. The docks around the ramp are under water so that could be a hazzard

I am sure you are right:
But Remember;
this is a lake that is owned by the City of Athens to supply water to it's residents.
if they in any way think the water is compromised because of the level "OR" debris, "OR" that boat traffic would cause damage to the owner's property around the lake, they will close it down.

if last year had to do with the AF&G dam breaking,,,,why is it closed this year ?
But hey,,,,I just live here & called Bill to ask him about when it might reopen because some folks asked me to,,,,,, other than that I dunno know, the office is closed until Monday.

Nutman, yes, last year its closure was related, at least in the news coverage, to the dam failure potential.

It is an odd lake. Even with the record rainfall of 2015, the lake never got more than 3 or so feet above its conservation level. And, it seems to hold its levels pretty good through droughts. I looked back through about 20 years of data and it rarely gets below 434' or so as I recall . . . and it fills back up to 440' quickly.

You may have hit on it: debris could be the culprit!

The lake rests for at least a few days!

Brad

Checked Lake Athens today at 5pm.
the lake is definetly closed & will be closed for sometime.
The water has completely covered all the ramp docks and it is very difficult to even tell where the ramps are.
some of the home owners boat docks across from the Marina are under water and the water levels are up in yards.
In MHO, it looks like the water is higher than it got last May.
it will be a few days, maybe a week before they reopen.

Either way it's pressured every day it needs a break for a few days