Fished Fayette Sunday. Seemed like the water was a couple feet low (I’ve only seen the lake a few times). Also noticed grass was totally gone in an area that had grass a couple weeks ago. Has anyone else noticed the same?

Blue...They lower the lake a few feet every winter & fill it back up in the spring...not sure why, but probably has something to do with the power plant maintenance...

The water has been slowly falling over the last few months. I don't believe it is an intentional draw down, but a result of a lack of rain (i.e., drought). We have a 5 acre pond near by that is the 2nd lowest I have seen in my lifetime (40+ years) - the area is simply not getting enough rain to generate run-off. I assume they will keep the lake at a minimum for plant purposes and hope that a winter/spring rain brings it back up to full pool. Someone with LCRA/plant insight may know better.

With regard to grass, yes the grass that was there a few weeks ago was gone yesterday. That said, some is still there, just not as thick. I believe the grass slows down with the cooler weather/water & shorter days, and the coots keep on eating.

Yesterday was crowded - the weather and water temps were great, but it was as much of a grind as we have seen this fall. Those we talked to had a slow day (even the cast netters said they didn't catch many tilapia (and NO bass, of course), and they are always forthcoming, lol).

The lake is hot

How exactly does lowering any power plant lake help with maintenance? What can you do?

They do need to clean their intake screens. But it could be a rain issue or have nothing to do with the intake screens.

This was the first thing I thought of but where are the screens? Does lowering the lake 2 feet allow for complete access to these screens?

The have the ability to pump water into Fayette anytime they so desire.

Everyone is guessing...including me...I just know they lower it every winter & fill it up every spring regardless of rainfall. Another theory is that they lower it in the winter to kill back the grass & get better water circulation. Also guessing that they need more water volume in the summer as the lake temp gets hotter & hotter. As Champion said they regulate the level by pumping water in from the Colorado river whenever the desire.

Agreed. My "theory" is that, like Vogey said, they need more volume in the summer so the need to pump it full, but they are ok to let it go down some in the winter. If we have rain, I don't think they would let it out, but would let it stay full. If we don't have rain, you see the level drop like it has. This year seems to be a bit further down (maybe ~1ft more) than usual, and I think that could be the result of a dry winter. With regard to pumping, I don't believe it is necessarily on-demand or "free", and they prefer to avoid it. All this said, I am guessing - it could easily be an intentional maintenance thing or a combination. I have not been able to find a year-over-year lake level history to see how similar it is in level and timing.

That place is nuts, fished it during the week last year and it looked like most lakes do during the spring prime on the weekend, can't imagine what its like on a saturday/sunday in the winter

Plenty of A-Holes on the weekends. Been a couple times I thought I was going to dance on the bow of a boat.

Lake is definitely 2-3 ft low, happens in the Fall unless we get rain. I was told by someone at the plant a few years back they lower it to do some routine maintenance on pumps, gauges, screens.

A friend in the know said the draw down is NOT related to an attempt to kill off the grass. The grass cycles and doesn't grow as much as it cools down and the coots are back and doing a # on it. Might as well blame the cast netters as well.

Ha, A holes on that lake are 7 Days a week. The A holes are definitely out in force on the weekend, but Spring Break is turrible. Can't tell you how many times we've been buzzed by little jon boats up to big bass boats while fishing off shore. If they are not running over you wide open, they fish right up next to you with no consideration at all. There is 1 deep V hull boat in particular we see out there all the time and have gotten into it with them a ton. 1 particular time they fished up to us and then got mad when we casted near them. Now granted, it was an A rig and I was hoping to pull his hat off, but hey, if you are that close to me and don't ask, then I tend to lose my casting accuracy.