The Corp wouldn't have any reason for a fall draw down. The lake is always 6'-14'' low in the fall from water drawn from it. By the way all those towns that were mentioned are Dallas to us out here in the country.

I know it stinks having lakes drawn down but that is what the lakes were built for, water, the fishing or recreation part was a distant second.

Definitely still bass in the lake. Seems like I read tpwd stocked it again last year or year before. Sure was fun growing up just down the road from Johns Creek ramp, we wore the bass/crappie out in late 90s.

I live about a 1/4 mile from it as the crow flies and been on it about half a dozen time in the past year fishing it for LMB's. I go on it a lot more than that but I'm usually just testing something I've done to my boat or just circulating fuel. My record so far is one drum to show for my efforts. When I first moved to Cooper around 2004 it was still smokin' hot and producing good fish in good numbers. After the 2006 drought it just never was the same. TP&W put 250K fingerlings in it about 2 or 3 years ago but where they are is anybody's guess, I think it had been around 10 years since they stocked it last, Like most lakes around here it don't get the love from TP&W that Fork does. I've done a lot of side scan research on the lake and I know for a fact it has an extremely large population of shad so it could support more stocking with ease and if it were stocked even half as much as Fork would probably turn into another OH Ivie. One other deal I think works against the LMB's is it seems to drop at a rate some years around spawn that would leave shallow beds high and dry before the eggs hatched. There has definitely been some spawning gaps.

trick to catching the bass... after you launch on the north side... fish the rock jetty on both points. Then go catch white bass. you "may" catch 1-3 bass. Most the time you wont. BUT the white bass are thick as ticks out there.

Thanks SkeeterRonnie I'll try that. The last time I was out I went to the southwest corner of the lake down to the beginning of the timber @ the post line and pitched a jig for most of an afternoon @ the trunks of some of the larger trees. I got a lightning bolt bite under one of therm. I figure it was either a perch or a real small largemouth. I swung but there was nothing there.

Disagree all you want, cannot remember the years in my old age, but after the lake was opened heavy rains caused severe flooding. I can’t remember if the camping / cabin areas were completed. But when we camped there one early spring the rangers informed us that the lake was down for predicted rains and flood control. I fished it often when it opened and experience the same draw down every year in the early 2000’s. I have not been back since 2005, but often considered going back.

Well the Ranger didn't have a clue what he was talking about unless it was the first year it filled up. They did draw it down after it ran over the emergency overflow. I live right by the lake and had 150 acres of family land that is now under water. I've watched the water level close since it started filling up.

On a side note, don't let the negative talk on here keep you from going back. It got pretty good this summer😉

I live here and I can tell you what actually happens to the lake. I've been here since 2004. The biggest problem Cooper has is when it is at pool stage about a 1/3 of is extremely shallow, pumping doesn't really effect it all that much, Fork has the same pump capacity as Cooper and I've seen the numbers from Fork from a civil engineer that said when Fork is getting the absolute maximum volume pumped from it, it is loosing about 1/10 of an inch a month. Cooper will be nearly the same.
The only time Cooper has water released is if it gets above pool stage. They release water until it comes back to pool stage and stop.
Well where does all the water go you might ask?
Here's the short version. About a 1/3 of it roughly is extremely shallow; 3 feet or less, even at pool stage and just as soon as warm weather starts to roll around every year those shallows heat up quick and start an accelerated evaporation process. The mid section of the lake has a grade in the terrain that isn't much deeper that the shallows, once a foot of the water is gone it creates another vast area of shallow flats and this process can carry on until over 2/3's of the lake is gone.
The dam releases water year round but it is a very small amount; a maintenance flow to keep the Sulphur River system down stream from drying up.

Just go to the Corp site and look at the historical data on release.

Cooper used to produce a lot of big hybrids too. Don't know about now.

The wildlife biologist at the WMA told me that the hybrids can sense when they open the gates. He said they will head to the gates and go into the river. I believe him because my sons have caught some big hybrids behind the dam a couple of years ago in the spring. I sand bass fish there a lot and I catch very few hybrids. The ones I caught last year were about the same size as the sand bass.

A few years ago I was crappie fishing below the dam during a release with an ultra light spinning set up and a crappie jig. I hooked into a monster hybrid with that set up and actually landed it. I just backed the drag out and let it run until it finally laid over on the surface. That fight went on for quiet a while.
On a side note, I made a run to Big Creek Lake yesterday evening for about four hours and threw a sexy shad square bill. It was really windy and the cold snap really bit off the vegetation. My intention was to go and throw a frog on the weeds/grass but there is not much of that right now. Never got a bite. When I got ready to leave I was all the way in the back of the lake so I fired up my side scan and idled all the way to the dam favoring the south side of the lake, really didn't see a lot of anything that indicated there were fish or bait fish present with the exception an area between pond cove and the dam. That is about the only place on the whole lake that I've caught anything. The predatory birds from Cooper coming to lounge on it during the day, the water levels fluctuating, farming up stream, and weed control have all contributed to it's demise.
I talked to the mayor of Cooper last year about getting in touch with TP&W to possibly restock this lake across the entire food chain last year and he said they had been working on something and to get in touch and he tell me what they were working on. I got busy and never got there but will make an effort to get in tough with him shortly and see what they have going on. I've also been in touch with TP&W's Hatchery division in Athens about this situation but I haven't heard back from them yet.

Is the soil around Cooper lake black land?