I went down to check it out and the water looked 5-6' lower behind the dam and the lake is nice and full. If anyone was planning on fishing there when they closed it,come on! I caught a channel cat,few gasper gou and and an undersized striper in 2hrs I was there at noon on shad on bottom. The gar are thick and buffalo are plentiful. Most there were using minnows and catching small crappie ,cats, and whites. Farther down from the dam looks nice if willing to walk it. About 13-15 cars in parking lot everyday this week at noon. Not the same,sure like it better when the waters flowing .

they closed it? planning go down there on Friday morning...grrr
is there a place for kayak launch around the creek?

Ha,what a dummy. Its open again. I sure thought it was closed for good. Waters flowing pretty good. Sorry guys I guess they were just inspecting the gate or checking inflow. Less cars parked though. Maybe 10?

is the gate still closed?

They're letting water out again. May try it again in afternoon. One more thing, the motorcycles are piling up around the lake. Must be a biker rally or something. They normally stay on north side of the lake.

real time lake levels see:

http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/reports/fish.htm

You can launch under the hwy 36 bridge but you probably shouldn't go all the way up to the dam to be considerate of the bank fisherman.

Corps will be closing the gates or reducing the flow any day now as the lake gets close to pool. The fishing has been good to great for the last week or so. Sunday afternoon I caught a few whites and goo but the guys fishing just downstream made quite a haul of whites and hybrids using pet spoons along the bottom. I used jigs and did OK but kept hanging up and breaking off. I am watching the flow and will try to be there the first morning they cut the flow back so I can catch some whites and hybrids on the fly pole...

If I can get my tired old can out of the bed I'll be fishing the spillway early Friday AM..

Dead fish is everywhere, it smells very bad. The good thing about this is insects are in big numbers, they are hatching in the water right now. Bring you ultra-light, and 1/32 or 1/64 jig heads, you are going to have a ball. I believe it's even better for fly fishermen.

Saturday is going to be crazy down there below the dam...

Its been crazy all week. I went Tuesday at noon and parking lot full. Went back Wednesday and still full. Decided to try anyway. Went thru 2 1/2dozen minnows in an hour and caught only one keeper crappie and 6 gous. North rocks. Tried thursday morning on pier and caught a dozen gous and 2- 26" flatheads . Thought they were males but had eggs in both. Used shad and perch on edge of fast water. I got out there before 5am and setup a 12v light in water. Looked neat with lawnmower battery. But no fish there yet. I threw a cast net and didn't catch anything till the sun came up. Stayed till 10am. Others caught 3 flatheads just like mine too. Crappie were thick. As was gous. Curly hair guy that was on end of pier in your video said a guy caught a 57lb tuesday . And the flat heads were biting on Crappie jigs. The stripers were in fast water real close to dam. Seen them busting shad at daylight. Buffalo jumping it was a fun day. You were polite in saying you let those people have your spots. The "Dam" people can be outright rude at times. Especially new people. If you go back they will warm up to you. However everyone fishs tight to the Dam. The south rocks are a great place to get hung up alot. I gave up on that area.If you go the north side and walk down a few hundred yards,its a good place to fish.I just enjoy the sound of the water coming out. And the stink of a fish market.

You are right about the "stink of the fish market" and it will get worse as it warms up. I probably won't fish the spillway again for a while as I prefer the more secluded creeks where I can kayak up away from the crowds. Most of the folks fishing below the dam are fishing for dinner so I don't mind letting them have my spot because I'm just fishing for fun and sport and it's the right thing to do...

There's a lot of folks around there that get most 100% of their protein from that spillway.