i dont get this post. i think the corps does all it can with their budget. as far as boat lanes, you have to learn a path by tow on any lake with boat lanes in low water conditions. just be smart out there...

If I was a house builder I would have to use the correct materials to build a safe house that will not fall down and provide shelter.

If I was the corp and building a lake, safety of the people should come first then the water use second.

Problem is not the regulars it's the out of towners who show up and see boat lanes and take off down them. Not knowing it's unsafe. Maybe they should put a sign on the poles saying "Warning lake is not clear, use caution, shallow water and stumps are present"

Last week I watched a grandpa and grandma (with child in front of the boat) going full speed into 2' of water in the boat lane...in a deck boat. I wanted to wave them down to warn them for the childs sake. BUT they were going to fast and ignored me. It's going to come down to a few deaths and inguries and I bet something gets done.

Safety is FIRST everywhere else now days....jobs, roads, OSHA, ect.....the Corp should make it their concern too!

Never seen more complaining about one of the best bass fishing lakes in Texas.

Doesn't have anything to do with the bass fishing....IMO it's about safety concerns.....

This^^^

Not a complaint here. Just a fact. And it is a very good fishery, thats why we stay on it so much. I am concerned the extended low levels are going to hurt this great fishery. The corps let out lots of water once we reached full pool after a period of extended drought and low water, and the lake has continued to fall since. The management of lake levels has been perplexing and frustrating. That is the business the corps is in, and I do not understand exactly what their goals are because one year they hold the lake full, and in another they drop it...and this does not always appear to correlate to the levels on Caddo???? Now on the channel, at least they marked it. Some corps lakes have nothing. The channels are pretty tight and there are lots of obstructions just inside the channel, a few dead in the middle, and lots of spots that get real shallow with no warning. They can be safely run if the boat operator is aware of these facts. What surprises me is just how many bass fishermen I see that seem totally oblivious of that fact!

See how all the stumps are at the same level? This indicates a low lake. So....at normal level none of them are an issue and hence no problems. You can't expect the CoE to go and raze all the stumps every time the water level falls.

Corp sets the water level. God put rain in there.....corp lets it go.

Nah, we don't expect them to cut all the stumps. Just the ones in the boat lanes. We actually like to fish stumps and wood...since that's all we have.

Let me see if I have this straight. Lake is low and creates a hazardous boating condition, which common sense pretty much dictates. So you want the Federal Govt to make the lake completely 100% safe for any and all conditions to counteract any possible stupidity by a boater.

I think we have allot more liberals here than most realize.

I paid a ton of money in taxes last year so illegals could get free education, the endangered wood peckers could be studied, so expeditions to the north freakin pole to study some kinda unicorn whale, and lazy a$$ idiots could have free cell phones with no drug tests. THEN, they throw these conventions and show off how much FUN they are and hire expensive entertainers to raise a certain genre of voters and get tanked ALL ON MY DOLLAR!!!!!!

Liberal my a$$!!!!! And you can kiss mine! Is it so much to ask to bring a little common sense to the government and MAYBE do something good to satisfy the people who fund this country, the middle class??!!

If I want my stumps cut out of my boat lane so I can enjoy a lake THAT I HELPED PAY FOR, then get off their lazy aspirin and get to cutting.

Im done.

I may be wrong here but I dont think the USACOE is mandated by the feds to cut out boat lanes for bass fishermen here in the state of Texas. I have never waited for them or anybody else to do so and I dont intend on starting now. History has already shown many of us here in Texas that the various river authorities cant be trusted with the job, once they get started they dont know when to stop. What makes anybody think the feds wont do more harm then they do good?

No one likes to be called a liberal, not even a liberal!
You aren't from East Texas, are you??? Nope, DFW...

LOP is in my back yard and one of my favorite places to fish. In particular, the north end with the narrow boat run and stump filled lake. It is great fishing and I LIKE IT THE WAY IT IS! Narrow runs and all...

The runs are dicey. For the unkowledgeable they are downright dangerous. But there are lots of lakes like that. Most boaters are a bit naive about what is under the hull! It is the elevation of the lake that is upsetting. Yep, it is a flood control project, but it is still managed by someone...the corps.

Down towards mid-lake there are some areas that can be an issue where the recreational boaters in the open lake can venture into treacherous areas without knowing due to poor marking. I do wish there was a way to notify boaters better in these areas. But it is not at all atypical of many flood control project lakes.

Again, what I don't like releases of water that drops the lake without sound reasoning. Most of the upper end is dry ground and has been for 16 of the past 18 months. Here is a bit of data to back up my silly "liberal" point:
LOP has been at or below the minimum 228.5 winter seasonal pool since Thanksgiving 2010, and below the 230 ft summer seasonal pool since August 2010. The lake recovered from the 2011 drought in March and made it to 228.5 on March 25. The corps could not control the drought conditions of 2011, but their response in March of this year was surprising. A typical release range for LOP is 30-50CFS to maintain downstream flows. Once the lake got to 228.5 they began releasing 300 and had almost a week up at 2000CFS!?!?! By mid-May the lake was quickly dropped down to 3 ft below the 230ft pool and 1.5ft below the 228.5 seasonal pool. Manipulation of lake level to protect Caddo from flooding downstream is understood, but in this case Caddo had level and flow, so why the high rate of release? Release rates were not curtailed down to the 30cfs minimum flows until the July 4 weekend, when the elevation was at 226.5ft.

Over time the low levels will impact the fish population and the lake will not produce as it has in the past. It can make for great fishing now when they are all stacked up in a little channel, but it is not good long term to lose all that cover and those spawning flats.

End of the day, I want some water so the flats above 155 are wet, full of lilly pads, and choked in hydrilla! I can't be that way all year or every year, man cannot control nature, but sometimes we can do better...

It's Obama's fault!
Romney 2012!

Maybe the COE should have an agent ride in every boat and hold your hand to make sure nobody gets hurt. Another idea would be to use common sense on a lake that's low with lots of timber. Chuck you actually made intelligent points about your concerns. Claysefus, you sound like an old man screaming at the wind. Bottom line is you should use caution on any lake in low conditions and even more so on an unfamiliar lake.

Taxes and government institutions are a sensitive subject for me at the time. Try owning a small business....... Self employment tax will kill ya.