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river conditions??


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is the river high/low? compared to last year.

water temp?

thank you for any info

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Rumor has it a barge crashed into the dam. They had to close 3 of the rollers and the water levels dropped quite a bit in no time. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but it sounds like pool 4 is a mess right now. It may take a week or two to get back to normal. Anyone have pics?

Overall the water levels are lower than the past couple of years. Not sure on the temps, but it was in the mid-40's almost 2 weeks ago.

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According to the Corps of Engineer's website, the water temp at the Red Wing dam is at 50 degrees.

There was no mention of a barge accident.

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i read about it on a river website the river dropped about 2 feet in 30 minutes. now i wonder what happened to pool 5 if it flooded or did they open the gates???

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I spoke with Corps of Engineers, and indeed a barge did hit Dam #3, they closed all gates. The flow is currently at zero, and Pool 4 is dropping. Pool 5 won't flood because of it, if anything it will drop slightly as well.

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The flow isn't at zero. They cleared the barge and opened one of the middle gates wide open to raise the water level. I had a guided trip today and the barge incident really messed things up. Lots of debris in the water and the current was going pretty good too. Yesterday the levels dropped about 12"-18" inches because they closed the gates after the barge hit. When that happened the tributaries and back waters came raging in. Then the gate opened and current came flowing heavy from the dam. I'm not a river expert but even I could tell this was going to mess up the fish. It still was fun to get out and fish though.

gspman

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gspman,

nice to here from you, I met you on a pheasant hunt...the flow was zero for at least 6 or 7 hours according to corps of engineers this morning, glad you still made it out though.

How was the fishing, anything to report?

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i was on Pool 6 this afternoon. the main channel was at 52 degrees. sam/gordies area was in the mid to upper 50's and farther back in the shallower areas i found water temps hit 60!

i found the bass to be very shallow. sitting in flooded areas that are normally well above water in the summer. caught 2 bass, one made it to the boat and the other shook off. both were good size, the one that shook off was definatly a 3 pounder. both fish were caught on a white buzzbait.

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Hey kpj5br,

Interesting that the corps said that. It could have been late Wed afternoon through Thurs early am hours. The guide said the water was going down rapidly around 4:00pm Wed. I was on the water at 6:30am Thursday until noon and believe me the water was a-flowin'.

Here's an interesting link to illustrate the change in water levels with the barge incident.

http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/cgi-bin/gandalf?site=ld3&sku1=28&days=7&prod=curr&fmon=JAN&fday=1&fyr=2005&lmon=DEC&lday=31&lyr=2005&usot=1&x=19&y=14

The red line is the water level above the dam and the green line is the water level below the dam. An amazing change to say the least!!!

gspman

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