Cunningham Updated

[Mark P]

Sorry for the late reply Jetdriver1. Actually our District Supervisor, Jeff Jackson worked directly with our AHP crew on this project. Our office is responsible for the management of the fishery and have been involved in one form or another from the beginning.

[jetdriver1]

Originally Posted by Mark P

Sorry for the late reply Jetdriver1. Actually our District Supervisor, Jeff Jackson worked directly with our AHP crew on this project. Our office is responsible for the management of the fishery and have been involved in one form or another from the beginning.

Thanks Mark,
I was looking for a starting point/contact to get the details of the Lake's new structure, locations and depths...especially pictures of it taken just before the filling began. Topo's, Schematics, and Plans would be good for secondary information as well. Obviously, that would be helpful in mapping out fishing strategies once Cunningham gets back on its feet for fishing...

That would also help keep me from hitting the bottom or stumps with the sailboat keel when I put that in the water to teach my daughter how to sail.

Any suggestions?

Best fishes,
Jet
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[Alex T.]

go out right now and look at the lake for it's new features,it isn't that full yet.

Alex

[Mark P]

Alex's suggestion is the best so you can see first hand from your personal perspective. Our lake mapping team will eventually get back to get an updated topo map put together but I know they have a long list of projects already slated.

I do know that we took great care to place our brush piles in areas away from the primary boating traffic (e.g. near shore, deeper or upper end).

[Fish Recycler]

Originally Posted by OneMoFish

"The removal of silt increased the lake's average depth by 4 to 6 inches."

I know I am new to the area, and still don't understand all the silting issues that Nebraska has...but why in the world would Nebraska spend that much money on making a lake 6 inches deeper?

Imagine you've got a big, flat underwater area that is 100' wide x 100' long, and it's all 6' deep.

Now, imagine that you dig out half of it, 2' deep, say 50' wide x 100' long, and dump all that material next to the ditch you've just dug.

What was a big, boring, unproductive flat is now a 8' ditch bordered by a tall hump with 4' of water over the top.

Now imagine you scatter a few brush piles and some rock around on that.

Sounds like awesome fish habitat, right?

Well the average depth didn't change at all. It stayed exactly the same.

Part of aquatic rehabilitation is reintroducing suitable structure, and when I looked at the drained lakebed, I saw a lot of material being moved around.

That means good things for fish and fishing, and the fact that the median depth increased on top of it means good things too.

Hats off to NGPC for improving fisheries.

[adammd]

Originally Posted by Mark P

Alex's suggestion is the best so you can see first hand from your personal perspective. Our lake mapping team will eventually get back to get an updated topo map put together but I know they have a long list of projects already slated.

I do know that we took great care to place our brush piles in areas away from the primary boating traffic (e.g. near shore, deeper or upper end).

How full is it? Too lazy to drive out there to get a peek. How far north does the water reach, other than the water in the north south channel.

I went out months ago and spent several days marking nearly everything in that lake, piles, channels, rocks, drops, etc. I overlaid all of my (141 of them) points onto an old lake map, and had pictures of most of the areas of that lake. Mark, were you ever working the loaders out there, I talked to a couple of the guys working out there.

Had to redraw the map sort of, as its now different with all the jetties, and needed to add them for reference. But I am no Meriwether Lewis, lets just say that. The hard part was doing all the drawing/adding from home. Would like to go back out there and clean it up a bit but was hoping there would soon be enough water for a canoe so I could get on top of some spots that I guesstimated due to them already being partially submerged. Mainly things I saw and could only mark with an, 'approx 25 yards north from here'. Plus there are other gaps to fill that I can do by getting on top of the water.

Mark, what is the target depth for the general 'main' area of the evergreens trees, the area most of them were in. Seems like its going to be pretty shallow, and I was wondering when marking that area if I was wasting my time on marking something that may be visible after it fills anyway.

Jetdriver: I may be able to help you when the time comes with the general pictures of the lake, I have a ton as I wanted visuals of what I was marking, and some general pics of the lake itself, in sections. None in and of themselves tell much, more taken and noted so when I am looking at them in a few years and asking myself what the f--k did this lake look like empty, I will have some sort of visual reference. But the pics and explanations of what part of the lake they are you would be able to piece it back together.

[jimbosan]

I'm looking forward to the new Cunningham Lake.

[LiquidSteel]

[quote=adammd;143168]How full is it?
quote]

About the same amount of water. Its not filling up very fast at all. But like others, I cant wait to fish it.

[Mark P]

Adammd, I haven't been by Cunningham for over a month so I'm not sure where we are at currently for water levels. We are getting killed with other projects and now State Fair. Most guys spend some time running around with a GPS unit to mark various structures and then correlate them onto a map, especially the updated topo I mentioned in an earlier post.

As far a placement of structure in reservoirs, whether it be cedar trees rock piles etc, we are always very aware (or constantly being reminded) about potential boating hazards, therefore we take great efforts to make sure it is either visible (sticking out of the water) or deep enough when the reservoir is at its normal operating pool.