lake carroll, Carroll County (all postings)

Just bass at this point going forward. Yes, show up 15 mins or so before the tourney starts, pay your entry and draw a # for your takeoff position. They go through the rules and away you go. It is a good time. Good luck

is the tourney this weekend just bass or walleye too? can i just show up and register?

There usually will be lots and lots of weeds in the bays. Usually have pretty good luck with plastics in in the weeds for large mouth and then for small mouth I usually try to find some larger rocks to toss a tube up on.

1st time out on the lake this past Sunday...what a beautiful lake. Caught about a dozen largemouth. All in that 13-15" size. As the season progresses, do you guys fish the points/drop offs, or is there a weedline that develops? Fish caught on a jig.

The muskie were stocked at the West Marina (difficult decision, but felt they had better opportunity to evade predation near that deeper water). When I stocked in the past, we did all muskie stocking at that location. The muskie were 13" plus. Once I get pics from the office I can post some on here if you'd like.

I had my kids out Monday night to make a few casts (they were on 'early out' from school). We fished an hour and a half and caught 14 whitebass, 10 smallies, and 4 largemouth. All from the shoreline at the W. Marina. Joe

I have a late report from last Sunday. The lake basically got the better of us, got one small LM bass and foul-hooked another carp, but that was it. Lake was still super dirty, but there seemed to be no action on the water. Nice day to be out on the lake though.

Joe, I echo dperks response, thanks for the hard work. I understand things are beauocratic, but glad to hear that someone is trying to wade through it. Dperk or Joe feel free to IM me if volunteers are needed and I'll try and get out there I use the lower boat storage and usually walk over to see what is trapped in the pool....

Joe: As usual, very well said. I know that the fence at Shabbona had to be approved by the IDNR and constructed as such. FYI: a few have been curious as to where the muskie yearlings were stocked in the lake...as well as the average size of the yearlings. Keep up the good job.

I'll provide a historical view of the fish barrier... Around 2002, during my previous tenure as lake manager, I researched the possibility of a fish barrier for Lake Carroll due to our escapement issues (not only muskie, but walleye, smallmouth bass and many other sport species). Some of you are aware of other systems that have been put in place like Kinkaid Lake and Shabbona Lake.

We were interested in placing a net in front of our spillway (in the lake), like Shabbana had. We felt that we could maintain a barrier system on our dam because we've got such a strong volunteer force to monitor and help maintain it... However, the regulations in place by the regulatory commission of IDNR-DWR make it virtually impossible to install a physical barrier. The problem is that the barrier can (potentially) clog with debris, therefore causing a backup of water, therefore changing the hydraulic pressures / residencies on the dam and possible pre-mature over-topping of the emergency spillway (NOTE: The number ONE cause of dam failures is overtopping). With these concerns / problems we started to look into electric deterrent systems. (It's basically an electric field that 'shocks' the fish and tries to deter them from coming closer to the spillway, and potentially over. It's not a physical barrier, so it won't stop them all, but could deter them from getting too close and washing over.)

At that time, the costs of the barrier were pretty high (I don't remember exacts, but I think it was in the $50,000 range just for the equipment). I would think some of this technology has come down. (I've seen some 'kits' from over-seas that we may be able to do ourselves too). There was also 'safety concerns' raised due to the electrical current and public access, running power, what operating costs would be etc.

Once the fish are over the spillway and into the basin / creek below, they become labor intensive to collect and restock into the lake. (Not impossible, as we've cleaned the spillway of game fish for years with volunteer help). Also, once they are over the spillway, we can only retrieve a percentage of those fish... There is also concern for fish migrating up the river that were not Lake Carroll fish being stocked into the lake. (this is an increasing concern due to VHS infections, parasites etc and was brought up at fish replenishment committee meetings last year by one of the members. I agree with his concerns and we should be cognizant of the risks).

Once I left about 7 years ago, I don't know what happened with the barrier / research.

After I returned last year, the fish replenishment committee and I began discussing the barrier issue again. The desire, at that time, was to determine if we can have a barrier down stream. In short, I contacted the IDNR-DWR and they said it would be 'possible' to put a barrier below the spillway, but it would need to be engineered and specific parameters would need to be adhered to (such as the top of the barrier can be no higher than the spillway basin wall). The direction this needs to go now is to determine the costs to engineer the barrier to acceptable regulations by the regulatory group (IDNR-DWR), determine if this system, once designed, would actually keep all the fish in it, what will it take to keep it cleaned out of game fish, and how do we do it (shocking boat, nets, volunteers, staff), the fish replenishment committee needs to request the project for funding by the Lake Committee, and it needs to be put into the budget process. All of which are possible. After that, it's up to the budget vote and whether or not we get support to do the work. I asked ranger375 for copies of pics / videos so the replenishment committee can use them to show people the problem / concerns for support of funding for the net or barrier. I plan to bring this up for discussion at the Lake Committee meeting on Monday night since we are discussing budgets for upcoming years. Thanks Joe

Has anyone been fishing?? Thinking of making my maiden voyage on the lake this weekend pending weather. I'm going to try for bass.

Guys, I have been out here for 7 years and brought this topic up numerous times. Our spillway is to blame for the loss of countless gamefish when the bottom pool overflows. About 5 years ago I walked the bottom creek back about 1/4 mile(after a flood) and was sickened by what I found. There were numerous dead game fish on the shore along with scores of other game fish that were helplessly trapped in mini pools created by the swollen creek. These fish will either die or be donated to the Mississippi if they make it downstream. About 3 years ago I took cell phone video of tons of fish bouncing down the spillway ramp into the bottom pool which was overflowing. I am not a whiner or complainer but I can only conclude from my observations that tens of thousands of our game fish are being lost during flood times. I pleaded for a barrier with the previous Lake Manager and it was like talking to a brick wall. I don't know if our current Lake Manager will be receptive to a barrier, but it can't hurt if all of us voice our concerns to him about the barrier issue. I know when lake levels are low like last Summer this issue is swept aside, but all it takes is a couple hard days of rain to lose countless numbers of our treasured game fish. Unfortunately, the current that our spillway creates when the water is high ATTRACTS fish hundreds of yards from the spillway mouth and pulls them right over the top. There is no doubt that we have flushed out mass numbers of our Musky and Walleye because of this........the hits to their population are evident. Please help in the fight for a barrier.......the cost is not nearly what the Association has made it out to be.

Are you familar with the fence at Evergreen? I do not know about the shabbona spillway but the Evergreen one has a fence in the back where it comes up to about a foot deep. We just got tons of flooding down here and the fence is holding strong. Id like to see if that would work at lake carrol

The pool at the bottom of the spillway is pretty deep.well over your head. There have been rescues by both shocking and netting. Netting gets many more fish. The spillway has to be drained to about 3-4 feet before the nets can be used. This happens in the fall when they lower the lake levels and no more water comes over the spillway. The problem is when we have those really high rain events and the spillway cannot hold the water. That is when the fish go down the creek. That is where a fence, like at shabbona would work. Something downstream. You would need dnr permission to do that. You don't need permission to do a rescue. But you do need coordination and volunteers. I have done the rescues. Kinda fun. I always get soaked. Everything goes back into the lake. Except carp.

I know this is hot topic and i dont want to start a huge debate, but I have a few questions on our spillway.

1. how deep is the pool at the bottom?

2. Who is in charge of scheduling rescues? is it DNR or is it just the fishing club?

3. When they do do a rescue, is done with a shock boat or is done with walking nets?

4. is there a fence at the bottom keeping the fish in there?

Attn. Muskie fisherman, there is some good reading about Lake Shabonna big Muskies that were escaping in flood waters. This can be read in IL. Outdoor News this month. Do we need a barrier page 3

I can find out but fall fingerlings are usually 8-12 inches so spring yearlings should be 12 + inches at least. I know of spring yearlings that have been close to 18". I bet they were 12-15" or so.