Bonne Carre Spillway to open (1 Viewer)

Rob Beaux

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Noon tomorrow the will open the spillway. The rain up north has increased the crest so in order to protect the lower River and NO, they will open it.

NOLA.com and WWL are reporting it.
 
now lets pray, by some miracle, they'll be crawfish...
 
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now lets pray, by some miracle, they'll be crawfish...

no miracle needed...

Wait till the water drops and then you can scope them up using a dipnet. Right around the middle of May if it stays open for 4 weeks, the water will still be draining towards the Lake. My father and I used to scope crawfish every time it flooded. 3 -4 sacks in a little less than 2 hours and if you get there when there's a glaze of water on the dirt roads...you can walk and hand pick them. Zero work/no money spent while drinking beer.

River shrimp are also going to be there next few weeks...bring your cast net and get your butter beans ready.
 
I remember going to the Spillway in 1973 to see some grand, Hoover Dam-esque opening of the gates and was disappointed to see a crane lifting the railroad pilings that form the gates, one, by one, by one. It was like watching paint dry.
 
NO NWS
1227 PM CDT THU APR 10 2008

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE HAS ISSUED A

* FLOOD WARNING FOR
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT NEW ORLEANS.
* FROM SUNDAY MORNING UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE...OR UNTIL THE WARNING IS
CANCELLED.
* AT 11:00 AM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.6 FEET.
* MINOR FLOODING IS FORECAST.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 17.0 FEET.
* FORECAST...THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO RISE TO NEAR FLOOD STAGE SUNDAY
MORNING.
* IMPACT...AT 17.0 FEET...THE RIVER WILL RISE ON THE LEVEE MAKING
NAVIGATION AND DOCKING DIFFICULT. THE CITY IS PROTECTED TO A
PROJECT HEIGHT OF 20 FEET.
* THE BONNET CARRE SPILLWAY IS EXPECTED TO BE OPENED ON FRIDAY THE 11TH.
 
Cool... I grew up about a two minute walk from the Spillway and I remember the last time they opened the gates in 1997. Like Champ said, it is kind of anticlimactic-- but it's definitely an event in the community...
 
so you can just go out there with a scoop net and get some crawfish when the water goes down? I know the canal under the St. Claude bridge the water is almost touching the bottom of it
 
I grew up in Laplace and remember when they opened the locks. Your dipnets are gonna be so full you'll need two people to pull them up. Go down by the locks when the water has started to recede. Or any of the pools of water that occur. I remember dude-brah's pulling out sharks over by the locks. They were making mounds of fish as they pulled them from the water.
 
bye bye lake fishies, bye bye

True but traditionally the best crab and shrimping is the summer of a spillway opening. The trout will come in quick to eat the river shrimp almost as soon as the water stops flowing. Reds wont leave and will get fat quick on all the shad and shrimp. Dont buy into the hype this is a good thing for the Lake...just not good if you wanted to fish in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

This is from personal experience.
 
doubtful...more like gars, sturgeon or paddlefish. You know... typical fresh water fish.

You'd think but when they opened it in the late 80's there were salt water fish. The opening of the locks isn't a very typical scene. Mind you this was just a few small sharks but they were there down by the locks. Dudes were wading with drag-nets to get everything out. Like I said: a big mound of fish. It was something else.

Made me wanna jump the levee on my CR-80 a few more times.
 
You'd think but when they opened it in the late 80's there were salt water fish. The opening of the locks isn't a very typical scene. Mind you this was just a few small sharks but they were there down by the locks. Dudes were wading with drag-nets to get everything out. Like I said: a big mound of fish. It was something else.

Made me wanna jump the levee on my CR-80 a few more times.

I grew up in the area. My grandfathers family lost a tiny bit of their land for the spillway to be constructed. I think I know the scene. ( I will be there tomorrow also.)

Well since I was there in the 80's and since I may know a little bit about fish(its my job), unless you can show me one this year, there wasnt sharks in the Bonne Carre. And even if there was, it would be more like one or two. I too saw the piles of fish(shad, buffalo and carp), and threw castnet against the locks. Never saw a shark. I am not calling you a liar, you truly believe what you saw. I am just saying I think you were lead to the wrong conclusion.

Brackish water is fine but the lake needs a good flushing and this does it quite well. Besides most of the wetlands around the lake are more fresh than salt so the fresh water and new sediments will help build some wetlands. The Chandeluers will benefit as well as the MS coast marshes. Also, good year for ducks next year, fertilized the marshes.

In the past, there has been talk of having a fresh water diversion go through the spillway and into the Lake via the Labranch wetlands. Some groups have stopped this simply because they are use to the way things are now, not how they were prior to levees...( ie trout in the west end of the lake.)
 

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