# Conowingo Dam gates open



## shaggy (Jun 18, 2003)

Any thoughts as to what it may do to fishing the flats and further down the Bay? As fishing gets heated up, would it throw out too much fresh water, or put out warmer water or colder water. Figure some rain be good for water temps as it runs off solid ground (which I would think warmer than water temps) into the waterways, but thinking these gate openings could put us back a little, not as bad as Izzy or anything, but would be curious to how others think.

Have Jep will travel


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## BubbaBlue (May 11, 2004)

Yeah, I was curious about that too. Was thinking the spawners shouldn't be put off by the extra fresh water, but I might be wrong.

Temps should improve because of it. 
.


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## fyremanjef (Feb 17, 2005)

*What about the [email protected] in the water*

I know there is a tremendous amount of sludge on the top side of the dam, so much in fact that there are talks about how to remove the build up. When that dam is opened, what does it do to the water clarity? Aside from the usual debris, does it churn up the water? and if so how far south does this affect go? will it push all the way to the peake?

Just curious and asking of those who are vetrans of the bay.

Jeff


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## fishhead (Oct 18, 2004)

I've read a couple reports from previous years where large water discharges in late March and April have put a big damper on the upper bay striper action. Here's a link to the current water discharge activity:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/md/nwis/uv/?site_no=01578310


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## shaggy (Jun 18, 2003)

Drove down to the Peake this morning, and all seems normal, but figure it's a two or three day window before this part of the Bay sees the results of the gates openning releasing water, so, figure tomorrow or Friday we may see some debris floating down the Bay Bridge area, and could last maybe a week. As to the water clarity and temperature of the water, that will be left to be seen, as will the arrival of the spawners.

Have Jeep will travel


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

Screws it up. While stripers are anadromous fish (can live in salt and fresh), heavy spring rains always turn off the bite, not to mention put a lot of debris in the water.

I hope to God this year doesn't turn out like the last two with abnormally heavy rains in the spring.


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## GotchaMack (Jun 16, 2004)

Fished or I should say tried to fish on the lower Susquehanna around York, PA today(50 miles N of Baltimore) and I can safely say that there is ALOT of freakin' water coming down the river. The thing looked like a set of Class 5 rapids about 2 miles wide! Trees, barrels, boats, sheds, whole towns, mountains, and boulders are being thrown down the river(OK the last 3 are pushing it), but to sum it up I'd say the Susky just krapped on the striper fishing in the bay for at least a week-week and a half. Median flow of the river for this time of year where I fish is around 70,000 cubic feet per second, and as I type it is flowing at 335,000 CFS, above floodstage and in general a ginormigantic amount of freaking water!


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## Green Cart (May 14, 2002)

*Conowingo Dam Link*

Does anybody understand the above link which is also the same link used by Maryland DNR? All it does is just show discharge, cubic feet per second. How is it translated to number of floodgates? For example, MD DNR said that there are now 9 floodgates open which makes sense and depression.  Also, the link does not show amount of debris floating. How am I supposed to find out about it short of actually going to the water to make personal observations?


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## GotchaMack (Jun 16, 2004)

You can't without going to the water, but from what I saw yesterday the surface looks more like a mudslide than a river, its just FULL of debris, a whole lot of wood is moving down the river right now.


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