Clinch river 12/14/08

[ChemEAngler]

MB,
Good suggestion, and thanks for bringing it up. I have heard rumors that they are planning to run 2 generators until Christmas. Cheap power for TVA, might as well take advantage of it.

Travis

[jzimmerman]

Yeah there little power outage a week ago cost us over 17k here at the plant in scrap parts.

[Flat Fly n]

TVA only cares about getting the a particular lake at a set level on a set date. This much rain has raised the level above the 975-985 range, so they generate. They get the lake to the 985 level, back off the generators. Simple

[ChemEAngler]

Originally Posted by Flat Fly n

TVA only cares about getting the a particular lake at a set level on a set date. This much rain has raised the level above the 975-985 range, so they generate. They get the lake to the 985 level, back off the generators. Simple

Today the elevation is just over 1000' and rising due to the high amount of inflow. However, we are expecting more rain this weekend, so that will once again increase the inflow. I think we are looking at quite a significant period of full generation to get us down to the 985' elevation.

My statement "... running 2 generator until Christmas", was based on some statements I had heard from other fisherman. I did not know the actual level that TVA has as a target, thanks for providing that. TVA coal power is one of my company's biggest customers, and they told us earlier this week that they expect to cut back on coal power due to the increase in rainfall. They are going to try and squeeze as much hydro-power as possible to offset the increase in coal purchases that they had to make over the summer due to the drought not allowing for hydro production.

My question is, how does this increase in flow affect all those recently deposited eggs? Thankfully there was a long period of low flow to allow for spawning, but now it is flowing wide open.

Travis

[Grannyknot]

I have heard that the natural reproduction rate of trout on the clinch is very low due to the surges of water. Is this true?

[ChemEAngler]

Originally Posted by Grannyknot

I have heard that the natural reproduction rate of trout on the clinch is very low due to the surges of water. Is this true?

Grannyknot,
I had always heard this as well, but I also heard that browns don't spawn on the Clinch either. However, I have personally seen them doing so the past 2 years. IMO, the eggs could probably survive short periods 1 to 2 hr/day of high flow. They do it all the time on the SoHo. However, high flow for 24 hrs a day, that is what has me concerned. I caught some small bows and browns (3" - 5") on the clinch in the spring that were just as colorful as any I caught in the mountains. Were those stream born or hatchery fish, I don't know.....

Travis

[MadisonBoats]

Guys,
The Clinch is way up and it is scheduled to be that way for the next few days. I would not be surprised to see it run full generation through Christmas considering the rain and snow pack melt from the mountains.

This reminds me of the days when the release schedules were intermittent and extremely heavy. I can remember several fly fishermen drowning on the Clinch back in the day due to this. Then they started the horn/siren system.

Fortunately, this has improved significantly since that time.
CSM

[Grannyknot]

Originally Posted by MadisonBoats

Guys,

This reminds me of the days when the release schedules were intermittent and extremely heavy. I can remember several fly fishermen drowning on the Clinch back in the day due to this. Then they started the horn/siren system.

CSM

I can remember a time when the Norris resque squad would take their zodiac boat out to Miller's Island several times a week to rescue stranded fishermen.

[Flat Fly n]

I have always heard there is no natural reproduction on the Clinch per se. However some folks in the past have arqued to the opposite. Maybe there are some feeder streams in times of good rainfall that will support spawning fish, and hopefully fry development, but I'm not the guy to ask on this. There are folks older than me on this board that know more about this than me. I still don't know why the S. Holston can and the Clinch can't. Just because there are redds doesn't mean there is successful spawning.

We all have seen bows up on a particular creek on the Clinch trying to spawn when there is significant rainfall to fill that stream. TU actually one time with the team lead by David Buaxbaum tried to take those fish and successfully raise fry from those fish years ago.

Maybe it's time for some of us to get busy on a new project now that we have TWRA paying some attention to the Clinch. I would be willing to help on such a project if we could pull it off. I have some access to the river on one of those feeder creeks if we could pull this off.

[GrouseMan77]

I have been told that those rainbows that were trying to spawn were removed by TWRA and placed in another tailwater.

I guess it is just as well because it was also rumored that folks were netting the fish at night.