Harry S Truman Lake, US Army Corps of Engineers

I’m happy to pass along the news that we added some more good fish attractors (i.e. brush piles) to Truman Lake this past week! This was a team effort, as we ha...d 13 MDC staff dedicate at least one day to this project. Also, thanks to Steve Blake who provided his thoughts on some areas that may be good locations. This year we worked in the Little Tebo/Sterett Creek Area. I have attached a map showing the area of the lake we were working in and the locations we place fish attractors. The coordinates of each fish attractor are included in the image. The coordinates are listed in decimal degrees (dd), Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and degrees minutes seconds (dms) to accommodate people who use any of the three coordinate systems on their GPS unit. At some point this information will be available on MDC’s website but I’m not sure how long it will be before the website is updated. I’m going to do things a little bit different this year, if you would like a GPX file or have other questions, email or PM Ashton Nicole Parsley at [email protected]. You’re always welcome to email me with questions about the brush piles or any Truman Lake fisheries questions, but I’m pretty busy right now and Ashton will be able to give you a more prompt response than I can. Feel free to share this post with your friends and contact Ashton or me if you have any questions. Good luck fishing! Chris Brooke Fisheries Management Biologist Truman Lake 2010 South Second Street Clinton, MO 64735 (660) 885-8179x4953 [email protected]

The cab module for the new Harry S. Truman powerplant intake gantry crane being lifted into position as the crane is being assembled. The crane was manufactur...ed by COH in Canada and shipped in modular pieces to be assembled on the dam structure. This crane will replace the original crane, which is nearing its end of service life, and will allow project staff to position the intake bulkheads which allows work to be conducted on the intake gates for each hydro-electric turbine generator. #USACE #BuildingStrong Harry S Truman Lake, US Army Corps of Engineers Stockton Lake, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pomme de Terre Lake, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Navigation, US Army Corps of Engineers US National Weather Service Springfield Missouri US National Weather Service Kansas City Missouri Warsaw, Missouri Warsaw Chamber Benton County Sheriff's Office Benton County Missouri Tourism and Recreation Benton County, MO ARES Benton County, MO Emergency Management Northwestern Division, US Army Corps of Engineers USACE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood

A shot of the crane replacement work, this time from the Project Office on the west end of the dam. The office is open Monday through Friday from 7:30-4:00. We are aware of the on-going problem with our phone lines, and we have been assured that the problem is being worked.

If you're curious about all the flurry of activity on top of Truman Dam the last few days, you're not alone. There have been a number of maintenance projects happening over the last handful of years--from gate refurbishments to wire rope replacements to routine inspections to bridge repairs to expansion joint refurbishments...the list goes on. A structure such as Truman Dam requires constant maintenance to operate well and as designed. The current project is replacement of t...he intake gantry crane. As you might imagine, this project involves (literally) tons of equipment, huge moving parts, workers, coordination, know-how, logistics, safety protocols, etc. As is always the case during such maintenance projects, the roadway across Truman Dam is closed to vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists...everyone...for the safety of our workers, contractors, and visiting public. This project is scheduled to be completed by early July. We thank you for your cooperation and understanding. See more

Warsaw Mo Holiday nights. Pictures don’t do the experience justice.

Drake Harbor sunrise

The roadway across Truman Dam will be closed December 22 and 23 for contract work.

As 2020 comes to an end I am quickly approaching the three-year mark as the Fisheries Management Biologist for Truman Lake. One of the things I wanted to do thi...s year was increase my use of social media, like Facebook, to update people on the fisheries management activities we’ve been doing at Truman Lake. I made a few posts, but there were also several posts I intended to make that I never got around to. So here’s a few highlights from 2020: Early this spring we sank 33 brush piles in the Turpin Branch area. Spring Black Bass sampling was pretty slow because of poor water conditions but we still sampled some nice fish. I expect 2020 to be a good year for bass. We saw several Walleye between 9-13 in our Spring sample. I also receive reports from several anglers seeing a lot of Walleye in that size range. I believe these fish are from natural recruitment that occurred in 2019. We also got a large stocking of 390,716 Walleye fingerlings in 2020. I am hopeful these two good classes of Walleye will result in an uptick in the Walleye fishing over the next few years. Over the last 3 years I’ve collected and aged 345 hybrid Striped Bass otoliths from local fishing guides. This year I aged one fish that was 16 years old, the oldest Truman Lake hybrid I’ve aged thus far. We have several good classes of fish contributing to the fishery right now. The 2010 class still has a lot of fish in it but I’m expecting it to tail off a lot in the next couple years. The 2013, 2015 and 2016 classes all have good numbers of hybrids that should almost entirely be 21+ inches in the summer of 2021 and continue producing good fish for several years. There should also be good classes of smaller fish from 2019 (559,654 hybrids stocked) and 2020 (182,673 hybrids stocked). The 742,327 hybrids stocked in 2019 and 2020 classes is the largest number of hybrids ever stocked in Truman Lake over a 2-year period. It will be a few years before these fish are trophies but there should be a lot of 15-18 fish and smaller in 2021. We netted crappie at 12 sites this fall and covered every end of the lake. There’s still some really big crappie out there, and there’s a lot of small, young crappie from the 2019 spawn. I know the upper Grand has a reputation for having big crappie, but 3 of the 6 biggest crappie we saw came from our site on the upper Osage near Osceola. To put that differently, 50% of our biggest fish came from 7% of our nets. However, that site had our lowest catch rates and we ate a lot of mud and propped a lot of trees to get them. On the other side of the spectrum, we have a lot of small crappie at Windsor Crossing. When it was all over with, I was tired of measuring 5.6 Black Crappie. I’m afraid there may be so many we stack up with small crappie in the Tebo arm for a few years. Growth and abundance vary a lot as you move around the lake and there are some parts of the lake those 2019 fish are growing really well and should provide really good fishing next year. We tend to see bigger fish as we moved up the lake but get higher catch rates as we moved down the lake. That’s a little bit over an oversimplification but it’s generally true. I did a little bit of catfish work in 2020 but not a lot. I’ve aged a few Blue Catfish and found that there’s a lot of 18-22 year old fish out there. One of the issues with catfish management is when fish can live 20-30 years it takes a lot of time for a regulation to take effect. The regulation change implementing the slot limit (2014) was still a relatively short time ago. We’re planning to reevaluate the Blue Catfish population but not until the fall of 2022. We’re also in the early stages of a study evaluating the Flathead Catfish in Truman Lake but that work is just beginning. I also didn’t do much Paddlefish work in 2020. We did get 21,258 Paddlefish (6-8) stocked in 2020. They were stocked a little smaller sized and earlier in the year than normal due to some work being done on hatchery ponds. That should still be a good stocking. After having some down years from 2009-2015, we’ve had at least a few Paddlefish stocked every year from 2016-2020 including a couple really good years. It takes a while for Paddlefish to get to 34 but these last few years of good stocking will hopefully start to show during snagging season the next few years. Christopher A. Brooke, Fisheries Management Biologist Missouri Department of Conservation 2010 South Second Street Clinton, MO 64735 (660) 885-8179 ext. 4953 [email protected]

We're looking for park custodians at Truman Lake (and other lakes in the Kansas City District). For questions, please open the link and find contacts at the bottom of the page. https://beta.sam.gov//bd0ea030a9d846669e63f28cd90a8d/view

Can't get enough of these lake life sunsets....

Stunning Warsaw sunset caught by Environmental Specialist Kelly Dunn

REMINDER: With the exception of a dock at Shawnee Bend, all courtesy docks at Corps managed boat ramps will be removed for the winter beginning December 1 through February 28. Day use fees are not being charged during this time frame. Shawnee Bend and Bledsoe Ferry ramps, as well as a number of the marina ramps, will have a courtesy dock available for use throughout this time. Please contact individual marinas for information about those facilities.

ATTENTION: The annual managed deer hunt at Harry S. Truman Lake will be held November 6 and 7, 2020 in Shawnee Bend Park. To maintain a high level of safety, Shawnee Bend Park will be entirely closed during this time frame. We thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Photo by Ranger Pearson

Some recent improvements to the Truman Lake area provided by a local scout troop and their families. Kudos!!!! It looks amazing!

NOTICE: LONG SHOAL CAMPGROUND will be closed 2 November 2020, possibly up until 27 May 2021, for completion of campsite upgrades. A total of 45 sites will be upgraded to 50 amp service with water. As always, we are hopeful that circumstances will allow us to complete this work ahead of schedule so that our campers may enjoy much-needed improvements to our facilities. Please keep an eye on our FB page for updates. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.

Approximately 418 acres of Corps land north of Osage Bluff Campground is now available for public hunting. A line indicating "No Hunting" has been physically marked with new signs adjacent to the campground--hunting is not allowed within 300 yards of our parks. Red line on satellite image indicates the additional hunting land. Dark green on second map indicates Osage Bluff park area (closed to hunting).

Approximately 260 acres in the North Cooper Creek area is now available for public hunting. This area is bordered by the Deepwater arm of Truman Lake on the north, 13 Hwy. on the west, Henry County SE 700 on the south, and the Deepwater Access on the east. Please watch for flags along the east boundary, which indicates the line between this public land and the Deepwater Ramp.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors in Lake Charles, Louisiana, install reinforced plastic sheeting today for the first home to benefit from Operation Blue... Roof since Hurricane Laura. The program, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency, reduces further damage to property until permanent repairs can be made. This is a free service to homeowners. Parties affected by Hurricane Laura are encouraged to submit a Right-of-Entry application. To learn more about Operation Blue Roof and to apply, visit: https://www.usace.army.mil/BlueRoof/ The following Louisiana parishes are currently eligible: Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis & Vernon