All I am saying is that if it was so "marginal" why have we been able to catch them out of the stream for this many years during the summer??? I have ask Jeff the same thing...........
I know it is a cold water release.....................I worked there when the contractors were redoing the D A M and I helped turn the crank to close the gate when we filled it back up. Next time you go over the d a m stop and look over the lake side of the bridge on the right hand side and you will see where the water comes up at. Yes is does spill over the top out per se but it is out of a small notch on the right hand side.There is a huge pipe that runs about 75-100 yards out to the deepest part of the lake (just over 50ft) that attaches to the bottom of that concrete chute............. The only time water flows over the spillway is after a big rain and when the wind blows south off the mountain and makes waves splash over......
New bridge, new road new everything except the gate................. It doesn't work.... the park has hired divers to try and fix it to no avail.......... Next time your up there just stop and look over the side of the bridge and you'll see the cold water release........ One thing not many people know is that whoever enginered the new d a m made a bo bo. When the whole thing was said and done the lake was a couple of inches lower than before. You can't tell it that much now, but when it was first refilled you could see the old water line above the new one. Then it really showed when we put the floating bridge back in at the beachhouse we had to back up and punt to get it to work because it was sagging so much............ Also did you know that it is Smith Lake, not Unicoi Lake.......
