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Low Down on Lake Toho Draw Down: Part 1
By Paul Crawford

December 23, 2003

Lake Tohopekaliga; West Toho; or simply West Lake to the locals. The northern navigable lake of the Kissimmee Chain just south of Orlando Florida. A place with a long history of giant stringers, gigantic bass, and fishermen's dreams. A story book past of huge catches followed by a polluted, burned-out period, then a dramatic come back of epic proportions. What more could you ask for in a fishing destination? Well, how about quite possibly the biggest bassing bonanza on the planet within the last decade and likely the next decade as well. Or maybe a watershed event in the history of lake and fishery management with implications for every managed lake in the country. On the dark side, perhaps the premature death of one of the great fishing lakes in the country and a repeat of the famous Harris Chain debacle. Either way, the stars and planets have aligned and the Great Toho Drawdown is on!

All too much for you? Another hollow promise from a Chamber of Commerce out to catch you vacation money? Not hardly. The fishing community has had its eye on this project / experiment for years and once again West Lake Toho seems up to the task of fulfilling dreams or fears. For the lucky few with a little extra vacation time next spring, you are literally presented with the fishing chance of a lifetime. Those that must wait, there is a promise of continued exceptional future. For the critics, it's the living embodiment of their worst fears. For all of us, there is a chance to learn more about how our fisheries work and what impacts management agencies can have on your fishing future.

To understand what all of this is about, let's turn back the clock and review the last 30 years or so of lake history:

• Early Seventies
  West Lake was a Mecca for bass fishermen back when the Central Florida area was a sleepy little bump in the road between Tampa and Daytona, (pre-Disney.) Huge fish were routinely taken on wild shiners and a small but robust tourist industry grew up around the fishing opportunities. The early 70s saw a boom in bass fishing and a corresponding decline in the lake's condition due to over fishing, pollution from the growing Orlando area sewer treatment facility, steady lake levels, and the invasion of the new Florida trademark exotic imported plants, notably hydrilla.
   

• Late Seventies
  The lake retained its reputation sufficiently to attract Ray Scott and the B.A.S.S. Classic in 1977, where Rick Clunn emerged from a field of 26 anglers with a winning total of 27.7 lbs. Not too bad for a late October tournament. Considering the days of 7 fish limits, it wasn't too surprising that only a couple of limits came to the scales. This was followed 3 months later with a field 10 times that size where Curt Jensen won with 39.12 pounds. There were a few concerns voiced about the low numbers of fish and only 4 limits were weighed in during the 4 days. Still, it was a tough January tournament.
   

• Early Eighties
  When the 1980 tournament was scheduled, they decided try a February date, thinking that might improve the numbers. Local boy-made-good Horace Phipps won another 250+ angler event with only 33.11 pounds, and no limits were weighed in. Clearly something was amiss. When in 1982, Toho again refused to live up to its billing when Ken Cook won with only 30.1 lbs, B.A.S.S. pulled the plug. The lake just didn't produce well enough to attract the top anglers. With the bad publicity, the emerging destinations in Mexico and Texas, West Lake was deserted in droves by the fishing tourists and left to the locals as a burned out has been.
  
  Let's face it, West Lake does have another distinction, even today it's arguably the most heavily managed water body on the planet. The problems with West Lake were man-made, and the solution had to be too.
  
  Then a series of events came together to start the Toho Miracle. Disney, having moved into the area a decade earlier, had spurred incredible growth in the Metro-Orlando area and had made the new community very conscious of her image. Having a public cesspool just south of town was not the image local merchants wanted for the area. The local movement to do something about West Lake's declining fortunes quickly gained momentum. Leveraging the Clean Water Act, Orlando cleaned up its discharge problems and local controls toughened management for run off and development.
  
  But stopping the bleeding wasn't enough to cure the patient. Florida manages water levels for flood control and agriculture, not power production, (it's hard to control the flow of a swamp.) The lake had been held at steady levels for years, resulting in a thick cumulative build up of decaying plant matter and sediment. The entire lake bottom did actually resemble the bottom of a cesspool. Valuable spawning flats were coated with up to 4 feet of decaying muck. The situation was so bad that the major feature of the lake was the mud-tussles or floating mats of mud raised off the bottom by methane from the decaying plants.
   

• Late Eighties
  In 1984, the prayers of outdoorsmen everywhere were answered with the passage of the Wallop-Breaux set-aside tax to be used for restoration projects. West Lake was an obvious target and one of the first major projects funded through the new measure. With local and state support, a radical plan was undertaken to restore West Lake to its glory days. The lake would be drawn down beyond drought levels, revealing bottom that hadn't been dry in half a century. The bottom would be allowed to dry out and solidify. Over 200,000 cubic yards of muck would be mechanically scraped off the bottom and hauled away, leaving the natural sanding bottom. Dead plant stands would be burned to expose even more bottom. New native plants would be seeded and allowed to grow for a season. Hopefully, when the lake refilled, it would be as good as new and its regained health could then be maintained.
  
  In 1987, the draw down occurred. The low water levels revealed a surprisingly large bass population that was, of course, immediately hammered into oblivion by local anglers plodding out over the muck. There was actually some method to this early experiment in madness since the bass consumed virtually the entire available forage bass in short order leading many to believe it was a choice between a fish fry or starvation for both man and bass. No doubt the short term fishing prospects for the first few years were severely impacted by this excess, but in the longer term only one healthy pair of bass could easily repopulate the entire 19,000 acres given time. Even after the hammering, there was still a reasonable population of new brood stock.
  
  An early rainy season cut short the draw down, but still it was an unmitigated success. The bass and the forage swarmed into the newly revealed spawning flats. The grasses and plants took off as hoped and the entire chain of life shifted into overdrive. Electro-shocking and surveys showed an explosion of new life.
   

• Nineties to Today
  Fast-forward a few years to the return of B.A.S.S. as a measuring stick. A few changes had occurred to the tournament format since their last visit. The number of entrants was reduced from 250 to 150 on the pro side. The daily limit was reduced from 7 fish to 5, and the legal size was raised from 12" to 14". All of this would normally be expected to somewhat reduce total weights, but West Lake was out to show her stuff. Danny Kirk won the 1999 tournament with a respectable 41 lb total. Remember the 4 previous visits combined for a grand total of 13 limits? This time 138 limits came to the scales and half the number of fishermen caught more fish than the previous 4 tournaments put together. Something had definitely changed for the better. The next year, Shaw Grigsby won with an impressive 53.11 lbs and 206 limits came in. Then came THE BIG ONE. Dean Rojas and company rewrote the record books in January of 2001. They happen to show up when West Lake was "perfect." A full moon after a long warm spell had the big girls heading for the spawning beds at the start of the tournament. The result was the biggest 1 day stringer ever of 5 fish for 45 lbs 2 ounces. The entire top 5 one day catch records for B.A.S.S. were set during the tournament, and 3 of the top 5 biggest totals for 4 day tournaments ever weighed came in led with the all time record of 108 lbs, 12 ounces. In December of that same year, Tim Horton proved that even a brutal cold front could stop West Lake now that she was on a role. The winning weight of 61 lbs 4 ounces may not have set records, but the 311 limits showed it wasn't for the lack of fish.

Now, you have to thank Mother Nature for much of this success. After 4 years of record drought, a record year of rainfall had brought the lake back up within managed levels. Many of the areas from the '87 draw down had been dried again during the drought and the massive hydrilla fields had been flooded with new rainwater. The fish that had been spawned as a result of the 87 draw down were now the giants being caught in the tournaments. West Lake had been showing herself at her very best under ideal conditions. But underlying all of the headlines were some emerging worries.

Muck had accumulated again at an alarming rate. Hydrilla had taken over most of the lake and the yearly dying back of the mats had been adding tons of decaying matter to the lake bottom. Even though the bass population was big and healthy, recent spawns had been less than spectacular for bass and forage. With the current population reaching the natural end of life, recruitment had to improve or there was trouble ahead.

The proposed solution was another draw down. While it seems like an obvious answer given the spectacular success of 87, there was lots of room for reservations. Conditions, weather, control measures, and impacts were all very different than the previous event. There had been several other lakes that had been drawn down in the interim with mixed results and none currently showed the promise of the original West Lake draw down. And the plans were more radical than the previous effort, giving rise to more concern. True, managers now had experience to draw on and lessons learned from the other efforts could only help, but it was still a gamble and everyone knew it.

The drought busting rains also busted up the schedule for the draw down. The Kissimmee Chain directly feeds into Okeechobee and the heavy rains had things too full to allow the massive water movements needed for the draw down. The project was further delayed when the Corps of Engineers ran behind schedule on the Kissimmee River Restoration project that connects Kissimmee and Okeechobee. But now it's finally underway, for good or ill. A grand experiment with the highest of stakes.

The draw down started on the 10th of November with the lake at high pool of 55'. Currently, the lake is down to 53' with plans to reach the objective of 49' by the middle of February. There are still a lot of things that need to go right to make that goal, but managers are confident in the plan. The lake's "normal" range is between 55' and 51', so all access to the lake is still open and there is little trouble with navigation. We'll keep you posted on things as they change over the next few weeks and months.

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