By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
McKenzie, Tenn.—Carroll Lake in McKenzie is well on the way to once again becoming a vibrant lake.
After over two years of being dry, Carroll Lake is completely refilled with water and has been re-stocked with a variety of fish. The lake is on target to reopen in 2020 once the fish mature.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) operates the lake and has been working to restore it after the spillway was destroyed by floodwaters in 2015, causing the lake to run dry.
Lake Manager Nathan Warden said people make daily visits to the lake to watch the progress. “People are pretty excited about it,” he said.
After months of dredging and pulling up trees and brush that had grown up in the dry lake bed, the flood gates were closed in January and its feeder, Clear Creek, started to refill the lake.
The 100-acre Carroll Lake has long been a popular fishing spot in the area and Warden said it will be once again.
It’s been re-stocked with catfish, blue gill, red ear and bass, he said. “We won’t be able to open the lake until 2020 when the fish will be fully grown, though,” he said.
TWRA has been busy building a new fishing pier and re-doing rip rap at the lake. More work will be done shortly, including replacing the floating pier and creating more areas for anglers to fish, such as peninsulas that will be created in the lake.
Warden said the TWRA also will be pulling up more of the trees that have grown up “to make it easier for boaters to navigate, but we don’t want to pull all of them up because they make real good habitat for fish.”
Menu
