Nebraskaland

April 2025 • Nebraskaland 53 and roughly 1,000 dead cedar trees, as well as a 300-foot- long rock shoal, were placed in the bay to provide spawning habitat and cover for fi sh. Water levels in the lake, dependent on precipitation in the Republican River Basin that doesn't always replenish water released for irrigation, have varied widely through the years. "There are going to be times that [Methodist Cove] doesn't connect, but you're going to just have it function so many more years than if we wouldn't have done anything like this," said Tom Zikmund, who manages the lake for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On both sides of the cove, shorelines were protected with riprap and jetties were built to prevent sediment from fi lling the new channel. The 500-foot jetty on the west side of the cove extends from one of the Corps' two major campgrounds on the lake and will provide anglers access to deeper water. A half-mile north of the lake, Corps Road B dissects the creekbottom, forming a pond that had fi lled with silt washed in from pastures and fi elds in the watershed and was just a foot deep. The project removed 52,000 cubic yards of sediment from the pond. Now 5 feet deep and bisected with fi ngers, it will continue to capture sediment. Fed by reliable fl ows from spring-fed Methodist Creek, it will also provide additional shore fi shing opportunities, as well as habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife. Game and Parks plans to stock largemouth bass, bluegills and crappies there this spring. Federal funding from a program designed to improve aquatic habitat on aging Corps reservoirs covered 75 percent of the cost. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's Aquatic Habitat Program funded the other 25 percent. Project managers with the Corps and Game and Parks fi sheries biologists began looking at ways to reconnect coves to the reservoir about 15 years ago. Keith Koupal, a reservoir specialist with Game and Parks, said state and federal biologists weighed the cost and benefi ts of reconnecting six coves on the lake. For each, they looked at how deep the coves were, how much excavation would need to be done to reconnect them to the reservoir, how many years they would remain connected under typical lake levels and how many acres of habitat would be available to fi sh. While reconnecting other bays may have taken less work at less cost, the size of Methodist Cove, and its location on the upper end of the reservoir, where it was more aff ected by seasonal drawdowns, made it the best choice. "We're kind of making a small lake within a big reservoir," Koupal said. Zikmund said his sons are among the many kids who ride bicycles to the Methodist Cove to fi sh. He expects the project will draw more anglers, both young and old, and they are working on plans to improve access around the bay. "I'm very excited about having more opportunities for people to bank fi sh," he said. The Aquatic Habitat Program had previously funded a project to protect Patterson Cove. Both agencies hope they can work to reconnect more of the coves on the lake. That will make crappie anglers, especially the ones who remember fi shing in Methodist Cove when the lake was new, happy. "In all of my years of being around the lake, any time the water is high, everybody is excited about the crappie," Zikmund said. "They all kind of know that we're going to have coves that have crappie in them." Water fills the portions of Methodist Cove where a channel was dug to connect the cove to the lake and sediment was removed as part of an aquatic ecosystem restoration project at Harlan County Lake. Soon after this photo was captured last fall, the construction road crossing the channel was removed. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND

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