November, 1954 
cedure was repeated four or five times, 
until no more fish came through. In the 
meantime, a crew of several men walked 
over the lake basin to collect fish that 
had become stranded. 
As the temporary screen described above 
was located 100 yards below the lower 
BENNETT: LaRGEMOUTH Bass IN RipGE LAKE 
233 
While the tunnel was being built, runoff 
water was flowing in the natural stream 
channel across the dam site. After the 
concrete tunnel had been completed and 
before any clay was moved to the dam 
site for the fill, a diversion ditch was dug 
between the upper end of the concrete 
Fig. 9.—Improved type of fish screen used in draining censuses. A permanent screen was 
built below the outlet of Ridge Lake in 1948. It consisted of a wide concrete base, wing walls, 
and a center post double slotted to hold removable screen frames and planks. Planks placed 
below the screen frames created a head of water in the basin between the outlet and the screen 
and reduced the water pressure on the screen if the latter became partially clogged with debris. 
Screen frames could be raised for cleaning. 
end of the outlet tunnel, on each draining 
operation several pools in the stream chan- 
nel between the lower end of this tunnel 
and the screen had to be pumped out and 
the fish collected. In 1948, a permanent 
concrete base and slotted posts to hold 
removable screens were built only a short 
distance below the lower end of the outlet 
tunnel, so that the 1949 and 1951 drain- 
ing and censusing operations were simpli- 
fied, fig. 9. 
The concrete outlet tunnel had been 
poured before the dam was constructed ; 
it was located in an excavation near the 
opposite end of the dam site from, and 
parallel to, the natural stream channel. 
tunnel and the stream channel, to enter 
the latter about 150 yards above the dam 
site. The stream flow was then directed 
through the diversion ditch to the con- 
crete tunnel, and the dam was built 
across the stream channel, leaving a blind 
channel or ditch (the old stream channel), 
about 100 yards long and several feet 
across, between the head of the diversion 
ditch and the dam. This blind channel 
was never filled in and still contained 
5 inches of water when the rest of the 
lake basin was drained in 1943; it was 
believed to have been the hiding place of 
an estimated +73 small bass that escaped 
the first census, 87 of which appeared in 
