Who let the water out? Popular SC fishing lake empty after vandal opened water valve

One of the state’s most popular small fishing lakes won’t be available to anglers for almost two years after someone climbed a tower, opened the valve and allowed all the water to spill out. Most of the fish died.

Ross Self, fisheries chief for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said there were no cameras at Lake Edwin Johnson outside Spartanburg to know for sure what happened or who did it.

“It’s hard to explain why someone would do this,” he said. “It took a fair amount of effort to be mischievous.”

The water level was down 4 feet or so because contractors were working on the emergency spillway. The vandal had to climb 10 feet or so to reach the valve.

The 40-acre lake held bream and large mouth bass stocked about nine years ago when the lake was intentionally drained to improve habitat and balance the fish population.

Most of the fish were stranded in the mud flats, but some likely made it downstream to the much larger Lake Craig, Self said.

The lake, built in the 1950s, has a pier and the opportunity to fish from the shoreline. Only small boats propelled by electric trolling motors or paddles are allowed.

Self said refilling the lake will begin in about three weeks, bream stocked in the fall and bass in the spring, but it will be July 2024 before fishing will be allowed. That would provide for a couple of cycles of reproduction and growth.

Lake Edwin Johnson is one of about 17 small lakes the state manages for fishing, he said.