A surprise spring snow last week did not hinder any progress on the Canton Lake Dam’s spillway project. After a little more than two month’s of work, the stabilization project is well under way.

“That’s great news for a project designed to increase the safety of flood control operations at the lake,” said Canton Lake Ranger Debbie Chaloupek.

Phase one work began Jan. 30 on the contract calling for the installation of stabilizing anchors and the construction and placement of 64 stabilizing rock anchors through the downstream slope of the spillway.

Nicholson Construction Company of Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded the contract and will serve as the primary contractor for the work.

Work will include sub-surface drilling and sampling, unwatering the stilling basin, fish relocation and clean out of the basin floor.

To accomplish the goals of the project, has been constructed across the stilling basin to allow crane access for placement of the drilling rig and other equipment up on the spillway immediately downstream of the retainer gates.

Hoskins Trucking of Longdale will provide equipment and hauling services for the road placement and for debris removal. During the almost 10-month long project, roadway access across Canton Dam will remain open to through traffic.

Because the stilling basin will be part of the actual construction site, fishing access, as well as all other visitor access to the basin, will be closed.

And for safety reasons, fishing on top of the bridge or from the wing-walls into the stilling basin will also be prohibited during this time.

Reopening access to the camp sites in Blaine Park and to the Frank Raab Nature Trail will be investigated as the contract work progresses and as the busy recreation season draws closer, Canton Lake officials have said.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Fisheries biologists conducted the relocation of game fish from the basin back into the lake.

Using nets and special shocker boats, Department of Wildlife Conservation employees removed the game fish from the basin and were able to return about 805 game fish back into the lake waters.

The fish were recorded as they were removed as to species, size and weight and total numbers. Using specific references and formulas, a dollar value per pound/species was calculated. The grand amount of fish saved from the basin by shocking and netting equaled $11,142.79.

The Corps of Engineers and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation were pleased to know that the game fish were recovered and returned back to the lake waters.

“Most people are interested in knowing which was the largest fish found and recovered,” Chaloupek said.

Nicholson Construction provided its tally of the largest fish recovered and the results for those fish were: a 7-pound walleye; a 15-pound hybrid bass; two 4-pound large mouth bass; a 10-pound channel catfish, a 10-pound striped bass; a 2.5-pound white bass; a .9-pound white crappie; a .3 pound black crappie, a 0.5-pound blue gill and three 5-pound flathead catfish.

At the end of the project, the rock, silt and detritus, or fragment or grains from rock, will be removed from the stilling basin.

The project could be finished as early as November.