Sardis Lake is a reservoir on the Tallahatchie River in Lafayette, Panola, and Marshall counties, Mississippi. Sardis Lake is impounded by Sardis Dam, located southeast of the town of Sardis. It is approximately an hour drive from Memphis, Tennessee. The dam is long, has an average height of , and a maximum height of .

History

Sardis Dam was the first of the

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the ...

headwaters projects to be built by the federal government for flood control. Authorization for the project came when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1936. Construction took four years and required thousands of men to clear along the Tallahatchie River, which was characterized by dense woods and undergrowth, and meandering sloughs. The dam was constructed using a "hydraulic fill" technique that required soil to be dredged from below the dam site and pumped to form the earth fill, which forms the majority of the dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built and operated the "Pontotoc", a special dredge powered by two electric motors to accomplish this task. The "Lower Lake" on the downstream side of Sardis Dam was created by the dredging operation. It has numerous recreation facilities, including

John W. Kyle State Park John W. Kyle State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is located off Mississippi Highway 315 on Sardis Reservoir approximately east of Sardis. It is named after John W. Kyle, a former Mississippi state senator and a for ...

. Mississippi Highway 315 splits while crossing the dam, with one route crossing the top and the other half crossing the base. Sardis Lake has a maximum storage capacity of of water. The lake is gradually drawn down during the fall and winter months to a "conservation pool" of . This permits spring rains across the lake's watershed to fill the reservoir without flooding downstream. Since the dam became operational, the dam's emergency spillway has been overtopped only three times by high water - in 1973, 1983 and 1991. The lake's typical "recreation pool" is . The lake is popular with anglers and has a reputation for its abundant bass and

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxis'' ...

. Other recreation activities include hunting, camping, boating, skiing, swimming and picnicking.

Marina

The Sardis Lake Marina services the lake with access to fuel docks, 140 wet slips (both covered and uncovered), a restaurant, and a ship store. The Marina offers rental boats as well as rental skis, tubes, and knee/wake boards.

Fish

The main fish that live in the lake are Largemouth bass, Spotted bass, Blue catfish,

Channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

, Flathead catfish,

Black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

White crappie The white crappie (''Pomoxis annularis'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two species of crappies. Alternate common names for the species include goldring and silver perch. is named for the fish. The genus name ''Pomoxis ...

Bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

Redear sunfish The redear sunfish (''Lepomis microlophus''), also known as the shellcracker, Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish and sun perch) is a freshwater fish in the family Centrarchidae and is native to the southeast ...

, White bass.

External links

Sardis Lake and Dam (Official Website)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers *http://sardis.uslakes.info/FishingChart.asp

References

{{authority control Protected areas of Lafayette County, Mississippi Protected areas of Marshall County, Mississippi Protected areas of Panola County, Mississippi Reservoirs in Mississippi Dams in Mississippi United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Landforms of Lafayette County, Mississippi Landforms of Marshall County, Mississippi Landforms of Panola County, Mississippi