Thread: Little Lagoon Pass

Hi everyone. Has anybody been down to the Little lagoon pass? I am wondering how the new dredge is working. They had removed the old dredge last time I was there and the water was VERY shallow throughout the canal. The fishing pretty much for me at least got very slow when the water got so shallow. I hope they keep it cleaned out. See you all in about a month. Thanks for the info in advance.

Heading that way myself, will be doing some kayak fishing possibly in that area.

I'll bite. There's a new and improved dredge in town! It's been going maybe a month on the north side of the pass. The water looks much deeper than it did a few months back on the north side, but it is still shallow on south end into the gulf. I have not been back since the weather, though. They appear to have more buoys and some pilings spread out to help the dredge (and us fisherman see where the dredge pipe is). I've only caught short mangroves, reds, and flounder recently. Better days are ahead though. Good luck to you both.

Don't understand why they keep spending the money dredging unless they put in jetties.

They have to dredge, a court order from the late 80s/early 90s requires ALDOT to maintain very specific conditions in the cut to keep the pass open.
Its a really interesting history and case. Basically a fiasco started in the first Fob James administration that resulted in multiple lawsuits against the State.
The court decree that ended the lawsuits requires ALDOT keep the pass open and to bypass sand to the west of the pass to account for the erosion stabilizing the pass caused on Gulf-fronting properties to the west..
Classic example of a project built without proper coastal engineering and then society paying for the mistake for years to come.

The new jetty alignment is supposed to reduce the amount of dredging required per year.
But given the unusual nature of the tidal regime and inflows in the Lagoon, as long as there is a pass there, someone will have to dredge it to keep it open.

When the engineers on the project doubled the width of the pass...thereby slowing water flow and increasing sand deposition in the pass itself...they guaranteed a dredge company a lifetime of work.....

Seems to me that if you put jetties out to say even 4 feet of water that the pass would stay that deep. Can you imagine how valuable the property on Fort Morgan Road would become if you could maintain that depth in the pass. You could run a Center Console in and out under the bridge. Not to mention the fishing off the jetties.

From what I understand, it wouldn't make a difference due to some unique hydrodynamics in the system. Any pass is going to fill in.
Plus longer jetties would exacerbate the down-drift erosion to the west.
To build a jetty system that is large enough to consistently have a navigable pass would be millions of dollars and still require periodic (and more expensive) dredging.

Bottom line is that it appears that the Lagoon never historically/naturally had a pass that stayed open 365 days of the year and someone thought they knew better than mother nature when they tried to create one. As usual, we see how that has worked out.

Thanks for all the information guys I appreciate it.

They are redredging the mouth today...