My skimmer opening has marks for the recommended min and max water levels. We had so much rain in the northeast this spring that on several occasions I have had water overflowing out of the skimmer onto the ground after the rain. Over the last three months I have drained water out on at least 4 (maybe 5) different occasions because the water level was up to the top of the skimmer so it seems like nothing (or very little) will get pulled into the skimmer unless the water level is lowered a bit. I usually drained to about 1" below the max level. It's too bad I can't pump that off into some kind of reserve tank to use later on (although it would probably be more work to maintain the reserve water than it was worth).

Peter