Lake Chippewa Flowage Vacation

Maybe you have seen live pictures of the Chippewa Flowage showing a lot more shoreline than you are accustomed to seeing. For the second year in a row the Partner’s Group, composed of lake stakeholders decided to draw down the lake up to 8 feet, starting before ice up.

For decades the lake was drawn down much more than that, annually. A major benefit has been reduction of weeds, and creating ideal spawning habitat. Because we had early snow in November, then a thaw in late December, those conditions resulted in conditions we haven’t experienced recently.

First, river channels opened up in the winter because of the runoff, and had some impact on snowmobiling. Secondly, it created additional oxygenation to the water for the fish. There was no fish kill at all on the Chippewa Flowage this spring, which is normally experienced to some degree in shallow areas. Furthermore, it appears spawning conditions were excellent for walleyes and muskies.

We will know this fall, when the DNR does their assessment of the young of the year hatch. Of course another consequence of the late December thaw was reduced runoff this spring. Well, good news. The lake is coming up an inch to inch and a half each day. It is expected to be low navigable water by opening day and full head by Memorial Day. While we haven’t seen this recently, it was customary in the 70’s and 80’s. If you are interested in following the water level just check out this link: http://www.xcelenergy.com/Company/Operations/Hydro_Level_and_Discharge_Rates  

Here are pictures showing the sandbar in Moore’s Bay in March and a month later in April.