lake okachobee water levels

G

george wilson

Active member
was listening to reports on the drought and its affect on the lake -- almost at its lowest levels ever -- they said so many areas were exposed now that wrecks and artifacts were showing up and archeologists were scrambling to retrieve and document them - some believed to be hundreds of years old

can't imagine that this is doing anything for the bass fishing -- how will it affect duck hunting there -- any of you in the area got any first hand info to share?
 
my father fliped the jon boat over back in 1978... 2 miles out of moorehaven, he lost his ithica auto. i should go back and look for it LOL... its LOW LOW LOW down here, last year you needed a GOOD airboat, this year its looking like everyones sc@#$d, it was a big deal in past years if it got below 13 feet now its around 8 !!! bad news for the bass fishers, bad news for everyone . the lake in the 70's was famous for shooting ringnecks, bluebills you name it, my first duck killed there was a canvasback 30 years ago, it was incredible hunting , you would see thousands upon thousands of ducks, to this very day i remember the sound of "monkey box" on opening morning ,first day of the season, just a constant rumbling roar of hundreds of shotguns, must have been what the battle at gettysberg sounded like. word is ,the only way to access the lake is from the north by the kissimme river, if we are lucky the rainy season will pull it back up to 10 feet. i understand they are de-mucking, and doing controled burns to get the sand bootom back, for propper bass management, this should help the wildfowl too.
 
Actually George, it's a good thing and natural for the marsh to go dry every so often. The SFWMD has been busy de-mucking the dried out areas while they have the oportunity, and the rainy season has started.

Hitch
 
de-mucking the lake --- sounds interesting

the one article i read made it sound like it was about to become a totaly dry lake --

this is just a normal life cycle for that lake hitch? - but maybe taken to a little lower level because of the drought? -- they expect it to rebound if you get a good rainey season? if not?
 
Several years ago the level went down to 9.5 feet. That leaves a lot of areas high and dry. Plants sprout up everywhere. By early season (September) plants sprouting seeds were everywhere. In 2 mile ride in the airboat the grass rake dumped 1 inch of seeds in the bottom of the boat. With that much seed there were thousands of teal there. I suppose it will be that way again this year. The attached picture was in January and I believe the level at that time was 9.5 feet above sea level. It is an area that is usually unwadeable and bass boats are able to run all over...the ducks were thick as bugs. One problem this year was that the water mis-managers lowered the lake in anticipation of a bad hurricane season that did not materialize. In the 2 previous years the hurricanes pounded the lake and the levels rose to a dangerous 18 feet. It is natural for the lake to go this low. The problem is that farmers still like to water their crops and we like to eat the food...we like green yards and we like to wash our cars and wash dishes all things that of course require water. Add to that people are still moving down here in droves and they like water too (although for the first time im my lifetime more people are moving from south florida than to south Florida).
Lake O Paul and Stin (13).jpg
 
i don't think that in the article or couple of news blurbs anyone ever mentioned that the lake level was allowed to drop by "managers" - interesting how they leave that out
 
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