channel water levels

[LEfriend]

Wild Wings and Fenwick-Turtle Creek have plenty of water in the spring and early summer. When fall sets in or late summer, there can be issues of lower levels but it comes back to wind direction. September SW wind blowing 20mph will probably drop the west end level. Sept. NE 15 mph levels are decent.
Small boats need less water under the boat than I do so they would be able to go out most days. I only waited a few hours one day, cancelled about 3 days the entire fall. Never churned up mud going out of Fenwick. On a day I cancelled , some boats did go out of WWings are I saw them churn up mud in the cut. Like I said before, the marinas of Turtle Creek are talking about dredging the opening to the lake, probably this year. This was as of October 2012 on my last weekend of charters. We need snow, ice, some rain to keep the water flowing which keeps the lakes up to near normal levels. This is not just a Lake Erie western basin issue, it goes through most of the great lakes. 8 weeks till first jigging charters !!!!

Hope you are right Capt Greg! Normally true, however, it could be dicey this year. Below are three very interesting links to Great Lakes Water level and water level forecast sites. The first one, USACE projects Lake Erie level for next 6 months. The mid-line of the cone of projection for Erie shows prediction of 5 inch rise by mid April, which would put it back only close to where it was last mid September! (of course the ranges show could be up to 8 inches better than this, but also under lower range could be 8 inches worse, heaven forbid)

The second link shows current level is still essentially same as it was on Oct 20th, 2012.

So,we are not out of the woods - a lot depends on what happens in next 2-3 months. Hopefully things will turn around and exceed expectations. Ice and snow sure would have helped.

In any case, these are 3 very useful sites folks may want to bookmark:

http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/_kd/It...ation=ShowItem

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/dbd/

http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/greatl...eswaterlevels/

[pap]

1.7ft.of water is at the gas pump area if I remember it's been 3 years since I been there, and thats how long this problem is going on. Yesterday I measured the water line on my new to me boat and it measured 17 " to the bottom of the boat, now the out drive is in the down position, now if I where to trim up, that just the prop is in the water, measuring from the water line to the skag I got 27" so that would be the minimum amount of water I need to travel with out any trouble so 2.1/2 ft= 30 inches of water1.7ft= 19" So I definitely can't get out of Turtle Creek I think that sounds like alot of water I thining more like 24" of water but even at that 19" isn't enough either!!!

[wakina]

I think the 1.7ft would be below the transducer and not the actual water depth which would be more depending on the location of the transducer

[pap]

My transducer in mounted about 3" down from the water line on my boat, I had to locate it on the port side on the outside edge, in about 4" on the transome because for some reason I had alot of interferance, why I don't know, at an idle it was fine but trolling speed it showed fish eveywere,and at running
speed it would lose the bottom, showing 600ft at times, so I moved it to it's
position now and it's fine so that would make my situation 3" more of water than what I'm reading, am I thinkig right or not, Don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong, Because I'm going to up grade my finder and don't want to make this mistake again!! Thanks PAP

[Throttles Down]

I think the 1.7ft would be below the transducer and not the actual water depth which would be more depending on the location of the transducer

On the Lowrance HDS units there is an area in the settings that allows you to compensate for the location of the transducer.You can either compensate up to the water line [positive number] or down to lowest point on boat [negative]
I have mine offset to the surface. I'm sure other units have this option if you dig through the manual

Its winter,what else do you have to do?
[only time I read the manuals,]
page 81

http://www.lowrance.com/Root/Lowranc...0041-001_w.pdf

[wakina]

You are correct My HDS unit Does have an offset feature. I never considered that When I made my post about the 1.7 foot Of water. So it would depend on whether you use a feature or not which I never have. thank you for your insight on that matter it was a point well made and a point well taken.

[ruffus]

just type in, is nestles stealing our water amazing

[wakina]

This is a good article and if you read it, you may get some insight as to why nothing ever seems to get done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I direct your attention to the last paragraph.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2624469.html