Quote Originally Posted by Ty Sennett View Post
Overall my season was a little slower than normal. The largest was a 49 incher followed by a 48 1/2 inch and a 48 inch. I don't think I'll reach my normal goal of 100 fish from the Chip but I wasn't too far off. I'll tally my fish up tomorrow and see. I'm guessing upper 80's for numbers.

As for the lowering of the lake, I understand what they are doing but it's a total risk on the DNR's part. I like the idea of cleaning off the rock/gravel spawning areas for walleye recruitment but there could be a pretty good winterkill. This could make the milfoil go crazy in two years. Kind of like it was five or six years ago. Honestly, nobody knows what dropping the lake will do, myself included. After dumping all those walleye and muskie into the lake I'm not sure now is the time to experiment but it would be cheaper in the long run if the fish naturally reproduced.

Hi Ty,
I get what you are saying and i think alot of people are wondering how the lowering will affect things but i look at it as the water was dropped annually for 65+ years from 5-24 feet so I don't think the 8 feet will have too much negative impact at all if any. I think alot of positives will come out of it. One thing that i think it will improve (if they decide to continue to do it annually) is the erosion and shoreline health improvement. I remember being a kid and fishing the flowage and thinking the flowage was so cool with all the exposed stumps etc and seeing old pictures and seeing how clean shorelines were and the thousands of stumps and islands and grass patches but over the past 20 years or so alot of the stumps have been destroyed from the ice from higher water as well as islands and grass patches and shorelines being destroyed. I really feel that having the shorelines and spawning areas and lake bars exposed will really help the health of the lake as well as the management and conservation of the lake not only in the present but for the future.

A quick interesting note. i recently saw a picture of the bridge area by Herman's back when they did work on the bridge back in the 70's (I believe) and the water was down 18++ feet and all you saw was little puddles here and there. Pretty crazy!!! Also the water was dropped 20+ feet several times back in the 20's and 30's with an average of over 10+ feet during the first 65+ years.

I am defintely interested to see the effects this winter's drop has next year.