I live on a man-made lake. When I moved here in the spring, my neighbors told me they lower the lake in the fall so people can work on their docks. I thought they would probably lower it a few inches, but they lowered it several feet. The nice thing is we won't have to worry about ice damage to our dock. The weird thing is, people around here don't take their pontoon boats out. They are all sitting on dry ground. In the upper right hand corner of this picture you can see my neighbor's pontoon. Is this the norm for man-made lakes? P.S. - Hi Dyne Watcher. My Dad is fine. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />
Hi Swivski1! My friend up in Manitowish Waters has a cottage on the chain and they lower the whole chain enough that his whole shore station and his dock are high and dry, this seems to be nearly 4 feet, maybe more. His neighbor leaves his 'toon tied to a tree on the shore and waits for the lake level to rise in the spring. There is talk from the tree huggers about lowering the level one foot from the current level during season to cut down on shore erosion. This would leave a lot of boaters unable to get to their boats without extending their docks into the "traffic areas" at some points in the grand scheme of things. There are all ready several no wake zones around there and if this happens, the DNR (Damn Near Russian) will go broke making studies of the purported "damage" and then double the national debt by putting up bouys and signage to indicate the new no-wake zones. Add the "dredging action" of boats as they operate in shallow areas and now think about how the silt on the bottom will get stirred up and change the ecological face of the chain as we know it. I failed to mention the destroyed props and lower units, too. I hope I can win a big enough Lotto to make my own lake where we can all tell the tree huggers to keep out and then we can have multiple ski team shows and lots of left over space for recreational boating. Gosh darn, it's nice to dream.
Interesting. I guess I haven't been around many lakes in the winter, in the north at least. It makes sense to do it that way. Too bad about the chain in Manitowish Waters. The lake I used to ski on in the Northwoods doesn't allow motor boats at all anymore except in one very small part of the lake. There were several lawsuits over it, and I think one or two property owners were able to maintain their boating rights. What is the world coming to?
