Freedom — May 8, 2011 — Friday afternoon (5/6/11) I had an email conversation with Dan Mattaini at the State Dam Bureau regarding his plan for managing the Ossipee Lake water level until June 1st, when the summer level of 407.25′ is scheduled to begin. Following is his response:
“We need to let the water drop low enough to get the steel stanchions in place to allow us to then drop the stop-logs in at the spillway (north side). With the water being as high as it has been this spring we haven’t been able to get in there yet to do that. We are hoping that will happen in the next couple weeks. Then we will close things up and hopefully get it back up to 407.25 by June 1st.”
Presently the level is reported to be just above 407′ so we can expect a drop by this time next week if the rain stays away. This will be a good time to get the docks in, but not much help with boat launching.
By the way, we had the first bass fishing contest last Sunday. I counted 4 boats at 7:08 a.m . — cold and rain.
Does anyone know how low the lake level needs to go to allow placing the steel stanchions and then dropping the stop-logs? And, once we reach that level, is this a 1-day operation or a multi-day operation? Just curious about how long the level will be lowered before beginning to get back to summer level.
I was at the dam noon today (05/10/11). All five south side gates were open and no action had taken place regarding placement of stop-logs on the north side. It appears that only a few inches of water is going over on the north side. No rain predicted so I estimate water will be down to top of the spilway by Wednesday or Thursday. With a large enough crew the stanchions and stop-logs can be installed in 8 hours or less. A full stack of stop-logs is approximately 24″.
If you go on line and look at Ossipee River flow you can see exactly when the dam is closed down because of big drop in flow rate.
Bob Smart
can anyone tell me that by dropping the water mark from 411.00 to 407.50 that now this summer the lake level is going to be 3.5 ft lower than the past years levels? I went out and fished the lake last week and you can hardly make it thru the mouth of the pine river and the sand bar at the bear camp river is now a sand bar high and dry