The high winds from earlier in the week have finally cleared some of the Canadian smoke out of the area. Visibility and air quality are noticeably improved. It is sad that the Canadian fires and the fires out west are causing such a problem, and I almost feel guilty about enjoying the beauty of the sunsets the situation has been providing for us.
The one other benefit for us over the last several weeks of the haze, has been the reduced light penetration into the lakes. On the many clear sky days with light wind, the haze has muted the bright sun and helped keep us from having heat indexes into the 90s.
The reduced light has helped the bite hold up pretty well. The fishing in our area would have been much more challenging if we would have had to contend with the bright days and lack of wind without the haze caused by the forest fires.
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Due to the lack of rain and the hot summer we have had up to this point, the lakes are as low for this time of the season as I can ever remember. We started the season with lower than normal water levels due to the minimal snow pack from this past winter and a lack of moisture this spring.
The lake levels will continue to drop due to the amount of evaporation we are experiencing with this hot and dry weather. Launching and loading boats at some of the accesses in the area is already difficult, and will get worse as we transition into our fall.
Some of the accesses require you to back vehicles deeper into the lake to get off and on the trailers. Bunk trailers can make it more difficult to get on and off lakes than the roller trailers. Prop wash out holes and the buildup of gravel from power loading boats has made it difficult to float boats without hanging the bottom of the boat up in the shallow water, or causing prop damage as you can hardly even trim up high enough to power out without a prop hit.
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Many lake owners are also experiencing the challenge of getting boats off of lifts. This may be a fall that boats, docks, and lifts may need to get removed early while they still can be dealt with without more trouble.
Some of the Otter Tail County lakes have had county workers come in and dig out accesses to help with the low water situations on some of the more high use lakes (like Ottertail, Lida, and Pelican). I am not aware of any of the Becker County lakes that have been dug out to improve launching and loading.
That doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened, I am just not aware of it. Some lakes that have had access improvements in the past few years (like the south access on Big Detroit, west and north accesses on Cormorant, and the Cotton Lake access) are in better shape and still very accessible for boats. If you do continue to get your boat in and out of the lake, remember to clean, drain, and dry.
(Laabs owns Brad Laabs Guide Service in Detroit Lakes)
