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Bear Lake in the Blackwater State Forest will be re-opened to fishing beginning August 4.
The 107-acre fish management area was closed to anglers on March 3 of this year to protect fish in the lake during a drawdown for repairs to the concrete riser or overflow structure. With the repairs completed, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fisheries Biologist Norman Young said the public can return.
"The lake will be open to fishing on the 4th but we^re unsure when the lake will be back to full pool," Young said. "Right now it^s down about seven feet and covers about 60 acres.
"It^ll take plenty of rain to re-fill it and we^re hoping that happens soon."
Young said at the present water level the only useable boat ramp is the FWC ramp at the Bear Lake campground.
He said the lake was originally constructed in 1959 and the concrete riser, which serves as an overflow structure and houses the valves and mechanism for a lake drawdown, had deteriorated over the life of the lake and had to be replaced. The $225,000 project required dropping the lake level 14 feet and to a surface area of roughly 20 acres.
The work involved building a steel coffer dam around the old structure, tearing it out and putting in a new riser and attaching it to the existing outfall pipe under the dam," Young said.
The repairs were funded through Lake Restoration Funds and the federal cost share Sport Fish Restoration Act. Tri-state Construction Company of Bristol was the primary contractor for the repair project.
Uploaded: 8/1/1999
Uploaded: 8/1/1999