pelican lake

[fishersofmen]

Oxygen levels were close to zero out there I believe. Cant be much life in that water.....

[swampman]

It had a hard kill no doubt but there are almost always some pockets of water that hold more oxygen than where they test. I have seen oxygen readings vary 3 or 4 points in as little as a block.

With that said it probably was a 95 plus percent kill on the gamefish but I did see several schools of panfish that hatched this summer while on the lake this fall.

[JBMasterAngler]

Wouldn't the oxygen levels return back to normal after the spring melt, and regrowth of green weeds?

[jigginjim]

Oxygen levels do return in spring and summer with the weed growth. I saw several blue gills and bass this summer. (plus netted many dozen shiners for fishing from there. (The shiners went into a stock tank for 2 week plus, fresh water through always runs thru it before using). Plus several Duck hunters claim to have seen several pike..

[eyeguy 54]

anybody getting tip up pike?

[jbell1981]

I drove by the outlet area today and the outlet construction is actually done. Water is now flowing out of the lake.

Yup, water started flowing out on the 18th.

Photos courtesy of Fred Bengtson.

[jbell1981]

Quote:

By ANN WESSEL - Associated Press - Saturday, January 24, 2015

ST. MICHAEL, Minn. (AP) - Donald Soderlund heard about Pelican Lake in the early ‘60s from his Twin Cities barber, who spoke of waterfowl hunts on a vast lake that produced an array of species - widgeon, redheads, canvasbacks, scaup and other diving ducks among them.

“When he told me what they shot here on Pelican Lake and how big the lake was, that’s how it started,” said Soderlund, 70, a retired picture framer and wildlife artist who has hunted on Pelican Lake since 1962.

During peak migration, Soderlund would see 5,000 or 6,000 birds. They’d spend a week or more resting in beds of sago pondweed, feeding on invertebrates and tubers.

The number of birds and the time they spend on Pelican Lake has dropped off, especially over the past 25 years, as rising water levels have allowed rough fish to flourish. The fish not only gobble up invertebrates, they also churn the muddy lake bottom, which prevents aquatic plants from taking hold.

But waterfowl habitat restoration is underway on the 3,800-acre Wright County lake, which is considered among the top five shallow lakes in the state for diving duck migration, the St. Cloud Times reported (http://on.sctimes.com/1IK6GHT).

By the first week in January, the lake level was down 2 inches since the gravity outlet water control structure - a dam that allows water to flow into a ditch that runs to St. Michael 3 miles away - opened two weeks earlier. The goal is to lower the level by 3 feet and maintain it.

The average depth of Pelican Lake is 6-7 feet, with the deepest spots at about 12 feet. After the drawdown, the average depth will be closer to 4 feet.

The dam is the first part of a $2 million construction project funded by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, as recommended by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council - one of four funds created by the Legacy Amendment. Ducks Unlimited engineers designed the structure, which uses aluminum stop logs to control the water flow.

Work will continue next summer with construction of a pumping station that will allow drawdowns to expose mudflats and induce winter fish kills about every 15 years.

Fred Bengtson, Sauk Rapids area wildlife manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, started work on the Pelican Lake project 10 years ago. He expects to start seeing results in three to five years.

“If we’re successful in drawing the lake down like we want to do and allowing the lake to recover, you’re going to see aquatic plants, you’re going to see cleaner water, you’re going to see waterfowl using this lake like people haven’t seen in 30 or 40 years,” Bengtson said.

“This lake is so big, the magnitude of that would be really huge. It’s going to be - I don’t want to say awe-inspiring, but it’s going to be very noticeable,” he said.

No one expects the diving ducks to return in the numbers they did 50 years ago, when scaup were the No. 1 species in Minnesota hunters’ bags. Today, scaup rank No. 10 or 11, according to Josh Kavanagh, the Spicer-based biologist for Ducks Unlimited in Minnesota.

Part of the reason: The hens aren’t getting as much food during the spring migration to nesting grounds in Canada, so they produce smaller clutches - if they nest at all.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service lesser scaup breeding population numbers have dropped from 5.6 million in 1955 to 4.6 million in 2014. During that time, the populations saw upward swings topping 7 million five times, most recently in 1983 and 1984.

Pelican Lake was known to biologists and hunters alike as one of Minnesota’s major stepping-stone lakes in spring and fall migration.

In 1977, it became one of the first five lakes in Minnesota to be designated as a state wildlife lake. Today, 54 of Minnesota’s 2,000-some shallow lakes are designated wildlife lakes.

To illustrate the importance of lakes such as Pelican, Christina, Swan and Marsh, Bengtson compared the spring migration with an interstate car trip:

“It’s like having a rest stop or convenience station to fill up your vehicle full of gas so you can make the whole trip. Conversely, with the degraded lakes, instead of having a convenience station or a rest stop every 100 miles, it would be like having a rest stop or convenience station every 500 miles.”

Plus, a lake that large offers safety on its islands and amid cover of native plants.

Deeper water - the results of agricultural runoff and increased development throughout the 13,000-acre watershed - and turbid conditions caused by lake bottom-churning fish have prevented native plants from taking hold and allowed algae blooms.

When he first started hunting Pelican Lake, Soderlund said he parked in a spot that’s now 5 feet deep and choked with cattails.

Tom Kowal is president of the Minnesota Waterfowl Association’s Tri-County Chapter, which has contributed about $5,500 in matching funds to the Pelican Lake project over the years.

“It’s probably one of the only lakes between the Twin Cities and the St. Cloud area that had a real tradition of waterfowling over the years,” Kowal said. “It was a bonanza lake. Older gentlemen have said it was just unreal in its heyday.”

Like Bengtson, he’s careful not to oversell the potential for a comeback.

“One of the things I tell folks is our waterfowl numbers and our population numbers were better than they are now,” Kowal said.

Bengtson leaned into the wind sweeping Pelican Lake. The northeast shore unrolled in front of him, slopes of snow-mounded prairie plants flattening to the cattail-rimmed frozen white strip of distant lake.

Once a shallow-lake regeneration takes hold, the result can seem instantaneous. From shore, even the casual observer will notice thousands of coots. Get in closer, and they might notice shorebirds and other wildlife - such as the mink, coyotes and fox Soderlund has seen since he and his wife built a house on the east side of the lake in 1972. From a canoe, Bengtson expects to notice changes even earlier, as the water turns pink with daphnia. Water shrimp and other invertebrates will follow.

“Of course, it’s not just about ducks. This lake is about the whole ecosystem. It’s about non-hunted migratory birds. This lake used to have close to 100 pairs of western grebe that nested in the summer. But now we’re lucky to see one or two pairs on the lake,” Bengtson said.

“Western grebes are kind of my canary in a coal mine for this lake,” Bengtson said. “We’re hoping that restoring the lake, drawing it down significantly and allowing it to come back to a new, lower level, that we’re going to be able to in essence bring the lake back.”

Until the dam opened in December, the only outlet was a small ditch that fed into a farmer’s tile lines.

“You can kind of compare it to a syringe in a bathtub,” Bengtson said.

With the dam in place, the goal is to draw down the water level 2 feet by midsummer. Flows will be restricted during spring runoff and other high-water periods. Flows will be highest during the winter when phosphorous levels are lowest. The ditch eventually feeds into the Crow and Mississippi rivers.

Eventually, the water will be rerouted into a primary ditch that can handle more volume.

The long-term goal is to lower the water level by 3 feet.

Bengtson said the initial regeneration could last for about 10 years. Rainfall and bullhead survival are the biggest variables.

To date, about $10 million in Legacy Amendment funding has been spent to acquire Pelican Lake shoreland - including about 1,200 acres in U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Waterfowl Production Areas and about 1,000 acres in DNR Wildlife Management Areas. Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited donations covered about $1 million more.

“The ultimate goal is to have a lake with better water quality, No. 1. You have better water quality, you have better food resources for wildlife, migratory birds, ducks. You have better conditions for the spring arrival of migrant birds. The previous year’s growth of aquatic plants have kind of a banquet of foods that the ducks can feed on in the springtime. Plus, you get a release of invertebrates once the water starts warming up,” Bengtson said.

Until a natural fish kill last spring, fishing had been pretty good on Pelican Lake for 10 years. Last January, Bengtson said there were 200 fish houses on the lake. No one was on the lake this January, save for a lone ATV towing a house.

Historically, periodic winter kills kept the fish size small.

Soderlund has caught northern, sunfish and crappies in a lake that initially turned up only bullheads.

“The crappies would come up the ditches and you could catch them one after the other,” Soderlund said.

Anglers were the group most opposed to the plans for Pelican Lake when they were introduced about 10 years ago. Bengtson estimated opposition was about 30 percent. Soderlund said anglers have plenty of other options.

“We’ve got how many lakes in Minnesota that you can go catch fish on and not many lakes that are a large waterfowl game lake type thing. It’s important that they preserve this. If fishing was real good here years ago, there’d be houses all around the lake, or cabins here now, but there aren’t,” Soderlund said.

___

Information from: St. Cloud Times, http://www.sctimes.com

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015.../#ixzz3PvxvGux1

Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[jskeff]

i heard yesterday at the bait shop they stopped draining it cuz they found zebra mussels

[jbell1981]

You heard wrong. The rumors surrounding this lake are unreal.

I was there on Saturday and the water was flowing out nicely.

[jskeff]

too bad

[jbell1981]

So you think that its a good thing when careless sportsmen infect waters with invasive species? What a great line of thinking......

[swampman]

So you think that its a good thing when careless sportsmen infect waters with invasive species? What a great line of thinking......

I am not even going to touch the careless sportsman and invasive species remark as that is a whole other debate.

I am a bit surprised that they only intend to drop it 3 feet long range I thought they would actually have went another foot or two maybe it has something to do with available launch and parking issues, drop it much more than 3 feet and the current access will be unusable and the old access always was a problem for parking.

[jbell1981]

That was only said because the other poster thought it was "too bad" that zebra mussels haven't invested Pelican Lake.

The management plan isn't being governed by access points or parking issues. The DNR is aware that the current access points will not work well once the levels are where they want and are looking into alternative future sites.

[jskeff]

yeah cuz thats what i meant.

here, ill spell it out for you....

ITS TOO BAD THEY ARE STILL DRAINING THE LAKE.

WAY TO USE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AND JUST JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT IT. IF YOU NEED MORE EXPLANATION ABOUT WHAT I MEANT BY "TOO BAD", YOU HAVE ISSUES

GOOD GOD

[RuddyDuck]

I talked to a couple DNR guys a year or so ago and they both said at some point they will be putting in a different access some where. Not sure where yet though.

As of yesterday the water was still flowing.

Most of the recent rumors I've heard about the lake are from people that say their buddy speared some decent pike on it. I think their buddy's are just feeding them a line so they don't have to give away there new secret spot! "yeah I got em on Pelican, there's still some left". Suppose there are a few left, but I've only seen 2-3 houses on it all year so far. I've also heard some second hand stories of sunfish being caught out there this winter.

[dfv87]

I have exchanged emails with Fred Bengsten from the DNR and found him to be honest in answering my questions and concerns so this is not meant to be a shot at him... but I would take issue with the comment of "200 houses" on pelican in past years for fishing... as there had to be 500+ houses on most weekends on pelican the past 3-4 years and if it was a nice day look out with many more than that using the lake.

I really felt like the fishing was marginalized (comments like "not great" and "lots of small fish only")by people at the DNR/and draining supporters to get other people to just stop trying to fight it. Fishing was exceptional, for this area, in terms of numbers and size for several species for several years.

Yes, it was a prototypical boom bust lake but now won't even have a chance to see a boom or bust as it will be waterfowl only (dead lake for fish). I am not happy about it but that is the decision of the DNR and I respect it. But I certainly can remember the fine fishing the lake provided within the past 3-5 years as fondly as someone can recall waterfowl stories from 30-50 years ago. I really hope they are right and the flyways come back, I really do because if we wasted a great resource to see if it will work and it doesn't I see that as wasteful.

[cruiseforever]

The chance the ducks will return is 5%. Never say never.

[jigginjim]

Give the two to 3 years the fishing will be back, not all the fish died, I have seen lakes winter kill every 4-5 yrs growing up. The masses will die but there is always those few that seem to pull thru.

I do have to laugh at the dnr poisoned the lake. A. If poisoning the lake is done, you don't go telling people to take them out. B. A lake the size of pelican would be very costly to poison, plus it would likely kill off the things you would hope to save.

I do hope the other wild life grows as stated, if the fur prices would come up. Could be a good money maker for those willing to work.

[jbell1981]

Give the two to 3 years the fishing will be back, not all the fish died, I have seen lakes winter kill every 4-5 yrs growing up. The masses will die but there is always those few that seem to pull thru.

I do have to laugh at the dnr poisoned the lake. A. If poisoning the lake is done, you don't go telling people to take them out. B. A lake the size of pelican would be very costly to poison, plus it would likely kill off the things you would hope to save.

I do hope the other wild life grows as stated, if the fur prices would come up. Could be a good money maker for those willing to work.

The current plan is to draw it down about 3 feet, which will be the maintained elevation. However, pumps are going to be installed this spring to be able to do a management draw down to around 944' (about 8+/- feet lower than current). The main purpose of this management draw down is to kill off remaining bullheads. When it is at 944 there will be 2 relatively small basins with water only about 2-3 feet deep. The rest of the lake will be mud flats. Once it goes through a winter at this elevation they will check to see if any bullheads survived. If they did then rotenone may be used to eradicate the remaining. Rotenone was used on Christina which is a similar sized lake.

[swampman]

I hope this project doesn't have as many flaws and gaffs as the ongoing Christina project has went through. I hope this all works out but there are no guarantees everything will go as planned, especially with a project this large. Time will tell its going to be interesting to watch it all unfold that's for sure.

[BSLNORTH]

some guys out there fishing this weekend!!

Trucks and portables.

[20lbSloughShark]

I should go out there one winter and see if I can find some of the hooks I lost to underwater stumps. I was only fishing in 4-5 feet of water.

[BartmanMN]

With the lack of rain/snow and the drain flowing, is Pelican empty yet? I haven't driven by all season. I miss the Spring sleugh fishing.

[RuddyDuck]

Funny! No, doesn't really look much lower right now. Water is running out, but not that fast. The water is really clear though. I was at the boat launch and you could actually see the bottom right there off the dock. Couple years ago it was so green, you could barely see 6-8 inches down.

I tried fishing off the dock last weekend, but no bites, as I suspected. I mostly went there to do some duck watching anyways. Quite a few divers flying back and forth thru the landing bay.

[jigginjim]

I thinking is if rona'l is used that it may kill any fresh water shrimp that may start to grow.Those can really pull in the divers in fall. I would like to know what the difference is in the nesting numbers this year as compared to past years. Wonder like to see allot over woody boxes put up on the lake.

I may go out just to for the bullheads in the lake. I saw what a guy had catch before, 1- 1 1/2 lb bullheads, could be a blast on ultra light tackle. With the colder water they could even be ok eating.

[fishface]

$3,000,000.00? Gone. Fish? Gone. Ducks? No difference! Except divers,=Less. Big water = divers. Eliminate water? Eliminate Divers. Nice job DNR Mille lacs? Loss! Pelican lake? Loss! Good job!

[20lbSloughShark]

Don't forget a good chunk of that money was donated by ducks unlimited. They were a huge driving force on getting this project underway. I no longer donate to DU. I put it in NWTF who don't just create turkey habitat, they actually conserve land for all wildlife.

[creepworm]

$3,000,000.00? Gone. Fish? Gone. Ducks? No difference! Except divers,=Less. Big water = divers. Eliminate water? Eliminate Divers. Nice job DNR Mille lacs? Loss! Pelican lake? Loss! Good job!

There is no part of this statement that is accurate.

[KenM1987]

[Note from admin: Your post has been edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[jigginjim]

The DNR has started a multiyear $2 million project to drastically lower water levels and kill off fish to improve water quality and restore waterfowl habitat.

DNR test-netting showed a few northerns and some tiny crappies survived but no bluegills, Bengtson said. More importantly, he believes bullheads also took a major hit, though some likely survived. They root up sediment, causing turbidity and killing vegetation. The absence of all the fish allowed the flourishing of invertebrates, which feed on the lake’s overabundant algae.

Water clarity immediately improved, which allowed submerged vegetation to grow.

“The water clarity this year is the best I’ve ever seen,” Bengtson said. “The water used to be pea-green in July. Now you can easily see down 6 to 8 feet.”

The remaining fish might have short lives.

Start from Tribune paper.

Give the lake another year some of those fish could be catchable..