Simcoe water level

[Cudz]

Water level is down in Simcoe considerably. They drain it every fall for what I assume is so the ice does not damage properties or flood come spring (not really sure). Anyway Simcoe is a big lake and to make it drop by over 1 foot you have to move lots of water.

Where does it go?

How do they do it so fast? Seems like they do it in a day or two. (where is the big plug? lol)

 

What a pain launching the boat yesterday by myself. Had to pretty put exhaust underwter to get boat off trailer.

[Leecher]

Chris water level was down yesterday at the lake we were in and made the launch a whole lot shallower then what it was this past July. Ontario Hydro just like QC are regulating the levels. They open the dams at full throttle and doesn't take long for it to drop to what they consider an acceptable level.

 

My sister has a cottage on one the reservoir up by Lac St-Marie and they drop it several feet come fall My brother in law has to tie his boat dock fairly secure before they close the cottage up in September..... the dock actually sits on dry land when Hydro QC are done with the drainage. Come spring, you have 8 to 10 feet of water at the end of the dock.

 

Jacques

[Raf]

don't forget about the effect of wind either. a strong wind can giveth and taketh away water levels pretty dramatically.

[richyb]

Im pretty sure they open the locks out the end of couch. In the winter when they are trying to bring the water level down to preven ice damage theres a pretty good current heading towards orillia.

[kickingfrog]

As mentioned above, wind.

 

The term for this condition is seiche.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiche

 

Whether or not this is what you noticed on Simcoe? But it would seem to me to be the only explanation for a lake the size of Simcoe to "drop" that much in a short amount of time.

[Mattitude]

The dam at the top end of couchiching is wide open right now and wasn't about 3 weeks ago. The water there is really flowing through. I bet that has alot to do with it for sure.

[misfish]

The water has dropped the last few years earlly due to(what I was told) to help with the lake trout spawn. I was told that, before they started dropping the water in late Sept/earlly oct,thier eggs where left dry rocked.

There has been alot more naturals caught in the last couple of years,so this could be true.

[Greencoachdog]

They drop our lakes for flood control at the end of October. They drop Neely Henry 1 foot, and they drop Logan Martin (the next one down in the chain) 5 feet!

 

It's actually a little easier to launch the boat at winter level on Neely Henry lake.