Question of Devils Lake elevation pits farming versus fishing

[dean nelson]

i think what he really wants to know is: if we got rid of the dike and let the water spread out naturally, how much would the lake level drop overall? i have no answer to that. i suspect it might not be real easy to determine for us regular folk. but, it would involve taking the current acre-foot number, removing the dike for imaginary purposes and seeing how much land that same amount of water would cover and taking a new elevation.

to determine the answer to the question of how much of the city of devils lake will be under water at the current elevation, one really only needs to look at google earth or a good topo map i think.

Yeah that's the way I took his question as well. Over all the difference would be quite small as the dike only protects a relatively small flat area so the acre feet moved around would be low. It would be relatively straight forward to figure out with a topo map and a calculator but that sounds like work. I would bet it would be less then a foot and probably 6 inches or less at the most. Definitely would be considerably less then what stump took.

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No answer for sure lunk but interesting point , Devils Lake has more current than any other closed basin lake I remember fishing. I was thinking about this a couple weeks ago when I was fishing it and watching my bobbers going back and forth across the hole but seldom down the hole. The only explanation I could come up with was the wind gusts moving along and pushing down on the ice. Kind of like ice road truckers , The tidal wave affect ahead of the truck. Even night fishing without wind the current was still strong but that could me momentum. Devils lake doesn't seem as bad as Sakakawea for rough water on a fairly calm day from the wind the day before.

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Be a fun place to metal detect if the owners would approve but I'm sure others have thought the same thing and picked it clean over the years.

Yeah plus most all of it has been plowed up for construction over the years and most things lost would have likely been in the top few inches and likely long since gone. The finding of the big anchor out in creel bay would have been fun.

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I was always amazed at the current around the bridges even when it was fairly calm there was a current between 57 and the 20 bridges. I never fished six miles as often when I was a kid. The 57 bridge at around 1988 was maybe 8 feet deep all sandy bottom. We would come up to fish during the fourth of July. You could fish the current as a group the farthest from the bridge would cast the farthest left or right depending on the current . Then the next would cast the the next and so on. The best time was when the current stopped for a few minutes the feed was on .
Anyways I have a theory on the current it could be explained as tub filled with couple inches of water then you lift up one side then lift the other causing the water to flow back and forth.
Any ideas

It's almost always wind driven there. Get a strong sustained wind and it will literally stack the water up on the down wind shore then when the wind switches or dies the water tries to level out. Now if your getting a piss load of new water coming in that will often drive her east at the bridge.

Remember back in around 85 we were ice fishing just north up on the west side of 57 and 20 Junction. All of a sudden my uncle pops up off his bucket and yells look at this dumb shit sota! I look over just in time to see the guy drop the front end of his ford bronco through trying to drive under the bridge! As soon as we could see everyone was out the entire town of people laughed harder then I've ever seen! God they were the good old days we caught two full Metal trash cans full of jumbos that day between four of us and I was just a little kid. We sat down stairs at bar in the basement cleaning fish for a couple hours and had a great time laughing about the dumb ass from minasota and wondering how he was going to get home and how the call to his wife went!

 

[lunkerslayer]

No answer for sure lunk but interesting point , Devils Lake has more current than any other closed basin lake I remember fishing. I was thinking about this a couple weeks ago when I was fishing it and watching my bobbers going back and forth across the hole but seldom down the hole. The only explanation I could come up with was the wind gusts moving along and pushing down on the ice. Kind of like ice road truckers , The tidal wave affect ahead of the truck. Even night fishing without wind the current was still strong but that could me momentum. Devils lake doesn't seem as bad as Sakakawea for rough water on a fairly calm day from the wind the day before.

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Be a fun place to metal detect if the owners would approve but I'm sure others have thought the same thing and picked it clean over the years.

Ever since they built the outlet pumps the currents are not as strong especially for the mauvais Coulee bridge before 2011 when the west end pump was built. When the wind is coming out of the North and the pump is on the mauvais Coulee bridge current is amazing showing undertows and surface swirls. Which is brush or sunken trees but where I like to fish just off the inside of the current.

There was a young gentleman I met fishing at the bridge who was up with his family for the weekend. He was fishing this point which is the worst for snags and was getting frustrated with the snags. I was fishing maybe 20 feet farther down from the point and catching fish without much trouble, so when I got my 5 I told him to come down here so he did with his boy and wife. I gave him some tackle that worked the best for me(slip weights, swivel and a 3 foot lindy with gold bbs and red hooks. Showed him how I set up my pole so he set his son and wifes up. I gave him some of my jumbo leachs. I told him that you need to fish in this area becuase its a pocket where the fish sit outside the current and snags. Before I could finish my sentence his little boy caught a 20 inch fat football eyeball. The smiles on their faces told me my grandpa would have been proud.

So this last summer I went to the usual spot for some fishing and sure enough there is someone fishing where I fish and I walk down to see how he was doing, he showed me he had three on the stringer. I asked if he would be OK if I came down and fished right here. He said no problem as I am walking back I noticed the tackle box with the local 49ers sticker on the lid. I knew it had to be the same guy I met 5 years ago but I said nothing I just asked him some small talk questions like where was he from he said Fargo, I asked why did he come all the way to the mauvais Coulee bridge when there are 3 others bridges closer to drive. That is when he told me that a guy showed him and my family about this spot and I always fished this spot becuase it was one of my favorite memories that I had with my wife and son. I said that was me who showed you he chuckled and shook my hand. He went on to tell me he lost his pregnant wife and son in a drunk driving accident 3 years ago . This brought tears to my eyes because I could close my eyes to that day and picture of a happy family. He said he comes here about the sametime every year to fish here. I could tell he was drunk now and getting upset with me prying into his bad memories. I said I apologize I met no harm and please forgive my prying. He accepted my apology and I turned towards the lake to cast my first line. He caught his limit started to bring up his equipment and as he left he came up to me and thanked me for showing him where to fish that day.

 

[Davey Crockett]

What was the story on the big anchor ? And where did the ferry end up ?

 

[gst]

Yes, and the liberals whine about global warming. Through many means we can look back in history and it tells us how variable "normal" can be. Likewise Devils Lake fluctuates. I remember watching the national guard do tank maneuvers where there is now East Devils Lake. The current rise is abnormal and caused more by drainage than natural causes. I may get the year wrong again, but I think it was 1977 that the Wildlife Society warned about flooding with the introduction of channel A into Devils Lake. I hear people tell me little wetlands can't flood Devils Lake. I tell them I can make a five gallon bucket run over if I dump enough teaspoons of water in it. Then people tell me the wetlands north of Devils Lake are full. Well, the ones that are still wetlands are full the others may be appearing as nearly flat land with no water. When wetlands are drained you increase the watershed area. It's like a 1000 sq ft house and a 50 gallon rain barrel. If a half inch rain fills the barrel and you put an addition onto your house of 1000 sq ft the next half inch rain will run that barrel over.
I run some rough measurements on Channel A while fishing one day in June. That data told me there was more water coming down Channel A at that time than the Sheyenne River. One fellow on nodakoutdoors went bonkers with that statement. Shortly after a fellow by the name of Hardwaterman posted the water flows. Sure enough Channel A was dumping more water into Devils Lake than the Sheyenne River flow. Something has to give.

Wasn;t the statement that tiling causes flooding? Who was it that went "bonkers"?

Say how many times has DL overflowed the Tolna Coulee in the past?

 

[dean nelson]

2

 

[gst]

at least twice and into Stump Lakes several times.

 

[lunkerslayer]

What was the story on the big anchor ? And where did the ferry end up ?

After captain heerman passed in 89 he donated the captains wheel and the anchor to the north Dakota heritage center. The school for the deaf from the Minne H made four gavels in all which one for the mayor of DL, one for the first native governor Schaefer and the potus and speaker of the house. The Minnes cabin was moved to heerman home in Devils Lake, the flag pole used at the Minne H elementary school,and ironically the horn went to the school of the deaf and most of the wood was used in the construction of the cabins on camp grafton. Capt heerman was one of the supporters to the garrison diversion-Mcclusky canal, he wanted to bring water back into the basin so he could use the Minne H again. He used to throw big parties at the lakewood resort where there was bands, food and even a zoo. I would have loved to have lived back then sounds like a real good time to be a North Dakotan.
Also creelburgh was actually the name of Devils Lake and the town of Odessa was originally considered as the capital of North Dakota.

http://tourism.devilslakend.com/what-to-do/explore-history/minnie-h/

http://tourism.devilslakend.com/what-to-do/explore-history/rising-devils-lake-and-the-minnie-h/

 

[dean nelson]

What was the story on the big anchor ? And where did the ferry end up ?

Not all that sure on the story of it but was always told that they stumbled upon a big anchor out in creel bay well plowing in a field. Seems to me the story was it was one of the blanchfields but how much truth there is to that I don't know.

 

[lunkerslayer]

:;:howdy hey dean nelson the anchor was donated to the nd american heritage center in bismarck.

 

[dean nelson]

Yes but is that the same one? Guessing if they ever lost an anchor they would have got another.

 

[lunkerslayer]

I stumbled across this map, It's a treasure. I'm amazed at the quality based on the time period it was made and considering pictures were developed in a darkroom back then. It must have taken 5 years to photograph the state from 1957-1962 Fun looking at the changes that have occurred over the years, The ponds up here were drier than I can ever remember them. Devils lake was way smaller .


https://ndgishub.nd.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Imagery/AerialImage_ND_19571962/ImageServer?f=jsapi

I finally figured out how to use this file in google earth, man there is a lot land that is not able to be seen from the original 1990 layer. Cool stuff also lake loretta was not even a lake back then.