By Daryl Bauer
Many of you will remember that we started an angler access and renovation project on Standing Bear Reservoir this spring. Beside the renovation of the fish community, this concept map describes the work being done:
Weather has been relatively favorable this summer, dirt has been moving and progress is being made. Got a few photos to show. These are some of the angler access improvements along the north shoreline:
No, I know you cannot see much in that shot from the dam. However, I want to point one thing out in that photo. Notice all the vegetation growing in the bottom of the dry reservoir! In this case pretty much all of the water could be drained from Standing Bear. That alone is beneficial as bottom sediments have a chance to dry and consolidate while the “lake” is drained. As you can imagine those bottom sediments are extremely fertile and there is a host of vegetation that grows on those exposed bottom substrates. When work is finished and the reservoir starts re-filling, all of that vegetation will flood. That will provide a ton of habitat for the fish that are re-stocked. That alone is one reason why growth rates of fish following a rehabilitation project are extremely fast. Good fishing will be on its way back soon!
The other major component of the Standing Bear project is around the boat ramp and includes a new boat ramp. Do not have any photos to show you of that work, yet. Hopefully, things will continue to move along this fall and the project can finish up. Stay tuned.