weekend update tff

[HANGEROUS]

Went up to tff last weekend for some duck hunting and was very dissappointed.
The water was so low all the ducky areas were dry.
I will cancel all my fall trips for oct and nov which I was looking forward to all year.
The best fishing is in the fall and now it is pretty much shot.
I dont understand why they would do the winter drawdown in early fall.
All the most fertile water areas on the flowage is gone now with tons of hazards.
poor water management!!!!!! Stay safe on the water.. hangerous

[St Croix Kid]

i am coming up 10/7 thru the 9th. hired a guide as not to worry about boat damage. hey, those fish have to go somewhere. I am expecting to catch some walleye and hopefully run into a big bass or two.

[Mark Benson]

hangerous:

With all due respect, the TFF is preparing for the influx of water that will be coming in from the Manitowish starting around Oct. 1st. I happen to have friends who duck hunted up there last weekend and was told that there were very few duck hunters this year and the remaining boats that were seen were those of fisherman. This time of year the flowage is always close to its 4' low and will probably only go up two feet with the water from the Mannie Chain.

You are right, the best fishing can be in the fall, and with the lower water as mentioned by the Kid, they can only be somewhere in that water. Though I haven't looked to see what they are letting water out at, I would also be willing to bet it is at it minimum flow rate going out. We haven't had a lot of rain up here in some time and there are some seepage lakes up here that haven't fully recovered (down like 6'-7' yet) from the last 7-8 years of drought.

Again with all due respect, come up and learn like we do to deal with it at slower speeds, etc. Like you said some of the best hunting and fishing is just getting started!!!

Mark

[Hot Runr Guy]

Now that I've finally graduated to a GPS-mapping unit with a LakeMaster chip, I'm amazed at what is just under the surface. I've certainly changed my routes a bit, "seeing" what I see now.

HRG

[BlueRanger]

Well, all I can say is that I just got home from 10 days up there, and the TFF is about 3' down, which is perfectly normal for late September and a treat compared to the 5-6' down we endured in the drought years of 2008 and 2009. I saw numerous duck hunters on the Flowage last weekend, heard a ton of shooting, and saw a lot of ducks on the few days I ventured out on the water

I don't believe there is any intentional drawdown of the TFF to prepare for the inflow from the Manitowish Chain. The total released from the Manitowish Chain when is approximately 15,150 acre-feet, which would only raise the TFF by a little over a foot. This could easily be passed through if the TFF happened to be full, since they are only allowed to lower the Manitowish Chain 2" per day. The TFF drops during the summer/early fall for the simple reason that minimum outflow requirements exceed the inflow - especially in August and September which typically have the lowest rainfall. The only intentional reduction in water level occurs in late winter to accommodate spring runoff.