Upper K, Anyone been able to put a boat in there yet?

[Kingfisher]

I was thinking of hitting Upper K sometime. But I don't want to drag my boat all the way there if there is no chance of putting it in. Anyone been there lately and seen the level of the water? Is the water up onto the boat ramp yet.

The ($(*holes at Transalta these days have every reservoir in southern Alberta drained down for "flood prevention". I think it is more of a knee jerk reaction. I think were in for more of the same from here on in.

I was out at Ghost on June 4th. It was down 30 feet past the ramp then another 20 feet drop from there just to the water. There were a few boats in the water that were in previous to them dropping it.



http://www.transalta.com/newsroom/ne...host-reservoir

I think because of Transalta's new policies they will drop it every year now. So if they are going to screw with our water levels. Maybe they should pay for new longer boat ramps to be built.

[Kyle]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

The ($(*holes at Transalta these days have every reservoir in southern Alberta drained down for "flood prevention". I think it is more of a knee jerk reaction. I think were in for more of the same from here on in.

I think because of Transalta's new policies they will drop it every year now. So if they are going to screw with our water levels. Maybe they should pay for new longer boat ramps to be built.

Wow...angry much? They are just doing their jobs. Would you rather have flooding or low water levels?

You do realize most of these reservoirs did not exist before they were damned up?

[Fishslayer99]

The upper and lower are just fine to launch boats, the water level is still very low but coming up slowly.... Not going to comment on the previous post, think it's better to keep my mouth shut.

[slivers86]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Wow...angry much? They are just doing their jobs. Would you rather have flooding or low water levels?

You do realize most of these reservoirs did not exist before they were damned up?

Kyle, Kingfisher doesn't get angry. He's clearly stating a point. Why in the hell do they need to drop upper, lower, etc so far down... Spray could hold a ton still, ghost could hold a ton. Fill up the mountain lakes. There is next to no snow pack left, and the ground is relatively dry already. Fill em up already.

[Habfan]

It is a deal that the Alberta government conjured up for flood protection ! Once flood season has past the waters will return to normal. This is going to happen every year !!! If you want longer launches, ask your government not Trans Alta.

[slivers86]

Transalta is to busy shutting off dams and killing bull trout to care anyways.

[Troutguy]

Im headed out there in the morning and staying 3 nights. I will see how it goes, it is so beautiful out there that catching fish isn't the only thing I go there for. I have a boat and a secret weapon on the end of my line...

[aulrich]

Considering we just past the 2012 flood anniversary date and 2005 did not happen till the 29th of June , I would call it the new normal. The powers that be, down to most tax payers care about flood prevention before boat launches and fish buy a long shot.

[Fishslayer99]

Hey don't get me wrong I'm all about flood prevention and that is certainly way more important than recreation or....ugh hate to say it but fishing. The bottom line is they have to judge the possibility of flooding according to snow pack accumulations in the mountains. The flood that happened was due to 3 main things:
-unusually high amount of snow pack
-saturated ground conditions due to steady rain
- a unique weather system that literally parked itself over Calgary area for a week

The combination of these three things as well as having all resovoirs full to near capacity was the issue for the flood.

In my opinion there are many years when the levels of the resovoirs should for good reasons be lowered to the levels we have seen this year. This year however is not one of them!

Aside from a hurricane and typhoon rolling in at the same time we will be ok, but what the he** do I know?

If this is to be the new standard, it would not hurt to extend the boat launches a few meters for the amount it would cost. After all tax payers have unwillingly wasted their money on a lot of other more useless things in the city.

[Mudslide]

They need to extend the boat launches, Obviously

[Spidey]

Driving to Cochrane via Morley today, I've never seen the river so low at Morley - and we're supposed to be in runoff. When I got to the dam it made sense how the water was so low upstream.

[Lambo]

Ghost Lake has approval to start filling up. You will see water rise soon if not already.

[Kokanee9]

Originally Posted by Lambo

Ghost Lake has approval to start filling up. You will see water rise soon if not already.

Ghost started raising the water levels about the beginning of last week.

[Kokanee9]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

I was thinking of hitting Upper K sometime. But I don't want to drag my boat all the way there if there is no chance of putting it in. Anyone been there lately and seen the level of the water? Is the water up onto the boat ramp yet.

Lower K is still 22 ft. below normal water levels.

[Kingfisher]

Originally Posted by Kokanee9

Lower K is still 22 ft. below normal water levels.

Thanks Kokanee9. I have a question for you. Normally boats can launch at this time of year as the water is up around 20 feet from the bottom of the ramp at Upper K. 22 feet down means that it should be at or near the bottom of the concrete blocks. So is it above the blocks? Or below the blocks? If so did you look to see roughly where it is?

Thanks for the info on them filling Ghost guys. I'll take a run out there in the next day or two to see how high or low the water is at this point.

[Troutguy]

I only fished the lake 1 day in my boat. The water is indeed low but still able to launch a boat safely from the ramp. The water is still up to the concrete blocks so you don't have to drive off of it. The water was pretty murky and not to clear. The fishing was slow due to that reason id say. I only landed 2 cuttys and lost 4 others so at least I never got skunked. Most of the snow is melted away from the mountains already so maybe the lake will remain low for some time yet. The lower lake is very low, and barrier lake is extremely low. All in all a great way to spend the day.

[Unclerj]

The water level is about 3m higher than when we were there two weeks ago. No problem launching.

http://www.environment.alberta.ca/ap...ionID=RINTERES

[Kingfisher]

My wife and I took a drive out to Ghost on Friday June 26. Yes there is now enough water to safely launch. We watched a guy "launch" for lack of a better word, his sail boat. What a comedy of errors. I filmed only 30 seconds. Then I had to put my phone down and help the poor guy out. What a nightmare. He broke his trailer light bar off. Almost backed the boat off with the outboard running full out in reverse and he had climbed to the bow and then off the boat onto a makeshift ladder on this trailer, to unhook the winch strap. Then he dropped his boat ladder off his boat. Finally when he was coming into the dock he came in full throttle and it was all I could do to hold the darn thing from continuing on and smashing into his trailer. I seriously do not know how he would have done it without help.

[jegermiester]

Was at Upper K on Friday, June 26th and had no issues launching a 16' Lund with a 40 horse Merc.

Water levels are still ~10 - 15 feet below norms, however there is still some snowmelt yet to come from higher elevations around the lake. The various creeks feeding the reservoir are still running fast and clear.

Got to the lake kinda late, fished from 3:00 to 10:30 pm and the bite started in ernest from 5:30 on. Lots of dimples all over the place and some real neck crankers to locate those noticeably bigger splashes.

Caught 3 really nice Cuttie slabs with bright red bellies, all released to grow into that 50 cm slot size range

Never cease to be amazed by the scenery....a little slice of paradise in our very back yard

[Calgaryguy1977]

Post some pics of that new badass boat you have now!
Just pretty much rebuilt the whole lower leg unit on my 50 hp Johnson. I've learned more about outboards in the past month or two than I've ever known lol.
I'm also planning to take my old beater out to upper and lower k buddy.
Cheers

[Kingfisher]

It's an 1825 Kingfisher. It's like a sports car compared to some of the other boats I've owned. Handles the water nicely, even some of the nasty stuff that we got into on Kootenay Lake. So far I'm very impressed with it. The down side is I always like the feel of the open tinny with a quiet electric pushing you along silently. But you can't have it both ways.

[Calgaryguy1977]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

It's an 1825 Kingfisher. It's like a sports car compared to some of the other boats I've owned. Handles the water nicely, even some of the nasty stuff that we got into on Kootenay Lake. So far I'm very impressed with it. The down side is I always like the feel of the open tinny with a quiet electric pushing you along silently. But you can't have it both ways.

I love it! Nice to see a full size pic of it. You should take some more! How heavy is the boat with trailer? Do you know?

[Kingfisher]

Its just under 2000lbs with boat, motors and trailer.