Emergent Planting Report

The emergent planting is a success going into winter.  We will now have to wait and see how they handle ice, snow, muskrats and the high water of spring.   We will lose some plants, but overall they are looking good as the lake freezes.  There is a report available available with many photos of the plantings.  Click REPORT to see it.

Site 2a the most successful planting so far.  

November 15, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Last one for the year!  Unfortunately I ran out of time to go up river.  However, the river upstream of Puckaway was very clear as usual, and the Secchi disk was visible sitting on the bottom to of the inlet.  The big difference on this day was the water clarity in the West Basin, which was the second best of the year for that location.

October 21, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Temperature of the lake today was about 48-50 degrees, no wonder turtles are still sunning themselves in the fall sunshine.  With recent rains water levels are back up, and all the plants we established look good standing in the water.

Secchi disk was still visible on the bottom of Fox River Inlet

October 2, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Not to much new to report, most of the plants are dormant, or soon will be for the season. There were a number of diving ducks bobbing up and down in the West Basin, and hundreds of coots in East Basin.  Even though the water is no longer that green, algae is still abundant.  It is not as noticeable at first because the green and blue-green algae we see in the summer is now uncommon.  They have largely been replaced by the golden-brown algae (diatoms).  The current algae bloom happens to be the diatom Melosira granulata as seen in the photograph below.

Secchi disk was visible on the lake bottom at Fox R. Inlet.  

September 25, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Water was ridiculously clear on the Fox River upstream of Puckaway.  With an almost complete lack of wind and bright cloudless sky I took the opportunity to fish watch along the Northern bank of the river.  I saw hundreds of bluegills, but only a few fit for the frying pan.  Lurking on the bottom was a beat up flathead catfish about 26", and several channel cats in the 18" range.  I also saw two dozen largemouth bass, two legal, and a dozen of their smallmouth cousins, the largest of which were 10"  There were thousands of baitfish, and two northern pick lurking in ambush for them.  No trophies along the shore, but it is nice to see them and make me wish I could have brought a fishing pole.

This Saturday is the duck opener, and  there is at least one large raft of coots, or as members of my family call them, mudhens, checking out the west shore.  I didn't go into much of the vegetated areas of the lake, so there could be many more coots and ducks tucked away here and there.  Good luck on Saturday!

Fox R Inlet and Deep Hole, could not be accurately measured because the Secchi disk was clearly visible on the bottom at both sites.  I would estimate that clarity at the Deep Hole was really 13-15 feet.

September 18, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

A cold September day on the lake and river, but if the fox squirrel I encountered swimming down the  middle of the Fox River can't complain than neither will I.  Water temperatures were 57.7 - 61.8 degrees. Water clarity is slightly better on the lake, and decreasing on the river.  The decrease on the river is expected, because the last reading was the best out of two years of monitoring, vegetation is breaking up in the lakes and rivers this time of year, and we should expect a little debris from Buffalo Lake in the river.  

Secchi disk was visible resting on the lake bottom at Fox R. Inlet.

Drought Jetsam

The drought has revealed a few interesting things as shoreline becomes exposed, most of it is old litter. Some beer cans probably more than 50 years old have labels still visible.  See more photos by clicking "read more", below the photo.    

September 6, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Summer is drawing to a close, the cane beds, and willows have are beginning to turn yellow, and the water is going from green to brown.   The color shift is partially a changing of the gaurd in algae species.  Fading away are the green, and blue green algae, replaced by brown algae.  Water clarity on the Fox River upstream of Puckaway could not be determined because the Secchi disk used to measure it was still visible resting on the bottom in 9 ft. of water.  I would estimate that true clarity was 10.5-12 ft.  The prior deepest recorded was 8.8 ft. at the same spot Sept. 16, 2011

At both the Fox River Inlet and deep hole the Secchi disk
hit bottom, and true clarity could not be read.  

August 23, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Water clarity showed a slight improvement over the last three sampling events.  The temperature of the lake today was in the low 70's.  With lower temperatures, and less day light algae should reduce in number and bring clearer water into the fall.  I'll be sampling phosphorus, and observing water clarity into the fall this year.  

Secchi disk hit bottom and was still visible at the Fox River inlet

August 6, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Today the in-lake average was 0.9 ft. nearly the same for the last month.  The usual summer pattern continues.

Lake District Installing Living Fish Hatcheries

The Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District if fighting the loss of important bluegill, yellow perch spawning habitat by planting emergent bulrush species.  Shortly after ice out these areas will become a living fish hatchery as yellow perch lay their eggs among the stems, and northern pike attach their eggs to the stems. Late in spring male bluegills, and pumpkinseeds will make and defend shallow nests where females will lay their eggs.  Come fall the living fish hatchery will be visited by mallards, teal, coots and many other species of waterfowl as they relish the seeds dropped by the bulrush plants.

Last planting completed August 5th! More information coming soon.

July 17, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

At the Fox River Inlet the Secchi disk was visible while sitting on the bottom,
so true clarity could not be determined.

 Out of concern for oxygen and temperature levels during the recent fish kill, today I expanded water quality monitoring and reporting to include dissolved oxygen (D.O.) at each station.  I also did temperature and D.O. profiles to see how these factors change with depth.  While conditions are not as extreme as before they are a good indicator of how the lake responds to high temperatures.

Temperature depth profiles in the East and West Basin show that, as expected temperature does not change significantly with depth as with nearly all shallow lakes and reservoirs  Slightly higher temperatures in the West Basin were because they were taken slightly later in the day. 

D.O. concentrations at 1.5 feet were very good throughout the sample sites.  The D.O. depth profile however indicates how fast D.O levels begin to drop off in deeper water.  The primary reason for this is low water clarity.  As over abundant algae get mixed in the water column down below were little light penetrates they stop producing surplus oxygen, and begin extracting it from the water, just like the fish, invertebrates and zooplankton surrounding them.  Also the deeper the water, the further it is from the surface where oxygen can be exchanged with the atmosphere.  Still D.O. levels at the bottom are not harmful to fish, but oxygen is becoming limited.   Conversely he Fox River Deep Hole upsteam of Puckaway had a clarity of 7.75 feet and had a D.O. of 7.38 mg/L at 1.5 ft and 7.52 mg/L at 7 feet.  Clearer water has less algae.

An important note on D.O.:  After the sun goes done all algae and aquatic plants begin using oxygen found in the water.  If they are over abundant D.O. levels can sometimes become dangerously low.  D.O. levels have not been tested at night.  

D.O. at a depth of 1.5 feet

Clarity today hit a new low since monitoring began with only 6 inches of clarity exiting Lake Puckaway, while the lake took in 93 inches of clear water from the Fox River.  In other words the lake made the water 15.5 times less clear. 

Right to Left: Water as it moves The Fox River into Lake Puckaway and out again.
Stations match up with water clarity graph at top of post.

How LOW is it?

I thought I would take a look at historical water levels to just how low the water is currently on Lake Puckaway.  Daily water levels for Puckaway do not currently exist and any historical records are not at my fingertips.  Since Puckaway is just a natural widening of the Fox River, given a healthy boost by the Princeton Dam, numbers from the Fox River at Berlin should give us an idea of historical significance of current conditions.  Gauge height readings are not easily available for a long period at Berlin, but flow in cubic feet per second, is available on the USGS website going back to 1898. A long time.  I looked at July 12th's in history.  

The average daily flow is about 970 cubic ft/sec.  The lowest ever recorded flow for the Fox River at Berlin was 328 cubic ft/sec in 1988 the second lowest flow was 382 in 2012.  So for all the droughts since 1898, including the dust bowl years, the second lowest flow for July 12 was this Thursday.  We are about 61% below normal in flow.  It is impossible to prepare for such an event with the Princeton Dam, even if we knew it was coming.

July 8 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

For more than a week extreme weather conditions have fueled algal growth.  I'm starting to sound like a broken record.  Lake Puckaway is certainly not alone, dozens of other lakes in Wisconsin are experiencing the same thing.  The weather and its complications have stressed fish too.  I'm waiting to hear more from the DNR on that situation.

July 2, 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

Hot, Hot, Hot.  This string of 90 degree days doesn't seem to let up.  Water temperature today was bathwater, 84-86 degrees.   This weather is feeding algae blooms, which is now beginning to negativity affect submerged plants in many parts of the lake, by shading and smothering them.  Emergent, and floating leaf plants, almost all of which are now above water continue to look healthy.   The Fox River is relatively clear, but has covering of watermeal.  Water meal looks like green cornmeal, and is actually the worlds smallest flowering plant, not an alga.  

Watermeal (Wolfia sp.) floating down the Fox River

Princeton Lock: Top - May 10, Bottom July 2, 2012
What a difference 53 days makes

June 19, 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

Today's poor water clarity shows that algae is enjoying the bright sun, hot temperatures (water was 82 degrees by 2:00 pm) and nutrients provided them.  The Fox River upstream is once again significantly clearer than the lake.  A large number of Forster's terns are again nesting on the lake this year.  They had to wait for May's extreme high water levels to drop, and boy have they dropped!

Whitetail doe enjoys the shade and leaves of a weeping willow on the Fox River

June 4, 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

Today was a beautiful calm day on the lake.  There were a few wisps of clouds in the sky, the air was 75 degrees and the water not close behind at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Water quality was a mixed bag.  Clarity was good on the lake, but fair on the river.  Clear water was partially attributed to a calm day on the lake, but clarity on the lake exceeded that of any reading form June 2, to October 6, 2011 by 1.5 feet! 

Aquatic plant beds continue to look good, and excellent compared to last year.  Water clarity in the west shore plant beds was superb.  I estimate it exceeded seven feet.  I could clearly make out all the patterns on a 32 inch northern pike gliding through the water three feet down.  There were also dozens of last year's bluegill hatch, and too many minnows to count.

Water Clarity: May 22, 2012 and field report

Water clarity continues to be good for Lake Pucakaway, and essentially the same at all sampling sites.  Water is still stained likely from passing through wetlands.  Water temperatures 18 inches bellow waters surface are running 70 degrees during midday.

In shallow areas protected by aquatic plants, or flooded grass are millions of tiny fish about a half inch long.  I'm assuming they are some sort of baitfish.  In the same area is their food, billions of water fleas (I'll have to dig out the microscope to positively identify them) feeding on algae and even smaller animals, they don't bite.  This is the base of the food chain that drives the sport fishery for the lake.

"Minnow" fry 3/8 of an inch long.  Dots in photo are zooplankton.
These tiny animals will eventually feed the walleye that feeds you.

Aquatic plants are fairing well considering the flood, likely bolstered by the March low water and heatwave, seasonal temperatures since then, fairly clear water, and reduction in the carp population.

Water Clarity: May 10, 2012

Despite heavy flooding one week prior, water clarity was good by Lake Puckaway standards due to the lack of algae this time of year.  The flooding slightly changed the consistent summer pattern of clarity improving east to west.

2012 Puckaway Flood

After a dry summer, winter and early spring, a deluge hit much of the area May 3rd, pouring water into the Fox River, its marshes, and Lake Puckaway.  Damage to property owners is easily apparent, but habitat loss can be harder to measure unless large portions of marsh are ripped out and float downstream.  At best, plants such as bulrushes and canes (Common Reed, Phragmites australis) are stressed, but they can also be killed by prolonged high water.  Buffalo fish and common carp are taking advantage of the flooded marshes for spawning.  If it is a good year for carp production, it could spell bad years for aquatic vegetation a few years down the road.

Be thankful for wetlands!  Lake Puckaway is blessed with thousands of acres of wetlands adjacent to and upstream of the lake.  As the lake and the Fox River overtake their banks, these wetlands absorb or filter and slowly release billions of gallons of water.  Without the wetlands, flooding would be much worse on Lake Puckaway and many miles downstream.  Suspended solids and nutrients will also be taken up by these wetlands, improving water quality downstream.  

Wetlands doing their job as an old break in the Fox River
dredge bank  provides relief for residents from Lake Puckaway
 to Lake Winnebago.  

Keeping track of the flood waters can be done at a few USGS sites that report real time flow, gauge, and temperatures for the Fox River below Lake Puckaway at Princeton and Berlin.  You can even sign up for water alert, in which the USGS will automatically email or text you water level information based on the parameters you set.  The Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District also takes manual readings at staff gauges at the Princeton Dam, Lake Puckaway, and just upstream of the lake on the Fox River.  

To see more photos of the flood click below.

Carp Removal in the News

 WLUK Fox 11, Green Bay
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/fox_cities/warm-weather-helps-family-working-to-rid-fox-river-of-carp

WFRV Channel 5 News, Green Bay
http://wearegreenbay.com/fulltext?nxd_id=105987

In the Oshkosh Northwestern Newspaper.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012120113197