Local fishermen may have to find a new go-to spot for the summer, as the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation begins this week to temporarily drain Lake Watonga in order to repair its dam.
The project is expected to take several months, at which point the lake will refill naturally with spring water. The primary spillway with be repaired and the emergency spillways renovated during construction.
Chas Patterson, northwest region fisheries supervisor for the ODWC, said the project is necessary because the pipes on the primary spillway have been leaking and “washed out the backside of the dam,” causing it to “erode away.”
“So for about the last four years, we’ve kept the lake level 3 to 4 feet low to keep water from overflowing through those pipes and continuing to wash away the dam,” Patterson told the Watonga Republican.
Last week, construction crews began clearing trees, grubbing the area and extracting fish from the lake. Patterson said they’ve been “trying to rescue as many fish” as they can and transport them to nearby lakes like American Horse, Canton and Lake Elmer.
“Watonga has always had big bass in it,” he said. “As far as lakes in the northwest part of the state, Watonga’s one that consistently produces 10-plus pound bass, double-digit bass, and that’s kind of unheard of in this part of the state.” Saving those large fish will be the biggest priority, Patterson said, and the ODWC has been extracting fish with nets and electrofishing.
And when the lake is refilled, that will give ODWC officials a chance to restock with bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish, removing the carp and other undesirable fish that inhabit the lake now. The fish in nearby Boecher Lake will also be extracted and then reintroduced.
“This is a perfect opportunity for us to start over with a fresh population of fish,” Patterson said.
According to the ODWC, Lake Watonga has a surface area of 55 acres and an average depth of about 12 feet, with a maximum depth of 26 feet and 2.5 miles of shoreline. It was constructed in 1955.
Patterson said Lake Watonga will likely be refilled by late August.