Horse Thief Lake/Black Hills

[dpf]

I can't remember if it was Liz or Birdie who had to cancel their reservation at Horse Thief Lake because they were draining it in order doze it out....thought I would attach these pictures to prove they weren't kidding!

[Bethers]

Wow, and it was Birdie. Did they say why?

[BirdbyBird]

Looks so sad but at least it isn't empty because of lack of lack of rain..... If they dig it out the silt they can let it refill.....

[avalen]

oh wow, thats amazing, I remember seeing the pictures of it having water, what a sight. I remember when Tempe Town Lake was empty (when the dam broke) and it was stinky for awhile.

[dpf]

The lake was drained because it had so much silt and it was getting too shallow to support good fishing. They plan to doze to it out as soon as it is dry enough to go in with heavy equipment and then are hoping there is enough snow this winter that the melt will fill it. Next spring they will start restocking it. http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/ ... ccb0c.html

They did the same thing with a lake by a COE campground Yankton. The reason they drained it was that during the floods in 2011 it had become infested with Asian Carp or Flying Crap as the fishermen call them! Asian Carp destroy the environment for the other fish in the lake and pretty much make the lake useless for sport fishing. GF&P had open fishing for about a month to reduce the fish population as much as possible before they lowered the water level.. They shocked the lake to kill off the remaining fish and are waiting for it to refill before they restock.
http://www.kdlt.com/index.php?option=co ... &Itemid=57

Did you know that there is an old mining town submerged in Pactola Lake? http://www.silvercitysd.com/pactola.html

[Bethers]

During one of my visits to Pactola Lake (which I love, btw) I did read that. But read so much in the visitors center that day, that somehow I totally forgot. It's a wonderful tidbit - thanks for the link and info!

And thanks for the better explanation of why they drained Horsethief. I always meant to google and find out more what had gone wrong.

[Birdie]

It will make it better for kayaking with it a little deeper too as you won't run into the lakeside stuff and will have more room. Not big while I was there. Kind of putting around size. Fish were jumping though. They planned to give the fish to the homeless shelter.

One fish didn't make the table!!! It is looking good. Thanks Pat, for the follow up story.