It has been years since Douglas County State Fishing Lake was a prime location that lived up to its name.

“It got worn out,” said Ned Kehde, a former outdoor columnist for the Journal-World. “A lake that small, it gets overfished pretty easily. Things get out of balance over time.”

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks wants to restore the lake to the condition it was in when it opened in the early 1960s. The department also plans to repair and renovate the lake’s dam and water control equipment.

Improvements will be made to the lake’s fish habitat before it is restocked. Sometime soon the lake will be closed for fishing for about two years, officials with Wildlife and Parks said. Camping will still be allowed.

“Normally it takes about two years for a fishery to develop sufficiently to where it can handle a harvest,” said Richard Sanders, a Wildlife and Parks biologist.

The Douglas County State Fishing Lake is being drained to prepare for restocking and repairs on the dam. A discarded teddy bear was one of the items found after the lake was lowered.

The first step began in October with the process of draining more than 1 billion gallons of water from the 180-acre lake northeast of Baldwin. The draining continues, and it will probably be another month before it is complete, said Russell LaForce, Wildlife and Parks engineer.

Renovating the dam

Work at the dam will include replacing a drain valve and installing a new drain pipe by “sliplining” it into the old pipe, LaForce said. Another control structure item will be installed to allow the lake’s water level to be lowered a couple of feet without using the drain valve.

On the back side of the dam, a drain will be installed and the sloping ground will be flattened for safety purposes. Some fencing will be set up and a retaining wall will be put in. Though the dam is not in danger of collapsing, the improvements will strengthen it, LaForce said. The total cost will be about $600,000, he said.

• 6News video: Renovations being made to Douglas County State Lake (12-19-05)
• Douglas State Fishing Lake

When the water level is drained to about 10 feet, Wildlife and Parks will conduct a public fish salvage. People with a state fishing license will be allowed to use a variety of means to catch the remaining fish, including nets and their own hands. A notice about what equipment can be used to catch fish will be publicized and posted at the lake’s kiosk, Sanders said.

“If they want to get into the water and wrestle around with the fish, fine,” Sanders said. “I think we’re just going to see the real hard-core fishermen out there because it will be cold.”

Sanders especially wants to rid the lake of what he calls “rough fish,” including carp and gizzard chad. Rough fish cause a variety of problems and make the water murky, he said.

“We’re going to start over, and that will allow us to restock the lake with just the angler-desirable species, the ones sports fishermen are interested in,” Sanders said. “We’ll also be doing some fish habitat work in the basin.”

The lake will be restocked with large-mouth bass, bluegill, red ear sunfish, black crappie, channel catfish and possibly a species of perch known as sauger walleye, Sanders said.

Small lakes popular

Similar rehabilitation projects have been conducted over the past 15 years at other nearby state fishing lakes, including Leavenworth (1994) and Miami (2000) counties, Sanders said.

“After renovation the fishing is really good for a period of time,” he said. “Leavenworth (which reopened in 1997) is still one of the better fishing lakes in the state.”

The last survey to determine the annual number of fishermen using the lakewas 10 years ago. The count was about 18,000, Sanders said.

Several years ago, professional fishermen who took a lot of bass hurt Douglas County Lake’s development, Kehde said. Bass are good predators of unwanted fish.

“It’s the fishermen who wreak havoc with lakes like Douglas County,” Kehde said. “It’s essentially an urban waterway. Therefore it needs to be managed differently and more stringently than a lot of rural lakes.”

Vinland resident Don Bailey has fished the lake for years. He said he had seen his share of good and bad days. He will have to find somewhere else to fish for the next two years.

“I’ll go to Lone Star and Clinton,” he said of those much larger lakes. “Lone Star is really good.”