Willard Update

[Teroy]

Well, on the way back from Brigham City we stopped by the old bay to see how it was holding up. The north marina is still dry and no sight of dredging, not even the equipment to do it. The gates are closed to the south marina so I couldnt see, but their was a fair amount of water coming out of the flood gates and water WAS flowing into Willard. Not trying to get my hopes up but its a start I guess.
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[muskyhunter]

Teroy,are they still launching small boats out by the buoys in the north marina off that gravel point??M.H.
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[Teroy]

I did see a F-350 with 2 jet skis down that way, skis were still on trailer so I dont know if he was plotting to get them off or putting them back on.
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[wiperhunter2]

Teroy,I'm not quite sure what you mean by "water was flowing into Willard". Do you mean water is coming down the baffles? Even though they have the gates closed to the south marina you can drive down the dirt road that follows the channel. I'll check it out tomorrow afternoon when wiperslayer and I go over to the west dike and do a little wading for wipers. More than likly the water is going right back out through the pump station after it goes down the spillway. I'm not sure why but when the main irigation channel gets full they will sometimes let water go down the baffles only to pump it out again. WH2
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[fishinfool]

Hey guys,I did some checking on how the whole thing works,you are wright about still pumping it out ,but they must be letting water in thru the ogden and weber river now,the reason why the gates have been closed is because the canal is flat no elavation change down the whole thing,when they shut the weber and the ogden coming into it they have to pump it out of willard to keep it full,this is good news and the water level will start coming up at willard,dont know how fast but it will start coming up.woooohoooo.

Later,Tony[cool]
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[Teroy]

WH2, as of yesterday, there was enough water coming through the 2nd set of baffles to satisfy the pump station and keep the channel current flowing to the bay instead of reverse like we've seen all summer. I hope when you go today, it still holds true
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[wiperhunter2]

That is great news, let's just hope it continues to run into the lake like Teroy said. Anything going in is a good thing. WH2
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[wiperhunter2]

Well you are right Teroy, there is enough water coming in to make the water in the channel go toward Willard instead of the pump house. The water sure is muddy but at least it is going into Willard instead of out.
When we hit the West dike there were close to a dozen cars and trucks between the S/W corner and the light pole. There is a nice new road going over the dike in the S/W corner, in the same area as the pump that is taking the water out of the bay for the duck hunters. They have removed the big boulders on the inside of the bay to make the road go right down to the water. It sure looks like a great place to launch a boat. I'm going to call them tomorrow and find out if they will let us use it to launch our boats, keep your fingers crossed. Wiperslayer and I are going to give it a try next weekend even if we have to carry his 12 footer up the road, it will still be easier than trying to launch from the north marina and then motoring all the way to the west dike. Does anyone know where we can buy some wheels for a little boat? The wheels are so you can turn the boat over and wheel it to the water(only used on small boats). We did do some fishing and I lost a wiper a few feet from where I was standing in the water. Wiperslayer caught 6 or 7
carp casting the Producer and I was getting a lot of bites using worms but could not hook them. There are a lot of trees sticking up out of the water with cable wrapped around them by the light pole, we also found a couple of anchors and other stuff. It's just a guess but I would say the water temp is in the 65 degree range, we did not see and bird or surface activity. All in all it was a nice way to spend an afternoon, at least until the sun went down, then the swarms of vampires attacked, can you say West Nile virus!!! WH2
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