Pictures of New Maps

I forgot to include these in the last post. The first is zoomed out to show the entire lake and the other is at full 1 pixel per meter resolution. You can zoom in even more and they still look pretty good.

Less Than 3 ft To Go !

As of last Tuesday I estimated 3ft to go and this was confirmed by the DNR on Wednesday. Although last night's big storms that hit the area split and missed us they are forecasting 1-2 inches for tomorrow night and that should top it off.

I also have new map layers and some basic finished maps available on my GitHub site as well as a tiled map for Android devices using the free OruxMaps app available at the Google Play Store. This is a 1 pixel per meter map that can be easily sized to 200% or larger and still looks good. With this map and an Android device with GPS you are all set to navigate the lake and make your own waypoints and tracks for fishing. If you like the map and the Orux app I strongly suggest purchasing the Donate version for just $2.62 ... a real bargain for the average fisherman that can't afford a $500-$1000 chartplotter. These maps will only get better as I add a layer showing the locations of structure and the depth isolines made from actual measurements at the lake.

Here's a few pictures from last Tuesday June 16 after the last hard rain

New Background Maps Just About Done

Since the last photos I took I have gotten 5.55" of rain at my location. Although it's been spotty the lake's watershed should have gotten about the same give or take an inch. We are getting a break in the rain today so later I'm going out to check and I expect it to be close to if not fully filled. So instead of early July I should be able to start taking actual depth measurements early next week weather permitting.

So now I'm am going to have to hustle up on finishing my map layers but that is mainly the projected depth layer which I am just about done with, the shoreline (0ft) definition layer and data for the depth mapping programs and the layer with all the natural and man made structure. Only the shoreline layer is necessary for me to start and it is derived from the projected depth layer and should go fairly quickly.

Here are some examples of the new map layers. First up the LIDAR base

Then I added the 2014 photo layer on top with 25% transparency

Here it is with the full 2ft contour overlay which was derived from the LIDAR layer (Not by me, IA state employees)

And this one shows it with the edited contour file for lake only

Here is a zoomed in photo. You can see where they changed some things for the dam and boat ramp since the LIDAR data was taken (2008-2010)

Here is a succession of maps off the lower 2 miles of the lake taken in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014 showing the changes made.

That's it for now. I'll post the photos I take today and give a report on lake level later in the week.

It's Getting Closer To Full

I went out and got some pictures on June 1 and I estimate it has about 7ft - 7.5ft to go before it tops off. We just got 3/4" of so Sunday morning and more is forecast later in the week. With normal rainfall for June, which looks likely, I expect it will top off sometime in early July. They still don't have the mid-lake boat ramp or handicap fishing access open yet but the ones at either end are open.

I am in the process of making new background maps because I'll no longer be sourcing them from the Iowa Geographic Map Server, changes again this year made it even less functional and it was always hard to come back a year or two later and get a new map of the exact same area. Now I will be sourcing the exact same maps and more from the Iowa Natural Resources Geographic Information System (NRGIS) Library which has them in county sized maps which I can load up in my GIS software and 'cut out' the maps using the same coordinates for each layer. It's much easier than downloading 1000 x 1000 meter squares and stitching them together and recalibrating (Rewriting the GeoTIFF headers)

Here is the inflow end of the lake, the water has about 4 foot to go before it reaches the floor of the concrete culvert and the water is supposed to be about 3 feet deep when it's full.

This one is looking back from the west end of the parking lot/boat ramp they just opened up this year. I took a bunch of pictures of this new area before I took this shot but for some reason they didn't turn out or even get written to the SD card

These are at mid-lake on the north side where there are 2 shore fishing spots on the west side and a big one by the old road. The one furthest west and the one by the road are where most of the concrete pipes are located and I expect this to be the best area for catfishing and also a lot of other species.

These are same area but from the south side. Note how they fixed where the lot had washed out last year after a couple of hard rains. This should work much better and is important because this will be one of the main handicap access areas for fishing as well as for others fishing from shore. This lake has more spots designed for shore fishing than any lake I've ever seen and I certainly remember how hard it was to find good fishing spots when I was boatless. There are few places and even fewer good places to fishing from shore in Davenport.

These are from the mid-lake boat ramp also on the south side. Last time I was out here on Aug 28 you could still walk across without getting your feet wet. Now you have to take the trail around the lake to get to that side. Lots of shore access with good structure to fish here also.

These are at the boat ramp by the dam. A couple of these shots show why it is important that certain areas of shoreline are rip rapped for bank erosion protection. It is my understanding that when the lake is full it will come about half way up the rip rap in most places. This should help prevent it from silting in around the shoreline like it has in Credit Island Harbor covering up any desirable structure for attracting game fish to spawn and/or feed.

That's it for now but I'll be adding some new map layers to my Git Hub site in a day or two and likely deleting the old ones except the lake overlay I made myself. I really need to redo that one also since I have better information where the shorelines will likely be based on the newer photo maps. I won't be able to determine that actual shoreline until the photos they will take late this summer come out early next year.