Lake Delton is Back!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Millions of golden shiners and fathead minnows were dumped into Lake Delton around 10:30 a.m. Monday, destined to be forage fish for the walleyes and largemouth and smallmouth bass that will be stocked soon as the popular water body that vanished in a flash last summer bounces back.

With water levels only a foot below normal, Lake Delton looks like it did before the breach June 9 emptied its water into the nearby Wisconsin River.

Dave Gollon of Dodgeville's Gollon Bait & Fish Farm opened a spigot on the side of a truck housing as many as 9 million minnows, and tiny silver fish flowed into the water at the public boat landing, where many tourists flocked last summer to take pictures of the exposed sandy bottom.

The truckload of minnows is the first of many that will stock the lake with forage fish. Organizers of the Lake Delton fish restoration project will return to stock the lake with walleyes - about 9,000, or the equivalent of roughly 35 fish per acre - on June 9, the anniversary of the breach.

The sport fish that will be stocked later in Lake Delton won't be big enough to keep, due to statewide size limits, for several years, said Scott Stewart, state Department of Natural Resources regional fisheries supervisors.

"It'll take them three to four years before they're catchable size," Stewart said.

Although Lake Delton disappeared, literally, in a flash, it's return has been impressive.

Less than a year after the flooding disaster, Lake Delton is back in business. That is such good news.
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Lake Delton Flooding Disaster, June 9, 2008.

Photos and video.