Boating on French River, Lake Conditions

Is anyone hearing that they might shut down the French River and Lake Nipissing to to traffic after this weekend?

Our group is off to Nipissing Friday next week , I really hope this isn’t true .
If anyone hears anything about this please advise if you can

I heard that boaters are to be aware of their wake near shore , which is totally understandable.

Some have been very good at slowing down when they get close to shore. Others zip on by. Not too impressed with them.
I have read where some of the public boat launches in North Bay and West Nipissing are closed.
Have not heard anything about banning boats though.
The level has started to go down but only a little bit. All docks around me are under water and will be for a while.
Also lots of rain coming tonight and tomorrow which won't help at all.

Neil

Neil, I've not noticed the water receding at all yet...in fact, on the south shore were we are...water levels have continued to increase in small increments every day since Thursday. It's only down slightly today...because of a very strong east wind pushing water towards the west end of the lake...but will surely equalize and return once the winds switch again.
With more rain currently falling and forecast to come.
I drove around the south shore and surveyed some of the damage...its extensive in places...many permanent docks will be unusable for some time. Both of my closest neighbors completely lost their docks and cribs in the moderate north winds Wednesday afternoon/evening. Much more pain to come yet, I'm afraid.

Grumpa,

Both the monitoring station at North Bay and the one at the French River showed a slight decline the last couple days. The Sturgean River flow is down 50 or so cubic meters per second from its max of 260. The other inflows are down significantly also.
All that will be out the window with the rain that is falling now though.
And yes there is damage out there. I was hopping we were turning the corner but we will have to see what these rains do.

Neil

Hi Neil,
The rise in the lake level has slowed over the past week, but its still rising almost daily. So it might be a morale boost to know that the major inflows, at the measuring sites, are finally starting to diminish...but until that's reflected in actual dropping lake levels, it's a hollow victory. The eye test doesn't lie. The water line creeps up my dock and further up the shoreline with each passing day.
My entire dock is still just (barely) above the water line...and the lake has steadily risen (over an inch) on my dock the past 5-7 days. It's higher again this morning.
Every low area, ditch and slew is now acting like a holding and collection reservoir for water...much of which will flow and migrate into the lake in the coming days and weeks, not to mention thousands of pumps and sump pumps continuously dumping ground water into the lake...those millions of smaller inflows aren't measured but they add incremental amounts to the accumulation...death by a million small cuts.
With last night's torrential downpour at times...lake levels will continue to lift as that water slowly enters the system. Every amount of actual rain that falls into the lake multiples by as much as 4 times with surface water seepage and run off from the saturated land.
I guess it's good to hear the 'measured' inflows are declining...but I'll be a lot happier when I see the lake's actual water level steadily dropping.
The tide, so to speak, has yet to turn.
And Muskie Bob, dan66...I to have not seen or heard of a outright ban on boat traffic...yet. As Neil mentioned several launching sites and ramps are closed...so if you need to launch a boat you should check/confirm which ramps are still open..and usable.

Thanks for all the detailed feedback. My self and a bunch of my friends are bringing our teenage boys up to the French for a Pike and Pickerel trip later this week and the kids would lose their minds if they could not get on the water to fish. Glad to hear that the waterway will not be closed and hopefully the levels recede to give the folks impacted by the high water some relief. I hope the conditions improve throughout the week for everyone.

I will throw my 2 cents in here as well, we have a rock out front that is typically high and dry, the water level so far at its max has been about 4" above the rock, due to the shifting tide with wind and such calm evenings tend to still cover the rock while daytime wind changes leave about 2" of rock above water.

I monitored it pretty closely since Thursday as things were getting pretty sketchy, Thursday evening was calm and water was about 2" above the rock, Friday the wind caused the 2" of exposed rock, this cycle pretty much repeated itself all weekend including today suggesting it may be at its peak for us in the west arm, that is of course remaining optimistic.

here's my opinion, and yes only an opinion, at the west end of the lake I think we've seen the worst of it, the warmer temps and slower inflow from runoff should now see the water slowly recede based on the fact that in our end at least it has not really risen further in the last few days. the level will certainly remain high for some time but I seriously believe it has already peaked. blown in weeds and debris show the water level at its peak, it has not reached those points for several days now.

Some have been very good at slowing down when they get close to shore. Others zip on by. Not too impressed with them.

Neil

Neil, isn't the level of ignorance mindboggling with some of these idiots when they go by? they could care less about damage as long as they get where they are going

if there are any reading this thread that are responsible for tearing right on by peoples property be aware of the fact that whenever you fly by and folks on shore see you we are thinking nothing other then what a jack @$# you are!

I purposely idle past camps, docks and private property only to see some moron fly by 10 minutes later, have some respect! does it take longer to get where your going? of course it does, it affects everybody's day on the water but so be it. unfortunately our complaints will fall on deaf ears because of those "entitled" to do whatever they please.

cheers Neil, im glad you mentioned it and yes definitely a lot of people slowing down which is great, good on them for doing so!

Thanks for the additional updates. I am hitting the water tomorrow and guarantee no wake from my boat as I will be taking it slow. Hopefully I get some good fishing karma from boating courtesy!

good luck muskie_bob, yes you will have good karma for sure on that one, as an added bonus you wont run into a giant piece of dock cribbing or other debris that you cant see until its too late. I have removed 2 railway tie sized pieces of dock crib floating just barely at the surface as well as a bunch of dock pieces and an entire dock ramp so far.