Something fishy is going on: County, state drain lake to improve habitat

Cape County Park South's lake is more of an empty pit at the moment, but in an overhaul officials estimate might take about two years, the lake will be rebuilt with improvements, and restocked with fish.

Those planned improvements include fishing jetties, a new fishing dock, an island with a gazebo and lighted sidewalks, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Earlier this year, MDC teamed up with Cape Girardeau County parks department to improve the lakes in Cape County Park North and South.

Jason Crites, an MDC fisheries management biologist, said this partnership is part of a statewide effort to improve city or county ponds.

Bryan Sander, Cape Girardeau County parks superintendent, said MDC approached county officials two or three years ago, and the agreement was signed last year.

Cracked earth is seen around the drained lake Wednesday at Cape County Park South.Fred Lynch

"It will be a slow process," Sander said. "We don't even have an anticipated start date. It's an unknown until the lake dries up."

As part of that team effort, the lake in County Park South was drained recently to make way for planned improvements to fish habitat and fishing conditions.

"We realized the county wanted to do some updates, renovations on South's lake, and were discussing ways to do that," Crites said.

The county has infrastructure in place to allow the lake to drain, "like a bathtub," Crites said.

But, Sander said, the lake hadn't been drained all the way down before, meaning they weren't sure how fast the drainage would go.

It went faster than anticipated, meaning the original plan to drain part of the lake and allow fishing while some earth work was completed, didn't work out, Crites said.

Fishing opportunities are still available at County Park North's lake, Crites added.

Sander said the renovations at South's lake could take up to two years, and will likely take at least 18 months.

"We couldn't really do anything in design until we saw how the basin was, how much dirt we needed to take out," Sander said. "There were a lot of unknowns."

Now that the lake is drained, the basin needs to dry out, Sander said.

But the county and MDC will meet with Bowen Engineering next week, Sander said, to get started planning the design.

When construction is complete, MDC will restock the lake with bass, bluegill, red ear sunfish, and channel catfish, and improving fish habitat is also part of the plan.

Adding brush and dead trees to the rebuilt lake will give cover and attract food for smaller fish, such as bluegill, which will help sustain the population of bass and catfish as well.

"It's like an ecosystem," Crites said.

Crites said the lake in County Park South will be the immediate focus of renovations, but both North and South will benefit from habitat management.

"My goal is, they could start moving some dirt this winter," Crites said, provided the weather cooperates.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630