Lake Specifications

Owned by the State of Connecticut (CT Basin ID #4710) and managed by the Department of Environment Protection (DEP), Pickerel Lake is an impoundment of water (Station #011937209) that straddles Colchester and East Haddam. Covering an area of 35.9 ha (88.6 acres) and having a mean depth of 1.8 m (6 feet), Pickerel Lake is a shallow, well-mixed system. Langmuir circulation patterns are common year round with northerly or southerly winds often in excess of 15mph (personal observation). Running from True North to True South (from the state owned boat launch to an earthen dam, respectively), Pickerel Lake is 1.44 kilometers (.90 miles) long and 130 meters (426 feet) above sea level. Metamorphic rocks and glacial till line the regional basin (Salmon) and subbasin (Moodus River), which creates a 324 ha (801 acre) watershed. There was a biological/chemical assessment of Pickerel Lake for the 1937-1939 Fisheries Survey (Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game, 1942), and again for the 1953-55 Fisheries Survey (Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game, 1959). At the time of the latter survey, Pickerel Lake was used for an industrial waterpower supply for the area. In 1986, a "Feasibility study of the remediation of Pickerel Lake" was prepared for Connecticut Department of Environment Protection Water Resources and Water Compliance Units, by Atlantic Environmental Services, Inc. The trophic classification of Picker Lake, pursuant to Section 314 of the Federal Clean Water Act of 1987, published by Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Water Management (1991), received a water quality classification of "A" and listed as Acid-Threatened. The assessment also categorized the lake is highly eutrophic. These classifications were based on 14 April 1989 and 02 August 1989 data collections. Healy and Kulp (1995), published the most recent information on Pickerel Lake. However, the latter study used the same 14 April and 02 August 1989 data.

Analyses of Macrophyte Interactions in a Eutrophic Lake and in Experimental Microcosms (December 2002) William J. Dopirak, Jr.