St Mary's Ohio Lake

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Does anyone regularly boat this lake? What is the going rate for seasonal boat slip? Also I know its very shallow >10 ft in most places I am being told? Is this something to worry about if running an I/O I've heard horror stories of people killing props/Outboards here... With the things going on at Indian lake with the algea though I think we will be forced to try a few different lakes this season.
 

roscoe

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
21,739
Interesting lake and history.
Looks like it had its own algae issues in 2021.
Also looks like most of the lake is under 7' deep.

Now I feel guilty for living in WI.
I never realized you had such a shortage of "inland" waters in Ohio.
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Ya ohio has **** for lakes. Normally traveling to TN and KY are best bets to visit the TVA chains. But I like to have something local for quick weekend trips to. I may be upgrading to Erie sooner then I thought...
 

jeb6294

Seaman
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
51
It's got an interesting history. It was actually created as a reservoir for the Miami & Erie Canal. You're right as far as being shallow, the last chart I saw shows a max depth of 8' (at two small spots towards the middle of the lake), but it's definitely got surface area. My FIL dinged up his prop the last time we were there when he got a little too close to one of the islands. But I think he said it was his own fault for not paying attention to the markers. We are still new to boating on our own and we didn't have any problems up there this summer.

I know algae was a big problem in the past due to the huge amount of farmland runoff, but they've been working on it and it seems to be getting a bit better. I really wish they would work on dredging to get more depth. I think that would help a lot with a lot, not just the algae.

Can't help you with seasonal rates because we just go up with family occasionally and stay at Kozy. There are a lot of fun little hole in the wall places around the lake.
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
It's got an interesting history. It was actually created as a reservoir for the Miami & Erie Canal. You're right as far as being shallow, the last chart I saw shows a max depth of 8' (at two small spots towards the middle of the lake), but it's definitely got surface area. My FIL dinged up his prop the last time we were there when he got a little too close to one of the islands. But I think he said it was his own fault for not paying attention to the markers. We are still new to boating on our own and we didn't have any problems up there this summer.

I know algae was a big problem in the past due to the huge amount of farmland runoff, but they've been working on it and it seems to be getting a bit better. I really wish they would work on dredging to get more depth. I think that would help a lot with a lot, not just the algae.

Can't help you with seasonal rates because we just go up with family occasionally and stay at Kozy. There are a lot of fun little hole in the wall places around the lake.
There are definitely some activities but yes I agree with you it would be nice if they dredged it out a bit. I may just go cruising in it beginning of this season maybe I'll see you around the lake we'll be in the white 18' Mariah bowrider.

The other thing is anytime we went over just to look around the chop seemed to be unreal. But I didnt look for any markers so maybe the shallow spots are well marked. Her great grandfather actually was stationed there and dug it out. The whole lake was dug out by hand which makes it even crazier looking at the size of it.
 

jeb6294

Seaman
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
51
Yeah, the chop can get bad when you get a lot of boats out there, but that's something else that I think might be improved with some more depth.
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
So I have seasonal mooring for only $200 for the season. However I have an IO and they say it can get below 3 ft in the slips which kind of concerns me... But I may try it this year and keep a trolling motor on board to trim up and get out if i need to.
 

Texasmark

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
14,666
Interesting lake and history.
Looks like it had its own algae issues in 2021.
Also looks like most of the lake is under 7' deep.

Now I feel guilty for living in WI.
I never realized you had such a shortage of "inland" waters in Ohio.
When I was a teenager learning to ski we used Taylor Lake, drained into Clear Lake (Nasa's Houston Facility location). It was a coastal marsh. Mud was 1'deep at least and if you fell off your skis you just stood up. Water was about 2'deep at low tide, 3' at high. Our boats were semi-vee wooden, flat transom area so getting on plane was quick even though you stirred up some mud every time. Don't remember seeing any deep V I/Os back then...course wasn't looking all that much either.
 

Texasmark

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
14,666
There are definitely some activities but yes I agree with you it would be nice if they dredged it out a bit. I may just go cruising in it beginning of this season maybe I'll see you around the lake we'll be in the white 18' Mariah bowrider.

The other thing is anytime we went over just to look around the chop seemed to be unreal. But I didnt look for any markers so maybe the shallow spots are well marked. Her great grandfather actually was stationed there and dug it out. The whole lake was dug out by hand which makes it even crazier looking at the size of it.
"The other thing is anytime we went over just to look around the chop seemed to be unreal." You can blame the shallow water for that....can't build swells in shallow water.
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
When I was a teenager learning to ski we used Taylor Lake, drained into Clear Lake (Nasa's Houston Facility location). It was a coastal marsh. Mud was 1'deep at least and if you fell off your skis you just stood up. Water was about 2'deep at low tide, 3' at high. Our boats were semi-vee wooden, flat transom area so getting on plane was quick even though you stirred up some mud every time. Don't remember seeing any deep V I/Os back then...course wasn't looking all that much either.
This sounds extremely dangerous where is this? HAHA this lake is a bit deeper then that but its still a little sketchy.
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Also st. Marys' lake is located in such a flat area that the winds I think play a big part into the chop now for me not a huge ordeal but we shall see how this season goes with the Mariah as we are going to launch her next month sometime. Water is high right now but I'm more worried about June/July... I'm hoping we can have a good time. We also have a 2 week trip planned to Norris TN on a floating house so that will be where we get a lot of our sun to this season. but for something close after work St. Mary's would be great if it works for our boat. if not i'd consider buying a pontoon or deck boat (I Guess) just to putt putt around in haha... The young left in me still say F that to pontoons
 

Toyelectroman

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
198
Never boated on St Mary, but do boat a lot at indian lake. I heard last year you could actually swim in St. Mary
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Nice ya we were gonna launch in Indian lake but the mooring space price is ridiculous and I think Indian lake is in for a similar situation with run off as st marys was. We went this year and it was nuts how much algea and seaweed there was.
 

Toyelectroman

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
198
Yep seaweed was horrible last year. Few times I had to raise the motor to untangled the seaweed. It was pretty much unusable for jet drive boats/jet ski
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Yep seaweed was horrible last year. Few times I had to raise the motor to untangled the seaweed. It was pretty much unusable for jet drive boats/jet ski
Didnt seem to keep anyone off the lake it was jammed packed the one time we went thats when I decided to look towards St. Marys. Maybe though we will see you out there. We have the white Mariah Diablo. Or you may see us in the green Century Raven Both just under 20'.
 

jeb6294

Seaman
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
51
Never boated on St Mary, but do boat a lot at indian lake. I heard last year you could actually swim in St. Mary
Kozy is one of the campgrounds with quite a few canals winding back through it. When you get back in there where there isn't a lot of movement, the algae still looks pretty bad, but it gets much better once you get out onto open water.

Even years ago, when the water was bad, there were still people swimming in it at the coves. Maybe it's getting good enough that kids and old people can join in.
 

Toyelectroman

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
198
Actually picking up a blue nauticstar deck boat tomorrow as we sold our pontoon last year. We do like indian lake going through the canals off of the main lake, but it can get pretty shallow back there( 2-4 feet)
 

jeb6294

Seaman
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
51
Good chance we'll be seeing some of you up there this summer. Was at the grocery store the other day and got this text from the wife. She went and looked at it on her way home from work this morning and it looks pretty good. Looks like we're gettin' us a camper which means we'll probably be at the lake quite a bit this summer.
text.jpg
 

SavinRaven

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
228
Good chance we'll be seeing some of you up there this summer. Was at the grocery store the other day and got this text from the wife. She went and looked at it on her way home from work this morning and it looks pretty good. Looks like we're gettin' us a camper which means we'll probably be at the lake quite a bit this summer.
View attachment 357991
Congrats. are you going to get the seasonal campground at Kozy or just do the state park? We have been on the search for a camper. Kozy said it had to be 15 years or newer to park it there for seasonal camping..

Our boats are over at the Kozy marina should be putting it in next month sometime.

Any issues with your I/O in this lake? Or do you not usually run in St. Marys?
 

jeb6294

Seaman
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
51
Congrats. are you going to get the seasonal campground at Kozy or just do the state park? We have been on the search for a camper. Kozy said it had to be 15 years or newer to park it there for seasonal camping..

Our boats are over at the Kozy marina should be putting it in next month sometime.

Any issues with your I/O in this lake? Or do you not usually run in St. Marys?
Probably stick to Kozy, but no permanent site, we're weekenders. I saw where they were doing the age restrictions, but I thought you could get a waiver if it was older than 15 as long as it was in good shape. We'll see. I've seen some pretty raggety campers there over the years.

We've never had an issue with our I/O. The lake is shallow, but it seems pretty consistent unless you get too close to some of the islands.
 
Top