Candlewood Lake Hazard Buoys Are Out, Boats Watch Out

If you're a regular boater on Candlewood Lake, you may have noticed that the buoys have been removed.

According to the Candlewood Lake Authority, 80 navigation and hazard buoys have been removed from the lake. The CLA asks that if you're still planning to be out on the lake, please take any necessary added precautions. When I see two or three buoys near the two small islands near Orchard Point and then get too close, the lake starts taunting me:

Hey dumbass, you've seen my buoys out here during the summer, so don't even think about driving your party barge close to where they used to be, because the rocks will rip up your puny 60hp engine prop!

Personal and rude! Mindy has always been terrified of running aground with our pontoon. When we approach the tip of Candlewood Isle near Driftwood Point, there's a tiny house on a small island called "The Island House," where there's a small passageway between the house and the tip of the isle, which I most always slip through just to see if I can get away with it before she notices. If she's paying attention, she freaks out! Have I ever ran aground? Absolutely not. There was that one time on Bantam Lake when I forgot to place the plug back into my Bayliner before relaunching and it started to sink. I counted that as a learning experience. Below is a satellite photo.

Another shallow area, where if you're not careful, you can easily twist up a prop, is over near Hollywyle Park in New Fairfield. The Hollywyle Cove is an intimate location to tie up with one or two other boats on the weekend to get away from the madness of weekend boat traffic on Danbury or New Fairfield Bays. If you're heading out of the Cove and decide to keep left of the island, there's an excellent chance you'll eventually run into some of Candlewood Lakes' most shallow water and crunch up your prop.

Just a heads up that Firstlight, the owners of the Rocky River hydroelectric power station will begin its deep drawdown of Candlewood Lake and Squantz Pond on November 1st and will return the lake to normal depths by the start of the fishing season in April of 2017.

Listen to Ethan Carey on the Ethan & Lou Show weekdays from 5:30-10AM on 95.1 FM. You can listen online at i95rock.com/listen-live/ or by downloading the radioPup app for your mobile device.