Drought Cancels Upper Yough Monday & Friday Releases

Western Maryland has experienced a long period of unusually dry weather, and today the Deep Creek Lake level dropped  .5" below the "Lower Rule Band". To comply with the agreement negotiated between lake, fishing, and paddling users all Friday and Monday Upper Yough whitewater releases have been cancelled.. Brookfield Power, the dam owner, believes that it will take a very significant rain event (2"+) to bring lake levels back up so that these releases can resume.. Saturday releases are still "on" and will continue unless the lake level drops a foot below the lower rule band. Boatable "fish releases" are very likely on hot, sunny days, but are typically not announced until late morning. For the latest updates call Deep Creek Hydro at 315-413-2823 or sign up for Deep Creek Hydro's twitter account and get text message updates whenever the dam is turned on or off. These release are only 2 hours long; you will likely catch the water and have to wait.