Lake Information for Blairs Valley Lake

The Blairs Valley Dam was constructed during 1967 and 1968 for the Department of Game and Inland Fish, now two separate agencies, for the purpose of recreation. To permit a five-foot winter drawdown for fish and wildlife management activities, the dam was designed and built with a valve at five feet and one at the bottom to permit draining if necessary.

Blairs Valley Lake is thirty-two acres at normal pool, twenty-two acres at winter pool. The drainage areas totals 2,182 acres and includes both Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Washington County, Maryland. A maximum depth of eighteen feet can be found near the dam riser while the upper half of the lake is generally less than ten feet.

Due to the fertile watershed and the lakes phytoplankton blooms, oxygen becomes depleted below eight feet during the summer months. Therefore, the majority of the lakes volume cannot be utilized by gamefish during the summer season. Submerged aquatic vegetation provides the primary cover for fish. The Wildlife Division and the Fisheries Service periodically add cover in the form of brush piles, Christmas trees and by seeding the exposed lake bottom during winter pool.