Can someone please explain how to lock through at the L/D? I would like to lock through at Dresbach to get to Lake Onalaska in a few weeks, but have never done this. Do you have to call ahead, or just pull up? How long does it take roughly? Thanks for any tips on how this is done.
If you have a marine radio you can try and get in touch with the lock master but if you don’t , just pull up to the long wall and there you’ll see a sign and a pull cord which rings a bell , letting them know you would like to lock thru. When the pearly gates open up slowly motor into the lock and grab ahold of the rope they hand you and wait till the water either raises or lowers. once the other end of the gates open up , wait for the horn that siginals you to move out of the lock, slowly motor out and once clear your free to fly !! 
I’ve found that it’s hard to see the rope that you pull to ring the bell. But if you look for the first ladder, it’s always hanging along side it.
one more word of advice, never tie your boat to the rope.
Good fishing
Here a brochure from the Corp on how to use the locks.
Also, instead of using your marine radio, you can just use your cell phone. I find this convenient to find out when the locks will be locking pleasure craft. Just call and tell them that you are a please craft and what direction you’re heading and they will tell you when the locks will be available. Barges can tie a lock up for a couple hours or more so timing is important (especially if you’re a tournament angler and need to make it back to the weigh-in on time. If you have a marine radio and monitor, I think it’s channel 14, sometimes they’ll give update on when they will be locking pleasure craft. Here’s a link to the phone numbers. The numbers are up in the header information.
The first tow made it to St. Paul yesterday so all the locks should be open now.
OH YES! I forgot about that! 
Most of the time the folks that run the locks watch for that. A couple years ago this boat just avoided a “good” time because the didn’t tie the two ropes securly and they did end up slipping…but not after the boat was tipping enough to wake up the owners!
Going up your boat just moves around and bumps into the wall a lot…going down, well not good…I think it would likely pull off the railing on your boat. 
I know most of you think it just common sense, but I don’t know how many times I’ve told people to untie the ropes while locking.
Good thought Madhatter!
Thanks guys for the replies. I programmed the lock numbers in the cell phone for the area pools. The link sure helped explain the process. The cartoon almost looks like me 
. I should make a few practice runs before any of the upcoming tournies so I get it right.
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