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Report: MikeR » Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:21 pm
poacher wrote:
they should give you a sticky for Lake level updates
I've got more.... I spent Sunday through Tuesday in Cambria and the Paso Robles area with the wife, no fishing. The area is completely saturated. Every hill was leeching out water. Every road side creed was flowing. It was Ireland West, green as you can imagine.
Stopped at Lake Margarita on the way back. The boys up north probably don't want me to post this but the lake looked awesome. I think it's 74% full this morning and the Salinas river is still running into it. Water is murky, cold (under 55 in places). I spoke with one angler getting off the water at about 2:30 pm and he said it was tough, he never got bit. Kind of expected with the amount of water that it just ingested. Fish are probably in shock and spread out until it settles down.
I spoke with the Ranger on duty and asked about us "Southers" heading north to fish and what, if any, quarantine would be in effect. His response "None. Same day inspect and launching is allowed as long as your bone dry. "Dry as a popcorn fart" as Dave Poolman would say. They will tag you on the way out. He said tags were honored at Nacimiento last year and visa versa, but this year that might have changed. I'm supposed to be getting a phone call from his boss to clarify.
Lopez's watershed did not receive the amount of rainfall the areas north of them did but it got a healthy amount and the lake is still receiving run-off. It came up a little over a foot this last 7 days and is at 34.8%. The historical data is tough to find on SLO website but it has come up from the 20% range this year.
When we drove by Cachuma, the Santa Ynez river was still running into the lake. It was nice to see. It is continuing to increase in size but not very quickly. The lake is still in the channel all the way to the marina area. No coves. The storm today isn't producing much up here but hopefully the next couple of storms will. With Santa Barbara in the process of rebuilding their desalinization plant, I don't believe they will buy any water from the State Water project to fill Cachuma except for what they are required per their agreement with the State. I'm pulling permits at SB City hall next week and will check with public works to see what is in the plan this year and post it here.
Meanwhile......Castaic is filling up. They turned the spigot on and haven't stopped for over a month. Filling it with water that goes through, and was stored in, two quagga infested lakes( Pyramid and Elderberry), and emptying Folsum at the same time. Just kidding about Folsum, but the water apparently comes from Folsum and they have been dumping water at Folsum to where it is now at 40%. All the lakes up North are in "dump mode", dumping water in anticipation of the upcoming snow melt and to maintain control of the water so as to prevent flooding I guess.
I'm just glad to see water as most of us are. It will take a while for the lakes and fish to recover but at least most of the lakes will be fine. Casitas is still a concern. We still have almost 2 more months of the "rainy season" and Casitas could get enough to add another year to the 4 years the experts say is left.
Mike
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