The rain keeps falling and Clear Lake is filling with water. The good news is that while it may not be a banner rain year and the lake won”t fill to maximum, we also won”t have a repeat of the drought of 1976-77.
As of Tuesday, the lake level was approaching 2 feet on the Rumsey Gauge. That means in less than a week the lake level has risen nearly a foot. A check of the local streams that flow into the lake showed all flowing strongly. With more rain forecast for the weekend, the lake level should keep rising. With any luck, the storm door is open and we will receive several more storms before March. Normally by mid-March the rainy season is pretty much over.
It”s not the first time Clear Lake has been in this predicament. The lake level back in 2000 was also low like this year and everyone was talking about a major drought, but a couple of major storms hit the area and by Feb. 17 the lake was at 5.01 feet. In 1976-77, the highest the lake level ever got was only a minus-.32 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, and by late summer it was down to a minus-3.5 feet. That was the worst drought in recent history.
Unlike other lakes in Northern California, where it”s common for the water levels to drop 100 to 200 feet during a dry year, the lake level at Clear Lake only varies from 6 to 7 feet during the entire year.
Clear Lake is considered full when the lake level is 7.5 feet above zero on the Rumsey Gauge. That”s when Yolo County gets its full allotment of water. More importantly is that Yolo County can”t draw any water from the lake if the lake level is 3.22 feet or less on the Rumsey Gauge as of May 1.
Clear Lake water is very important to the farmers in Yolo County. The success of their orchards and rice fields depends on them being able to draw water out of Clear Lake and Indian Valley Reservoir. The good news is that there have been very few years in the past century when the lake hasn”t reached at least 3.2 feet by May 1.
The problem for fishermen when the lake level is low is that many of the better locations are too shallow to fish. For example, one of the prime bass fishing areas is Rodman Slough. For the past two months it”s been impossible to gain access to Rodman Slough with a bass boat.
Low lake levels also result in bass fishermen being crowded into small areas. When this happens the fishermen say “the lake is fishing small.”
A low lake also exposes the bass to the fishermen during the spawning season, which starts in March. When the bass can find protected areas back in the tules to spawn they aren”t as vulnerable to the fishermen. This is especially true during the larger tournaments.
It”s known in fishing circle that the tournament fishermen can literally clean out an area of spawning bass. Even if they are released in good condition, only a few will attempt to spawn again.
A full lake is also important to the local economy and the local residents. One of the most important things about a full lake is that it slows down the aquatic weed growth. When the lake level is low and the water is clear, the aquatic plants will bloom and there will be an explosion of weeds such as sago, primrose and hydrilla. When the lake is choked with weeds the boating opportunities are limited for both fishermen and pleasure boaters.
The recent storms should also start filling the other local lakes such as Indian Valley Reservoir, Lake Pillsbury and Lake Mendocino. All these lakes tend to fill fast with a good downpour. As it now stands, none of these lakes have enough water to launch a boat.
A number of people are wondering what that large red slick is on the surface of the water at Rodman Slough. The slick runs all the way out into the lake. According to Skip Simpkins of the county”s Lakebed Management Department, the slick is made up of a plant called Duckweed (the scientific name is spirodela) and is common on Clear Lake.
Simpkins said the plants probably came from the smaller sloughs that drain into Rodman.
Slough
