Clear Lake is more than full and fishermen need to use extreme caution to prevent damage to lakeside residences. All the public boat ramps around the lake are presently closed and the only place a boat can be launched is Konocti Vista Casino. The speed limit is 5 mph when within one-quarter mile from shore, and that’s the law around the entire lake.
Lakeside County Park and Clear Lake State Park were closed to everyone as of Thursday and the same applies to much of Library Park in Lakeport. Redbud Park in Clearlake is also closed to all boating as is the Lucerne ramp.
The lake level as of early Thursday afternoon was 9.72 feet on the Rumsey Gauge and rising slowly. When the rain stops the lake level drops about an inch a day. Even a small amount of rainfall at this point could keep the lake at its present level or cause it to increase. The standard rule is that for every inch of rainfall the lake level rises from four to five inches.
Bass tourneys
Many bass fishermen are concerned about the status of several upcoming tournaments. American Bass will hold two separate tournaments this weekend. One is Saturday and the second is Sunday. Both go out of Konocti Vista Casino.
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce Team Bass Tournament is scheduled for March 16-17. According to a chamber spokeswoman, as it now stands the chamber bass tournament will go on as scheduled. There are 35 teams entered in the tournament to date. Last year the tournament drew 118 teams. This is the 32nd anniversary of the tournament.
Other lakes
The other nearby lakes are also at capacity. Lake Mendocino is at 110 percent of capacity but it’s pretty muddy. The same applies to Upper Blue Lake. In fact, no one can remember when Upper Blue Lake was as muddy as this year.
Cache Creek dam
Many locals believe the reason the lake floods is because of Cache Creek Dam. Actually the lake would flood even if no dam existed. Flow tests were conducted during the winter of 1937-38 to determine what would happen if there was not a dam on Cache Creek. The dam was fully opened on Jan. 31 when Clear Lake was at 6.30 Rumsey to allow Clear Lake outflows to be completely controlled by Cache Creek. During this flow test, Clear Lake rose to 10.25 on Feb. 15, fell to 8.6 by March 11, rose to 9.7 feet on March 25, and receded to 7.30 feet on April 18 when the gates were closed. During this flow test, peak inflows were estimated to be as high as 41,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) while the peak outflow of Clear Lake was 4,255 cfs. This clearly demonstrated that the Cache Creek Dam does not contributed to flooding of Clear Lake.
Flow tests in 1983 determined this was an optimal level to maximize the release of water through the dam and to minimize plugging of the flood gates. A flow test was conducted during the floods of 1983 and it was determined that lowering the water at the dam did not increase the flow of water through it. On March 1, 1986, with the gates only partially open and a lake level of 10.17 Rumsey, the release from the dam was 4,320 cfs. In comparison, on Feb. 17, 1938, all the flood gates on the dam were open, the lake was at 10.22 Rumsey, the flow through the dam was 4,240 cfs, slightly less than the flow measured in 1986 when the dam was partially open. This clearly shows that operating the dam with the gates only partially open and maintaining the water surface at a higher level maintains the quantity of flow down Cache Creek at its maximum while also reducing the chances of plugging the flood gates.
In fact, over its 2-million-year existence, Clear Lake, flooded hundreds of times before there was a dam in place.
