There is no question Clear Lake is one of the most popular fishing destinations in the country. On any given day the public boat ramps around the lake are packed with boat trailers. On weekends it’s not unusual to see 50-70 boats launching at the more popular ramps such as Library Park in Lakeport.
And it’s the boat ramps that have just about all the fishermen concerned because of the dropping lake level. As of Tuesday morning the lake level stood at .62 feet on the Rumsey Gauge and it continues to drop at a rate of about an inch a day. When the lake level hits zero on the Rumsey Gauge, many of the boat ramps around the lake will be unusable. The last time that happened was in the late 1970s.
The problem is that when the ramps were poured many years ago they weren’t laid far enough out into the lake. The result is that when we have a drought the dropping lake level ends up past the end of the ramp. When a boat is launched the trailer wheels drop off the end of the ramp and the trailer becomes stuck. Even worse is that the trailer axle can break and cause major damage to the trailer and even to the boat.
The answer is to start planning ahead for this problem. One answer would be to obtain some ramp mats and place them at the ends of the ramps. The mats are made commercially out of steel and concrete. A crane places the mat on the ramp and it is then pushed down to the end of the existing ramp. It extends out into the lake for up to 100 feet. A mat of the type lasts 30-50 years.
There are seven major ramps on the lake. They are Library Park in Lakeport, Lakeside County Park, Clear Lake State Park, Redbud Park in Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks boat ramp, Lucerne boat ramp and Keeling Park in Nice. As it now stands now, only Library Park, Redbud Park and Clearlake Oaks offer decent launching conditions, but even these ramps won’t last long.
If the boat ramps are closed because of low water it will be months, even with normal rainfall, before they open again. However, if ramp extensions are installed some of the parks should be able to stay open.
There are several solutions to this problem. The easiest would be to pour cement that will set up underwater. This practice is commonly done on lakes around the country. It is also the cheapest way of extending a ramp. However, it does take planning and an engineer would have to plan it out. Permits would have to be obtained from the county and state. The good news about a project such as this is that it will ensure we have usable boat ramps for many years. Not all seven ramps would need extensions installed. Library Park, Redbud Park and Lakeside County Park would be enough to satisfy the majority of the boaters and keep the lake open.
The actual construction can be delayed until midsummer when the lake level is at its lowest, but the planning needs to be completed weeks or even months before the lake hits bottom. This is a discussion the Lake County Board of Supervisors should be addressing now, not weeks from now.
