Walker Lake/Mountain Meadows Reservoir: and just like that, a lake is dead...

Walker Lake (aka, Mountain Meadows Reservoir) is a 5,000 acre PG&E impoundment a few miles northeast of Lake Almanor.  It's basically the first "step" in PG&E's Stairway of Power in the North Fork Feather River watershed.  It's known for being a pretty solid fishery for Northern strain largemouth bass and panfish.  I've fished it a handful of times and enjoyed some fine summer evenings throwing topwaters for largemouth here.  Last night I saw pictures on Facebook of a drained lake and thousands of dead fish littering the lake bed and area immediately below the dam.  So this morning I cruised out there to see it with my own eyes.  It wasn't pretty.







While I was out there, a CDFW fish biologist and a pair of game wardens showed up.  The sudden draining of the lake was a surprise to them as well.  I don't have the full story yet, but ultimately, this lake's death was a result of the drought.  The inflow was outmatched from outflow plus evaporation, and since it was a very shallow lake (20 feet deep at the most), there was little room for storage.  I IDed largemouth bass, brown bullhead, black crappie, Sacramento sucker, pumpkinseed, shiners, and chubs among the dead fish.  Nobody I talked to knew there were crappie in Walker Lake...if I'd known I would've fished it a lot more often!  But that doesn't matter now.  There were a lot of angry and sad people showing up while I was there.  Many of them remembered fishing the lake as kids.  I can't imagine the feeling of seeing my childhood fishing spot die like this.

I'll post more info as I receive it.

I remember fishing the lake as a kid. Sad.

Eagle Lake is as low as it has ever been too. The drought is brutal up there.

Sad

Wow, thats crazy!

That is incredibly sad.

Such a sad event. Will dfg and the enviros allow for the restocking of the same species after this die off?

That is so sad

What a waste...

If you look in the CA record books, this lake still holds the record for pumpkinseed sunfish.  Pretty interesting.  The lake was under the radar for the vast majority of out-of-towners, but was popular with local bass clubs.  Most of the bass were under 2 pounds, but I'd seen plenty of 7-8 pounders pulled from here.  It featured all the "classic" largemouth habitat, with standing timber, tule-lined banks, weed beds, etc.  Combined with the stained water, it certainly didn't feel like you were fishing a lake at 5,000 foot elevation, but then you'd look up and see snow-covered peaks surrounding you.  If you hit it right, you could easily catch 30-40 bass in an evening here.

I have some photos from my trips on this lake that I'll post this evening.

Depending on their license, PG&E could be in a lot of trouble.  Working at SMUD, I know that we are closely monitored as stewards for the resources the lakes we have provide.  If we fail to meet the licensing requirements for responsible stewardship of the resource, the CPUC will simply cancel our water rights and issue them to the next agency that WILL. 

Start with the CPUC and write them a letter and send those photos.  I'd also probably contact the local newspapers and the news TV stations, then the Sacramento newspapers and news stations.  That's a BIG story there.  (Or would be if the whole dam state wasn't an inferno right now...)

Sacramento is the local news and TV. There is a weekly newspaper, no one really reads it and no one outside the area pays any attention.

Clayman-  how are antelope, bucks, and round valley looking right now? There are/were warm water species in those lakes too.

While I was at the lake yesterday morning, at least two newspaper reporters showed up.  One of them was from Redding.  And the CDFW biologist received a call from a TV news station.  So the word is spreading quickly.

PG&E was required to release a minimum flow of 2 cfs from the dam per their license.  About two weeks ago, they requested a letter of support from CDFW for reducing the outflow to 0 cfs because the lake was running out of water.  CDFW claimed they sent a letter to the CA State Water Board recommending a flow variance of 0.25 cfs.  After that, the story gets fuzzy as I received conflicting accounts depending on who I asked.  Some say the State Water Board never went about issuing the flow variance to PG&E.  Then on Saturday evening, a couple of PG&E workers opened the dam gate to displace some clogged debris and they couldn't get the gate closed and all the water gushed out overnight.  Again, I'm not sure exactly what happened here because the story changed depending on who I asked.  I imagine we'll learn more in the next few days.  CDFW said they were working with their Public Information Officer to release a statement soon.

Crash - Antelope is currently full to the brim and looking great.  Bucks is dropping, but is still in good shape.  No idea about Round Valley, but I imagine it's gotta be low.  Out of those three, Round Valley is the most comparable to Walker in terms of average depth.  I'll see what I can find on the levels up there, haven't been up there yet this year.

The story showed up on KRCR News this evening:

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/drought-dries-reservoir-kills-local-fish/35314350

"I don't think there's any no wrong action that lead to this, but if we can learn from it and avoid this in the future by maybe different management actions that's the goal," said Jensen.

WTF bureaucratic speak gobbledygook horsechit?! Who done lerned this mf'er to spoke. And of course some wrong action led to this DUH

"I don't think there's any no wrong action that lead to this, but if we can learn from it and avoid this in the future by maybe different management actions that's the goal," said Jensen.

WTF bureaucratic speak gobbledygook horsechit?! Who done lerned this mf'er to spoke. And of course some wrong action led to this DUH

Haha, I know the CDFW guy on camera.  He doesn't normally speak that way, I think he was just nervous in front of the camera.

Picked up some more information on the potential future for Walker Lake.  A couple decades ago, low water in the lake prompted CDFG to transport largemouth bass from the lake to a series of ponds near Honey Lake (east of Susanville).  Those bass are still there.  There is talk of re-stocking Walker Lake with some of these bass.  Pretty cool.

I'd also floated the idea with CDFW on the possibility of stocking the lake with Sacramento perch.  Given that all the non-native sunfish are gone, Walker Lake could be a prime candidate for a Sac perch introduction (they are usually displaced by non-native sunfishes).  If that were to come true, the lake could potentially garner more attention from CDFW with regards to pushing PG&E to maintain water levels in the lake.  Native species have a lot more clout with management agencies these days than non-natives.  I hope they pursue this.