I’ve been curious about the runoff in the creeks and river in Eastern California so I loaded up the buggy and headed North for 3 days last week. Trout season opened the last Saturday of April so the crowds have slowed down and the rush on the creeks is over.
I gotta say, this is one of the highest flows I’ve seen in the 36 years I’ve been going up there. The Owens river is flowing bank to bank and to the top everywhere we stopped to look at it. The creeks from Cottonwood to Lee Vining are full and fast.
Bishop creek, both South fork and North fork are flowing fast and furious with a lot of overflow in places where the water can spread out. The roads to North Lake and South Lake are closed due to snow. The road is open all the way to the parking lot at Lake Sabrina. Fishing in the creeks and river is pretty rough. We did catch a few stockers at the sand trap on Lee Vining Creek and I brought 2 to hand at Intake II. I also took a few from the creek at the turnoff to North Lake. Friday the wind got up to 25 to 40 Knots so we gave up and came home. I had a good time for the most part. Learned what I wanted to about the water conditions up there.
Hopefully when my son comes out from Texas the middle of June things will have calmed down and I’ll be able to wade the creeks and river. Jim
So, does this sound like the drought is over, or just temporarily?
The drought is not over:
PT/TB
That was really kind of a joke - I remember growing up, hearing people from California saying “save water, shower together”. I think Cal. will always have drought.
As the country’s most populated and wasteful state, I don’t think the drought will ever be over in California. Our problem is we don’t have near enough storage space to last us through troubled times. If this year repeats itself in snow and rainfall for the next several years, we would have enough water to grow a few crops, water a few golf courses and flush about a billion toilets a day. The rest is used by cooking, cleaning, bathing and drinking. Jim