Friday, December 17, 2010

No Stick Waving Today

Last summer I wrote about fishing the American River and made some mention of the flow of the river. In the pictures below, the water level was running at about 4900 cfs.


I took a shot uphill from where I was standing, fishing for Shad last summer.

Today I took a shot from an area right by that spot and from the top of the hill. Big difference in the amount of water in the river.

Then on the way out to Folsom to do some Christmas shopping (sorry guys, nothing for you), I stopped by Lake Natoma Dam and took a shot there. This is a very unusual sight. Most of the time the water is released out of a little chute on the far side of the dam. The unusual sight is having 14 of the 18 gates open and releasing water. Because of the impending storm, the Department of Water Resources is lowering Folsom Lake which is upstream from Lake Natoma. Double click on the picture and get a good look at lot bunch of water going into the American River.
I added a little video so you could get a grasp on the sound of the dam release.



Here's a quick recap of the releases.

Last Summer 4900 cfs
Tuesday (the 14th) I reported 16,000 cfs. It was actually 14,533 cfs.
Today........29,156 cfs.

Let me tell you, that is a whole lot of water. So much so, that Fire and Rescue has told boaters not to go on the river because if they have trouble, Fire & Rescue will probably not come out and help.

This is not the fullest I've ever seen the river, though. In 1986 we had so much water that the river was full, bank to bank and they were talking about blowing Dyke 8 (in the back of Folsom Lake) to relieve pressure on the dam. That alone would have flooded a good part of, what is now Rancho Cordova.

So, as the title says, no stick waving today.

Till next time.

Mark

11 comments:

  1. Saw something on the news about 6-15 feet of snow for parts of Cali....anywhere near you?

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  2. Hey Clif. I'm about 40 miles from the 8000ft Carson Pass and that's where the snow going to be deep. The news at 5:00pm said the snow line will fluctuate between 4000ft (just up the street) and 7000 ft over the next week. We should be Ok since we're at 3200ft. I like rain, don't have to shovel it.

    Mark

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  3. That is a LOT of water. Don’t think I have ever seen a river here in Colorado that I couldn’t toss a rock to the other side.

    Cool video…I subscribed to your youtube page.

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  4. So you didn't want to sling a Kastmaster into that? That's some loud water in that video.

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  5. Umm. The ground is green there?

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  6. Just talked with my mother who lives in Nevada. She mentioned that she had just heard that Northern California was bracing for a big storm to blow in. Looks like you are going to get wet again. Hopefully, as you said, you don't have to shovel much.

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  7. Mike - The ranger was parked right there and wouldn't let anyone get any closer than I was and that's quite a ways to toss a Kastmaster although, I probably could have gotten one close to the shore on this side. Haha.

    Casey - Green in the winter, brown in the summer. That's California.

    Mel - Rain expected until Christmas. I'm thinking boat, no wait, Ark.

    Mark

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  8. Mark you are making me wish for warmer weather, looking at the two guys in the shorts. The other pics are nice, but my favorite is the warm looking picture at the top.

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  9. Merry Christmas and good fishing in 2011
    Carlos, from Spain

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  10. Should make for some good gold panning in the early summer, eh? Ha!

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