Some major news recently at San Pablo. Seismic studies have shown a risk of the dam collapsing during a major earthquake. Because of this, EBMUD has drained the lake much lower than normal this year and it currently sits at 23.5 feet below full capacity. Articles on EMBUD's website and ABC 7 news suggest strongly that this low water level will be maintained, and that the lake will be completely drained to retrofit the dam in the near future!

You can read the articles here:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/102704_nw_san_pablo_dam.html

http://www.ebmud.com/water_&_environment/water_supply/current_projects/san_pablo_dam/default.htm

Now, the question to fisherman is - what is the impact here?

The short sighted view of the dam being drained and a major fish kill occurring is that it will mean bad fishing and we should all be pissed. For trout fisherman, this draw down will really suck. And for bass fisherman in the near term this draw down will really suck too! It appears likely that there will simply be no fishing at San Pablo for a period of several years.

However, a long term view of these developments could mean very good things for bass fisherman. As some of you know, San Pablo had spotted bass introduced in the lake sometime 5 or 6 years ago, possibly longer. The spotted bass, eroding shoreline cover, turbid murky water, and several other factors have combined to really hurt the trophy largemouth population in 2004. Ask the crappie fisherman where all the great crappie fishing has gone. Ask anyone if they have caught a bluegill. They haven't, because the lake is dying off! And this year even the trophy bass started to dry up. If the lake is drained, and all fish are removed or killed, spotted bass COULD actually be eradicated from the lake. The lake could be re-seeded with fish and brought back to life.

A lot of other scenarios unfold from this thing if they do drain it and kill it off completely. Trophy bass could be moved to other lakes or even stored sort of temporarily in briones. But ... EBMUD would have to be very careful not to transport any spots.

In any case, they say stakeholder input will be considered. I'm a stakeholder and you better believe I'm going to give my input. I'd encourage everyone to give their input. Think about things in the long term, be constructive. In 10 years maybe we'll have a great lake again.