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California’s lakes are full again but fishing remains in a drought

California’s lakes are full again but fishing remains in a drought.
As he prepared to launch his fishing boat from the dock at Castaic Lake, longtime angler Dan Curtis recalled conditions two years earlier when the state’s worst drought shriveled the reservoir to nearly a third of its total capacity.
The lake is now near capacity, but below the surface of the water, not everything has returned to normal.
An above-average snowfall this winter was good news for the state’s $2.7-billion sport-fishing industry.
But conditions have yet to recover at many lakes and reservoirs in Southern California, and deep snow, ice and snow melt have put some high-elevation lakes and creeks in the Sierra Nevada out of commission.
A full recovery from the drought could take another two or three years, said Curtis, a retired computer systems analyst who has been fishing Castaic for more than 30 years.
California’s freshwater anglers spend more than $1.4 billion a year on gear, fees, gasoline and other expenses, supporting 21,500 jobs and generating more than $400 million on state and federal taxes, according to the trade group.
Jim Reid, owner of Ken’s Sporting Goods in Bridgeport, said Barney Lake, in the Sierra Nevada southwest of Bridgeport, has begun to thaw but “there is so much water coming off the mountain that the valley is a big sloppy mess.” Making matters worse, some lower-elevation lakes that receive water from the state’s water project have been choked with fast-moving snow melt that carries silt, soil and minerals downstream, anglers complain.
Mark Franco, a fishing guide in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said Diamond Valley Lake, a man-made reservoir in Hemet, is nearly full.
“Toward the end of the drought there was no place for the fish to hide,” he said as he prepared to launch his fishing boat, targeting striped bass in the deepest parts of the lake.

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