Auburn Dam - What Kind of Fishery Would It Have Been?

[OceanSunfish]

I know Auburn Dam is a dead issue.... However, I'm curious as to what kind of fishery would that body of water produced?

I surmise the lake would've been a deep lake with steep canyon walls and very little shallow flats or sandy gravel bottom shorelines... I see another New Melones or Don Pedro? Too low for it to be an Almanor?

A lake for trollers.... Kokanee, big trout in the winter, maybe smallies in the spring..... ??

[dpentoney]

On the radio yesterday Tom McClintock said it is not a dead issue, that Auburn dam would be built.

[Ralph]

Think a very big Lake Clementine.
For being a fiscal conservative, McClintock sure wants to pour a lot of our taxes into a dam project that no amount of creative accounting by Doolittle could come anywhere close to making pay for itself. Then there is the inconvenient fact that in normal years American River water rights are already over-allotted and would flow right through the dam. The guy is a pandering jack ass whose actions speak louder than his rhetoric.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks Ralph

I guess if all the water is already spoken for then the storage would not be of any use.

If "we" owned the water it might be different.


If we owned the water maybe the Lower American River who be more like the Lower Sacramento River with a nice wild trout fishery?


I heard they put those "shutters" on Folsom Dam some years back to control the water temperature for the Natomas fish hatchery for trout/steelhead/salmon but they have not been able to keep enough water in Folsom Lake to be effective.

[OceanSunfish]

Think a very big Lake Clementine.
For being a fiscal conservative, McClintock sure wants to pour a lot of our taxes into a dam project that no amount of creative accounting by Doolittle could come anywhere close to making pay for itself. Then there is the inconvenient fact that in normal years American River water rights are already over-allotted and would flow right through the dam. The guy is a pandering jack ass whose actions speak louder than his rhetoric.

I figured it would be, as you say, a "big Lake Clementine". The pass-thru waterway would be like bigger Lewiston ?! :rolleyes:

I live in the 4th district, and unfortunately, I have the "pandering jack ass" as my rep. Lately, he's been busy "representing" the folks in Fresno County and denouncing the cutbacks to water exports, etc. Not exactly 4th district issues.

On another note, too bad the Lower American isn't "managed" like the Lower Sac.... It sure would be something to have that kind of fishery right on the American.

[lowersierra]

Ralph,
We can't forget the fault line that lies underneath the proposed site for the dam. Luckily it moved to the tune of 7.1 before they got going too far.