Bartlett Lake Biblical Flood 112,000 cfs

Bartlett Lake is currently at 39% (as of 01-21-10) and going up one foot an hour! By Sunday both Bartlett & Horseshoe will be 100% full. That is crazy! 112,000 cubic feet per second of water is flowing into Horseshoe & Bartlett Lake causing the water to rise one foot an hour! Crazy! The normal flow rate is 150 cfs in the winter and 1000 cfs in the spring. 112,000 cfs is an 100X increase in water flow every second! That is an Awsome amount of water!

We are in the mists of a torrent from California to New Mexico & Mexico to Nevada. Some areas are getting 5+ inches a day with 3ft of snow above 5000ft. We even had a tornado warning (some reports of a funnel) over Scottsdale & Carefree. The marinas walkway was damage in this wind storm. Bryan has `all hands on deck` endlessly cranking loose mooring lines. 40+ lines, 10 people, every hour for the next 4 days! Those folks are going to have CRAZY sore arms! Additionally, Mike & Cindy have to continually adjust the gas, water & sewer lines and add new dock links before the rising waters literally rip everything apart. Let's hope my boat weathered the storm!

I'm hoping the cold water will put off the spring spawn for a month and allow the fish (specially the shad) to feed on the tons of nutrience being pumped into both lakes. The higher waters, increased shore-lines and abundance of food should make for a fantastic & successful spawn. On a downside; the lake is going to be very hard to fish w/ all the extra feed. The debris fields will make the lake completely unnavigable (but will provide great cover for the spawning fish and fry) with WHOLE trees floating down the center of the lake. One medium water-logged stump will completely destroy your boats lower unit, out-drive and fiberglass. Not to mention the gel-coat and impeller damage even the smallest debris will cause. The lake will be a mine field for the next month. It will take an army of Mexicans to clear that lake and the responsibility will fall on Bryan. It's a good thing the Army Core of Engineers got the dam repairs done and spill-way debris removed before this flood hit! Completed Dec. 1st 2009 The nutrience will cause a CRAZY algae bloom this spring. There will be 10 foot algae beards flowing from every boat & dock until the water warms and the carp come back. All things considered, this biblical flood should really benefit the health of the lake and Bartlett Lake Marina once the debris has been removed. Now, if only we could get APS to leave Horseshoe full and leave Bartlett alone! Not Likely!