[OneBlade]

Copied and pasted from "Growing up in Globe" Facebook post by John Parsons:

It just keeps getting better...

San Carlos Lake is putting on a Show this season.  The lake keeps going up and UP!  The Lake has risen an eye-popping 79 feet since it was bone dry at Noon May 20, 2022.  It has risen 32 feet since the beginning of the "Water Year" October 1st and yet another 12 feet just since the stroke of midnight on New Year's.

Currently, San Carlos Lake holds 326,700 acre feet.  At Noon on May 20, 2022, it held 1.34 acre feet.  According to the Gila Water Commission Office in Safford, San Carlos Lake is now capable of holding 861,540 acre feet.  So today's level means the Lake is 37.9% full, a level not seen in years.

While The Gila River provides the lion's share of San Carlos Lake's water, the San Carlos River itself has been working hard to help bring up the Lake, too.  On January 16-17, The San Carlos River had identical twin peaks of 11,300 cubic feet per second (cfs) almost exactly 24 hours apart!. 

The 11,300 cfs flows rank in the top 30% of flows recorded in the past 85 years.

The first picture is the back of a postcard from the 1930s when it possibly was near full

[Fishless]

To bad there are probably no game fish left in the lake and you can bet San Carlos irrigation dist will be selling the water all year

[ffp1711]

Bruce, Last time there was a "total fish kill"....3 years later, a buddy and I caught limits of 11-12" crappie in 3 hours one day.   There just has to be a few crappie leftover and the TRIBE needs to LEAVE the water in it for them to reproduce like crazy.  One can always hope.....

[Fishless]

interesting we can only hope, buddy that hunts there on the res says no one sells the permits off site you have to go to the   game and fish office there in the area (don't know if it is true or not?)

[apenland01]

The young lady at the SCG&F shop on the highway said you could only get a pass from there, although that was last year when the water was low...

[Tweeder]

I bet it's been stocked already or fish are in route. They did that last time (pretty quick) and ended up with a mixed batch of whites and black crappie probably buying whatever someone had leftover cheap knowing the lake would dry up again and have another fishkill. And that isn't a dig by any means. I would do the exact same in that situation knowing that between limited inflows (town in NM taking Gila river water), 100 year old downstream water rights for farms, and arid desert conditions means unfortunately this is likely the cycle for this lake unless something major changes. A good year or two of fishing after a wet winter then drain down to min pool and refill in better water years.  Crazy watching this cycle over and over now, good news is we know those crappie will grow super fast as that's one of the best fisheries in the SW when it's got enough water. Last recon mission we did after a draw down to 1% then fill the shad population exploded first then that following spring reports started trickling in on decent fish being caught.   

[Fishless]

I bet it's been stocked already or fish are in route. They did that last time (pretty quick) and ended up with a mixed batch of whites and black crappie probably buying whatever someone had leftover cheap knowing the lake would dry up again and have another fishkill. And that isn't a dig by any means. I would do the exact same in that situation knowing that between limited inflows (town in NM taking Gila river water), 100 year old downstream water rights for farms, and arid desert conditions means unfortunately this is likely the cycle for this lake unless something major changes. A good year or two of fishing after a wet winter then drain down to min pool and refill in better water years.  Crazy watching this cycle over and over now, good news is we know those crappie will grow super fast as that's one of the best fisheries in the SW when it's got enough water. Last recon mission we did after a draw down to 1% then fill the shad population exploded first then that following spring reports started trickling in on decent fish being caught.

I have never heard of the reservation re-stocking San Carlos? they don't take care of the lake (launch ramps, restrooms) with the water gone within a year or so unless we go out of the drought mode wondering if they would spend the money? I know g and f tried to find white crappie two years ago and nobody sells them anymore