Jerry Hovis idles patiently while he waits for the big one to bite during the Coastal Bassmasters tournament at Riffe Lake in the fall of 2015. Hovis eventually wound up winning the tournament.
Although nothing is for certain yet, much has been made about a proposal from Tacoma Power to keep Riffe Lake at least 30 feet below its normal capacity during summers for the foreseeable future.
Local businesses have expressed concern over the impact the drawdown will have on their bottom line. Local politicians have expressed dismay at being left out of the loop on the decision-making process and some longtime local residents have expressed frustration that the lake that now covers their ancestral homes could be reduced to a 23-miles stretch of stump-smattered backwater.
Typical of optimistic anglers though, the Coastal Bassmasters are approaching the proposed change from a glass half-full perspective.
“It shouldn’t really affect us at all. We’ll still be out there doing our thing,” said Lee Bunnell, of Aberdeen, president of the Coastal Bassmasters club, which holds a tournament at Riffe Lake each year in early October. “It should actually make it better to fish. It just condenses the fish and gives them less areas to go.”
Updated concerns over the integrity of the dam spillway piers in the event of a large-scale seismic happening have prompted Tacoma Power to propose the 30-foot reduction of typical summer water levels. They say that if an earthquake were to strike hard enough and near enough to the dam, the spillway piers could break off and allow the lake to drain out uncontrollably and flood communities downstream.
By lowering the lake level in advance of any prospective seismic event, Tacoma Power says that any resulting spillage through the dam, and the resulting flooding, would be kept within the relatively safe parameters of the most recent high flow events.
No timetable has been offered for the completion of the project, but Tacoma Power has called the lower level the “new normal” and expected that the project will stretch into the next decade.
The reduced lake level will put numerous boat launches out of commission, as well as the popular Taidnapam Park fishing bridge. But the floating dock at the north Taidnapam Park boat launch is designed to accommodate such drastic fluctuations in water level. Since the Coastal Bassmasters have already made a habit out of utilizing that floating dock and boat launch, the lower summer water level will not represent much in the way of meaningful change for the group.
Tacoma Power Generation Manager Pat McCarty has noted that Riffe Lake is not a managed fishery, so any catchable fish in the reservoir represent landlocked fish from upriver spawning or surplus hatchery stock dumped by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Bunnell, though, says that there is another way that fish wind up in Riffe Lake, particularly the bass that his group prefers to target. He gives the credit to a motley crew of what he calls “bucket biologists” who scoop up bass from other locations and then dump them in the lake for future fishing prospects.
Eric Roos, web designer and boating safety officer for the Coastal Bassmasters, has been fishing Riffe Lake with his club since 1991, and he says the low water level will not be anything new for the group of dedicated anglers.
“We fished it last year in the first part of October and it was really, really low. I think the only launch available to launch was north Taidnapam,” said Roos. “As long as we can get the boats in at a launch we’ll be fine.”
As boating safety officer, Roos said he does harbor concern about the old stumps and other geographical hazards that may be exposed by the lower lake level.
“There’s always concern on that. So we always have a drivers meeting before we launch in order to go over any hazards that guys have seen out there and we always try to make everyone aware of the hazards that lead out of Taidnapam,” explained Roos.
With safety on the forefront of the group’s collective mind, Roos says that improved fishing prospects will likely be the biggest impact the Coastal Bassmasters notice from a lower than usual Riffe Lake.
“It’s not going to impact us at all. As a matter of fact, as that lake is brought down the fishing gets better,” said Roos. “It concentrates all of the fish in that lake to more of the points and the natural features that the lake has. When it’s up at full pool and it’s flooded like that these fish are kind of nomadic and they travel all over the place, so it makes it hard to find groups of fish.”
Roos says that the Coastal Bassmasters was formed in 1996 and has fished at its tournament at Riffe Lake every year since. Prior to that the group was known at the Grays Harbor Bassmasters, and Roos says this club’s annual sojourn to Riffe Lake dates back to at least 1991.
“I would say that within the last four years that lake has really taken off as far as the quality of fish,” said Roos. “For the smallmouth, and even the largemouth bass fishing it’s really phenomenal.”
Additional information on the Coastal Bassmasters can be found online at http://coastalbassmasters.webs.com/.
