I vote for a tastefull balance of both....we have quite a few families and quite a few partiers on the site.....drunken SAFE fun

Please explain why.....and how will they be benificial to this regatta over other spots? also, where are they located?

The largest natural freshwater lake completely within California, Clear Lake attracts anglers, boaters, skiers and swimmers year after year to the communities of Lake County. In fact, Clear Lake is well-known for its outdoor recreational opportunities, but many people do not identify the famous lake with the county in which it is centered.

Known as the Bass Capital of the West, Clear Lake has more than 43,000 surface acres, ample space for fishing, swimming, sailing, waterskiing, jet skiing, kayaking, kneeboarding, and other water sports. The elevation for Clear Lake is 1,326 feet.

Pro and amateur anglers can cast their lines at several "hot spots" in Clear Lake to catch Florida strain largemouth black bass, yellow and blue channel catfish, crappie, and bluegill.

There are 11 public boat launch ramps along the shore of Clear Lake. Fishing boats are available to rent, and local retailers sell a variety of fishing equipment. Several guides in the area offer their services for fishing Clear Lake. Several businesses around the lake rent water ski boats and equipment, jet skis, wave runners, pontoons, kayaks, pedal boats, and paddle and row boats. Two businesses offer parasail rides, one near Library Park in Lakeport, and the other at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa near Kelseyville. Additionally, sailboat rides and paddlewheel boat rides are available from local businesses.

Clear Lake is home to the NorCal Boat & Ski races each summer, and it draws a contingent of seaplane owners and flyers for the annual "Splash In" event. Model seaplane enthusiasts often converge in Lake County for a meet.

Visitors and residents enjoy boating to different areas around the lake to explore the communities along the shore or to have a meal at a lakeside restaurant.

Many beaches and campgrounds can be found around the lake, and Lake County offers opportunities for hiking, hunting, birding, rockhounding, bicycling, skydiving, gliding, horseback riding, golfing, gaming, and wine tasting.

A History of Clear Lake

The Clear Lake Basin was shaped by a variety of processes over the last 1 to 2 million years. Scientists have recovered a nearly continuous sequence of lake sediments dating back 475,000. Other lake sediments in the region that date back to the Early Pleistocene, approximately 1.6-1.8 million years ago.

There is an excellent climate record from these cores for the last 127,000 years. The record documents a shift from pine dominated to oak dominated forests at the end of the Pleistocene Glacial Period 10,000 years ago, indicating a warming trend. The diatom sequence in these cores indicate that Clear Lake has been a shallow, productive system, essentially similar to the modern lake since the end of the Pleistocene Period.

The basin was created primarily from the stresses of the San Andreas Fault System, the eruption and subsidence of the Clear Lake Volcanics, and the erosion and deposition of the parent rock. The east-west extension of the fault system and vertical movements of the faults created and maintained the basin. Downward vertical movement within the basin created by these processes is at a rate approximately equal to the average sedimentation rate of 1/28 inch/year in the lake basin.

Since these rates are essentially equal, a shallow lake has existed in the upper basin for at least the last 475,000 years. If sedimentation rates were significantly different from the downshift, then either a deepwater lake or a valley would have resulted. Although the lake has changed shape significantly over this period, it has generally been located in the same area as the existing Upper Arm.

The Lower and Oaks Arms were created by a combination of faulting and subsidence resulting from volcanic activity. The Lower Arm was a shallow marsh from 9,500 to 40,000 years ago. The Oaks Arm was probably less than 6 1/2 feet deep from 11,000 to 36,000 years ago. The downshifting of the lake bottoms in the two arms is probably a combination of faulting and volcanic activity. It has been theorized by the locations of springs on the lake bottom that calderas (collapsed volcanoes) have formed significant portions of the Lower Arm, Oaks Arm and the Narrows area. Lava flows have also changed the shoreline in the Narrows, and Lower and Oaks Arms.

The basin is located on a topographic divide between the Russian River system to the west and the Sacramento Valley to the east. The lake initially drained to the Sacramento River, then into the Russian River, and currently drains into the Sacramento River. The change in drainage is thought to be primarily due to the faulting predominant in the Coast Mountain Range, although other forces have played a part in Clear Lake's history. For instance, the basin's outlet to the Russian River was blocked about 10,000 years ago by a landslide immediately west of Blue Lakes. Blue Lakes now exists in the flooded outlet canyon.

The natural level of Clear Lake has been maintained by the Grigsby Riffle(Image), which is a rock sill located at the confluence of Cache and Seigler Creeks near Lower Lake. In 1872, Captain Rumsey established the low point of the sill as "Zero Rumsey" and all subsequent lake measurements are based on this elevation. Zero Rumsey is equivalent to 1318.256 feet (1929 NGVD). After a significant flood in 1938, the Riffle was excavated to an average depth of-2.3 feet Rumsey, however, further excavation was stopped by the courts and is now prohibited by the "Bemmerly Decree," 1940.

In 1914, the Clear Lake Dam, located approximately 3 miles downstream of the Riffle, became operational and has regulated the level of Clear Lake. Operation of the dam is now controlled by two court decrees, known as the "Gopcevic Decree" (1920), and the "Solano Decree" (1978).

These decrees attempted to balance the desire to store water in the lake for downstream water supply and local recreation with the desire to minimize local flooding. The Gopcevic Decree regulates winter water levels by setting a lake stage below which water may not be released and above which water must be released to reduce flooding. Because of the limited discharge capacity of the Cache Creek channel, it is physically impossible to prevent the lake from flooding during extended periods of heavy rainfall. Prior to construction of the dam, the highest recorded lake level was 13.66 feet Rumsey in 1890, with the lake level exceeding 10 feet Rumsey nine times between 1874 and 1914. After the dam was constructed in 1914, the highest recorded lake level has been 11.40 feet Rumsey in 1998, with the lake level exceeding 10 feet Rumsey nine times.

The Solano Decree regulates summer water levels by establishing the allowable releases based on the spring water level. If the lake level equals or exceeds 7.56 feet Rumsey on May 1, up to 150,000 ac-ft of water may be released through the dam. However, if the lake does not reach a level above 3.22 feet Rumsey on May 1, then no water may be released.

what up wild thang   we could always go to lake martinez down in yuma