The Hernandez family are sitting fishing, at the side of Lake Piru in Ventura County. It’s the first time dad Cesar has brought his children to the recreation area for a fishing trip.
"Right now with the rains we heard it was overflowing so we decided to check it out," he told KCLU.
Hernandez said it’s a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
"It gets you away from work and it's like a mental therapy for stress," he said.
"And it's also boring", he laughs.
But if they’d been seated in the exact same spot a few months ago, there would have been no fishing, because there was no water. The last time I visited, which was in 2021, this part of the lake was dry and like a beach. Now, the lake is so full that it’s spilling over.
"The last time this location had water was in 2008. It was about quarter to half a mile to the water line from here," explained Chief Park Ranger at Piru, Clayton Strahan.
"Surface-wise we have increased about 15 times," said Strahan.
"The lake has risen about 82 vertical feet from the last time you were here," he said.
"We currently have 27 billion gallons of water and back then we had about 5 billion gallons of water. That's enough water currently in the reservoir to provide service to about 160,000 homes for one year and approximately 60,000 acres of high yield, high profit crops," he said.
"It's been a tremendous year for water," said Strahan.
He says he hasn’t seen the lake spill over for 17 years, and while there’s plenty of water for fishing, the recent storms have brought debris to the lake, which is a mammoth effort to clear. It’s currently closed to boating, until it’s made safe.
A multi-million dollar FEMA grant has been utilized to help with the clean up effort, which is hoped to be completed in around four weeks.
Strahan said, "Piri is serving its mission. This lake was built for storing storm water. When you see it like this, it puts into perspective what Piru is supposed to do."
