Sometimes the tools we use for recreation can be used for other things. Sometimes these other things can be a lot more important than fishing!

I live in northern California and we are in the middle of a severe drought. A local water district was very concerned about their intake in Lake Mendocino becoming exposed. They wanted to try and measure the depth over their fish screen, but the boat launch has long since been dewatered.

With no way to launch a boat they were at a loss. Fishing kayak to the rescue! I launched my yak, fired up the Raymarine dragonfly and went to work. I cruised the shoreline looking for their intakes.

It didn’t take long and I was able to find their intakes. You can see them (one at 5 feet and one at 9 feet) on the right side of the screenshot. These are normally 45 feet underwater!

I then went offshore of there intake looking for deeper water and found spots up to 35 feet deep near there diversion.

The water district is using the information I gathered make emergency plans for water rationing and to design a barge-mounted emergency intake to float over the deeper water I identified.

It was very satisfying to use our versatile craft to help folks deal with this terrible situation! WTG JK and Raymarine!!!