"Actually, they were extra fish," he continued. "Some of the hatchery managers called and said they had extra fish and asked if anyone wanted them. We told them to put them in Yuba. The fish being caught are not as large as those caught last year, but they're still averaging between 18 and 20 inches. A lot of them are being caught."

The problem with the walleye and perch is no different from prey/predator problems in other waters. That is, the predators, i.e. walleye, get too numerous and deplete their food supply, i.e. perch. Walleye numbers then fall, leaving anglers without much to catch.

Since the draining, the perch have rebounded, and Hepworth expects the walleye will follow close behind.

"Keeping a balance is a tough thing. You get a few good years of fantastic fishing followed by five or six years of marginal or terrible fishing," he noted. "We're hoping the habitat will help and, possibly, increasing the harvest of walleye during the good times."

"Our plan is to try and keep more of a balance so we don't have the extremes, but more good years of really good fishing by spreading the cycles out."

When the walleye and perch do peak, Hepworth said it's unlikely rainbow will continue to be planted.

As for the park itself, Rasmussen said that since the reservoir was drained and some improvements made, "visitation numbers have been growing steadily.

"What we've found is a lot of people were scared off by the drought. We still had a lot of water during that time, but so many stories were going around that we were out of water and that there were all kinds of hazards around the reservoir that people stopped coming."

Since the draining, a lot of improvements have been made. For one, the gravel parking area at Painted Rock is now a fully developed campground with 41 sites, covered picnic tables, fire pits, tent pads and a new water system.

Steve Bonar, recreation planner for the BLM, explained that the improved campground now has six new restrooms, a boat ramp, some security lighting, dump station and large group area, "and by the end of summer we'll have a host campsites completed. With all we have available at Painted Rock, we think the people will start returning to Yuba."

The reservoir is also one of the few in the state offering a boating campground, which is an improved campground with a sandy beach. Boaters are able to park their boat near their campsites.

There are, in fact, three other BLM campgrounds on the reservoir, including the state park, Eagle View, North Beach (also a boating campground) and the West Beach. Together there are a total of 240 individual campsites around the reservoir and three large group areas.