Tucson angler Tom Harrison hauls back to set the hook on a largemouth among newly flooded brush at Arizona’s Roosevelt Lake. Photo by Lee Allen

Whoever said that size doesn’t matter never fished Roosevelt Lake.

Perhaps Arizona’s most popular watering hole, this granddaddy of the state’s reservoirs was built in the early 1900s. For more than four decades, I’ve been one of those ardent fans extolling the virtues of these bassin’ waters.

Most anglers tow their boats here from Phoenix or Tucson. On the road to the lake, there’s a spot where you first catch sight of the shimmering waters.

You can use that as a visual gauge of where the water level is. In the past decade or so, it’s usually been like a bathtub with a ring -- and the water surface far below.

2005 was the ninth-wettest runoff season on record. Unexpected heavy runoff from snow and rain precipitation came from the Salt and Verde rivers, filled Roosevelt Lake and other Salt River Project reservoirs, eradicating below-normal water levels in the entire system.

Not long ago, Charlie Ester, operations manager for the Salt River Project Water Resource, was looking at the possibility that the lake could dwindle to a large mud puddle. “Now, because of a winter wetter than anyone’s expectations, the lake rose to the highest point in its 100-year history,” he said.

On May 1, 2005, it hit its highest watermark ever at 2,147.99 feet, just 3 feet shy of the maximum level allowed for conservation water.

“After lots of back-to-back years of dire drought, that’s not too bad,” said fellow SRP hydrologist Dallas Reigle. “This irrigation system created by a bunch of farmers a century ago continues to do its job.”

Officials and anglers alike are glad to see launch ramps back in the water. But, said Ester, “One wet year does not end a drought of this duration,” adding that 2006 runoff figures came in quite a bit lower than 2005.

“By the end of 2006, we had dropped back about 30 feet from the history-making high-water mark. But that still leaves us with a lake of some 17,000 surface acres.”

With the newly raised cap on the dam, if the lake is 100 percent full, it would be about 19,000 acres.

“Life is good in Arizona when we have water like this,” said Hays Gilstrap, chairman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. That’s especially true for the bass population.

“Lake levels in the last year or so have put out the signal to start an epic era of water-based recreation in the SRP lake chain,” according to avid angler and G&F information officer Rory Aikens.

“Several thousand acres of brush cover along the shoreline got submerged, making Roosevelt a candidate for what we call a ‘new lake syndrome.’ That could bring productivity rivaling any water in the nation.” Aikens expects that in the next several years, Roosevelt will be one of the West’s top bass lakes.

“One super year won’t immediately turn around more than a decade of dryness,” said Warnecke. “In the reservoirs and other recreational facilities we manage, our aquifers have been recharged. But it takes a soaking of several years to make up for all the dry ones.”

Still, when life gives you lemons, set up the lemonade stand. “Hey, the water mark is up, the fish are biting, and now is the time to take advantage of nature’s unexpected bounty,” said Warnecke.