For the first time since quagga mussels were found in San Diego County reservoirs nearly a year ago, private boats tomorrow will be allowed on Lake Cuyamaca.
Supervising ranger Willard Lepley said the Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District funded construction of a $5,000 high-pressure, heated spray and collection tank. All boats with outboard motors entering Cuyamaca must be sprayed, Lepley said, to prevent the spread of quagga mussels into the lake. He said it takes about 10 minutes to completely decontaminate the boat. Quagga mussels can ruin a lake's ecosystem and infrastructure, and crash a fishery.
The cost will be $10, but Lepley said lake regulars may avoid paying a second time if a seal placed on their boat has not been broken since their last visit to Cuyamaca.
Quagga mussels were found in Dixon Lake and San Vicente last August and have since spread to every lake that gets Colorado River water. They also have been found at Lake Hodges, which is not hooked up to the Colorado River aqueduct. A boater who had been at a quagga-infested lake is suspected of spreading them in Hodges.
Officials at lakes such as Dixon, Poway, Wohlford and Cuyamaca have put strong restrictions on all crafts. Wohlford continues to ban private crafts of all kinds.
Notable
Tonight is the third night of the grunion run, with beach dancing expected from 10:45 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. Tomorrow night's run is expected from 11:35 p.m. to 1:35 a.m.
The next Fishing Information Night School (F.I.N.S.) at Anglers Marine in Santee is set for Monday, with dinner at 6, followed by a seminar with Northern California bass pros Gary Dobyns and Jimmy Reese. Call (619) 449-FISH for details.
Rabbit hunting season opened Tuesday, and El Cajon's Rod Smith was out, heat and all, putting a limit of five rabbits together. Smith, who will be 75 on Christmas Day, remembers he was 9 when he shot his first rabbit with a single-shot .410. “I do not think I have missed a rabbit season in all these years except for two combat tours in Vietnam,” Smith wrote in an e-mail. “I always managed to be able to hunt the first of the season, no matter where I lived. I managed to get a limit near the S-2 area, but it was tough and hot. Rabbits are great eating and when one fries them like chicken, hard to beat.”
Ever want to carve a decoy? Award-winning carver Del Herbert has received an endowment from the Ward Foundation and the National Arts Program to teach decoy carving to six new carvers. The finished decoys will be taken back to the Ward Museum in Salisbury, Md., in October to compete in the “Chesapeake Challenge.” Call Herbert at (619) 421-1034.
Stocked this week were Santee Lakes (1,000 pounds of channel catfish) and Palomar Mountain's Doane Pond (DFG rainbow trout).
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
