Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District

“This 9.75-pound rainbow was caught this morning at Lone Pine using a garlic night crawler, making for one happy angler!”

Dock Totals 1/22 – 2/4: 1,063 anglers aboard 51 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past two weeks caught 9 barracuda, 1 black seabass (released), 2 bonito, 33 calico bass (95 released), 41 halfmoon, 4 halibut (6 released), 146 lingcod, 11 perch, 35 spiny lobster (86 released), 5 rock crab, 2,035 rockfish, 589 sand bass, 466 sculpin, 12 sheephead, 2 triggerfish, 349 whitefish, and 3 yellowtail.

Saltwater: Local fishing has been very good for the ‘off season’ when weather allows. Sand bass and halibut have been active on the flats off Imperial beach, while calico bass have been biting along the kelp edges. In the bays, spotted bay bass, halibut, and a few shortfin corvina have been showing well. Barred surf perch are biting well on the beaches, mostly on sand crabs on a Carolina rig and plastic grubs worked between the outer break and the beach.

Moving down the coast south of the border, rockfish, whitefish, and lingcod have been the majority of the catch off northern Baja, with a few yellowtail showing between Ensenada and the Colinet-Erenderia area. The first decent yellowtail action as you go south will be at the high spots off San Quintin, though the best ticket for winter ‘tails this time of year is off the southern half of the peninsula as yellowtail move south for the winter and remain until April or May.

There has been little mention of bluefin tuna on the offshore banks over the past couple weeks, though that is more due to weather and little access to the grounds than the amount of fish in those areas. I still expect to see some in the reports as conditions allow boats the opportunity to seek them out. They’re always out there somewhere, it is just a matter of being able to get out and look for them. Thankfully, there is plenty of inshore action to target for freezer-filling trips for rockfish in Mexican waters just across the border, and the bass and halibut bite in local waters. All in all, it’s not a bad winter for San Diego saltwater anglers given the amount of inclement weather through the first month of the year.

Freshwater: With rain accumulations double the January average in San Diego County, area lakes have been rising for the first time in a while, which the stocked trout seem to like. Reports of limits of trout have been fairly consistent at Jennings, Poway, Santee Lakes, Wohlford, and Cuyamaca. There have been quite a few of those trout caught that were over 5-pounds, especially at Wohlford, Santee, and Cuyamaca. Power Bait has been the go-to bait, with inflated nightcrawlers also doing some damage, while the best working lures have been mini-jigs on light 4-pound test, followed by small spinner blades such as Roostertails, or Buoyant and Kastmaster spoons.

In particular, Lake Cuyamaca has benefitted from the above-average rainfall this past month. The upper basin, which has been normally dry in recent years, is full enough to run the transfer pumps that cycle water between the upper basin and the main reservoir. When running, the pumps aerate the water, which seems to more inspire the stocked trout to bite. The upper basin is not only full of water, the trout are also being stocked up in there and, according to some, the bite has been even better than in the main lake. As trout fishing in San Diego can seem a bit out of place given the climate, Cuyamaca, at 4,620 feet in elevation, is the only lake in the county that holds trout year-round, and as such, they stock a whopping 45,000 pounds of rainbow trout annually.

Other than trout, the lake has a decent and often-overlooked largemouth bass population, and in 1995-96, was stocked with a small number of both smallmouth bass and white sturgeon. Both species are unique to Cuyamaca among the county lakes and they still exist in the lake, and though catches of smallmouth bass are rare, several sturgeon are caught each year. The lake record for white sturgeon is over 50-pounds and 62-inches in length, the fish caught in 2014 by 14-year-old Kameron Kane on ultralight gear while fishing for trout.

A California State fishing license is required for anglers 16 and up, along with a lake use permit. Permits are $10 for ages 16-64, and $5 for youth ages 8-15, Senior, disabled, active military, veterans, and first responders. Youths 7 and under fish for free when with a paying adult. Fishing is allowed at Lake Cuyamaca one-hour before sunrise until one-hour after sunset.

They’re out there, so go get ‘em!

Notable catches:

1/22 – 9 hoop-netters aboard the Alicia Twilight lobster trip had a good night on the bugs, with 21 lobster kept out of 66 raised.

1/26 - 234 rockfish and 1 sculpin were caught by 24 anglers aboard the Premier ¾-Day run south of the border.

1/29 – The Pacifica called in from their 1.5-Day trip to Mexican waters with 98 rockfish, 20 whitefish, 15 lingcod, 3 calico bass, 2 sheephead, and 2 barracuda for the 14 anglers aboard.

2/3 – Working out of Oceanside, the Chubasco II ½-Day twilight run in local waters with 13 anglers aboard returned to the dock with 58 sculpin, 15 sand bass, and 3 calico bass in the sacks.

2/4 – 30 anglers aboard the New Seaforth extended ½-Day trip loaded up on taco meat, with 191 rockfish caught for the day.

Fish Plants: 2/9 – Lake Poway, trout (1,500), 2/10 – Santee Lakes, lakes 4&6, trout (1,500), 2/12 – Lake Wohlford, trout (2,000), 2/21 – Lake Jennings, trout (1,500)