Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3802 Jan 4-18 | Page 18

16 January 4-18, 2019 MAP FEATURE VOL.38 • ISS. 2 The habitat projects at Horseshoe Lake, shown here, and nearby Rainbow Lake helped enhance the fishery at both lakes. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. O Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area Offers Trout, Catfish & Black Bass n a cold December morning in 2001, my late cousin Tom Mulderrig and I arrived in my truck to sit in a long line of vehicles waiting for the grand opening of the Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area. After the gate opened, we paid our parking and fishing fees at the kiosk, quickly parked and walked down to the lake It was exciting to fish a new lake, Horseshoe Lake, that had been planted with many thousands of pounds of trout. For years, I had heard stories of people who snuck into the quarry ponds to bag big small- mouth bass. I quickly caught my limit of rainbows in the 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 pound range while throwing out Power Bait and night- crawlers. Others around us were doing well also. It was the great way to begin a new chapter in outdoor recreation in the Fremont and Union City area. Pete Alexander, the fisheries program director for the district, at the time, was walking along checking out the catches and I showed him my limit of rainbows. It was the first limit from the lake he had seen that day – so I always joke with people that I caught the first “officially certified limit of rainbows” reported from Quarry Lakes. Quarry Lakes has quite a history. The quarries that Quarry Lakes Regional Recre- ation Area is named for were established in the mid-19th century. Gravel taken from the banks of Alameda Creek was used in the construction of the transcontinental railroad’s western section, according to the East Bay Regional Park District After quarrying ended, The East Bay Regional Park District stocks huge rainbow trout like the one just landed by this angler. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. the Alameda County Water District began to use the lake for groundwater recharge by diverting water from Alameda Creek into the pits. Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area was the culmination of many years of planning and partnership between the Water District and the East Bay Regional Park District. The two agencies acquired the property that now comprises the park between 1975 and 1992 through purchase, donation and inter-agency agreements. Of the park’s 471 acres, some 350 acres are the lakes. The first phase of park construction began in 1997, when the Alameda County Water District used grading equipment to flatten the slopes of the quarry pit. This minimized erosion and sedimentation, while also creating land contours more suitable for parkland. Then in August of 2000 the Park District began creating the recreational facilities at Quarry Lakes, including turfgrass lawns, picnic areas, shade pavilions, a swim beach, a boat launch ramp, and a trail network. There are two lakes you can fish in the Quarry Lakes Recreation Area, Horseshoe and Rainbow. The most heavily fished one, Horseshoe Lake, offers a year-round trout fishery, since the rainbows are able to thrive in the lake’s deep waters during the summer. The park district and CDFW together stock tens of thousands of pounds of rainbow trout in Horseshoe every year. During the summer, the district also plants channel catfish in Horseshoe. In 2017, the EBRPD stocked 18880 lbs. of trout and 3250 lbs. of catfish. The CDFW also planted 2900 lbs. of trout/catfish and CDFW Urban Fishing program stocked 500 lbs. of trout. In 2018 to date, the EBRPD has planted 14,700 lbs. of trout and 3750 lbs. of catfish. The CDFW also stocked 4000 lbs. of trout/catfish and the CDFW Urban Fishing program planted 1250 lbs. of trout. There is lots of great bank access around Horseshoe Lake, including a handicapped accessible dock. Anglers can also launch their boats at the boat launch. Bank anglers experience the top trout action while tossing out nightcrawlers, Power Bait, Kastmasters, Rooster Tails and other lures. Trollers find the top action while using an array of spinners, spoons and plugs or nightcrawlers behind flashers or dodgers. Anglers catch both trout and catfish during the summer – and many catfish are landed by anglers bait fishing for rainbows. At Horseshoe you never know when that next bite may be from a trophy rainbow. Mike Cassell of San Jose landed the lake record 20 lb. rainbow while tossing out a Kastmaster from shore in December 2009. Other fish found in the lake include bluegill, carp, tule perch, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento sucker, Sacra- mento pike-minnow and Sacramento hitch. The park district does annual fish community surveys at the same sites from June-July to assess the fish popu- lations. Surveys are conducted at night using an electro-fishing boat. “The highest catch rates for sport fish in Horseshoe Lake were observed during 2016,” according to Edward Culver, fisheries biologist for the East Bay Regional Park District, in his most recent report on the lake. “Largemouth bass continue to make up the majority of our catch. The largemouth bass popula- tion appears to have had good reproduc- tion most years, especially in 2016.” “Due to the structure of the lake, adult largemouth bass cannot be effectively sampled because they are likely in the deeper zones where electrofishing is