RAMONA – A city of San Diego-owned reservoir, Lake Sutherland is one of those rare places in San Diego County that has kept its backcountry identity.
In the fall and winter waterfowlers still hunt ducks at this scenic mountain lake, and come spring, there's a lottery turkey hunt that is part of the city's recreation program.
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
There's no encroaching civilization around Lake Sutherland.
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As for fishing, it's always better than advertised.
It doesn't take a visitor long to realize how special this place after turning off Highway 78 and onto Sutherland Dam Road. A mile or so down the road there's a spectacular view of the canyon that Sutherland fills. The Mesa Grande borders it on the north off Bloomdale Creek, and the Cleveland National Forest lies to the west.
Not much has changed here since then-reservoir keeper Chuck Martin opened the gate for the first time to the public in 1955. Be ready to see one of the more spectacular views of any lake in the county from the road just before the entrance. The twisty access road down to the launch ramp takes you through some oaks and old growth that will take you back to another time in this overdeveloped county.
Check out the dam to the west as you make your way to the launch ramp and boat dock. It was built to collect water from Santa Ysabel Creek and Bloomdale Creek. Construction of the dam began in 1927, but work was halted. The dam was completed in 1953.
Reports from the early years of the fishing program showed the lake had exceptional angling for northern bass, big green sunfish and bullheads. But these days those northern bass are now California-Florida-bass hybrids, and green sunfish are gone. Mike Long has the largemouth bass record of 16.55 pounds, but the lake also has turned out blue catfish to 53.8 pounds, redear sunfish to 3.30 pounds and crappie also over 3 pounds.
Fishing is just one of the activities the city oversees here. Beginning Oct. 21, waterfowl hunters will hunt from blinds along the shoreline of the reservoir, which is just over half full. Duck and goose hunting is never great here, but it always seems to improve later in the season.
Spring means turkey hunting, and each year for the last seven, the city, together with the Department of Fish and Game and the San Diego Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, has sponsored a spring hunt.
The lake has developed into a turkey hunting destination for many in California. Each year, about a month before the spring turkey opener, there is a Turkey Tune-Up sponsored by the local NWTF chapter, and more than 400 folks show up to learn about turkey hunting, pattern-in shotguns and try for a chance at a lottery hunt at Sutherland.
Jeff Von Urff of Foothills Ranch in Orange County shot the first wild turkey at the Lake Sutherland public hunt in 2000. He passed on a bearded hen and shot a jake on that first hunt. It weighed 12½ pounds and sported a 4½-inch beard. It was one of the offspring from that original plant of turkeys on the nearby McCaw Ranch.
Last year, Paul Kaminsky of San Clemente shot one of the season's bigger birds when he shot a 23½-pound tom with a 9-inch beard and 1-inch spurs. Kaminsky was a Sutherland lottery winner and hunted in the Mesa Grande Arm area.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
This is the 12th in a Saturday series on San Diego County lakes. Next week: Lake Miramar.
