Lake Hodges opener fishes still biting despite low water

Lake Hodges swung open its proverbial gates on Wednesday, Feb. 7, under the same ironclad rules and regulations that were holding court in 2023.

Ah, fishing—a pursuit as noble as whittling a fine piece of oak into a chair leg, but with the added benefit of possibly getting dinner out of the deal.

The grand season opener at Lake Hodges arrived with all the pomp and circumstance of a turtle stretching its legs after a long winter nap—slow, deliberate, and not exactly inspiring. But patience, like a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, has its rewards.

Since that sluggish start, the bite has been on an upward trajectory, and there’s already a bass of impressive girth in the books, tipping the scales into double-digit territory. That’s the kind of thing that warms a fisherman’s heart—right up there with a perfectly tied Palomar knot.

Early reports following the February 5 opener spoke of a challenging bass bite, the kind that makes a person reconsider their lure choices, their life choices, and perhaps whether or not fish have a personal vendetta against them. However, the following Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays—the designated fishing days—have been showing signs of improvement.

Laina Ruiz, who holds the keys to both the boat rentals and the wisdom of the water, reports that things are picking up. And what’s leading the charge? Rat-L-Traps and crankbaits. Hard-working, reliable lures—much like a well-built canoe, they get the job done with efficiency and a bit of style.

So, my friends, if you fancy yourself a person of patience and fortitude, grab your gear, put on your most confident fishing hat, and head to Lake Hodges. The bass are warming up, and with a little perseverance, you just might land yourself a story worth telling.

Ah, the great outdoors—a realm where patience, grit, and a healthy respect for nature’s bounty come together in a symphony of rugged satisfaction. And folks, it appears that Hodges is delivering the goods.

“The bass have started showing up, and we finally have a lot of people catching fours and fives,” reports our man Ruiz, likely while nodding solemnly and stroking an imaginary beard of wisdom.

But let’s pause and tip our well-worn hats to a truly notable specimen. NorCal crappie wizard Jerry Yang, a man who spends exactly one day a year at Hodges, found himself in an impromptu battle of wills when his modest crappie.

Ruiz said that bite has been “fantastic” and some legit slabs are being reported. There was also a 51-pound catfish landed by a shore pounder, and panfish anglers working from shore are doing pretty well on good-sized bluegill.

Now, before you go polishing up your bass boat and strapping on your captain’s hat, let’s set the record straight: the water level is still low, just like when they closed it up, and the boat ramp? Yeah, still off-limits.

Brian Godfrey and the rest of the volunteers of Kayaking For The Birds/Lake Hodges Photo Tours

“Only kayaks, float tubes, and whatever folks can lug from the ramp to the water will be allowed,” said lake staffer Laina Ruiz, channeling the kind of no-nonsense practicality that built this country. So, in other words, if you can carry it, you can float it. If not, you’re out of luck.

And, as anticipated, folks wasted no time snatching up every last rental boat like they were slices of prime rib at a firehouse cookout. Seeing that demand was about as predictable as a sunrise, Ruiz and company made sure to fortify their fleet ahead of the 2024 season. “We got all the boats from Lake Miramar, and they’re all really nice with new motors,” she said, which is about as close to poetry as lake management gets.

Now, let’s take a stroll down memory lane. Lake Hodges took an unscheduled nap back in May of 2022 when the city decided it was high time to patch up the ol’ dam. Officials called it “critical infrastructure enhancement,” which is bureaucrat-speak for “we should have done this a while ago, but here we are.”

According to an official statement from the City of San Diego, inspections found that the dam had some spots that needed a good sealing, so they started draining it like a man emptying a coffee pot before a long day of honest labor. They estimated it’d take five months to finish. Spoiler alert: it did not.

By late September 2022, the whole timeline got kicked down the road, pushing back the 2023 opener—an outcome that surprised precisely no one in the Southern California fishing community, which has long viewed the city’s lake management strategy as something between a comedy routine and a cautionary tale.

Still, in the interest of preserving both public safety and a century-old dam, Council Member Marni von Wilpert put it plainly: “I understand this is frustrating, but dam integrity must not be compromised.” Which, let’s be honest, is not the most thrilling battle cry, but it’s hard to argue with the logic.

So, for now, Lake Hodges is back in action—just don’t expect to roll up with a bass boat unless you’ve got a strong back and a dolly.

Lake Hodges Dam: Past Its Prime, Like an Old Mule

Western grebes engaged in their rushing courtship ritual at Lake Hodges./Brian Caldwell.Lake Hodges Photo Tours

Well, folks, it looks like the Lake Hodges Dam is officially on its last legs. On March 23, engineers downgraded the structure to “unsatisfactory” condition— which, in dam-speak, is the lowest rating possible. In normal person terms, that means:

“This thing ain’t holding water much longer.” The Department of Safety of Dams (DSOD) has made it clear—either serious repairs need to happen, or the whole thing needs to be torn down and replaced. And let’s be honest, the second option is starting to sound more and more like the right call.

San Diego officials, along with state agencies, are hashing out a plan for a brand-new dam. But don’t hold your breath—it’s a big, complicated project, and according to Juan Guerreiro, the City’s Public Utilities Director, we’re looking at a rough timeline of 2034. That’s right, we’ve got a full decade to wait for a new hunk of concrete to keep the water where it’s supposed to be.

In the meantime, safety concerns mean Lake Hodges has been getting drained like a poorly planned bathtub. Back in November 2022, the city had to let loose about 250 million gallons of water from the lake into the San Dieguito River after some rain made things dicey.

Per California safety regulations, the water level has to stay at least 40 feet below the spillway. That release alone dropped the lake’s level by two feet—because, as it turns out, when your dam is sketchy, you don’t get to keep a full lake.

Adding a little salt to the wound, former Lake Hodges reservoir keeper Conway Bowman noted at the time that the water was too low to pump up to Olivenhain Reservoir, meaning there was no choice but to send it downriver.

On the bright side, after a nearly year-long closure for repairs, Lake Hodges reopened for recreation on May 31, 2023. So, while the dam might be a lost cause, at least folks can get back to fishing and paddling while the city figures out how to replace this aging concrete relic.