It's been awhile since Mark Miller and his fellow ranger-divers have found signs of poaching at San Vicente. But the storied reservoir northeast of Lakeside has had more than its share of illegal fishing and hunting over the years.
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
Ranger-diver Mark Miller will have to move to another lake when San Vicente closes.
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Part of it is because of how remote it is, part of it is because of how accessible it can be for those willing to take a chance. And there are always poachers willing to take a chance.
In one instance, Miller recalled finding a secret encampment in a dry wash in Kimball Arm that was loaded with fishing rods and reels, all tucked away neatly in a cave so the users didn't have to carry gear to the lake.
“Some of them were junk, but there were some really nice ones in there, too,” said Miller on a recent Saturday afternoon patrol of San Vicente. “We found one lair with over 75 rods and reels in it, some of them pretty nice stuff. Impounded it all.”
Out on Lowell Island, which holds deer that swim back and forth from the island to shore, Miller once found caves with bows and arrows and hunting gear.
Miller, a ranger-diver with the city of San Diego's Water Department, said the poaching seemed to ebb when off-roading ended on the north end above Mussey Point. A gate was installed, preventing off-roaders from riding down to their secret fishing holes.
Miller recalled those stories on an afternoon during what surely will be San Vicente's last fall and winter fishing season until possibly 2017.
The reservoir's dam is being raised by the County Water Authority to allow for more storage when water shortages choke this region. If you listen to the doomsayers, the end is very near, and that dam can't be raised fast enough for them.
Miller said he's heard that the “drop-dead date” for final closure of the reservoir to all recreation is July 4.
“Imagine another 65 or so feet of water over your head,” Miller said as he drove around the lake. “When they raise the dam, that's what it will be like here. We basically have about 65 feet of water under us right now, but imagine another 65 feet or so of water above us.”
It's clear this is a place Miller has made his second home, a place where he really doesn't just going to work, but a place he goes each day to live and enjoy a full day. He came here from Santa Cruz on a swimming scholarship to San Diego State in 1977, and he never left.
Miller has given a big chunk of his life, more than 22 years, here. He even lost some skin on his legs to burns suffered during the Cedar Fire when he was trying to save reservoir keeper Larry Rodrigues' home.
“I really will miss this place,” Miller said. “Everywhere I look, every sandy beach, I can remember something that happened. Over there, a boat sank. Over there, we had to pull someone out of the water who was really hurt in a boating accident. Over there, kids would dive off the rocks, and we'd have to tell them how dangerous it is diving into water where you can't see the bottom.
“I can't explain it, but this is such a unique lake. The long arms and secluded coves. We have such great access to animals here. Where else in the county can you drive your boat and drive up on deer the way we can here?”
As he drives the ranger-diver boat along the shoreline of Aqueduct Arm, a popular spot for fishing because it's where the Colorado River water enters, he points out the carcass of a deer. It's a doe, and Miller believes it was killed by coyotes.
“I looked for a bullet wound, or an arrow wound, but nothing,” he said. “If coyotes brought her down, it was a big pack of coyotes because she was one very big doe.”
Later he motored upon some live deer, and watched a healthy forked horn buck nosing after a doe in the annual rite of the rut.
Critter encounters are part of his job, and then there's the underwater stuff as part of the ranger-diver's job. How many people can say they wrestled with a 70-pound blue catfish? Miller can.
“I was on a dive, and I had one swim right at me, turn up over my belly, and when it got to my chest, I bear-hugged it,” Miller said. “It just picked me up and threw me. Talk about powerful. We had some SWAT team divers down, and they were scared of some of these big catfish we have.”
There have been times when the job has been extra challenging because of people not operating their boat safely or not realizing the dangers of a reservoir.
“I've seen my share of injuries out here, even deaths,” Miller said. “Countless injuries, hundreds of dislocated shoulders, broken bones. We had two drownings. I had five deaths on my shift alone. That's over 22 years.
“One guy had his leg cut off, with just three inches of femur bone left at the joint. Got run over by his own boat, which an inexperienced boater was running.”
Miller would like to see some areas of the lake preserved when the lake is raised. Sort of move the historical markers or mark areas where history was made on the lake.
Miller has found stairs that go deep into the lake, structures left from the old Foster's Stage Station and town that was covered by the reservoir.
Then there's the Chimney, a stone structure that fishermen know well because it always seems there's good fishing at the rock piles there between Barona Arm and Kimball Arm.
“I figure we can get some volunteers from the fishing community, dismantle the chimney and move it higher, above the water line so fishermen will have some sense of history and where they are on the lake when the water is raised,” Miller said.
But Miller knows he's running out of time.
“What's great about this place is it will get even better when they raise the dam,” Miller said. “The boating aspect here, the fact that people are limited to where they can go, and only by boat, they can only take in so much, and the lake stays pristine. So whatever they take in, they bring out and leave it pristine for the next people to enjoy.
“It's fresh every day. A new day. We don't impact the area because we're not open seven days a week. The lake and the fish and animals rest a few days, and then we start again. Fishermen love it here whether the fish are biting or not, and they crowd in here when the lake re-opens after being closed a few days because they know the fish will bite better that day.”
Miller hopes the San Diego County Water Authority and the city of San Diego follow through with promises being made.
“I have hope and aspirations for a quality facility to be built and open here that people will put their hearts and souls into out here, I really do,” he said. “I hope they do the improvements they're talking about doing for recreation because if they do, this will be a prime facility when it's full.”
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
