Florida-strain bass were the first of many imports flown in by DFG Warden Pilots
arrol Faist, a WWII pilot, was the second Warden Pilot hired by the DFG and has written a book about the exploits of the first DFG plane, a WWII surplus aircraft with no instruments other than radio. Faist was the co- pilot on hundreds of planting runs, most of which were high altitude stocks of trout in High Sierra lakes. He said some of the toughest were the long distance flights to bring back the warm- water species from the South, including those first flights that put Florida-strain bass in the San Diego Lakes. “If we knew what we know now, we could have just dropped them out of the plane like we do the trout,” said Faist. “In fact the trick is you don’t want to get too low or the air speed leftover from the short drop will kill them on impact. Fish can fall from a long way up with- out any damage.” Without instruments, any sort of weather meant the DFG Warden Pilots had to land and wait out the conditions. Try keeping fish alive when there’s a snowstorm outside. Besides the big Floridas, two of the most important species to bass fishermen that the DFG flew into California were the spotted bass and the threadfin shad. The threadfin shad were the hardest to obtain and keep alive, especially since the run was done in winter. It took two trips to the South to finally get just over 50 threadin safely into California. “Little did we know we only needed three threadfin (which odds would mean at least one was female),” noted Faist. “Once they are planted, threadfin take off like wildfire.” The spotted bass were introduced into Lake Perris in Riverside County and have since become the number one species of bass in most of the “foothill” lakes of Califor- nia. Ironically, an unofficial “plant” of Florida- strain bass in Perris led to the complete erad- ication of spotted bass in that reservoir. Chances are zero that any such transplants would be allowed in California today. Biodi- versity interests have filed several lawsuits to halt aerial stocks of even native California fish.
— Rich Holland
This article in the DFG’s California Outdoors pub- lication detailed the first transplants of Florida- strain bass. (Courtesy California Department of Fish and Game.)
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Otay plant and no ‘northern’ bass have ever been introduced here.” ( Editor’s note: Hodges was the first lake in
California not stocked with trout to give up a bass over 20 pounds. )
Mike Long shows off “Dottie” , the erstwhile world record fish caught several times out of Lake Dixon . You can see the dot on the gill plate next to Mike’s little finger.
Leading the pack back in the early 1970s was Lower Otay Lake, which pro- duced most of the bigger fish in that decade, but there were other strides being made throughout California. Other lakes in San Diego County, such as Wohlford, Dixon, Cuyamaca and Poway also got into the act and began plants of Florida-strain bass. Other lakes in California got into the game, too, with even Central and Northern California waters like Clear Lake, the Delta, Success, Don Pedro, Isabella, Shasta, Trinity and many, many more also getting plants of the fast-growing Florida bass. A fairly recent hunt for the purest Florida-strain genetics led to a small lake near Escondido. “When the State of California was look- ing for largemouth bass to stock the new Diamond Valley Reservoir, they conducted a statewide search to find the purest strain of largemouth bass available,” said long-time San Diego fisherman, tackle dealer and team tournament director at WON Bass, John Cassidy. “Even though the original crop of largemouth bass first introduced into Cali- fornia was via Upper Otay Reservoir by way of Florida, those bass had co-mingled with existing bass already populating the lake. The purest strain of Florida bass the DFG found was in Lake Hodges. “The Lake Hodges bass were planted into the original spawning pools at Diamond Valley and from those 216 fish, we find the excellent population bass seen there today. As a little known side note, Lake Jennings, just east of San Diego, also has bass brought into San Diego County from that original
The big bass fever also spread to other states and there have been reports of 18- pound-plus coming out of some lakes in Texas and other states. And the latest surprise is that the nation of Japan has joined the lunker Florida-bass parade with stocking sev- eral years ago more than taking hold. In July 2009, Japanese angler Manabu Kurita caught what is now considered to be the world record, edging out the Perry record fish by only .06 pounds. However, as the Perry record wasn’t broken officially by more than 2 ounces, it is considered a “tie” for the record between Perry and Kurita. Nevertheless, the record is surely going to be broken by a bigger margin one of these days. Another Escondido-area lake played a big role in the big bass movie. In 2001, my friend Mike Long of Poway caught a bass at Lake Dixon that tipped the scales at 20.75 pounds. That fish had a distinctive “dot” on its right cheek, and the fish was released after we took several pictures the morning of the catch. In 2003, the same fish, now known as “Dottie,” was caught again, by Jed Dickerson of Oceanside. We again shot some pictures of Dottie, and she again was released. In 2006, Dottie showed up again, this time caught by Mac Weakley, who was fish- ing with Dickerson. It was reported that the anglers were “sight fishing” and snagged the fish instead of hooking it in the mouth—so a legal catch was denied— and they released it, but not until they weighed the fish (not on a certified scale) and it was reported to be a whopping 25.1 pounds, nearly three pounds over the official world record size! Then in 2009, Dottie showed up again at Dixon, only this time park rangers found her floating dead on the surface of the lake, so she will never be caught as the world record. But her size indicates that the world record can and will be broken in the near future! In early 2010, Ed Zieralski, the Outdoor Editor of the San Diego Tribune wrote: “Rumors and allegations are part of the big bass fishing circus. It won’t change. And don’t think for a minute we won’t have another big bass story in San Diego County, maybe as soon as this spring. There’s always a chance for a world-record bass here as
46 SILVER EAGLES _ July 2011