and, maybe, one day set a new world weight record. The current record for a largemouth bass is 22 pounds, 4 ounces; bass fishing enthusiasts and experts believe that record will be beaten in five years, perhaps at DVL.
Building the perfect home for large, healthy bass—they’ve earned the nickname “Diamond Bass”—was one part labor of love, one part research and one part history lesson.
The labor of love came in the form of Mike Giusti, a fish biologist for the California Department of Fish and Games Eastern Sierra-Inland Desert Region, who has been there from the beginning. He planned the nursery, built it and is nursemaid of sorts for his charges-thousands of bass, bluegill, trout and catfish who call the lake home.
You can't blame him for sounding like a proud papa.
"The growth rate is exceptional because of the space, the nutrients in the water and the fact that it's a new lake," he said. "On the bass we are seeing growth of one-and-a-half to two pounds a year, something similar to that on the trout."
His was an unusual assignment. Diamond Valley Lake was the first lake built in 30 years in California. In creating a nursery literally from the ground up, Metropolitan and the California Department of Fish and Game had the unique opportunity to plan what they wanted in a fishery, and to build it to suit them—and the fish. That meant creating rock reefs, PVC pipe caves, citrus brush piles—whatever it took—to create a nurturing environment for the fledgling fish that would be introduced long before the lake opened for recreation.
“We tried to establish a self-sustaining fishery,” Giusti said of the $550,000 project financed by Metropolitan. “We wanted them to be able to reproduce and survive on their own (except for the trout).”
Fish large and small glide slowly through the crystal clear waters of the lake. Occasionally you can see a bluegill jump into the air. But the success of the fishery isn’t a done deal, Giusti said.
“It’s an unknown,” he said recently, while trolling for bass on the lake. “You know what’s supposed to work, but you don’t know for sure until you put the fish in.”
Catfish, he said, were the only ones he really worried about thriving. But apparently they did: “We only stocked a few hundred, but it looks like we got a spawn this year,” Giusti said. “People have reported catching one-to-two-pounders.”
Planning a fishery is surprisingly high tech, for such low-tech thrills gained by a fish biting a worm. Giusti used computer models and global positioning systems to design a dozen areas within the lake that would attractive to growing fish while keeping out their larger predators.
The plan included a nursery school of sorts, an 80-acre rearing pond at the bottom of the reservoir, which was stocked in 1998 with largemouth bass, northern bluegill, southeastern bluegill and redear sunfish. By the time the pumps began pouring water into the lake, there were 50,000 fish already there.
Once construction was completed, Giusti used map-making technology to produce a map of the completed work so there would be a reference and record once 800,00 acre-feet of water hid his handiwork.
Fishers may already be enjoying the fruits of Giusti’s labors, but his job is far from over. He continues to monitor the water quality in terms of how it affects the fish, and tracks the size, health and balance of the fish species.
And his care and nurturing seems to have paid off. Giusti estimates that there are about 18,000 large mouth bass in the lake that are large than 12-inches. Give them a few years, though, and one of his babies could be a world champ.
And isn’t that the dream of every parent?
Metropolitan hooks a winner with world-class fish hatchery