Bass anglers accept fate at Lake Casitas

‘We already know they’re going to close it down,” one angler said to others milling outside the Lake Casitas bait shack Tuesday afternoon. “Why else would they be sending cops to the meeting?”

Grumbling and more grumbling.

Then it was off to the Casitas Municipal Water District’s hearing at an Ojai high school, where the board of directors did indeed, after three hours of testimony, impose a one-year ban on the launching of private boats onto the popular Ventura County reservoir.

Police officers were not needed -- about 250 opponents, mostly anglers but also area residents concerned about economic ramifications, merely walked dejectedly through meeting hall doors and into the cold night.

At issue was the risk of accidental transport into Lake Casitas of destructive quagga mussels, recent arrivals in the West, infesting reservoirs fed by the Colorado River.

And there seemed little doubt, during or after the proceedings, that the five-member board had reached a majority decision beforehand.

Thousands of anglers are now canceling plans to visit one of the world’s premier trophy largemouth bass fisheries.

Oak View, the community closest to the lake, will suffer hardship along with businesses in nearby Ojai.

Casitas Lake Recreation Area, solely dependent on user fees, will lose $220,000 in annual entry fees alone.

Moreover, the board’s decision might set into motion a domino effect. Representatives from Cachuma Lake, Castaic Lake and Diamond Valley Lake attended the hearing.

Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, in Santa Barbara County, could face a similar mandate beginning Tuesday, when a multi-agency board meets.

So suddenly, because of a mere threat -- albeit a daunting threat -- significant recreational opportunities are disappearing or jeopardized.

One area resident pleaded to the Casitas board, saying he fishes only at the reservoir; that he recently retired and bought a boat, and that he has anticipated his retirement dream just as a child awaits summer vacation.

“What am I going to do when you close this lake?” he said.

But the board stated unequivocally that the 60,000-plus water users, not the 750,000 annual park visitors, are their chief priority.

It’s worth noting that the park has rental skiffs and limited storage spaces, thus some anglers and guides were able to store bass boats before Tuesday and can use them as long as they remain in the park.

The board also pointed out that costs for repairs and treatment, which would be inevitable and perpetual if the mussels get in, would be passed to non-angling users.

Of 25 people who spoke at the meeting, only four favored a ban.

So did the Casitas board make the correct decision by banning private boats for what could end up being an indefinite period?

The answer would be yes if it could ensure that a ban would prevent quagga mussels, or their close relatives, zebra mussels, from entering the reservoir.

But it cannot make such a guarantee, and those who asked the board not to decide based on fear and paranoia learned it had done just that.

Some experts believe migrating waterfowl can spread mussels and larvae.

Bass anglers, though some fish many waters, rarely keep their boats in long enough for mussels to attach, and those entering Casitas already were required to undergo a pre-launch inspection.

Vessels that were not “clean and dry” were placed on quarantine.

The mussels spreading through the Colorado River system, many experts believe, are moving with water, not attached to boats. Casitas receives its water from the local watershed.

“Closing the lake only means closing the lake,” declared Terry Foreman, a fisheries manager for the Department of Fish and Game.

Board members criticized the cash-strapped department for its inability to appropriately combat this threat.

The exchange grew heated. Finally, board member Russ Baggerly shouted to Foreman, long before a resolution was placed before a vote: “You find credible solutions and we’ll reopen the lake!”

The grumbling grew louder.

There are, of yet, no credible solutions to an alien invasion that seems fresh from a science-fiction story.

Quagga and zebra mussels arrived in the Great Lakes from Europe nearly 20 years ago, in ballast water, and spread methodically outward.

Quaggas were detected in Nevada’s Lake Mead in January 2007, and from Mead they advanced down the Colorado River and into the aqueduct, ending up in reservoirs in San Diego and Riverside counties.

More recently, zebra mussels were found in San Justo Reservoir in Central California, so fear and paranoia were understandable.

The mussels multiply into millions and cling to pipes and dam walls.

As filter feeders, they consume plankton vital to fry that large fish prey on, so the entire food chain is affected and large predators do not grow as well.

Repair and treatment costs must be figured into water district budgets. The 2008-09 Metropolitan Water District budget, for example, may require $12 million to clean and treat parts of the Colorado River aqueduct system.

Many state and federal agencies, as well as university scientists, are trying to control spreading and working on practical eradication methods.

A mussel-killing bacteria and other solutions show promise, and decontamination units work but are costly and require more staffing.

The Casitas board was right about one thing: The Department of Fish and Game hasn’t done enough. It ought to mandate operators of infested waters to decontaminate all boats and trailers leaving those waters.

It ought to do more within its power -- the agency is authorized to order closures or access restrictions on infested waters -- and be more accessible.

“Having the DFG show up here is a miracle,” Baggerly said after the meeting, adding the board had tried unsuccessfully for five months to reach DFG employees.

“But we’ve got their attention now. If Cachuma takes the same action, you watch: They’ll find a solution and this lake will be open again, sooner rather than later.”

So the board, in essence, is trying to force the state agency’s hand.

It’s a costly gamble. If the state department is already doing all it can, with limited resources, then the ban may remain in effect indefinitely, and Casitas regulars can kiss their favorite bass goodbye.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com