THE FORGOTTEN WATERS OF LAKE CUYAMACA : ANGLING GEM IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

Byline: Jim Matthews Special to the Daily News

Lake Cuyamaca is San Diego County's secret fishing spot.

``It's the best-kept secret in Southern California. There's not a weekend that goes by that I don't hear from a long-term San Diegan something to the effect, `I've lived in this place for 25 years and I didn't know this place was here.' It's amazing,'' lake manager Hugh Marx said.

But the secret is getting out lately and starting to spread far and wide.

``Fully 25 percent of our anglers drive two to 2-1/2 hours to get here,'' Marx said. ``We have them come from Yuma, the Imperial Valley, Palm Springs, Riverside, the San Fernando Valley, all over.''

Just an hour's drive northeast of downtown San Diego and it is angler-friendly, with fishing jetties, inexpensive boat rentals and a wide variety of game species. The reservoir is stocked with 44,000 pounds of trout a year, and, unlike other waters in the region, it supports a year-around rainbow fishery. Bass, crappie, bluegill, bullheads and catfish are thrown in for good measure. But it is the trout fishery that attracts most of the more than 60,000 people who visit each year.

Hugh Marx likens the impoundment to something more appropriately found in the Sierra Nevada. It sits at an elevation of 4,600 feet in the Cuyamaca Mountains on the northern boundary on Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. The lake's American Indian name means, ``where the rain falls''; it is almost Alpine in character, with pines on the hillsides above the water.

Think of it as Crowley Lake South.

The analogy fits because, like Crowley, Cuyamaca is heavily planted with trout that adapt quickly to the natural forage in the reservoir and reach large dimensions.

While most anglers catch trout fresh from either the Department of Fish and Game's Mojave River hatchery or the Whitewater Trout Farm, many fish elude their pursuers and grow fat on a diet of midge larvae, damselfly nymphs and small baitfish, which makes their meat a rich, pinkish color, like their brethren in Crowley.

The lake-record rainbow is a 14-pound, 1-ounce specimen taken in October 1995 by fly-fisherman Tim Halley of San Diego on a small hare's ear nymph on 2-pound test tippet while float-tubing near the boat dock.

While such behemoths are not common, 2- to 3-pound 'bows are hooked with regularity, especially in the fall. The bulk of anglers use a 2- to 3-foot leader with either inflated night crawlers or a processed floating baits. However, lure fishermen and fly-anglers often catch bigger fish casting small baits that resemble the lake's forage fish. There also are some periods of incredible dry-fly fishing, when even the heaviest trout cruise the outside edges of weed lines to feeding on midges. Again, this is a lot like Crowley.

Cuyamaca also has a very prolific crappie fishery. Lake staff recommend anglers keep all the crappie they catch. Most of the fish are small and stunted, not much larger than 4 or 5 inches. From late spring throughout the summer, they provide excellent fishing, especially for kids who are more interested in action than substance. And, in keeping with the premise, this reminds anglers of Crowley's Sacramento perch fishery.

And like most San Diego County waters, Cuyamaca has Florida-strain largemouths. ``The bass are the biggest secret in the lake. We're mostly thought of as a trout fishery, but we have some very large bass,'' Marx said.

With little bass-angling traffic and a steady stream of good prey species - most notable smaller crappie and rainbows - some of the bass here are simply huge. Mike Long of Poway amazed many regulars by catching a 14-pound, 3-ounce largemouth in June to set a lake record.

Bass angling is best in spring, as the bucketmouths make spawning beds in the shoreline shallows. The smallmouth bass fishery is improving after two plants made since 1995. Channel catfish can reach 20 pounds, and white sturgeon also are frequently hooked, but none have been keeper size of 46 inches in the lake . . . yet.

But despite its similarities, Crowley has no bass, cats or sturgeon, and Cuyamaca is hours closer to home. Your choice.

IF YOU'RE GOING . . .

A public, nonprofit facility, Lake Cuyamaca is situated in Central San Diego County, south of Julian along Highway 79. From the San Diego Freeway (5) south of Oceanside, travel east on Highway 78 through Escondido and Ramona, then south on 79.

Fees: Angling, $4.75 for adults, $2.50 for ages 8 to 15; children 7 and younger fish free. (Fishing classes are offered Saturdays mornings at 10.) Day-use parking, $5 per vehicle. Motorboat rentals, $25 per day, $20 after 1 p.m., $10 twilight rate. Camping, $12 per site, $17 with hookups. Information: [phone] or the lake's www.lakecuyamaca.org Web site.

Adjacent Cuyamaca Rancho State Park offers wonderful wildlife viewing opportunities. The meadows just to the south of the reservoir have one of the largest concentrations of southern mule deer in this subspecies' range; it is not uncommon to see 40 or 50 deer early in the morning or late in the evening. Coyotes, bobcats and wild turkeys also are common sights, along with one of the most varied bird populations in North America. Camping, hiking and mountain biking are available. Cuyamaca Rancho park also is thought to be one of the finest settings to see the changing of colors of fall foliage. Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

PHOTO (1 -- color) A great egret snapping up a bullhead is but one of the varied and plentiful wildlife scenes offered up by Lake Cuyamaca.

(2 -- color) Some 60,000 people visit Lake Cuyamaca each year, many in pursuit of 44,000 trout stocked annually.

Jim Matthews/Special to the Daily News

BOX: If you're going (see text)