Chabot: Gem of East Bay lakes awaits
When you try to find a local lake on which to boat, fish and play, it’s as if Marin, the Peninsula and San Francisco are in a different universe than the rest of the world.
Many lakes in the East Bay counties can solve that, with 12 lakes (plus the San Joaquin delta) that provide access for some form of boating. In addition, of 21 lakes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, 10 have boat rentals, eight have fishing programs, and 19 provide watershed access for hiking or mountain biking.
Lake Chabot, tucked against the foothills at Castro Valley, is one of the best for recreation as summer has turned to fall. It is easy to reach from anywhere in the Bay Area. It has kayak rentals, great bike trails and a fishing program, and joins Del Valle, San Pablo, Los Vaqueros and Lafayette as the best lakes for recreation in the Bay Area.
It’s an odd, crazy quilt of rules at the Bay Area’s lakes. On the Peninsula, there is no access. In Marin, you can hike or bike the watershed, but no boating is permitted, not even kayaks, and outside of the rare dinker-size trout plants by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, no fishing program. In San Francisco, you can plunk a kayak in Lake Merced, but there is no concessionaire, no boat rentals, no fishing program, and out-of-control tules cut off access around much of the shore.
Then there’s Lake Chabot, which was also off-limits to the public for 91 years. Legislation passed in the 1960s opened it for recreation. That included the chance for visitors to hand-launch canoes and kayaks. In turn, a concessionaire opened a small marina with boats for rent that now include rowboats, aluminum boats with electric motors, kayaks and pedal boats. Bonus plants of trout and catfish, depending on the season, were added, and Chabot was on the map.
The first time I went to Chabot was as a teenager, when brother Rambob and I rented a boat to fish for crappie. A gigantic largemouth bass, a 10pounder or bigger, swam right under us and we both almost fell out of the boat.
It’s one of the handful of lakes that still grows giant fish. Last week, a 16.6-pound largemouth bass, one of the biggest ever from Northern California, was caught and released by Ian Cornelius of Castro Valley. The week before, a 10-pound catfish was caught by Keith Leopoldo Jr. of Tracy.
Once the weather turns and cold nights bring down lake temperatures, the annual trout plants will resume. In fall, Chabot is often one of the better lakes in the Bay Area for trout fishing, both for shoreline-bait dunkers (at Half Moon Bay, Raccoon Point and Alder Point) and for those trolling small lures (near the island). If you don’t have equipment, rod-and-reel rentals are available for $5.
Chabot is about 65 percent full, and like many lakes in early autumn, six months of warm weather has produced some algae. Avoid water contact, but if you get algae on your arms, wash it off. As the weather turns, temperatures fall and the water clears, and the rain arrives and Chabot fills quickly. It’s just 315 acres and very pretty, with hidden coves and an island, and backed by a high-sloped foothill ridge.
In the past few years, a mated pair of bald eagles have tended a nest. The best chance to sight the eagles is from Alder Point, where you look across the lake and scan the trees. In the evenings, they occasionally hover and hunt the lake for unsuspecting fish that swim too close to the surface. The eagles also can fly to visit other lakes in the region, and that’s why, at times, they seem to have vanished.
A good first trip is to kayak into Honker Bay. It’s Chabot’s most remote cove. It’s quiet and pretty, and one of the fastest ways out there to change how you feel about the world.
There are also easy familystyle bike trips. My favorite, where you start at the Chabot Marina, is to ride to your left. You then pick up the West Shore Trail. It rises and falls in gentle climbs and descents, with big lake views to your right. You pass Coot Landing, the lookout for the eagles and a shoreline fishing spot for trout in the fall. The final leg extends to the dam. A plaque there explains a bit of history of the lake, built in 1874-75. Ambitious riders can continue with a stiff climb up a ridge to the campground above the lake, and then connect to a matrix of service roads and routes.
Or you simply could float in a kayak and wonder why there are so many lakes in the Bay Area where you are not allowed to do this.