Lake Natoma Diving - circa 1970's

[OKYouLead]

I read with interest that some of you (given it's been a while) like to "get wet" and practice in Lake Natoma. I thought you might get a kick to know that back in the mid 70's my brother and I first snorkeled then SCUBA dived Natoma. Mind you back then there was nothing there save for the park and unless it was warm and kids were there jumping off the cliffs we usually had the lake to ourselves. Nothing like lake diving in winter time right? Gray above and gray below. This reservoir was formed in around 1955 and while it has rainbow and some bass it's never been known as a great fishing lake. But that didn't seem to slow fishermen down! The lake's visibility was never good and the water was freezing even with good wet suits. But here's what brought us back again and again: we made some serious money harvesting thousands of fishing lures and plugs. On my first solo "snorkel" there in February of 1973 I saw scads of lures and plugs hooked into the submerged trees and "brush" near the shoreline. I grabbed a bucketful and took them home to show them off. My brother, ever the entrepreneur, decided we needed to go back and do some serious harvesting. So we did ... over and over again for about 18 months At first it was just easy pickings as we recovered the lures and plugs that were just "slightly embedded" and in a few feet of water. Later we had to use a variety of tools and some elbow grease to free the lures that were seriously stuck. Then the deep diving missions began and we'd often run out of air in the middle of a retrieve. Boy were we reckless! When the dust settled we had probably 800 pounds of lures -- many of them qualifying as antique and valuable. Only we didn't realize that. We sold them at swap meets and fishing derbies and to neighborhood fishermen. We netted maybe $1,800 bucks. Good money back then ... enough to get us out of Sacramento where we lived when we turned 18 and 19. It also subsidized our gear habit. I was able to persuade my high school to allow me to take "independent studies" in my senior year including phys ed so I actually earned school credit for this. Score! We had a blast and learned a lot about how not to fish and lose lures. We also were in remarkably good shape from all that diving and grunting. Fast forward to the here and now. Some of the lures we pulled out of Natoma would be worth hundreds of dollars each now. When we got to the end of the collection we'd amassed we sold the "dregs" by the bucket for $20 each! Probably these were the most valuable because no one wanted to "old" stuff back then. These lots were comprised of some really remarkable plugs, Bagley's, home-made jewels. even a bunch of "rat finks". We sold them for far too little but that's life and I will always fondly remember those gray days under the ever-present tule fog when bro and I participated in what we called the second gold rush.

We moved to San Diego and both became "watermen" ... and have never looked back. Today I Googled Lake Natoma and WHOA! ... it's an entirely different place than it was back then. But that's everywhere and everything now, right? I see there's a CSUS Aquatics Center and a fancy hotel. I do hope at least that kids are still able to jump off the cliffs like we used to and that they are afforded the opportunity to be just as crazy in (and under) that lake as we were. We didn't get all the lures - maybe one of you wants to go back to this "time capsule" and have some fun? My diving days are over - my Eustachian tubes took one too many hits on deep dives off of San Diego so I'll leave this to you all. Cheers and be safe! Randy