Sawmill Pond fishing threatened by lack of cash

By Kathryn Reed

Fishing is a frustrating sport on a good day. But to know there is no way that talking about the one that got away is even possible, could make for a super bad fishing day.

That scenario may take place at Sawmill Pond on the edge of South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County if a funding source is not found to stock the tiny, albeit popular, fishing hole.

A family casts a line at Sawmill Pond on May 25. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Lawsuits filed in the past few years by the Center for Biological Diversity have made it so the county can’t get fish from the California Department of Fish & Game. The other requirement is that fish put into Sawmill must have been fixed so they can’t procreate.

This is one of two places in California where fishing is limited to youths 14 and younger. Really, no adults are allowed to cast a line there.

A meeting on May 26 at 5:30pm in the Aspen Room at Lake Tahoe Community College is being put on by the county’s Fish and Game Commission to explain the financial situation and find more sponsors.

It costs $6,000 to $8,000 a year to put fish in the pond three or four times a year. The commission gets money from the county via fines it collects from hunters and fishermen, service clubs like Kiwanis and Optimists, and from Nevada Bighorns Unlimited. But the donations are falling short and don’t amount to what’s needed to have multiple stockings a year.

“If we don’t have the money, we’ll have to cut back on the stocking,” said Karl Weiland, one of seven commissioners.

The other commissioners are Tom Pedersen, Victor Babbitt, Rich Platt, Larry Nelson, John Turner and Kurt Mikkola.

The idea is to have fish in the pond from before Memorial Day until Labor Day.

The annual fishing derby will be June 5 from 8am-noon at Sawmill Pond. For more information about the derby or the stocking issue, call Victor Babbitt at Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters at (530) 541.8208.