Cascade Lake

[Down to Earth]

I know there are homes on the Western Shore of this body of water, but I'm wondering if there is public access anywhere? Can it be accessed from the South via the Mayo Parking Lot? Thanks.

Andy

[CrappieJohn]

With your lot sticker, you can park there in the lot and just walk straight back to the lake or are you talking the smaller one surrounded by homes at the extreme SW corner of all that developement? The smaller one would be tough until ice covers it and access would have to come from the dam there, plus you'd have to stay on the ice.

How was the competition last weekend? Pretty hot, wasn't it?

[NutsAboutFishing]

Isn't Cascade Lake the same as the CC Manor pits? Right behind the fire station on 2nd St SW? I thought those were open to public fishing. Am I mistaken?

[CrappieJohn]

One of the lakes has a formal name, but I don't know which one. I simply refer to the whole shooting match as the cc pits. I don't care for formality and leave the zipper down when I wear a suit. lol.

[NutsAboutFishing]

I was just wondering CT, because in one of your previous posts you made it sound like it was trespassing to fish out there. Is it or not?

[CrappieJohn]

Sean....

No, these are public waters and can be fished within the limits of the law. One of the lakes is completely surrounded by privated homes except for where a closing dam sits at the north end of that puddle. The dam is a publicly owned structure and can be crossed. I suppose a small float or canoe could be hoisted up the face of the dam, thus making open water fishing an option.

We need to be mindful of where private property exists and not do anything that creates a problem in that respect. That particular lake I just mentioned has only that one point of entry unless you want to throw your float in at the hiway, which I guess I would not recommend.

Collectively, all of these pits are called the Country Club Pits....been that for years. As developement spreads around the lakes, new, formal names are given to the ponds- none of which I know. The biggest area of controversy has been around whether there is legal access on the west side of the Mayo Lots. Another poster (someone with specific legal defitions of legal boundaries at these reservoir sites) posted a while ago and cleared up this mess by indicating that Mayo does indeed own a portion of land outside of their enclosures and that makes entry there trespassing. I happen to know a resident of the big lake and go right thru his back yard, so for me entry is a moot issue. Until the city does something formal as far as a point of public access though, people need to know where they can and cannot go without causing a problem.

So....to answer your question more directly- no, the lakes are not private and can be fished. Much of the land surrounding the lakes is not public. And the public land is almost a no-no until it has an access site assigned.

[Down to Earth]

Thanks for the info. Actually this morning whan I was there it was a bit dark and foggy. I may have to investigate some. I didn't know which one it was until I looked in the phone book map. I do know that it is not the one that goes out to the corner of 2nd st sw and 22. It's back in farther. Actually didn't use it for fishing, but swimming. In the short term I probably can continue to get access via a property owner, but I think he will be moving in the Fall and would like to continue doing some swimming there next year.

I'm not quite sure what the definate plans are, but I believe the City has plans for a future park around some of those water structures. I've read infomation on it before, but not quite sure how far off those plans are.

Tom, the race went really good. Finished in 2hr 5 minutes. That was for a .8 mile swim, 20.6 mile, and 5 mile run. Really happy with my time and good enough for 55th over all out of 203 participants. It was a bit warm, but fortunately it was during the morning and the weather wasn't too awefully bad. How was the North Shore?

[CrappieJohn]

Andy...HOT, HUMID