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Perfect Casting
Jim Brown was bred for role as manager of city lakes, where he made lasting impact
By Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 12, 2003
Tomorrow is Jim Brown Day in San Diego.
The San Diego City Council, led by 7th District Councilman Jim Madaffer who introduced the idea, will honor Brown for his 34 years of service to the city lakes, 29 years as the lakes manager.
Only three men – Rudolph Wueste, Orville Ball and Brown – have held the position as the lakes manager. They all shared a passion.
"We all were just in love with the outdoors and especially in love with these reservoirs," Brown said.
Brown, a San Diego original, can trace that passion to when he was 3 and his father, Mike Brown, introduced him to the lakes. By the time he was 12, Jim Brown was making $1 for every boat he cleaned at Lake Sutherland, where he worked for reservoir keeper Chuck Martin. The job gave him a foundation for a life devoted to fishing and hunting.
A year later, Brown, 13, attended an outdoors careers conference at the Federal Building at Balboa Park, now the San Diego Hall of Champions. He boldly told one of the conference speakers, Ball, that he wanted his job as lakes manager.
Fourteen years later, Brown had that dream job.
It was a huge career move at the time for Brown. He'd been managing tiny Chollas Lake, a kids fishing pond in east San Diego. But now he had 10 reservoirs and the responsibility of overseeing employees and managing recreation programs.
Today, Brown, 56, who retired in July, leaves a legacy of good work and accomplishments, enough so that the City Council has decided to honor him.
"Good deeds deserve recognition," Madaffer said.
Brown is the first to say he didn't do it on his own. He praised his fellow city lakes staff members for all their work.
"They got up at 3 in the morning while I was still sleeping to open lakes, and they left the lakes at night long after I'd gone to bed," Brown said.
Early on he had help from men such as Don Makie, the former city golf program manager, and Steve Fontana, then a lake ranger, but now deputy director in the city's waste management department.
And always there, either as a Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist or later as the city's biologist, was longtime friend and associate Larry Bottroff. Brown directed the upgrading of the city lakes from primitive hunting and fishing spots to modern adventure destinations with first-rate facilities. And Bottroff took care of the other stars of the show, the Florida-strain largemouth bass.
Brown and Bottroff took Ball's bass experiment and ran with it. Ball introduced Florida-strain bass into Upper Otay in 1960, setting off a bass fishing frenzy and phenomena that spread throughout the West. The offspring of those bass have shattered state, lake and line-class world records.
Brown remembers anglers converting city lakes rental boats into bass boats by adding lawn chairs and a cooler for a live well. Today, modern bass fishermen line up their geared-up boats in the mornings at many lakes to get in the first casts on what remain, despite the prolonged drought, some of the country's top bass fisheries.
"By getting grants (totaling more than $12 million) we created better launch ramps, new and better restroom facilities, parking lots and picnic areas," Brown said. "Those are the visible things. But the proudest thing for me is I have always tried to treat people fairly. I've tried to respect the fact that other people might have different perspectives than I might have. When I've made decisions, I really tried to make the best decisions for the resources, whether that was about the lakes, the fisheries or the wildlife and the patrons at our lakes."
As much as bass fishing and its buzz define Brown's tenure, it was the inclusion of other watercraft on the lakes that shows how far they have come since Brown took over in 1974.
"By the time we were through, our patrons could fish, hunt, wakeboard, water-ski, sail, canoe, kayak, fish from a float tube and even land a ski plane," Brown said. "As time goes on, it will be increasingly more apparent as to how important these reservoirs are to the kind of quality of life we can have in San Diego. . . . To me, this reservoir system is every bit as important to what San Diego is as Mission Bay or Balboa Park are in their own right."
Inclusion became the main theme of Brown's policies at the city lakes, but he never lost sight of his roots in fishing and hunting.
When Brown saw that bass fishermen needed to be organized as a group to get speed limits increased and access issues for tournaments addressed, he got them together for what became the San Diego Council of Bass Clubs, even going so far as planting the seed for the name.
The increase in the speed limit for boats opened the way for speed boats and water-skiing, and Brown balanced the needs of the jet boat set with the bass boaters and float tubers.
And then there were the hunting programs. Waterfowling traces its roots to city founders such as John D. Spreckels and Col. Ed Fletcher, who created many of the city's reservoirs. Brown helped preserve the hunting traditions at the city lakes, keeping the waterfowl program going at Barrett, Sutherland and Lower and Upper Otay (until encroaching development ended programs at Lower and Upper Otay).
Waterfowl was lost at Otay, but turkey hunting was gained at Sutherland. Brown worked with the city's water department, the DFG, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other agencies and developed a successful spring turkey hunt in the hills surrounding Sutherland.
Away from the city lakes, Brown has been just as influential on fishing and hunting matters. He worked for years to convince the state Fish and Game Commission to extend the pheasant hunting season, and it finally did add two weeks to the four-week season.
A few years ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enlisted Brown as a committee member to help the agency identify more fishing and hunting opportunities in the country.
There's been no greater ambassador for those traditions than Brown, and that's why the City Council has named tomorrow Jim Brown Day in San Diego.
Brown has dedicated the day to his father, Mike Brown, who died Oct. 13, 1977. He knows the force that guided his life, the man who introduced him to the wonderful world outside, must have played a role in making his special day on the 26th anniversary of his father's death.
Jim Brown Day
Where: San Diego City Council Chambers, 12th floor of the City Administration Building, 202 C St., San Diego.
When: Tomorrow, shortly after the City Council convenes at 2 p.m. The special order of business follows the invocation and roll call. Councilman Jim Madaffer, who sponsored the recognition, will present Brown the resolution and speak about Brown's accomplishments.
Jim Brown was bred for role as manager of city lakes, where he made lasting impact
By Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 12, 2003
Tomorrow is Jim Brown Day in San Diego.
The San Diego City Council, led by 7th District Councilman Jim Madaffer who introduced the idea, will honor Brown for his 34 years of service to the city lakes, 29 years as the lakes manager.
Only three men – Rudolph Wueste, Orville Ball and Brown – have held the position as the lakes manager. They all shared a passion.
"We all were just in love with the outdoors and especially in love with these reservoirs," Brown said.
Brown, a San Diego original, can trace that passion to when he was 3 and his father, Mike Brown, introduced him to the lakes. By the time he was 12, Jim Brown was making $1 for every boat he cleaned at Lake Sutherland, where he worked for reservoir keeper Chuck Martin. The job gave him a foundation for a life devoted to fishing and hunting.
A year later, Brown, 13, attended an outdoors careers conference at the Federal Building at Balboa Park, now the San Diego Hall of Champions. He boldly told one of the conference speakers, Ball, that he wanted his job as lakes manager.
Fourteen years later, Brown had that dream job.
It was a huge career move at the time for Brown. He'd been managing tiny Chollas Lake, a kids fishing pond in east San Diego. But now he had 10 reservoirs and the responsibility of overseeing employees and managing recreation programs.
Today, Brown, 56, who retired in July, leaves a legacy of good work and accomplishments, enough so that the City Council has decided to honor him.
"Good deeds deserve recognition," Madaffer said.
Brown is the first to say he didn't do it on his own. He praised his fellow city lakes staff members for all their work.
"They got up at 3 in the morning while I was still sleeping to open lakes, and they left the lakes at night long after I'd gone to bed," Brown said.
Early on he had help from men such as Don Makie, the former city golf program manager, and Steve Fontana, then a lake ranger, but now deputy director in the city's waste management department.
And always there, either as a Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist or later as the city's biologist, was longtime friend and associate Larry Bottroff. Brown directed the upgrading of the city lakes from primitive hunting and fishing spots to modern adventure destinations with first-rate facilities. And Bottroff took care of the other stars of the show, the Florida-strain largemouth bass.
Brown and Bottroff took Ball's bass experiment and ran with it. Ball introduced Florida-strain bass into Upper Otay in 1960, setting off a bass fishing frenzy and phenomena that spread throughout the West. The offspring of those bass have shattered state, lake and line-class world records.
Brown remembers anglers converting city lakes rental boats into bass boats by adding lawn chairs and a cooler for a live well. Today, modern bass fishermen line up their geared-up boats in the mornings at many lakes to get in the first casts on what remain, despite the prolonged drought, some of the country's top bass fisheries.
"By getting grants (totaling more than $12 million) we created better launch ramps, new and better restroom facilities, parking lots and picnic areas," Brown said. "Those are the visible things. But the proudest thing for me is I have always tried to treat people fairly. I've tried to respect the fact that other people might have different perspectives than I might have. When I've made decisions, I really tried to make the best decisions for the resources, whether that was about the lakes, the fisheries or the wildlife and the patrons at our lakes."
As much as bass fishing and its buzz define Brown's tenure, it was the inclusion of other watercraft on the lakes that shows how far they have come since Brown took over in 1974.
"By the time we were through, our patrons could fish, hunt, wakeboard, water-ski, sail, canoe, kayak, fish from a float tube and even land a ski plane," Brown said. "As time goes on, it will be increasingly more apparent as to how important these reservoirs are to the kind of quality of life we can have in San Diego. . . . To me, this reservoir system is every bit as important to what San Diego is as Mission Bay or Balboa Park are in their own right."
Inclusion became the main theme of Brown's policies at the city lakes, but he never lost sight of his roots in fishing and hunting.
When Brown saw that bass fishermen needed to be organized as a group to get speed limits increased and access issues for tournaments addressed, he got them together for what became the San Diego Council of Bass Clubs, even going so far as planting the seed for the name.
The increase in the speed limit for boats opened the way for speed boats and water-skiing, and Brown balanced the needs of the jet boat set with the bass boaters and float tubers.
And then there were the hunting programs. Waterfowling traces its roots to city founders such as John D. Spreckels and Col. Ed Fletcher, who created many of the city's reservoirs. Brown helped preserve the hunting traditions at the city lakes, keeping the waterfowl program going at Barrett, Sutherland and Lower and Upper Otay (until encroaching development ended programs at Lower and Upper Otay).
Waterfowl was lost at Otay, but turkey hunting was gained at Sutherland. Brown worked with the city's water department, the DFG, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other agencies and developed a successful spring turkey hunt in the hills surrounding Sutherland.
Away from the city lakes, Brown has been just as influential on fishing and hunting matters. He worked for years to convince the state Fish and Game Commission to extend the pheasant hunting season, and it finally did add two weeks to the four-week season.
A few years ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enlisted Brown as a committee member to help the agency identify more fishing and hunting opportunities in the country.
There's been no greater ambassador for those traditions than Brown, and that's why the City Council has named tomorrow Jim Brown Day in San Diego.
Brown has dedicated the day to his father, Mike Brown, who died Oct. 13, 1977. He knows the force that guided his life, the man who introduced him to the wonderful world outside, must have played a role in making his special day on the 26th anniversary of his father's death.
Jim Brown Day
Where: San Diego City Council Chambers, 12th floor of the City Administration Building, 202 C St., San Diego.
When: Tomorrow, shortly after the City Council convenes at 2 p.m. The special order of business follows the invocation and roll call. Councilman Jim Madaffer, who sponsored the recognition, will present Brown the resolution and speak about Brown's accomplishments.
