This was our very first treasure hunt on SDFish.com, which we now plan to do each month in the future. Mike Long, a Castaic Swimbait Co. pro-staffer and arguably the best big bass angler in the world graciously donated the first prize, a 10" Castaic Rock Hard Swimbait autographed by himself. In total, seven clues were posted throughout the month beginning on January 5th and concluding on January 30th. Those clues each allowed readers to narrow down the hidden treasure's location. SDFish.com member socal450r was the winner, being the first to discover the hidden treasure. 

Member socal450r is shown to the right with his new autographed Mike Long Castaic Rock Hard Swimbait. 

The treasure was found at approximately 4:30pm on January 30th, and the final clue was published about 7 1/2 hours before that. I have heard that many members assumed the treasure would be found a lot faster, some of them deciding now to go look for it at 10 am thinking it was already gone. 

As outlined in the details of the treasure hunt, each clue was only published for three days at a time. Here is a rundown of the seven clues that were published, and how they could be used to narrow down the location.

Clue #1 - You will need not look west of Interstate 15 to find January's hidden treasure.

This one was pretty self explanatory, simply eliminating the coastal area of San Diego County. 

Clue #2 - You can rule out any area of the county on Lake Barrett's side of Interstate 8.

Again, very self explanatory; eliminated a large area of the county south of Interstate 8. 

Clue #3 - The treasure will be stashed within a swimbait's casting distance of a public reservoir.

This clue narrowed the search down to the immediate locations around one of the county's reservoirs. At this point Miramar, Cuyamaca, El Capitan, Murray, Jennings, Poway, Dixon, Sutherland and Santee Lakes were all possible locations for the treasure. Reservoirs like Loveland, Barrett, Lower Otay, Upper Otay, Morena and Hodges had been eliminated. San Vicente was eliminated based on it being closed and unaccessible.

Clue #4 - You will not find the treasure along the shore of a lake which does not possess (during the winter months) the species of fish that the treasure resembles.

Obviously the Castaic Rock Hard Swimbait prize resembles a Rainbow Trout; thus this clue eliminated El Capitan and Sutherland, leaving Miramar, Murray, Jennings, Poway, Cuyamaca, Dixon and Santee Lakes as possible locations.

Clue #5 - The treasure will be hidden on shores maintained not by the County of San Diego, but the City.

This clue eliminated County of San Diego Lakes; thus Cuyamaca was eliminated. The last part of the clue narrows it down to only City of San Diego managed reservoirs; eliminating Jennings (Padre Dam), Dixon (Escondido), Poway (City of Poway), and Santee Lakes (Padre Dam). Still alive after clue #5 were Miramar and Murray. 

Clue #6 - The first five clues should have eliminated all but two possible lakes that the treasure will be found at. Of those two, only one has a point and a bay in the lake named after the mountain that hovers above it.

Lake Murray sits at the base of Cowles Mountain of the Mission Trails Regional Park and has both a point and bay named after the mountain; Cowles Bay and Cowles Point. Miramar does have Woodson Point, named after nearby Mt. Woodson, but the point is surrounded by Poway Arm and Penasquitos Arm, not a Woodson Bay. The location was narrowed down to the shorelines of La Mesa's Lake Murray. 

Clue #7 - You'll find the treasure (an envelope containing a note to exchange for the swimbait) with the "ranger" overlooking a cove of the lake. This cove is the closest area of the lake to a street named after the largest city of the state of Maryland.

Baltimore Dr. in La Mesa is obviously named after Baltimore, MD - the largest city in Maryland. That street runs right by the back of Padre Bay, coming within 150 feet of the water's edge. An iron ranger sits overlooking the northeast corner of Padre Bay. The envelope was taped to the back side of the sign explaining how attached to the iron ranger. The picture to the right shows the exact location where the envelope was.