All persons (age 8 and older) entering reservoir property are required to pay daily use fees, including launch and per person fees, see Permits & Fees (daily).

El Capitan is now open on its summer schedule (May - Oct) as follows:

Lake hours are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday - fishing, general boating, and water contact (waterskiing, jetskiing, wakeboarding, towing inflatables).

Sunday - water contact only (no fishing).

Monday - fishing and general boating only (no water contact).

Paddleboards are not permitted at any time.

Tuesday and Wednesday - closed.

On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays patrons must purchase permits from the iron ranger or electronic pay station by the closed concession building (please bring exact change if using the iron ranger). Also, on ANY day, booth may close and patrons would need to use the pay stations so please try to bring exact change. Instructions will be posted outside booth on where to purchase permits.
Kayaks are permitted Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday (no kayaks on Sundays). The $2.00 kayak launch permit fee does NOT apply at El Capitan. Each person pays the $8.00 (adult) or $2.50 (youth) user fee, but there is no additional fee for the kayak.

There are no rental boats during June, July and August.

On Saturdays and Sundays there is a limit of 120 vessels total on the lake at one time and the lake may max out early in the day. You can call the new boat info line at 619-668-2770 which will be updated when the lake reaches capacity.

For the week we checked 20 permits and had 16 bass (released).