Fishermen let out a collective cheer on Wednesday after Lake Casitas officials passed a measure that allows boats back onto the popular fishing lake.

A proposal passed by the Casitas Municipal Water District will implement a system of locks and tags that is designed to allow local fishermen to use the lake while still ensuring boats are not contaminated with invasive mussels.

"They are excited," Larry Elshere said of the local fishermen who have been missing the plump bass for which the lake is famous. Though the system will take a few weeks to get into place, it was still good news to Elshere. "I needed to get back on the water."

Elshere helped develop the new protocol that every boat owner will have to undergo before being allowed back onto the lake.

The lake was closed to outside boats last month in an effort to protect it from quagga and zebra mussels, which can be transmitted to lakes on boats. Once in a body of water, they can severely damage water delivery systems and change the ecosystem of the lake.

Under the new rules, every boat will have to go through an inspection at the lake to make sure the live wells where fish are held, bait wells and boat plumbing are completely dry. Exactly how lake officials will determine that the plumbing is dry is still being determined.

After a boat is deemed clean and dry, a lock will be placed on the boat and trailer with a tamper-proof ID tag on it. The boats then have to undergo a 10-day quarantine either on site or elsewhere. After the 10 days, boaters can return to the lake, where the tag will be broken and they can launch their boats. At the end of the day, a new tag will be placed around the lock and fishermen can come to the lake as often as they like.

If they go to another lake or remove the lock and tag for other reasons, another inspection and quarantine will happen. Boaters have to pay a one-time $50 fee for the locks.

Anyone caught trying to tamper with the tags will be banned from the lake for one year. Anyone who goes to the handful of lakes that are infected with quagga mussels are subject to a 28-day quarantine.

"I've been told we have the most stringent decontamination process in the world," said Park Services Officer Rob Weiner.

Officials are still determining how do deal with kayaks which generally don't have trailers to fasten a lock to.

It will be a few weeks before the inspection process begins, Weiner said. When the protocol is established, the district will call boaters on the existing list of people waiting to get into storage at the lake and set up appointment times when they can get their boat inspected. Anyone wanting to get on the list, which has about 240 people on it, needs to call 649-2233, ext. 7.

Part of the measure also allows for more boats to be stored at the lake.

George Boston applauded the new rules.

Boston recently retired and said he's been waiting his whole working career to spend his retirement years bobbing around on his boat at the lake.

"Being denied access to the lake is a serious damage to my quality of life," he said.