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View Full Version : Machado Lake in Harbor City



Carsonsurfer
02-17-2009, 07:46 PM
Reggie the gator's former home. Any fish left in it? Or is it a dead zone?

a biley
02-17-2009, 10:45 PM
i wanted to know the same thing, but then i read that the water is disgusting! and its high in bacteria, I'm not letting my high end gear touch that now

striker
02-17-2009, 11:04 PM
I used to tutor some kids down in that area. One day I decided to eat my lunch there. Big mistake. Seems like the lake is known to be the "spot" for crack heads. I literally saw some fools shooting up next to me. What was supposed to be my one hour lunch break, turned into a five min break. As for the lake itself, last I've heard, the water is nasty/polluted. I read somewhere that the water has hepatitis something. Say hi to the crackheads if you go. Oh, to add the cherry on top. That area of Wilmington ain't so safe. As of late, it's been a hot spot for that thing called "turf war" between gangs.

glumace
02-19-2009, 08:56 PM
"Machado Lake is most famous for being the former home of Reggie the Gator. But in the water quality world, the lake is better known as one of the most polluted bodies of water in the L.A. region, with trash, nutrient, legacy pesticide and contaminated sediment problems."

I grew up down the street in Wilmington and used to fish this lake 20+ years ago for bluegill and cats and it was a mess back then. The lake had run off from the oil refinery and weapons depots along Normandie/Gaffey along with all the run off from Wilmington. The lake was dead at one point about a decade ago and went through a cleaning process (If I remember right it was almost drained and dug up, I remember the trucks with the stinky mud driving through Wilmington). We had dead birds in our area of Carson because of the lake at one point as well.

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/aug/07/local/me-birds7

To be honest I would stay away because of other issues around the park including crime.

IF you really want to try to fish the lake I would look at the rear side (west side of the lake) on the backside of the driving range and golf course and Harbor College, or the south side near the dam if you can find an area, just not the east or front side of the lake and park where most of the people are.

They are trying to clean it up here is some more info about Prop O and cleaning up the lake...

http://spoutingoff.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/diamond-in-the-rough/

http://www.lastormwater.org/e-news/MachadoLake.htm

http://www.utopianature.com/kmhrp/whatis.html

http://endeavor.des.ucdavis.edu/nrpi/NRPIDescription.asp?ProjectPK=9146

It's sad that this huge park is in such bad shape. The lake has a chance to be a great place, just hope one day it will.

striker
02-19-2009, 09:06 PM
Kind of like PV, looks nice, but DDT. No thanks!

CastMan
02-25-2009, 09:27 AM
Ya you know it is to bad about the condition of this lake. I've lived in pedro my whole life and I used to fish it when I was in my teens many years ago and even then it was considered "trashy". I've seen some big carp pulled out of there and it used to be pretty good for cats. I remember once talking to a park ranger there around 20 years ago and he had told me how they had done a fish study of the lake and a lot of the bass they pulled out had tumors on thier bodies! Sad as it is I would definitely stay away.