Salton Sea 2/21

[Baja Vinnie]

Wanted to do something different today. Loaded up some gear an my favorite fishing buddy and headed to the Salton Sea for some Corvina.. ERrrr Tilapia fishing. I grew up fishing the Salton Sea and really expected to find the worst. What I found was the complete opposite. NO smell, NO dead fish by the thousands, No dead birds and a fairly clean looking water. The water looks 10 times better than Lake Elsinore right now.
From the very first cast to the last my son Peyton slayed the Tilapia. I lost count, but I'm sure he caught and released between 30 to 40 fish in just a few hours! They were all around 1/2 LB to 1 1/2 LB's. All the fish looked really fat and healthy. Peyton had an absolute blast. There were probably 20/30 other people out fishing and all had the same results. It was really hard to beleive with all the bent rods all day that my 20 fish corvina days are long gone. I kept flashing back to the day's of 18 to 25lb Corvina peeling line and kicking me rear in the 80's and 90's.

FYI.. I talked with the DFG, several state park rangers, and here is what I was told... The last RECORDED Orangemouth Corvina catch was on April 14th 2004 at the red hill marina. Sargo and Gulf Croaker have not been caught since the late summer of 2004. The DFG has purse seined the Sea several times at several locations in 2006 and 2007. All they found in thier nets were Tilapia by the thousands and 2 dozen Striped Bass. The stripers were thought to have entered the sea through the many canals. They were skinny and very unhealthy. Not a single Corvina, croaker, sargo or mullet are thought to have survived after 2004. The sad thing is, at one point, the salton sea had more gamefish per square acre in the 70's and 80's than any inpondment in the country (This according to the DFG) AND could have very easly been saved. But aside from Sonny Bono, nobody tryed to do anything about it. When Sonny died, the sea died with him.

[DccFISHerMan]

thats cool man last time i was there was in like 2005 and it smelled rank, glad to see its on the up and up!

[basscatcher]

good job out there what ashamed that a once a good lake has gone doen the year in a short period of time.




God Bless

basscatcher

[HuskerRod]

Thanks for the report and the intel. Well at least the "Sea" has Tilapia in it. Thanks for the goo facts.

huskerrod

[Liteliner]

Nice job on the tilapia. I too miss the 15-20 corvina fish days on the mudsuckers and spoons. Those things got pretty damn big too. Thanks for the report.

Heres a little info vid on the sea if you guys wanted to know more about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKsK13NDkpg&feature=related

[old pudd fisher]

Dont know much about it but in the early 1960's my older brother would go thier a lot to hang out party and fish all the time, wonder what happen to it. I have never been thier but passed buy it on my way to glamis to ride the dunes and man did it smell bad, at times I could even smell it out thier if the wind right.

[Baja Vinnie]

[QUOTE=Liteliner;312289]Nice job on the tilapia. I too miss the 15-20 corvina fish days on the mudsuckers and spoons. Those things got pretty damn big too. Thanks for the report.


mudsuckers...Now your taking me down memory lane. I remember stoping at "Poor Richards" to pick up a couple dozen mudsuckers before launching at state park or red hill. was cool to see all the bitchen photo's of all the big corvina and Flat head cats from the canals all over the walls. Would get ya all fired up before heading out. We use to stop at the state park jeddy and catch a few croaker to use as strip bait for the corvina as well.

wow, seems like yesterday.. thanks for the cool vid.

[straycat88]

Went out there for the first time about a month ago. Caught a few tilapia right by the inlet next to the visitor center, water looked ok. Moved to the crowded side of the rock pier where the fish were jumping into your bucket and cast there....right after the first cast my line came back all yellow and slimy, pretty nasty. Decided not to eat the fish after that, especially since I have a 4 year old in the house. Will be heading up to the Owens valley in the next couple of weeks.

[Ifishtoolittle]

Hey dude those are some nice tilapias! What time did you go today I don't think I noticed you fishing by the Jetty.

[pwynn]

funny thing i used to fish the heck out of that lake. i even have a website dedicated to the sea...
http://www.angelfire.com/empire/salton-sea-fishing/

if you look at that site u will see to pictures with my boys the first one is Quade the second is PAYTON...............they are my sons, we sure enjoyed the sea back in the late 90s till 2004..................it makes me sick

[hung380]

Are those fish safe to eat? Thinking about heading up that way in a month or so.

[Nessie Hunter]

In winter the Algae dies out for the most part anyway...

Go back in late July, Aug..
When its hot and the sun shines for 18 hr days...
The algae bloom is off the hook, the smell will make ya puke!!!
Oxygen level in the water falls to "0"....

Pretty sad indeed... :Sad:

Circa 1998 I drove an oversize load from Fontana area to Yuma area..
Oversize loads are normally routed. I was routed down the 111 that runs along the East shore of the Sea.. I had a female Pilot car driver...

Its was Hot, late summer time....
You could see the layers and layers of dead fish along the shore (predominant winds are So/W to No/E so blow everything to that shore line)...

The smell was so bad, that she puked out her window 2 times.. She wanted to stop to get sick, but I told her it would be 10 times worse, keep moving and get out of there ASAP.....

God that was horrible........:Envious: :Envious: :Envious:
Dont think I will ever forget it...................................:Evil:




.

[lizzay]

Hey thanks for the report. This place looks like it was really going off. How could something like that happen??? Piles of fish dead along the shore water? That's a big body of water! All the fishes died!???!!:EyePop: That's so sad. :Crying:

[Nessie Hunter]

You have to remember that the Sea is like a low spot that collects run off.
Water runs in from area drainage, but does not flow in & out.. The water is basically trapped...
Its a farming area, and they of course all use Nitrates and other chemical fertilizers...
Plus there is some canal from Mexico that runs in also??. This is a raw sewage and dump canal from Mexico????
Over the years this run off has built up and the water now has a very high Nitrate & chemical content...
This feeds the Algae and blooms are off the hook/scale using up every ounce of Oxygen in the water... The Algae even dies from lack of Oxygen and stinks..

As this toxic build up got worse and worse, the fish die offs got bigger & bigger until they were wiped out completely..........

You can Google Salton Sea, and get a ton of articles and explanations on the problems there..
Its been going on for many years, the debates have many solutions, but the cost and approvals get nowhere..

Damn shame...............




.

[Shyliners5]

Yeah I haven't been there scince before 03. Late 90's early 2000's use to all pile into my first car and would scrounge up like20 bucks for gas and fish all day in 125+ degrees At Red Hill. Had awesome double digit Corvina fishing on small yellow/white crappie jigs even used cigerette buts when we ran out... all on 4-6lb test only prob was had to change line 2-3 times per day cuz salt would eat it up. "Those were the days".


Nice report, great pics 'Baja V'. Glad it's not the dead sea yet.
Saw this episode a few weeks ago was suprised as sh** No Res. went to Salton Sea!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iklbi1nZJ20


<*((((>{ Eric.

[smokehound]

Do not eat these fish.

They are full of toxic chemicals. This saline lake is a major tragedy.

I remember going here as a little kid, the corvina were incredible and huge!

To be honest im surprised the cichlids are still reproducing.

Damn things grow fast!

[Baja Vinnie]

Hey dude those are some nice tilapias! What time did you go today I don't think I noticed you fishing by the Jetty.

Thanx. Pulled into the sea around 10:30 11:00, left around 3:00 or there about. We were fishing south of the jetty. Too many people packed on and around the jetty for my 7 year old son to be casting around. When we actually started fishing there was no one around us. But after my son's endless screaming every time he was hooked up, we were surrounded by the time we left. LOL.

[Anglerism]

I remember visiting this place during year 2003. We caught a lot of Big tilipias. I mean they were thick! I miss those days, that's why my family and I are planning to visit this weekend. If this place was so bad as people mentioned, why is it free to public? :O

[boxl0bster]

thanks for the report and info. i love reading about the salton sea, i have never been there, but i've been near it several times while fishing the canals. for some reason i cant get enough of it. i wish i was there to fish it in its hayday. theres a great little documentary about it if anyone is interested , think sansou posted it up before and i went and got it. :Cool:http://www.saltonseadoc.com/


shyliners5, thanks for that youtube vid. anthony bordain rocks! i never knew he did a show there.

[sansou]

thanks for the report and info. i love reading about the salton sea, i have never been there, but i've been near it several times while fishing the canals. for some reason i cant get enough of it. i wish i was there to fish it in its hayday. theres a great little documentary about it if anyone is interested , think sansou posted it up before and i went and got it. :Cool:http://www.saltonseadoc.com/


shyliners5, thanks for that youtube vid. anthony bordain rocks! i never knew he did a show there.


Boxlobster,

Plagues & Pleasures is about the coolest documentary I've seen about the Salton. How could it not be....look who narrates it!! I like their "holistic" approach to documenting what once was the California mecca of desert leisure.

I hope one day they build that once proposed canal from the Gulf of CA to the Salton....how cool would that be!! Fresh seawater & fish flowing from the Cortez down to the desert, with the necessary salt-exporting done thru desalination (using the sun) and the resulting freshwater water sold (self-funding!) to thirsty Los Angelinos! Sounds like a sane plan to me!

[troutdog]

Thanks for the vid Shyliners, very cool....I remember going to the Salton Sea on a trip with my folks and the marina(whereever we were) was teaming with some type of bait fish that you could scoop with a net...even that was a memorable experience. It is a shame to hear of the Sea's demise, good to see those tilaps being caught though. This place has a CityDad roadtrip written all over it! :LOL:


TD

[imd12nv]

Good job on the fish. Didnt even know that place had fish in it!

[Fish Dog]

I wonder when that was taken? About 1/3 of they way through the trailer they show a dead fish and I swear that looks like a corvina. That would be something if this was taken recently.

[boxl0bster]

Boxlobster,

Plagues & Pleasures is about the coolest documentary I've seen about the Salton. How could it not be....look who narrates it!! I like their "holistic" approach to documenting what once was the California mecca of desert leisure.

I hope one day they build that once proposed canal from the Gulf of CA to the Salton....how cool would that be!! Fresh seawater & fish flowing from the Cortez down to the desert, with the necessary salt-exporting done thru desalination (using the sun) and the resulting freshwater water sold (self-funding!) to thirsty Los Angelinos! Sounds like a sane plan to me!


that would be awesome! i think too many people focus on how it is now rather than how good it was in the past. i really hope something is done in my lifetime to return it back to its glory days. :Cool:

[PhisHook]

I found a very cool web site with astronaut pics of earth and they have pictures of the alge bloom in stages

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/QuickView.pl?directory=ESC&ID=ISS009-E-13810

Heres one

[Eddiem]

Does anybody know about how long this last?And were u using night crrawlers