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View Full Version : Striper Hunt 2, Canal, 9/30/2010



VietReefer
10-01-2010, 12:46 AM
My favorite type of fishing is surf, or lake .. with ice blue water and scenic environment. But here in the desert, I'm lucky enough to be able to find some water to cast my lures and actually catch something. Salton Sea is only 30 minutes away, but the last time I visit couple months ago, saw thousands and I really mean thousands of talapias floating dead on the surface and the smell was bad and flies were so thick I couldn't stand 3 minutes outside.

I thought I was satisfied after I caught the long-wished striper in the canal and said that's it, the hunt is over but apparently it was not because I woke up in the middle of the night and feel that itch and a voice told me to go wet my line.

Got up at 5am and had everything tied up and ready to go. @ the canal around 5:45am, couple of rain drops started falling, in the desert? at this time? weird. The thunder and lightning scared the crap out of me a couple times. It really a lot more frightening when you're in the middle of the desert, pit black, can't see anything around you, but I refuse to back down.
Stated with my KPN, the only lure I tried that caught me my last striper at the canal, swooshhhhh and reeled in .. why does it take so long to feel that tight light .. just reel and reel until it took me flashlight to tell me the lure was gone :( Shoot, damm it, my favorite weapon for the hunt is gone. Bad knot?? Yeah, I think so.

As sad as I was losing my KPN .. fish on. Going through my lure box, was gonna choose Wingnut's LC FM110 metallic sardine or the gold color but decided I'm gonna go with the shiniest LC I just got since it was still dark, choose Slender Pointer 112MR Nishiki. Carefully tied my lure with a palomar knot, reenforced with a uni-knot just to be sure. If I loose another expensive lure, I'm gonna cry .. hehe.

My very first cast into the dark water after loosing the KPN rewarded me with a biggun to make it up. Man, was he a drag burner. I couldn't see him but I couldn't hear he came atop the surface and splashing water all over the place. A lot of loosening and tightening of drag were done to tug-o-war with him. He gave up a good 5 minutes fight then I tightened my drag and reeled him in. I could see him with a flashlight in my mouth about 10 ft from me, then he decided to make another run and my rod went bendo hard and I hear a "crack", holy crap, my rod broke, I couldn't see where it broke but first instinc I lifted the rod up high to keep line tight. Landed the dude and recovered the broken rod tip about 1-1.5". He's the biggest striper bass I've ever caught, not DD, but my PB. No scale, so I measured him at aroung 25-26".

I always bring 2 rods when I go fishing, for some reason, I only brought 1 today cuz I thought I've always used only one. Now, don't tell me I have to go home after just 2 casts, even though I've caught something. Fish on, I cut the live, remove the tip and put it in my pocket, retied the SP 112MR Nishiki and fish on without the tip. It make it a lot harder to cast without the rod tip, and I can't cast as far .. but what the heck. I managed to pull one more, a lot smaller striper out of there after 15 casts or so .. then the water level started to drop, and my lure would snag bottom on every cast so I called it a day and bagged the stripers for dinner.

Went home, contact Amazon, told them how come the rod tip broke on my first session (I lied, it's my 5th session hehe), and the replacement rod is on its way to my house. Amazing customer service, and I didn't have to call & talk to anyone too, just did online. :)

It was still dark when I caught them, so the pictures were taken at home :)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/5040669955_dcfd7b000d_z.jpg

Bonus shot: My other fishes which I don't fish for

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4496606304_e0501fabe9_z.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/4495956545_e3873ee78d_z.jpg

Lunker1979
10-01-2010, 01:07 AM
Damn, nicely done...where abouts is that?? I'm in Beaumont and usually travel to Hesperia to fish the duct. Maybe have to drive out there one day. Are you picking up any moss on your casts and retrieves?? It's relly bad up this way. Congrats on the fish!

VietReefer
10-01-2010, 01:47 AM
Damn, nicely done...where abouts is that?? I'm in Beaumont and usually travel to Hesperia to fish the duct. Maybe have to drive out there one day. Are you picking up any moss on your casts and retrieves?? It's relly bad up this way. Congrats on the fish!

Thanks Lunker

This is somewhere between Indio and Coachella Valley. If you're in Beaumont, it will take you approx 50 mins to 1 hr. :) Maybe it's about the same distance from Beaumont to Hesperia. I've been wanting to try the duct too but haven't got the chance. There is no moss on the canal, at least where I fished at I think because they have a lot of grass carp there which clear out the moss. It's just that the canal is rather small in size maybe 1/3 to 1/4 the size of the duct, that's why you can't cast across the canal cuz you'll hit the wall on the other side. You can only cast 45 degree or less downstream or upstream and after 15-20ft retrieving the line, you'll hit n snag the wall of the canal on the side which you stand on, and you want the lure to stay in the middle of the canal where it is deepest. It's a touch place to fish with swimbait or harbait and more suited for bait-n-wait unless you find a bent section but I'm after those stripers, so :)

yolo
10-01-2010, 04:06 AM
Very nice! Have you tried jigging the bottom and sides with a bucktail or a lead head with a swim bait or soft jerkbait? With that canal so narrow and shallow, I bet they hug the bottom almost all the time. Try bouncing some stuff around down there. At least the jigs are cheaper if lost although you will snag less because the hook is on top unlike two or three trebles on the bottom like with the hard lures. Just a thought to expand your weapons.

VietReefer
10-01-2010, 05:33 AM
Very nice! Have you tried jigging the bottom and sides with a bucktail or a lead head with a swim bait or soft jerkbait? With that canal so narrow and shallow, I bet they hug the bottom almost all the time. Try bouncing some stuff around down there. At least the jigs are cheaper if lost although you will snag less because the hook is on top unlike two or three trebles on the bottom like with the hard lures. Just a thought to expand your weapons.

Thanks a lot yolo, never really thought (or knew) about that hehe even though I always brought some jig heads and some jerkbait with me, just started fishing and there are a lot of stuffs I need to learn. Is that what you caught your monster striper with?

kpn
10-01-2010, 08:36 AM
You did it again bro! You're starting to become a striper's killer/hunter like me now :LOL:.
Welcome to the club bro :Envious:.

KPN.

VietReefer
10-01-2010, 10:09 AM
You did it again bro! You're starting to become a striper's killer/hunter like me now :LOL:.
Welcome to the clud bro :Envious:.

KPN.

KPN
I'm far away from becoming like you .. maybe in another 10 years hehe. Thanks for all the tips you gave me about striper hunting :).

fishinone
10-01-2010, 10:14 AM
Nice catch.

Is that a limit out there or is the limit 10?

OnDaHunt4Fish
10-01-2010, 11:50 AM
Give me a location, turn by turn , please i will be that way this weekend, email me if you dont want to post

yolo
10-01-2010, 12:24 PM
Thanks a lot yolo, never really thought (or knew) about that hehe even though I always brought some jig heads and some jerkbait with me, just started fishing and there are a lot of stuffs I need to learn. Is that what you caught your monster striper with?

Yes it is. I don't know what kind of bait fish in there now but the fall and winter in the duct has the silverside minnows growing and the stripers stuff themselves on them. The soft jerkbaits and bucktails imitate the long and skinny bait fish and work awesome from now until spring when they switch to the tule perch and the KPN and other lipless cranks imitate those really well in the spring through fall when they are more active.

I have used slug go's, soft sculpin, soft swimbaits etc and nailed many stripers on jig heads. I don't see why they would not work in the Coachella. Try it out with different sized heads depending on flow and water elevation.

VietReefer
10-01-2010, 04:25 PM
Nice catch.

Is that a limit out there or is the limit 10?

Yes, that's the limit out there, cuz that as much as I can catch hehe the whole day :D walking up and down the canal hehe j/k. I think the limit is still 10, or unlimited because there's nothing that state the limit there, nor anyone else beside me there fishing :).



Give me a location, turn by turn , please i will be that way this weekend, email me if you dont want to post

Sure, shoot me a PM and I'll give you direction boss.


Yes it is. I don't know what kind of bait fish in there now but the fall and winter in the duct has the silverside minnows growing and the stripers stuff themselves on them. The soft jerkbaits and bucktails imitate the long and skinny bait fish and work awesome from now until spring when they switch to the tule perch and the KPN and other lipless cranks imitate those really well in the spring through fall when they are more active.

I have used slug go's, soft sculpin, soft swimbaits etc and nailed many stripers on jig heads. I don't see why they would not work in the Coachella. Try it out with different sized heads depending on flow and water elevation.

I'll take your advice and try something new on my next session. I've never seen any baitfish here though yolo. I'm pretty sure they had to be in there somewhere but with the current constantly flowing, I've never seen any baitfish besides carps :D hehe

Catrack77
10-01-2010, 04:44 PM
You guys be careful VietReefer is fishing in

yolo
10-01-2010, 08:45 PM
That's why the canal looked so skinny, it's in town. I don't recall it that narrow when I used to hit it as a teen with my dad but we were way down south across from Bombay Beach (Salton Sea) area. The again, the place could have boomed in the 20+ years I have not been there.

I have a question. Why does it matter if you either live or visit a home? Is it a private section different from the rest of the canal? That's the only way I can see it. Otherwise, if you have a license, you should be able to fish it. Is it a gated community or public roads? Not wanting to go there and fish it but it just sparked my curiosity from what Desert Cat wrote.

VietReefer
10-01-2010, 10:39 PM
Thanks for the heads up Desert Cat

Yolo, Desert Cat works for the Coachella Valley Water District that regulate that entire canal so he knows all the regulations of that canal. The part of the canal which runs thru the city of La Quinta & Indio are mostly fenced off and has No Tresspassing signs.
I've fished many different parts of the canal except the part near Salton Sea and down south and find that they're pretty much all the same, except when you're lucky then you'll nail something surprising. Most if not all of the people who fish the canal fish mainly for catfish. The canal used to hold a lot more fish before the new canal was built. When the old canal was drained, all fishes were taken to Lake Cahuilla so I think the new canal hold a lot less species of fish than the original one.
The part where I fished couple times and Desert Cat talked about is in a fenced off section, it's just more than a hundred ft from a friend's backyard so that I was able to access it. Otherwise, you'll have to pass some No Tresspassing sign to get there. :) There's no fence once you passed Indio though, but according to Desert Cat, the whole canal will eventually be fenced off :(

yolo
10-02-2010, 04:32 AM
Got it. Sounds like being a resident or a friend of a resident is the way to go in that area. So it was completely drained for upgrades. I am assuming the lower part by the Salton Sea was upgraded too. I wonder why they couldn't just drain sections and work on them section by section (gate to gate). This would have helped the fish population as they would have stayed in the filled sections. I'm sure Desert Cat knows. Now I really want to see some pics of the transformed southern section. Like I have said before it was just a dirt ditch back in the day. We always caught fish there.

Bigfish12
10-09-2010, 07:07 AM
Nice job on the canal striper

DesertFishen3
10-18-2010, 04:58 PM
I fish the coachella canal a lot and I have been several days from march to july and had a limit of 10 that was mostly catch and release cause i only needed 3 or 4. most of the striper i cach there are 1-2 lb but several in the 4-5lb class also my pb from the canal came from the end of 52nd and it was 8 lb. almost all my fish were caught on flukes and rubber jerkbaits usually in silver/white shad or bass colors.
also caught 7 flatheads one week this summer all over 15lbs and the biggest was 35lbs. so there are some very big fish out there my PB fish at 42 lbs came from Northshore area.
i am still looking for a DD striper i was just waiting for this weather change. prob try to hit it up after work one day this week and let you all know how i do.

but good job out there I know how tough it can be and you seem to be doing pretty good. if you can find the drop points like at the end of 52nd and just toss it in the rough water and burn it back and youll feel it BAAMMMM!!!!!.
Good Luck

VietReefer
10-19-2010, 02:59 AM
Wow .. you really killed em' out there :)

Geraldlim
10-22-2010, 01:40 AM
Congrats on catching stripers in suburban SoCal!
I couldn't believe there are strpers within 30 minutes of where I live - I just [U]had[U] to check it out, so I drove down to 52nd to take a look at the canal after midnight tonight.
It has "No Trespassing" signs painted all along the canal walls!
Is there anywhere I can legally fish in this canal? Or at least with no chance of a ticket?

VietReefer
10-24-2010, 10:43 PM
Fish on Dillion & 44th, just park right next to the canal and fish right next to your car, there's no "No Fishing" or "No Tresspassing" sign.
You can also try the water gate/drop-off near Dillion and 44th, not at. At Dillon & 44th, go west on 44th about a mile or so, there will be a dirt road on the right leading to the canal, drive the dirt road about couple hundred feet to get to the spot. It's exactly similar to the structure at 52nd.

Geraldlim
10-24-2010, 11:21 PM
Thanks! You seem to be the intrepid explorer, especially for someone who does not live here. Keep it up!