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TiskTisk
03-10-2011, 09:56 AM
Hello everybody,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to start by saying hello. I grew up fishing on the East Highline Canal with all my father/uncles and grandfather since the early 70's. I've not been to the canal to fish in about 5 years, since we've not had any family trips. I've decided to take my 6 year old son out this weekend along with a friend for a boy's fishing trip. I had a few questions, since I've not been out in awhile...

1. We always camped on the west side of the canals, usually near some trees and under the power lines north of the 78, Is this still acceptable? Is it safe?

2. My family only fished for catfish with nightcrawlers and stink bait, and we would usually take home ~10-15 fish for a 2 day/1 night trip, but I hate eating catfish. What's some other options, the only other things I've seen are strip/carp/frogs and turtles.

3. In the past, my father would almost always catch 1-2 snapping turtles between 10PM - 2AM on a tri-hook with some stink bait/worms, is there still turtles in the canal? Are they legal to keep, my mother-in-law loves to eat turtles but I wasn't sure if they were legal to keep.

4. We never left the EH to fish other canals, but I've seen lots of positive reports on this forum about Coachella Canal that is to the north. Since we'll be camping for 2 nights, I'd like to go to the Coachella Canal on Saturday afternoon, but I have no idea where to go. I'd like a place where I can camp and fish, my son not very focused so he'll want to soak his bait and run around while I'm casting. Any suggestions on a place to go, a map link would be helpful since I don't know anything about the area.

5. Do I need an enhancement to my fishing license, other than fresh water? In the past, my dad always had me get an additional stamp for the Colorado River/AZ border. I assume we don't need this, but I'm not sure. Can you tell me if I need license enhancements, and if so which ones.

In the past, we always had great trips. We only had a few times when we had to leave early due to big sand storms, but those too were exciting for me as a kid. I caught my biggest freshwater fish on the EHL about 13 years ago, a 50lb grass carp (I'll have to find a pic). I didn't know that it was illegal to catch at the time, so I brought it home to show everybody since nobody in the family would believe I caught the fish. When I showed my grandpa, he started laughing cause I said I caught a 50lb fish (beating his 8 pound catfish he caught that same weekend), only to be told that carp aren't fish since nobody will eat it. Which was confirmed grandma, who said she wasn't going to cook it. I had to give it to my lao buddy, who's parents happily ate it up!

I'm really pumped about going this week, so any tips/tricks/news is greatly appreciate. Thanks!!!

fullstringer
03-10-2011, 11:06 AM
Welcome, I would try some of the small lakes like sunbeam,weist they have bluegill,crappie,bass,trout.Map quest the EHL and you will find these lakes just north.Weist is on Rutherford rd.

TiskTisk
03-10-2011, 11:12 AM
Thanks you fullstringer. I never realized there were lakes so close... never looked north of the 78. Are you allowed to camp at the lakes, if so is it open camping or do they charge & provide facilities?

Catsfordays
03-11-2011, 06:15 AM
Lots of water to fish down there, but with a 6 year old, i would stay away from the CC. The Highline or some of the smaller roadside canals would be safer.

Fisher
03-11-2011, 02:54 PM
Yep, Sunbeam and Weist are pretty good. The highline canal has real good fishing. Go down anywhere in the highline, and it's good. If you fish the drops, make sure you have a heavy sinker. Worms work real well for me, chicken liver, and artificial lures for big bass. I was told this past summer that before the water drops, and there's a stagnant pool somewhere, fish it....lots of bluegill, crappie, and bass would be the fish that would be attracted to that.

Good luck!:Envious:

fullstringer
03-12-2011, 10:14 AM
Weist lake has camping and does charge,I do not know the fee.With a youngster in tow I would hit the lakes a lot of shore line and no swift water to worry about.Also try Finney and Raimer they are next each other.I was just out that way on my way to Palo Verde and we caught a bunch of bluegill and crappie,bass on the drain canals ,not very big but fun on ultra light set up.On the EHL north of 78 I like to float a crawler along the bank just beyond the grass and walk with it should find bass.

TiskTisk
03-14-2011, 02:07 PM
Thanks for the info everybody, here is my feedback from our trip....

We started Friday night north of the 78's right before the second drop (main station where they control the flow). There is a patch of tree right after a house on the west side of the canal 200 yards before the drop, that is a good area to camp. This is the exact location I grew up fishing at and provided a good place off the road to pitch the tent and park the cars. We saw lots of small bass ~6" long early AM around 6AM, and around 8-10A we saw some large 24" grass carp that seemed to have no fear of fisherman (my son poked one with the tip of his rod, to see if it was alive... and it was...). We didn't catch any fish on night crawlers, lures, or some really stinky catfish bait my friend brought.

Around noon we headed to Weiss Lake, it was $2 to park and it provided facilities (bathroom, lots of covered tables on the edge of the water with shade, etc...). When we got there, all the fisherman had 3-5 fish in their buckets, mostly small bluegill... It was nice having the shade areas on the water’s edge. My son must of found me ~30 1/4oz weights of various shapes around the water line and tables. We spent 3-4 hours here without any luck, and decide to try Finney Lake next.

Finney lake was right next to Weiss, but we got lost by taking the wrong turn... We ended up going all the way around to the north side since I missed the turn. Coming in from the north, I passed a house on the left side and then turned into the entrance of the park where there is some asphalt on the ground and a brown wood sign asking people to sign-in. We drove around the lake a bit and found a spot where there was a thin road going in the middle of the south side of the lake. I wasn't sure if it was "truck" safe so I passed it and took the road a few hundred meters south. When we got to the other side a old man was sitting beside his truck fishing with night crawlers who told me there was a bunch of fish in the lake but he hadn't had any luck today. We parked at the west entrance of the dirt road that ran through the middle of the lake and walked up/down to fish. We saw fish jumping out of the water non-stop the entire time we were there but had no luck during our 4 hours. We tried everything we had and we let a few poles soak 1+ hours with no hits. We noticed there was something odd at the far south side of the lake, it sounded like water being pumped in and could be seen as a constant flow of water shooting up a few feet.. anybody know what this is ???, it was a fairly loud gurgling sound... I also noticed most of the road around the edge of the lake was unstable (~6" away from the edge seemed to crumble if I put weight on it). All in all, it was a really nice place and there is clearly fish there... cause they were jumping non-stop!

We ended up leaving Finney at 3-4PM to head to the Salton Sea. We somehow (via my navigator) ended up at the north side of the lake at a fishing location that was next to the visitor center. It was very clean and had nice facilities, including a boat ramp. The usage fee was $5 per/car and there was a Jetty of guys who all had buckets of 20+ tilapia each... Most were about 12" and decent size, and looks exactly like the millions of dead fish floating by in the first 10" of water off the shoreline. They were using night crawlers attached to a short leader line about 18" above their weight. There was no room on the Jetty so we fished the shoreline and only caught 1 fish using a float, casted about 20 meters from the shoreline. It was an instant hit on the night crawler, so the bait works... we just needed to be on that Jetty.

In all, it was a blast and my son is ready to go again. He did more exploring than fishing, which helped me bring home more tackle than I left with! I saw fish and game once, and they were pretty helpful giving me information about the location, directions to Weiss, etc... With the new license not having to be displayed, I was surprised they didn't ask to see it...

Thanks again for the tips/suggestions, going to these new locations was fun and seeing all the fish is a bit invigorating.

fullstringer
03-15-2011, 02:38 PM
It's still early and the fish will start biting soon with the temps in the 80's it's only a matter of time.

Catsfordays
03-16-2011, 09:41 AM
You get an A for effort. With that level of commitment, it shouldn't be long before you catch limits of whatever you're targeting! Where did you run into DFG?

TiskTisk
03-16-2011, 11:50 AM
Thanks Catsfordays.... He stopped to chat with us near the Myrtle Drop on the EHL... We figured we'd just ask him all sorts of questions, since we had licenses... hahaha...