Fish origin in the Salton Sea?

[crappie stalker]

Actually, the Tilapia cant reproduce in the Salton sea, they get washed in every year from the Alamo,New river and other irrigation canal runoff.

Are you sure because I have seen them bedded up around the shore sitting on there nest.. They dont usually do that unless they are on eggs and or fry.. You can see hundreds of round circles with Big tilapia floating about them...

CS

[pwynn]

their will be beds everywhere in the marina at the state park as soon as the weather starts warming up

[ToadsToadsOnly]

Quick Google Search
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/tila...ivespecies.php
"Many species of tilapia are amazingly adaptable and this makes them especially prone to becoming problematic invasive species. Quite a few tilapias can adapt to brackish conditions and some are even capable of living where the salinity is 35 ppt, the average salinity of sea water. Tilapias are also famous for their opportunistic feeding style and many species can make use of a wide range of food sources, from aquatic invertebrates and small fish to decomposing organic matter (detritus), plants and plankton. In addition to this, many species and variants breed rapidly and grow fast. It should however be noted that most species are sensitive to cold since they hail from tropical environments.

Tilapia can cause problems for native flora and fauna in several ways. They will compete with other species for food and can disrupt the ecological balance. Tilapia can also cause turbidity in clear waters since they are fond of digging. Turbidity will reduce the amount of available light in the water, which affects all organisms relying on photosynthesis.

Examples of tilapia as an invasive species
In the United States, established tilapia populations of tilapia occur in the many different parts of the country. There is for instance a thriving population of Oreochromis mossambicus in Salton Sea, an inland saline lake in Southern California."

Here is the history of salton sea;
http://www.saltonsea.ca.gov/histchron.htm

Intresting fact:

1950: Orange mouth corvina becomes the first salt water game fish to be successfully established in the Salton Sea. Short fin corvina and gulf croacker are also successfully transplanted.

1951: 65 sargo introduced to the Salton Sea—they quickly multiply and become the most abundant fish caught in Salton Sea until their numbers begin declining presumably due to salinity.

[SOSO]

Anyone have actual real life experiences at Salton Sea that they can share? Pics?

[KID CREOLE]

I've fished the Salton Sea since I was a kid, 25 or so years ago. The fishing was epic during the 80s and 90s with the surge of Talapia. I have caught 100's if not 1000s of Corvina but kept very few, only fish that couldn't survive release. When the fishing spawning, late April early May, you could hear the fish moving through the water, males looking to spawn would surrounf females up on the surface, croaking, splashing around and stuff.

Typically, Corvina would swim with fish of their own size, 5lbrs with 5 lbrs, 20 lbrs with 20 lbrs. Smaller fish were easy to catch on small crome jigs like crocodiles and spoons, larger Corvina loved to eat yellowfin croaker which at that time the Sea was full of them!

Typically you neede three rods, a small 8 lb rod for catching yellowfin with, a 10 to 30 lb rod that you might fish the ocean with and then a 7 to 8 ft flipping rod to throw swim baits.


Back in the 80's or so was the time Kalin lures got going, the owner Al Kalin used fish the Sea started producing the swim bait called the lunker lure. These soft swim baits were very effective, pink, pearl and chartruse were great colors to use. Later on, other swimbaits came out that were a little more effective!

At times when we were looking for Corvina we would troll a few lures, once we go bit we tossed over a float with a short 20 ft section of rope and would drift this area until the fish moved on, this was before GPS chart plotters came out!

Fishing was still very good until about 6 years ago, when the water deal to move farm water to the city of San Diego put the nails in the coffin of the Salton Sea.

With all the bad press the Sea has gotten, I would give up fishing anywhere else to have back the fishing at the Salton Sea the way it was!

Here was a average fish!





Wild Pink Flamingos on the shore of Salton Sea

[PHISHnutS]