Salton Sea Trip

[Fishwhisperer619]

Hey guys I was thinking about a road trip, wanting to go to the salton sea. Anybody camp/fish there? What's it like? I wanna go this winter before my next semester starts. Thanks for the imput! Oh and also how much money am I looking to spend roughly?

[FishRaiden]

Fished there during the Summer. Fishing is slow during colder weather.

[Fishwhisperer619]

Did you feel it was worth the trip when you went in the summer?

[FishRaiden]

Minus the heat, it was a fun trip. Wide open bite all day.

[taggermike]

The Sea still has great fishing in the warmer months. The big corvina are gone but the tilapia are there in astronomical numbers. It can be beyond wide open. Its a cheap trip out the I8 and $5 for day use at the state park. Or free at many other places. The Sea is a shadow of it's old self fishing wise but it is still an amazing and unique place. Wait till may/june, grab some buddies, and get out there. And like in this vid, fun and easy for kids Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqRA301kv4

[Fishwhisperer619]

Good to know. For me, I want to go and snatch up a big corvina. When would be the best time to go for that?

[buddha]

Sadly I believe all the corvina are gone.

[Fishwhisperer619]

:O blasphemy!!!!! Haha I really hope that isn't true

[Sdspeed]

Sadly I believe all the corvina are gone.

I looked at 7 months of fishing reports thru july 2013, Talipia yes, Corvina appear to be gone. The Talipia are also extremely small. One angler reported catching 80 in a day and only 2 were over 12 inches, most were under 6 inches.

I have friends who live there and don't bother to go fishing in the Salton Sea anymore.

[Fiskadoro]

:O blasphemy!!!!! Haha I really hope that isn't true

You're over a decade late. The salinity (salt content) is too high for Corvina, Sargo and most of the other fish that used to be there. Though it was epic fishing for them in the 90s, I've not heard about anyone catching a Corvina there in years.

Tilapia can take high salinity and can survive in very dirty water so they are still there. Since they have no competition there are a ton of them, but they are small fish, and as I said in the other thread I personally wouldn't eat them.

[Raskal311]

Ohh does anyone eat fish from that place? Last time I was there which was 15+ years ago it was a filthy mess.

[Fishwhisperer619]

Oh ok good to know guys thanks. I've honestly never even heard of this place prior to this year but though I might give it a try, guess not haha

[FishRaiden]

My family and I went during the Summer of 2012 (with kayaks) & Summer of 2013. The fishing was good almost all day long till the heat beats you up.

Salton Sea has been a lot cleaner & "fresher" these past two Summers. There was rarely any dead fish laying/floating around, the bad smell went unoticable, but the summertime fish stayed the same, WFO.

Heres a Tilapia from this years trip:

http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u566/KingArvil/IMG_20130511_080936_573-1_zpsa8cc5f26.jpg

Fun to catch on the trout rods.

[Raskal311]

yeah when I was there in the mid 90s there were probably tens of thousands of dead fish all over the beach. I think I have to make another trip in the near future; hopefully we wouldn't get shot at this time ;D

[Siebler]

There is going to be a lot of waterfowl hunters there through Jan. One of the only areas to really hunt in SoCal so it draws a lot of folks especially around Wister Unit/Sonny Bono/ Red Hill.

[taggermike]

The Sea looked good when I visited the last 2 years. No smell, not many dead fish, water was super clear(for the Sea), maybe 90 degrees, plenty of folks catching lots of fish, and loads of birds. The tilapia die because of low oxygen levels. When the waters hot after an algae bloom the algae decays and removes much of the O2 from the water. This kills the fish; not disease or toxins. Tilapia reproduce so fast and the Sea is so fertile that even after a huge fish kill there are plenty of fish or there soon will be. There are whole beaches made up of fish bones several feet deep.

Yep, sadly the big vinas are gone. The first 1 I caught there was 22lbs. All the ocean fish are gone; vina, sargo, gulf croaker, mud suckers, and mullet. The tilapia stay around because no matter how bad the sea gets there is always a population of the them in the New and Alamo rivers as well as all the creeks and drainage ditches that lead in to the Sea. If every tilapia in the Sea died then we had a wet year and the water improved a bit the fish would recolonize and completely repopulate the sea in just a few years. The last fish and game estimate I heard for the sea was 35 million tilapia. Just some info. The sea is always fluctuating. Mike

[ful-rac]

I have always been facinated with the salton sea...its different...its one hell of an interesting place...im not quite sure camping there is a good idea but its pretty cool to go there for a day.

If your thinking of going there and catching fish sometime soon...scratch that idea off your list. Like the guys said wait until summertime. I would go in july, only problem is its blaz'n hot out there, its friggn brutal. The last couple of trips out there we got in fished and got out before noon.

[Siebler]

You can camp at wister unit. No use fee if you have hunting or fishing license.

We camp all over the valley with no issues. Even on canal roads that are yards from the border.

[dogjaw]

I go out riding in Ocotillo Wells and took a trip out to the Salton Sea to fish for the day and was disappointed. Like the other post said the fish averaged about 5" inches. You can also fish the canals for bass and catfish though.