California/Arizona Border Bluegills

[Jim (Ike) Isaac]

I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday fishing the waters around Yuma AZ and the canals in Imperial County CA. The fish are on the beds so we put them all back. Here are some shots of representative fish. The first one was taken from the Gila Gravity Canal in Yuma, AZ and the last two were taken from the East Highline Canal in Imperial County CA.

[JBplusThuy]

Very nice fish! I'm up here in NorCal now, but I'm from San Diego and miss fishing in the desert heat. There's nothing like a sunrise on I-8 where you're heading straight into it and the sun looks like it's just about sitting on the road in front of you :-)

[Jim (Ike) Isaac]

I have one more Yuma trip scheduled for 2 weeks from now but after that I will wait for it to cool off before I go back. 110deg makes me sick.

I hope to get up your way this summer and fish Clear Lake and New Melones for Crappie.

[JBplusThuy]

Watch out for Clear Lake crappie, they're in the Do Not Eat column here:

http://oehha.ca.gov/fish/so_cal/Fclearlake.html

Unfortunately, there's an awful lot of naturally occurring ground mercury here in NorCal, and a lot of bodies of water have advisories because of this. In some other cases, it's because of leeching from old and abandoned mercury mines.

The complete list is here:

http://oehha.ca.gov/fish/so_cal/index.html

Never mind the so_cal in the link, these places are nearly all in northern and central California.

[Bluegill Chaser]

catfished.com forums will be busy if there is a good gill/crappie bite on Clear Lake fyi.

[Jim (Ike) Isaac]

Thanks for the link to catfished.com !

[Bobby]

Hello, how do you get to the East Highline Canals from San Diego and do they produce well?

Thanks

[JBplusThuy]

Defibrillating a really old thread here :-)

I'm back in San Diego and would love to get out to the canals sometime this spring or summer. Haven't fished them in so long I don't now remember which canals I've fished, but I think they were no farther east than Sunbeam Lake. I may try around there, or might go farther out, maybe the Highline.

Where would you recommend fishing in the Highline? Is it better in the area north and south of 78, or around the I-8 crossing? Or is it good way up to the north near Salvation Mountain? I read about Salvation Mountain a couple months ago and it might be interesting to see, so that's kind of a draw for that area, but it's a long drive from central San Diego. Definitely the kind of place you leave for while it's still dark, or camp out the night before if it's safe.

If I got that far north, I could hit the Salton Sea for tilapia (they safe to eat?) if there were no gills doing in the canals.

Thanks!

Jonathan