2013_Salton Sea

Revisiting the rehabilitated, once fresh water, now salty lake, filled with tilapia, with a few extremely rare reports of covina. Haven't fish this lake in over a decade.

The Salton Sea, from the 2012-2013 lake analytical data and fish tissues/organs printouts I reviewed at the HQ while I was paying the entry fee, $5 (yeah..I'm that geeky), the water quality beats Lake Tahoe! Even the fish at this northern end outshine most fresh and saltwater fishes.

Info: full body contact, REC1.

Boating: Whatever you want!! Float tube too!! OOoooooohh man! I should have brought my tube!! You can shower once you're done before heading home. Not recommend to wear wader starting April. Getting extremely hot.

Fee: $5 entry. $3 launch fee for small kayak. $10 for large boat.

Campground: The northern park are closed. The Mecca (southern HQ location), Salt Creek, and the southern Jetty are wide open for camping until summer. Since summer is way too hot, the site will close down.

Fishing action: off the chart starting April.

Bait: Don't use anything but live crawler. ONLY LARGE CRAWLERS! Corns won't work no matter the recipe. Small red wigglies won't entice them. Plastics of any design and flavor will call to them, but will reject on first contact. Only large, fresh, stinky, oozing nightcrawlers will get their attention.

Rig: Drop shot is the most effective, with two or three out-rigging hooks work most effective. Have a 12" to 18" leader. Float/bobber is the worst. Sliding egg (Texas) will get your line stuck more often than not.

Line: use braid is best, starting at 10lbs. Leader should be at least 8lbs, but 10lbs and higher is recommended. The rocks and shells below will destroy your line. I have 6lbs braid, using ultralight trout and telescoping rod. I started using 4lbs leaders, then 6lbs, but lost so many in the process. Switched to 8lbs mono and flouro leader, the to 10. Works like a charm.

Hotest zone: from shore, cast out to 75ft or greater, where the drop-off is 30ft deep. Heaviest feeding zone as the schools move back and forth from the northern loop to the Bombay Beach, searching for worms. I use my 7'2" Berkeley trout rod, and was able to cast to 125ft hot zone, using 1/2oz sinker. Thanks to Dick Tabbert for the 12ft telescoping pole, ultralight, I was able to toss out to 150ft with ease, using 1/2oz weight. Extremely hot bites.

Catch rate: In the hot zone, you will be able to land tilapia between 3/4lb to 4lbs between 10 seconds, to 10 minutes. If bite don't happen, toss to another location.