Salton Sea Report


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Posted by Robert on 19:19:42 05/08/03

Left Taggermike's house in Carlsbad for the Salton Sea at 8:30 A.M. Wednesday. The wind started to blow around Ranchita. It was howling when we dropped down into Borrego Springs. Lots of dust storms were visible all over the desert. We got to Johnson's Landing on the West side of the sea a little before 11:00 A.M. We were camping at Mecca Beach on the other side of the Sea and just wanted to stop by Johnson's to take a look. There was Zero wind what so ever. That was strange because a couple of miles away it was blowing 35-40 mph. We checked the fish cleaning station and found a few corvina carcasses. Nothing of any great size though. We headed to to Mecca Beach campground to unload and set up camp. The wind was blowing about 15mph on the East side where Mecca was. They have a nice campground there. $14 a night. It's clean and they have showers. There were only 2 groups of campers there. We started to unload the Kayaks and all of our gear and the wind started picking up. It was blowing about 25mph with white caps on the water. We decided to wait it out and fish from the shore for a while. The water was only about 20 yards from our camp spot. We had a few beers and soaked some frozen chovies and croaker for no takers. I was really impressed by how beautiful the Salton Sea is. It is surrounded by mountains with lots of agriculture. At least the North end of it. Some people hate the desert. I have always loved it. The temp only got up to around 80 degrees. After taking in the scenery for a while the wind died down. We decided to launch right in front of the campground. The water color was a little darker than rootbeer everywhere we looked on the sea. It was a nice launch and we decided to stay close to the campground in case the wind came up again. We fished for an hour and a half for nada. We trolled Storm Wild Eye swim baits, Magombo Grubs, crank baits, and threw Krockadiles. I only saw one bait fish on my fishfinder and no corvina. We decided to load up the yaks and head up the road to the State Park H.Q. at Varner Harbor. 3 guys were fishing from the shore there with Storm Swimbaits. They had one corvina on a stringer. They had been fishing there for a long time. It didn't look too good. We fished from shore there for a half hour for nada. We decided to head back to camp and make dinner. We were going to give it another try afterwards. By the time we ate dinner the wind picked up again. Earlier it had been blowing out of the Northwest. Now it was blowing out of the Southwest and just as strong as before. We decided not to launch. 30mph winds and white caps are no fun in a kayak. The wind blew pretty good most of the night. It changed directions several times. In the morning the wind was still blowing so we packed everything up and headed for Johnson's landing on the West shore hoping that it would be calmer there. It was nice at Johnson's Landing. Just a slight breeze and about 80 degrees. We launched at the boat ramp and trolled and casted down to Freebie point and out in front of Johnson's for about two and a half hours for nada. We talked to a couple of guys in boats that had caught a couple on live tilapia that they had bought at a tilapia farm. I've got to try that next time. I decided to call it a day and head back in. Mike was doing 1 last drift. The wind was picking up again. All at once it was blowing so hard it felt like my face was getting sand blasted. Mike came back in and we loaded up and headed back home. The fishing was disappointing. Not even a nibble. The wind didn't cooperate. The Sea is a beautiful place though. I'll be back. I am going to wait till the end of June at least so the water can warm up, the wind can die down and hopefully the fishing will improve.
Robert
P.S. If you go stay close to shore and the area from where you launch because a nasty wind can come out of nowhere very quickly.




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