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charlietuna

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Joined
Apr 20, 2011
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Location
Imperial, CA
Hey all....signed up a cpl weeks ago and been reading through different posts, especially the "Projects" threads. First posting for me, and just wanted to say hi...."Hi....."

Got a 1978 Mirrocraft 14' tinny, with a 25hp Johnson. Bought it last summer and have fished sporadically with it since. Now I'm taking the paint off (hideous mint green) and planning on Steelflex-ing the bottom. Also cleaning up the trailer and re-wiring it, but that's an ongoing project unto itself....Anyway, was wondering if there are any other So. CA-ifornian's here. Of course I don't mind reading and seeing what people in other parts of the US are doing with their rigs, but I'm really interested in seeing what some of you have done to fix your boats up for fishing places like San Diego Bay, or even Baja. Have fished (and plan to continue to) Lower Colorado River (Yuma, Cibola, Martinez Lake area), but also want to be able to haul the 1-1/2 hours to the Pacific and catch some sort of saltwater fishies (again, bays and harbors, don't have any delusions of taking my little dinghy outside the break-walls).....

oh, and I don't have any pix yet because, basically, I suck at doing things like that...I tend to just start doing stuff on my own and don't bother to think about sharing with other people....I'm trying to get better at it, but......will try to post some up later on....
 
Hey Charlietuna....(great name by the way)

Welcome to TinBoats and the family. We are all happy to have you here.
 
hey Charlietuna, Welcome!

I was stationed at MCAS Yuma from 2004-2007. I sold my boat before I moved there. Who needs a boat in the desert? or so I thought....Then I learned about the Colorado River and Martinez lake, Mittry Lake and of course the Gila river.

There is some really good fishing in the Salton Sea if you wear protective clothing and can stand the smell. We used to fish the small lakes near the BMX track just west of El Centro.

Not far over the Mtns you have a few other lakes like Lake Poway and the Lakes near Santee. You can even take a small Jon boat in Mission Bay for a little saltwater action.

I would set it up like the guys do that run the small rivers and creeks anywhere else in the country. You should take special care to cover any exposed Aluminum with carpet or something that wont get dangerously hot in the sun out there.

I always wanted to run the Colorado from the Yuma boat ramp as far south as I could into Mexico. And I if you put in at Martinez lake or north of the Imperial Dam you can go north all the way through palo verde and Blythe all the way to the palo Verde Dam (where you would have to do a small portage but it would be easy in a small jon boat just get some of those little wheels that strap onto the back of it). Then your home free all the way to Parker Dam on the south end of Lake Havasu!

There are several places it put in along the Colorado north of Imperial along 78 and many little channels and lakes that come off the Rio Colorado like Taylor Lake, Cibola Lake, Draper Lake, and several others along the way.

I loved living out there! When I retire next year I will probably be back.

I Love exploring and going waaay out in the wilderness. No where else in the U. S. (except Alaska) can you get as remote as you can in the desert. When you are DAYS away from the nearest town or road it is very humbling, and an amazing feeling of freedom.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&biw=1260&bih=777&q=yuma+az&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Yuma,+AZ&gl=us&ei=KTzATfZFhoW2B-DhlcQF&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ8gEwAA
 
Hey reedjj...used to do some Jeepin' with some guys from MCAS in Yuma, most have transferred out now....yeah, I was born and raised and still live in the Imperial Valley (El Centro), so I've fished all those places you mentioned (except the San Diego area lakes). But it was usually either from the bank or in somebody else's boat....finally got my own pile of aluminum now, so I'm ready to give it a go without having to rely on somebody else....And, my ultimate goal is to have a rig that will work really, REALLY well in the San Diego/Mission Bays and maybe even out at the Point Loma kelp beds on calm days (and if the weather turns, it's a short shot back into the bay), while also being serviceable at the River....

and your mention of going from Yuma/Imperial Dam upriver is definitely on my to-do list.....
 
It seemed to me like alot of guys had either bass boats or crazy inboard flat bottom fiberglass jet boats when I was out there. I would have loved to had about a 16 to 18 foot Mod-V welded Aluminum boat with a nice Jet outboard on it for running the wash's and the river. It seems thats what kind of boat I always want no matter where I live. You never can tell when they are going to let the water out of Senators Wash lol.

I know you posted that your boat is a 14 footer but what width is it? Is it a flat bottom, Mod-v, or V hull?

Have you ever fished the highline Canal (I think thats the one) that runs right through Slab City? I always wanted to. We used to do some "stuff" with the Seals out at Camp Billy Machon in the Chocolate Mtn Ariel Gunnery range and we had to drive through "the Slabs" to get there. One night we stopped and had a few beers with some of the "slabbers" Turns out not all of them are wierdo's Like most people think. Most are just like every other snowbird that is passing through only they like to camp for free every now and then. The guy we were talking with was telling us about giant catfish in the canals?

I never got a chance to fish there or the Salton Sea. I heard about giant tarpin the salton sea too???? Do you know anything about that??
 
reedjj, that's actually the Coachella Main canal that runs next to the Slabs....and yes, fished it many times.....yeah, there are some horse catfish caught out of there (as well as out of the other big main canals around here). 10-12lbs are common and I personally know a guy who caught a 33lb'er....seen pics of even bigger. I work for the local utility company and we have a dive team that goes down to do work on our hydro-electric plants along the All-American canal and those guys tell stories of catfish that look to be 80-100lbs that just do nothing but lurk around the outlets at the hydros and pick off the other, smaller fish that get washed through the turbines.....We also catch stripers up to about 8 - 10lbs, large and small mouth bass, mostly 1-3lbs, but I have seen some 10lb'ers caught and an occasional crappie or two.....

as for the Salton Sea, it's pretty much a dead area anymore...lots of politics and environmental issues have taken a toll....not much in the way of fishing anymore. I did fish there as a kid, but i don't remember tarpon being one of the species we caught.....orange-mouth corvina was the most prevalent (and physically the largest....there were some monster 40lb+ in there in the 70's)....also lots of tilapia, sargo/croaker, mullet, etc....but, unfortunately, as I said, it's pretty much dead now....mullet and tilapia are about it and with the frequent algae blooms that happen during the summer, most of those don't make it through their first year.....the dead carcasses get scooped up and turned into fertilizer....
 

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