Recent Lake Die Off's

[Cal Bassin]

Anyone have any input on a recent situation going on.

Seems appropriate with this day and age, where money is controlling all aspects of our beloved sport. It seems that all agencies are cutting back on their water purchases, to save the budget, despite the habitat and fish. I was a volunteer at a local lake that is pretty well know, but no names be said, anyway, last year this time the water district let the water go extremely low, which in the summer time adds to bad conditions. The shade went through a major die off, then the ammonia spiked and with the low oxygen, the bass started floating. The biggest was around 12 to 14 lbs, the rest were between 1 and 5 lbs. All in all we counted around 350 or so floating .... hard to say, getting lump in my throat...... LMB's.

It now seems that Laguna Niguel Lake is also going through it's own DIE OFF, and is closed to the public ...( so the grape vine says) I have been fishing a long time and have experienced more than a hand full of DIE OFF's , and they all all seem to come back, at some point. But they seem to be happening a lot more frequently now a day's.

Anyway....my question is .... is this going on in your local lakes as well. Is it natures way of culling the heard, because nature can't pay for the water, or rain for that matter? And what do we have to do to get our local government and state's more aware of our needs as outdoorsman, and fathers. I want to help preserve the sport for my kids.

[CN]

I wouldnt say the lake's I fish most are dying off but each year they keep getting worse as far as fishing.

It's unfortunate but our interest's as fisherman are not and never will be high enough on their priority list to really benifit us.

Since I live on the Central Coast and work in Monterey I have went back to fishing the Surf.No crowd's it's cheap and one hell of a workout.The Ranger sit's in the Garage more and more these day's.

[steve0806]

If the lake you are talking about is on the State Project system, the water district is only getting 35% of it's water from the Delta this year. Blame the drought and a judge who ruled against the water districts and in favor of the Delta Smelt. If the drought continues, the district could only get 10% next year.

Water districts need more storage and a more reliable and sustainable conveyance system to manage California's water.

Contracts don't mean a thing when it comes to environmentalists wanting to stop growth. Remember the Spotted Owl. Now we have salmon and smelt.

We have turned control of our natural resources (water and oil) over to radical environmentalist organizations.

[swim-bait com]

My friend works for the park service at Niguel. He said the 30+ floaters he saw were sucked up 2-3 pound fish. IMO Lag. Niguel needs more than just oxygen and water.

[RichThiel]

Man I could say alot about this thread. but the Mods including sTony would behead me if I did.

Take away the Salmon and Delta Smelt out of your head. One thing that the newpapers don't say is that the Delta and Northern California supplies the West Coast with vegatables and beef.

If Northern California gave what the MPWD wanted in water their would be no produce, no rice, no cattle, no hard shell nuts, no corn, no soybean, no alfalpha, no tomatoes, no kiwi, No fruit in general.

Why you say? If we did, the selitium from San Pablo bay would come into the Delta and kill everything that is grown on the Islands as you know them and the surrounding area's.

Northern California is number 1 in many of the items I mention including Rice. I know because I grew up on 2 sections of 500 acreas. What put my dad out of busniess is the price of water. Corporations did that from Southern California demanding water. They were willing to pay anything for it. This is before Az decided that the 100 year lease will expire for water out of the Colorado River. Today its still number 1 and feed the world, do we need to feed the world (that in general, hates us) you can only decide that within yourself.

All that can be done without verbal wars between Northern and Southern California is for SCal to build more dams and build up instead of out.

For you people that were around during the water wars in the 70 and 80s, there isn't a politition's name attached to any one pacif bill. Why, because they know that they'd be elected right out of office in a heartbeat.

Enough feather ruffle'in.

Rich Thiel

[mark poulson]

Rich,
It's kind of ironic, but it looks like, with all the industry having been exported, along with the good paying jobs and tax base, the best thing this country has going for it economically is it's ability to "feed the world".
If our short sighted politicians would see how key water is to the future of this country, and put their attention toward infrastucture improvements and water supplies, we'd have a bargining chip at the world poker table again, instead of just hoping the OPECers will use lubricant this time.
And anyone who says using food as a bargining chip is immoral has their head in the sand.
If it takes oil to produce food, then using oil as a chip is the same thing.