Laguna Niguel Regional Park Lake

[JD1977]

Tried to fish there this evening 7/20/25. Dead fish everywhere at the shallow end on the side by the inlet. Catfish, bass, sunfish. Must of been about 30 that we saw. Place also stunk not just from the dead fish. Like the water just smelled bad. Anyone know anything about that? This used to be a great place to fish especially when the concession stand was running and you could rent boats or even float tube. What ever happened to the good old days?!

[DarkShadow]

The "good old days," are exactly that.

I've noticed that some local ponds have better filtration systems than others. I'm lucky that my pond close to me has a very sophisticated filtrating/circulation system that I've never seen at any other park before. I know they redid the place about 12 years ago, but they did a positive number on the way the pond moves water, and how much of that provides oxygen for the water. I've noticed that our cement pools that we call 'city ponds,' heat up quite rapidly.

There's a trend of our locals not getting the same attention as other places do, and that's par for the course now.

Do what i did. Grab a spinning rod with 8 pound test, find your local jetty, and then dive (no pun intended) into the variety and consistency that the salt can provide. Greatest part is that you can use the same gear you use at LN for the salt.

[JD1977]

Thank you DS. That’s a great suggestion. I do go hit the salt every so often. It’s just that my buddy flew in from Hawaii for some last minute business and since most of his fishing is in the salt. We decided to give our old stomping grounds a go. Only to be disappointed by the sight of so many dead fish. Low oxygen being the likely cause does make sense.

[cianbass]

this is my local lake and it’s very unfortunate to see this happen. They turned off aerators and put in chemicals, they neglected they lake whoever is in charge.

[JD1977]

Here is a follow up. Some of us are making noise about it and there’s going to be an investigation. It is bad this lake may never be the same. There was some big fish in here now it’s just wrecked.

[DarkShadow]

I wonder if some fertilizer go into it.

[tomnilll]

That is a bummer...Now where do I fish before and after work?

[Bwood]

Interviewed my son. Here is what has happened. My options with some facts. They hired a new lake water management company about 5 years ago. The company started to bluestone the lake at very regular intervals. All the grass life ecosystem has died. The bottom literally looks like mud with no plant life whatsoever. three weeks ago they tried to fix the air system and I heard one of the guys say that they broke the pumps. The pumps broke right after they sprayed the lake again and the remaining plant life deteriorated, sucking all the oxygen out the lake which resulted in the fish kill. The fishery has gone to sh%*% since the Lake water management company took over. It’s a shame because this lake used to be a good fishery that has been destroyed. They have a garage full of fish habitats that have never planted in the lake and one of the Rangers told me because they’re too lazy to put them together and drop them in. Not that they would’ve helped this situation.

[Gotfish?]

Root cause of the problem is probably fertilizer run off from lawns and golf courses. Without the excess phosphorous, there are no algae blooms and no need to bluestone (copper sulfate) the lake to kill the algae.

Fish kill can also be from insecticide or herbicide run off too.

[tomnilll]

Update: I stopped to see how the lake looked and throw some plastics...and two things.

1. There are still bass in there (caught one about 4 lbs.) Sort of...pro release on the bounce from the bank flip.

2. They are hungry...saw 3 times (and heard many others) hitting dragonflies on the tulles...

Both are good news to me!