Update on Laguna Niguel Park

[JD1977]

There’s still signs of life, but it may be awhile until it gets back to what it was.

[DarkShadow]

In situations like this, does DFW restock the warmwater fish? Or is it catfish/trout? I saw the local news is now covering this also.

[Bendo]

It would be great if they would, as it is, the survivors have more to eat. Orange County, while providing lip service, obviously doesn’t want any fishing taking place. Even Laguna Niguel Lake has 40% of its shoreline fenced off, hasn’t retained a Concessioner to allow boats and Float Tubes. Same as Irvine Lake. Combat shore fishing is the name of the game here. Eutrophic Park Ponds and Newport Bay. The Bay has access if you wade around below the High Tide Line and filter out the Homeowners screaming at you how you can’t fish here. There are a couple of Public Docks but one by one the “No Fishing” signs are cropping up. The one shining light is Laguna Lake in Fullerton, recently rebuilt and full shoreline access with proper water movement via Spray Nozzels spread around the Lake. If only they stayed open until 10pm.

[DarkShadow]

I still don't understand the secrecy of DFWs stocks when it doesn't come to trout or catfish. A few years ago, a bunch of Barrett bass were relocated to Lake Gregory in San Bernardino, and nobody knew about it until someone let the cat out of the bag.

Our local pond has bass that are being stocked by other anglers, simply because they feel that DFW doesn't do a good enough job of providing anglers something else to fish other than stocked trout or catfish. I know this is illegal, but this 'illegal' stocking has made our local ponds into decent fisheries, no thanks to our license fees.

I'm sure once they find out what caused this massive die off and stabilize the situation, you'll have individuals who will do God's work and re-stock the place. Somebody has to.

The Bay has access if you wade around below the High Tide Line and filter out the Homeowners screaming at you how you can’t fish here. There are a couple of Public Docks but one by one the “No Fishing” signs are cropping up

I'm currently dealing with that now at the seawall that I fish.

The "I own everything go away" mentality is fascinating. You already have a beach house in Malibu worth millions and now you want to own the ocean too? Ridiculous.

Someone mentioned, "Just go fish somewhere else."

Naw. Public land is public land. I don't see myself putting "NO PARKING" signs outside my house just because I don't want people parking there. And telling someone "just go park somewhere else?" Nope.

[Midnightpass]

Naw. Public land is public land. I don't see myself putting "NO PARKING" signs outside my house just because I don't want people parking there. And telling someone "just go park somewhere else?" Nope.

Just wait until the open a couple of Airbnbs across the street or next door. ... But you are correct, "Public land is public land"...
Butch

[Bwood]

They had a community hearing over the weekend. Lots of interesting info shared. Terry of Aquatek lake management spoke. I questioned the excessive use of herbicide and he said it’s necessary because fisherman don’t like get their poles suck with all the weeds. And all fish died in the creek because they could not find there way out…. Can’t make this sh^%*^ up. But the community rallied and created a lot of noise for our elected officials. Maybe they will do something. They labeled this as FishGate2025

[DarkShadow]

They had a community hearing over the weekend. Lots of interesting info shared. Terry of Aquatek lake management spoke. I questioned the excessive use of herbicide and he said it’s necessary because fisherman don’t like get their poles suck with all the weeds. And all fish died in the creek because they could not find there way out…. Can’t make this sh^%*^ up. But the community rallied and created a lot of noise for our elected officials. Maybe they will do something. They labeled this as FishGate2025

Interesting. Our local pond hires an extremely good company to maintain the water.

https://aquabio.us/services/watershed-services/

And you know what these hippies pride themselves in? That all the products that they use to treat the water and the eventual summer algae is all organic. And it works. Never seen any fish kills. Then again, when remodeling was done about 12 years ago, they installed a circulation and aeration system with the help of aqua biologists, which contributes to the health of the pond.

They use a blue dye, which i assumed was copper sulfate because it was blue, (hence bluestoning). When I asked if it was copper sulfate, one of the workers laughed and showed me what they were using. Essentially, it's an organic dye that reduces photosynthesis by reducing the amount of sunlight that gets filtered. Doesn't affect any wild life.

They also pair it with enzymes that inhibit the algae growth as well. These enzymes work by breaking down organic matter, which can be a food source for algae, thus reducing algae growth. While they don't directly "eat" the algae, they create a less favorable environment for it to thrive. Who knew you could starve algae, right? These tree huggers think of everything.

Although, last year, the Karens and Kens complained about the algae growth and how the county needed to remove it and what not because it 'doesn't look nice.' The company responded by telling them that essentially, algae is an essential part and a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem. They essentially told them to "kick rocks." (And quite frankly, having the algae made finding fish a lot easier. They used a rake to remove some, but left quite a bit for us fisherman, after I tipped them 50 bucks.)


REENACTMENT

Perhaps a smaller pond is easier to maintain with more bio friendly processes, so larger bodies of water do have to resort to straight up nuking the weed growth using stuff like Copper Sulfate. But IIRC, Laguna Niguel Park wasn't that big.

Hopefully the county learns from its mistake, and realize there are pond maintenance companies out there that won't wipe out the entire population of fish in one swoop.

Oh, and I wonder if the regulars have sent up the bat signal yet and hopefully the illegal stocking of largemouth bass eventually occurs. (Yeah I said it.)

[Bendo]

Bass repopulate quickly on their own as there is more food for the Babies in the late Spring. Meanwhile the Surviving Bass also have more forage (Bluegill) per Fish now. This should be a time for growth. I kinda wish they would add Tilapia. They are much better forage for Bass. They are omnivorous so gain weight off plants and other food so they don’t mess with the Bass food as much. Also people love to fish for them as they aren’t hard to catch, get to be quite large, and people seem to love to eat them. Give that place three years and we would see two classes of Bass. A population of 5-8 pound Bass and a plentiful 2 pound class. This is as long as we don’t have another disastrous water problem.

[DarkShadow]

Give that place three years...

Yeah, giving a place that had a solid fishery for decades 3 years because of someone else's mess ups is a bit nice. Give em 5. Or 10 at this point.

[Bendo]

You know it didn’t kill all the Fish. There is still a population that stayed in the North side around the Dam. Plenty to catch. But with a smaller population you get larger fish. If the Bluegill are thick, the remaining Bass should grow quickly. The best thing would probably be to feed the forage fish. Soon the DFG will provide monthly forage for the largest Bass.