Corvina in the Salton Sea

February 13, 2020

Question: I was under the assumption that there are no longer corvina in the Salton Sea. Opening weekend of duck season, I caught a small corvina stuck in the shallows around my duck blind. Are they making a comeback? (Robert)

Answer: The last time corvina was observed in the Salton Sea was in the spring of 2003 during a routine gill netting operation conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). What you saw was very likely a tilapia, which looks very similar to a small corvina. Both have elongated bodies and a dorsal fin that spans the length of the body.

Corvina, croaker and sargo were successfully introduced into the Salton Sea between 1950 and 1956. These planted fish produced successful populations and supported a vibrant recreational fishing industry for several decades. Their demise likely came from a combination of poor water quality characteristics, such as high salinity coupled with high temperatures and low oxygen concentrations. Once corvina, croaker and sargo were no longer in the Salton Sea, the tilapia population took off as they were released from predation and competition pressures. But they overshot the sea’s carrying capacity, which led to historic die-offs in the 2010s.

Declining water quality has contributed to die-offs of tilapia and other remaining Salton Sea fishes, such as sailfin molly and the desert pupfish. Currently, the Salton Sea supports a small population of reproducing tilapia that tolerates these poor conditions, but it’s hard to determine how long the population will be sustained.

It would be so weird to catch huge corvina inside a lake. I was just researching this recently. They’re pretty similar to wsb but they jump.
https://www.saltwatersportsman.com/species/fish-species/salton-secret/

So the DFW says no documented corvina since 2003, but the article saying 100-fish days was written in 2007?  Wonder what the reality is.

Would be cool to catch aerial WSB-type fish 230 feet below sea level.

Bushy

Deep trolling fly-line not an oxymoron.