Laguna niguel lake as of now :(

Ok so here is my review on the lake as of right now. so...

The day started out great got breakfast and headed to the lake. now i have fished at this lake about 5-6 times over the last 3 years and i have had major succuess during trout and non trout season, so its august not trout and i've gone with my son and slayed bass and bluegill like no other catching 10 between the both of us no problem. but today OMG TODAY.

So we get there and the girl up front said they were having a algey problem and so the water is really murky and i said yah its always pretty murky here so she said use dark bait and i know that im a fishermen i got the idea.

So we proceed to our boat hope on and it stinks outside its the lake its always kind of stunk, i didn't care. we hop in and start going at it set up some drop shot and then set up some jigs and what not troll our way to a cove and bam i touch the water and its warmer then it is outside..first of not a good sign.

its about 7am and there i roughly 5-6 boats on the water, and no one has caught anything yet we asked. then about 9am rolls around we are near the dam and no bites at all from 7-9. so im like ok i've tried like 5 diff baits all over the lake, now during those two ours we spotted a couple dead fish little blue gill no worries maybe they got hit or attacked typical of the birds out there.

then we say lets roll to the other side and check itout. we were the only people on the lake at 9am everyone left probably because of no fish. so we are in the far south cove and just algey to the top of the water and so many dead fish i coudln't even count. so we left that area because the employee was picking them all up and said we will get stuck he got stuck so we left. also the minnows were all over the whole lake everywhere u go u see them.

so this lake is now dead to me and my friends i dont care how good the trout is its dead to me.. They will be loosing business unless they clean out the lake an fix that issue with all teh fish dying. thats not good. we got 2 bites all day between the both of us. wasted a great amount of money for a place i used to LOVE to just go to.

this place needs to either stop operation or refund people for the waste of money. i hope everyone reads this review and stops going here till its fixeed i also hope the owners and employees see it. its just bad business.

I'm a little confused. Are you upset because of the die off or because you didn't catch any fish?

Hey Pavo!

me and a partner were there about 2 weeks ago and we were also skunked on the lake...the guys that were coming off when we arrived said they had a great day with 20 landed...a couple also coming out of water said they had landed about 6 of them...most coming on the drop shot and nightcrawlers.....

ive caught them on the lake but u have to work hard, there effn picky ..mine have come on the robo...aarons magic and senkos....but yeah water is hella green and does stink lol ......we saw lots of fish jumping out of the water next to the water arregators

but yeah it sucks about that dead fish.....

well i just got a word from someone at work that the shut the lake down sunday till the either fix the issue or be done for good. i wasn't mad about being skunked but about the situation. i mean with the amount of dead fish i saw and how all the people left after about 2 hrs of fishing.j ust isn't good. also the employee picking up all the dead fish told us we shouldn't be in that area hes cleaning because we will get stuck in algey.

i mean beign skunked sucks but i can handle that i cant handle seing so many dead fish and nothing bitting at all because of the lake not being taken care of

I hope they keep it open...cool lake! they just have to clean it up a bit, might be new management and employees. it seems everytime we go there its a new person at the counter, they guy there now is not the most experience fisherman....told us he had come out with his kid to fish and asked if they had openings for employment and they said yeah congrats your the new lake guy LOL....

...me and the wifey have come here and BBQ it up...great times...

Every time I've gone it's been that girl. I loved the lake up until this one time

Ya I have not fished there in sometime to rich for my blood. But if I had to choose a pay lake it would be there. I am sorry you had such a bad time, I am sure it can be cleaned up. I know in the past they have had issues like this as well, not sure how bad and it seems like it might be a cyclical issue. I mean the right conditions set in around the area and boom alga bloom is under way. I hope they fix it because I know it is a good lake to fish more often then not, but we will see.

i work with some people that acutlly said they shut the lake down as of sunday the day after i fished, so i guess we will see what happends

As Jeff said, they have had issues like this in the past. Seems like every year now. When its good its pretty awesome. Ive had killer days there. But its a real bummer when you spend the time and money, show up to crappy conditions. Good thing you guys weren't tubing it. Its alotta money, but I end up settling on Laguna Niguel because I live in South Orange County, and there really aint much else around. Gas money to get to a good lake cost far more. Maybe time to try Irvine lake? only been there a couple times on party boats. lol. No luck fishing, go figure.

I've been to all the Lakes out here the only reason I went was because of the groupon

Any news on the lake?

Not that i know of, nothing i've seen news wise has posted its open or closed still.

Just saw a notice on the net that said Laguna Niguel lake closed on October 21st, and would reopen to fishing on November 19, 2014. Orange county also brought in a biologist to survey the issues and have determined that the lake has recovered. See below

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I enjoy this little lake, with the exception of last trout season, have had some great times and beautiful fish come out of there. I'll fish LnL a few times this trout season but have you noticed the permit increase...It's gonna cost $38.00 to tube this lake on the weekend. I would not mind but last season the trout stocking were just average...Looked like the trout were trucked in from Jess Ranch

well pacifico lets hope this season is better for them, we all know this lake needs business bad. so they need to spend money to make money. and maybe take care of that place. it was really down hill when i went

Yep, Im always willing to support the small business so I'll do my part to fish LnL but I want a beast (10lb +) this season! Seems the best change I'll have is at the Vine. I'll keep working NPH until latter part of November then my urban trout season begins

they're bringing in weekly trout plants of Nebraska tailwalkers, 2000lbs every Tuesday.
lots of nice fish coming out on bait, jig and fly bite slow however...

I want to hit the Vine , alot more chance to get that big trout !!

I plan on fishing LnL this Thursday

I'll get there and setup to shore fish and decide after I see the water clarity before I decide to launch my tube. If its real dirty I'll work the shore with jigs. Has anybody been to LnL lately?

Hey Pacifico,

i havent been there since before the die off....hearing good things though...man i would love to go on thursday and tube it....but only have one more day off for the year and i think we dont get the day after xmas off so might have to use it then...good luck bro, smash em!

I was out there last weds. There was a pretty good bite by the dock, that worked it way down towards the flats along shore by noon or so. Few pretty decent sized fish were caught. Water clarity is pretty bad though, maybe 6 inches. Found a school hanging towards the bottom on opposite side of the dock in between the bubble holes that held some decent sized crappie. Kind of figured they would have been in the die off.

Actually thinking of fishing this lake next week. I only fished it once back in 2009.

Let us know what it looks like and how it goes for you out there thanks.

all this rain will make it very murky!