I grew up in Beaumont, about 25 miles west of Palm Springs and fished many small streams and lakes. You might want to try Hemet Lake on the back of Mt. San Jacinto, it used to be very productive especially in the early evening. For streams some of my favorite were the Mojave River below Silverwood Reservoir north of San Bernadino; the north fork of the San Jacinto, can't remember which USFS road you needed to take to get there;

Silverwood Reservoir was just coming online (yeah that many years ago). It was producing quite a few stripers and other warm water species. We used to fish Salton Sea for corvina and tilapia, but I believe it has gone down hill due to increased salinity.

Hope this helps.

Wes