I am new to this club but do belong to other organizations that are very pro active to maintain and restore fishing . I hear on this site and others " the two fish left in there should start to reproduce " etc Has anyone thought of us ,the fisherman spearheading an effort to restock San Carlos perhaps with help from the tribe , feds , media etc . Fund raisers for purchasing stocker fish etc are done in many areas ,most recently 14000 lb of walleye were introduced into Lake Minnetonka by a private community group.A conservation group I belong to in Sun city made a substantial donation to restock a local community owned lake .Here I just see complaints ( justified in most cases ) Just a thought but if this group is really enthusiastic about restoring and preserving crappie fishing San Carlos would be a great place to start . Anyone have any thoughts on doing something like this ?? eg., http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3606473.shtml?cat=1
A few years ago I spent many, many hours trying to get answers about SC water levels and fish population. I got tossed from 1 agency to the next. The land belong to the tribe, the dam belongs to the Army Corp of Engineers and the water (anything above the minimum "fish pool" of 900 surface acres, which BTW leaves the deep pools at about 2') belongs to the Gila Pact.
Needless to say, its a cluster and no one seems to care. Well except for the farmers down stream but they seem to only care when the water runs out.
Before I'd back any restocking efforts at SC I'd want something from the water district to the effect that they won't allow the lake to get below a certain level. I'd rather stock TNF and/ or state waters.
Soooo , knowing San Carlos is a great Crappie lake even though it occasionally goes dry you would rather put stock into lakes that do not need it ? . I was not thinking of stocking the lake to the brim but if there are none in there they never will come back . It was just a thought but your response gives me insight into a lot of things here.
That lakes has dryed up over 30 times in its life. If you want to champion an effort I'm behind it. I'll volunteer to help.
San Carlos is too far away stock Bart and pleasant I'm all for that lol. Maybe chuck some more in Roosevelt. I wonder how to get that done.
with few predators left in the lake the tribe could purchase a few hundred crappie from fish farms and that lake could repopulate quickly. They seem to have given up on the lake, they like taking your money when there is water and fish, but spend (0) on keeping anything functional at the lake whether it be a restroom, garbage can, or even a launching area or the roads into the lake :dontknow:
Quote from: Fishless on November 01, 2014, 05:33 AM
with few predators left in the lake the tribe could purchase a few hundred crappie from fish farms and that lake could repopulate quickly. They seem to have given up on the lake, they like taking your money when there is water and fish, but spend (0) on keeping anything functional at the lake whether it be a restroom, garbage can, or even a launching area or the roads into the lake :dontknow:
My thought was I really could give a rats you know what as to who does it , Tribe , Feds , Tooth Fairy , the Club . Fisherman have a vested interest and might be able to jump start the repop somehow . I do not know how and am currently not in any position to spearhead anything ( health , other commitments ) but I would be willing to do what I could .I wanted to see if there was any interest here before I begin my inquiries with these folks . I agree there seems to be little interest by these folks perhaps they do not think anyone elses gives a *** . Again I seems such a waste of a tremendous resource ,even if it held water some of the time it is such a prolific lake in my mind it is worth it.
The place to start would be http://www.scatrecreation.org/.
Find an endangered fish species in the lake then the US fish and wildlife service would get involved and dictate how low the lake could go?
Quote from: Fishless on November 01, 2014, 09:24 AM
Find an endangered fish species in the lake then the US fish and wildlife service would get involved and dictate how low the lake could go?
you may be on to something any Ideas ??????
the gila brings crappie into the lake and they grow prodigiously if theres water. I haven't checked lately but think theres water? hoping for a 2016 revival. by the way don't read to much into ones single post we can get a little loose around here. :laugh:
Quote from: menrats on November 03, 2014, 08:02 AM
the gila brings crappie into the lake and they grow prodigiously if theres water. I haven't checked lately but think theres water? hoping for a 2016 revival. by the way don't read to much into ones single post we can get a little loose around here. :laugh:
That is correct. I have a buddy in Safford that catches Crappie in the river and the local ponds.
Before the Apache Tribe took control of the sport fishing on San Carlos way back when, it was one of the best Bass fishing lakes ever! If you had the chance to fish that lake back in the 60's and early 70's you know what I mean. Over decades of Tribal control, most lake services dried up just like the water does. The Apache's have no control over keeping water levels at a fish sustaining level. That's truly a shame because that lake can be so prolific with most warm water species. The river will re-stock the lake sure enough. Will the drought keep water in the lake long enough to have it come back is the question? The Apache Game and Fish have little to no incentive, or desire to maintain, or improve conditions on San Carlos. There was a time when San Carlos was the only lake to fish for Crappie and Bass. Similar to Horse Shoe lake, if the water levels were kept at 50% plus to support fish you would have two great fishing lakes. As for stocking, don't waste your time. The river will provide all the lake needs if the water is there.
Quote from: Captain Jack on December 02, 2014, 11:59 AM
Before the Apache Tribe took control of the sport fishing on San Carlos way back when, it was one of the best Bass fishing lakes ever! If you had the chance to fish that lake back in the 60's and early 70's you know what I mean. Over decades of Tribal control, most lake services dried up just like the water does. The Apache's have no control over keeping water levels at a fish sustaining level. That's truly a shame because that lake can be so prolific with most warm water species. The river will re-stock the lake sure enough. Will the drought keep water in the lake long enough to have it come back is the question? The Apache Game and Fish have little to no incentive, or desire to maintain, or improve conditions on San Carlos. There was a time when San Carlos was the only lake to fish for Crappie and Bass. Similar to Horse Shoe lake, if the water levels were kept at 50% plus to support fish you would have two great fishing lakes. As for stocking, don't waste your time. The river will provide all the lake needs if the water is there.
Yup the good old days, casinos bring in more money so they don't care about fishing and horse shoe used to be the tops for fishing in the good old days
Here's an arial view from a recent flight. It looks a lot better than it did a year ago.