Has anyone been to Bartlett lately?
I fished Bartlett 4-20-15 at night from 7pm to 5am. Lake is full with lots of floating logs twigs etc in river end. Fished two locations north of the island using lantern and submersible light. Had good bait ball development but no crappie.
I have been out 3 times and have not boated a crappie yet. :crybaby2:
Where is this "island" every one talks about..I have a map of Bart and don't see one?
been waiting for the lake to stabilize (which is not going to happen till May) it has been like a toilet flushing then filling :crybaby2:
Had a friend bass fish Bartlett a couple days ago and caught quite a few. He said there is a lot of trash, limbs etc floating especially in upper end and that water clarity was not great, about 12" in the bays and less in main lake.
This is second hand information but from a reliable source.
caught quite a few? bass or crappie?
Sorry, bass! Wishing it would have been crappie
darn, thanks
I am going after them Friday night. I have no other choice but to follow the AZGF report, can't afford a trip to Alamo... Someone thinks they will bite at night. I have tried putting lights out a few times at Bartlett with not much success. Maybe it will happen this weekend. Will report...
Good luck Rocko, I have been thinking of making a trip to there myself but not sure it is going to happen!
SRP has slowed down releases out of Bartlett and started releasing from saguaro lake :dance: soooooo the crappie may be getting a little more settled in with the lake dropping so much slower :dontknow: I may give it a try next week
Quote from: azbohunter on May 04, 2015, 02:50 PM
Good luck Rocko, I have been thinking of making a trip to there myself but not sure it is going to happen!
Thanks at this point I need luck, because skill is not working! I graphed thousands of them a month ago, so I know they are there.
I was out their Yesterday. Not a nibble all morning. I got their around 5 am went to all the good spots nada. Lots of fish but just kept catching little Gills. Gave up around 10:30am for some flathead fishing. Anyways lake was 72 degrees in morning and 76 degrees at 2 pm when I left. Shad are starting their spawn. They all over the banks early in the morning also saw some gills up in the shallows. No debris in water to watch out for just the usual garbage people leave behind( DONT TRASH AZ!!!). All the good spots up river are still under water with lots of fish in all the brush. I was using minnows, jigs and all kinds of combinations and depths. Ill be out their this Saturday night thru Sunday morning. Good luck out their !!!
Maybe they don't need to eat because they are reabsorbing their eggs from not spawning. I wonder if that process gives them energy? Anyone know? :dontknow:
I think I found the answer, they do use their own eggs for energy when they don't spawn. Which is maybe why they don't need to feed so much. I found this on a forem online by a guy called crappiepappy. I think this is what has been happening to Bartlett
The fish don't "decide" when "they're ready" to spawn ... water temps decide it for them. Absorption of the eggs can & does occur when the water temps get too high before the fish have a chance at spawning (or finish spawning). This has been observed at Fish Hatcheries, according to biologist Dr Hal Schramm (Crappie Now article Apr 2013).
So technically it's not JUST "by the time the fish are ready to spawn" ... but, before/during/after attempts have been made & conditions have thwarted those attempts long enough for the water temps to get so high that the eggs wouldn't survive ... that the fish would absorb the eggs. Their survival instinct tells them that it's better to put that protein back into their own body, than to make futile attempts at dropping them in water that's too warm for much of a chance for survival of the offspring.
Now, they will keep trying ... and when conditions change quickly, it can devastate the spawn. It's just those times where things happen in just such a way that the water gets too hot, too quick, and the fish don't all respond to the narrow window of opportunity to spawn, that some may not spawn (or drop ALL their eggs during that period). Those eggs will be absorbed back into the fish, so as to not waste their food value (protein).
That potential ... for conditions to not be normal or optimal for spawning ... is one reason why most spawns take place over a period of several weeks, rather than just a few days. So many things can interrupt the spawn, so not all of them try to spawn at the same time or at the exact same water temp. The more interruptions, the more chance the water temps have of getting past the safe range, and keeping the fish from spawning or finishing their spawning ... those fish will absorb whatever eggs remain.