Fishing Forum

Anyone hear what it took to win the BBB on lowell Saturday?
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88 boats. 14 lbs. 7 fish. 1st place was tie
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Dang I knew I should of came up.
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I was at brownlee and the fishing sucked. 150 small bass on a Jerkbait, 6 jeepers all day. Skunked yesterday.
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Wow shocking Brownlee was that tough. Do you know if the winners had any smallies?
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It was 5 fish limit. Lots of 2lbs. Not sure why. I hope there's not something going on. The weather sucked big time. Lots of wind and waves.
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Ended up taking 4th in the tournament. 1st/2nd had 14.24; 3rd had 13 and change and we had 13.44. Big fish for the tournament was 3.8 second BF was 3.4. Something is definitely wrong at Lake Lowell. All the fish were tremendously skinny and unhealthy looking. IMO, these were prespawn fish that looked way worse than any postspawn fish I've ever seen.
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That's why I'm not interested in fishing there. They have been starving for years. It might help to leave it full, it turns into a mud puddle in the winter. Brownlee was also tiny skinny fish with big heads this weekend. It was big fat 3+ lbrs or little nasty rats. No 2 lbrs at all. Andersons next. Milner went through this funk also.
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What was the water temp?
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A coworker of mine fishes it a lot and said the fish last fall looked unhealthy and stunk. His niece kept a bass, when she filet it it was full of worms, not eaten but a gut full of live parasites. I saw the picture and it was disgusting.
I was at Anderson Sunday, water temp is 50.
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[quote Chris_S]Ended up taking 4th in the tournament. 1st/2nd had 14.24; 3rd had 13 and change and we had 13.44. Big fish for the tournament was 3.8 second BF was 3.4. Something is definitely wrong at Lake Lowell. All the fish were tremendously skinny and unhealthy looking. IMO, these were prespawn fish that looked way worse than any postspawn fish I've ever seen.[/quote]
What was the water temp?
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Last year everyone was raving about how great lowell was. Now this year during the first tourney a cold front rolls through and shuts down the big fish and everyone thinks something is wrong?

Im not sure but I don't feel like the sky is falling.
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Before the tournament the surface temp dropped to 48 on Thursday, yesterday it was 61 in the evening.
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How was the fishing yesterday?
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elkmagnet,

This doesn't have anything to do with the cold front. Water temp tournament day was 55ish depending on time/area of lake. The majority of fish should have been fat, healthy and full of eggs/sperm ready to spawn in a few weeks. They were not. If by some chance all these fish were post spawn, we still would have seen healthy fish just with empty stomachs, red tails, and other sores from the spawn. They did not have this either. Point blank these fish were starving. Not from the previous night's cold front, but from days and days without a sufficient food source for the entire population of fish. The food chain may come back once the smartweed starts growing, I don't know...

Chris
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im with you elk we were at strike on Saturday and nothing was biting there either i have been wading the south side of lowel for at least a month now and i can say i have caught just as many if not more big healthy 3+ pound large mouth this year as i did last year or the year before maybe smartweed will shed some light on this he know that lake better than most
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Does anyone have F&G/F&W contacts? They were out tagging, measuring, and weighing the fish as they came across the weighin stage. They should have a pretty clear picture of the lake's health with approx 400 fish weighed in. I would be interested to see the average relative weight of the fish weighed in.
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Went out for a few hr's last night for the first time this year.....caught a few and they looked pretty normal

And i have to add that the new no wake zones is pure B.S. Someone needs punched in the face....seriously
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I agree with Mr. O. There sure were some nice fat fish that moved up shallow when the lake started filling. I had quite a few 3-4 pound fish on in March. I say "on" for I figure to lose 50% when fishing the jungle out front.

This seems to be an example of the typical predator-prey relationship. As the prey increase, the predators also increase until they kill off most of the prey. The predators then move on or die. Then the prey come back and on and on it goes. Coyotes & rabbits; wolves & elk; etc, etc.

It's nature.

My solution is for everyone to stay home and not fish Lake Lowell. I hate crowds.
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I think I'll wait and see I personally am catching lots of #2, 12-14" healthy looking fish just young and what looks like 16-19" long skinny males. I have cought two fat healthy females that would have blown the tournament big fish away. It seems pretty normal for one size class of fish to stop bitting while another one remains catchable especially after a cold front.
I agree that the fish would likely be heavier if the lake was kept full all winter but it is after all an irrigation pond.
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