Thread: wassup with butla???

Originally Posted by BigBlue

The AR folks have seined the lakes it's their fault... Butla fixing to get real tough with all this rain we are getting..

Pffffffft

Ain't fished it all my life, just since 1976. That lake has been the way it is all that time. Those fish turn on and off quicker than any other lake I have ever fished. Birddown quoting two people who don't want anyone else on their lake is not real truth in advertising. Tired of hearing about Trollers Raping the lakes. Those fish will take care of themselves. Mother nature has a way keeping things in balance. I'd like to know why no one is catching blue cat either. I guess we caught all them out while we were Raping the lake. When the fish aren't biting on Butla nothing is biting. Like Yikes tried to tell people early this year, your not going to be able to fish Butla unless you single pole early because the fish are in the buck brush that grew during the drought. Be a couple of years before some of that stuff is gone. Also my limited experience tells me everyone is about a month early worrying about Butla. Like Rees said we need water and any little rain turns them off.

Originally Posted by Big H trucking

Responding to first statement.....Its true but they can't catch a 3lber

Shut up!

I live on Butla--and it's been the same for 10 years that I have. It has plenty of fish and the number 1 reason the fishing is hard is water level pure and simple.

If this rain will get the water up to 215.5 or higher, I will post some pics of what is left on Butla.

water will be gone by the time you get there--they don't stop the flow until the 1st

Butla has some healing to do and it will come back.The best thing that has happened to Butla is Sardis.It is what it is,fish were easy to catch and lots took advantage of it.It will come back in a couple years.

Originally Posted by bird down

Trollers killed the lake this summer when it got down to a ft below winter pool. Sad deal. Last yr in the middle of march we were catching huge females on butla right on the bank. It's gonna take several years to recover. This is coming from locals who have fished the lake for there whole lives.

If you really talked to the locals who have fished the lake their whole lives, I'm sure you would get a different story. I fished it regularly from late-May til mid-Oct and think I have a pretty clear picture of what happened there last year. Lake was below winter pool depth from late May until July 10 when the Corp finally got the spillway closed all the way. We didn't get any rain during that time and the lake continued dropping cause the Corp could get the spillway closed all the way. Believe it had a chunk of tree lodged in it but that's another story. Lake rose back to winter pool depth by July 19 after they got the spillway closed but stayed fairly low all summer. You're right that crappie were easy to find and catch during the low water time but not many people were fishing it due to the really hot weather. I would estimate that the average number of people fishing it during that time was 10-15 boats, most of them had only one person and most were gone by noon due to the heat. It's hard to make a case that the lake was hurt really badly during that time cause there just wasn't much pressure on it. The lake did get hammered for three weeks in May but lake was still above 210 feet during that period. The game wardens down there estimated that about 10,000 crappie were taken out during that period.

The lake had risen to 213.5 in early September and crappie had really turned on starting right after Labor Day. There were a few more boats fishing during that time but still not a lot of pressure. Then we got a report posted on internet on September 14 or 15 with pictures and the lake filled up with boats. We went from a few boats to full ramps and 60-80 boats per day and the lake took a major pounding for about 4 weeks. I believe the estimate was about 25,000 crappie taken out during those four weeks.

It sounds good to blame the trollers during the time when lake was below winter pool but it just ain't so!