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Would like to hear everyone's on why butla is not producing. I have given mine and got bashed. Mcc weighs and Cc weighs less than 2 fish per boat! Mcc had it tough I will give them that. Besides the two tournaments I have not heard anything as for reports. Grass, grass, grass, is no theory either. All the lakes has the grass and the others have produced. Lets hear it.
Called lake rape last fall
Handicrappie raped the lake and hauled them all back to Arkansas.
This is true but boy I have made some money from his permit fees.Quote:
Originally Posted by ATM
High water on top of the Coffee Bean weeds!!!!! The fish are buried in the coffee beans, and you can't troll em outta there. The coffee bean isn't as bad at other lakes because they don't fluctuate like Butla.
Oh yeah, lake rape last summer. ;)
I pushed right through all that grass! Can't be scurred!
We have depleted the resource just like we did the buffalo, We have over fished the lake singlepolers and trollers both hopefully the state of mississippi can see this and do something about it, But nobody will admit it your going to hear a hundred different excuses like low water, bad spawn etc etc but the real problem is the lake getting hammered year after year.
gButla is one of the hardest lakes to fish under "normal" conditions, has been for 40 years that I know of. Why do you think Feelay carries his clients to Sardis?? Its a easier lake, period. All 4 of the Big 4 go through cycles with Butla and Grenada seeming top be the tuffer of the 2 lakes. Glad to see the grass myself, gonna help all the lakes. Willing to bet the fall fishing will be good and maybe even some summer fishing as the grass starts to sour.
The fish are there, you just can't find them when it's 10' over summer pool. If it comes back down to 220 or so over the summer the fish will miraculously reappear. This year was much colder and much higher water than last year. March set an all time record last year and summer pretty much started by mid to late April, not to mention the lake never got any water in it so the fish had nowhere to hide and really nowhere to spawn either. The result was a lot of fish caught all summer last year, and probably a poor spawn that we'll see the effects of in 3 years. Was it fished out? No way, because for several years prior to last year you had great spawns and high water, more similar to this year. Those high water conditions are good for the fish but bad for the fisherman. Remember a couple of years ago how people were complaining about all of the short fish in Butla? About how the 12" rule was filling the lake w dinks? Those were the fish that grew up and made the fishing great last summer when we could actually get to them.
I haven't fished it this year, were the fish caught this w/end full of eggs still?
Plenty of fish still there, just too much water and weeds. All y'all chicken little's need to relax.
I dont think the lake is that depleted,right now the lake is about 3times its normal size,it is up intotimber and other cover where you cant even get a boat in. Not only that with this high water everything in the lake is going to have a good spawn,there is so much for them to feed on that a few minnows have a lot of competion.You might catch a few but the best bet is to get as far as you can and single pole.
No eggs in the 3 I caught. They were nice for 13" fish
If EVERY legal fish in the lake were caught last year, how would that lead to a poor fishery this year?
Wouldn't ATM. If only legal fish were taken we would still have those that weren't legal that woulda grown up and that's what we're catching mostly
Fish are not there like they were a year ago. I heard stories of 50-60 boats a day and all catching limits. Take 60 boats times 40 fish times 60 days. That's alot of fish that are not in the lake and I'm sure the boat number is very light . The lake was right for picking n it got picked . It's going to take a few years before its where it was. In a year or two Sardis is gonna suck with the changes n Feelay will be calling for reports on Barnett to take clients instead of Sardis. Barnett in a year or two is gonna be tops in the state in size and numbers. All the state lakes go through cycles and its fixin to be Barmetts turn for sho buff slabs n lots of them
Let's assume that no one was keeping short fish last year, then all the shorts from last year are still there this year, they are now legal fish.You're just not gonna find em sitting in the channel right in front of the ramp like you did last year. Those fish are in so much crap ya can't get to em.
Dd- there were a lot of boats on the water last summer but most were leaving with 5-10 fish at best. I'm not saying a lot of fish didn't get caught, just nowhere near what some people are thinking. There were a couple of tricks that most never figured out :)
They should have put a 12" size limit on the buffs!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by slabin
seriously though, as others have said here, you just can't destroy the resource with a 12" size limit. By definition, you are protecting 3 or 4 year classes of crappie with that rule, and those fish are chilling in the trees right now, along with a lot more "overs" than most of y'all think.
Just wait till they pull that lake down and all the fish come out of the weeds back into the main parts of the lake and I bet there will be good fish being caught!That's just my opinion!
I sure hope y'all are right. I have fished the lake under the same conditions in years past and caught fish. Fished it when it was 235 on may 18 and kept 12 in a few hrs a few yrs ago. I know folks that fish it 4 times a week and are catching 1 or 2 fish compared to 10 or 15 in years past. I am no biologist but I know how to read the stats I see, hear, and read and from what I have gathered the lake is not was it was in years past. For as long as I can remember.
There is no doubt that fish were caught at higher rates last year during the drought but if you go back and look..2010 Butla hit 230 round May 1 and didn't get to 220 until July(Great Spawn) 2011 it almost hit 240(Great Spawn) last year these fish were not keepers and many are not now.. One thing you must remember about the 'Grass' is the fact that no time in last 5 yrs was lake below winter pool all of growing season.. This Grass has grown all the way out to the 208' water line... That makes for a lot more cover at 228 than in years past... There are plenty of fish in that lake
"MDWFP fall 2012 electrofishing found good numbers of white crappie and blue catfish (white river cats), but numbers of largemouth bass, bluegill (bream), and black crappie were very low due to low water. Surprisingly, there was a decent white crappie spawn despite the low water."
............and there should be a good spawn this year. i think the high water and grass are a blessing.
Bird no one on this site will agree with you.because most don't fish Butla .There are not plenty of fish in the lake but it will come back. Good luck
I think the fish are still there!!! Maybe not the over abundance we had last summer, but still there...
With Butla being 9" over summer pool and all the brush, it's like fishing the Amazon "flooded"...
You'll half to put up the spider rig & get your best jig pole out... And it better have some backbone!!!
I had planned to pre-fish this past Friday & if I found some was going fish saturday's tournament.
I took off half a day Thursday & Friday... Plans change..... I think when I get out again it will be " BUTLA "
Get back soon Tush, the crappie miss you!
Hey there Tush. Man, you've had our prayers bud. Get well soon
Water level has a lot to do with it. Like fishing in a bath tub vs fishing in a lake. Also you can't go fishing once a month and expect great numbers with the lake rising got to go every day to stay on top of them. Sure glad Sardis jumped up when it did. They were getting hammered really bad.
The new world record is in that lake
http://www.mdwfp.com/applications/fi...Info.aspx?id=8
The mdwfp seems to agree with the theory of most on this thread. That is, the fish are spread out in THOUSANDS of acres of flooded timber and grass. Also, I don't know how you know how many people on this site actually fish Arkabutla...are you at the ramps doing creel and crappie.com surveys? Additionally, how do you continue to argue against the fall electroshocking numbers?
Some here have posted in the past how crappie were caught at this time last year blah blah blah. This is a different year with some record low temps for spring. Crappie spawn based on water temp..I don't see how one could expect to be catching crappie shallow in the spawn, with record low temps, at the same time as they did last year.
I may not like all the rules the mdwfp puts on lakes but I also don't electroshock and do creel surveys to determine how the crappie population is doing. I have to rely on their sciencetific analysis of the lake, not joe bob ain't catching no fish!!
Even tho we didn't catch numbers yesterday, our best 3 were 2.21, 1.80, and those 2 were weighed in at the tourney. We had an approx. 1.70 (Didn't weigh that one on tourney scales) also. We also had 2 small males that were barely over 12". We found the right pattern too late in the day, or it could have been different. We caught fish from 5 fow to 15 fow. There are some GOOD fish there. My partner OleBlue caught 14-16" fish on Wed. and Thursday, but for some reason, (Butla is Fickle anyway), the bigger fish had changed patterns. I'm looking forward to the next 3-4 years there.
Seems with the high water and cover, The Good LORD, and Mother Nature has it covered!!!!!
I done told all you idjits I caught every dang keeper and short fish in that lake last year. Dont know why you keep going back. I dont think I could of caught more even if I had been using gill nets:D Now listen to DD and take your arses to Barnett cause he said he heard that Butla was fished out last summer and im sure that was the case CAUSE I done it:cool:
Dislocated arm my foot!!! Your back in badly bruised!! BWAHAHAHAHA. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Handicrappie
Dangit Handi, I keep forgetting about you trolling it last year...guess it is all fished out:banghead:Quote:
Originally Posted by Handicrappie
I fished the lake for the first time this year Friday and Saturday. I caught more short fish than keepers which tells me we have some good fish coming. That's good news to me. The lake did get alot of pressure last year but I think there are a lot of good fish left in Butla. They are back in the flooded brush and trees. Also that grass drove me crazy
Yep,just think of all the 11 3/4 in fish that got put back last year. Wanna catch em now you got to get in places where you never been. Caught them in simular conditions years ago in a bean patch and a pasture.
This argument reminds me of one of me ex wives that was always accusing me of running around on her. Her reasoning was if I couldn't prove her accusations wrong, then they must be right. Kind of like bigfeets.
I totally agree. The lake is so fortunate to be high with a lot of cover this year. Even with the great spawn It want pay those dividends until 3 or 4 years down the road. I'm crossing my fingers that the next few springs will be just as high. I also agree with Rees that butla is a tough place to catch fish. If any of u have ever fished wildcat its almost the same. The fish are finicky, always on the move, and not everybody can catch them. I also agree that the fish may not be as easily caught with all the hiding places in the thick weeds. But, on the flip side of that. I have caught fish on butla for several years under all these circumstances whether its a tough lake or not. As for the thick weeds its the same at Enid right now. Last summer the lake never reached 240. There is 8 ft tall weeds from water valley landing all the way to wildcat. On my last 8 trips there I have averaged 15 fish per trip. The weeds make it tough no doubt but the fish are there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big C
I am not going to argue about this anymore because I do not have a biology degree and I have not electro shocked the lake. But the fish are not there.
Last year most all folks griped and raised heck about how Sardis had basically turned into a lake with no keepers and how terrible the lake was. This year the lake has possibly been the best lake in the United States as it has been handing out limits like Obama does free cell phones. Wont be long before this changes again and everyone starts griping about how the lake was raped and it will never be the same again. Crappie fishing goes in cycles. Last year to quote many of you guys butla was like shooting fish in a barrel but that barrel is just a little larger this year. Wont be long till Butla is good again (couple of months in my opinion) and all will be well in the world again. Heck, the bottom is fixing to fall out of the MS here shortly and we are all fixing to have some excellent oxbow fishing if we choose.Quote:
Originally Posted by bird down
I am not going to argue about this anymore because I do not have a biology degree and I have not electro shocked the lake. But the fish are not there.[/QUOTE]
:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead::banghead:I'm going fishin'
glad to see you back,tush,I hope all is well.Quote:
Originally Posted by TUSHHOG