Pics of Eggs

Went back to Barnett and caught some more. Here is a pic of the eggs on the females. All females had eggs
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...pspxbtwwft.jpg

Don't look like they've spawned much, if any ... but, they haven't started absorbing the eggs, either (or they'd be darker and more brownish).

Can't tell the size of the fish, so maybe the bigger ones DID get off a spawn, and the smaller ones are just running late (possibly TOO LATE) ??

I was always told that the orange color and the dark red blood vessels mean they are actively spawning or preparing to spawn. I was thinking that many were spawning in the deeper water to get the optimal water temp for the eggs.

I was always of the opinion that when nature let the fish know it was time to spawn the just found the right water temp and did their thing, regardless of the depth(within a certain range).


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She was the biggest female I caught..13". Caught a make that was 15". Them jokers fight!

She is almost ready to lay those eggs have caught them when there eggs are dripping in the boat there veins are more bloody and eggs are really mushy I guess would be the word still spawning on the river if you can find em

A lot of fish are spawning on the ledges from what I've seen cause of water temp 6 to 8 foot on river

I THINK THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING . THE EGGS DON'T LIKE THEY ARE ABSORBING THEM YET . I AM CATCHING MALE AND FEMALE ON THESE RIDGES .

It's a strange year and goes against what I believed. Trying to make sense of it all I can come up with is that a lot of these fish were born in high water, they have spawned there whole life in high water, and now can't get there because of the water levels. They have held off all this time waiting to get to there spawning ground. That's all I can figure.

I believe that can explain some of what's going on in the 4 flood lakes bird, but these guys are talking about Barnett. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was down there for spring camp a couple of the guys told me the reason Barnett had such a healthy fish population. It is not a flood control lake, they do not draw it down in the winter and hope for it to rise again in the spring, the most fluctuation they see in any given year may be just a few feet. They always have a good spawn because of this, is the water level significantly any higher or lower this spring than last year or two on Barnett?

You are correct, Joel. It's designed purpose is the capitol city's water supply and a recreation destination. I think they may bring it down 1.5' for winter pool.

I think we had such a mild winter that the water temps were warmer earlier than regular. There were some good catches in the typical places early on. I think that by the time that the days photoperiod hit the sweet spot to signal the the big event that the higher water temps forced the fish to do the dance in a little deeper water. Then we had that record high water right after the usually peak time of the spawn which delayed the next group of fish and they were forced to do the same thing again.

I'm not an expert, but these are some of the notes that I wrote in my log for this year.


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Good explanation / theory Matt sounds reasonable enough. After refreshing what I researched about Barnett a couple of months ago it's a very stable lake. 297.5' summer pool and a winter pool of just 297. The lowest pool in the last eight years was recorded at 294 and it caused concern by wikipedia accounts. Guess when relying on it for a source of drinking water it makes sense to worry a bit. Just imagine if it was a COE flood lake your guys winter pool would be probably be in the 280' range or so... you guys got it made down there.. Lol