Skinny bass

[falafeluver]

While I think the lack of the shad’s for whatever reasons (maybe die-off) or water conditions may attribute to the thinness of most of the bass being caught this year, I can’t help to think that these fishes are suffering from the ability to get all of the plastics out of their gut system.

I think they’re slowly dying from starvation.

Of the many caught this year, having to pull the plastics from their vent hole or seeing them cough off from a single piece to 4-5 senko’s or other plastic worms at hook-ups. Then those semi-digested pieces go back into the waters to get re-swallowed again by themselves and others.

I can’t tell you how many times, we’ve pulled them from choking themselves from their throats clogged with plastics and putting them with our trash to be taken out. Guys just don’t throw those back into the lake.

Anyone with a Shark Tank idea with a totally ingestible and bio-degradable product go for it. Fishing with gummy worms scented with whatever you think works is another idea. I’m just not smart enough to think that far ahead haha.

I think of the guys bringing their kids to Barrett and hope they’ll have the same fishing experiences we’ve all had over the decades if the bass can survive.

[falafeluver]

To add to my own above comments, maybe allowing nothing but live natural baits, such as, crickets and earthworms and the likes with ZERO plastics NOT allowed for the first one or two or three months, hard baits allowed.

Barbless hooks are a MUST.

I say allow DFG to inspect all boaters and yakkers to be checked for visuals of their LIVE baits and fines and citations to be issued if NO live bait is in their possessions.

I think helping to feed the bass with natural live baits will help in maintaining their overall health.

[Dfishin]

This is just my thoughts and no way meant to say anything else is wrong.
The massive shad die off was the beginning of the year. They were some skinny from the beginning of the fishing season. The fish have skinny bellies and I have not had a fish throw up a plastic worms, it's been senkos. Why! senkos swell over time. When they are setting on the bottom and swelling there is a little movement and the bass picks it up.
Live bait means more gut hooked fish.
They should make fish treats and you give 1 to each bass you catch.

[ryfield]

Seeing as how I'm not an aquatic biologist and have been known to be full of shit occasionally, I'll add my two cents here. I feel like the fact that you can have 50, 60, and even 100 bass days out here shows that there are plenty of fish in the lake so maybe the balance of forage to fish is off. Too much competition for the amount of forage. I've read that you can either have a body of water where you catch a lot of small bass or a few big bass, but you can't have both due to the balance of fish to forage. Obviously there could be dozens of other factors at play, but maybe harvesting a certain amount of bass each year would help? Also, what if they stocked it with some trout? Scooby snacks for the bass!

Also, has anyone ever come across carp in the lake? Early one morning back in August before the sun came up I was way up in Pine and I could see a lot of activity on the surface that looked more like carp behavior rather than bass. It was hard to see because it was dark. I wasn't aware of carp in the lake, but was curious.

[camobass]

Any skinny bass I caught early and mid season were tight to the bank. During the same trips, all the healthy and heavier bass were in deeper water. I focused a majority of my fishing in deeper water and secondary points-none of those areas produced any sick or skinny fish. I think being a catch and release reservoir and the amount of days it’s open to fishing, there’s too many bass.
The barbless rule could affect the population too. Bring barbs to the equation, that could help. Floaters don’t hurt, they don’t go to waste.
The lake needs culled.
Catch and release hurts bass fishing.

[Surferjohn]

Ban Senkos. Its like cheating at Barrett.

[falafeluver]

As Dfishing mentioned, the senko’s swells so imagine it swelling up inside their gut and making it even harder to expel it out plus the salt’s that inside the senko’s.

Yes fishing with live bait may result in more gut hooked fish but hope the vast majority of the fisherman knows how to safely remove the hook.

They should make everyone pass the “can you remove a fish hook without tearing up their innards” test at the gate haha.

[camobass]

Rippin innards out isn’t gonna hurt. All those bass die eventually. Theres been a few modern studies that show catch and release hurt bass fisheries. Especially for size. Just imagine how many bass are in Barrett and every spawn (which can be multiple times), how many more are introduced, even factoring mortality. It’s a lot. If the lake were open 7 days a week, 365, maybe then, there could be more concerns on injuring the fish and hurting population. That’s a big maybe. The only time it truly hurts to see a dead one is when it’s a giant. Even then, they die naturally.

All this thought would be better towards a situation like Loveland when it first began to recover. It had a very small group of fish and it was sad when you would see a floater or poor treatment from someone who didn’t care or is ignorant. But even with the poor standards like gut hooking, dragging fish through sand or throwing 20’ through the air back into the water, the lake has been recovering greatly.

[objetty]

Any skinny bass I caught early and mid season were tight to the bank. During the same trips, all the healthy and heavier bass were in deeper water. I focused a majority of my fishing in deeper water and secondary points-none of those areas produced any sick or skinny fish.

My experience was 100% this in 2025. For my last three trips, I didn't even go into Hauser because they seemed to be all zombies. Pine held healthier fish deeper and in less fished areas.

However, on Wed 9/24, even the deep ones in Pine were skinny. It was kinda depressing catching giant bass that weighed 3 lbs.

I did see more shad/fry in the water this trip. For the first time, I saw busters briefly (then gone to not return). There were even fish chasing at the banks which had been eerily missing on all other 2025 trips. Hopefully this winter will bring renewal.