San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

After just getting back from Bacarrac, I can now say that the amount of tilapia in that lake and the fact that fish are continually stocked and harvested has created a ton of big bass. They have a staggering number of tilapia! Looking at Live Scope on the boats I had no idea that so many tilapia were in that lake. Some of the guides would pull up to a spot look at the number of tilapia in the area and then just leave. "Too many tilapia here", they would say. Lots of Grandes choked with big tilapia floating as well.

Years...er, decades...ago I fished Barrett late in the season. The heat had killed tons of sunfish, which were starting to stink. Also managed to catch some small-but-healthy bass. Seemed obvious that a lack of food wasn't the limiting factor in bass size....

Similarly, I was at Barrett maybe 15-20 years ago when there was a big bluegill die off. I assumed it was some sort of disease since it only affected bluegill. Another year, there were cases of bass that were disoriented and swimming around aimlessly and not willing to bite which I also think was due to sickness. Low water levels can concentrate nutrients and have lower weed growth, both of which tend to lower oxygen levels, making the fish more susceptible to disease.