Man I use to love havasu until the all pepole ended up there kinda reminds me of OC in the desert these days, grew up going to havasu (about 50 years now)and fishn with my grandpa, man even went to parker high 4 a year
the river (anyways havasu)is nothing like it used to be, use to be able to get a boat load of crappie back in the 50s and 60s but no more, to me the the striped bass destroyed the lake, back in the early 70s you could catch large stripped bass (in 72 grandpa got a 34lb)with out much of a problem, ya wouldn't catch alot but they would be big and full of crappie and gills now theres tons of small ones and no crappie (got to wounder if thats why there are no big strippers), read a report from the dfg that said the lake was over fished and i think thats a bunch of bs, its the striped bass that is the problem in my opinion when i catch a striper on the river it never goes back in alive (ok now the bass guys are going to kill me lol) wish dfg would make it aginst the law to put a striper back and they would put no limit on them
as far a native fish on the lower colorado there would be no native game fish if it weren't for the stocking of all the sunfishes and catfishes in the past 150 years.
I copeid this from
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g2000/assess/chapter3.htm
The first fish "invader" was the common carp, Cyprinus carpio. Originally an Asiatic species, the carp reached California in August 1872, when a Mr. J.A. Poppe brought fish from Holstein, Germany, to Sonoma Valley. He raised them in ponds and sold the offspring in the western states, Hawaii, and Central America (Calhoun 1966). The species was stocked into Utah waters in 1881 (Sigler and Miller 1963), into Nevada waters in 1881 (Allan and Roden 1978), and into Arizona waters sometime prior to 1885 (Minckley 1973). The species was reported from the Colorado River basin before 1900 (Gilbert and Scofield 1898 in Minckley 1973). When and how the carp gained access to the Colorado River is not specifically known, but it most likely occurred in the 1880s. This was the period when the U.S. Fish Commission was championing carp as a table food. H.G. Parker, first Fish Commissioner for Nevada, stated in his 1881 biennial report, "One of my great aims has been to stock our waters with the best species of carp,..." (LaRivers 1962). Unfortunately, he attained his goal.
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) is the next documented exotic fish introduction for the lower Colorado River. Unlike the carp, this species is native to North America, commonly occurring in the Mississippi River drainage. The species was introduced into California in 1874 (Calhoun 1966) and into Utah in 1888 (Sigler and Miller 1963). The species was stocked into the lower Colorado River by the Arizona Fish Commission 1892 when 722 adult and yearling fish were released (Worth 1895 in LaRivers 1962).
Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) was the next exotic species to enter the Colorado River system. The species was stocked into California in 1874 (Calhoun 1966), into Utah in 1890 (Sigler and Miller 1963), and into Nevada waters by 1900 (LaRivers 1962), but it is unclear just when it was introduced into the lower Colorado River. Dill (1944) mentioned the uncertainty of its origin, but inferred it predated Hoover Dam in the following statements:
"The species has been planted several times in waters of the Colorado, and the existing stock undoubtedly has a multiple origin. Although present for many years, according to "old-timers," it did not become plentiful until the water cleared."
The "water cleared" with the closing of Hoover, Parker, and Imperial Dams in the late 1930s.
The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 authorized two actions that forever altered the lower Colorado River. The first was the construction of Hoover Dam which occurred from 1931 to 1935. This was the first high dam on the river.
The most obvious change brought to the lower Colorado River by Hoover Dam was the trapping of the sediment by Lake Mead. Estimated to be as much as 200,000,000 metric tons annually, the sediment load of the river quickly dropped behind the massive structure. Lake Mead was expected to trap 137,000 acre-feet of sediment annually. As the reservoir filled, it was predominantly clear water, as most of the sediment dropped out in the lower reaches of Grand Canyon and in the rapidly forming delta at the head of the lake.
FWS (then the Bureau of Sport Fisheries) took advantage of these conditions by stocking game fishes including largemouth bass, bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), and black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) into Lake Mead (Allan and Roden 1978). Lake Mead quickly gained national recognition as a great sport fishery when a 13 lb. 14 oz. largemouth bass won first place in the 1939 Field and Stream nationwide fishing contest (Wallis 1951).
At Hoover Dam the discharge was clear and cool. The river, freed from its sediment load because of the upstream reservoir, attacked the stream bed, removing sand and other fine sediments. This allowed for the introduction of another new sportfish, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) FWS began stocking rainbow trout in 1935. Jonez and Sumner (1954) described the changing aquatic habitat and developing trout fishery in the Hoover Dam tailrace as follows:
"Rainbow trout first were introduced below Hoover Dam in 1935. By 1937, the swift current below Hoover Dam had scoured the sand away from the gravel and rubble, leaving the water crystal-clear for a distance of about four miles below the dam. The first trout were being caught by 1940. By 1941, about 18 more miles of gravel and rubble had been scoured clean of sand. By 1947, the clear water extended about 42 miles below Hoover Dam....Between 1935 and 1951, a total of 3,714,054 rainbow trout was planted in the area which now is Lake Mohave
Sometime between 1948 and 1953, red shiners (Cyprinella lutrensis) gained access to the lower Colorado River, probably as a baitfish release. It was being reared at that time as a bait fish at a private fish farm near the Colorado River in Ehrenberg, Arizona (McCall, 1980). NDOW and AGFD jointly stocked this species into Lake Mohave in 1955 (Allan and Roden 1978).
Threadfin shad (Dorsoma petenense) was introduced into Lake Mead in 1953 (Allan and Roden 1978), and into Lake Havasu in 1954 (Calhoun 1966) and quickly spread throughout the lower river system. Calhoun (1966) describes just how quickly this species took hold in the lower Colorado River basin:
"Only two plantings, totaling 1,020 fish, were made in Lake Havasu. These threadfin and their off-spring populated the entire Colorado River from Davis Dam southward to the Mexican border, the Salton Sea, and related irrigation canals within 18 months."
As the threadfin shad became abundant, state game and fish agencies decided to make use of the new forage base by stocking another predatory fish, the striped bass (Morone saxatilis). Between 1959 and 1964, CFG made 19 separate stockings of this species between Davis and Imperial Dams, totaling over 100,000 fish. Most of these fish came from the Tracy Fish Screen near Stockton, California, at the intake to the Central Valley Project canal (Guisti and Milliron 1987). The species was stocked into Lake Mead in 1969 (Allan and Roden 1978).
The next nonnative fish introduction into the lower Colorado River was that of the African mouth brooder, the blue tilapia, Tilapia aureau. (A number of species of the genus Tilapia have been introduced and are not easily separated in the field. This group of fishes is herein referred to as "tilapia.") These fish were thought to feed on aquatic plants and were introduced for weed control in the irrigation systems. AGFD raised tilapia at its Bubbling Ponds facility near the Page Springs Hatchery and stocked these fish throughout the State between 1961 and 1980 (Grabowski et al. 1984). A breeding population of Tilapia mossambica was found in a smallpond near the Salton Sea in 1964 (St. Amant 1966 in Grabowski et al. 1984). CFG stocked Zillis tilapia or redbelly tilapia into irrigation canals around Blythe, California, during the 1970s (Grabowski et al. 1984). Tilapia are common in the lower reaches of the river. No confirmed collections have occurred upstream of Parker Dam, although the fish is abundant in Alamo Reservoir on the Bill Williams River, a tributary to Lake Havasu.
Flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) was first reported in Arizona from the Gila River basin in the 1950s (Minckley 1973). It was stocked into the lower Colorado River by AGFD in 1962 (McGinnis 1984). The species had spread upstream to Parker, Arizona by 1976 (Minckley 1979), and it was observed in Lake Havasu in 1984 (USBR file data).
