Lake Havasu survey results: healthy largemouth bass populations, trophy redear sunfish
The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife completed the annual fall electrofishing trend survey of Lake Havasu in October and November. These annual surveys are performed to gather data on relative abundance, size, growth of fish in the lake, and to detect any large scale changes in the fish population.
Thirty-six randomly selected stations (15 minutes of electrofishing conducted per station) were surveyed and all fish encountered were netted, measured, weighed, and released unharmed. A total of 3,013 fish were sampled: including 820 redear sunfish, 572 bluegill sunfish, 347 largemouth bass, and 52 smallmouth bass. Other species sampled were: striped bass, threadfin shad, gizzard shad, common carp, green sunfish, blue tilapia, black crappie, flathead catfish, channel catfish, and yellow bullhead.
The fish population of Lake Havasu continues to be healthy and stable, especially for the species most targeted by anglers: largemouth bass and redear sunfish. The largest largemouth bass sampled was 5.5 pounds, and the largest redear sunfish was 4 pounds. The condition of bass in Lake Havasu continues to be good, likely due to the large amount of forage fish in the lake over the last several years. Both largemouth bass and redear sunfish populations show a good mix of large, mature fish that can provide good fishing now and young fish that should provide good fishing in the future.
Based on the result of this annual survey, it appears Lake Havasu should continue to be a destination fishery for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and redear sunfish.
