Yellow bass make a reappearance at Roosevelt Lake

They’re back.

Some anglers at Roosevelt Lake have been getting striped surprises on the ends of their lines: hard-fighting yellow bass.

Initially, anglers reported catching what they believed to be striped bass. Examination by biologists, however, confirm that the multi-lined fish are indeed yellow bass, a smaller relative of the striped and white bass. They are all members of the temperate bass family.

“Though unusual, this is not a surprising occurrence,” says Jim Warnecke, an Arizona Game and Fish Department biologist.

Warnecke explains that yellow bass were first introduced into Arizona at Roosevelt Lake in 1930 and populations have fluctuated over the years.

“The species spread rapidly into downstream reservoirs Apache, Canyon and Saguaro lakes where anglers regularly catch this hard-fighting fish. Populations were widespread in Roosevelt during the mid-70s, but subsided in the 80s and 90s until recently,” he says.

The species explosion at Roosevelt was probably due to the flooding of the reservoir during the winter of 2004-2005 and the following “new lake” effect when the expanded lake level inundated thousands of acres of prime upper Sonoran habitat. This phenomena was not only a boon for other resident species like largemouth and smallmouth bass, black crappie, catfish and bluegill, but also the lingering population of yellow bass.