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Spent last Friday at Red Fleet trying to help the DWR catch bass to transfer them to Steinaker. The cold front made catching a little slow but we got some bass for the project. Final count for the transfer was 790 bass, but only a few of the larger ones. Biggest bass I saw turned in was about 18". Our boat caught a little of everything LM bass, SM bass, bluegill, rainbows and one walleye, my first and likely last fertile walleye from Red Fleet. I caught her casting a crankbait along the dam. I hope the sterile ones do as well along with the wipers, crappies, perch and tiger trout. Next month they'll poison the lake and start over.
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Did they transfer just the largemouths or did they also transfer smallies and other species as well?
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Strictly largemouth. Steinaker has plenty of LM bass, bluegill and trout, but there was a group of anglers that lobbied the DWR to at least try and salvage some of the big largemouth Red Fleet is known for. Unfortunately that didn't work too well. But I guess we were able to transfer some of the genetics. The DWR also tagged a bunch of the these bass so they can do some growth studies in the next few years.
They obviously didn't want to transfer walleye; and smallmouth are also considered a nuisance species in the drainage so they are on the destroy list too. I saw some fun sized smallmouth (13") and some nice walleye at the cleaning station headed for dinner. Get 'em while you can.
For those that might not have seen the other post, the limits have been doubled on everything at Red Fleet - 8 trout, 12 bass, unlimited bluegill and walleye (mandatory kill).
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