Last summer and fall, before the fish went into their deep-winter holding pattern, Art Chamberlin, a guide at Roosevelt, saw huge numbers of bass and crappie fingerlings. "We should see large numbers of small fish this year, but the good ones will also be around," Chamberlin predicts. "In two or three years, look out! Roosevelt could be the premier bass fishery west of the Mississippi and one of the very best crappie lakes in the nation.

For most Arizona anglers, the tough part about fishing Roosevelt is getting used to working so much cover.

BARTLETT
Two Steps Ahead
The topwater lure had barely hit the surface when multiple bass began knocking it around like a volleyball. Bass will often smack a shad to knock it senseless before gobbling it up. "Daddy's got another fish," shouted my excited 5-year-old son as I fought the hard-pulling greenback.

Good-sized bass were seemingly stacked on every point, island and reef, waiting to pounce on schools of shad -- and lures. Catching 30 or so bass, weighing two or three pounds each, ranks extremely high on the fun meter.

Last year, Bartlett was an angler's dream, routinely the hot bass fishing lake in Arizona. There were times when anglers could catch-and-release 60 to 80 nice bass a day. You can expect more of the same this year from the Horseshoe-Bartlett bass production complex.

My nicknames for these two sister lakes on the Verde River are Batman and Robin, because they're definitely a dynamic duo when it comes to fish production. Horseshoe is typically kept low so it can serve as a flood catcher. But in good years, it plays another role as well, being a bass, crappie and shad nursery for Bartlett.

Last year's dynamics were unprecedented. Time after time, torrential rains deluged the watershed and swelled the Verde River until it routinely surpassed the flows of the mighty Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

Each time, Horseshoe would fill to near capacity, then be lowered as rapidly as possible into Bartlett Lake to make room to hold the next flood. It was awesome to watch. Nutrient-rich water roared out the floodgates at Horseshoe and cascaded down the steep spillway, creating a scene that could have been used during the filming of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The roar of that man-made waterfall was so loud that you had to shout at the person standing next to you just to be heard. Those who were brave enough could even take the protected footpath beneath the lip of the overflow and walk behind and beneath the Hershey-colored waterfall.

The dynamic situation didn't end with the spring runoff. Throughout last summer, Horseshoe was gradually drained into Bartlett, keeping that lake full while the system still provided irrigation and drinking water for a growing Phoenix metropolitan area. Yet during the spring spawn, Horseshoe was almost full. All those young fish were systematically fed into Bartlett.

Last year, in fact, some of the hydrologists called Horseshoe "the lake that wouldn't die," because every time Salt River Project drained it down to almost nothing, another "precipitation event" in the watershed would fill it up again, even during late summer.

In a way, Bartlett Lake is two steps ahead of the other prime bass factories. It had good runoff and experienced terrific spawns for three out of the past four years. For anglers, that all translates into Bartlett being the hotspot again this year for consistent action on one- to three-pound bass, with a decent sprinkling of fours and fives as well.