Keep in mind, they stocked them with fingerlings. So after a rough survival period, they will need a few years to grow big.

If no one harvest the smaller bass, the slot does not work long term.

Some years back, a fisheries biologist told me the problem on Joe Pool was "poor recruitment". By that he meant that not enough fish grow fast enough in Pool because of lack of fertility in the lake. We don't have the run off from rich farmlands there that other lakes enjoy. I agree there are some giants in Pool---just not enough of them. I expect 25-30 unders for every one high slot or over. I've just accepted it and enjoy being able to fish so close to home!

That's a good point and I think he's right on, not only with Pool, but all metroplex lakes, and to a lesser extent Ray Roberts, Whitney, Richland, etc.
In general, any lake that has a watershed west of I45 does not get the nutrients that the lakes from East Texas to the East Coast do. That's why Pool, Roberts, and Richland never became the 'next Fork'.

If you want to see someone violating the slot limit,
look for the people on the bank who set out 6-8 lines all over the place.
The man with one rod and reel obeys the slot limit.

Game Wardens say the slot limits are in place because those are the size of fish that have the most successful spawns in a lake.

Me and my cousin have been 3 times in the past 6 days, never less than 30 bass caught, 9/10 were 13+in. Its fishing REALLY good!

Both are generally true.

I would disagree. Think about most of the five through eight pound fish you catch on Lake Fork. What do they look like? Big green beautiful creatures without a blemish or do many of them look beat up with holes in their face? Ask the guides what they see... If it weren't for the slot, you wouldn't be catching a lot of those fish.

Going to joe pool for camping with the family. Taling my son fishing also and I don't want to disappoint him. Anyone know a good spot around the camp grounds and what the bass like??

I haven't been in a couple of weeks but they were very shallow and schooling of points. They seem to like everything from small worms, spoons, crank baits, etc. Mainly small fish so don't go to big on your lure.

Thanks!

I don't know how many of you might have read my description of a telephone conversation I had with a TPWD employee, a biologist, who was filling me (he asked me to call him) in on the issues related to Marine Creek. In essence, he said the issue there was that the lake has a very low nutrient level to support a big shad population. Someone had asked him why they couldn't just stock shad, to which he replied, that where shad exist in good numbers they increase rather easily on their own. So, Marine Creek has tons of smallish resident bass, small girths and some giants, too. And, the main meal in there? Blue gills and other pan fish. He said that, in essence, Marine Creek is like a really big stock tank with bass, catfish and blue gill . . . but rarely shad.

MC was one of 6 lakes chosen for the big test related to infusing it with some fish with lunker genetics. Interestingly, of the 6, when they went out 4 or so years later to see how these fish grew, they actually did better (they had grown more, etc.) in MC than they had in many of the other 5 lakes. Go figure.

I bring this up because when he was describing this lake's particular environment? He mentioned another lake as also having a very low nutrient level:

Joe Pool.


Brad

I don't know about y'all but I've seen shad everywhere on Joe pool and shad even up to 10 inches swimming around in there.... The shad don't have a problem at all

Tyler,

Sometimes science trumps anecdotes.

Here is the most recent assessment on Joe Pool shad:



Brad