Live baiters should only be using circle hooks.

If we get rid of tournaments around Lake Fork the marinas and local economy would suffer. I agree tournaments do hurt fish but there has to be a happy medium. What Richard and Brooks are saying is completely right and for anyone to argue with those guys is nuts. I personally think the lake is in one of those lulls that all lakes go through. I have clients tell me all the time, Toledo is horrible then I read about 30 lb stringers. Same thing with Rayburn, a client can't catch fish on Rayburn but then a "guide" weighs in 50 something pounds in two days. I know on Fork right now we are having 30-60 fish days. Yes most of those are 10-16 inches with some dang big slots mixed in, so what does that mean for the next couple years?

Congrats to Eric and partner!

wish they would lay off Tyler for a few years, it hasn't rebounded in 1/2 a decade, of coarse the grass fishermen are going respond with a grass complaint but I have seen a bass eat grass, EVER!

1990 Texas Population - 17.06 million

2015 Texas Population - 27.70 million

throw in 4-7 million undocumented people, and that is well over 30 million people


Number of new sizable bass fishing lakes since 1990 - 1 Cooper Lake (1991)

Ray Roberts in 1987, so I guess you can count it

too many people + no new lakes + statewide droughts = less fish to catch

nice post

I would say out of the 10+ million increase 8-9 million are illegals and out of that maybe less than 1k fish fork, they ain't coming here to fish fork they are coming here to waste our water and live free off our tax dollars which may or may not take away resources from our parks and lakes...

its about the water usage, not them fishing.

I lived most of my life in a state that regulates and permit tournaments. So you get a couple of idiots in the permitting department over thinking a problem that does not exist and OOPS that is one to many tournaments on that lake on that weekend. Whoops that is to much pressure on THAT lake.
And then the politics get into it and influence from HOA's and other homeowner or bird watching groups and pretty soon you can only fish on Saturdays.

I have seen it.

Ya'll are really over analyzing this, this isn't rocket surgery. Low lake levels, bad largemoth spawns, increase in the piranhas known as sandbass...what does that equal? Rather than banning people from fishing, banning tournaments from being held, banning people who fish with live bait(which is legal in most of AMERICA) how bout ya'll advocate a keep or kill for the fish that are REALLY depleting the resources...sand bass. LMAO

Food is what makes bass grow, not lack of tournaments hahaha.

Do bass not eat sand bass? When I catch them I don't eat them nor do they swim away. There are a lot of critters on the bank less hungry because of my efforts.

And I'm aware that's illegal. Raccoon thanked me last week so it was worth it!

The white bass are here to stay.
We can't control mother nature, whether it's lack of rain, or vegetation.
We can plant some vegetation, such as water willows, but it takes money and effort.
TPWD stocks on average, around 500,000 FLMB fingerlings per year with a 1% (hopeful) survival rate to adulthood. That's 5,000 FLMB per year, APP. half males, half females (hopefully).
Only 6.7% in 2013 sampling were pure FLMB. 86.6% were F1 or Fx hybrids.
















In the last 10 years, only 38.5% of the SAL fish were pure FLMB
In other words, the intergrades still have trophy potential.
The only thing we can control is harvest.
There are many scenarios, (all with compromises), that could be implemented to insure higher recruitment into the slot.
Whacking the little ones every single weekend is not the answer.

just got back. saw a guy with 11.3 .released her out in the lake where she was caught. I had a 9 last week. plenty of fish they are just suspended. I am enjoying all the no boats. you guys stay on your computers you will figure it out.

If you've spent 1/10th of time I have on this lake, you would understand why this post offends me.

spent more than 1/10 of the time you have . Sorry to burst your bubble