https://www.facebook.com/thad.rains.7

Come on guys, we have talked about it LOTS before. DO NOT HOL A TROPHY LARGEMOUTH BY THE BOTTOM JAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT BREAKS IT!!!!!!!!!!! SUPPORT IT WITH BOTH HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the top post I shared on FB from Connie Kilpatrick, from TPWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go read the article.

Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

This was last year.

Yep, only 1 submitted so far this year. Don't know how it I faring, though.

Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

It was released 4 days after submitted according to the TPWD site

Funny how the broken jaw excuse just came up after all these years and only when the fish died and TP&W needed a excuse to the fishes death. I agree to help support the big fishes weight but in my opinion it does not kill them. Best thing to do is just kill the program. Just my 2 cents.

Looks like it is headed that way.

If no one participates then it will go away

I agree it was awful funny how they had broke jaw syndrome last year, The Ray Roberts bass was caught with a long time guide and you know he made sure the fish was taken well care of.........

Thanks for the sermon, at least you're up to date on the situation.

Program needs to end anyway this year shows it there has been more caught then turned in. Nobody can say that it wouldnt be better for her to spawn in her water instead taking rides in a tank truck getting handled every day.

Yep! Not to mention the rule about being 100% Florida Strain which basically excludes all entrants. So they go through the stress just to be returned back to the lake a week later.

How do you people know that everyone who catches a share a lunker is on this forum and reading these threads?

Didn't the founder of SAL David Campbell retire recently. I thought I had read he stocked his own private pond with SAL stock.

I mean Jesus, everyone who is ever been on this forum knows it. It's even a punchline for all of our jokes when we take pics of fish. "you broke that fish's jaw by not holding it right, I'm going to post this picture on the TFF so everyone will grill you - lol!"

Was working out of Longview,Texas when the share a lunker program first started and went by the Tyler hatchery and met Dave Campbell and he was showing me a 13 plus in a holding tank that came out of Fork. He said he was going to do surgery on her jaw because the ligaments were popped out of place and the fish could not eat properly. I'am not a biologist but it stands to reason that it was caused by lifting her up and taking a bunch of pictures and he said it would be the same as someone holding a person off of the ground by their lower jaw.Since then I haven't caught a SAL but a few heavy tens and I make it a point to handle them with care. And I agree the SAL should be done away with because of the stress the fish go through and can see why they loose some of them because of all of the handling before tpwd gets to the lake like I witnessed with the 16.02 that was caught out of PK that was kept in a igloo cooler for a long time and never made it to Tyler.

Bass fishing is probably the best in tx vs all the other states. It just baffles me how so many people want to up and scrap the programs that appear to be working quite well.

That's nonsense. Hold it however you want. When a big bass bites a Jig on 65lb braid flipped into Tree, the entire tree shakes. The fish bashes off every limb... If that don't hurt him. Then holding him by the lip isn't. TP&W just needs an excuse when one of them dies. That's nonsense and I don't need anybody telling me how to handle my fish;)

This study says otherwise: http://www.thefishingwire.com/story/366849

"Research at the Florida Bass Conservation Center is comparing handling approaches for big bass to see how different methods affect them. Whether held vertically by the jaw, or cradled in two hands horizontally, there were no notable problems with dislocated jaws or reduced survival. Attaining more genetic samples from TrophyCatch bass, along with a tagging study, will help document future recapture of individual fish to prove survival".