http://www.bassmaster.com/conservation-news/12-12-pounder-breaks-washington-state-record

If it was caught at Fork.

Talk about football, wow. One old healthy fish, imagine catching that during sealys you would just want to cry

That's a basketball! Fat fat fish

That is one chunk

Great fish.

If you look back thru the years of SAL there have been numerous 13+ fish that didn't make 24"

Indeed that's the case, typical for a Texas caught, Florida strain bass, short and fat, kinda like me....

There was a time when the genetic makeup, other than strain, was not as easy to determine and not as important in the overall hatchery/stocking plans as it is now. My theory is that for whatever reason, the initial group of Florida bass brought to Texas and produced in hatcheries, was a "short" variety. This is what keeps being propagated and used, in some cases, especially in the past. In other cases, there is a great effort to not be putting "inbred" or inappropriate strains into our public waters from hatcheries.

I have personally caught DD bass in parts of Florida, especially Rodman Reservoir/Ocklawaha River that were 27"+, but a bit "long and thin" looking compared to the typical "pot bellied" DD Texas caught bass.

There might be a pic somewhere in this box.....from way back then, but doubt I could figure out how to get it up here for ever'body to see. I'll give 'er a try if somebody wants...

Especially when stocking a lake or pond, but also in the bigger, public sector, genetic diversity is as important, if not more so, than strain. If breeding animals, like fish, even bass, think...."Long Florida Bass frame" X "Deep bodied Texas grown, genetically isolated, short bass" to get a long bass with a deep body and a lot of genetic diversity to boot.

The SAL program has been a tremendous public relations success.

I caught one on Fork in a May club tournament 3-4 years ago that was over 10 pounds but I couldn't make her touch 24 inches. I even put the fish in the livewell for a couple of minutes to see if she would "relax" and make it to 24. She wouldn't. Talk about disheartening having to throw that fish back!

In the first two hours that morning I caught five that would have weighed over 26 pounds but they were all slot fish. I ended up zeroing in the tournament. Pretty hard to take, but I am sure it has happened to plenty of others...

Don't feel bad. Myself and two other guys caught 11 fish between 23" and 24" on the first day of the first Legends tournament at Fork. Two of them were over 10. We caught nine more between 23 and 24 the second day with no weighers. Had we been able to weigh a couple of those, we would have blown the entire field away. Best two tournament days I've EVER had even though we didn't cash a check, we smoked the fish and a bunch of big ones.

Had a similar experience a few years ago at Fork in a club tourney. We didn't have two over ten but we caught 70 fish off one deep spot with many over 7 pounds. Had probably 40 fish over five pounds that day on FBJ's and Crigs. Went to weigh in with one fish that weighed 1.18....

I have personally witnessed a 12.70 brought in to LFM that Cameron weighed that was NOT 24 inches. He told the guy, "Dude, you need to get that fish back in the lake quick before a game warden shows up" The guy was stunned.

^^^^^
Wow!

Yup that's a toad.

Nice fish and Congratulations to the angler!

Wow!