the study that was done "a few years" ago as mentioned by Jason was in 1999. Since that time the improvement in live well technology has been ten fold. 18 years ago.

When we get fish on the live release boat now it is hard to keep them from jumping out they are so frisky. Tournaments anglers that pay big bucks to fish in these "big" tournaments are not going to let their fish die. Although admittedly some do. A good average for the Sept tournament he is talking about where perhaps a 1000 fish are caught would be well under 50.

Mark what year did the 24" go into effect? I to have heard the stories about the dead fish floating up at Lake Fork Resort but you are the first person that has admitted to actually seeing it in person.
Was that 16 years ago too?

Those numbers aren't even close to reality or "proven". There's not a tournament on the planet where teams bring in 5 fish for the vast majority of the field. Add the fact that livewell and fish care has improved tremendously since 1999 and this is a moot point.

Here's Champs with, other than the big bass events, likely the largest team field on fork and you had almost 200 teams blank.

Total Entries: 337 Teams
Total Fish: 491
Total Weight: 580.70
Average Weight: 1.18
Number of limits: 52
Number of zero's: 191

Add to that the average weight of 1.18lbs and the tournament mortality impact was minimal. Sure maybe some of the smaller clubs lack the fish care but their success rate of 5 fish stringers are probably just as low.

Lake Fork gets more pressure than most any other lake in the country both from tournament anglers and non-tournament anglers. I'd say the fishery is doing pretty well all things considered. And that number of $27 million in revenue, I'd say half of that, if not more, is tournament revenue from hotels and tax. Tournaments aren't going anywhere.

Bruce, I want to say September 2000. I remember it went up one inch a year starting at 21 inches in 1997, 22 inches for 1998, 23 inches 1999, 24 inches 2000. The local businesses through a fit if it was going to jump from 21 - 24 over night. So the 1 inch a year deal was agreed upon. It was redundant because the virus hit in 99, if you could catch a fish over 24 then it was a miracle...

Delayed mortality from handling extended periods of time is real.....it may not fit with your livelihoods but it's not bull [censored] just because you think Rule live well pumps and rounded corners improved the results....

Mississippi State U. did research for TPWD on Lake Fork a couple of years ago. I filled out their extensive paperwork. Do they listen? I think not.

Correct. Lots of assumptions being thrown around here. Only one based on science. I don't know what % of the $27 million can be attributed to tournaments, but I can tell you this. When Fork was really good, out of state folks probably contributed more to the local economy from Jan-April than all tournaments combined for the year.

Now that the fishing has declined due to natural and human influences, we don't have the out of state folks like we used to. But we still have a bazillion tournaments/year. And, while folks that fish the four or five big bass events with hourly payouts come and stay for a few days, the weekend tournament anglers don't spend all that much around the lake. Many drive in and leave the same day of the tournament.

Most of what I just said is also an assumption. Delayed tournament mortality is not. And Marc Mitchell is correct in that for every one that dies and floats, there are another two to three that never come to the surface.

Finally, limiting guides has no merit. They're not the ones hauling fish around in their livewells all day. Limiting or placing a moratorium on tournaments at Fork would possibly do some good.

The actual number is most likely somewhere in the middle of these two examples.
Many of the zeros probably carried around 2,3 or 4 fish during the day and just dumped them at the end without weighing in. Many of these can be added to the mortality total.

I doubt that tournaments account for anywhere near half of the revenue that's generated yearly. Most drive in the morning of the tournament. Buy their gas out of the area. Eat breakfast out of the area and bring a lunch snack while in the boat. Most do little if any shopping in the local tackle shops. They really leave a relatively small economic footprint while being here. Contrast that with the recreational anglers that come from near and far, every week of the year and stay days to weeks at a time in the local motels, eat at our restaurants and marinas, use the services of guides and make frequent purchases of bait, tackle and fuel at the marinas.

The LFSA live release boat was built in 2001. The Shimano live release boat was operating prior to that but might have stopped by 2000 because the tanks off of it were donated to the LFSA for the new boat which was hand built by Jesse Parker and others.

I personally saw him welding the "logs" together in late 2001 in his shop on SH 154..

So my guess would be that the fish kill Mark was referring to when the slot was still below 24" was not done by MY (the LFSA) boat or any of our crews..

However delayed mortality is real and has been proven over and over by studies that have been done. What is worse than delayed mortality? No catch and release. Just catch clean and eat. Which a lot of honest folks would like to do with the dreaded "slot fish" at Lake Fork. Fork would become like Amisitad in the winter. A place for people from Minnesota to come down to fill their freezers with quality slot fish.

Then without the slot any of you who like to come here to just "catch a real nice or on occasion real big bass" would be just like going to any of the other 240 lakes in Texas that don't have a slot.

Get over it.

Since we are trying to regulate everything, should these also be regulated or banned, live bait fishing (propensity to deep hook fish), Carolina Rigging(propensity to deep hook fish), ban bed fishing, ban bringing big fish off lake, during the spawn, to be weighed.

I could keep going and going and almost everything you can think of to regulate or ban has some merit. Honestly the way Fork has been managed works mostly. We tend to "arm chair QB" everything in this world, and yes we all do it some.

I, for one, would like to see the grass come back, the guides keep guiding, the tournaments keep going, everyone around the lake making a little folding money to put in their pockets and all the visitors leave with a big smile on their face.

Sometimes we over think and over regulated things, let us not do that to something most of us do to get a break from our over regulated lifestyles we live.

Personal opinion only. GRASS!!!!! HYDRILLA GRASS!!!! Every lake I've seen produce quality & numbers at its peaks had good quality hydrilla over a certain percentage of the lake. The fishng responded quickly.Cleaner water also. It seems to me the money spent should be spent on the thing that seems to promote/benefit good rapid natural response by the targeted species(I.e: LMB). Cover for bass fry,baitfish,shad,crawfish. The ecosystem of grass is amazing. No carp, just chemical or biological control. I'd love to see it tried on that basis.Control of grass, NOT eradication of it seems a simpler solution. Even overkill of too much grass recovers quickly when some remains. It recovers quickly.So a mistake would cause less impact. Just don't do a total eradication as we ALL have seen what happens then.CONROE. ????? Just a thought. We ALL remember what it was when it had good grass. Toledo Bend,Rayburn,Falcon,Amistad, ALL thrived for #'s & size when hydrilla grew.Leave slot where it's at & try something that has positive effect for the fish. Just my opinion only.

+1 I wish they (TPWD) would take it off the invasive list. That would be the best thing that EVER happened to Texas fishing. We all know lakes with it produce way better, not even close to the same without it.