If you don't think politics are involved you live in a very small shoe. Politics are ALWAYS involved in any state or ferdeal run agency. I can hear them now...We're gonna grow the biggest largemouth bass in the country maybe even the world and fisherman will come from everywhere to spend their money here. The truth is it hasn't worked. Search the top 50 largemouth bass caught in Texas and look at the dates. Enough said.

This is an excerpt from a story titled "Stock Market" I did for the March 2017 issue of Texas Fish and Game Magazine.




"No one can deny that Kemp knocked a home run by bringing Florida bass to Texas at a time when the state was teeming with robust, new reservoirs. Interestingly, however, the Kemp bass may not have been the very first Floridas introduced to Texas waters. In fact, scientists discovered through genetics testing in the early 1990s that Florida bass may have arrived in Texas decades earlier.
�The evidence surfaced after TPWD biologists obtained scale samples from the original skin mount of the former 13.50 pound state record bass that was caught from Lake Medina way back in 1943.
�According to Todd Engeling, TPWD's freshwater hatchery chief, the analysis showed that there was some level of Florida influence in the Medina fish and that the bass presumably found its way to in the 5,400-acre Hill Country reservoir via an "undocumented" private stocking."
Very interesting. Not many people are aware of this. I certainly wasn't until I dug into the story. You can read the full story in the Feb. 2017 issue of Texas Fish and Game.

Chu, they manage some areas better than others. South and Central Texas are not taken care of very well, maybe that's why I don't feel the love for them that you do. Your area might be better taken care of.


Something else and I'm most likely in the minority here, but I go fishing to go fishing, I don't have to have every bass in the lake be a Florida strain. I'm just fine catching northern strain, in fact we all know they floridas are hard to catch in colder weather. I want easy dumb fish to catch, stock more of the dumb fish.

Joefishin

Below is from the Texas A&M AquaLife Extension Aquaculture website. As you will read most Fishery Biologists do not use lbs. to measure growth, but use inches instead. We have all caught 12" fish that might be 1-1/2lbs or bigger, but that is the exception.

Largemouth can grow to more than 2 pounds their first year under ideal conditions, but in nature about 0.5 pound is normal. Females are normally larger than males. The maximum size of the Northern largemouth is about 10 pounds, while a large female Florida largemouth may reach 20 pounds. In Texas lakes, typical size at year 1 is 8″, year 2 is 12″, year 3 is 15″, year 4 is 17″, and year 5 is 18″.