The Share lunker program will help folks get bigger and bigger fish, but I think folks need to realize that many times they hurt their own fisheries before a fish gets to be a 13. In fact, there would be a lot more 13's if!! Folks really need to throw their 8's, 10's, and 12's back in, to be caught by them and others again and again, so they can get bigger and bigger. And they will. I've gone back and caught the same 6 pounder a month later, off the same stump! And it was as fun the second time as it was the first!

Dottie, the un-official world record, had been caught numerous times. And if she had been kept at 8, 10 or 12 to start with she would have never had the chance to make it to the 18, 20 and 22 she did get caught at, before she was last caught at 25, just before she passed (found floating)!

When down in Amistad 3 months ago I'd heard it had been common to get limits of 40 lbs a few years back, but now very rarely. According to one guide, you'd see guys cleaning 10's daily at the ramp for a few years. That is why that lake is NOWHERE as good as it once was. Some of the guides no longer allow clients to keep bigger ones, I respect them a lot for that. If you can afford a 50K bass boat, or a $400 guide trip, I think you can afford 10 pounds of sea bass; a much better tasting fish by far anyways, bass taste musty to me anyways (or afford burgers?). I suggest, if you have to, keep the 2's -4's, photograph and toss the bigger ones back. Watch the records go up, and watch your own name be posted as the record setter too, how cool would that be?

I think it's important to take some of the smaller fish. I think the slot works better if people actually take the smaller ones on occasion. I have kept some from time to time, all of them 1 - 2 pounders. Anything bigger gets released right away.

I do find it interesting that lakes without a slot seem to produce bigger fish. It could be a cart/horse thing.

There is know way u can convince me that 25% of tournament fish die within a week. How in the world could u ever even attempt to prove a statement like that. If that's the case, there would b dead bass floating everywhere .

Add Joe Pool to your list of lake record over 13 that didn't go to the state. JP had a new lake record caught 2 years ago that went home with the angler. I believe that was a 14.68. They took the pics at Lynn Creek Marina.

-Alton

That's the key. They held those fish in a tank. That is no different than hollding them in a livewell. The study should state that 25% of tournament fish,kept in a storage tank, die in a week. That I believe