I wanted to ask you guys, just looking at these 3 Tournament result sheets what would be your first thought on this Lake if you just moved to area are was planning a trip there and seen these results.. This is a Thursday night Fruit Jar and is only 3 fish , Lake Slot is 18-22 . But this is guys that fish this lake 3-5 times a week since its been Open. I will give more info on the Lake after I hear a few of you guys first thoughts on these Results.. Thanks for any input .

So what exactly is your question ?

I guess what I am asking is do you guys think these weights are low,, normal or what for a 3 fish Event. Compared to some of the lakes yall fish.

Yes the weights seem low. These guys don't know what they're doing

I'm guessing sinch it's a night tournament there"s only 3 or 4 hours of fish time I'd say that's not too far off for a slot lake this time of year especially if it rose alot with the rain

judging by the weights and numbers of fish I would say I it is a tough lake... for size AND number. That or it is a slot lake and so it makes it look little. I mean for high muddy water, ehh guess it might be ok... But I know the 2 working man tourneys I fish that NORMALLY wouldn't place unless it was TOUGH

I'm thinking it's because the slot. If you compair those results to results from another slot lake it would probable be similar. See if you can find results from say grapevine I bet there would be days that are close to that.

Is the answer .......that lake sucks?

Thanks guys , now let me give a little info on the Lake . It is a Bill Dance Sigature lake and they put a Stupid amount of money into the Lake and area.. It was Open to the Public In Nov of 2007, They had a pretty good size Creek feeding it with some ok size Large mouth in it already, But they built a few Holding ponds first thing and stocked FL. Large mouth and feed them daily during the build process. So when the lake opened the first year they already had some Nice fish in it.
It has anything you want , Grass, Timber,, Ledges , Points, etc etc it is suppose to be the deepest lake we have in MS at over 95 ft at spill way. The first few years it was unreal at the numbers you could catch of all sizes, Unders, Slots and a few overs. Back in 2010-11 is wasn't anything to catch 2 five fish limits of Slot fish with each 5 in the mid 20's. And I believe it was 2011 they had the first DD caught at 11'2...They do have a program that if you catch one over 9 lbs and get it weighted and turn her back you get $100 off a replica, And there has been around 30 over 9 turned in and lake record right now is 12'15,,, But this is our concern now the last 3 or 4 years the lake has got unreal pressure and the fishing has really went down hill fast, Its not just the fish are getting harder to catch and smarter. There has been a unreal number of Tournaments on this Lake that takes it toll with dead fish , Along with huge amounts of fish being slipped out that were slot fish, Plus the guys that like to eat there catch..
We have tried to talk with the Bio. about the way the fishing has went down hill and he says the state doesn't want to put anymore money into it. They do a Shock Survey every year and the last 2 Years the Numbers have been way down on LM and Bait fish with the Largemouth being under weight BAD,, They just did the Shock Survey a couple weeks ago and we still waiting to hear this years results. When I say under weight we are seeing Overs in the 3 -4 lb range now..
The 5 fish events have been won with less then 10 lbs the last couple years, with everyone seeing less and less slot fish being caught, where we use to catch 15 -20 a day now you lucky to catch 2 all day. They have a Big Bass Tournament every year and this yr they did have 2 overs caught, 1 was a 23 inch 5.67 and the other 22 1/2 - 5.79 Last years it was won with a 3.21
We have talk to the Fed Warden and asked could we maybe have a Fund raiser tournament to try and get money for the lake, But was turned down. They say they cant afford to put anymore money into it, but just turned loose 55k White Perch.. There was really high hopes for this lake and the area with the way it was stocked and built , Everyone was thinking in time that's where our Next State Record would come from.
I made this post because I know Texas has some Great lakes and you guys have the rights guys in TPWD heping and working with you to keep good fishers.. Is there any info you may could pass along to us a way to get MS to help us with this lake are anything else we could do or are we just stuck with a Poor lake for now? Thanks very much for any help and info.

My general opinion is over time a slot on a lake will cause over crowding of fish, because when the slot was introduced originally people kept all fish, so everyone was encouraged to keep the smaller ones to eat.

This gave more forage for bigger fish inside the slot.

But now most bass fisherman keep no fish, and this stunts a lake. Look at fayette county.

That lake was unreal years back, and while it's still decent. it is nothing like it was before. Fish in general are much leaner and longer than they used to be.

I don't remember the last time i saw a DD caught there myself.

ANother question to ask is , just for survey purposes ask the teams to record all slot fish they catch, this would not have any affect on outcome, just for general knowledge. To see how many slot fish are being caught since so few out of the slot are weighed in.


On a local lake here that gets almost 0 stocking help, and no care for the lake at all it's gonna take 20lds to win a 3 hr tues night in the spring and drop off to 15-17 during the summer.

This lake does not have florida's in it, only northern strain(or at least not to be that size, just in the last two years have a couple of hand fulls of floridas been stocked by private fund raising since tpwd refuses to stock it...)


SO yes, compared to a completely unmanaged local lake, that looks to suck....

over fishing is a B$tch.... Bait fish numbers being down doesn't make sense...

that could be an overcrowding issue... imo they were DUMB to take a gem like that and not put more strict limits on it. but what can you do

Those would be fantastic weights at the Lake Alan Henry Working Man's. It has a slot for your 3rd fish to be 18" or longer. So, similar to your lake. MOST of the time, 2 unders win it. I have seen as little as 2-2 get a check, as of last night. 4-6 won the T, as I posted earlier and in Fresh Water Reports section. When the lake caught 10' of water, it scattered the fish out pretty badly. Not horizontally so much as vertically. Hope this helps.

Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

looks like my pads from directing the working mans on the vine in the 90's. now it takes 20 plus to win.

How big is the lake (surface area?) I understand that it is deep (95ft at spillway), but I can't imagine a Bill Dance Signature lake being large. You mention regulars fishing it 3-5X per week since its been open and 3 tournaments a week. That kind of fishing pressure will quickly destroy a smaller lake; especially if it isn't getting stocked annually with Florida's. If it isn't getting Florida stock regularly, the smaller, native northern strains would quickly dominate the gene pool in the northern parts of Mississippi.

Sorry about that it's right at 1200 acres ,, and during the spring / Summer they have a Monday night group,, Tuesday and Thursday night and there is Almost always 1-2 Tournaments on the Weekends.. I mean it really gets hammered by all these events and then you have the Fun Fishermen as well.