Where do the biggest bass in Texas call home?

Where do you think the elusive 17+ pounders live? Obviously fork has produced half a dozen or so but that's been years ago. Is fork still #1? What are yalls opinions? Fork? Falcon? Sam Rayburn? Somewhere else?

Ray Rob

Marine Creek! lol

There sleeping

About 3-4 private lakes in Henderson County.

Ray Roberts,Falcon,Amistad,SamRayburn,OH Ivie.
I believe there is at least 1 & most likely several 17#+ fish in each of these lakes. I also believe the odds of being caught & successfully landed are astronomical. I almost believe the odds are better to win the lottery. But it could & probably will happen one of these days. If you don't fish you'll never catch it, same as you'll never win the lottery if you don't buy at least 1 lotto ticket. Hmmmm...
Come to think of it, it'd be way cheaper to play lotto compared to what we spend on everything to fish. LOL
BUT, it ain't nearly as fun. Fish all day & not get one bite & it's STILL a great day!
I'm just hoping someone will pop one over 20 in Texas in my lifetime.
Y'all stay safe out there.

I would look for the lake that produces the most double digit bass!
I would narrow the search by looking at how many 13# plus bass are caught.
It's a shot in the dark, so I'd buy a lottery ticket every time you go after that 17# bass, and see which one you hit first.

Pk has a few big bass 😁

Camelot bell

cant tell, its a secret.

I think there may be a few months a year (pre-spawn) where 17lbers exist in the state. They probably live offshore, spawn in areas that are difficult or impossible to fish, and are primarily nocturnal feeders.

3420 East Big Stump Ave., Texas

Might as well say where are the 20lbers...

I’m not so sure Texas is capable of a 20 lb fish in public water.

If anyone really knew then they would be out there catching them.

Been quite a few 15-16 lb'ers caught but the last time a 17 was caught was 1991. I'm thinking with the increased amount of anglers out there and the awesome technology available the time has maybe come and gone for a new state record. There are way too many outstanding anglers here in Texas for one not to have been caught by now. If there is one she's probably swimming around in either Rayburn, TB, Falcon or Amistad but the odds are slim. Still fun trying though.

I think one is out there but finding and catching that ONE big bass is almost impossible. They don't get big by hitting lures.

A bunch of them used to live in California.

Apparently somewhere other than where I fish.

try northern Florida

A bunch still do... but with recent history, I’d say Marine Creek...

If Texas had the rainbow trout like the San Diego county lakes do, it be different. Here we have talapia, I just don’t think the bass eat them much like the monsters in San Diego eat the trout...
But there’s are few lakes here that are getting primed to kick out many fish in the 12-14 pound category
Fork
Falcon
Ray Roberts
Marine Creek
Lewisville (maybe)

I would add Palestine to that list!

That would be a heck of a jump from the 13 pound lake record.

I think Conroe is under-rated. Not a numbers lake, but definitely some big fish in that lake.

A lot of Truth in that Jimbo!!!

I have predicted to some friends there will be a 15+ caught this spring or next from public water but not from the lakes mentioned.

I think when the record is broken it will be from a Cinderella Lake that seldom gets any attention .

I don't know. I haven't hooked into a true giant since April of 1995. That one was on Lake Nacogdoches and was a monster, easily a Sharelunker that my buddy and I got a good look at before she made a run and snapped my 20 lb line. Then she came up right behind the boat trying to throw my worm and hook just to add insult to injury. A couple of years before that I broke off another fish that I am sure weighed in the teens bank fishing a 4 acre private lake that one of my employees had been dumping the big fish he caught at Murvaul in for over 20 years.

It is surprising that Texas apparently reached the peak of its big bass growth 30 years ago. What were we doing in the 80s and early 90s that we're not doing now? The main change I can think of from a fishing standpoint is the eradication of grass in so many of our lakes.

^^^^^
The human population around I35 and east of I35 has exploded in the last 30 years
A lot of our larger reservoirs have aged and aren’t as fertile as they once were
The drought from 2007-1015 was bad
There’s a lot more electronics pinging on the water now

Lake Fork may surprise us all with a true giant in the next couple years. All those drop shotters (Sinkey) haven't been hurtin any big girls for a while now.

My vote goes to Lake Naconiche. Fairly new lake with lots of grass, great genetics, and lots of water where the fish can get, that a boat can't get to.

I would say as a sleeper would be Caddo Lake just based on growing up near there and knowing lots of people who fish it and the quality of fish they catch there in the Spring.

In all honesty it could be any lake but wouldn't surprise me if it came from a smaller less pressured body of water. I'll use my local lake for example. Last year it was barely 12' deep and was down to less then 1200 surface acres yet it produced a 13.4, and a couple of 11's. With the fall rains its now over 50' deep and almost 6500 surface acres. I already caught a 12# a few weeks ago and I'm sure it's not the only one in there. With all the recently flooded timber it should really produce in the next few years.

That same drought is now helping a lot of those same lakes to go through another complete cycle. Look around, more and more of those lakes that were really low now have grass in them in places that haven't seen it in years. I think the next 3-5 years, assuming no severe drought, will produce a lot of very big bass, but I don't see the State Record being beaten. I've got my own theories on this but that's for another day.

The hydrilla has been either sprayed or removed by grass carp or natural forces in most of our lakes. Back in the day there were areas on Fork that you could hardly get to plus tons of habitat for big ones and prey to hide in and grow. Loss of habitat and pressure is the delta.

"Loss of habitat and pressure is the delta."
That just about sums it up. I started fishing Fork in '86 and you could find hydrilla in 18' of water, the shorelines weren't covered with boat docks and there wasn't a tournament every weekend. It was sure fun while it lasted though. All you needed was a bag of black/blue worms, a good Garcia reel and rod and a 15' Kingfisher boat with a 50 hp Johnson . I had all that and a good rope to tie up to a tree. My how times have changed.

Maybe not in the next year or couple, but Choke Canyon ought to be on the list of lakes to watch. Remember Bass Champs 2009 where there were 2 fish over 15lbs weighed in?

A west Texas lake, PK,O.H. Ivie or even Alan Henry

Exactly -- the only thing missing is the F-1 cross..