2009 Fishing

Was 2009 the best big bass year for Texas? Looking through stats, weights and other stuff 2009 seemed to be the best year for Texas statewide. Choke canyon produced two over 15lbs and one over 13lb in one tournament. O.H. Ivie was a hot ticket too. Seemed most lakes or most of all of them fished outstanding that year? Too bad I was still figuring out what college was about! Was it a combination of warm water, grass, good spawn, less pressure?

All of the above I would think, two of those lakes you mentioned have very little fishing pressure even when they are at full pool. I can remember when 25 lbs didn't get you a check on Lake Tyler, or 10.3 was 3rd place big bass!

Have you looked back at the ShareLunker records? I think you might come to a different conclusion. 2009 was a great year and probably the best in recent years, but best? Hardly. Falcon was hot in 09 as were a bunch of other lakes. Then we had a prolonged, severe drought over much of Texas and all fisheries suffered because of it.

Most certainly did but that's not where I based my opinion from, best years were 94-95 with 36 sharelunkers with a close second 91-92 with 33 and 09-10 with 33 sharelunkers, not disagreeing with you but why were the three fish over 13lbs during Choke canyon Bass Champs south region 2009 never put in the program? that would have made 08-09 20 lunkers instead of 17. Im just saying the sharelunker program has its up and downs but i don't think it necessarily determines one of the best years for Texas based on registered big fish caught!

http://newsok.com/article/3849783

You'll find this article interesting. It's about all the big fish from Choke Canyon in the time frame you're discussing. Note the article says Choke was hot then because it had filled up. A bunch of other lakes were hot then, too. Then the drought hit. So, I'll agree that 2009 was the best year in recent history but don't think it was the best year, ever.

90's on Fork, bros. Look it up. You'll see my name.

Thanks for the article, i didn't realize that many had died! Not to take away from the OP but what a sharp decline in sharelunkers since 2011, 13 to 12 to 9 to 6 and now only 1 for 2016 with 45 days left.

They are getting caught, but folks are not turning them into the program. I'm aware of at least three eligible fish recently caught and weighed on certified scales which were released.

Yup. Drought and mismanagement are killing the program.

I'm not debating here - I'm truly curious how TPWD is mismanaging the program?

The turn about in reporting is in my mine being selfish. The fish are returned to the waters they were caught in if the fisherman wants it to. To catch a fish that is a product of all the years previous effort and then say I am not going to turn it in because the program is being mismanaged is about as dump a statement or idea I have ever come across. The person needs to understand the DD they are holding is proof the program works.

As far as the Falcon folks who claim the 7 hour ride in a 200 gal holding aerated tank to Athens is not good for their fish seems to forget about the 7 hrs. the fish just spent in a 30 gal (or less)live well.

These people only bring one word to mine- HYPOCRITES

Lol wow. I had to read that 5 times before I understood.

So when I catch a DD I need to make sure I thank the SAL program huh? You do know they only breed the pure Floridas right? I mean surely you wouldn't make such a confident statement if you didn't know anything about the program. . .right? You know most lakes have never had a SAL caught in them. . .right? Not every DD caught is a result of the program bud, in fact the vast majority have NOTHING to do with it.

You know, I could really go on and on about how dumb, or dump, your statement is, but it's not worth the time. I'll just suggest that before you start calling other people dumb, you educate yourself a little more on the program, and take some spelling lessons in the process.

Still not a single post about the mismanagement. Can someone please learn me on this? I just wanna know where this is coming from and if there is any truth to it.

Wish I could answer about mismanagement on the subject I have no idea how they do there procedures or manage the fish, although I do know they're numbers have been declining the last couple years only through there website. I'm up and down on the subject think there's some good aspects as well as some bad, I do think putting the grass carp in Lake Auston was a really bad move on TPWD and it will be a while until we have a fishery that had the potential like Austin. Fork will always be Fork I love going there but 5 hours is a trip for me, they will always produce big ones. With all the rains we have had and a warm winter the next couple of years should be awesome on most fisheries. Even though I was not around in the 90s except for in kindergarten I am hoping for some upcoming years of great fishing and some big fish caught around the state.

Choke was soooo low for so long that when the lake filled up the bass had a jungle to hide in. Great spawns, hydrilla was growing and the fish were there. But how about before it filled up??? It sucked just like it does right now. Amistad was decent before it filled and then a few years after it filled it was awesome! Mother Nature can do way more that TPWD will ever be able to do.

If choke ever fills again... Well, I hope someday it fills again.



There was a period that the fishing at Choke was so bad that I stopped into Elroy's tackle shop and talked to him. He was convinced that all of the bass were dead, I asked "why" and he was convinced the largemouth bass virus was there. Fishing was really, really bad those couple years. I know I have also read articles where he was trying to eradicate the gar because of the damage they caused to the fishery. If you go there now, you will see ALOT, I mean a WHOLE LOT of gar and the fishing is pizz poor.

On the flip side, how has the program helped? The 90's were the best, right? Seems like the improving genes would be kicking out more and more "lunkers".

Give it some time, hey you could always come to Canyon LOL, by the way TTZ was ruff we had two keepers. Looking forward to Travis after Easter they'll prob be pretty close to done spawning but who knows with all these thunderstorms we are getting and cold fronts..

I edited my earlier post, not sure if you knew who Elroy Krueger was. (If not google his name, I wish I would have picked his brain about the lake more).


Even in Chokes current state I can still catch more fish there than I can at Canyon. I am absolutely mystified at my lack of catching fish at Canyon. Guys telling me that they were catching 3-5 lb bass average and I can't catch a single dink when I go.

In terms of mismanagement they may be referring to the number of fish that have died in recent years in the hands of the TPWD. In most cases the deaths have been attributed to broken jaws which then reflects poorly on the angler. Unfortunately that creates a counter incentive for folks to turn them in. If the fish dies, you may get ridiculed for poor handling. I suspect the increased mortality rate has more to do with a rotten streak of luck than mismanagement of the program or fishermen all the sudden breaking a bunch of jaws. Fish that old are at the end of the life expectancy. Old fish sometimes do what old people do, they up and die.

I've heard all the arguments, but stepping back and looking at the program from the big picture, it's tough for me to understand how folks think the program could do anything but help. Hundreds of thousands of fry with superior genetics have been released into our lakes. Any way you spin it, this is a good thing. Mother nature may in fact have a greater influence over fishing in general, but things would be that much worse were it not for the program. I for one, would like to see the program continue. It's good for fisherman. It's good for bass. It's good for Texas.

2009 was good for me. caught my pb on ivie that yr. i made the 200 mile one way trip 11 of 13 consecutive weekends in the spring tho. lots of driving and fishing that yr for me..