No doubt? I would first have to know what size bass the Fork brood ponds produced vs. what this project will produce in the same amount of time before I could make that statement.

If I put you on a high protein / fat diet, you will gain weight. When I take that resource away, you cannot sustain it without a similar level of protein / fat.

If the concept is that this project can provide better forage for the fish (in a controlled environment) than your typical reservoir, isn't it simple deductive reasoning to think they would need that same "better forage / conditions" to sustain the same rate of growth in said reservoir?

Fish can lose weight.

Don't bring common sense into it, it has to be "scientific". The real money isn't in the fingerlings, its in the time, equipment, and other maintenance or political hours will be spent on this. Again, I'm am in no way against the doc having his own lake, and doing what he wants to it. But in NO WAY should public money be spent for private gain, and yes there will be a lot of private gain. Not only the recognition that will sell trips to la perla but in 15 years there will be a long line to get in there. Unless they make it public which is out of the question. Maybe this one lake isn't a big difference but this isn't the only one and all that waste adds up. Doc, I am sorry you got caught up in this and this is no disrespect to you.

How many of you guys going to give up fishing because of this? Only way to change it is to let tp&w know why you aren't buying fishing license this year.

Agreed on the losing weight. My comment was based on the fact that the La Perla fish with their exceptional circumstances, have already shown above normal growth rates. I agree that it could not be sustained, but if the weight gains made from that point forward were equal, then larger fish at the same age would be possible. But I also understand that this would only apply to the first stocking.

I wonder who is going to pay for all the baitfish in Jalisco? Are prawns, bluegill, shad, minnows & sunfish also donated to the SAL program or are the tax payers buying them?

If you can't be positive, then at least be quite?? Is that a typo!! That is the most Un American thing a person can say. Thats right up there if you cant say something nice dont say anything at all. But that contradictions nice guys finish last. So if nice guys finish last then I have some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you.

This post, as well as the others on La Perla, have been interesting to say the least with how many negative posts it's brought.

It looks like the consensus of the naysayers is that TPWD and all Texas Fishing License Holders are getting the shaft. I don't see it, not one bit. Jordan has explained it at least twice. The ~7,000 fingerlings getting stocked into Jalisco will eventually be SAL fish, and TPWD will get those fish. Those fish will be spawned and a large amount of those fry will be stocked into public waters. Jalisco will have to be culled down as well and those big fish have to go somewhere. I guess the easy way to look at this is, say those ~7,000 fry got put in Fork. I have no idea what the survival rate would be, but between all the predatory fish, birds, fishermen keeping unders, etc.... I would be shocked if 15% made it to slot size. At Jalisco, there won't be any predatory fish, or fisherman, and the only threat to the success of those fish will be some extreme weather event, some infection, or maybe some Heron or Cormorants (I bet they have that covered though). As Jordan said previously, the survival rate of those ~7,000 will be multiples higher than anywhere on public water. I don't see anything but positive from that for TPWD as well as all of us who are addicted to these green fish!

What else I see, is TPWD gaining immense amounts of data on Florida Strain Bass. By having Jalisco as a test bed in a controlled environment, they'll be able to see survival rates with no predation, annual growth rates based on water quality and forage, how Florida's grow under ideal water temps and conditions, etc. The list goes on an on. I see TPWD being able to use this data to determine ideal lakes to put pure Floridas in and possibly lakes that would benefit more from F1s. It's a HUGE win for TPWD and us, the bass fishermen.

I guess the biggest thing I see is that Dr Gary Schwarz, in my opinion, is not getting anything out of this deal. In fact, I would say he's LOSING money on this in a major way by not being able to sell trips on Jalisco for 15 years. There are as good or better Florida Strain Bass out there for sale than what TPWD is providing. Dr. Schwarz could easily go purchase fry, stock his lake, and have a great Trophy Bass Fishery in a few years.

I think we all need to consider this. Nobody is making him partner with TPWD, and there are other options out there for fry. As far as I can tell, he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart and his desire to give something to us the bass fishermen.

You know......just raising SAL fry to 12"' before stocking would change the results in public waters exponentially......

Whatever Doc is doing or what shenanigans TPW may be up to don't affect any of you really...... just saying

Wonder how much hydrilla costs? ;-) That would help too!!

So does anybody know who's in charge of feeding these fish for the next 15 years? A big bass has to eat ALOT of food.

First:
The fact that they are using assets (time, manpower, fingerlings) supplied by "TAX" money for a private venture is the real issue. Whether the project is successful or not is to be seen & everyone has the opinion on that. But to use "OUR TAX" money on a project that we will not benefit from unless we pay for it again is the real issue. But wait, we do that everyday now with our current government on the Federal level & I thought Texas was better than that.

Second:
Since when can a record bass come from private waters ?
isn't that the reason that bass from Lake Echo can't be weighed for a record.
Lake Echo used to be on the big bass record books and I would suggest still would be if the fish could be weighed from there.

Third:
this whole thing would not be an issue if they had just been "transparent" about it in the first place and it not come out after it was discovered.

People just like to be told ahead of time what is going on and not find out after the fact. Like anything that happens you can spin a story positively or negatively, it is just easier to sell the story in a positive manner before it happens. We will all have our opinion:

My question is:
Why didn't the good Doc just BUY the fingerlings from the TPW for his project ?
Lord knows he has the resources to do just that.
The TPW could have used HIS money to further the SAL project their way.
They would not have used our tax money
& he could have said the SAL fingerlings in his project, fed his way, would produce the BIG BASS that everyone would pay to catch.

All good points...

from the Echo lake website:

" Originally known as Lake Echo, it was once home to the State of Texas record for Largemouth Bass on two different occasions before the lake became part of our private gated community and was renamed Echo Lake. As a private lake, it could no longer be considered for state records and the record was awarded to a public access lake."

The next obvious question is: If a fish from private waters can't be considered for state records, can it's offspring that are transported to a public lake be considered???

No, the only typo was in your spelling of "quiet". I just prefer to associate with positive people. My choice as an American - not un-American at all. Please feel free to surround yourself with negativity - there is plenty to go around. Now, let's get this back on topic instead of signatures.

So it's better to sit back and let people walk all over you than to say something? I want to know who is paying for all the bait that is going to be fed to the Jalisco SAL bass every year for the next 15 years.

When you use public forums for free marketing losing control of the message and having the thing go sideways on you should be a posibility you take into account. Lol