Marc Mitchell, thanks for articulating your feelings. Managing bass and big deer is what has led me to my conclusion not to donate, too.

But I'll agree to disagree with you on the state of our fisheries and the great work TPWD does to maintain/improve them.

My final thought is this. You and all the Lake Fork guides and your clients could do a world of good for that lake if y'all simply kept a limit of unders when you're catching them. Every time out for one year.

And I realize a ton of folks like to fish tournaments and target unders on Fork. So many will be quick to condem me. Can't have it both ways, though. You can either have a world-class trophy fishery or a ton of big unders and solid fish up to 13 lbs.

TPWD just released a statement saying that 3 of the 5 SALS turned in this year had broken jaws. Two of those died, the third was returned to Rayburn.

I know detractors might call this blame-deflection on TPWD's part, but it clearly seems that those fish weren't handled properly when initially caught. I guarantee you that TPWD is already discussing solutions to make sure this doesn't keep happening.

They DNA test all of the fish correct? Has the program produced a SAL that has been turned in yet?

I agree with this 100%

So the answer is no. It has not produced a 13 pound bass in all these years.

I hear the argument from SAL program detractors that it is removing the genetics from the lake. I have to disagree. A fish that big is 10 to 12 years old, is that something we can all agree on? If so, then those fish have already spawned in that lake for 6 to 9 years at least. genetics don't change so they are still in the lake. another thing is how many of the eggs spawned from a fish in the wild actually get fertilized with the other fish and currents moving them around. And what is the guarantee that the male is all Florida? I imagine in the labratory setting virtually all can be fertilized with pure florida strain males. To be returned to lakes state wide. I remember as a young man, I'm 62 now, when a 10 lb. fish was a monster and very rarely caught. I for one believe TPWD is doing a wonderful job in making bass fishing better for all in the state. I am now and will always be Pro TPWD.

I just want to catch one of these big girls. I'll worry about the handling later

How about if you don't like the program, just don't turn the fish in. Take your picture and either release it, or take it home with you and fry it, or stick it in your pond. It's that simple

The lake record for Naconiche was a descendant from a Falcon lake SAL. weighed in at 12.54 so not quite a SAL.

Why don't they just grow their breeding stock in captivity and then breed and spawn them?


They could then release the fingerlings and some adults into our lakes.

This takes all the risk out of bad handling and gives us the best available genetics. Isn't this what giant deer breeders basically do??

Bill Rutledge, then the director of fish hatcheries for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

For several years, Rutledge had been trying to solve a vexing problem: Whenever an angler landed a really big bass, a vital specimen was being removed from the genetic pool. The State of Texas was spending a good deal of time and money trying to breed larger and larger bass and thereby improve its reputation as a fisherman�s paradise. To achieve these goals, Rutledge needed more of the big fish left in the water to spawn. But how could he convince anglers to throw back the giant fish they had just caught? He�d have to revise the philosophy of bass fishing, which, at that point, was oriented more to the frying pan than the scale.

Rutledge was not the first to dream of building a bigger bass. A hundred years ago, only one type of largemouth bass resided in Texas waters. Known to most as northern bass�and to some as Micropterus salmoides salmoides�it topped out around five pounds, which seemed plenty big to most anglers, until the seventies, when Bob Kemp came along. Kemp, then the regional director of fisheries for the TPWD, knew that Florida�s native bass reached ten pounds or more. Bass that size were extremely rare in Texas; the state record of 13.5 pounds had stood unchallenged since 1943. Kemp decided to take matters into his own hands. In 1971 he personally paid to have two insulated boxes of Florida fingerlings in oxygenated bags flown in as brood fish. The shipment totaled several hundred tiny fish. In the following twelve years, the state record was broken six times.

Thank you TPWD!