A big variable for this year is the rain that we've had. I know in the central/west Texas area we've had lake that have went from as low as 7% capacity to almost completely full in less than 3 months (over 23 inches of rain). It's thrown things off for at least 5 of the lakes that are around my area, and from what I've read on here, it's affected most of the lakes in Texas that experienced the big rains this year. Just my thoughts.

T Bend, or Sam, or Fork .....one of them will post a 15+ in the next 30 days.....

The number per year has generally been declining for a long time. With last years rains it'll be interesting to see if this year turns out to be a statistical outlier.

Lake Fork accounts for by far the most ShareLunkers, however....

That chart perfectly illustrates what I said earlier about aging fisheries. Fork simply does not have the numbers of big fish it used to.

Great info guys. Thank you.

100% agree. It's more than just hydrilla or folks not turning them in. It's old fisheries with ever increasing pressure with nothing new in the pipeline. Unfortunately the data doesn't seem to show any lakes "turning on" to replace the output Fork used to produce, so the decline will likely continue.

Jenny craig.

Last numbers and I'll stop with the statistics... All things laid equal, in 1990 about 1 sharelunker was caught per 100,000 fishermen. Today it's 1 per 1.2 million. Rare indeed. Hats off to you folks who have them under your belt!

That's the obvious answer.

Falcon Lake and it fisherman have turned there nose up to the SAL also.

Pondering is great and I think Chris nailed it on the head. Aging fisheries are the primary culprit. After all, lakes have a life cycle and we are well over the hump at Fork. That primary class of fish has fizzled out and we are left with an ecosystem nowhere near what it was. However..... Shallow water cover means better hiding places for bluegill and other forage which could point our population of fish back the other direction. If the fishing gets bad enough for long enough, maybe the Fork fish can get a break in the tournament action enough to get a healthy slot population. Our group out there now is pretty beat up.

It's Bush's fault!

Right after he blew up the levees around New Orleans he ordered the eradication of all the SAL's in Texas.

100% agree! people will argue all day fish are still there, but there just aren't the number of 10+ bass or 13+ Sharelunker bass that there once was. There are still a bunch though I would still rank #1 in Texas. Falcon may be on a comeback though.