Personally I think there was some kinda fish kill this summer when water temps were 100+ and no one was fishing it to know but one thing for sure is the good fish are far fewer this year.

TPWD is incorrect

Now that is funny

No, it would be some other reason that fishing was not as good as everyone expected. And we should ban whatever that is too?

Fish change, anglers have to adapt. I do feel pressure affects fish, but it does not stop them from feeding.

Remember bass will overpopulate a body of water if left unchecked. So some management, including harvesting is needed.

Would an 18 - 22 inch slot fix the problem, along with better fish handling? If there even is an issue.

why would anyone think that the amount of tournaments on a small body like this would not hurt the average size of the fish in a fishery when it first open it took 24 to 25 lbs to get noticed just the idea of over 20 lbs of fish riding around in a livewell most of the day an probly half of the folks don't know how to fizz properly with the amount of people fishing it now even if they catch an release immediately your going to lose a lot of fish. probly not a popular view but hard to argue.

Fish get smarter. Most anglers don't adapt. It is less about the fish not being there and more about the angler not being as good as he or she thinks they are. Pressure absolutely affects those fish. 100 boats on a 3000 acre lake makes a lot of disturbance and noise. Fish sense that stuff. To me, Squaw hasn't been worth the drive this year in my opinion. Those fish are still there. Some people are catching them. Those are the guys that are way better at this sport than I am. As long as the 2 pound and under class fish is easy to catch in the winter time, Squaw will continued to get hammered.

Its a 3000 acre pond that has a ridiculous amount of tournaments and boats Monday, Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The lake gets two days of rest. I was absolutely cracking up when we were there last Thursday and there was people weigh in in fish at the dock.... a Thursday tournament? Still a great place to catch 20 plush fish a day and we enjoyed our trip. I would say that those fish def are feeling the pressure. Its just like when there is a big bass tournament on lake fork and only 9.5- 10 pounds wins out of 3000 anglers. Its obvious the bigger fish are there they just don't want to eat because of the pressure.

I noticed in the "tournament" section that there are a lot of "open" tournaments at squaw. are these 100% payback, or are certain people/groups making money from these?

Depends on who puts them on, individuals, clubs and so on.

I am just guessing but even without 100% payback it is not likely that the organizers are even breaking even considering their time investment, probably do it for their love of the sport and friendly competition.

So has the internet killed another good fishery?

Pressure/tournaments killed Squaw? Absolutely not. Negative effect? Absolutely!

The fishery is alive and well. We fished three days straight on Dec 8-9-10 and never had less than a 30 fish day with the other days around 40. Never had anything bigger than 5lbs but what do you expect? An 8lber every time you go to Squaw? Pressure has affected the bigger fish, period. Some of the big ones have died from angler inexperience, but there's a lot more biggens swimming out there that are smarter than most of the fishermen, or at least getting that way. Instead of fishing 40 ft, go to 60 ft and learn how to fizz haha.

Watched the Squaw Honey Hole episode today. Didn't look like they struggled. Bill and Dax caught a carp load of fish!!