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You know that has way more to do with Florida genetics than it does the SAL program.

You cant say the SAL program made fork when fish from Fork started the program. That's assbackwards.[/quote]

Ppl seem to forget this... i am interested in them DNAing the fish

Greatness.

That should keep things humming for a while.

Big lake, a lot of forage, a lot of cover, and great genetics. As long as those basic ingredients remain intact the lake will have giant bass potential. Congrats to the angler on the fish of a lifetime!

Can someone direct me to the story on how she was caught.

Many of the fish that died in the hands of Sharelunker personnel were due to how they were handled BEFORE they came into possession of it.

They have come a long way since it's inception, educating fisherman how to handle trophy fish and how Sharelunker personnel handle them.

What A MULE!
Congratulations!
Wouldn't it be awesome to tell that story when someone asks you
"what's the biggest bass you ever caught"?

This is the truth. There would be no SAL program to begin with if it weren't for Lake Fork.

Here's a interesting side note to SAL. The first three entries were caught on Stanley Jigs and they hardly get any notice anymore. Besides myself, how many of you out there even have any ?

Fellas, I am well aware that Mark Stevenson's SR fish kicked off the program. I was just pointing out that anglers all across the state have reaped the benefits of the SAL program whether they know it or not.

Florida genetics were only in a handful of the Texas lakes before the program started with Mark's fish in Nov 1986. The main goal in the SAL program was to breed pure Floridas and use their offspring to enhance the genetics in other Texas lakes that had none before.

My point being that in the mid 70's a 7 pounder was a trophy fish. It is through the efforts of the SAL program that today we regularly see tournaments where the winning stringer is 5 fish that average 7 pounds each.

Ken,
Florida strain and healthy fisheries contributed more to your point than the SAL program. Remember, most of the SAL offspring are returned to the original lake. Those fish and genetics were already there.

Incorrect. The SAL program was created to shine a beacon of light on Texas bass fishing. It has served that purpose quite well.

This from your posted article Fouz, guess this proves Ken's point.

Since 1980, the Texas state record has been broken six times. Furthermore, 65 different lakes have produced bass weighing upwards of 13 pounds for the Toyota ShareLunker program. To date, TPWD's hatchery program has now stocked about 223 million Florida largemouth bass fingerlings into 421 different reservoirs.

TPWD's hatchery program and the SAL program are two completely different things. The lakes where the SAL were caught get their fry. Only recently has TPWD been attempting to use SAL offspring in the hatchery program. You did see all the lakes that were stocked with pure Floridas in the early 70's right?

One other point. While there have been a few SALs that were 7 years old, most fish of that size are about 10-11 years old. Look at the TOP 50, subtract 10 years and you can see that a majority of these fish (especially Fork) were stocked long before 1986.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/top50_largemouth.phtml

DON't crucify me just yet.

I thought I read the guy, [which I forget his name] at the TPWD got money to go to Florida and buy Florida strain bass and bring to Texas to stock lakes. Those fingerlings built the genetics that got the whole thing started. They then took those big bass and started the SAL with to get more fingerlings so they didn't have to keep buying the fingerlings every year. They put half of those back in the lake the bass came out of and the rest went into Texas lakes to spread the genetics for bigger bass across the state. I think over all its been real successful.

Y'all feel free to correct anything I said wrong. I am going off memory of what I thought I read. LOL