Nice catch!

Yes a big majority of fish on Toledo get ate. I�ve seen personally Bass that are 6-9 lbs go under the knife. I�m all good on eating fish largemouth I don�t care for the spotted bass are actually good. Do I personally keep bass no. I don�t really like it either but hey that�s not my place to tell another man.

You don't see them cause they don't exist anymore. Has nothing to do with pressure. If it was pressure than you wouldn't see any fish on beds on fork. Sight fishing in my opinion is the best way to see the health of a lake. Most fish have to go to the bank and spawn eventually.

Tpw does a pretty good job with their surveys. I'm pretty sure they didn't just guess at the high number retained on Toledo. Go to blue lake area in the spring and just watch people. Nothing gets thrown back

Are they breaking any laws?

If not they should be able to legally fish and keep what they catch within the law without constantly being trolled with �Rest in Grease.�

Neither tournament fishermen nor meat fishermen have priority over the other.

I had never seen an 8 lb bass filleted before until I started fishing Ivie. Have seen a ton of big fish cleaned on that lake. Don�t remember ever seeing the first Louisiana Plate there.

Same thing at Amistad.

You haven't been looking very hard on Rayburn! Had a boat pull up next to me last weekend on Rayburn on the only deep spot that I had producing. Within 30 minutes they had 3 boats tied together (who knew a motorguide XI5 could hold 3 boats on a spot?) , 3-5 people per boat, keeping every fish they could get a hook in. Needless to say that deep spot was done. Lots of this mentality on Rayburn to. As long as they abide by the rules there really isn't anything you can do I guess.

It�ll be alright. If it�s legal then complain about the legal limit on bass. Bass are kept in Texas too, people in Louisiana are just more open about it. Once at a tournament on Rayburn I saw several dead bass, two over 6 pounds, that were just tossed back into the lake dead or upside down and no one was trying to fizz them or take them out of the lake. And no one was taking pictures to post that online and complain. I can guarantee you these Louisiana boys ate what they kept.

Out of curiosity, did the boats have LA tags?

I�ve been fishing TBend for 35 years. You are correct about harvest rates between the two lakes. Maybe a little overstatement about keeper fish being released but you make a legitimate point. The sound of electric filet knives is very common in the Spring. My frustration is that the lake cannot be policed.There are a large number of fisherman that keep too many fish and don�t even bother to measure them. Too many private docks and boat ramps for a couple of Game Wardens to keep people honest.


Real easy to blame the lack of grass for tougher conditions but the meat harvest is the real killer.

While I generally agree with your assessment, Jarrett I've personally kept many limits of spots on Rayburn and know a lot of other folks who do it too. They're tasty, but keeping them isn't going to hurt a thing because no one's winning a Rayburn tournament with spots in their bag.

Spots are one thing

Spotted bass in this conversation really don't matter haha. They don't keep enough of them. Nobody even targets them on Toledo

Most of the guys I know will keep spots notice I said most a couple I have watched chunk some big fish in the well and straight on the table when we got back to the camp.

People that took that pic are trolls for sure

Guess which kid is from LA.

If you keep them covered in ice you can wait several days and not taste any difference. Back in the 70s I worked at a popular marina on T.Bend, and when it was slow the guides would hold off me cleaning 3-6 of each of their best fish. Sometimes 3-5 days straight, then they would put them all together, and take a picture for the local paper, as well as the Beaumont Enterprise and the Houston Post. As soon as this came out in the papers, the phones would ring constantly, from people making reservations and booking guide trips. They weren't making up lies, but the photos of different guides taking photos with some of the same fish was definantly , misleading.