This did not set out to be a video, this started out because a guy asked a question whether TP&W had "given up" on producing giant fish (in other words a potential world record). So I am fish geek enough to start looking at the data to see if there really has been a downturn in giant fish (there has not, see data), but what struck me was this phenomenon of giants in the late 80's early 90's, which in Texas we can explain with Fork....but how do you explain it in the Top 25 fish caught ever? I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the research, curious to know everybody's big fish, place and date to see if it mirrors across TFF?

That was some pretty interesting statistics.

Thanks for posting!

The pattern to me is droughts kill our lakes. Falcon, Choke & Amistad would all have more fish on that top 50 page if they could stay full. The lakes go down for a decade or two and then fill just like the Fork reference in the beginning and when they fill, boom 3-5 years later, bigguns.

Awesome video Ken and surely less controversial than the last!

Interesting. Good job.

Second largest bass I've ever caught was in the month of June at 12 pounds. The only month that was not represented on that pie chart. The largest bass I've ever caught was represented on that pie chart. I don't think we'll ever have a world record bass come out of Texas. But we still have some pretty darn good bass fishing so I'm just happy with that!

What i took as a great sign is 5 fish over 16 lbs in Texas in the last 10 years. That tells you we are still growing giants, I'd love to think we might get one in the top 25 one day, current 25th is 19.04.

Ken A, how big if the guy in South Texas getting them feeding them those giant crawfish?

A fish over 18 in Texas is a freak anyway. Special fish and everything has to line up it's entire life. I think Camelot Bell will produce one eventually. He'll get a freak that explodes with growth. He's already got a bunch of teeners too

Like comment subscribe!!!

I have not spoken to Dr, Schwartz (La Perla) in quite a while. I think Josh (Jpurdue) has. Let's ask him to weigh in here.

Did you catch your 15, the same year that the 2-15’s were caught during Basschamps?

An 18# bass is more than a freak Jarrett. It's more like a white whale. Mr. Frazier has done an amazing job at CB but 16# seems to be the ceiling for even what he can produce. Don't get me wrong, nothing would make me prouder than for a Texan to produce a 20 pound bass. The stars have to align perfectly and so far only the 20# dead floater at Fork almost 30 years ago is as close as we've come.

To my knowledge the largest fish to come out of La Perla was a 15.3 and it was captured via shock boat. The lake produces many 10-13lb fish and I believe a few 14's have been caught by hook and like. I just sent Dr. Schwartz a message to see if I could get an update. I haven't spoken to him in a while. It's probably not going to happen at La Perla though. Two major head winds. 1. Texas heat in the deep south. The high water temps jack up metabolic rates in the fish and they have shorter lifespans. You need a long runway to grow over 16 lbs. 2. On some bad advice Gary introduced F1 integrates ( a cross between a Northern and Florida strain bass). The idea where was that the northern strain fish are easier to catch. The problem is they have lower top end genetics and their genes are dominant. So slowly overtime, the fish at La Perla will probably start to actually decrease in size. The only way the Gary could fix the problem now would be to sterilize the lake and start from scratch. That's the bad news.

The good news is Gary did one even better, he built an entirely new lake, Jalisco. That lake was stocked with pure Florida strain Share Lunker fry and essentially turned over to the state as a research lake. Gary maintains it, but can't even fish it with permission from TPWD. I think maybe, just maybe that lake will have some high end potential. The fish in Jalisco just turned 5 in May. In theory it should have a class of DD's at this point. (I know in 2017 it had 7s.) It's peak years will likely be years 8-12. Let's hope the good Dr. keeps us posted.

Enjoyed the video Ken. I think in Texas our main culprit has just been aging reservoirs. The ones we have just aren't as fertile as they use to be. Same basic story in California with the additional fact that they've cut way back on stocking trout into many of those lakes. I think we can argue all day about how healthy the fisheries are in general, but certainly in terms of top end production, they are in decline. We need some new water in Texas!

Might be a lot of different variables but I think you also had more trophy hunters 1980 into 1990s.
JD