Kinda spot on.

Just a few years ago 20lbs didn't get a check in 50th place in a basschamps. The lake was packed with 3-6lbers. Now it's really hard to find fish over 4 and 5's are almost non existent. You literally are more likely to catch a 6.5-7 than a 5. Not that you catch many of those either. The good news is that the lake packed with 2-3lbers so we'll see....

Lot of us thought the same thing about Amistad when the hydrilla came back.. After a couple of good spawns there were small fish everywhere which led most to believe that in a couple of years those would be good quality fish and the lake would make a return... Not so.. If anything it's gotten worse.

Lot of us thought the same thing about Amistad when the hydrilla came back.. After a couple of good spawns there were small fish everywhere which led most to believe that in a couple of years those would be good quality fish and the lake would make a return... Not so.. If anything it's gotten worse. [/quote]

Man I miss the glory days of Amistad. It was so much fun. I enjoyed it just as much as the Fork and Falcon glory days.

Both choke and amistad are fishing better, choke especially but I feel that'll last about a year after choke gets her guts beat in. I've already seen a bunch of guides offering trips there. I don't blame them, I'd do it also, it just can't sustain it. Enjoy it while you can is my motto.

better than what ??
Choke yes .. Amistad --- is and has been horrible.

Better than past few years.

It's year class recruitment obviously. Those springs we had the lake up at least 5' (and up to 10') is resulting in those 2-3 lb'ers. But we can all agree that big grass fields would result in more consistently high numbers of year class survivors.

BTW, I'm not arguing . . . I respect your views a lot here and on FB. I'm just longing for the "good ol' days"/

Agreed the good ol days were nice but also 3 times the grass and less than half the fisherman and less electronics haha. Good times but it'll never get back to that. Rayburn and Toledo are what they are until we get another sustained drought in my opinion

I know this thread is not about, how great the good ol days @ Rayburn were , but one memory ( as unsuccessful as it was) is burned in my memory. Albert Collins and I were pre fishing for some upcoming tournaments, on a sleeting 20 mph nw. windy Jan. day. We pulled up on a spot where he caught a 8, and over the next 30 minutes we had the hooks and split rings ripped out of 5 rattle traps. I still believe that had we put those 5 in the boat, we would have been in the 60lb. range. We will never know. I do hope, before I have to leave this world, that we will see matted grass in 20+ ft. of water again for 4 or 5 yrs. straight.

I believe if the rain event on Thursday did not happen it would have been a slugfest.

Best lake in the country is Chickamauga. Rayburn is a distant 2nd.

Kinda depends on how you judge a lake. It's kinda hard to go down to choke and not catch 20lbs right now. Try and do that on Rayburn and you're in for a long day....or week

Choke is back to being on fire. Love to see some bigger trails hitting that lake again.

Nothing like bigger trails hitting it, bringing more fishing pressure and then it sucking again. Vicious cycle.