They must have really large families that don’t eat beef or chicken.......

You should see them during hunting season, some of them take a deep freeze with them to the deer lease. Not even joking either.

Yeah Darin, PM me your address too. I have a little surprise for you........

Meh. I’ll pass. How’s the high fence hunting err private pond fishing been? The regular lakes that the rest of us fish are fishing pretty good. Falcon is fishing good. Only 5 and 6 pounders though so not worth your time.

Them 5-6 pounders eat real good !Fried or on the grill!

Just a few years back there were 5 put in and 5 died.

Lets hope it is not another year like that.

Course the fisherman were to blame says TPW.

Interesting to hear the TPW say that when the fish were in the hands of the SAL when they died. They are never wrong !

How soon we all forget the bad news.

Yet texas leads the nation in big bass lakes so something is working that the TP&W is doing. Guess its not the sal program.

Well, when the DNA isn’t there tracing any of the big current fish back to the SAL program, you could be correct.

Blah ha ha!!

I would not say TEXAS leads the Nation in Big Bass or Big Bass Lakes.

Our TEXAS STATE RECORD OF 18 lbs from 1992 will not even Make Florida's or California's Top 50 list of big bass. Might think on that just a bit.

OH and they DO NOT HAVE A SAL Program.

If you go by what Florida and Cali. have done lately Texas is doing much better... I would take TP&W over anything Cali or Florida can offer... Florida in better than Cali but fishing in Cali has been on a decline in past few years.. Way to many regulations.. Heck most fisherman would take TP&W in a heartbeat over what they have in their state.

I would love to think on that a little if you can cite the sources for both of those lists?

Florida's state record is listed at 17.27 pounds.

Now Cali is a different story altogether.

I didn't find a "top 50" list from Mississippi, but here are 3 records:

Largemouth Bass 18.15 lbs Natchez State Park Lake 12/31/1992
Spotted Bass 8 lbs 2 oz Farm Pond 9/2/1975
Smallmouth Bass 7 lbs 15 oz Yellow Creek Arm (Pickwick Lake) 1/24/1987

Most of the state lakes have produced SAL weight or better fish; I know of three with a certified lake record over 15 pounds. There could be others.
Most of Florida's larger fish come from the northern half of the state. When I lived there, the fisheries biologists informed me that most of the southern half was not a preferred environment for fish over 10 pounds; the hot/shallow waters weren't survivable for them. Fishing/tournament results seemed to bear this out.

TPWD and SAL are two different entities. SAL doesnt have anything to do with lake management other than giving some fingerlings with a horrible survival rate. TPWD sets the regulations, stocking, and habitat management that's supposed to lead to bigger, better fishing. Besides the grass killing most people would agree that TPWD does a pretty dang good job of managing our lakes. SAL is a totally different thing but the two seem to get intertwined during these conversations.