I can tell ya a couple of the main lakes I fish are a shell of their former self. And I'm talking self from 6-10years ago. Pressure and lack of grass has definitely hurt bad.

I lol'd at this one. Would loved to have seen before edit.

No.....many lakes are fishing better than they ever have.

The eternal optimist, wish I thought more that way about everything...

Squaw Creek and Bridgeport are a lot like the Fork area lakes were before the grass was killed. By that I mean the number of bites a person would get in a days fishing, the fish over in the Fork area lakes were of course bigger. When I need to boost my confidence, I go to Bridgeport!

Pretty much.....

There are so many good lakes that are fishing well right now that you could not hit them all in a month. Granted not all have the mystique of a Fork, Rayburn or Falcon but they are a blast to fsih. Some killer small lakes that do not get a lot of pressure too.

As for a positive outlook on things I have just learned that it takes a lot of energy to be negative and its just not worth it to me. I am still breathing, got a great family, a job, a decent place to live and a boat that floats. Life ain't all that bad for me.

Mark do you think it's possible for a novice, not yourself, to go to Fork and catch 20+ fish, that are 2-6 pounds in a day? Shoot, 20 fish a day over 2 pounds is a stellar day for a good guide there now.
Because 15 years ago it was the norm. I think I can catch fish as well as the average novice fisherman and the fishing has gotten a lot tougher, IMO.

The crappie fishing (with a livescope) has gotten a lot easier, LOL

You are putting too much faith in me. I do not always catch 20 fish a day out there.... ........I struggle there at times.


I think in some ways though a lot of us struggle on certain lakes because we fail to change the way we fish. We throw the same baits in the same areas and sometimes get poor results. Take Bridgeport for example, I used to downsize out there, throw a shakyhead and smaller hardbaits. I was getting the numbers but not many big fish. About 10 years ago I just got tired of changing out setups between East Texas and here so I started throwing my full size baits and not fooling with changing line. I throw my Texas rigs on 20lb line out there. I was still catching numbers but I also feel like since then I see bigger fish.I have also seen since I have been back out here is areas that I used to catch a bunch on are now not so good. I have had to find new spots etc and keep after it. Really opened my eyes to keep an open mind and do things outside of the norm in some cases.

It feels like to me it's a little bit of a viscous cycle that's been occurring for the past eight years that involves much more how to information on youtube etc PLUS much better electronics that are progressing rapidly that make it much easier to find what was hard to find hidey holes PLUS about two or three extra layers of tournament trails PLUS significant lure innovation with more and more realistic baits PLUS lots of folks with new work from home freedom that sneak in half days here and there. It's like a hamster wheel deal where anglers are getting better to try and stay up as the fish get more pressured, educated, and harder to catch.

I worry about the dad that wants to get into the sport and get the first used 17.5ft bass boat and start taking his 9 year old out on a public lake to try and catch fish in five years...I think by 2026, trying to enter the game as a newbie and catch four or five bass in a day say on Lewisville will be a [censored] ton harder than it was ten years ago when you could go and chunk a cheap spinnerbait or buzzbait or squarebill mindlessly around stickups or rocky banks and catch 10 in four hours easy. I still like the challenge of elevating my game on these educated fish and have the funds to buy the latest forward facing sonar or whatever to have solid days, but definitely worried about what happens next when a couple of more generations of fingerlings see their adult brethren not even flinch when a $15 lifelike swim bait comes careening by.

I started a post and expressed some opinions about "growing the sport" a year or so ago that ruffled some feathers. We can't manufacture 5 pound bass or fishable water like we can manufacture a baseball, and so if people are honest, it only makes sense that as the numbers of people going after green fish go up, the numbers of green fish for each person go down. We can manufacture boats, and electronics, and fishing tackle like we manufacture baseballs, but not the fish.

To quote an old man that I use to work with, when asked “How’s it going” he always replied “It’ll be like this for awhile and then it will get worse”! I would say that about sums up this discussion.

Agree completely.

not for me. there still are prize bass to be caught.

but soon I may have to do it out of a different kind of boat.

Here in Alabama lakes like Guntersville are far worse than it use to be. My home lake Logan Martin use to be a lake where you had a chance to hook at huge Coosa River Spotted bass, now a 3 pounder is great.
Lake Weiss was known to have some big bass, not anymore. Eufaula comes under the same heading as a lake that is worse than before.
Here it is the pressure put on these lakes. On any giving weekend after 11 am, you cannot fish outside of deep creeks without being punished by recreational boats. It’s a mass of pontoon, jet ski, ski boats and those dreaded Wake Boats that are packed on the water as far as you can see.
I’m not against saying those boats should not be on the lake... well Wake Boats are my exception!, it’s just here these lakes are being pounded every Friday through Sunday evening.
Bass Tournaments are about as bad as you can get in a 50+ boat tournament every day on Logan Martin from May to October. As many as 20 or more of these tournaments are being pushed out on Saturday to add to an already overcrowding of this lake. Logan Martin is a River and not very wide and by noon the banks are pretty much nothing but a mud hole from the banks being hammered by the waves.
I’ve pretty much adjusted my fishing time from sunrise to noon and that seems to be working out good.

Lakes in South Texas would be great, if we could get some fricking rain water into them! Amistad, Falcon and Choke need massive floods to put a dent in them and then there would be some great fishing.


But I don’t understand how slot lakes can’t be good? I don’t fish any, but someone explain how these lakes can’t always have a great population.