Still kinda mind blown! I bet if I asked anyone if they thought a 17 pounder would be caught in texas in 2022 about a week ago, the consensus would be no!

With what Fork pumped out this last tourney and tourneys before last year, year before that, year before that....etc...then factoring in all the pressure. I really believe a giant einstein level bass or 2 gotta be out there! theres always a bigger fish...right?

What part of NM do you live in?

Deep rocky lakes seem to grow a lot bigger fish. Most east Tx lakes are slimy or muddy bottomed lakes now since they are all old.


Ivie is one of the youngest lakes in the state.

the part thats not part of it...but might as well be! LOL El paso

FWIW....i think there are giants in my home lake just because we have a stupid amount of shad and carp (i hear Ivie eaters like carp). at the right time of the year you can have a wide ribbon on your screen for 100+ yards (im not bullshitting) of shad! I dont know if we got 17s....but for sure dd....and I really believe we gotta have teeners lurking. Theres always a bigger fish! gotta be! LOL

THATS MY HOME LAKE!!!! I really do think its got the goods...not a 17 though! but im not ruling out teeners in my opinion

makes sense. never fished east and all i know is you all got stumps everywhere out there! 😬

I don't think that deep rocky lakes are all the answer to giant bass 15 lb plus, it mostly depends on their food habitat and environmental areas to live. There are several lakes that have them they are just a lot smarter than those that chase them.

I dont know anything...but evolution is real. I gotta figure enough "smart" bass did the dirty to get those "smarter" genes out there...and for how much we catch and release black bass, I think an already "smart" bass maybe being caught once on a T rig, once on a crankbait when it was young.....just figured it out. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on my type deal! I really think there are big fish out there who are smarter than we like to give them credit for. they obviously arent einsteins since that 17 still bit....but i really believe there are fish smart enough to connect "big shadow disturbing water, then some appealing looking thing shows up....NOPE not falling for it" type of thing.

Operant conditioning is real!!!!

This was a favorite topic of the late Jerry Dean.

Operant conditioning? Dogs are dumb as [censored]....and it works on them! i gotta figure a big bass with the right genes for the size and "smarts" has gotta be able to grow old...then if there is a buffet of food I figure they gotta get stupid big. Before i would just speculate...that 17 is something else though and i think is gonna make us all reassess our thoughts about tanks! I really though zarks 15 was gonna be the tops for that lake and really modern day bass fishing!

Nope. Only one

IMO.....really big bass, as a whole take time and the right conditions to grow much like a giant Whitetail buck. Some people are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a true monarch and fewer actually harvest that once in a lifetime trophy buck. These giant bass being caught are likely in more lakes than we might currently think. Its my beliefe we have just begun to see the tip of the ice berg. First of all, I think that TPWD and the sharelunker program has helped with the genetics portion of the equation. Couple that with great habitat for bass and bait fish and you have the right conditions needed for trophy bass. Secondly, the introduction of forward facing technology have improved our odds of at least at seeing these giants. I've been fortunate to fish lake OH Ivie since the late 90s and have been there when it's been at it's lowest and when it was completely full. Although it has always been one of my favorites, there are other lakes in Texas that have giant bass just waiting to be found and caught. So, much like a trophy buck in the wild, a trophy bass will be difficult to outsmart but at least our odds are better to at least see them and know that a trophy exists in our local lakes. Who knows for sure, but I would bet money on it.

Cover is the key. If you have been to Ivie lately you would see. It has vast areas of flooded brush, thick brush. We seen this when Amistad went low and filled covering the new growth. Falcon fluctuates entirely too much in my opinion. When Lake Austin grew large grass mats, it started kicking out giants one after another. Now the grass is gone there have been only a handful get caught. Bass get huge and fat from the bait being easily ambushed with little effort. In California stocker trout were dumped right to the bass waiting under the docks, basically hand fed. I wish TP&W would focus more on cover.

Just timing, you put that many genetically superior fish on one lake together the chances are one will stand out for whatever reason. Same as Travis last year. Tons of small fish, a really old lake record and boom...15lber. It was just that 1 in millions that was perfect. There's a reason you see so many 13-15lbers. That's their upper limits in Texas. Do they grow bigger? Of course they can but it's not common. Guys are trying to literally grow a 17 and can't do it.

There's no doubt Fork has the state record in it's waters. However, those fish are educated like no other fish on the planet. The GIANTS don't get caught, and most will never fall for an artificial bait.

+1