Havent fished Oklahoma in a few years but i think this is a change.

Regulation Changes
The key change to fishing regulations involves a modification of the statewide size and bag limits for largemouth and smallmouth basses. Specifically, the statewide limit for largemouth and smallmouth basses (in aggregate) is six (6) fish per day, only one (1) of which may exceed sixteen (16) inches in length.

At least they are trying

Does Oklahoma have bass over 16 inches?

fished a tournament on arbuckle 12 or so yrs. ago that it took 34# to win and over 28 to be in the money, bb was a 12+.

plenty of lakes have the good fish, mcgee creek and sardis both have good sized.

I have a few dd caught in Okieland

Many moons ago when TNN was still in business I believe it was Bob Cobb and Ray Scott filmed a show just about fishing for Bassmasters and they filmed at McGee Creek. They caught some really nice fish out of it. Stuff that was Lake Fork caliber. The last time I was on Broken Bow that same week someone caught a new state record out of it and I want to say it was over 14 pounds. I've seen Jimmy Houston put up some nice ones out of Tenkiller and Grand as well. They got them and have the genetics for it. Their hatcheries probably porduce Florida's exclusively like most state hatcheries in this part of the country.

But tournaments can still retain fish over 16” but must be released after weigh in. Don’t see the point but oh well.

No, but you can get a contact buzz on any lake. When you’re mellow you don’t really care that much about the fish.

What better way to spend the day relaxing and not remembering if you caught 'em over 16 or not. Then it's considered only stretching the truth when you go back and tell 'em if memory serves you correctly, it was either 8 or 9 over 16 and also you had two biggens in your sack....

The point doesn't seem all that difficult to ascertain. Protect the larger fish while trying to maintain the economic benefits that bass tournaments bring. Sure some will die from tournament mortality but I think that percent is relatively small. Personally I would rather see this than a slot limit. This is the exact law they need on lakes like Toledo Bend. I don't see the issue with this law. In fact I like it. Get the tournament exemption and move on. If you want something for the frying pan, keep a dink or go catch a crappie.

Tx Tree,
Point is, more tournament anglers kill big fish than the meat eaters. Yeah, it’s not hard to ascertain. It’s definitely about money.

No, but have you seen our gizzard shad??

Just trying to thin the population of small fish- has zero effect on tournament fishing