I hear you, but what does that have to do with size? I doubt that those koi were 20+lbs. I think I've only ever heard of a couple of 20+ koi in my life.

Sorry all, I don't mean to threadjack here.

size is what most anglers are after...and size I believe is determined by what has been said,,,,,,
Joe pool is literally loaded with Carp,,,unfortunately small, because the lake does not have the points alluded to.....
Carp are survivors, can live where other can not,,,,matter of fact when lakes get polluted and the Bass die off beuase they are sensitive, and the CARP keep plugging along, people blame the Carp for Killing off the Bass, that's just B/S..the carp have survived because they can
they are OMNIVEROUS are hapy eating crawfish, mussel, grass, spawn, you name it,,,,,,,and can surviuve and flourish in low o2 situations

I disagree with the point about cool summer temps, that is not needed to grow large fish. There was a near 50 shot on Lake Palestine last year. Also many Etex lakes have 25+ records caught out of them. Considering the low angling pressure on carp there are bound to be larger fish than reported in these lakes. Also, the sabine river has large fish in it, a near 40 carp was shot in it and the small mouth buff record is 92#'s.

What makes a lake a great carp lake??

How about fishing it and finding out what it holds, you never know until you can put a fish on the bank. You might as well throw the other stuff out the window bc you can hunt lakes down all day long, but until you fish it, you will never know. Nuff said

Let's go fish Palestine

im in

Please remember that when all said and done a 48lb fish though huge is nothing like the full potential of the species.
I'd say with the correct conditions the strain of fish we have here could do 60 lbs as they have in Germany. The one thing is, a German 60 would perhaps be full of spawn as a TX 48 may have been also. So a German 60 would be a mid-high 40 and a TX 48 could be a 30-35 lb fish full of spawn. Just a thought?

Ok...so what exactly are you saying?

I think he is saying if we had all of the conditins he mentioned we could have some high 50's possibly a 60

That would be correct!

I think we might in a few lakes.

doubtful

why is that why so negative? seriously! Or as I say to my co workers really? really? really there Scott? not trying to troll but lets not be negative look at the bright spots.

One last criterium: it is close to ME!

I don't think we have the perfect conditions here for carp. Look around the US at the other big carp waters, even they aren't producing fish over 55# and some of them have all the right conditions. Not saying we don't have any low 50#s cause I am sure we do, just not very many at all.