Looking at the Share a Lunker Program again this year and saw that Fork only produced one share a lunker. When Is TPWD going to wake up and realize that the 16-24" slot is not working?

I hear people talking about the fish kill. That was in 99 and if it killed every bass in the lake over 2 lbs, we should still be seeing more share a lunkers 12 years later, yet that has not happened.

My personal opinion is that there is to much competition for the food source that it takes to grow a 13# plus bass. There are so many 20-23" fish That are competing for the same food source as the big girls. The more a fish has to travel to eat, the less weight it gains. When the only big fish you can keep has to be over 24", You are letting their competition go back in the water and hauling the one that is close to being a lunker to the marina, stressing it out for some pics or a weigh-in for a check.

The slot is not working. look at all the fish in the program and see what their slots are on the lake where they were caught. None of them have a twenty four inch slot.

OH Ivie is now king and their slot is only two under 18" the other top lakes do not even have a slot.

What are your thoughts?

Leave the slot alone.

Why, if it is not working?

I don't know that the slot hurts anything. Most guys I know wouldn't keep a bass no matter what the length. Maybe more people eat them than I think. Fork is pretty dang good in my opinion. 13lb plus fish are just hard to come by period. I bet more than one has been caught this year. There are alot of people that feel the same way about SAL as you do about the slot. They say its not working either since most of the biggest fish on the list are from several years back.

i will take slots all day on fork fishing.fun fishing when they are in a wolf pack!!

And those 5-7# wolf packs used to be 7-9# wolf packs which just proves my point even further.

last trip I had to fork, we caught 47 slot fish in three days. Only one over 23". Most of them were in the 20-22 inch range.

Sure it is fun to catch those fish, but it would be more fun to catch 1 over 10# than 20 7# fish any day in my book.

If you did not fish Fork when it had a 21" slot, you don't know what you missed. I Had several days with multiple 10# bass. I don't see those days coming back untill the slot goes back down.

I would prefer they leave Fork just the way it is.

Recap from the week.

1. No one wants a slot on Falcon.

2. Everyone likes the slot on Fork.

Anyone else find this odd?

(Besides the sharing border deal on Falcon, why a slot on one lake and not the other?)

Fork already has a ton of tournaments weekly on it. Without the slot that would increase more than any of us could imagine. Probably to the point it would be hard to get a room down there on the weekends. Throw in the tourists and recreational pressure and I am betting Fork is one of the busiest lakes in the country. Falcon is so remote it does not get anywhere near the tournament or recreational pressure Fork does. The distance to Falcon helps keep it in good shape.

The Reason Ivie has produced so many Fish in the SAL class the last few years is Two fold. First and Foremost is it has 10X the folks fishing it as it did 4 yrs ago. #2 it is freaking 30 foot low and the fish are very concentrated.

You mark my words, in 4 more years that lake can not take the amount of abuse it is getting right now.

I've been wondering that too. Too much competition for food because no one keeps bass anymore? I'm no biologist and it won't change where I fish, I live 2 miles from Palestine but if I'm going to spend a day on the water I'm going to Fork, but I know that at one point in the last 10 years, 38 of the top 50 fish caught in Texas were out of Fork. That's not the case anymore. I don't know if it's pressure, lack of food, an invasive species or what, but the numbers of big bass aren't being caught out of Fork like they used to be. Now, I would rather catch 20 7 pounders than one 10 pounder, but that's me.


This is a question I posted several months ago and it brings up similar points

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt..._Qu#Post5963246

From what I hear and read it's a mad house down there too. I saw on that Falcon post about people cutting each other off, stacking up on each other....word it out! Lot's of vacation days being spent down there. I know several people who aren't fishing around their home lakes b/c all they do is save up to visit Falcon again.

Tourist are good things IMO...they keep dumping money in our state, we are only to benefit. I know when I go on vacation I come home broke.

Fork is only 27K acres....I don't think you would have anymore tourneys than you already have. BassChamps, Media, BLT, Big Bass Splash, Skeeter Owners, Legend, ect , ect. That's a TON!
There isn't many more tournaments groups to hold one there that doesn't already!! LOL!

Yup. The slot is meant to protect those good fish so that they can spawn and grow into great fish. There appears to be a lot of those good fish around, but there seems to be something missing.

So, I have a question for you RayburnJunkie. How many fish under the slot have you harvested on Fork this year, as in taken out of the lake permanently?