Heres some food for thought. CPR WORKS

LOL.

I agree on cpr to a point to help the population. But i also agree there needs to be some culling of fish especially fish with obvious defects regardless of size as well to help the population. Theres proof to support both sides. I usually throw them all back but last week i kept a dozen OVER 10 lbs and i know they are in a mans freezer and he didnt waste it. There needs to be checks and balances and i leave that up to TPWD to decide, its not my job. I rather just go fish and worry bout my ownself and not others or judge other catfisherman. Now if i see some illegal activity i probably call the warden and let him handle it. Again, not my job.

HERES some more food for thought!

Everyone that post every single fish they catch from Tawakoni is to blame for all the fishing pressure! So it's kinda hard to sit on this forum and preach CPR when you bring all this pressure to the lakes knowing that most people arent gonna realese the big fish....sorry thats my 2 cents! Post now CRY LATER HAHAHAHA

Tournaments may be one thing you have to sacrifice for the good of the fishery if you really care for it. You can't have it both ways.

Let's say I hired a guide and he put me on a 50lb fish. He wants me to CPR but I want to take it home to eat, which is legal. What happens now?

That would be discussed before the trip even begins!

Most guides already have it on their site what they will harvest. My site has it and as well on your release forms. I know atleast a dozen guides and all of them have it clearly posted on theirs also.

Right now admitedly TP&W just doesn't understand the significance of the harvest or lack of regarding trophy bluecats. Its with all the attention that the sport has got in the last couple years that has caught the attention of the authorities to see in fact "if" a slot would help the fishery. I have spoke at length w/ biologist overseeing the slot project.

With this being said, its my opinion that the lack of the slot on Tawaknoi is proof enough as to what happens to a lake that is fished as often as Tawok is. Most of us on this forum don't keep large fish. However, consider yourself the minority. I consider myself a man on a mission to help others understand the need of larger fish in the lake and based on the hundreds of catfishermen I have spoke to either on the internet or in person, most keep larger fish and it shows.

Not to be selfish in the matter, but i'm looking out for my sons generation. And, to see how potentially dangerous the over harvest of large fish can be, you needed to have activily fished Tawok back 5 - 10 years ago and compare it to today.

TP&W has done a fantastic job on the largemouth bass fishery in Texas. Better yet, the bass fishing community has done a fantastic job on appropritate harvest of larger fish...and it shows in our waters.

Hope we all can do the same.

I totally agree! This is one thing we can learn from the bass fisherman.

Less competition for food means more food which will result in bigger fish. Just my opinion.

You'd be swimming. Just Sayin

You have a great point. Plain and simple, the fault would fall on the guides shoulder. If you are on a trophy trip, then it would be the guides responsibility to help you understand the need for a fish like that in the lake. Hopefully he would do it in a way that would help you understand and agree with what he is doing.

Dont you love these kinds of threads.

I think every thing over 10lb should be thrown back. We had the same thing happen to us on Lewisville a couple weeks ago. My scale only goes up to 50lb took a pic on the phone and threw it back for somebody else to enjoy.

I am not a real big fan of slots for Bass fishing because most people do not keep bass anyways. Fork would be much better if everytime people went they would keep their 5 unders. When I started fishing T-wok catching 50 to 70 fish a day was the norm. Not only have the big fish numbers went down the overall numbers of eaters have as well. The additional removal of the big fish do to the popularity is taking out the big reproducers and that maybe one reason numbers of eaters is down in the lake to go along with people just keeping fish to eat . Now with fishing pressure the bigger fish will get conditioned to avoid areas with boats or not feed when boats are around this is a natural adaptation that animals will make. Just like the sound of the water hose being turned on at a fish cleaning station will call in the fish boat noise, anchor noise and just the waves hitting against the boat will condition the big fish that have been around long enough to have been caught several times to learn not to feed. Studies have been done with many animals and it does not take them long to learn these conditioned responses to negitive and positive stimulus. Creel studies done with nets or by shocking may or may not represent the average quality of fishing on a giving lake. I have fished a bank for on hour one night on Texoma without a bite and fishing with one of the premier bass Pros out there today. Then a shocking boat with the State of Oklahoma showed up to do a creel study. In one run up on the bank in an area no wider than what the boat could shock. Shocked up a freaking huge number of giant small mouth and Black Bass exactly in the area we had tried with numerous baits.
With the added pressure on the lake the result of the numbers of big fish being caught and released it is quite possible that many of these fish are not feeding when your boat is around that added with the ones being kept may or may not be causing the fishing to not be what it once was. If the State has done a recent creel survey that says the numbers of catfish are still there then the pressure is more to blame than anything and we as fisherman have to come up with a better mouse trap to get them to feed.
If the state has not done a recent creel survey then we should see if the state can do one to get an accurate accounting before we push for a slot or limits that may actually hurt the fishery instead of helping it.