Initiating my personal 3-day harvesting program this Friday evening, I still don't like cutting into 15" fish and finding egg sacs, but I will shed a tear, take a drink, and move forward in my efforts...


...and yes, I am pro-"Kill Whitey" as well...

I fall into the Corporate category that Cameron spoke of on Tournamnets, this will be our 5th year with over 100 participants. And we have our own way around the slot.

I support the slot- If it aint broken dont fix it!

Cameron, im bringing you a Kill Whitey T shirt- Be down April 21st weekend and you need to come out to the pavilion and get in on the drawing like last year.

I wish they would remove the slot on fork so it can take some of the pressure off of the pines.

I have next to zero interest in fishing a tournament on Fork. The idea of going out and catching a 25-28 lb sack of fish, but being unable to weigh any of them and losing to a guy who catches five that weigh 8 lbs just isn't very appealing.

Any tournament in which the strategy is to avoid big fish and catch little fish is...well, you can fill in the blank.

Which lakes in Texas have produced the most and biggest lunkers the last few years? Falcon. Austin. O.H. Ivie. Pines. Caddo. Amistad. Of those lakes, Falcon, Austin, Pines, and Amistad have 14-inch minimums. Ivie is an 18-inch minimum lake and Caddo has a 14-18 inch slot.

In other words, bass 18 inches of longer can be kept on all of those lakes.

There is no evidence whatsoever that Fork's 16-24 inch slot is producing better or bigger fish than less restrictive regulations on other lakes.. In fact, the years of large numbers of Sharelunkers and truly giant fish all took place before the upper end of the slot went to 24 inches.

The 24" slot is NOT about producing 15lb fish. Never was.

It is about creating a lake where you can go catch many 5-9 lb fish. It has done that. Very well!

Fork was never managed to draw Tourney anglers either. It is managed to Draw vacationers from up north. It has done that well also.

Fork Still produces more 7- 10 lb fish Year after Year than Pines, Austin, Caddo and Ivie.

Falcon can't be compared to any of these as it's in a category all its own.

Will Never happen!!! Leave it alone!!!

With so many tournaments a bunch of unders get killed after every tournament...Fork is a great place to fish and the tournamant trails can be fun you just have to adjust...

Well I'm sure everyone has heard about the Arkansas state record that wasn't. But here's a little slot info from Arkansas. The lake the almost state record came from is in a state park with two 80 acre lakes. I live and grew up a couple miles from both lakes and have 6 10 plus pound fish from them. Only 1 of which was not released alive. One has had a 16-21 slot (Austell) and the other is no size restriction (Dunn). The record would have came from Dunn with no slot. Austell has recently had the slot lowered to 13-16 and is supposed to go back to 16-21 when more fish reach the top of the current slot. Austell was seriously hurt a few years ago with lowering to repair the ramp and a large shad die off of big gizzard shad. Both lakes have Florida's. Biologist say the problem with Austell is a over population of small fish. So I think slots work if people keep the smaller fish but I also think big populations of big shad are a key to the process of producing giants too.

I have to say its a blast to throw back a 40 pound sack to weigh in 9 pounds

Back in my college days when I used to go to parties and bars, I always kept away from the really hot girls and even turned them down if they were interested. No, I was looking for the best looking ugly girls. You know, the ones closest to the slot...

Were the ones closest to the slot easier or something?

I liked fishing T's on Fork when the slots upper end was 21"..
You could anchor a stringer with a 6-7.lb kicker in 1998-1999 pre-LMBV..

The huge fish I saw last weekend in the shallows on beds, was absolute proof the slot has been, and is still working..
Not to say a little modification to the slot would hurt the lake, it could make it very interesting at weigh-in..

Someone mentioned �pressure� on other lakes, that a revised slot on Fork would help them... REALLY ???

Drive by any boat ramp on Fork today, during the week.. Try and find a Texas license plate in the parking lot.
They'll be out numbered 10-1 by out of stater's.. That will continue until late May, that's pressure my friend...

Your facts are wrong. I pulled all this from sharelunker website. All of these are from '06 to current time. The reason I picked '06 is so there is at least 5 full seasons.

Amistad had 9 sharelunkers
Austin had 11 sharelunkers, 1 over 15lbs
Falcon had 13 sharelunkers
OH Ivey had 18 sharelunkers
LOP had 2 sharelunkers 1 over 15lbs (how did this make your list of most big fish?)

Fork had 20 sharelunkers with 3 over 15lbs.

Let's look at the last three years:

O.H. Ivie 18 Sharelunkers
Austin 10
Falcon 10
Fork 6
Pines 2
Caddo 2

I said both the most and the biggest, not just the most. I included Caddo because the two Sharelunker weights caught there (same fish, I know) were 16.17 lbs and 16.07 lbs. One of the Sharelunkers from Pines weighed 15.13. Those are huge fish.

So, in summary, of the 48 combined Sharelunkers from the six lakes I mentioned, six came from Lake Fork. Of the remaining 42, 22 came from lakes with 14 inch minimum length requirements. 18 came from an 18 inch minimum lake and two came from a lake with a slot of 14-18 inches.

In other words, 42 of the 48 came from lakes where fishermen can keep bass of at least 18 inches. Thus, there is no evidence to suggest that a slot requiring a fish to be 24 inches to be legal produces more lunkers OR bigger lunkers.

Since I don't have a time machine and can't go back to 1987, 1991, or 2006 to fish I chose to look at the more recent past. And...as I pointed out earlier...that 16-24 inch slot was not in place when Fork was in its heyday of producing Sharelunkers.