I may be wrong?but a old man told me 98 or 99 fork went through a big fish kill and rember seeing some big big bass floating but I'm not sure if this is even close to being true?

This is all just opinion, and the assumptions of an armchair ichthyologist so take it for what it's worth. Big fish eat big meals and to grow huge their forage has to be available at the right time of their life cycles without too much competition from other fish. If you look at the records for the top 25 bass from TX, FL, and CA you'll see that all had fewer entries during the 2000's. Interestingly enough, 20 of the top 25 record bass from California came from the last 20 years and only 5 were caught between 2000-2010. Obviously, there is a lot more history before 2000 than going forward until today, so odds are more monsters will be caught pre-2000 unless something significantly changed in the food cycle available to the fish.

Let's look again at California, why all those monsters in the 1980s and 90s? California was augmenting the ratio of optimal forage fish by stocking rainbow trout which was bass candy. Many argue that trout didn't really make all that much difference...but guess what the trout stockings are not being made at the level they once were due to the sorry state of California's budget and in turn, the giant bass aren't being caught like they once were. It's an interesting correlation to say the least.

If the giants were still in Fork with all the angling pressure (especially crappie anglers) they should still be showing up occasionally. The availability of ample forage, the right kind of forage, and lack of competition for the forage is no longer in the right balance to produce regular monster bass. Too many sandbass and barfish, decreased habitat (hydrilla), LMBV, and the other variables already mentioned certainly don't help.

But there might be signs of hope, TPWD has indicated they expect white bass populations to die off, the end to the drought potentially can springboard lake fertility and increase habitat, if people aren't catching fish like they did once they may not pressure fork as much giving more fish the opportunity to reach true monster status. No, fishing at Fork is not bad at all now, but can you catch fish in the high teens...not as likely as at one time however, 10 years from now we might have reason to hope just takes a lot of patience at some point those Share a lunker genes have to kick in, right? Or maybe all that money should have been spent on better forage fish...

Biguns got educated on lure presentation and identification. There is still a record swimming around in one of these lakes.

From your 'armchair ichthyologist' standpoint, what forage fish would you have stocked?

+1

That gives way to much credit to a dumb fish. How many times can you catch he same fish in a row off a bed? I know it may seem tough to get the females at times, but that's mainly because she's on the bed for a much shorter time than the males who are typically more aggressive. Plus, read "Sowbelly" big bass have predictable patterns and can be caught again and again, they don't learn lure presentation and identification in any significant level especially after several hours have passed, their brains don't work like that. Some fish might decline a bait for a day or maybe even a month after getting hooked on it but experts say they will likely hit it again and some techniques (plastics) almost always full them. See http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-09-29/news/8602270802_1_fish-behavior-plastic-worm-bass