Yet, here we are!!

Quality habitat is absolutely essential to the success of a healthy largemouth bass fishery. Fish will survive, but the spawn will suffer notably when there is a lack of habitat. Low water causes this as often as not in Texas.


Among game fish, there are "learners" and there are "biters" as you may call them. The "learners" will learn not to bite artificials as often and the "biters" will not. and are hence more likely to be fooled and caught by fishermen.

The combination of less habitat and more "learners" will make the quality of fishing decline. It has been documented that the Florda strain Largemouth Bass is a notorius "learner" which makes it a great candidate for survival and a worthy target for fishermen in a lake full of hooks...

Disease is a factor that is a distant third to the above two in frequency. However, when disease strikes, it can have horrific effects on the aquatic ecosystem and may take years or never recover.

Examples:

Roberts gets 10 feet low, hydrilla dies, shallow vegetation is now on dry land and dies; LMB lost spawning habitat, what little is left is not enough, White Bass are able to thrive and grow fat whatever spawn there is. Largemouth bass fishery declines, sandbass fishery explodes.

Fork gets hammered by hundreds of thousands of fisherman annually during the late 80s and early to mid 90s and sets the bar for big bass fishing worldwide, breaking records. All the while, the thick timber habitat that used to be all over Fork when they first impounded it, the thick green cedars that would slap you in the face everywhere you went (the old timers will remember this) gradually begin to rot and lose the thick spawning cover they once provided. Lake is stocked with millions of Floridas; they are learners. Largemouth Bass Virus strikes, killing a huge portion of bass. The heyday of Fork comes to an end, yet the lake rebounds quite well, considering, but it will never be what it was. It is, as had been said, TPWD's baby. Fork is cunducive to vegetative growth and not prone to the huge drops in lake level that some are and now supports a challenging fishery, stocked annualy with near 1,000,000 fingerlings. The lake remains mediocre compared to what it was in 1992 but is still one of the best around.

Then there is Ivie, your classic case of a lake prone to flare-ups, if you will. West Texas is obviously the land of drought. Water bodies go dry there all the time. This lake, full of salt cedar habitiat and good vegetation, was at a decent enough level for long enough to support and sustain a healthy, and most importantly, fishable, largemouth population. Then the droughts of the last 3 years come along and slowly whittle it away. Lake drops, habitat left high and dry, spawn suffers, fishing suffers. Hopfully buckets of water will fall from the sky and revive it bringing us to our next lake.

And then Falcon becomes the talk of the bass fishing community the world over. The best bass fishing in the nation, maybe the world people say. Remember, Falcon is a much older lake than all the ones mentioned above (note: but, the lake starts getting Floridas in the mid 70s like many other Texas lakes), has warm water most of the year round often allowing for two spawns a year, and goes in cycles. Full, 40ft low, full, 40ft low, full, you get it. Lake is surrounded by thick thick huisache, mesquite and the like which provides excellent spawning cover when the lake comes up after being low for a few years during which time much of this vegetation regains it green growth and thickness. The bass are able to go nuts, breeding like rabbits where no boats, nets, or lures can reach them for as long as the good lord, and the irrigators, allow the water to remain. Take the last five years down there and you can see that cycle at work, the same cycle that has perpetuated down there for 50 some odd years. Now, the number of bass fisherman down there hit a spurt of magnanimous proportions (and yes, I was one of them as were many of you) in recent years, and I am sure several of them were prone to become "learners". But, now the lake has hit a little lull. However, Falcon is a jewel, unlike most, that will return to glory when the water, which is the life, swells its banks again.

The thing we all need to remember, is the only reason we even have these great bass lakes the state over, is because we need (or want in many cases) water, and the need for this water led us to build dams. These dams impounded millions of acres of water for irrigation, drinking, and least of all Fishing, which we hold so dear.

Lets all be thankful for this, and not hold sway our hopes and thanks when a lake's fishing seemingly goes from "Super to NOT". Be thankful that management minded folk like many of you are spreading the mindset of sustainable conservation practices, and that TPWD and the USACE work together to give us these lakes and these bass to catch.

By golly AgSellers04, you nailed it brother!

Yep! good read!

good stuff Ag

That was certainly worth reading Ag.......you brought your A game for that one.

Quality post AG. Write a book and Ill buy it and even read all of it.

If I wrote a book about the Ebb and Flow of Texas Largemouth Bass Fishing I would have to interview the guys on the TFF and give them proper citation. Haha. I might be able to put together a couple hundred pages of text then throw some pictures in there to make it a solid 250 pages...

I'm glad you guys took the time to read and appreciate my post.

Fayette is also a slot lake and keeps people from taking the 3-6 pounders from it...

Have not heard anyone explain how it was great all summer, and the catching stopped in October. Falcon

They just had a story on TV today about the big fish being caught at Dunlap, a local Guadalupe river lake here in San Antonio. Every meat eater within a tank of gas is gonna be there this weekend. Texas park and Wildlife was even talking about it, fishing's gonna get a little tough there real fast. Too bad.
Bragging is the main cause of most of the bass taken, in my opinion. Handing them out to the neighbors and friends to show what a great fisherman you are is just another form of bragging.
The lakes are stocked with whites and hybrids for meat eaters, but they don't hug the bank like bass. Bass fishing is more glamorous then being a white bass fisherman.

How about electing someone who will try to pass regulations that are beneficial to us fisherman and still keeping the main purpose of the lakes intact?

So for those of you who fished about 12-15 years ago will remember how great Cooper Lake was. Now nobody even goes there. It hasn't rebounded from it's downturn. Explanations?

I see this alot at Falcon, people take big bass home to eat� Usually its the local people who live around there however I have seen others from far take big bass! I really hate to see that, I think if they would put more restrictions maybe Falcon could recover little by little!

X several.. Lol



That is the golden question!
I would say we had to hurt the lake by 20%, today I just wonder why it's fishing 80% hurt.
Still one cast away from a complete toad, but off from our outrageous expectations we had grown so entitled too.