I believe 550 would have been floating even if it was released back int the water. Something happened in the ladder that none of us know about. All just here say.......

Well said Ken. I remember when guys would mount a 5 pounder back in the 60's & 70's. Dave Campbell & the SAL program is one of the best things that ever happened to Texas Bass fishing.

I believe the fish will not be kept at the hatchery unless they are 100% Florida. They are turned back to the lake without spawning them at the hatchery.

In all fairness a 7.7 from Hubbard might still get you on the cover of the sports page.

Really?? I would think more catch and release of 5 and 6 pounders now, better fish care practices and the introduction of Florida strain has way more to do with the success. I think the SAL program has had very little effect in that regard.

I believe that is what I said I would do in the post you quoted. Everybody else is free to do what they want.




I'm as sure that I will eventually catch a teener as I am that Barrett will eventually catch a 10.




The introduction of Florida strain bass is exactly what made Texas bass fishing as good as it is. That and catch and release.

Look at the SAL records from 2000 to present. That is 15 years from when they started the program and doesn't take into account that it took several years for them to figure out what they were doing. How many 16+lb fish have been caught? How many of those are pure floridas? How many of those pure floridas were direct SAL descendants?

Look at the SALs that have been caught multiple times. I know this is a very small sample, but how many of them were bigger the second time they were caught? Is going through the SAL process stressing those big fish more than if they had been immediately released? No way to know.

I think the program has taught them a lot about breeding fish for the rest of the hatcheries. It has also taught everybody about proper fish handling and I think these things might end up being the programs greatest legacy. Hopefully I'm wrong and the state record is broke from a SAL offspring. But it won't be from a fish I gave them unless it benefits me in some way.

I say, "ban all fishing". That way no fish gets hurt.

I think the program is a waste, all of those Fork fish in the 90's (when fork was in its prime) weren't grown from these SAL fingerlings. The last two state records werent SAL fingerlings, well how did they get that big? Food and habitat is how. TP&W should concentrate on just stocking regular Florida bass and bait for these fish. Trust me if you create the habitat and provide the food for these fish they will grow. I think its idiotic to spend all this time spawning this one fish to dump its off spring back into the lake when you could stock a lot more regular florida strain bass and bait for the same amount of effort and money. I think the SAL program has minimal benefits for the fisheries and even hurts them when the fish they take out of the lake dies. What makes them think that the SAL wouldnt spawn naturally in the lake it came from and would spawn better in a glass fish tank?(only 37% of the fish enter actually spawn)!!! Now i do understand that they try to put some of those SAL fingerlings in other lakes than the one it came from. But i really think it would be more beneficiary if they just stocked 2x or 3x as much regular florida bass and created habitat and food, than to stock (looking at the big picture) a handful of these super fish fry. The SAL program is more of a publicity deal than it is beneficiary to our fisheries. I may be just a 17 year old kid, with only about ten years of fishing experience, but thats my look on it. I do have one question too, does anyone know why Jim Gore was able to donate a 6 1/2 pound bass from Fork in 1989 (yes i do realize the slot was only 22 inches back then) but the fish was not 13lbs? i did notice that he caught it on the same day that he caught SAL #33.

Genetics, it works.

Bass fishing is a prospering business to the State of Texas. Take it way and the economy will lose millions. Now have you ever seen a successful business not track and evaluate the results of their efforts then try to improve on them? That is all the Sharelunker program is doing. TPWD wouldn't continue to sink money into stocking programs if they didn't have any data to support the benefit. If you don't think it is working try living in another state for a while. Trust me I grew up bassin in Louisiana, the proclaimed "sportsmanship paradise," and my LA buddies would kill to have the quality of bass that we have. ..and they are some of the best sticks I've met. Not to mention how many solid lake options within 2 hours of DFW. We are SPOILED!

^^^ Haven't most of the recent SAL's been mixed breeds, not pure Fla's?

We are! I also find it funny that you live less than .5 a mile from me

They need to put all the trout they raise every year in the lakes, not city ponds. Then we would see some hawgs!!

In regards to the SAL doing more harm than good question? I don't know if it has had a particular effect one way or another when it comes to growing a giant bass, I would guess that 90% of those SAL fingerlings stocked are eaten by other fish in the first year once returned any way. Now that's just a guess but it seems like by now some of those fish over the history of this program would be state record size. It's been a while since a 16 pound bass has been caught.

Genetics is just part of the deal. let's say Lebron James and Britney Grinner have a child, let's say that child grows up in a environment where there is hardly enough food or the proper food for proper max nutrition, chances are that kid will not meet everything it geniticaly could if the kid was in the right environment eating the best possible groceries it could,

To sum it up, if the SAL program is pulling resources (money) from investing in proper habitat and forage then maybe it is doing more harm than good, if it has no effect on that then I would guess that those SAL babies are no different than the millions of the Floridas stocked in the lakes each year already, it's been proven the genetics are there. Something else is not to grow a 20 lb fish

As a SAL holder, I had thoughts about this program, until I took a tour of the facilities in Athens. If you ever get the chance take the tour.

If my memory is right this is call the Toyota Sharelunker Program, Toyota funds this program not Tax dollars.

Take a look at this video about the site

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1222363927020