15 lber - Fork

Don't know the details but just left the Minnow Bucket and they said 15.14 lbs.

Beast

Toad!!!

holy [censored]

Full moon of March. This month has two of them

"AWESOME FISH"!

no [censored].

Woooooooooow

About time. Was beginning to think there were no more super giants left. Awesome fish.

BEAUTIFUL GIRL.

Wow,wow, great news!!!!!!!!!!! Fork s dead

Purty

Yes!!! Knew they were still in the lake! That’s a hoss!!!!

It was due!

BEAUTIFUL GIRL.

Heck of a fishy!!

I'm looking for one a little smaller for my 10 gallon aquarium.

nice

Fish of a lifetime!!! Hope he comes on here to tell the story! Well done sir!

The lake is too muddy they said.
The fish don't bite when the gates are open they said.


This fish did not get the memo.


Great fish. Congrats to the angler.

Matter of time. Congratulations.

Well hell

Someone finally caught the last one. Dang.

Look how thick it's tail is

I was there monday... so close

Nice fish

WOW

nice and congrats

To quote Mark Zona.... BIGGUN....

That’s a TANK!!!!

Reports say 4’ of water on a black / blue jig, that would look like a submarine

Beautiful Fish, Congrats to the angler.

Monster

dream

15's are caught at night in the summertime. Nice to see one caught during the SAL period for a change.

Hopefully share lunker doesn't kill it. Congrats to the angler!

What a BASS!!

Congrats to the lucky angler!

Does anyone know him?

Wow!

I would have peed my pants too, jk hell of a fish.

Fantastic That is encouraging to see a fish like that. It has been too long! The lake could start putting out some bigger numbers. Congrats to the lucky man who landed that girl.

Wow, what a beautiful fish, Congrats to the fisherman!

G-g-g-g-g-g-g-Giant Bass!!!

Congrats are due....The Forktress lives (she was never really dead)


That is one nice fat girl...just sayin'..

Wow

What we all dream of...

Hope he didn’t turn that fish over to SAL

That is a giant and I applaud the angler.....great job to you! Look into my eyes and tell me I'm not one smart fish. Sorry, but I succumbed to the moon phase. Yes, It was bound to happen sooner or later. But, I know that I'm one smart fish!

Why??? Its his fish to do as he wants with. He could filet it & drop it in tha hot grease if he wanted to. At least SAL WILL do their best to preserve, keep healthy, spawn her out (supplying those genetics to other lakes & fishermen as well). , give him a fiberglass replica & release her back into Fork.
OR he COULD have released her & not said a word, just to NOT be criticized about what he did with HIS legally caught & retained fish.

Yuuuuge congratulations to him on the catch of a lifetime from me. !!!!

My Goodness.

TPWD & SAL are THE reason those genetics are in Fork to begin with. How do you think they got there from the start?

Once again , CONGRATULATIONS to the lucky angler!!!

I just hope I can weigh in 5 today ,that weigh as much as his one fish. Good lawd!!!!!

Was it over 24"?

Tank! Like stated what we all dream of..and have to travel to certain states where Florida strain big girls lurk to hunt for them.

game-changer

Great fish. I love to see big fish.

15.48 pic on FB it is huge

pretty eyes.

Beautiful fish

Nice! Congrats to the angler!!

Catch of a lifetime! Congratulations to the angler!

Truth!

Anglers all across this great state enjoy the benefits of the SAL program and don't even realize it. In 1975 a 7 pounder made headlines on the Dallas Morning News.

Congrats!! Awesome catch!!

SHAMOO

Awesome

Well played, sir...well played

I was going to include this catch-phrase in my earlier post, but could not muster up the fortitude required

Again though...congratulations to the angler for tricking that tank

I seriously doubt anyone involved with Sharelunker kills any fish. I have a feeling most of these fish have their fate sealed before Sharelunker gets their hands on them.

Awesome fish. I would love to hook one about 5 lbs smaller Easter weekend.

100% agree ... man, that's a big ol pig!

Congrats!

My property value just went up at Fork,...thank you sir,..!!!

You know that has way more to do with Florida genetics than it does the SAL program.

You cant say the SAL program made fork when fish from Fork started the program. That's assbackwards.

Yeah and you know the guy who caught it don't you.

Awesome fish! As fun as it is to read about, can't imagine being on the catching end of a fish like that.. Congrats!

I see a replica being ordered! Super fish and congratulations to the angler!

True Giant!! Nice catch.

[/quote]

You know that has way more to do with Florida genetics than it does the SAL program.

You cant say the SAL program made fork when fish from Fork started the program. That's assbackwards.[/quote]

Ppl seem to forget this... i am interested in them DNAing the fish

Greatness.

That should keep things humming for a while.

Big lake, a lot of forage, a lot of cover, and great genetics. As long as those basic ingredients remain intact the lake will have giant bass potential. Congrats to the angler on the fish of a lifetime!

Can someone direct me to the story on how she was caught.

Many of the fish that died in the hands of Sharelunker personnel were due to how they were handled BEFORE they came into possession of it.

They have come a long way since it's inception, educating fisherman how to handle trophy fish and how Sharelunker personnel handle them.

What A MULE!
Congratulations!
Wouldn't it be awesome to tell that story when someone asks you
"what's the biggest bass you ever caught"?

This is the truth. There would be no SAL program to begin with if it weren't for Lake Fork.

Here's a interesting side note to SAL. The first three entries were caught on Stanley Jigs and they hardly get any notice anymore. Besides myself, how many of you out there even have any ?

Fellas, I am well aware that Mark Stevenson's SR fish kicked off the program. I was just pointing out that anglers all across the state have reaped the benefits of the SAL program whether they know it or not.

Florida genetics were only in a handful of the Texas lakes before the program started with Mark's fish in Nov 1986. The main goal in the SAL program was to breed pure Floridas and use their offspring to enhance the genetics in other Texas lakes that had none before.

My point being that in the mid 70's a 7 pounder was a trophy fish. It is through the efforts of the SAL program that today we regularly see tournaments where the winning stringer is 5 fish that average 7 pounds each.

Ken,
Florida strain and healthy fisheries contributed more to your point than the SAL program. Remember, most of the SAL offspring are returned to the original lake. Those fish and genetics were already there.

Incorrect. The SAL program was created to shine a beacon of light on Texas bass fishing. It has served that purpose quite well.

http://www.itemonline.com/sports/outdoor...dafdb85676.html

This from your posted article Fouz, guess this proves Ken's point.

Since 1980, the Texas state record has been broken six times. Furthermore, 65 different lakes have produced bass weighing upwards of 13 pounds for the Toyota ShareLunker program. To date, TPWD's hatchery program has now stocked about 223 million Florida largemouth bass fingerlings into 421 different reservoirs.

TPWD's hatchery program and the SAL program are two completely different things. The lakes where the SAL were caught get their fry. Only recently has TPWD been attempting to use SAL offspring in the hatchery program. You did see all the lakes that were stocked with pure Floridas in the early 70's right?

One other point. While there have been a few SALs that were 7 years old, most fish of that size are about 10-11 years old. Look at the TOP 50, subtract 10 years and you can see that a majority of these fish (especially Fork) were stocked long before 1986.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/top50_largemouth.phtml

DON't crucify me just yet.

I thought I read the guy, [which I forget his name] at the TPWD got money to go to Florida and buy Florida strain bass and bring to Texas to stock lakes. Those fingerlings built the genetics that got the whole thing started. They then took those big bass and started the SAL with to get more fingerlings so they didn't have to keep buying the fingerlings every year. They put half of those back in the lake the bass came out of and the rest went into Texas lakes to spread the genetics for bigger bass across the state. I think over all its been real successful.

Y'all feel free to correct anything I said wrong. I am going off memory of what I thought I read. LOL

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20170302a

Naconchie got 100,000 SAL fingerlings and yes, other lakes where they weren't caught have received a few, mostly new or private lakes. But to infer that SAL offspring are being used to stock lakes en masse is wrong. They're now being incorporated into other hatcheries across the state, but this has only begun recently.

FIRST SAL offspring caught in Texas 2017.

"TPWD hatcheries staff plan to incorporate ShareLunker offspring into the Florida largemouth bass brood fish in hatcheries across the state, which could eventually increase the total ShareLunker offspring stocked annually into participating lakes from tens of thousands to more than 8 million."

That statement above was also made in this article, 2017.

My property values increased with that catch!

Does anyone know when the state started stocking all the brood ponds in fork before it filled?

I personally am glad to see this. We have caught a lot of 8's and 9's the last few years out there. Not as many 10's as before when all the 10-15 lbs. bass were being caught. But after seeing this, and seeing some of the under bags so far this year, I think the lake may be getting back healthy again. Still a ways to go, but looking good for sure!

Sharelunker program was started to breed big fish. It’s a lab, it’s a science project. It is a public relation project also. Sharelunker offsprings have been used for years to introduce Florida, and Florida/native fish. Offspring into hundreds of lakes. Marine Creek and Naconiche are the first genetically proven SAL offsprings to come from other SAL’s caught from other lakes and bred to improve fishing all over the state. That proves the program is working. And more SAL offsprings of Sal’s being caught should hopefully become normal. Let’s hope that is the case.

Sort of spitting hairs here . Were there Florida strain fish in Texas lakes before SAL came along? Yes. But not In vast majority of lakes, only a select few. Has the SAL program been breeding and stocking Fish in lakes in Texas, along with BAU programs? YES for years. TPW while far from perfect, have made fishing for a trophy Largemouth , truly a life changing event. They should be applauded for their work.

Congrats again to the angler.

Nice!

Back to the OP....Nice catch and congratulations.
Nice to see another giant come out of Lake Fork.

Yes not to hijack the thread. Once again congratulations to the lucky Angler that caught the giant from Fork.

congrats on the awesome fish,,everytime a big fish weighed or shown are we going to go through the sharelunker bs,,again great fish,,CONGRATS!!!

I am not completely familiar with the SAL program . What I will say is Florida strains are the only way to get the genetics lined up to produce fish that are in the " teen's " and /or larger.
I used to fish a really small lake in California ( 13 acres) . It was stocked in the late 70's with Florida strains . It was one of the first California lakes to stock em . In the mid 90's it produced many "teen " fish , including a 17.4lber . Similar lakes surrounding this " small " lake that have not had Florida strains stocked haven't come close to the 17.4lbs and all of them have similar food supplies .
Genetics are key , but Florida strains are harder to catch in general .

I've read @ 1979. Also read that fish up to 8.5 lbs were stocked in those brood ponds. I'm sure they were fed well before the lake level overtook the ponds.

Giant!

Berkeley black/blue jig with baby brush trailer in 4 ft of water. Neighbor was next to his boat when he caught it and took his picture. We fished next to him the next day and I told him to email Berkeley and tell them he’d swap the story and picture for a few boxes of baits

Same as naconiche, that's how you get some 10-14lb fish in a few years. They didn't grow there, they were already big when put in.

Thanks