Where have all the giant bass gone?

[WRB]

By giant I mean a bass over 17 lbs to use the late Bill  Murphys bench mark.

For me it’s been over 25 years since catching a 17+ teener.

With the exception of Dottie’s from lake Dixon maybe 2 over 17lbs have been caught in  California the past decade.

Tom

[Big Hands]

I took several years off from fishing Castaic, and to me after fishing it pretty regularly the past year or so, it's a different lake. I don't remember there being a large presence of any baitfish other than shad, and now we have the minnows there in pretty big numbers. But the biggest thing for Castaic is that the stripers finally made their way in from Pyramid and it's a different ecosystem.

 

Still, there used to be several lakes in SoCal that would produce numbers of very large bass every year. Casitas, Isabella, Hodges, Sutherland, Dixon, Vail, Poway, San Vicente, Otay, and Wohlford among others. And those lakes don't have stripers, so I don't know exactly what is going on there.

[Hammer 4]

Need more trout plants...

[QED]

Back when I was in college, Lake Miramar near El Cajon had a reputation for having lunker  bass. Too far to go from from Berkeley just to go fishing though…

[moguy1973]

Probably has something to do with 5G networks or something conspiracy theory-like.

 

[scaleface]

...meanwhile  I'm wondering where all the 7 lb bass went .

[DitchPanda]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

...meanwhile  I'm wondering where all the 7 lb bass went .

Ha right. I'm in the same boat as you. I haven't even caught a 5 plus this year so I'm wondering where the multiple 6s and the 7 I caught last year went. Meanwhile these guys are talking about bass 7lbs bigger than my states record.

[LrgmouthShad]

Heck every fish I’ve lost has been at least 30lbs so I’d say they are still out there for sure!!

[A-Jay]

13 hours ago, WRB said:

By giant I mean a bass over 17 lbs to use the late Bill  Murphys bench mark.

For me it’s been over 25 years since catching a 17+ teener.

With the exception of Dottie’s from lake Dixon maybe 2 over 17lbs have been caught in  California the past decade.

Tom

In my mind, I have always thought of that size bass as freaks of nature.

If the trout were never planted and those bass were not force fed, that whole era would have never happened.

Since the free feeding is done and gone, so are the vast majority of 17 lb plus fish.

Tell me I'm wrong

A-Jay

[TOXIC]

5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

In my mind, I have always thought of that size bass as freaks of nature.

If the trout were never planted and those bass were not force fed, that whole era would have never happened.

Since the free feeding is done and gone, so are the vast majority of 17 lb plus fish.

Tell me I'm wrong

A-Jay

You just had to say it!?. Long ago I learned the one way to rile up a California fisherman was to tell them that their bass are a result of trout stocking.  Tru or not I don’t know but what a nutritional treat those trout have to be.?

[A-Jay]

Just now, TOXIC said:

You just had to say it!?. Long ago I learned the one way to rile up a California fisherman was to tell them that their bass are a result of trout stocking.  Tru or not I don’t know but what a nutritional treat those trout have to be.?

I know - 

Another example of this is how freakishly big & fat the Brown Bass are

in local waters that have a full on goby infestation.

Places I catch smallies that do not have goby in them, the smallies seem like a different species. 

#notnormal

I like it though. 

A-Jay

 

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

You just had to say it!?. Long ago I learned the one way to rile up a California fisherman was to tell them that their bass are a result of trout stocking.  Tru or not I don’t know but what a nutritional treat those trout have to be.?

Smallies eat stocker trout in East TN, very close to your home state of VA 

 

why did CA stop stocking the trout? Everyone was having too much fun??

[ironbjorn]

My guess is the same thing that's happening to the world and the rest of the animal kingdom that some people don't want to accept but that most of us are well aware of.

[Bassin' Brad]

Just this year lake O.H. Ivie in TX produced some big bass. One bass was almost a "giant" bass. It weighed 16.4 lbs. 

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, Bassin' Brad said:

Just this year lake O.H. Ivie in TX produced some big bass. One bass was almost a "giant" bass. It weighed 16.4 lbs. 

texas fish are all massive mutants!!!

[WRB]

Lakes Hodges and  Lower Otay produced well over 100 FLMB exceeding 17 lbs and didn’t have any trout feed on.

Hodges produced 20.4 lb FLMB so the planed trout theory doesn’t always apply.

Lakes that did have planted rainbow trout during winter months that was the primary food source. From May to October no trout are planted at lakes Casitas and Castiac, trout are not a year around food source.

Crawdads, Threadfin  Shad and  crappie were the primary food source for Hodges and Lower Otay back in the days of giants. lake Isabella in central CA had gizzard and Threadfin Shad plus trout planted in the Kern Rivers feeding Izy, and trout plants never stopped.

My guess is the gene vigor has dried up with no more pure or F1 FLMB exist in our lakes anymore. No new FLMB planted since the mid 70’s in CA.

There is more to the Giant Bass Bust then trout plants, the population no longer exist.

Tom

 

 

[TnRiver46]

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

Lakes Hodges and  Lower Otay produced well over 100 FLMB exceeding 17 lbs and didn’t have any trout feed on.

Hodges produced 20.4 lb FLMB so the planed trout theory doesn’t always apply.

Lakes that did have planted rainbow trout during winter months that was the primary food source. From May to October no trout are planted at lakes Casitas and Castiac, trout are not a year around food source.

Crawdads, Threadfin  Shad and  crappie were the primary food source for Hodges and Lower Otay back in the days of giants. lake Isabella in central CA had gizzard and Threadfin Shad plus trout planted in the Kern Rivers feeding Izy, and trout plants never stopped.

My guess is the gene vigor has dried up with no more pure or F1 FLMB exist in our lakes anymore. No new FLMB planted since the mid 70’s in CA.

There is more to the Giant Bust then trout plants.

Tom

 

 

They continually stock new fLorida strain in the new places (Tx, Tn, etc) so they will interbreed and create new F1 generation year after year.  I’m guessing CA no longer wants to stock non native fish. 

[Catt]

Where have all the giant bass gone?

 

Waiting on @WRB to come out of retirement!

[WRB]

9 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

They continually stock new fLorida strain in the new places (Tx, Tn, etc) so they will interbreed and create new F1 generation year after year.  I’m guessing CA no longer wants to stock non native fish. 

You are right! All Black Bass species are non native in CA and have never been managed. Bass get initially stock, after that they are on their own.

Tom

 

[DitchPanda]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

I know - 

Another example of this is how freakishly big & fat the Brown Bass are

in local waters that have a full on goby infestation.

Places I catch smallies that do not have goby in them, the smallies seem like a different species. 

#notnormal

I like it though. 

A-Jay

 

Sounds like the perch around here. Fish the Iowa lakes where the perch feed mainly on minnows, bugs and flats(baby sunfish and crappies) the perch just don't get that big. Head over into south Dakota where a big part of the diet is freshwater shrimp and the perch are huge. Like you said almost like a different species.

[PressuredFishing]

14 hours ago, WRB said:

By giant I mean a bass over 17 lbs to use the late Bill  Murphys bench mark.

For me it’s been over 25 years since catching a 17+ teener.

With the exception of Dottie’s from lake Dixon maybe 2 over 17lbs have been caught in  California the past decade.

Tom

Yeah, the biggest bass I've seen in the past two years caught was a 13 pounder, max, maybe bigger have been yoinked out but from reading. I remember butch brown caught a massive one on a hud, but that was long long ago. R.I.P Dottie, forever in our hearts at Dixon

[purpurite]

LOL. Largest largemouth ever caught in Illinois was 13lb 1oz almost 45 years ago. 

 

I get excited for 3-pounders. Y'all are spoiled.

[LrgmouthShad]

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Another example of this is how freakishly big & fat the Brown Bass are

in local waters that have a full on goby infestation.

Read that on Oneida Lake, the goby population has exploded recently and that has resulted in a big uptick in smallmouth sizes...... i'll be there soon ?

[Fishingmickey]

13 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

Need more trout plants...

ding ding ding, we have a winner. 

 

[GRiver]

I saw an article about a woman breaks Perry’s record in an inflatable, tried to copy the link but couldn’t. 
22 1/2 pd out of California. I don’t know if it was the real deal , she didn’t get it officially inspected, she turned it loose.

I didn’t hear anything about it so I don’t know if it’s true or not. 

I still trying to get a double digit