Where have all the giant bass gone?

[Fried Lemons]

There was an 18.55 caught in CA this year, well documented.

[WRB]

It seems a giant shows up about 1 per year up in NorCal lakes. I think SoCal hasn’t produced a 17+ giant since 2010, could be wrong. Dottie was in 2009 as I recall.

Tom

 

[Hammer 4]

With the up rise in fishing lately, could it be possible that any giants being caught are kept on the low down. ? We know what happened at Dixon when the news of Dottie being caught got out. 

[soflabasser]

California is one of the best states for bass fishing so there is always a chance for someone to catch big bass. 17 pound and bigger bass are rare everywhere in the world so you cannot expect to see them caught often unless it is in a place that the bass have perfect growing conditions, easy to catch baitfish, and mostly catch and release fishing. Most of Californias giant bass got big by eating stocked trout some grew big eating regular baitfish. The striped bass grow bigger, fight harder, and are very common in some lakes in California so it is a great gamefish to fish for.

[WRB]

I don’t know of any giant bass lake that supports both stripe bass and FLMB. 

Castiacs Giant Bass population crashed when stripers invaded the lake in ‘95, the lake can't support both predators. 

Castiac Lagoon afterbay below the dam is void of stripers and did continue to support giants until the trout plants stopped. The trout plants have resumed in 2020 by random  schedule due to closing the most trout hatcheries.

DVL was built to be a trophy bass reservoir and started off good until stripers invaded it.

Tom

[Darth-Baiter]

16 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

Need more trout plants...

This is the theory I heard. 
 

lack of planted trout. 

[QED]

Just googled it.  Lake Miramar produced a 20.15 lb bass back in the day.  How is it now?

[WRB]

12 hours ago, QED said:

Just googled it.  Lake Miramar produced a 20.15 lb bass back in the day.  How is it now?

None of the San Diego lakes have produced a giant bass 17+ in nearly 2 decades with the exception of lake Dixon with Dottie. Most get regular winter trout stocking.

Tom

[Bankc]

I was just reading an article by the Oklahoma Wildlife Dept., and they were discussing the need to revisit catch and release policies and practices.  There's only so much biomass an ecosystem can sustain, and right now a lot of our lakes are too bottom heavy.  We have good numbers of fish, but unfortunately, they're all smaller fish.  And if we want to get larger fish in the lakes, we're going to have to start to cull some of the smaller ones to leave enough food for the smaller ones to grow into larger ones.  I think that's kind of happening all over.  

[WRB]

The 17 lb bench mark for giant bass is a high, so very few are caught. For example Texas with all their manage Share A Lunker program hasn’t produced any. The initial stocking in Lake Fork produced all 6 bass 17+lbs including the state record 18.18 lbs in 1992, none since then, over 29 years.

The Giant Florida Bass boom is nearly always within the 1st 20 years of stocking.

A giant bass starts out as a fingerling, then grows. The juvenile growth period is critical long before it starts feeding on larger prey.

It’s not trout it’s genes.

Tom

[TnRiver46]

On 9/29/2021 at 5:08 PM, Bankc said:

I was just reading an article by the Oklahoma Wildlife Dept., and they were discussing the need to revisit catch and release policies and practices.  There's only so much biomass an ecosystem can sustain, and right now a lot of our lakes are too bottom heavy.  We have good numbers of fish, but unfortunately, they're all smaller fish.  And if we want to get larger fish in the lakes, we're going to have to start to cull some of the smaller ones to leave enough food for the smaller ones to grow into larger ones.  I think that's kind of happening all over.  

I been telling people that my whole life, they don’t want to hear it 

 

its like an apple tree, you’ve got to prune the branches if you want good apples. Seems counterproductive but it works 

[WRB]

In -Fisherman promoted Selective Harvest decades ago.

Bass Are a renewable resource and managed that way. 

The weekend recreational non bass anglers keep and eat what they catch regardless of size. The biggest population of legal 12” bass in California get culled by catch and eat folks.

It’s the tournament anglers tat influence C & R like it’s a cult religion that are the problem. Same anglers understand the culling of smaller bass in a pond, but not lakes.

The smallest population of bass are the big ones, they are also the most fragile in a livewell where anglers keep them all day to show them off.....look what I caught, that bass is domed.

Tom

 

 

[Tennessee Boy]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

its like an apple tree, you’ve got to prune the branches if you want good apples. Seems counterproductive but it works 

Many years ago they had to drain a 167 acre lake in the Natchez Trace state park because is was so full of small crappie that none of the fish in the lake would grow larger than about 8 inches.  Before they finally drained it, it was illegal to release any crappie that you caught in the lake.  Not many people are interested in taking home 100 three inch crappie.

[Black Hawk Basser]

40 minutes ago, WRB said:

The smallest population of bass are the big ones, they are also the most fragile in a livewell where anglers keep them all day to show them off.....look what I caught, that bass is domed.

Makes me sick when I see the social media brag shots at the ramp with 5 fish in a guy's two hands.

[TnRiver46]

13 minutes ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Makes me sick when I see the social media brag shots at the ramp with 5 fish in a guy's two hands.

That’s why I just do 4 

[fin]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Not many people are interested in taking home 100 three inch crappie.

Maybe not where you fish. People would be lined up to catch them at the lake where I fish. I don't know how they eat them. They could probably put some fish sauce on some bread and bones and fry it to get the same nutritional quality.

[throttleplate]

1 hour ago, fin said:

Maybe not where you fish. People would be lined up to catch them at the lake where I fish. I don't know how they eat them. They could probably put some fish sauce on some bread and bones and fry it to get the same nutritional quality.

well in the philippines its cheaper to buy lots of smaller fish but i have no desire to eat them this way.

[TnRiver46]

11 minutes ago, throttleplate said:

well in the philippines its cheaper to buy lots of smaller fish but i have no desire to eat them this way.

Shoot, I’ve seen pictures of you eating some crazy stuff! Haha. That one looks fairly tame 

[Black Hawk Basser]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

That’s why I just do 4 

Ha, walleye are fair game in my book. I think you know what I meant. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Black Hawk Basser said:

Ha, walleye are fair game in my book. I think you know what I meant. 

Indeed, I just had that picture in the chamber and when I read your post about 5 fish I had to pull the trigger ! 

[RenzokukenFisher]

I reeled in a 18.22 on my kayak out on the CA delta, made about 3 strong runs before I could net her! ... then my alarm clock went off

[FryDog62]

On 9/28/2021 at 10:54 AM, 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

 

Gobies have made it through the Great Lakes system all the way to the Eastern port of Duluth. Makes one wonder if they eventually flourish inland - Vermillion, Mille Lacs, etc we will have a new state record smallmouth in Minnesota. The downside is another invasive species to contend with, the upside would be  a real state record scientifically weighed and measured. 

[QED]

"Where have all the giant bass gone?"  "Long time passing..."  With apologies to Pete Seeger.

[dodgeguy]

On 9/28/2021 at 12:54 PM, TnRiver46 said:

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??

Because California is bankrupt.

[WRB]

2 hours ago, QED said:

"Where have all the giant bass gone?"  "Long time passing..."  With apologies to Pete Seeger.

Anglers picked them everyone, when will we ever learn.

Tom

1 hour ago, dodgeguy said:

Because California is bankrupt.

Bankrupt politically with too much money and power, bass fishing is just tolerated, very low priority with DFW.

Tom