Over 1000 10+lber.'s this old gent could teach us all somethings

[KU_Bassmaster.]

No.  Mine's bigger

[Jake.]

I'm well aware of how big that stock pond is, and there is no water skiing on that lake, lol geez, it is only 70 acres, but its not the only lake in the Socal area I was in reference to.

Dixon is no different than a bunch of private Texas lakes, pay and you can fish them, except we don't have the one bass that has proven to be world record that everyone seeks. Thats what made Dixon famous, cause it sure wasn't booked during the week every week in the 90's.

By the way, there are a bunch of lake Dixons in Socal, they just didn't have a world record swimming in them thus we don't hear about them at all.

You would of never heard of Dixon if it wasn't for one fish.

In Texas, our public waters, you don't have to be open at certain times to pay for launch permits and extra fishing fees since we have a license, but then again, I had a valid license too in Cali and still had to wait till sun up every day before I could fish.

LOL, Your pressure is on lakes that limit the number of boats due to lake size, open half the day, and no trotlines, no night fishing and for years, you guys could only use one pole at a time. Now you can buy extra license to use a second pole.

We have trotlines, 24 hr fishing 365 days, free ramps, no daily usage fees, no 5 dollar trout stamp every day you use that lake even though your a bass fishermen.

Just what Socal lakes are open for night fishing or open 24/7, 365 days a year?

Thats pressure....... 8-)

But in general, aren't the Texas lakes large enough to handle that pressure more adequately than the small Southern California lakes?

[Mattlures]

I concede, there is no contest. Texas wins hands down. TX has many huge lakes to choose from plus when flying in it seems like everybody has a private pond. The state of TX actualy likes fisherman and encourages them to fish and hunt. Their lakes are open all the time. and I believe you only have to buy a licsence and not launch fees and daily permits. There are more 10lbers caught in TX and the bass fishing is better(easier) and far less preasured. They even stcok geneticaly superior bass fry into the lakes. Its not even close. TX is a much better place to be if your a bass fisherman, or hunter.

In So Cal our lakes are super deep and super clear, They ususaly have half of them closed at any given time and they are always crying about low water. We have to buy a licsence, launch fee, daily permit, and sometimes pay for parking too. Some lakes are only open 4 days a week and only a few allow night fishing. Soo when we decide we are going fishing on say a Wed we only have a couple places to choose from. That means everbody else in So Cal are fishing in the same couple lakes that Wed. The water dist would rather not even let us fish the lakes. Our lakes are the most preasured lakes in the country. The bass are spooky and hard to catch. When the lakes do get stocked with trout the shorelines are crowded with shore anglers so you cant even get your boat in close. Our laked do not get stocked with bass. The only thing CA has going for it, is huge bass. There arent that many of them but they are here. Other then that TX is 10X better. My mom lives in TX and she keeps trying to get me to move but i was born in So Cal and I dont want leave. But I can honestly say TX is a much more fisher/hunter friendly state and they dont have all the stupid politics that we do.

[WRB]

Interesting thread.

Butch Brown's pond by the way is doing well the past few weeks and has attracted some of the best trophy bass anglers in the world. Consider the pond is less 1,500 yards long (1/2 mile), open to the public and open to night fishing at times, most of the top sticks are fishing live bait, defines high pressured bass.

It would be interesting to know what Pat Cullen's PB bass is? For someone who counts so accurately, no mention how he weighs bass.

I can relate to not weighing every bass and just estimating weight, unless the bass is a giant near or over 15 lbs and stopped counting back in the early 70's. Unless you keep a log book and enter the weights as you catch and weigh them, keeping exact numbers is impossible.

The debate over public bass waters and private should be simple to understand; 10 lb+ bass are rare and don't get a chance to achieve 10 lb+ weights unless they live long enough and have optimum conditions. I get a chance occasionally to fish private lakes with big bass populations and the bass are far less wary and easy to catch in lakes when they haven't experienced fishing pressure. It's not that these bass are stupid, they haven't grown up competing with man for survival.

Chris; the CA delta may have more 15 lb+ bass then all of SoCal lakes combined and no closed areas for the bass to hide in.

What nearly everyone who hasn't fished CA lakes doesn't understand is how small most of these trophy lakes are, less than 2 miles long on average and how restrictive the fishing rules are. Nearly every lake has a closed to entry zone 500 yards from the dam, for example. Most SoCal lakes are closed to night fishing, with a few nights open during the summer. All these lakes have weekly tournaments that average about 100 boats. Highly pressured bass, it's amazing that any grow to exceed 10 lbs+ in these public lakes. Without the closed zones, the bass may not survive to become giants.

WRB

[Glenn]

Well, I tried, but the Cali vs. TX lakes debate continues.  Just deleted yet another post on the topic, so now I'm closing this thread. Guess you guys can't take directional hints.