Georgia bass. 15lbs 9oz in May 2005

Georgia Bass 16 lbs in Jan 2005

20lb fish have been coming out of Cali since 1972.

California's production of 20+lb bass is unique, nevertheless, California is by no means

a gristmill for 20-pound bass. Over the past 33 years (1973 to 2006) California has yielded

exactly 10 certified bass weighing 20 lbs or more. That's an average of one 20+ lb bass

every 3.4 years. However, California's production of 20-pounders has been in decline since 1991.

Fifty percent of all California's 20lb+ bass were taken in years 1990 and 1991

After 1991, Lake Miramar and Castaic Lake never produced another bass over 20 lbs.

California went 10 years without a 20-pounder until Dixon Lake (the new test tube)

finally ended the drought in 2001. California's last 20-pounder was yielded in 2003,

also from Dixon.

Roger

Some of cal. 20+ fish have been caught twice.   Numbers look better than they are.  We have also had some of the same fish caught in tx in the top 50.

Triton Mike, if your contact told you no fish have been caught over 15+ in the last 7-8 yrs, he's wrong, way off course on that info.    

Matt,  You are correct it was 2002 since the last 15lber ie 4 years and not 7-8 years.  Well now it's officially 2006 since the most recent Share a Lunker 15.29lbs. My info is coming according to the top 50 list of Texas Bass.  

flanchero,  I don't know how to use the quote features but you pretty much agreed to what I had said where you quoted me.  I said the LMBV ruined the chance of Lake Forks run at the WR and it did and I then stated "will it rebound. Personally I hope it does".  I have ZERO problems with Texas owning the World Record but it will not be an easy task for them.  If it does break the WR it will come from Fork.  

Mike

Theres a few more recent than that, The Minnow Bucket can confirm that 2 have been caugt since summer last year. The guide Randy Oldfield caught one and is photographed by the minnow bucket that would have gone 15.7, and if the same scale weighed Tues fish at 15.27 or .29, TPW has weighed the fish in at 15.5, their scale appears to be weighing light. Another local peg one in Aug at 15.02, since its not sharelunker season then and it didn't make the top 50, its not a big deal to the local guy. Local news only.

If you check the infusions of fingerlings into Fork since 2000, they numbers are way up.   Before 2000, it wasn't surprising to go out and catch 20, 40, 50, fish days and have a 5lb average, didn't happen every time, but not uncommon to spend coupl days on water back to back and have numerous 7's and 8's with some pushing 10.    Those days you could actually graph schools and see that the size is small and move on, until you found the right group, this group was loaded with 5-9lbers, steady diet till it played out, and move on to another spot, what is nice about the hot weather in the summer, constant high pressure, you could set your watch pretty close to the same bite, same location every day, thus the better consistent quality fish.

That has been a rareity these days, you don't find the larger schools as you used to.      Fork has the numbers and the big bass, they aren't as easy to catch as they once where, when I say easy, I mean locating, because in timber filled lake, snags are gonna happen.     Forks massive stockings has her full of all kinds of fish, sometimes you gotta wade through the smaller ones to get to a good one now days.  

I would concur with fletchero reasoning, I too thought less pressure on bait fish, but, Fork has had some huge populations of shad, and having no white bass, hybrids, or stripers, basically, Fork has bass, cats, and crappie.   Competion is not a concern on baitfish as long as we have those huge shad hatches thats been the norm for years.      

They say a lake ages and passes its prime after 10-12 years, but the sharelunker program and all the other info said she's lost one round in a 20 round fight.    She's the Bass Capital of Texas, and it will be awhile before she's knocked out.  

The main reason Castaic fell off the map in the early to mid 1990's was the introduction of striped bass into the lake. It wasn't meant to happen but it did. Since then the stripers compete with largemouth for food, including stocked trout. 20-30 pound stripers are known to come out of the lake on a regular basis. If there were no stripers who knows what LMB weights would be at. In my mind the record would have been broken there.

The lagoon is another story...

If Dixon can stay "Striper Free" there is a good shot there. To late for DVL as stripers are already in there also...but who knows what can happen.

Roger310, Thats something I didn't know, stipers in the lake.   How did that happen, on purpose, or accident?  

Roger310, Thats something I didn't know, stipers in the lake.   How did that happen, on purpose, or accident?  

Accident. The lake is part of the California aqueduct system which stripers swim in. In the mid 90's they drained the lake some to do maintenance on the dam and check on the "screens" which were supposed to keep foreign fish and other crap out of the lake. They found that one of the screens was completely out of place...which allowed stripers to come in from the aqueduct. The rest is history... :'( :'( :'(

It's believed the '94 Northridge earthquake is what shook the screen loose. Northridge is only about 20 miles from Castaic.

I'll try to find the link to the article.

The main reason Castaic fell off the map in the early to mid 1990's was the introduction of striped bass into the lake.

On the contrary, Castaic fell off the map in spite of the striped bass introduction.

Competition from striped bass would only help to reduce numbers,

which can only improve the size (numbers and size are counterproductive).

The real reason is the exact same reason that every other California angel fell from grace.

Whenever a species is relocated outside its natural range, the genetic vigor wanes over time.

As one lake falls from grace another lake becomes the new hope. If a world record isn't broken

early-on using transplants, it becomes increasingly unlikely. You can't fool Mother Nature.

That is why Miramar fell off the radar screen followed by Casitas, followed by Castaic.

Be patient...it's only a matter of time when Dixon and Hodges fall off the radar screen.

In fact, California is marking time right now, and I wouldn't be at all surprised

if California fails to achieve its mission (A miss is a mile).

Roger

The main reason Castaic fell off the map in the early to mid 1990's was the introduction of striped bass into the lake.

On the contrary, Castaic fell off the map in spite of the striped bass introduction.

Competition from striped bass would only help to reduce numbers,

which can only improve the size (numbers and size are counterproductive).

The real reason is the exact same reason that every other California angel fell from grace.

Whenever a species is relocated outside its natural range, the genetic vigor wanes over time.

As one lake falls from grace another lake becomes the new hope. If a world record isn't broken

early-on using transplants, it becomes increasingly unlikely. You can't fool Mother Nature.

       That is why Miramar fell off the radar screen followed by Casitas, followed by Castaic.

Be patient...it's only a matter of time when Dixon and Hodges fall off the radar screen.

In fact, California is marking time right now, and I wouldn't be at all surprised

if California fails to achieve its mission (A miss is a mile).

Roger

That may very well be the case but it's something we will never know about Castaic. The lake hit it's peak and coincidently stripers were introduced. Maybe that was mother natures way of saying..."NO, NO, NO....this record wont be broken here."

We will never know for sure about Castaic because of the way it went down.

I firmly believe that stripers out competing largemouth for food will not help largemouth in any body of water.

I think we have to remember that George Perry was fishing for dinner, not the world record bass.  In fact, the fish was eaten.

Think positive.  Is it not possible that in the 1930's during the great depression that an even bigger bass was caught by someone who was too busy trying to feed his family to worry about records?

Go to the video store and rent the DVD "The Grapes of Wrath" starring Henry Fonda. Or read the book. It's a John Steinbeck classic.  The desperate poverty and social unrest that existed in the USA back then is scary.

Matt, You are correct it was 2002 since the last 15lber ie 4 years and not 7-8 years. Well now it's officially 2006 since the most recent Share a Lunker 15.29lbs. My info is coming according to the top 50 list of Texas Bass.

flechero, I don't know how to use the quote features but you pretty much agreed to what I had said where you quoted me. I said the LMBV ruined the chance of Lake Forks run at the WR and it did and I then stated "will it rebound. Personally I hope it does". I have ZERO problems with Texas owning the World Record but it will not be an easy task for them. If it does break the WR it will come from Fork.

Mike

Mike,

We only disagree on the time frame. I think the virus will actually improve the next couple years worth of fishing. It may have hurt our record chance but the reduction in numbers was a good thing for the lake overall and the avg size fish caught was coming up. I took from your post that you thought the virus hurt the lake, long term and completely took it out of the running for the record, but you hoped it came back someday.

I think we're on the same page, you were talking about the record, and I was talking about quality of average fish caught. (which actaully went off topic)