New size limits

[JimDicken]

>do it right...want big fish? set big fish rules!!! i say lake
>fork rules... 16-24 slot 1 under 1 over . better yet none
>over. what a great tourney for you tourney boys,nothing over
>15 and 15/16. wipes out 1 big fish winning don't you think?
>how many ntournaments have been one by someone with 1 small
>keeper and 1 big one,beating someone with 5 ave keepers. If it
>was up to me,cedar creek would have been closed to fishing for
>5 years then catch and release only .worked for other lakes

That worked great for Lake Fork for a while. But now they have a problem where they are NOT getting any fish over 9 pounds any more. They used to get 2 or 3 a year over 14... but only 1 has been weighed in the last few years. They suspect that too many fish in the slot to 26 inch size are now in the lake. Kentucky is NOT going to produce numbers of fish over 8 or 9 pounds setting the limit too high will actually create a similar situation. It WILL in my opinion work for a few years on smallmouth but I do not believe that it will work for Largemouth here. The slot limit on Dale is a good example. Continuing numbers of fish in the 5 to 7 pound range are increasing and I expect we will soon see some 8's and 9's. BUT a 25000 acre lake can only hold so many fish. Eventually overpopulation will create a stunting, and while it may happen at say the 7 pound range I dont see anyone complaining.
MY POINT and I finally got to it.. is this.. Once in a while you have to take the slot off and cull the lake to allow for the bigger fish. Just my opinion. I am fine with a slot limit to a point, but at some point you have to take the slot off and cull the numbers back say for 3 months or 6 months in a year. Then go back to the slot. It may not happen for 5 years, but like Texas we could see a situation where our lakes over populate fish in the 5 to 7 pound range.. (Yeah that would be a tragedy wouldn''t it? LOL) and we stop getting the larger fish..
WHAT AM I COMPLAINING ABOUT.

[roadrunner]

Jim:

I believe Lake Fork is a cooling lake for a generation plant. I live about twenty miles from Merom power plant cooling lake. This lake was the best bass I have ever fished. I have had numerous days of 100+ bass. They put a two bass 18 inch limit on this lake for several years. We had lots of three to six pound fish. Next the limit changed to one twenty one inch fish. I don't think anyone kept any fish. This lake was also full of huge Crappie the crappie fishermen harvested the fish (25 fish limit). After about 15-20 years the massive weed beds died off today you are lucky to catch a fish there. This same cycle happened at another power plant lake I fished at Newton Illinois. This lake was never the great lake Merom was however it had some Big bass good crappie. First the crappie disappeared then the weeds were gone. Now after about ten years the bass and shore line weeds are coming back at Newton. I believe there is a problem sustaining power plant lakes. Do you know if Lake Fork is losing its weeds and crappie?

[JimDicken]

Not that I know of. Lake Fork is still kicking out lots of big fish, but the number of top 50 fish has dropped significantly.. That is why some speculate that there are just too many BIG fish and not enough small ones. Eventually a closed system has to reach a population limit. Then the fish stop growing. There is only enough food to support so many pounds of fish.
Lets say a pond can hold 100 pounds of bass biomass. IF you take only the fish that are over 5 pounds eventually you end up with a pond with 20 / 5 pound fish. OR 30 2 pounders and 8 / 5 pounders.. Lake fork has so many fish over 8 pounds that there is no room for many fish OVER 8 pounds to 10 pounds.
Crappie do not have that problem because they are not catch and release.
Jim