Big Bass Are Disappearing From America’s Lakes…And Here’s Why…

Wow Randy, I am truly amazed at how hypocritical and uneducated you can be all in a short video. When you talk about "fishing pressure" are you talking about guys like you who fished tournaments for YEARS and have caught and (by your logic) killed more bass than 99.99% of bass fisherman alive? OR are you just talking about the people who are fishing now? Trying to have fun and enjoy the sport that you and people like you have made popular. Its YOUR FAULT bass fishing is popular. Don't get upset that table rock lake is full of people. You're part of the reason it is.

The reason bass are not as big is because of over competition between fish, and people don't keep enough bass. Do you even realize what you said in your videos? In the 80's and 90's people kept more bass, and the bass were bigger. That's because we kept the number of bass lower and they had more to eat. That is why so many absolute monster bass came from Japan in the 90s/2000s. The largemouth was classified as an endangered species, and you had to kill them when you caught them. There are countless other videos and articles saying this. And no randy, you "managing" a 40 acre pond that already had big bass in it when you got there does not mean you're a qualified fisheries biologist.

On a side note, largemouth and smallmouth bass aren't the only things in the lake. The biologists who manage these lakes have to take into account the stripers, white bass, crappie, walleye, catfish, and even the baitfish populations. The largemouth and smallmouth guys (especially tournament guys) are just the most vocal and whine all the time. The reason Texas has big bass is multifactorial, it is not due to the share a lunker program entirely. Texas is at the forefront with stocking and surveying efforts, and dedicate more of their resources to trophy bass. They also widely use a slot limit, especially on their "trophy lakes". They want people to keep and remove bass 12" and less, because those bass are competing for the food resources vital to growing fish fast that gets them to spawning age quickly, and they want to slow down reproduction of the bass. If we kept more small bass from these lakes, the bigger fish would have more food, and could grow more.

Also, stop bashing everyone who just got into fishing in the last 3-5 years. A lot of people had to work their whole lives and didn't get the opportunities you did to fish the entire country all you wanted. And you have used that opportunity to spend the later half of your life making clickbait videos to make people on the internet mad. And yes, you got me on this one.

This is bullshit, we have more big bass than ever before because of management practices. Also catch and release from the fishermen.

Genetics has nothing to do with it. Big bass can’t grow if everyone keeps releasing bass. I know far more people that would never keep a bass than would eat their delicious meat. Also big bass need lakes with low populations which in turn means more food for them to grow big. Can’t expect a 15 pounder to beat 1,000 half pounders to a meal.

TOO MUCH FISHING PRESSURE

Ever think it could be the chemicals that end up in all our fisheries?

In my world, a big largemouth now is 3-5 pounds. The occasional 6 plus pounder is getting rare.