This whole thread makes my head hurt. I believe everything that Bob said is probably correct, but I don't feel like results for super sized LMB are anything more than a roll of the dice in the wild.
In Texas, where we like everything bigger and better, a tremendous white tail deer hi-fence culture has emerged. Breeding males are pen raised, and semen sold, much like race horses and cattle. Some of these bucks have rack sizes that are obscenely huge to say the least. When they breed though, the actual results reflect lots of trophy deer, but few new state records.
The lack of any new TX state records for LMB however, tends to make me believe the results are almost completely forage based. When Fork filled, there was unlimited forage for an incredibly small LMB population. Now, years down the road, Lake Fork produces hundreds of 10 pound LMB annually, and almost on a daily basis. But few are over 13 pounds. The competition for forage has increased, so the true monsters have to fight more for food.
With the loss of water at Fork and Falcon last year, and the subsequent refilling, I believe the next several years will show a tremendous number of new trophy LMB. Tilapia at Falcon, and shad at Fork drive the food chain, and I know for a fact that Fork has roaming schools of shad that literally black out a graph.
So, unless you only stock genetically superior females in a clean pond, add an abundance of forage of differing sizes, then wait 10 years, I don't know if real world results will ever reach their true potential. It is fun to try though.
Last edited by FireIsHot; 05/30/12 08:14 AM.
