"Might be world record if there ever was one." Ethan McWhorter, Overton Fisheries
Electro harvest today a mix of good & bad news. Good news is that twice as many 15 inch plus LMB were found as during spring, topped by a 21.75 inch 6.3lb LMB. And they shocked up what Ethan described as possibly a world record!
Bad news: Still way too many small, thin LMB, despite vigorous harvest & feeding efforts by yours truly. Crawfish, threadfin shad, tilapia all stocked, feeding CNBG year round. Despite this, relative weights did not improve, and even declined slightly. Ethan said that my place is one of the most prolific breeders of LMB he's ever seen. I wish it weren't!
He also noticed that unlike previous years, there was a large gap in CNBG sizes. Plenty of 2 to 3 inchers and bigguns, but not much in between. He suspects that the drought brought out the prey fish from the shallows early on, and the LMB pigged out. But once the 4 to 7 inch size class was depleted, the larger LMB went on an involuntary diet. TFS are great for the small LMB, but don't sustain bigguns. At least the shad are booming at my place, despite relatively clear water with viz around 3 to 4 feet.
No tilapia were collected, though I've seen a few around the feeders so they aren't completely gone. Ethan suggested increased stocking TP next year to take some pressure off CNBG. Also, if rainbow trout available this winter, could help feed the bass.
The putative world record? Well, Ethan sent me a couple of pics, including one of the weight, and it was incredible. He checked the pics with experts, and they validated his finding that this 11 1/2 inch, 0.45 lb fish was a threadfin (not gizzard!) shad. He's never seen or heard of a TFS remotely that large. Maybe I should try raising shad rather than bass!
Last edited by anthropic; 10/10/2207:06 PM. Reason: Misread 045 lb as 4.5 rather than 0.45!
