Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Just curious i have been here 4 times all were very productive with big fish almost going 5lbs. My question is when is the last time anyone heard of a DD coming out of there?
I talk to ppl lots and they say a 7 was caught last yr and a 8+ 2 yrs ago, anyone here anything ?

Thanks to the amount of "meat eaters" that convrerge on the small lake every spring, sadly the lake has been in and continues to be decline. I know there were several DD's caught last year, only 1 was safely released that I know of. Overfishing and pressure have killed the lake.

The term “giant bass” has lost it’s meaning. At one point in time the term “lunker” met a big bass over 7 lbs. we the western bass anglers coined the term giant bass as Florida strain 10+ lb bass started to be come more common. The late Bill Murphy started calling a bass over 12 lbs or a teener a giant bass in his book In Pursuit of Giant Bass. Today when TV tournament coverage has Ike shouting a “giant=bass” for 3 lb Bass the term is lost.
Tom
PS, the whale that surfaces gets harpooned.

The guys from urban bass slayers on youtube caught an 11 cast to catch on video in 2020

Had a 7 1/2 last year there, only fish I caught all day. But I did see a fish of the 16lb category floating it was a shame to see. But I’ll tell yah I put the fins and snorkel on and I’ll tell yah there are plenty of DD’s swimming around.

WRB wrote:The term “giant bass” has lost it’s meaning. At one point in time the term “lunker” met a big bass over 7 lbs. we the western bass anglers coined the term giant bass as Florida strain 10+ lb bass started to be come more common. The late Bill Murphy started calling a bass over 12 lbs or a teener a giant bass in his book In Pursuit of Giant Bass. Today when TV tournament coverage has Ike shouting a “giant=bass” for 3 lb Bass the term is lost.
Tom
PS, the whale that surfaces gets harpooned.

What i read stated bill murphy fished 2 lakes basiclly all of his life, both those lakes had FL Strain put in and were pushing out the more impressive fish of the state consistantly. I love the book read it 4 times cover to cover and every other bass book. One i read stated a lmb northern strain is a trophy once it gets 6+ and a FL strain 8+ lbs There is also a state by state census that states all the fish and what size by species is considered to them a trophy just felt i would add that. Some states some lakes ect ect just do not put out Trophys. Could bill murphy catch what he did if he fished in 2020 not back in the 70's-90's?

72 lb 5 bass limit! When FLMB were introduced and released into San Diego city lakes Lower Otay was the 1st public lake. Sutherland, El Captain, San Vicente, Hodges followed, Murphy fished all of them.
The mid-late 60’s was the time period, the 70’s 1st generation FLMB we’re maturing and by the 80’s the original giants were gone. Following decades pure Florida’s and F1’s faded. Isolated lakes like Dixon not on the radar were exceptions. Bill Murphy studied these fish and knew where they located, had he lived I am sure Bill would have caught his 20, he manage to catch a 72 lb 5 bass. Limit! I Never caught my 20 but came close.
Tom

The book he wrote it says he really only focused on 2 lakes. He wrote it!

Book also says he fished live bait sometimes.

Murphy used everything legal to catch big bass. Double Anchoring and bait fishing was developed in SD lakes because it works. We developed bass fishing skills catching Northern LMB that are very aggressive compared to FLMB. Hand poured big soft plastic worms also were created to catch FLMB that tend to avoid mass produced injection molded worms. Anchoring and Stitching big worms slowly along the bottom is the presentation used to fish nose hooked live crawdads.
Bill Murphy was a dedicated trophy bass angler 1st and foremost. His techniques were geared to that end.
I stopped using live bait in 1971 a personal choice. Looking back that decision handicapped my goal of catching the world record bass. Don’t look down in legal live bait anglers, there is a skill set to it. I choose jigs, worms and swimbaits during the 80’ to present and was very successful.
How Murphy fished is secondary to his knowledge of where to fish.
Tom

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Was this in the last yr?

Catch and release culture has been the death of trophy bass fishing. I have a brief but telling length-at-age data set on LMB collected by OEHHA (collect fish for mercury testing) that shows how slow the growth of bass has become. All but two of the bass collected in the data set from multiple lakes in SoCal (n=317) are less than 20" (about 4 lbs) and as old as 13 years. The biggest fish was not even 24" and was 15 years old. Dottie, who I helped age, was 16.Longevity is there but the growth is not. Giants rarely exist because they don't grow fast enough to exist.

I correlate C&R culture with the decline because all of the angler surveys I conduct now (DVL, Perris & Skinner) overwhelmingly show C&R of bass dominates over what happened "back in the heyday". A study I read by Bottroff and Lembeck from El Capitan 1970-85 showed 17-56% exploitation from angler harvest. My angler surveys show <1-3% exploitation by angler harvest. It is no coincidence that there were so many more giant bass in the 80's-90's as a result of the harvest rates back then. relative to how it is now.