World record bass?

[Gordie]

Today I watched a show about how they are trying to grow world record bass in old mine pit reservoirs that are private lakes.

The Texas DNR has a program called share a trophy and the fisherman donates his fish that is over 13 pounds and then they use the fish for breeding purposes then they release the fish where it was caught.

Now. I think this is a great program but is this a true record fish I mean it's being raised to be the record fish and it's in a man made lake that is private and has no pressure. Until they open it to fishing.

Now I know that you can't make a fish bite a lure but these fish don't have the pressure on them so I would think it would be easier to catch one. They may also transplant these fish into other lakes.

They also are using a Florida strain largemouth to achieve this instead of the northern strain that is native to Texas .

Do you guys think that if a world record is in fact caught should it be considered a true record book bass?

If they catch this fish in a private lake wouldnt that kind of be like high fence hunting?

I'm all for catching big fish and stocking programs but where do you draw line with it?

Thanks for your responses

[smnduck]

Sounds kinda like the deer program down there also.

[c0untryf1sh3r]

I personally wouldnt call it a record bass considering we (we being science type folks) stepped in and took mother natures place and pretty much grew the fish to be a record class fish. Instead of letting things run their course and naturally produce big fish. Also, like you said Gordie, it is being raised in a private pond, so it doesnt have to necessarily look very hard to find food so it will get more of the nutrients vital to fish growth therefor producing bigger fish than wild raised fish.

I'm not going to ramble on anymore so short answer, NO. To me it should not be classified as a record book bass if its farm raised.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

I don't know of the program or everything you mentioned but am familiar with the Texas Share Lunkers program. I wouldnt call that cheating at all.

If you catch a 13 lb or larger fish in Texas you can donate it to the Texas DNR and they use that fish in their stocking efforts in an attempt to ensure those big fish genes get passed on in an attempt to make more 10 lb + fish available.

They could take the fish that was named 'Dotty' that supposedly reached 25 lbs at one point, breed that fish and stock it all over the state of California and its offspring would probably have great growth rates and would probably get quite large but good genetics are just one part of the equation for growing a world record fish in the wild.

The MN DNR does something similiar, choosing to stock the Leech lake muskie strain that has better growth genetic than other strains do.

If they raised world records or even 15+ lb bass in captivity then released them into a lake to be potentially caught that's a little bogus.

[fishuhalik]

tutf, dotty died a few years ago so I don't think that's gonna happen. I think it's ridiculous. Nothing different from calling a pen-raised deer a record. There were those triploid rainbows that escaped into Diefenbacker (sp?) Lake up in a Canada a few years ago that grew to world-record size and they were included in the record books. A little sketchy, but that lake is thousands of acres and I think fair chase would still apply. I'm sure there's plenty of people that would disagree with me on that one though!!

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Yeah I know Dotty turned up dead.

I agree if they actually raised these fish to trophy status then released them that's a little, dare I say it..... fishy. But to take the fry or yearling offspring and stock them, then let nature take its course, I see nothing wrong with that.

[Gordie]

This was on the Texas Share a Lunker Program it was aired on The North Americsn Fishing Journal. Sorry I got the Name of the Program wrong

They had shown a 16lb bass that was caught and they were done with her for breeding purposes then they released her back where she was caught.

[workin4bait]

Is this really that much different than putting Florida strain bass in Califoria reservoirs and adding trout? I understand the trout are not just to feed the bass. My point is the bass are not native to California and some of these waters are hard to access by joe public.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

They had shown a 16lb bass that was caught and they were done with her for breeding purposes then they released her back where she was caught.

I don't see a problem with this at all.

[ricqik]

Imo, it should not matter whether farm raised or wild caught. World record by them sports organization is just that, "sport". To me world record means biggest/largest, no matter how it got there. Its a world record for a reason n that is being the biggest/largest. It does not have to be "sport" caught to be a world record. We, like many have lost the meaning of world record, we automatically associate it with "sport" when really it should just be about its size.