AZAG08 said:
What are the conditions that are conducive to growing bigger bass?
There are really three factors that we do not have and will never have in Texas.
1. All of the bass in these California big bass lakes are 100% Florida strain genetics. Even though we do stock a lot of Florida strain bass in our lakes, the reality is that most of our bass are a Florida/Northern cross in genetics. This is due to the fact that the Northern strain was already present prior to the introduction of the Florida genetics. The nice thing is these fish can still get very large. An 8 pound bass used to be a huge fish prior to the introduction of the Florida genetics. If you look back at the history of large bass in Texas this is obvious. The "old" state record doesn't even make the top 50 list.
2. Forage. These California lakes have trout in them which must have a higher protein content to allow for the larger growth.
3. Weather. It is a very temperate climate year round where these fish come out of. Look at Texas for comparison. Fairly cold in the winter and hotter than crap in the summer. I think the temperate environment allows for a much longer or even continual growing period compared to Texas.
Last thought is about the SAL program where we have tried to use the genetics to our advantage. I donated one myself. You would think that if we could grow a fish the size of those California monsters it would have already happened. So it tells me that genetics is not the only factor in this. There may be other factors than the 3 I mentioned but I think there is clearly something going on that we cannot reproduce here in Texas.
