"On largemouth and smallmouth, a 14-20 inch slot, with 3 fish under 14 and 1 fish over. But the tournament crowd would scream bloody murder over that idea, and don't kid yourself...these days the tournament crowd has all the power."
That's what happened on the Coosa river lakes proposed changes, the Alabama DCNR proposed a 14-20" slot limit for bass, the tourney crowd and local chambers of commerce freaked out and got the proposal killed off. So in that case, the tournament crowd exercised their power. In spite of a study showing a 30% mortality rate to bass that are kept in a livewell, which was the reason for the proposal. Economics won out over fish management.
The thing is, Lake Fork has had a slot limit for years and that lake is pounded by tourney and recreational bass fishermen. If the fishing is good, people will come and fish. Killing off a slot limit proposal designed to improve the quality of the bass population was short sighted. I highlighted a statement below that shows you how hard is to bring about change that could be beneficial to the fishery. People complain about the fishing being poor, but fight back against any changes designed to improve the quality of the fishery.
"Slot limits have been a hot topic in Alabama in recent months. In November 2024, the Alabama Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries Division proposed a plan to institute a 14- to 20-inch tournament-only slot limit for all six lakes on the Coosa River in response to research conducted by Auburn University that tracked bass mortality rates on the Neely Henry Reservoir over the past three years.
The DCNR paid for that research project to the tune of $843,000 “in response to persistent complaints from anglers about the declining quality of the black bass fisheries on Coosa River reservoirs.”
“After taking into consideration all of the fisheries data collected by our staff, various scientific studies and feedback from tournament and local fishermen as well as many city and county government entities, I have determined that the short-term economic impacts of a 14-20 inch slot limit outweigh the long-term benefits of a larger size structure of the bass population on the Coosa River reservoirs. At this time, no changes for the Coosa River fishery will be presented to the Conservation Advisory Board for consideration."