You have to remember that Travis and I live in the mountains of NC not the flat land. These are by far the highest mountains east of the Mississippi. It was 26-27 at my house the last two mornings and I had 3 inches of snow yesterday. This is coming from a yankee, I was born and raised in PA till I joined the military so trust me, its not as warm here as everyone thinks. It is consistently colder here than in PA in the summer.
The NC state record is definitely 15lb 14oz. I have met Phil Cable who has the Jordan Lake record of like 14-6 and a few other guys with mid teen fish in the piedmont, they were almost all 20 years ago or in the spawn bedfishing or both.
As for shocking up 15-17lb bass, Chris I know we texted about this but I will say it again, there are lots of things wrong with that story. 1. I have heard it about literally every "big fish" lake in the piedmont. Jordan, Harris, Falls, Michie, Bond, Cane Creek, you name it. 2. Where are the pics? Because my better half is a biologist that used to work extensively in fisheries I know a good many of they guys that shock. They always have a camera. Also they rarely see big fish so they get really excited when they do, If you follow their FB page you will see they freaked out about shocking a 20lb striper, they posted pictures of that thing like 30 times.
None of this is to say though that I don't think our lakes can produce high teen fish, I mostly fish in NC, SC, and GA. Randall has a damn near 16 from GA, and I know guys that have 14's in NC and SC. Most of the guys I know with mid teen fish, say they have seen MUCH bigger fish, and these are guys that seriously know big fish. There are several lakes in the mountains here that I would bet money on have a 17+ in them somewhere.
To briefly address the original topic. California has more DDs swimming around for certain, but me, I could care less. Lakes in Mexico probably has more than Cali, and I KNOW lakes in South Africa do. I think even Don would have trouble if a stick from S. Africa started competing on here. Honestly the swimbait fishing here is leaps and bounds better than it is just east of here out of the mountains, its like two different worlds. So do Travis and I have an edge over my buddies Chris and Dave from the piedmont? Yes, but at the same time Dave has won what like 2 tourneys? Of course Travis has won several as well. No its not completely equal at all, but I doesn't have to be. Its just for fun, I just like catching big fish. Which I don't get to do nearly often enough.
(btw Cam I would take a 7+lb smallie like you have over a DD LM every day of the week, even though it probably won't win a tourney, I would be way more stoked about that. Im going to try for one this winter in TN)
You two definitely have the upper advantage being on lakes that are applicable to swimbait fishing. But whos to say there isnt a teener fish in harris? Not you said it, but that slot limit as i stated in my other post "and sure you know this terry since you use to live right by it. Allows fish to get up into the 7+ pond range so whos not to say there isnt a teener in there. 17 does sound a bit extreme to me and without correct documentation im not gonna stand behind that 100% but because of the conditions of the lake (i.e. The slot limit, the abundance of baitfish, and not much competition from any other species) those seem like pretty good factors o me to produce a teener fish.
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