How did 2023 stack up ?

So just how did 2023 compare to previous years? Well the weather was pretty good & so was the fun as far as fishing goes the circuit weighed in 424 fish which is a all time record but that number may be a little deceiving because of the larger boat field & having 13 teams in the TOC (but still a very high number). The 983.35 pounds weighed averages out to rank 8th but the 2.319 pound average size of all fish weighed ranks a poor 12th in the past 15 years so not the trend we want to see. Jamie Gibson caught the biggest bass of the season a 5.02 pound largemouth mutt out of Bear Lake. Rob Newhouse & Mike Anselmo weighed in the biggest sack of the year a 15.56 limit of largies on Balsam Lake. Team Andrea won the Head to Head bracket. Joe Wilcox & Eric Hermansen were the Anglers of the Year a title each team sets as a goal when the season kicks off.  As far as new records being broken it is down some but a few have gotten themselves into the books, Gibson/Peterson have now moved into a tie w/Durand/Leverty by getting a team high 6 big bass awards & Larry Henck has now taken over the individual big bass award leader with 5. Newhouse/Anselmo are now leading the current consecutive 5 fish limit catergory with 15 after Team Henck failed to bring in a limit at Bear Lake. Rob Newhouse has now tied Durand/Leverty with 4 TOC wins.Rob now has also moved into the lead with a record high 12.24 lb. average for a TOC limit followed by Jamie Gibson w/12.06. Bear Lake also set a TOC record for bringing in 63 bass but again the 13 teams qualified (instead of 12) had something to do with that. We also had a 2 time winner for the fisrt time in a few years as Newhouse/Anselmo won 2 of the 5 tourneys. So looking back at some of the numbers for recent years the big 16+ pound sacks have really been dwindling which is very alarming, for a while it seemed this wasn't the case for Haywards powerhouse smallie lakes but that trend seems to be going backwards currently as well. Reason's may be just cycles or could it be fishing pressure which isn't gonna go away everybody can form their own opions but whatever the case bring on 2024!!!!!!