I'm blessed to have some incredible large ponds to fish and I catch more big fish out of them than what I see posted on here with the rare exception. I started fishing all three back in the 80's and remember how good they were. Did a lot of tournaments on them and Gaston and Kerr too which I though both were way overrated even back then.
I don't think the fishing is so poor because of aging lakes, but rather tournament delayed mortality. I'd like to see the lakes good again or at least a shadow of their former greatness. Anybody support the idea of banning tournaments for a few years to see if things could recover some?
If you didn't fish SH, Jordan or Falls back in the day I know this will sound crazy, but I know there's enough on here that remember what it was like. I can't imagine running a high dollar bass rig around the Triangle and gas , etc. and settling for what an average day is like these days. At this rate the sport of bass fishing will be dead in 10 years. Except for maybe perfect conditions late winter/early Spring on Jordan you couldn't pay me to waste a day on the water when I know what I can catch on these ponds on average. I grew up fishing the Potomac before people realized the place was stupid full of nice bass back in the 70's and even though it's still good it's also nothing like it was. Anna was great ( for Virginia ) for a few years and for a few more on the hot side, but pretty much everything that gets pounded has about died compared to the good old days.
If I was just starting out bass fishing now. I'd have lasted 6 months and taken up golf