By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
Anglers’ generosity earlier this year is already helping to create bigger, better bass fishing in Texas through the Toyota ShareLunker program.
This year, four 13-pound or larger largemouth bass were caught on Texas lakes during the spawning period and donated to the program for selective breeding.
One of those lunkers spawned twice, generating more than 28,000 fingerlings.
“A portion of each of those spawns is divided up into the contributing water bodies. For this year, we had (lakes) Alan Henry, Nacogdoches and O.H. Ivie,” Kyle Brookshear, Toyota ShareLunker Program coordinator, told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network.
Those lakes received the fingerlings because the donated ShareLunkers from this year were caught there.
Another portion of the fingerlings produced this year will be retained at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.
“Basically, they’re grown out to adults, so we can incorporate them into our future broodstock class,” Brookshear said.
That’s part of an overall goal of converting all the broodstock at the fisheries center to ShareLunker offspring.
“Instead of the traditional bass that we have in our hatchery that produce the millions of offspring each year, we’re converting that over to direct offspring from these fish that are loaned,” Brookshear said. “It allows us to take these selectively bred offspring and stock them out into lakes in the millions, instead of hundreds of thousands, like we do each year.”
This year, more than 14,000 advanced fingerlings from last year’s ShareLunkers were released into Gilmer reservoir, Lake Pflugerville, Kurth, Lake Tyler, ponds within the future footprint of Bois d’Ark Lake and Murval.
“You start at a large number. Then as these fish grow, you slowly pare them down to the fish that you need in order to have a brood stock,” Brookshear said. “The excess fish that we have, when we pare them down, we stock those into lakes around the state. We had several lakes that our biologists determined would be part of that stocking.”
The ShareLunker program runs year-round with the donation period during spawning from January through March.
Largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more donated during that window are deemed Legacy Class Lunkers and are used for spawning. Catching one can earn an angler a replica of their fish and entry into a drawing for a $5,000 shopping spree at Bass Pro Shops.
Outside of the spawning window, the program collects catch data from largemouth bass eight pounds or larger, or 24-inches or longer, caught in Texas lakes.
“Every year, we kick off in January with the Legacy class donation, as well as our other classes of fish, eight pounds or larger,” Brookshear said. “What that does for those anglers that aren’t donating 13-pound fish in the collection season—whether that’s closed or they don’t catch them that large—they’re able to provide their catch and genetic data about those bass by entering it through our website or mobile app.”
That data gives the program a set of information for biologists that allows them to better manage the lunker bass population in a given reservoir.
“Our traditional sampling methods that our biologists implement every year don’t collect a significant portion of those fish of that size,” Brookshear said. “Getting that information from our anglers, our citizen scientists that are partnering with us to really help management our fisheries for those trophy-sized bass is huge.”
Since 1986, the program has been partnering with anglers to promote and enhance bass fishing in Texas. Each season, which runs Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, anglers have new opportunities to participate in the program and be recognized for their contributions.
Anglers may submit catch data on the ShareLunker app or on TexasShareLunker.com for a chance to win one of several prizes.