By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
It has already been a monumental year for Texas anglers and the Toyota ShareLunker program that helps to create bigger, better bass in Texas.
In the first few months of each year, anglers who catch a largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more may loan the catch to the program for selective breeding at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens.
This year, 24 fish meeting the weight requirement, dubbed Legacy Class ShareLunkers, were loaned to the program.
“We paired those up, and we had a good number of spawns this year,” Tom Lang, TFFC director, said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “Those fingerlings are already being restocked back out to Texas lakes, and those ShareLunkers have been returned to their home waters.”
This season’s loaned lunkers surpasses the 23 Legacy class fish caught last year and nears the record set in the 1990s.
“If you compare apples to apples—because the seasons have changed—if you look at January, February and March, over the course of the history of the program, we’d have to go back to 1995 to find a year where more had been turned in during this time frame,” Lang, who is also the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Inland Fisheries Division Outreach director, said. “That’s really exceptional, I think. That year, we had 27 turned in.”
It was a close call, though, as some anglers reeled in the big one but were unable to loan it to the program.
“I know there were a number of lunkers this year that didn’t make it to us. I think one was all the way down in Falcon (Reservoir), and the guy was in a kayak, so he had no real way to take care of that fish. He went ahead and let that go, and we applaud that,” Lang said. “That could have been another one, and there were some others we know of, too. So, it’s just been a heck of a great fishing year.”
Nine different waterbodies produced largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more from January through March. OH Ivie Lake, east of San Angelo, produced half of this year’s loaned lunkers.
“That lake is absolutely on fire, and the more that we have anglers doing great fish care–they’re still out there catching them right now–and releasing those fish, the longer that will last,” Lang said.
One lunker, weighing in at 17.06 pounds, set a new lake record on OH Ivie.
“Our state record is 18.18. To have a 17.06 turned in—the seventh largest bass ever verified on public or private water in Texas—that’s amazing,” Lang said. “That fish was put right back out there after getting first class fish healthcare at our hatcheries, and it’s ready to be caught again.”
This year, Lake Daniel, which is southeast of Breckenridge, became the 75th public waterbody to contribute a Legacy Class fish.
“You can talk about great bass fishing in different places across the country, and obviously I’m biased, but my goodness, can you tell me anywhere else that has 75 different public lakes produce 13-plus pound bass?” Lang said.
Two new lake records were set on Lake Daniel this year. Lake records were also set on Eagle Mountain and OH Ivie.
“We’re grateful that so many anglers caught their fish of a lifetime this season and then decided to share their lunker with us so we can make more of these bigger, better bass for future generations of anglers,” Lang said.
Each year, the loaned fish are spawned at TFFC. When the offspring from those lunkers reach fingerling size, they’re stocked back into the lakes the loaned lunkers were caught.
“Some folks will say, ‘That fish would have spawned anyway.’ It might or might not have. They don’t spawn every year,” Lang said. “It’s highly unlikely that lunker out in the lake will spawn with the male offspring of previous lunkers, which is what we do here.”
Selective breeding at TFFC also protects the lunkers from predators and temperature swings they might endure while trying to spawn in the wild.
“I can guarantee that here in our hatchery with ideal settings, we have a much better success rate on how many spawn are made and how many survive to that fingerling and large class,” Lang said.
The loaned lunkers are also released back into the lakes where they were caught, giving future anglers a chance to reel them, or their offspring, in.
“We actually had two this year that were direct descendants of previous ShareLunkers,” Lang said. “ShareLunker 625 from Lake Austin is the direct offspring of ShareLunker 446 from Richland Chambers, which was caught back in 2008.”
A ShareLunker caught this year on OH Ivie is the daughter of a ShareLunker caught on the same lake in 2012.
“So, you see these ShareLunkers, these genetics, making more of those bass,” Lang said.
The anglers who caught this year’s Legacy Class fish will receive a catch kit with merchandise, a vehicle decal, VIP access to the ShareLunker annual awards and a replica mount of their lunker. They’ll also be entered into two drawings for a chance to win a $5,000 shopping spree and an annual fishing license.
Although the loaning period for Legacy class lunkers is over for the year, anglers can still help create bigger, better bass in Texas by submitting catch and genetic data on largemouth bass that are at least eight pounds or 24 inches long via the ShareLunker: TX Bass Fishing app.
“Have that app downloaded on your phone and take pictures to prove (your catch). That provides valuable data for our biologists to help manage fisheries. We reward the anglers for doing that,” Lang said. “As a fisheries biologist, I can tell you that when we would go out and do our sampling, these bigger, better bass are not something that we see in proportion to how they are in the population. They’re harder for us to sample. So, when anglers provide that data, it helps fill a gap.”
By doing that, anglers are helping the department make better decisions on how to manage Texas fisheries for exceptional bass.
“They can also help us with analyzing genetic pieces. Take pictures of the bass on a digital scale and on a measuring board that shows it’s over 24 inches, and upload that to the app,” Lang said. “Then, just take a few scale samples and send them to us.”
Anglers can take a couple of scales off the side of the fish, drop them in an envelope with the identification number from their entry on the ShareLunker app and mail it to the program.
Those who submit catch and genetic data will receive a catch kit, decal and entry into the year-end grand prize drawing to win a $5,000 Bass Pro Shops shopping spree and annual fishing license.
Additional information on how to enter, and this year’s prizes, is available on TexasShareLunker.com.