For quite a while I have been saving articles next to my desk thinking I would recap the Toyota ShareLunker bass program and it just kept slipping by until today when I just said I have to do something. For the past 30 years there has been some special stocking by the Texas Parks and Wild Life Department and also by various fishing groups who just enjoy catching the “big” ones and want Texas fishing to compete with the best.
All over Texas, the average size of largemouth bass has been growing for the most part by importing special pure-strain Florida bass from fisheries and by imposing catch and release regulations. Here are four related articles I found really interesting
1. 5/18/2014 – Houston Chronicle – “Lake Fork puts the large in largemouth bass”. The photo shows a 15.5 pounder and adds ” a single 15 bass stringer landed in the 3-day tournament weighed 110 pounds”. Even though many fishermen have caught a bass there over 8 pounds and the 6 best largemouth bass records are from Fork Lake, it was still ranked 10th on Bassmasters’ best Texas bass fishing lakes.
2. 3/19/2015 – Katy Times – “Recently three ShareLunkers were caught by Texas anglers” – a 15.18 pounder from Lake Ray Roberts, a 13 pounder and a 14.32 pounder from Lake Sam Rayburn A shareLunker is a 13 pound minimum bass that is donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. and sent to a hatchery where the fry are harvested and sent to lakes all over the state. The program in Texas was started in 1986.
3. 1/11/2018 – Houston Chronicle – “ShareLunker program expands its range.” This article is exciting because now almost any fisherman can participate in the state program. “The core of Sharelunker-using 13-pound and bigger fish donated by anglers is still in place”, but now they only accept fish caught between January 1st and March 31st. That is because those winter fish have proven most successful at spawning in the hatcheries. Although there have been only 570 of the 13 pounders donated, the fingerlings in the hatcheries have resulted in millions of the frys being distributed in lakes throughout Texas. Now, a new aspect of the program now will allow all fishermen to send in photographs of their 8+ pounders, which the TPWD can use to keep track of large bass populations all over the state. Both categories could result in anglers winning a $5000 prize and getting a “catch” kit.
4. 4/26/2018 – Houston Chronicle – “Revamped bass program is a big success” As of April 15th this year, Texas anglers have entered more than 200 qualifying 8+ pound bass photographs from 64 different public lakes and ponds. Kyle Brookshear, a marine biologist with TPWD said he expects as many as 700 entries into the new 8 pound plus program by the end of the year.
What I find really strange is all but 1 of the top 30 record fish were caught before the year 2000. (16th place, a 16.17 pounder was caught in 2010). The record largemouth bass for Texas was caught by Barry StClair in Lake Fork in 1992 and weighed 18.18 pounds at only 25.5inches. The largest unofficial largemouth bass I am aware of in Ft. Bend County was in a private lake in Katy and weighed just under 8 pounds (based on a length of 23 inches using the chart below).
I have a chart with the following estimated weights for largemouth bass that reads 12″=1lb.1oz, 13″=1lb.8oz, 14″=1lb.11oz, 15″=2lb.2oz, 16″=2lb.9oz, 17″=3lb.1oz, 18″=3lb.10oz, 19″=4lb.4oz, 20″=5lb.0oz, 21″=5lb.12oz, 22″=6lb.10oz, 23″=7lb.14oz, 24″=8lb.14oz and 25″=17lb.12oz.
The chart is not at all exact as the number 2 state record was 17lb.6oz at 27″ also caught at Lake Fork in 1986.
Crappie fishing has been really good so far in 2018 and just maybe the extra Spring rains washed a larger than normal food supply into the lakes and ponds in our area. We know the floods from hurricane Harvey and the flood waters in 2016 washed lots of freshwater fish from lake to lake and ponds that had never had fish prior to now are showing signs of surprising good fishing. That is also evident by the number of birds catching fish in small ponds and ditches.
Brazos Bend has been pretty good for bass, crappie and catfish but I was told last week that the alligators seem to be everywhere and should be respected if that is a fishing destination. I haven’t received any local fishing reports recently but will pass on any great fishing reports that come my way.
Good luck to all fellow fishermen and hopefully we can set a new record this year!