








Toyota
ShareLunker 520 Comes from…..…….Wait for It…………Falcon!
ATHENS—Six weeks ago it
looked like no lake in Texas could catch O.H. Ivie in the Toyota ShareLunker
race. By January 30 O.H. Ivie had produced four ShareLunkers, and anglers could
follow the smoke to the lake.
On January 31, Falcon
International Reservoir produced its first ShareLunker of the season.
Ho-hum.
But since then the big
bass lake on the Rio Grande has kicked out five more Toyota ShareLunkers to
O.H. Ivie’s two .
That puts the two
reservoirs neck and neck at six Toyota ShareLunkers each with another six weeks
to go in the season, which ends April 30.
Toyota ShareLunker 520
was caught by Todd Elrod of Fritch, Texas, about 1:00 p.m. March 15. It weighed
13.18 pounds and was 25.5 inches long and 20 inches in girth. Elrod caught the
fish on an Arkie jig in 20 feet of 66 degree water. It was held for pickup at
Robert’s Fish ‘n Tackle, an official Toyota ShareLunker weigh and holding
station in Zapata.
Genetic testing at the
A.E. Wood Fish Hatchery in San Marcos showed Toyota ShareLunker 519 to be pure
Florida largemouth, so that fish will become part of the selective breeding
program at ShareLunker headquarters at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in
Athens.
As of March 15, Lake
Austin had sent three ShareLunkers to Athens and Lake Fork was in with one,
making a total of 16 (so far) this season. Production of 13-pound-plus fish
appears to be likely to exceed the long-term average of 21 per season.
Anyone legally catching a 13-pound
or bigger largemouth bass from Texas waters, public or private, between October
1 and April 30 may submit the fish to the Toyota ShareLunker program by calling
program manager David Campbell at (903) 681-0550 or paging him at (888)
784-0600 and leaving a phone number including area code. Fish will be picked up
by TPWD personnel within 12 hours.
ShareLunker entries are used in a
selective breeding program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in
Athens. Some of the offspring from these fish are stocked back into the water
body from which they were caught. Other ShareLunker offspring are stocked in
public waters around the state in an attempt to increase the overall size and
growth rate of largemouth bass in Texas.
Anglers entering fish into the
Toyota ShareLunker program receive a free replica of their fish, a certificate
and ShareLunker clothing and are recognized at a banquet at the Texas
Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.
The person
who catches the season’s largest entry will be named Angler of the Year and
will receive a prize package from G. Loomis valued at $818. The package
includes a G. Loomis NRX854C jig and worm rod, a Shimano ChronarchD1007 casting
reel and 150 yards of moss green Power Pro super-braid fishing line. If a Texas
angler catches the largest entry of the season, that person also receives a
lifetime fishing license.
For complete information and rules of the
ShareLunker program, tips on caring for big bass, a list of official Toyota
ShareLunker weigh and holding stations and a recap of last year’s season, see www.tpwd.state.tx.us/sharelunker. The site also includes a searchable
database of all fish entered into the program along with pictures where
available.
Information on current catches, including
short videos of interviews with anglers when available, is posted on
www.facebook.com/sharelunkerprogram.
The Toyota ShareLunker Program is
made possible by a grant to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation from Gulf
States Toyota. Toyota is a long-time supporter of the Foundation and Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department, providing major funding for a wide variety of
education, fish, parks and wildlife projects.