$7,000 dollars Texas bass is out there

08:01 PM CST on Saturday, January 14, 2006


Big bass season is off to a running start. With the
traditional peak six to 10 weeks away, Texas Parks and
Wildlife's Budweiser ShareLunker program already has
three entries from three lakes.

The ShareLunker program accepts live and healthy
largemouth bass that weigh 13 pounds or more. The fish
are donated by fishermen to be used in the state
hatchery system. The idea is to create superbass. The
program runs through April. March is the traditional
peak of the big bass season.

Two of the early lunkers are lake records, and the
biggest of the bunch is the heaviest lunker in three
years. It ranks 27th on the Texas Top 50 largemouth
list. Jon Babich of Lewisville got the ball rolling
Nov. 11 with a Lewisville Lake record that weighed
13.63 pounds.

It was Lewisville's first ShareLunker. More
importantly, it was the fourth lake record for
Lewisville since June.

On Dec. 11, Frank Brown of Houston caught a
14.22-pounder from Lake Conroe, a lake north of
Houston that's produced nine total lunkers. Tom
Sutherland of Del Rio kicked the New Year off early on
Dec. 28 with fireworks of his own. Sutherland was
fishing at Lake Amistad when he landed a 15.68-pound
bigmouth, the first Amistad lunker since 2000 and the
third caught from the big lake on the Rio Grande.

Sutherland's fish is the biggest bass reported caught
in Texas since Jim Harrell's 16.12-pound Lake Fork
lunker from 2002. Sutherland's fish is a Lake Amistad
record, beating the old mark of 15.58, caught in 1989.
It's also the 394th entry in the program that began
with a state record fish in 1987.

Two state-record bass have been ShareLunker entries,
along with 36 lake records. Sixteen potential lake
record fish were lunkers, but the anglers never did
the paperwork to certify them for the record program.

In the next 45 days, some lucky angler will catch
ShareLunker No. 400. TP&W has decided to make a big
deal out of that one. ShareLunker participants already
receive a replica mount of their fish ($350 value) and
a logo jacket worth about $250. They're also
recognized at a Hall of Fame banquet in Athens. The
angler who catches the season's biggest fish is
awarded a lifetime fishing license worth $600.

"We believe that 400 lunkers is a significant
milestone, and we decided to create a little extra
excitement," said Allen Forshage, director of the
Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.

The angler who catches lunker No. 400 will receive the
usual prizes, plus a cash award of $400 a pound (based
on the fish's weight) and a personalized G. Loomis rod
with a Shimano reel. The rod and reel are valued at
$600. If the angler is a Texas resident, he also gets
a lifetime fishing license (also worth $600), Forshage
said.

The cash award is at least $5,200. The total package
should be worth about $7,000, possibly more. In the
event that multiple fish are caught the same day, the
angler who first reports his or her fish to TP&W and
fulfills the program rules will be counted as No. 400.


Several factors point to 2005-2006 being a good
production year for big bass. Last year's lunker
program had 24 entries, the most since 1995-1996, a
season that produced 26 of the big fish.

New lakes, such as Lewisville, show up on the lunker
list almost every year. A total of 53 public lakes and
12 private lakes have yielded lunkers. If the mild
weather holds, more anglers will go fishing in
February and March, prime time to catch a big one.

Low water levels at many Texas lakes concentrate the
fish, making them a little easier to catch. Low water
makes big fish move from their usual haunts, and that
can also make them a little more vulnerable to
anglers.

Whether the cash award for lunker No. 400 will
encourage more anglers to go fishing remains to be
seen, but some lucky fisherman will soon catch the
bass of a lifetime in more ways than one.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...r.22d3518.html

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