LOOKING FOR LUNKERS

Outdoors Writer Texas Parks and Wildlife’s 2025 Toyota ShareLunker program kicked off its 39th season on January 1. Time for all you bass junkies out there to get those game faces on go gunning for the big bite.

Anglers who catch a bass that makes the grade over the next 12 months are encouraged to enter their catch in one of four ShareLunker categories. The free program is open for participation for anglers of all ages. Entering could net you some really cool prizes.

Legacy Lunkers

Bass upwards weighing 13 pounds or more that are caught between Jan. 1 and March 31 are the meat and potatoes of the program. These fish are called Toyota Legacy Lunkers.

Anglers who catch one may contact TPWD by phone or text message at (903) 681-0550 to make arrangements to put their catch on loan to the state agency. Qualifying fish deemed healthy enough for travel will be picked up by TPWD staff and transferred to the program headquarters at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. The fish are relocated by TPWD fisheries biologists using special hatchery trucks.

Fishing guide Brady Stanford of Millersview is the first angler on the board in 2025. On January 2, Stanford caught a 13.13 pound Legacy Lunker at Lake O.H. Ivie near San Angelo.

The recent catch comes as no surprise. ‘Ivie has been the state’s leading donor of Legacy Lunkers for the last four seasons with 52 total.

The Legacy fish are always females. TPWD uses the big bass for selective breeding/stocking and genetics research aimed at producing bigger and better bass for anglers to catch.

Each fish is genetically tested to determine the roots of its DNA. Those with pure Florida genes are kept separate from intergrades (Florida/northern strain cross). Scientists believe Florida bass are genetically superior to intergrades.

Additionally, each Legacy Lunker brought to the TFFC is implanted with a passive integrated transponder (PIT tag). The lifetime tags contain numeric codes that are activated by a special antenna. This allows scientists to identify individual fish years down the road. Several Legacy fish have been caught and released more than once.

When the timing is right, Legacy Lunkers are paired with hand-picked males for spawning in hatchery raceways. Scientists can control the indoor water temperatures and other factors to help push the process along.

Some of the fish achieve successful spawns. Others don’t.

Scientists collect fertilized eggs from successful spawns for hatching. Resulting fry are eventually placed in outside ponds and grown to fingerling or advanced fingerling size.

Most of the offspring, along with the donor fish, are released back into the lakes that produced them. A portion of the pure Florida offspring may be retained by TPWD.

To date, nearly 1.9 million ShareLunker offspring have been stocked in Texas lakes, including about 190,000 finglerlings produced by last year’s 18 Legacy class entries..

In 2022, TPWD completed the rebuild of its Florida bass hatchery program using descendants of Legacy Lunkers. TPWD is calling these fish “Lone Star Bass.”

LSB have ShareLunker genetics from both parents. TPWD stocks around around 7 million Lone Star fingerlings in Texas lakes annually, according to TPWD inland hatcheries chief, Todd Engeling.

Scientists are hopeful the LSB broodfish lines will eventually spur Texas bass management to the next level.

Anglers who loan Legacy fish receive a free fiberglass replica of their catch from Lake Fork Taxidermy, Share-Lunker clothing, a Bass University subscription and other goodies. Legacy Lunker donors also are entered in a pair of year-end drawings for $5,000 shopping sprees and are invited to attend the Toyota ShareLunker Annual Awards event.

Other Entry Categories

TPWD redesigned the ShareLunker format in 2018. The overhaul included the addition of three new Share-Lunker categories meant to boost angler participation and heighten knowledge of big bass distribution on lakes across Texas.

The categories are open year-round for trophy- class bass entries topping eight pounds or at least 24 inches in length. These fish are not included in the spawning portion of the program, but still provide biologists with valuable data for managing bass populations on lakes across the state.

Anglers are responsible for entering qualifying fish using the Toyota ShareLunker mobile app or online at texassharelunker. All entries must be supported by photographic evidence or other documentation as described under “Entry Criteria” on the program website. Participants receive a commemorative decal, subscription to Bass University and an entry into the year-end drawing for a $5,000 Bass Pro Shops shopping spree.

The additional entry categories:

* Bass Pro Lunker Class: Open for anglers entering largemouth bass at least 8 pounds or 24 inches Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

* Strike King Elite Class: Open for anglers who catch double-digit largemouth bass weighing 10 to 12.99 pounds Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

* Lew’s Lunker Legend Class: Open for anglers who enter 13 pound or larger bass outside the Jan. 1 - March 31 spawning window.

Citizen Scientists

Additionally, the program now offers anglers the opportunity to become citizen scientists by submitting scale samples from their ShareLunker entries fish for DNA analysis. Free testing is performed at TPWD’s genetics lab in San Marcos.

Participation in DNA submission/sampling has been fairly light thus far, but it is catching on. Anglers submitted more than 100 scale samples for testing in 2024, according to Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator.

TPWD geneticist Dijar Lutz-Carrillo says the testing provides scientists with valuable data about the genetics of wild populations of large bass around the state. There is excellent video under the “genetic sampling” link on the program website (texassharelunker.com) that illustrates the scale removable/submission procedure.

“The angler submissions get us samples in a size range we don’t typically encounter with our biologist sampling or in the standard ShareLunker submissions,” Lutz-Carrillo said. “This in turn provides us with an intermediate size group to test explicit hypotheses using our size associated genetic markers.”

Incentives for DNA Submission

In 2023, TPWD began offering anglers a $200 Lew’s baitcasting reel (limit one per angler) and a three-month subscription to Bass University as incentives for submitting DNA samples. Goldstrohm says the rewards are still on the table, along with a new twist aimed at encouraging fishing guides join in the mix more often.

American Fishing Tackle Company is sponsoring a new AFTCO Guide of Year award in 2025. The award includes a $500 gear package, plus $500 cash. The prize will go to the fishing guide responsible for the most ShareLunker entries and DNA testing submissions throughout the year.

“Guides can play a big role in having their clients turn their fish in to the ShareLunker program and to provide DNA samples,” said Goldstrohm. “This award is a way to reward guides for helping us meet the goals of the program.”

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.