Tpwdprogram fuels bass boom
That an angler in Texas would be on the water in themiddle of an October night, throwing a 17- inch plastic worm into a smallish urban reservoir and actually believing it might end up in front of a largemouth bass big enough to find this sausage- link of a lure edible, says a lot about the angler’s optimism.
That such faith proved warranted says even more about the quality of Texas’ largemouth bass fishery and, particularly, the current status of the bass fishery in that water body.
About 2 a. m. this past Tuesday, SanMarcos resident Bennett Cowan was fishing in Lake Austin, an 1,800- acre reservoir that’s really just a wide spot on the Colorado River in the lake’s namesake city.
Big bait draws big bass
Cowan obviously knew what he was doing. He was fishing on the night of the new moon, the darkest night of the lunar month and traditionally one that can produce angling success as predator fish use the darkness to their advantage when ambushing meals.
That Cowan was fishing with 17- inch- long plastic worm he’d handpoured himself attests that he’s a serious angler targeting big— huge, really— largemouths. The plastic worms used by most bass anglers measure around 6 inches, and a 10- inch version is considered huge. It would take a beast of a bass— quality and quantity of Texas’ largemouth bass fisheries by integrating huge, Florida- strain bass into the agency’s hatchery and research projects.
The program, which began in 1986, solicits anglers who land a largemouth weighing 13 pounds or more to lend the live fish to the agency. If DNA testing proves the fish to be a pure- strain Florida bass, TPWD attempts to spawn the female ( all truly huge largemouths are females; males seldomgrow to more than 5 pounds) with a pure- strain Florida male.
Most of the resulting progeny are stocked into public waters. Some are used in research projects aimed at learning more about bass growth.
Anglers who donate pure- strain Florida bass are allowed to release the fish after the spawning season. Thirteen- pluses that prove to be Florida/ native largemouth hybrids are not used in the selective breeding program, and anglers get to release them back into the lakes from which they were taken.
Cowan’s largemouth, which DNA testing shows to be a pure- strain Florida, is the 537th ShareLunker entry and first in the program’s 2012- 13 season. ( TPWD accepts ShareLunker entries from Oct. 1 through April 30 each year. The “season” is set to run when water temperatures are cool enough that the fish are not as stressed in livewells as duringwarmweather months and to coincide with the time of year when female bass are developing eggs ahead of their spring spawn.)
October entries in the ShareLunker program are rare; Cowan’s fish is only the seventh entry caught during October. March has produced the most ShareLunker entries ( 230 fish), with February ( 122) and April ( 86) following.
But ShareLunker entries from Lake Austin have been anything but rare lately. During the past three years, Lake Austin has produced 11 ShareLunker entries. Only O. H. Ivie Reservoir, which has coughed up 20 ShareLunker entries in the past three years, has more 13- pluses than Lake Austin over that period.
Prolific producers
Austin, Ivie and Falcon Reservoir are the top three producers of huge largemouths over the past three ShareLunker seasons. And with its recent surge in big- bass catches, Lake Austin has joined an elite group of lakes as top producers of ShareLunker entries over the entire history of the program. Only five lakes — Fork ( 249 ShareLunker entries), Alan Henry ( 25), Ivie ( 25), Sam Rayburn ( 23) and Falcon ( 19)— have more ShareLunker entries than little Lake Austin’s 18 entries.
Considering the roll Lake Austin is on, it’s a good bet the urban fishery will move into the top five before this ShareLunker season ends.
And, with Cowan’s recent feat lending 14.28 pounds of credence to the oft- repeated “big bait for big fish” mantra, it’s also a solid wager that a lot of Texas bass anglers will be heaving outrageously long plastic worms during the coming months.