Each year, anglers across the state have the opportunity to contribute data to Texas Parks and Wildlife by catching a whopper.
It’s called the ShareLunker program, and its goal is to help produce bigger, better fish. It runs all year long, starting in January.
Natalie Goldstrohm, ShareLunker program coordinator, joined the Standard to talk about the program. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Can you give us just a quick rundown of how the program works?
Natalie Goldstrohm: Yeah, sure.
So anglers that are fishing public waters of Texas, if they happen to catch a bass that’s 8 pounds or larger or 20 [inches] or longer, they can submit their catch information through this link or app or through the website.
Is this program just for largemouth bass or do y’all work with other types of fish as well?
It’s just for largemouth bass.
Got it. So let’s say, for example, I catch one of these ShareLunkers. I’m out there and I catch a 9-pound bass and I want to help contribute to the program. What happens next? What happens to that fish?
Well, what you would do is you would take some photographs of your fish either being weighed in at that 9 pounds or measured at 24in or longer, and you would log on to the ShareLunker app and you can submit those photographs to the app. And it helps all of our biologists better manage for those longer sized fish.
And you can also send in genetic samples from your fish. All we need is three scales anywhere after off of the body of the fish, and you can mail them into a geneticist and we can tell you more information about their genetics, about that fish that you got.
So how big of an impact has this program had in terms of growing the size of largemouth bass in Texas?
I think it’s had a huge impact.
So we’ve had some really successful years over the last few years. And what we’re seeing is high numbers of ShareLunkers being entered into the program. But we’re also getting high numbers of 13-pound bass that are caught Jan. 1 through March 31. That’s our collection season.
If you happen to be fishing in Texas and you catch one of those 13-pounders, you can call our Toyota ShareLunker hotline number [903-681-0550] and you can actually share that fish with our program or bring your fish back to one of our hatcheries and we will selectively spawn it with a male descendant of another ShareLunker. So we’re able to stock out these offspring of ShareLunkers back into the reservoirs where an angler caught them from.
And we’re seeing a huge success in that genetic stocking program. We’re seeing mother-daughter ShareLunker pairs. We’re seeing sister ShareLunker siblings. And these are all bass that are 13 pounds or heavier. This is somebody’s catch of a lifetime.
So at the facility, do you guys just have dozens of big fish swimming around?
We do during the winter seasons, January through March. We actually have a facility to hold some of these fish and we call it the Lunker Bunker.
That’s pretty good. What’s the biggest fish you’ll have had turned in so far?
All time, it’s our state record largemouth bass caught over at Lake Fork, weighing in at 18.18 pounds.
18 pounds for a bass. Wow. And so now that fish’s descendants are populating Lake Fork, perhaps?
Perhaps. Yes.
Very interesting. Are there any awards that folks can can receive for catching a big fish?
Absolutely. We reward all of our anglers who have a fish accepted into the ShareLunker program.
So if you happen to catch one of those 8-plus-pounders and submit it in, you get what we call a Catch Kit. And it is gear from our sponsors, along with some ShareLunker swag and a one-month subscription to Bass University. That’s where the pros teach you how to catch those bigger, better bass. And you’re also entered in for a $5,000 Bass Pro Shop shopping spree.
