For thirty-nine year old Keith Burns, fishing isn’t just a hobby, it’s a family tradition. His grandfather and father both grew up fishing on Caddo Lake in East Texas.

Now it’s our turn to take our kids, or nephews or whatever down there and start fishing.

Burns fishes every free chance he gets. But fishing hasn’t been so good on Caddo Lake for several years because of the invasive giant salvinia plant.

You just kind of had to fish where there was open water. You couldn’t really fish some of your favorite places because of the invasive aquatic life that was in there. I hate that stuff.

Then, flooding and a cold winter killed off some of the giant salvinia, allowing Burns to really fish again. In fact, Burns didn’t just fish. This past March he caught a lake record 16.17-pound sharelunker bass.

I can’t tell you what it meant for me to do that. With the history our family has on that lake, it just meant the world to me.

Burns says he now wants giant salvinia to get off his lakes, and he wants everyone to help make that a reality.

We’ve got to take five minutes and check our trailers and make sure we don’t have any hitchhikers we are taking to another lake and depositing there.

That’s some good advice from a great fisherman.

You can find more information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we had research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

The Toyota Texas ShareLunker program anticipates accepting its 500th largemouth bass donation this spring. Carl Adkins of San Marcos, Texas, reeled in number 481 on February 27.

:09—I caught it at 6:45, just barely daylight. Caught it on a soft plastic off the edge of the grass. Pulled it from about seven foot of water into about 10-12 foot of water.

The program accepts largemouth bass, caught between October 1 and April 30, weighing 13 pounds or more into a selective breeding program. Adkins fish was 13.1 pounds.

:08—It really fought real well. I knew it was a nice fish. I knew it was a big fish. But I didn’t realize it was quite as big and I saw the girth on it.

Adkins’ donated bass will enter a selective breeding program with the intent of creating even bigger bass.

:15—I’m a member of a bass club, and we support it. We had one other member donate a ShareLunker. And I have a tag in my billfold that we printed up years ago in our bass club that gives the ShareLunker numbers that we have everybody carry in case we get one. And I was lucky enough o need the number.

The lucky angler who reels in the 500th ShareLunker will receive $500 a pound for every pound the fish weighs.** Find details about the ShareLunker program at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show …with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Texas freshwater Fisheries Center…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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**Toyota ShareLunker 500 Angler Collects Big Check
Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation pays $6,670 for big bass from O.H. Ivie Reservoir

…and now for Sharelunker 501!

Lake Austin Produced ShareLunker Number 501!

No matter what your outdoor interest, chances are you’ll find it at Choke Canyon SP. Bryan Frazier is our guide.

Choke Canyon State Park—a great place to go in terms of catfish fishing, which turns on a little later in the spring. Crappie fishing, white bass…Choke Canyon has just risen in the ranks, if you will, in the fishing world as a place to go to really catch lots of different kinds of fish. But, right now, bass fishermen, that’s one of their hot spots to stop and visit on the way. A lot of tournament fishermen show up there.

It’s far enough south—you’ve got great birding—even some of the things like the green jays and chachalacas…and the wildlife viewing is unmatched. Whether you’re looking for deer, or turkeys or javalina—they’re oftentimes viewable right from the park road in your vehicle. A great place to take the kids to get them familiar with nature. So,. Choke Canyon is definitely a place I recommend this time of year to people to visit.

Find more State Park Getaway information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

This week’s state park getaway takes us to Falcon Lake State Park, where fishing for bass tops a long list of recreational opportunities. Bryan Frazier is our guide.

Falcon state park—this time of year—is really one of the premier bass fishing destinations in the United States. It’s one of the first ones to be an indicator of the bass fishing season, if you will, as a lot of bass fishermen can note.

There’s a butterfly garden there that the volunteers helped build. You’ve got great camping, you’ve got some enclosed shelters there that are air conditioned. So, Falcon State Park, this time of year especially—but really all year—a great place by yourself, friends, family, check out Falcon State Park.

Find more State Park Getaway information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

The 2009 drought left private ponds throughout Texas low or bone dry—conditions that Todd Engeling says actually presented pond owners with an opportunity.

There was an opportunity for a number of folks to really go in and renovate those facilities and prepare them for the rains when they came.

Engeling is chief of inland hatcheries for Parks and Wildlife. With luck, ponds got a needed facelift when dry, and are returning to their former glory thanks to winter rains. The down side is—fish in those ponds probably didn’t survive the drought.

So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to get fish for your private pong, although the Parks and Wildlife department raises millions of fingerlings each year, we do not provide those to the general public. But, there are a number of commercial, private fish hatcheries that can provide you with what you need for stocking—including any advice on what you need and how many would be appropriate for you to stock in those areas. And on our webpage there is a link to the Texas Aquaculture Association, which maintains a list of their members who can provide that service for you.

In fact, the parks and wildlife website offers information on creating and maintaining private ponds…

Including how you can deal with some of that unwanted vegetation.

Visit the TPW website for information on ponds, stocking, and other landowner information.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

For more than a decade, researchers at the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center in Kerrville have battled the hybrid progeny of Guadalupe bass—the state fish of Texas—and the introduced Smallmouth bass.

We’re raising thousands of pure Guadalupe bass here at the research station. And every year we stock them back into nature. Basically, what we’re doing is replacing the hybrids that are out there with these pure Guadalupe bass. And we’ll let nature take its course form there.

That’s Gary Garrett, who initiated the Guadalupe bass recovery program. The fish exists only in the Texas Hill Country—in the headwaters of streams that drain the Edward’s Plateau.

Shortly after non-native smallmouth bass were introduced to Texas waters, they bred with native bass, resulting in an explosion of hybrids. But using a technique called “saturation stocking,” Garrett and his crew have made exceptional progress.

So far we’re seeing here in Johnson Creek, where we began eh study, we started where 30 percent of the fish were hybrids. And that wasn’t stable—it was still increasing when we started. It is now down to around three percent. Which is excellent! Top go from thirty to three is great. Now we want to go from three to zero.

And Garrett expects to reach zero in the next four to five years.

That’s our show… we receive support from the SF Restoration program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Some ideas seem good when you first have them. Then after some time passes—not so much. Take smallmouth bass, for example, and their effect on the Guadalupe bass population.

Small mouth bass, of course, are not native to Texas, but were brought in as an additional sport fish. The problem is they can’t tell each other apart. Even though they look very different, but evidently, they act similar enough behaviorally that they’ll reproduce—and they have hybrids.

That’s Gary Garrett, Director of the Watershed Conservation Program. So, what’s wrong with hybrids, anyway?

Hybrids, by definition, are halfway between the parents. So, they’re not as well adapted for their environment; they may do well in the short run, but in the long haul, they’re really not going to be as good a species.

Besides, they’re the state fish of Texas, occurring only in the Hill Country. And, well, you just don’t mess with Texas.

The other thing we’re now seeing a little bit is that these hybrids are now also crossing with our largemouth bass…which is yet another problem we want to avoid.

And you definitely don’t mess with largemouth bass. But, we’ve started to turn the tide on these hybrids with saturation stocking.

And we’re confident that in the next four or five years we’re going to be able to solve this problem.

That’s our show… we receive support from the SF Restoration program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

For an inexpensive, entry-level fishing experience the entire family can enjoy, it doesn’t get much easier than winter rainbow trout fishing in Texas.

In fact that’s one of the fish we use at the Expo each year to allow kids to catch their first fish.

Carl Kittle oversees the TPW trout-stocking program. The agency will distribute up to 275-thousand fish to 120 sites—including additional urban locations—between December and March.

We’re excited about having a number of new ponds online for our neighborhood fishing program. We actually stock slightly larger trout and we stock frequently—every other week—at specific sites that are set up near urban centers to provide opportunities for urban anglers.

If you prefer to get away from the city for your rainbow connection, then state parks provide the perfect escape.

A number of our state park ponds will get stocked with trout. For those ponds and lakes that are located completely within a state park, the license will not be required. The limits will still apply: five fish per day, and there is no size limit on trout.

Anglers fishing in locations other than state parks must have a valid license.

Find the trout-stocking schedule at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program… helping to fund fish hatchery management and operations in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas is known for its bass angling, but chief of inland fisheries management and research, Dave Terre, says catfish angling is gaining popularity.

Today in Texas, about 50 percent of our anglers say they prefer largemouth bass. But, about 20 percent of anglers prefer fishing catfish in Texas.

Parks and Wildlife is meeting the challenge.

We’re trying to launch an initiative that will help us understand what our anglers needs and desires are for catfish angling in the state. And then study catfish more intensively to determine how we can make fishing for catfish even better.

September first, new regulations governing the harvest of blue catfish went into effect at Richland Chambers Reservoir, Lake Waco and Lake Lewisville—water bodies offering trophy potential for catfish. Find the regulations on the Parks and Wildlife website.

Meanwhile, Terre says as our climate changes, and extended droughts continue to plague our state, catfish will have an important role to play.

Catfish are able to deal with fluctuating water levels better than largemouth bass which have been, and will continue to be, a popular sport fish in Texas. So, managing catfish more intensively will mean that we may be able to provide more fishing opportunities for Texans in the future years.

Our show receives support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…supporting fisheries research in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Anglers have rediscovered catfish; and with new pressure on the fishery, new management practices are in effect.

We’re going to have some new fishing regulations for blue catfish in three lakes that have great potential for producing trophy fisheries.

Dave Terre is chief of Inland Fisheries research and management. New regulations have been in place for blue cats at Richland Chambers Reservoir, Lake Lewisville, and Lake Waco, since September first.

On those reservoirs, we will have a 30 to 45 inch slot length limit. What the length limit does is it protects fish between 30 inches and 45 inches from harvest. Which gives opportunity for those fish to become very, very large. Under these limits, anglers can harvest fish less than 30 inches, and those above 45 inches.

The total daily bag limit is 25 fish per day under 30 inches and only one per day over 45 inches.

Texas has a reputation for growing huge cats. With the new regulations in place, Terre says trophy potential can reach a new level, and he seeks angler input to make it happen.

We want to survey the anglers of Texas and understand what they would like to see in their catfish fishing for the future, then use the tools that we have as fisheries managers to try to make catfish fishing better.

Including length limits and stocking.

Our show receives support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…supporting fisheries research in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.