Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

October through April, anglers who reel in a largemouth bass weighing 13-pounds or more are encouraged to donate their catch to the ShareLunker program. Fish accepted into the program spawn the next generation of big bass.

To donate a fish, handle it as little as possible, then…

Get a weight on it. If you have a set of scales that you feel like are close enough that you can actually say it’s a good enough weight to call us, weigh it and let us know.

David Campbell coordinates the ShareLunker program, and explains what to do if you think you have a lunker, and want to donate it to the program.

We would like to have these fish in our possession in less than 12 hours. I realize sometimes if you’re on the other side of the state of Texas is may take me a few hours to get there. If you have to go somewhere and have that fish weighed, leave it in the water in aerated live well or whatever it is, try not to dry the fish off. If that fish weighs 13-pounds on a set of certified scales—whether it’s for business or whatever it is—give us a call as quick as possible. And we dispatch a vehicle; and take care of it until we get there. That’s the main thing.

Visit passporttotexas.org to find the phone numbers to call to donate your lunker.

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

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
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If your fish meets the requirements listed above, call our toll-free, 24-hour pager at 1-888-784-0600 (October 1-April 30 only) or (903) 681-0550.

ShareLunker Program: How to Participate Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

The ShareLunker program takes largemouth bass—13-pounds or more—and uses them to breed even bigger bass. By placing the males and females in the same tank, you’d think nature would take its course. It’s not that easy, says program coordinator, David Campbell.

It’s very hard to get these older fish to spawn in a strange environment.

The bass donated to the ShareLunker program are ten years old or more—which makes them eligible for membership in the aquatic equivalent of AARP. Besides, the journey to the spawning tanks is stressful.

When you catch a thirteen-pound bass with a rod and reel, that’s not something you just reel in real quick and get it out of the water and put it in a live well—it usually takes some time, and it stresses the fish.

Do you feel romantic when you’re exhausted and stressed? Apparently, neither do bass. Music and dim lights work for humans. I asked, in jest, whether Campbell tried such mood enhancers with the bass.

(laughter) We haven’t tried it, but we have thought about it. (chuckles) We thought about a lot of this in the first few years of the program because we found it was extremely difficult to get them to spawn.

They’re doing something right, because three-quarters of a million fry have been stocked in lakes from the ShareLunker program. How to donate to the program tomorrow.

That’s our show for today…with support fro the Sport Fish Restoration Program…providing funding for the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

ShareLunker Program: Breeding in Captivity Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

San Juan Capistrano has its swallows, Hinckley, Ohio, has its buzzards, and Texas has its trout—rainbow trout. The annual arrival of the colorful fun-to-catch fish to lakes began last month [December], and continues through March.

We stock trout because we can provide one more unique fishing opportunity for anglers. And, we do it throughout a large part of the state, especially around cities and urban areas, where anglers have access.

Carl Kittel coordinates the trout-stocking program for Parks and Wildlife. Unlike the swallows of Capistrano and the buzzards of Hinckley that travel on their own steam, the rainbow trout of Texas are chauffeured to their destinations.

We get deliveries from late November all the way until late February. So it’s like a just in time inventory—and they move in and they move out.

Close to 275-thousand rainbow trout will find temporary refuge in Texas waters.

The purpose for stocking them and our expectation for those fish is that they will be fished out by anglers. So, we do not expect to create a fishery by stocking them, we just expect to create fishing opportunities.

We have a link to the rainbow trout stocking schedule on our website, passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…which also helps fund winter trout stocking in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Trout Stocking Schedule

Rainbow Trout Return to Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The four counties of the Rio Grande Valley; Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy. There are more bird species have been recorded in those counties, than in 46 of the 50 United States.

Joshua Rose is a Natural Resource Specialist at the World Birding Center at the Bentsen Rio-Grande Valley State Park The Center is hosting a Christmas Bird Count on January 2nd.

Everyone that wants to conduct a Christmas Bird Count, they submit to the National Audubon Society. They draw out a circle and if they circle doesn’t overlap with any other count circle, then the Audubon Society approves it. Each circle is supposed to be fifteen miles in diameter. We divide the circle up into different zones and then we recruit a whole bunch of volunteers and we assign those volunteers each to one of those zones in the circle.

Birders can make the count as competitive as they want.

When we divide up our zones for the count and assign our teams, we also tend to assign the different teams different amounts of time. So certain teams will have a smaller area; they can cover the whole area and count all the birds in five or six hours. Where as the really hardcore, borderline insane people, like myself, will start before dawn and keep going until after dark.

More information on Christmas Bird Counts available at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Christmas Bird Count: The Event Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

“Side hunts” were a popular Christmas tradition in the 1800’s; outdoor enthusiasts picked sides and whoever shot the most animals by the end of the day won. In 1900, a man named Frank Chapman proposed people should count birds, not hunt them…and the Christmas Bird Count was born.

The Christmas Bird Count is an event that goes on across the entire country. It’s coordinated nationwide by the National Audubon Society.

Joshua Rose is a Natural Resource Specialist at the World Birding Center at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park.

The fact is that birding has become not just a pleasant leisure activity, to go out and wander around seeing birds but has become something of a competitive sport.

Over fifty-thousand birders took part in last years count.

The real mission is conservation. We want to know how many birds of each species there are out there to know if one certain kind of bird needs some more focused conversation action. Or maybe some bird that was rare, for instance the bald eagle or the peregrine falcon, is getting more common and whatever we’re doing for them in terms of conservation seems to be working.

More on the Christmas Bird Count at the World Birding Center tomorrow. For more information visit passporttotexas.org

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Christmas Bird Count: The History Play Now | Play in Popup | Download