Passport to Texas

Donald Deville of Ville Platte, Louisiana, caught Toyota ShareLunker 547 from Lake Fork March 20, Larry D. Hodge, © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Angling: Breeding Bigger Bass Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Toyota 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 David Campbell.

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

Campbell retired from TPW in 2012, after 46 years with the agency, and 26 years managing the ShareLunker program. The bass donated to the program are ten years old or more, making their journey to the spawning tanks more stressful.

08—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.

Music and dim lights work to calm humans and put them in the mood for romance. I asked, in jest, whether Campbell tried such mood enhancers with the bass.

11—(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 they’ve stocked nearly a million fry in lakes from the Sharelunker program. Donating your catch to the program…that’s tomorrow.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and provides funding for the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.

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

Johnny Spruiell of Iowa caught ShareLunker 546 , Cody Talley, © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Angling: The Sharelunker Program Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Anglers know they can find big bass in Texas.

06—We have more big bass caught in Texas than anywhere I know of. I’m talking about anywhere in the United States or anywhere in the world.

From its inception in 1986, until he retired from Parks and Wildlife in 2012, David Campbell coordinated the bass spawning program at Parks and Wildlife, called the Toyota ShareLunker program.

17—I know there’s been some bigger fish caught in California, Florida—but it’s the numbers of big fish. And the anglers can go to almost any reservoir in the state of Texas and have the potential of catching a thirteen pound plus large-mouth bass. I don’t think that Anyone else can come close to that.

Anglers who reel in largemouth bass weighing 13-pounds or more are encouraged to donate their catch to the ShareLunker program. The donated bass enter into a spawning program, with the hope of creating faster growing, bigger bass.

11—We’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of three quarter of a million fry from the sharelunkers through the years. We only had one year last year. We’ve had some years we didn’t have any spawn. Then some years we might have five, six or seven spawn.

The challenges of breeding bass in captivity…that’s tomorrow.

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

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

Austin watershed, Artwork Virginia Vaughan, vaughan.com

Conservation: Urban Life / Rural Impact Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Most urbanites don’t realize they reside in watersheds; they’re also unaware the vitality of these natural drainage systems affects their quality of life, and that their behavior inside the concrete jungle influences the natural world beyond it. How do we raise collective awareness?

04— One thing we’re doing is trying to get them out of those urban areas and on to the countryside to go enjoy it.

Dr. Gary Garrett is state director of the watershed conservation program for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says engaging nature leads to understanding and protecting it.

05— If you can use it, you support it; that’s just human nature. If you don’t use it, you’re not very interested in it.

While Dr. Garrett’s work involves guiding landowners through proper land management practices – which affects water runoff, absorption, quality and quality – he says educating cities and their citizens about their role in protecting watersheds is critical.

21— That clean, abundant water that we all want takes work. I’d love to see cities fully embrace that, and actually invest in those upstream areas – for their own good – to help us preserve those…
and to keep those solid clean flowing waters, and solid good environments available to use…and always there for your benefit.

Learn more about watersheds when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and funds conservation projects in Texas.

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

Sport Fish Restoration Monies

Angling: Sport Fish Restoration Program,2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Federal Sport Fish Restoration program—funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuel—funds a variety of conservation projects in Texas. Last year Texas Parks and Wildlife received $17.4-million from the program.

11—That funding went to support sport fisheries management, sport fish stocking in Texas waters, fish habitat conservation, enhancement and restoration efforts, and aquatic education.

Timothy Birdsong coordinates the Sport Fish program for Parks and Wildlife.

08 – Fifteen percent of that program is used to perform improvement to boat ramps and other boating access facilities around the state.

Birdsong says this is a successful conservation model—a user pay, user benefit program.

24 – The taxes that you contribute as anglers, and as boaters, to this pot of money, is used to improve the resource for you…to provide additional opportunities…provide additional access to these waters. So, it is vital that we continue to have the support of the anglers and the boating community to be able to maintain the program at the level that it is currently.

See how Parks and Wildlife spends these funds when you visit the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish restoration Program…funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuel.

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

Neighborhood Fishing

Neighborhood Fishin' Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine’s February digital fishing special offers freshwater and saltwater fishing forecasts compiled by Steve Lightfoot.

07— You won’t catch anything if you don’t go. The only way you can determine for certain that you will or will not catch anything is by casting a line.

Lightfoot, a wildlife & fisheries information specialist, used input from fisheries biologists to craft the forecast. He said for the best success — you can’t go wrong with rainbow trout.

16— Our community fishing lakes and some of the other hot spots around the state that we stock in winter with rainbow trout, offer a wonderful opportunity to take novices out… children… families…. These fish are stocked with the purpose and intent for people to go catch them, take them home, and eat them.

Lightfoot recommends using the fishing forecast as a planning guide…especially for coastal angling.

22— If you’re planning a trip to the coast, you want to make sure that you’ve got as much information as you can so that you can prepare for what species are most abundant. For example, our biologists are seeing a lot of black drum, a lot of sand trout showing up in our bay systems. So, these are overlooked species
that anglers should possibly try and target if they’re planning a trip to the coast.

Find the forecast in Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine’s digital fishing special online this month at tpwmagazine.com.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series…and funds rainbow trout stocking in Texas… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.