SHARELUNKER PROGRAM: Help make bass fishing better in 
Texas ... find out how on Passport to Texas.

This is Passport to Texas

If you catch a 13 pound or bigger largemouth bass, your 
first instinct may be to take a photo with it, and then 
release it. Or ... you could donate it to the Toyota 
ShareLunker program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries 
Center.

04 -- The ShareLunker Program is probably the reason this facility 
is here.
 
Allen Forshage is Director of the Center, which is a state-
of-the-art fish-care facility that contains special tanks 
known as the "Lunker Bunker". 

17 -- The way this center was built, particularly the extensive 
hatcheries, improved our ability to do a selective breeding 
program where we've been taking these ShareLunkers and 
spawning them with males that are also offspring of ShareLunkers 
in an effort to try to improve the genetics of fish that we put back 
into public lakes.

Find out how to donate a fish to the program on the TPW 
website. The program will accept donations of live fish 
through April 30. Every time an angler donates a fish to 
the program they make bass fishing better for everyone.

13 -- One of the measures of success for the program is how many 
column inches are being written about the ShareLunker Program. 
A lot of the outdoor writers use the ShareLunker Program as a 
barometer to measure how good fishing is in Texas.

It's darned good if you believe what you read. And you 
should. Find details about the Toyota ShareLunker 
Program on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

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

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti

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