ShareLunker season going down as slowest ever

Published 8:42 am Tuesday, April 26, 2016

It is hard to believe that come Saturday Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Toyota ShareLunker program will close, there will most likely be just two bass entered, and neither came from a lake named Fork.

This is definitely a low-water mark for a program that sold not only Texas bass fishermen, but fishermen around the world on the concept of catch-and-release fish.

It is also the public relations machine that made Texas bass fishing worth hundreds of millions of tourism dollars since Mark Stevenson brought the first one in alive. OK, it didn’t hurt that Stevenson brought in a 17.87-pound state record for all the world to see on that night in 1986.

Between Stevenson’s Numero Uno and Bruce Butler’s 13.13-pound last-minute entry from Lake Henry, a total of 563 other bass have been entered into the program that is part promotion and part science.

For a long while it looked as if Sam Rayburn fisherman Roy Euper would be the only ShareLunker participant this year with a 13.2-pounder he caught back in November.

While this is the lowest number of entries in program history it certainly is not the first time it has suffered. In 2000-01, following an outbreak of Largemouth Bass Virus around the state, there were but five entries. There were only six last year, none after mid-March.

TPWD is looking at the program to determine what has happened and where to go. ShareLunker does have its detractors around the state, and rightfully so. It is a long way from Falcon Lake to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Hatchery in Athens, home of the program. It is understandable that fishermen there wonder how a bass in a hatchery tank in Athens can be worth one in the lake along the border.

Of course the drop in entries cannot squarely be placed on attitude. Lake levels and water temperatures have also had an impact. Some East Texas lakes were still reporting water temperatures in the low- to mid-60s just a week ago.

And while water levels were down because of drought picking off big bass was the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel. The last two years all of the barrels have been extremely full making the shooting all the harder.

Certainly TPWD will look at punching up the prize package for donors, but that may not be the answer statewide. Somehow, the department needs to explain to fishermen, guides and marina operators how the program is not only relevant to their fishing, but to the businesses as well.

ShareLunker is not dead. Who knows, maybe next year another Mark Stevenson fishing on another lake will catch a new state record and donate it making it all right in the fishing world.