Zach Sypert caught this 14.57-pound lake record bass on Marine Creek Lake near Fort Worth. The bass is another trophy produced from a project using Toyota ShareLunker offspring as brooders. (TPWD/Courtesy)

Admittedly the Toyota ShareLunker program does not carry the excitement it did in the 1990s when a 13-pound bass was big news. However, as far as the future of fishing in Texas is concerned, the program might have just received its second most important bass since Mark Stevenson donated the first bass, a 17.67-pound, then-state record in 1986.

Far from a state record or even a top 50 Texas bass, the fish caught in late January weighed 14.57 pounds. What makes ShareLunker 577 important is that the Marine Creek Lake bass has been confirmed as the third ShareLunker offspring to be entered in the program.

“Having two confirmed ShareLunker offspring caught in Marine Creek Lake is very satisfying, because before we stocked it with ShareLunker fingerlings it didn’t have a history of producing trophy-sized bass. But I thought if the genetics really play a role in producing double digit bass, then a lake like that will truly show the potential — and it has,” Tom Hungerford, TPWD Inland Fisheries assistant biologist from the Dallas-Fort Worth District Office, said in a department news release.

DNA testing showed the bass was a full sister of a 13.07-pounder caught on the lake in 2017 and the offspring of ShareLunker 410, a 14.48 caught on Lake Conroe in 2006. That was the beginning of a project to see if ShareLunkers were indeed genetically special and would produce other trophy-sized bass.

“In 2006 and 2008, we stocked thousands of fingerlings produced by spawning ShareLunker 410 and other 13 pound and larger bass as part of a research project to evaluate the growth of ShareLunker offspring in public reservoirs. With the two confirmed ShareLunker offspring caught and entered in the program from Marine Creek Lake — along with other double-digit bass other anglers have caught there recently — it’s clear those fingerlings have absolutely survived and thrived. And the potential for even larger bass continues because we keep seeing bigger and bigger fish being caught in that lake every year,” Hungerford explained.

Another sibling of the two Marine Creek Lake was caught in 2017 on Lake Naconiche. That bass weighed 13.06.

There is a certain amount of luck involved in catching any ShareLunker-sized bass, but Zach Sypert, the angler who caught the 14.57, certainly had to feel it after catching the bass on a lake that is only 250 acres in size and receives a lot of pressure. Sypert’s bass is a new lake record, beating the old mark set last year by almost two pounds. Sypert’s fish has become the largest from any lake in TPWD’s Dallas-Fort Worth Inland Fisheries district.

“The fact that anglers have caught two Toyota ShareLunkers from Marine Creek Lake in the last two years, and that the water body record continues to be set and beat, are great indicators that our efforts to maximize the size of bass in that lake through stocking and management efforts are working,” said Kyle Brookshear Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator. “Stocking selectively bred bass would not be possible without the partnership of anglers donating their double-digit fish for spawning efforts. We are thankful for all of the anglers who have made and continue to make a difference by loaning their fish.”

To rear enough fish to stock multiple lakes around the state, Brookshear said the department really needs to collect 12 to 14 ShareLunkers annually. Hopefully about seven of those would be pure Florida strain bass and two of those would successfully spawn in the hatchery.

In an attempt to get more of the fish to spawn, the department last year shortened the time to donate bass 13 pounds and larger to January through March.

“The shortened season hasn’t measurably hurt annual spawning success. We are getting the fish at the right time of year in hopes of getting offspring from the ShareLunker females. It will probably boost success numbers in the long run by eliminating entries that have already spawned and therefore would be recorded as not being successfully spawned,” Brookshear explained.

With the department restocking only the offspring of pure Florida strain bass, it is impacting the genetics of the lake. However, without the control there is in the hatchery for pairing ShareLunker offspring for spawning, whether or not future generation trophies can be produced is a roll of the dice.

That means a fisherman’s best chance will be with ShareLunker babies survive stocking, are not harvested as young fish and are willing to take a lure when they are big and old. And that is why with all the science, it is still fishing.