Tom Nilssen of New Braunfels started the Toyota ShareLunker season off with a 13.52-pound bass from Lake O.H. Ivie. The bass was caught on a jerk bait.

That did not take long. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has already picked up its first Toyota ShareLunker of the 2023 season. And it probably comes as no surprise that it came from West Texas’ O.H. Ivie Reservoir.

New Braunfels fisherman Tom Nilssen caught the 13.52-pound bass on a jerk bait. Although live scope played a big role in last year’s 11 O.H. Ivie ShareLunker Legacy entries, Nilssen was reportedly not using his when he caught the fish.

Even though the ShareLunker program switched to an abbreviated schedule several years ago, the 2022 season was still an excellent year for collecting 13-pound and larger bass to raise future brood fish for the state’s fish hatcheries as well as fingerlings for participating lakes. There were 24 entries from January through March, the most since 27 were taken in 1995 when the program ran from October through March. Last year also topped 2021 by one fish.

Nine different lakes produced ShareLunkers last year, including 950-acre Lake Daniel in Stephens County, which became the 75th lake in the state to produce a 13-pound-plus fish.

Not only was 2022 good for numbers, it was also a good year for exceptionally big bass. The program produced new lake records twice at Lake Daniel along with new highs at Eagle Mountain Lake near Fort Worth and Ivie. The Ivie record fish, a 17.06, was the largest bass recorded in the state in 30 years and the seventh largest overall.

Four fish last year made the state’s top 50 big bass list, and overall there were two 15-pounders and three over 16.

Nilssen’s bass is the 633rd entry in the program that started with Mark Stevenson’s then-state record 17.67 from Lake Fork in 1986.

Since there has never been another program handling so many large bass for spawning, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center hatchery manager Tony Owens said spawning success of the ShareLunker entries has always been part science and part trial and error. Although spawning success has greatly improved through the years and especially since the program season has been shortened, Owens said there is still a lot to be learned.

One of the important discoveries now is that there will be no rush getting this year’s first entry paired with a male in an attempt to spawn it.

“The eggs are still developing right now. She will stay in the tanks isolated through January, February and probably mid-March to the first of April. That is when we will pair them up,” Owens explained.

Located adjacent to Lake Athens, the TFFC uses water directly from the lake. Although there are times when it uses artificial light in its indoor spawning facility to mimic natural daylight timing, the water used in the raceways is the same as the lake. That means the ShareLunkers are handled in a way that simulates what happens in the lakes.

“We bring the brooders in when the water temperature stabilizes at 55 to 60 degrees. As far as when they spawn, the temperature I like is around 70 to 72 degrees. They will hatch out at that temperature. If they spawn cooler than that, you may have some fungus issues,” Owens said.

Although early entries may be held for several months before spawning, it certainly is not as long as in the old era when a fish might show up in October or November. Also, the delay gives the fish a chance to heal wounds suffered while being caught or handled by fishermen. That is done by keeping the fish isolated in holding tanks using water with a low salinity level.

“I know last year we had some come in pretty scarred up. We put them in the tanks and left them for a month or so. When we moved them and attempted to spawn, they were perfect. There was not a blemish on them,” Owens said.

During their stay, the fish are also kept fat and healthy on a diet of trout.

Because there were so many entries from Ivie last year, the department did not bring all of them to Athens for spawning. Attempts were made to spawn 13 of the total entries in 2022 with six spawning successfully producing an estimated 217,000 fingerlings.

In 2021 the program took in 23 bass. Nineteen of those tested as pure Floridas and held for spawning. There were 18 successful spawns producing an estimated 270,000 fingerlings.

Look for Ivie to lead the pack in ShareLunker entries again this year. A low water level is impacting Fork fishing, and fishermen are much more successful using live scope to target giant bass on Ivie than East Texas lakes because of its clearer water.

Fishermen who catch a 13-pound or heavier fish can arrange pickup by TPWD by calling the ShareLunker hotline at 903-681-0550.