It is getting to be that time of year when just about everything short of a bare hook is going to catch bass, and even that might work.

It was a short discussion, a minor part in a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Commission briefing, but surprising.

For years the Toyota ShareLunker program was an eastern Texas thing. Sure, a few bass from around the state trickled into the program year after year, but for the most part it was lakes in East Texas, and more specifically Lake Fork, that provided the bulk of the entries.

In the time it takes to send an email, Fairfield Lake State Park is no more.

Just as the Texas Parks System began its 100th anniversary celebration, the party has been interrupted by an unwelcome intrusion.

This is the time of year that has bass fishermen seeing red. Mid-winter is the prime time of the year that fishermen pull their red lures out of the tackle box.

Hidden in plain site from one corner of the state to another sits some of the jewels of Texas.

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.

A low water level has been a pain for Lake Fork fishermen for the past year, but as the saying goes, within every dark cloud there is a silver lining.

YANTIS -- A mid-winter quail hunt at Hidden Lakes Hunting Resort has become an annual tradition for my sons, Tristan and Thomas, and I.