Year's Biggest Texas Bass Caught By 15 Year Old
Tyler Goetzman of Willis, Texas, was the first on the scoreboard of the Budweiser ShareLunker season Jan. 13 when he caught a 13.06-pound largemouth bass in Lake Conroe, Texas. At 15, he qualifies as a junior angler, and his catch has been recognized as a junior state record. The Budweiser ShareLunker program encourages anglers who have caught 13-pound-plus largemouth bass to lend or donate the fish to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for spawning purposes.
Bigger Texas bass have been caught by younger fishermen, but they've been reported from private lakes. For instance, the largest bass reported last year was 15.5 pounds caught by a 9 year old; however it was caught in a private lake in Mills County. This is only the fourth time in the program's 21-year history the first entry came in January.
You just never know what is in store when you throw a line in the water. In 2000, California angler John Lindsey was driving through the Texas panhandle when he stopped to fish for white bass with a his fly rod. A 14.14-pound largemouth bass took his fly and wound up as a ShareLunker and a fly rod world record.
How the ShareLunker Program Works
There is no doubt that this program has contributed to the successful production of big bass in Texas waters. At the end of spawning season, the ShareLunker will be returned to the angler for live release, or the angler may donate it permanently to the program. Either way, the angler receives a fiberglass replica of the catch made by Lake Fork Taxidermy, Budweiser ShareLunker clothing, and recognition at an annual awards banquet held at TFFC (Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center). In addition, the Texas resident catching the largest entry of the season is awarded a lifetime fishing license.
The roots of the ShareLunker program can be traced to the drought of the 1950s. That 10-year dry spell brought home to Texans the fact that the state’s burgeoning population had outgrown its water supply. A few reservoirs had been built previously, but the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the completion of many more. Texas had only one natural lake — Caddo — and the native species of Texas bass, the northern, was adapted to live in streams.
Fish adapted to live in large lakes were needed to take advantage of the new reservoirs, and in 1971 TPWD brought the first Florida strain largemouth bass to Texas. They were housed at the Tyler Fish Hatchery (now closed), and the first Florida strain bass were stocked into Texas waters the following year.
Over the next several years bass from Florida, California and Cuba were brought to Texas to improve the genetics of the Texas bass population. The Cuban fish were obtained by sheer daring. Joe Bob Wells, a Levelland resident who fished in Cuba frequently, flew to Cuba in December 1984 and brought bass back to Texas via Mexico, since travel between the United States and Cuba was prohibited.
As the Florida strain genes worked their way into the bass population, fish grew bigger. In 1980 a 14.1-pound bass broke the state record of 13.5 pounds that had stood for 43 years. The record increased again and again, to the current 18.18-pound fish caught in 1992. Interest in bass fishing burgeoned along with the size of the fish.
Texas Parks and Wildlife and the TFFC have done a great job promoting and managing bass fishing in Texas. They should be applauded by all fishermen who reap the rewards of their efforts.
