Fishing Report Archives

Toyota ShareLunker Program to Begin New Year-Round Season Jan. 1

BJ Kirkpatrick Fishing Report, News 10/01/201708/28/2020Fishing

TPWD implementing year-round participation system, expanding weight categories

ATHENS – After more than 31 years of collecting and spawning 13 pound or larger “lunker” largemouth bass, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Toyota ShareLunker Program is announcing big changes and an expanded mission in an effort to better engage the public in the promotion and enhancement of lunker bass fishing in Texas public waters.

The ShareLunker participation season will now run each year from Jan.1 through Dec. 31; a change from previous seasons. But similar to last year, only those entries collected between Jan. 1 – March 31 will be accepted as broodstock for spawning.

“This provides the greatest opportunity to obtain eligible fish for spawning while minimizing the risk of additional handling and possible mortality,” said Kyle Brookshear, ShareLunker program coordinator.

Outside of the spawning window, the new year-round participation season will allow for anglers catching bass 8 pounds or larger to submit information about their catch through a web application in four categories: 8 pounds or larger, 10 pounds or larger, 13 pounds or larger and 13 pounds or larger with a spawning donation.

The goal is to increase the number of participants in the Toyota ShareLunker program and expand large fish catch rate data for fisheries biologists, Brookshear said. As a bonus, the new size categories open up more ways for anglers to receive prizes and incentives for participating.

“This citizen scientist initiative will allow fisheries biologists to better monitor the impact of ShareLunker stockings across Texas and provide more incentives and opportunities for Texans to help us make our bass fishing bigger and better than ever,” Brookshear said.

Other spawning program changes include converting the entire hatchery broodstock to pure-Florida ShareLunker offspring. Genetically pure offspring will be maintained on the hatchery, grown to adulthood, then distributed to production hatcheries and used as broodstock. Eventually, all hatchery-held Florida largemouth bass broodstock will be descendants of ShareLunkers, Brookshear said.

Additionally, attempts will be made to spawn all donated eligible ShareLunkers — regardless of the degree of genetic introgression. Offspring of female genetic intergrades will be combined and stocked back to the source locations for all ShareLunker entries for the year.

“People come to Texas from all over the country for our lunker bass fishing, and it’s still very rare to catch a 13 pounder,” said Mandy Scott, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center director. “So that’s why ShareLunker is special. We learned a long time ago that these fish were important and we wanted to try to capitalize on the big fish that we have in Texas already and make fishing even bigger and better.”

Brookshear said the program will announce the full list of changes and the new prizes closer to the beginning of the season, but anglers can also look forward to a complete rebranding of the program to include a new logo, graphics, and eventually more ShareLunker Weigh Stations to aid in the weigh-in process. Additionally, education and outreach specialists at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center are developing ShareLunker science curriculum for Texas classrooms.

For complete information and rules of the ShareLunker program, tips on caring for big bass and a recap of last year’s season, see www.tpwd.texas.gov/sharelunker/ . The site also includes a searchable database of all fish entered into the program. Or follow the program on social media at www.facebook.com/sharelunkerprogram/ .

The Toyota ShareLunker Program is made possible by a grant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation from Gulf States Toyota. Toyota is a long-time supporter of the Foundation and TPWD, providing major funding for a wide variety of education, fish, parks and wildlife projects.

Lake Texoma to host final regular season event for COSTA FLW Series

BJ Kirkpatrick Fishing Report, News 09/18/201711/26/2023

Denison Texas | September 17, 2017

As many as 400 pros and co-anglers are set to compete in the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division event at Lake Texoma, Sept. 21-23. The tournament, which is presented by Frabill, is the third and final regular-season event scheduled in the FLW Series Southwestern Division. Hosted by the Denison Area Chamber of Commerce, anglers will be competing for a top award of up to $40,000 in cash and a new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.

“Lake Texoma should be fishing pretty good for a late September tournament,” said FLW Tour pro Andrew Upshaw, who finished in 11th place when the FLW Series last visited Lake Texoma in 2015. “We didn’t get too much of the nasty weather from the hurricanes, so the lake levels will be normal and we’re going to have a fun tournament.

“You’re going to see the typical fall patterns in this one,” Upshaw continued. “It will be junk fishing 101. A lot of guys will be fishing docks or throwing topwater baits, fishing in the backs of creeks. The fish don’t replenish great this time of year, so covering a lot of water and having a lot of different patterns going on will be the key.”

Upshaw said that he expects his key baits will be a Bill Lewis StutterStep 4.0 and a Rat-L-Trap.

“Rat-L-Traps are always great in the fall,” Upshaw said. “I downsize to ¼-ounce and throw a chrome and black if it’s sunny or a white one if it’s cloudy.
“I think to make the top-10 cut and fish the final day it’s going to take 22 to 24 pounds,” Upshaw went on to say. “I think the winner will likely have a three-day total of 45 to 47 pounds.”

Anglers will take off from the Highport Marina, located at 120 Texoma Harbor Drive, in Pottsboro, at 7 a.m. CDT each day. Weigh-ins will be held at the marina each day beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the Denison Area Chamber of Commerce.

In Costa FLW Series regular-season competition, payouts are based on the number of participants competing in the event. At Lake Texoma pros will fish for as much as $40,000 and a Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard if Ranger Cup qualified. Co-anglers will cast for a Ranger Z175 boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude outboard, and an additional $5,000 if Ranger Cup qualified.

The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2017 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 2-4 on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee.

About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 258 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.

Source: | Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations, FishingWorld.com

Lake Texoma HOT Summer Fishing!

BJ Kirkpatrick Fishing Report, Lake Texoma news, News, Sports 06/21/201706/27/2020

The June fishing on Lake Texoma has been great, and I expect July fishing will be hot as well! Big fish and good box fish are roaming around and a ton of fun to catch on slabs. Big slabs been working best to keep the “dinks” off the hook.

Early mornings should begin with some schooling top water action over deeper water as these fish began to group into large schools for the summer. These fish can be caught with small top water plugs or rattle baits casted out into the boiling water. They can literally pop up just about anywhere so watch for splashing and keep an eye open for the Blue Herons or the Great Egrets hovering over deep water. These birds are some of the best fish finders on the lake and will lead you in the right direction. Just keep in mind as you approach these schooling fish that running engines will tend to scare them off, so coast in quietly or use your trolling motor to sneak in for the attack!

Another great method for catching these fish when they are not “schooled up” is dropping slab spoons through schools of Striper and Sandbass. Once you have located a large school using your fish finder, drop a 2 to 3 ounce slab down through the school.

A bait casting reel works great for this method because you can keep your thumb on the line spool as the slab spoon descends through the school of fish and if a strike is detected you can stop the spool with your thumb and set the hook at the same time. If your slab spoon makes it through the school without a bite, simply reel it back up as fast as you can and get ready as these fish will aggressively hit a fast-moving spoon. White, green, and blue are my favorite slab colors; or a combination of those colors seem to work great most of the time.

With the summer comes the heat, and it is very important to keep your catch cold in the cooler. I typically use three 2 gallon blocks of ice in my 120 quart cooler. This will keep 30 to 60 fish very cold for up to six hours. If you’re going to be on the water much longer than that please bring plenty of ice to keep your fish cold. The colder you can get your fish, the better they will taste, I promise you!

Good luck out there, and be safe! I’ll see you all on the water!
Capt. Stephen Andre’
Striper Hunter Guide Service
972-816-6000