http://www.tackleandrods.com/lake/flash.htm

This is from Falcon Lake Tackle's fishing report. Thank you James Bendele. Not only for keeping us up to date on the lake and happenings around it, but for everything YOU do for the lake and the bass and for your constant interaction with TPWD. Thank you to Dr. Gary Schwartz, too. You two fellers are outstanding men in my book.

"I have been hinting lately about something that is coming up here at Falcon. And here's the scoop..

Remember a couple of years ago when PAW put a bunch of Sharelunker fish in the new lake up at La Perla, owned by Dr. Schwartz?

And a big deal was made of it at the time.. And rightly so.

I was one that offered opinion on the subject as well. But mostly because of the lack of transparency by PAW about the issue..

I am sure that SL fish have ended up in private waters here in Texas before..

But that's another story..

But here's what is going to happen, if all goes as planned.

What's the one thing that a biologist will tell you when you are trying to grow big fish in a pond, or small lake?

Well if you don't know, the answer is, "Take out a bunch of the small fish."

And that is the plan. And instead of running a fillet knife thru em, Dr. Schwartz has decided to return these fish to TPWD, and TPWD will then put these fish into Falcon Lake..

This agreement did not happen over night.

I am sure a lot of thought by PAW was put into the decision to accept the fish, and a lot of thought was given to the optics of the situation.

Of course when I talked to Dr. Schwartz about a month or so ago, I was all ears.. And I was/am chomping at the bit to receive 1000 to 1200 cormorant proof (for the most part) fish for Falcon.

Which should be a very high percentage of pure Florida Bass. Very High.. And I just say that because I don't believe in very many absolutes..

What should happen here is that survival rates will go from 2-5%, more or less, to.. Well hell I don't know..

Once a fish weighs a pound or so, there are only a few things that can cause his death.. Least around here..

A very few end up in nets..

A few end up as gar food..

And a few end up eaten by anglers, and killed by anglers with poor live well etiquette..

AKA tournament mortality..

But the odds are that a very good number of SL bred fish, that have made it past the most dangerous period of their entire existence, are going to be put into Falcon.

Odds are that fish larger than that will also be collected. We'll see when we open the doors on the stocking trucks provided by PAW to move the fish from the ranch to Zapata.

Dr. Schwartz is paying for the collection of the fish from the lake at the ranch. This is no small cost.. Thank you Gary!

I am glad that Dr. Schwartz and PAW made this decision. It is definitely a good PR move on their part.

Thanks PAW for making the right choice.

It is a win-win for Falcon. And I don't care what people on other lakes think..

Hauling bigger fish to other locations is a logistics nightmare, and who knows about the survival rate..

This is a NO Brainer...

SO.. Knowing the fish eating habits of the locals..

I had the idea to use boats other than PAW's to distribute some/most/a lot of these fish. Namely, Bass Boats..

Although PAW will be bringing their stocking boat out of San Antonio.

But their design, which does allow them to hold a lot of water, does not allow for much long range transport while getting the job done in a timely manner.

And hopefully we will have a good number of fish to move.

If we dump them all here in the Veleno, the locals will be running a fillet knife through a very high percentage of the ones they catch

So we need your help. If you are interested in helping distribute some fish, on your own dime, please give me a call..

When we're done, I'll buy you a beer..

How many times in life will you get a chance to stock your own hole with Sharelunker heritage fish?

This event will take place on Friday, May 12th, around noon..

We will be working out of the Zapata County Boat Ramp.

Call or e-mail me if you can help..

I would love to get some of these fish down the lake a bit, and as long as you release em in Falcon, I don't care where you take em.. A fast boat ride to their new home will shorten the time they spend in small water boxes..

Mixing a new bull, or cow in the heard is a good thing..


Of course you must have live wells working at peak efficiency to participate in this event!!

These fish must be put in Falcon!!

I'll pass along more info as I hear/get it..

And hopefully nobody slaps my hand for for what I said here or how I said it..

See you soon!"

Wow. Thats the best idea I've heard in a long time. Too bad it couldn't have been done when the weather was cooler.
I wish I wasn't 8 hours away so I could help out.

Great idea. Thanks to all involved. Wish I could be there to help but will be out of town/country then.

Great news. I would love one day to read that a share lunker was caught out of falcon that can be traced back to this event. And best of luck to Gary to obtain that world record.

That's good news

interesting... very interesting. I love the idea and this is one of the first examples we have seen of lake management that isn't of the one size fits all variety. Wish I was in a position to help, gj to all of yall who do

That is a great idea. Adult Florida bass stocking is a good thing. I wonder how many they will end up with.

Should be an every year thing, Ag. Gotta keep culling and culling a bunch if you want to grow GIANT bass.

James, this is gonna open a whole nother can of worms. I've long been a proponent of growing bass out for stocking rather than dumping 500,000 fry (with very little chance of survival) at a time. I know you have too. This could be the impetus to get that started. It's expensive to grow them out to the size they have few predators and this is why TPWD hasn't done it on a large scale.

You've got all these guys with nice bass boats with big livewells, fantastic idea, but how do they make sure the fish go to falcon, honor system?

This will be a boats in the water effort at the county ramp.. No fish are going to be loaded into boats on trailers.

TPWD will be supervising the release.

And lastly, I will know all the fishermen involved. And I promise these fish ain't going no where else..

Great idea. Thanks for helping coordinate the stocking

Definitely improves survival rate. Wish we could do this on other lakes rather than feed the white bass and perch

If you can't transport and release fish from a public lake to another public lake from fear of transporting diseases/invasive species. How is moving them from a private lake to a public lake any different?

I imagine the fish out of La Perla are cleaner that the ones from the TPWD hatchery. Haha.

I'd assume they have been given health checks and water tested

I'd love to help but don't think my kayak would do a lot of good. If you can get a truck load down here I can probably get you access in government cove.