Has everyone checked out the new changes to the Share A Lunker program? It is all year long now and has multiple Classes to participate in different ways for some really great prizes and drawings.

even fishing has started to give out participation trophies now

I think they are some awesome changes. What this means to us anglers is exponentially more data. The more data we have the better we can understand the animal we are all so passionate about. I see nothing but positives here for the fishermen of Texas. Lower mortality, higher yields on the breeding program, and hundreds of times more data. I know some grumblers will never be happy no matter what is proposed, but I applaud the effort to keep innovating and trying to drive our understanding forward even if a few mistakes have been made along the way.

Link to changes: Share Lunker Program

1+ LOL

quote of the year

They started that a long time ago when you could just show up to all the tourneys and qualify for the championship...

True...

That program is grasping at straws at this point.

Lakes are getting old and stale and too many people fishing too little water = less productive catches



nothing a "feel good" program will fix

Lot's of very good points in this thread

Great another reason for novices to keep fish out of water even longer. Ya great idea

I agree with Doug.

Although the program has been great in the past (and hopefully will in the future). There are so many good anglers in Texas (especially East Texas), I think it's going to take some people taking some fish. I know they have a small brain, but they have become conditioned. .

IMO, they are interested in a year-round program for a reason, to bring more anglers into the sport, thus bringing in the tax dollars through publicity, especially since the sport has grown into high school programs (that alone, shows the growth of our sport).

We have all benefited from the program, no doubt. I hope the program does great things in the future, but the pressure these (popular) waters get, has just gotten more and more. The internet has taught us so much, but has also created a huge "surge" to the sport. These programs do help tremendously in the science of it, but I think we all, need to learn how to really, "treat" a body of water. Maybe more native-strain bass should be considered...

I don't think they should have included the 8-10lb class. It should be double digit fish only. People strive for DD fish and keep count of DD fish, they don't keep count of 8lb'rs, or they are at least not held in the same regard.

YEP!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I really can't believe the negativity here. Did you guys read the announcement? They are not going to be accepting 8lb fish into the breeding program. All they are doing is providing folks an opportunity to report (via the web) catch information on fish 8lbs and above. That'll give them and all of us access to vastly better information on where, when, and how big fish are caught. I truly can see no downside here.

For the spawning program not much changes except the submittal window. They still need to be 13lbs or larger, but they will only take them Jan 1 to March 31st.

Verbiage from their site:

"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."