Man there's a lot of crusty, opinionated old men on this forum. Just commenting negatively for the sake of it. The changes here are basically reporting on line outside the normal spawning window. Other than that, the program is the same for collecting 13# fish during Jan - Mar.

We may be crusty, but we have sense enough to see that the guidelines will mean more of the mature fish will be hauled in to the scales, kept out of the water longer and ultimately end up dead or at least negatively affected healthwise.
Seriously... Isn't catching a good fish enough of a prize. Take a couple of quick pics and let 'em go.

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

Not everybody carries a digital scale with them. The ones that don't probably don't care about the prize anyway.

Maybe there wont be a lot of wanna be biologists out there trying to gather scale samples for genetics either.

I just think the whole thing would achieve it's main purpose better if the prize was eliminated so the glory hounds and the expected cheaters were removed. IF, the main purpose is for the quality of the fish and not the money.

To my knowledge, they haven't said what the prize would be. My guess is for an 8lb fish it won't be much more than a certificate. Not all that different than the master angler program many states have.

To my knowledge, they haven't said what the prize would be. My guess is for an 8lb fish it won't be much more than a certificate. Not all that different than the master angler program many states have.

The Toyota ShareLunker Program is made possible by a grant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation from Gulf States Toyota.


Gulf States Toyota Distributors (GST) is the US' second (out of 2) largest franchised distributor of Toyota vehicles. The 154 dealers in the five states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas account for 13% of Toyota sales in the United States. Per Forbes, GST is a wholly owned subsidiary the holding company, the Friedkin Companies[3] and ranked 53rd on the Forbes 2008 list of America's Largest Private Companies.[4]