Increasing minimum length limits on largemouth bass: The current harvest regulations for largemouth bass on 250-acre Marine Creek Reservoir (Tarrant County) consist of statewide 14-inch minimum length limit and a five-fish daily bag limit. The proposal would implement an 18-inch minimum length limit. The change is necessary because Marine Creek Reservoir has been selected to be involved in the Operation World Record research project.

The project will involve stocking coded-wire tagged largemouth bass and monitoring their growth for a minimum of five years following stocking. The stocked bass are ShareLunker offspring and are valuable, considering the limited number that will be produced and their importance to the project.

The ShareLunker program allows anglers to loan largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more to the department for spawning and research purposes, which include the study of genetics, life history, growth, performance, behavior, and competition. The increased length limit will protect the stocked bass through at least 18 inches and will increase the department�s ability to evaluate their performance in natural systems.

When is this suppose to happen?? I guess I better get ready to see a bunch of bass fisherpeople racing up and down this little lake. Thanks TP&W

When you LOAN a fish to the Share a Lunker program, can you actually get it back?

Rob

I don't know if they will physically give it back to you, but they will put it in whatever lake you want.

My understanding is you give it to TPWD instead of mounting the thing, that way they "breed" it with other SAL donations. TPWD gives you a fiberglass replica of yours, then a year after you have donated yours they release it back to the water.

Marine Creek is where they have the Southern Drag Boat Assn. races around Fathers Day. Those top fuel drag boats should scare about 3 years growth out of all those sharealunker fry.

Larry

guess they better put game wardens out there then.... theres one side that is ethnically diverse and they tend to keep anything they catch! Makes me sick!

Aint this the truth! I have yelled at people for doing this but of course, that makes no diffrence! This is an awsome little fishery and hope that we do see some bigger fish in there soon.

Now the TCC nazis ss can write more tickets.

I have spoken with TP&W about illeagl fishing and fish not meeting minimum length at marine creek and was told that they had no control over the lake since it was Fort Worth owned and I should consider calling the fort worth police dept and make a report . Now I hope that TP&W will step in and make some moves to curve the illeagle actions.

Sharelunker fry, its whats for dinner. 3/4 of the fish stocked will be eaten regardless of minimum length requirements. Sad but true.

they need to run some catfish or hybrids in there so the "keepers" will have something to eat and leave the bass alone. I've fished that lake a hand full of times and it's a great little place. I just hope this new publicity won't swamp it like that happened to Welsh this year.

The fish that will be stocked are advanced fingerlings (>6"), not fry. TPWD game wardens have full authority to enforce all regulations. The Tarrant Regional Water District is the controlling authority, not the city of Fort Worth.

Jay- there are some MONSTER sandbass in there. They sit on the roadbed in about 20-25' of water. Can catch them anytime I go out there. They are a blast.

Huh. That's good to hear. I've never caught one out of there which is odd because invariably, anytime there's something besides bass in a lake and I'm bass fishing, I'll catch it. I'll keep that in mind though next time I'm out there and want some fodder for a fish fry. But, undoubtedly I'll somehow manage to catch one on a fluke or a carolina rig or something ridiculous like that.