Toad ! Very nice catch !

Nice!!

"What's wrong with Falcon?"

Many congrats. Nice fish. Thanks for the post & photo.

The young man that caught this fish is my wife's nephew by marriage, he did what he thought was right, at this point he has not been notified that the fish died. If and when the fish dies he will be notified and have the fished returned to him. Guess we should wait and see if numerous lakes and future fisherman benefit from her being caught. Hopefully she makes it! I do agree the program needs to be addressed, waiting 10 to 12 hours or even longer for someone to show does cause a lot of added stress. Does anyone know the death rate of the program?

I don't know the number of Share A Lunker BASS that have died, but the guys at Falcon Lake Tackle have done alot of research on it and are totally against the program. One fact that they mentioned is that in the 26years the program has been around it has not produced to date one 13lb bass!! With that being said I totally agree with releasing them back in their home waters!!

"There was also a fish turned into Sharelunker last week.. It is being returned to the lake as it was not a pure Florida.. Whoda thunk it.." (Falcon Lake and Tackle)

Yes, another live ShareLunker, returned to its home ...whoda thunk it.

Some SLs die in captivity; the percentage needs to be quoted for each year to see how significant it is.

Some fish of SL size die before even being picked up - like the one at Ivie a few years back at the PBOBI. A case could be made that stressed fish like this might have a slightly better chance of survival when taken to a TPWD facility - the nearest hatchery will hold it rather than going on a potentially longer trip to Athens.

Does anyone have any data to show the SL program is hurting fisheries? Let's see it.

If none of the SL offspring are producing 13 pounders, but Falcon is still producing boat loads of 13 pounders, you've got nothing to worry about because it's more than likely that they are the direct or indirect result of TPWD stockings to begin with, and Falcon gets regularly stocked with Florida LMB. Who seriously thinks a few SLs dying (undesireable as that is) will significantly deplete the production of future SLs?

Nice fish! I can't wait til I catch my first DD.

Back in the early 80's when I used to fish tournaments on Falcon most folks living in other parts of Texas other than south Texas couldn't find Falcon on a map even if you told them it was in south Texas. It used to get very little attention as far as stocking and the Florida bass program was just getting under way.
I caught a 10.13 in 1985 out of Falcon and it was considered a possible lake record and was found to be a native bass and not a Florida strain even though they had stocked some Floridas i the lake at that time. It was a moot point as someone caught an 11# bass a few weeks later that took the top spot.
Falcon was always a bass factory, and a few SL's that die won't make a difference at all for that fishery.