I’ve been closely following the number of Lone Star Sharelunkers (bass weighing 13 pounds or more) that have been donated to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) program.
There have been lots of entries this year from unusual places. Check this out from TPWD.
The latest entry into the program, No. 490, came from Lake Casa Blanca, near Laredo, on March 24. Jesse Garza Perez of Laredo caught a new lake record 14.79-pound bass from eight to 10 feet of water using a seven-inch junebug PowerBait worm.
“Previous stockings of Florida largemouth bass, rapid growth because of a year-round growing season, plentiful forage and minimal bass fishing effort are responsible for Lake Casa Blanca producing a relatively high number of ShareLunkers,” said Randy Myers, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Inland Fisheries biologist in charge of managing the lake’s fishery. Casa Blanca, a 1,680-acre impoundment on the edge of Laredo, has now produced six ShareLunkers averaging 13.66 pounds. Only 12 other lakes have produced six or more ShareLunkers.
Toyota ShareLunker 490 is the fifth lake record entered into the ShareLunker program during the current season. Three of those fish came from public lakes that had never produced a ShareLunker before: Lake O’ the Pines, Livingston and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Two private lakes also produced first-time entries, and two fish made the Top 50 list of big bass caught in Texas: a 16.17-pounder from Caddo Lake and a 15.61-pounder from Lake Fork.
Lakes that have produced ShareLunkers so far this season include Fork (2), Lake O’ the Pines (1), Caddo (1), Purtis Creek State Park Lake (1), Lyndon B. Johnson (1), O.H. Ivie (3), Amistad (2), Austin (1), Livingston (1), Choke Canyon (1), Falcon (2) and two private lakes.
This is certainly an interesting year with lunkers showing up in plenty of unusual places. And here I thought Casa Blanca was a movie with Humphrey Bogart.
The Casa Blanca Lunker
(Photo courtesy TPWD)