ATHENS—Blair Schwarz of McAllen
caught Toyota ShareLunker 559 from a private lake in
Zapata County on February 19.
The fish weighed 14.30 pounds and
was caught on a Jackall ASKA squarebill crankbait in
about six feet of water. Length and girth were unavailable at the time of
writing.
The fish is the twenty-second entry
into the ShareLunker program from private waters. The
first such was ShareLunker 4, caught by Dan Berg of
Hilltop Lakes in 1987.
The largest entry from private
waters weighed 15.74 pounds and was caught by Kenneth Morris of San Angelo in
1995. The second-largest private-waters entry was caught by Jesse Roberson of
Goldthwaite, then 9 years old. That fish weighed 15.54 pounds and earned
Roberson Angler of the Year honors.
Schwarz’s fish, as the largest entry
of the season so far, leads the race for Angler of the Year. G. Loomis provides
a prize package that includes a G. Loomis rod, a Shimano reel, and PowerPro line for the Angler of the Year. If a Texas
resident catches the largest fish, that person also receives a lifetime fishing
license.
ShareLunker 559 is the sixth-largest entry from private waters. The
last prior to Schwarz’s fish, ShareLunker 473, was
caught by Paul Detwiler of Tyler in 2009. That fish
weighed 14.43 pounds.
Anyone legally catching a 13-pound
or bigger largemouth bass from Texas waters, public or private, between October 1 and April 30
may submit the fish to the Toyota ShareLunker
program.
All anglers entering fish into the
Toyota ShareLunker program receive a free replica of
their fish, a certificate and ShareLunker clothing
and are recognized at a banquet at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in
Athens. Prizes and funding for the banquet are provided by Toyota, which also
provides a Tundra pickup truck for use in picking up and returning the majority
of lunkers and their offspring.
Offspring produced by ShareLunkers are divided among the water bodies that
produced entries during the current season.