Choke Canyon kicks out another 15-pounder
Choke Canyon Reservoir recently joined lakes Falcon, O.H. Ivie and a pair of private lakes on the 2009-10 Toyota ShareLunker scoreboard, courtesy of Seguin's Richard Flores.
ShareLunker is a spawning and genetics research program run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Anglers who catch fish weighing 13 pounds or more between Oct. 1 and April 30 are encouraged to loan the fish to the state's hatchery program. The goal is to get the bass to spawn in captivity. A portion of the offspring are used for research projects aimed at unraveling the mysteries of big-bass genetics.
Flores was fishing at Choke Canyon on Feb. 6 when he reeled in a 15.09-pounder that currently ranks as the heaviest fish entered in the program this season. The bass is the heaviest recorded in Texas since last March, when Carl Ames of Helotes landed a Choke Canyon monster weighing 15.27 pounds.
Flores said he caught the fish on a 10-inch plastic worm in 12 feet of water. The water temperature was 57 degrees.
It is worth noting that last season Choke Canyon kicked out six ShareLunkers (two more than any other lake), including three 15-pounders and a lake record bass weighing 15.45 pounds.
Amazingly, the aforementioned list of fat fish includes only a fraction of the heavyweights that were reeled in by Choke Canyon anglers last year. TPWD fisheries biologist John Findeisen of Mathis says he knows of five more 15-pounders that were not entered in the program. Findeisen said three of the fish were caught and released during the height of summer, which is typically not regarded as the optimum season for catching big bass. Additionally, there were several more 13-pounders reported and countless fish in the 8- to 10-pound range that crossed the scales in club and organized tournaments.
"There is no telling how many 5- to 7-pounders were caught and released," Findeisen said. "Fish like that don't even turn heads on Choke Canyon anymore."
The current big bass bonanza at Choke Canyon can be largely attributed to an extended drought in the mid-1990s, which caused the 26,000-acre reservoir to shrink to 50 percent of full capacity, and the lake refilling in the early 2000s. When the lake refilled, thousands of acres of terrestrial vegetation that sprouted while the lake was low flooded and turned into optimum habitat for spawning, survival and recruitment for forage and predatory species. In short, it was a like a brand new lake all over again.
"Choke has had some phenominal spawns [since it refilled], and it is full of big fish now," Findeisen said. "After what happened last year, you have to wonder what might be in store down the road. My gut feeling is this lake is really going to shock some people this year. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to see a new state record come out of there any day. My guess is there is a 20-pounder swimming around out there somewhere."
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