During the month of March TPWD collected 19 bass meeting the program's 13-pound minimum requirement, which surpassed the 12 entries offered during the program's record setting 1994-1995 season.  The bass seem to be spawning later this year so look for April's final statistics to be super impressive.  

As of April 4th Lake Fork has accounted for 18 of the 25 fish offered to the lunker program this year.  The only lake with more than a single entry is Sam Rayburn with three.  Fork also produced 13 of the 19 March entries, with Sam Rayburn (2), Purtis Creek (1), Brady Branch (1), Conroe (1), and Cedar Creek (1).  And out-of-state anglers are doing well catching those lunkers also.  Eight of the 25 entries were caught by visitors to our state, and all the fish were taken from lake Fork.  Three of these eight entries were taken on live bait.  And the 16.44 pound lunker taken by Chris Adams of Ozark, Mo. on a shiner is probably one of the heaviest bass that will be taken.  The next-heaviest bass in this years program is a 14.39 pounder, also taken from Lake Fork.  

Digging through TPWD's statistics also showed some other interesting information.  Afternoons produced most of the big bass, with 13 of the 25 being landed between noon and dark.  Ten of the fish were caught in the morning and two were taken at night.  And if you want to be sure that your bait is kept in the most attractive strike zone consider this....12 of the 25 entries were taken from 6-10 feet of water, 8 came from less than five feet of water, three were taken from 11-15 feet, and two were caught from water 16-20 feet in depth.  If you were fishing water deeper than 20 feet you probably didn't do well on those 13-plus pound bass. 

 Texas anglers are truly blessed with the great fishing we have available.  I would encourage each of you to keep a few fish for the skillet, but put the rest back so that our children can also enjoy the great fishing tomorrow that we have today.

Good Fishing - JB