January 26, 2009

Athens, Texas — The water temperature may be only 61 degrees, but Lake Conroe is on fire.

Thursday afternoon the lake just north of Houston churned out its fourth ShareLunker of the current season, a 13.8-pound largemouth bass caught by Renee Linderoth of Conroe.

The big bass is the sixteenth ShareLunker to come from Lake Conroe, giving the lake a solid grip on the number four spot on the list of top big bass lakes in Texas, after Lake Fork, with 240 entries, Alan Henry (25) and Sam Rayburn (23).

Linderoth was fishing in two feet of water south of the F.M. 1097 bridge when the fish took a Hula Grub. "I have to give credit to my fishing guide, Ron Higgins of Higgy’s Freshwater Adventures," Linderoth said. "Without him putting me in the right place and fishing the right way, I would not have caught this fish." (continued below)

Higgins also gets credit for the bass being entered into the ShareLunker program rather than being immediately released. Linderoth grew up fishing with her father but had not fished in recent years until buying a boat. "I had not heard of the ShareLunker program and was going to release the fish, but Ron said ‘No, we have to get it weighed and see if it is a ShareLunker,’" she explained.

Shortly afterward the fish was swimming in a minnow tank at April Plaza Marina and ShareLunker program manager David Campbell was on his way to pick it up.

Anyone legally catching a 13-pound or larger largemouth bass in Texas waters between October 1 and April 30 can enter it into the ShareLunker program by calling Campbell at (903) 681-0550 or paging him at (888) 784-0600 and leaving a number, including area code. The fish are used in a selective breeding program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center aimed at increasing the size and number of big bass in Texas.