January 26, 2009
Athens, Texas — ShareLunker program manager David
Campbell often says anglers who donate big bass to the program are
the best conservationists in Texas, and that statement is backed up
by what happened at Lake Fork Saturday.
Guide James Caldemeyer was fishing with clients Brian Ketterer and
Shannon Spear of Conroe, and they were looking forward to catching
some big fish. (continued below)
They had no idea what they were about to get into when they pulled
into a small cove with nearly a dozen other boats. "With my
polarized sunglasses I could see a fish swimming slowly near the
surface, and it looked like she was struggling," said Caldemeyer. "I
caught her with my net. I could see she was a gigantic fish and that
she was in trouble. My concern was for the welfare of the fish, so I
netted her and put her into the livewell and told my clients that we
needed to take her in so her air bladder could be punctured—I didn’t
have a needle with me."
Asking paying clients to give up hours of fishing time on Lake Fork
during the peak lunker season in March might seem like a risky thing
to do, but Ketterer and Spear shared Caldemeyer’s concern for the
fish. "They couldn’t have been happier if they had caught her,"
Caldemeyer said. "They were just thrilled to be part of the
experience of helping this big fish."
Caldemeyer immediately called Cameron Burnett at Lake Fork Marina,
an official ShareLunker holding station, and told him they were on
their way in with a fish that tipped his scale at 14.5 pounds.
Burnett contacted David Campbell, and when the fish arrived, Burnett
met Caldemeyer at the ramp with a bag to transport the fish to a
holding tank. Burnett is experienced at "fizzing" bass, or
puncturing the air bladder to release air so the fish is able to
submerge and swim upright.
"He let a lot of air out of her," Caldemeyer said. "She started to
get upright and floated to the top a couple of times but swam back
down. We monitored her until David Campbell got there." The
certified scale at the marina weighed the fish in at 14.68 pounds.
Campbell, of course, assumed that the fish had been caught by hook
and line and asked, "Who’s the lucky angler?"
"We all are," Caldemeyer replied. "There was a big crowd around, so
I took David aside and told him what had happened. I could have said
I had caught it, but my ethics would not let me say that. My concern
was for the fish and its welfare, not for being able to say I’d
caught it. I was just trying to do the right thing."
After contacting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens,
who had no objections, Campbell accepted the fish into the
ShareLunker program. "James Caldemeyer saved the life of this fish,"
Campbell said. "It looks very healthy."
"If genetic testing shows the fish to be a pure Florida largemouth
bass, it will be used in our selective breeding program," said Allen
Forshage, director of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. This
on-going program stocks ShareLunker offspring into public waters in
an attempt to increase the size and number of trophy bass caught in
Texas. "We’ve all heard stories about the big one that got away.
This is the big one that didn’t."
As for Caldemeyer and his clients, after the big fish-now
ShareLunker No. 465 — was safely on its way to Athens, they resumed
their fishing trip. The biggest fish of the day weighed about four
pounds, but no one complained. "We were on Cloud Nine all day
because of the way the morning started," Caldemeyer said.
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