TPWD says anglers can benefit future of fishing with scale samples for genetics testing

TPWD says anglers can benefit future of fishing with scale samples for genetics testing Matt Williams Outdoors Writer Thu, 08/22/2024 - 07:59 Image

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Compelling news from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s A.E. Wood State Fish Hatchery in San Marcos … Recent genetics testing performed on a scale sample from an 8.15-pound largemouth bass caught and released earlier this year from Bois d’ Arc Lake confirms the fish was a test tube baby with a developing weight problem.

According to fisheries biologist Dan Bennett of Pottsboro, the fish was one of 2,070 Toyota ShareLunker offspring released in the Fannin County impoundment in Fall 2019.

Fishing guide Jason Conn caught the big bass in May. He plucked a couple of scales from the fish before releasing it. The scales were voluntarily submitted to TPWD in hopes of helping scientists learn more about the bass’ DNA and family tree.

TPWD geneticist Dijar Lutz- Carrillo used the scales to identify the fish as a five-year old daughter of a 14.57 pound Toyota ShareLunker caught in January 2019 from Marine Creek Reservoir near Fort Worth by Zach Sypert. Sypert’s fish spawned at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens later that year.

Previous genetics testing identified the Marine Creek ShareLunker as the daughter of a 14.10-pound Toyota ShareLunker caught in 2006 at Lake Conroe.

That’s pretty cool stuff. It reaffirms what scientists and anglers have known for years — Florida strain bass are genetically programmed to grow faster and larger than northern largemouth bass.

The first Floridas were brought to Texas in the early 1970s. TPWD’s Florida bass hatchery program is now built around the offspring from Toyota Legacy ShareLunkers — angler- caught female bass upwards of 13 pounds. The agency is calling them “Lone Star Bass.”

The finding also confirms that the Bois d’ Arc bass fishery is a healthy one ripe with forage to help the fish stay fat and sassy. The reservoir opened to recreational traffic about 4 1/2 months ago. It is the first major reservoir to open in Texas since 1991.

The lake was built for water supply by the North Texas Municipal Water District. TPWD helped groom it for good fishing down the road. The management blueprint included multiple stockings of ShareLunker offspring and a restrictive 16-inch maximum length limit to protect them from harvest.

Bennett rides shotgun over Bois d’ Arc for TPWD. He says Conn’s fish was originally stocked as a six-inch advanced growth fingerling in one of the four brood ponds that were inundated after the lake began filling. The ponds ranged in size from 3-7 acres.

Interestingly, Conn also caught a 9.05 pounder at Bois d’ Arc in April that ranks as the official lake record. The angler submitted a scale sample from that fish for genetics testing as well, but the results were inconclusive.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough usable DNA collected from the scale sample on the 9.05 pounder to make an identification on it, but I have no doubt it was probably a sister of the 8.15 pounder,” Bennett said. “If these fish keep up this growth trajectory we’ll see a state record out of Bois d’ Arc in 2029.”

Only time will tell if Bennett’s prediction turns out to be correct. In the meantime, TPWD continues turning over rocks aimed at helping to unravel the mysteries of big bass DNA.

The department is encouraging other anglers to follow Conn’s lead by donating scale samples from ShareLunkers for testing to help the process along.

For those who may not know, anglers who catch bass weighing eight pounds or more are now eligible to enter those fish as Toyota ShareLunkers online or using the ShareLunker mobile app yearround, Jan. 1 - December 31.

Beginning in 2018, the program was revamped to include four categories instead of one. Only one category (Legacy Class) involves TPWD picking up the fish for spawning at the TFFC. Legacy fish are those weighing 13 pounds or more that are caught between Jan. 1 and March 31.

Anglers who enter fish in other weight categories are encouraged to remove a few scales from their fish before releasing it. The scales may be submitted to TPWD’s genetics lab for testing.

There is no charge to the angler for DNA testing, but there are some cool rewards to be reaped from doing the good deed.

Anglers who submit scale samples from qualifying fish receive an official ShareLunker Catch Kit including a Lew’s baitcasting reel, cap, fishing tackle, a cap and a three-month subscription to Bass University, an exclusive online video library featuring instructional programs taught by some of the nation’s top bass pros.

ShareLunker participants also are entered in an end-of-the-year drawing for a $5,000 gift certificate to Bass Pro Shops.

TPWD says the idea behind soliciting volunteer donations of scale samples is to provide fisheries managers the opportunity to gather valuable data about the genetics of wild populations of large bass finning around in lakes across the state. Think of it like a citizen science partnership aimed at allowing anglers to contribute to the management of largemouth bass in Texas.

“These fish are typically smaller than the 13 pound threshold for the Legacy class entries, but larger than the fish that are collected during routine monitoring by biologists through electrofishing,” Carrillo said. “They provide us with ‘missing samples’ that we would otherwise rarely encounter.”

Carrillo added that the data gathered from scale testing provides useful insight about how genetics composition affects size, while helping with evaluations of size-associated genetic markers.

“Additionally, for every fish we recover that ties back to a previous ShareLunker entry we have a very accurate age for that fish,” he said. “This helps answer questions about how long it takes for fish to reach large sizes. Once the dataset for these fish is large enough, we may be able to get better resolution on how much the age to size relationship varies among reservoirs.”

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@ yahoo.com.