Fourth ShareLunker of the year comes from lake Conroe, 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.”
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.