by John Jefferson

I’ve been telling anglers for years that if they’re casting for a 13-pound or heavier largemouth bass to enter in the forty-year-old TPWD/Toyota ShareLunker Program to not be discouraged if the first month of the entry period didn’t produce one for them. January traditionally doesn’t cough up many large fish.

Our Januarys are mild enough, though, that a few big female bass might think it’s springtime and start thinking toward spawning
Some bass caught in January might not be as heavy as bass caught later in the three -month ShareLunker entry season. Sometimes egg sacks take more time to mature. The most qualifying entry bass and the heaviest come in February and March.

When I hadn’t received a news release about any Sharelunkers having been caught by January 22, I called the efficient and helpful coordinator of the program at the Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, Natalie Goldstrohm, to see if any had been caught.

Natalie, as always, gleefully announced that two bass had been entered! She apologized for the lack of notice but the two bass had just been caught. One of the two was caught at 5:30 p.m.the day before! The first one was boated two days earlier. Press releases were still making their way through the editing and approval stages. They’re coming. TPWD is careful and passes press releases before appropriate staff to read and approve.

The first bass entered in 2026 weighed 13.75 pounds and was caught in – guess where? Of all waters in Texas, Lake O.H. Ivie would be the waterbody most would guess. And they would be right! Ivie has been the dominant lake for lunker bass for the past three years.

It was caught by Charles Roberts and was the same bass Roberts caught and entered last year on Ivie, which is 55-miles east of San Angelo.

No details of the catch or lure are available.

The second bass entered this year came from Lake Alan Henry, a picturesque waterbody south of Lubbock.

It’s pretty far north in Texas, and the water stays cold later into the ShareLunker season. Some bass chasers that frequent LAH have even requested that its season end later to give the lake more time to warm to the magical spawning temperature of 60-degrees. That would consequently give the bass later into the season to develop eggs, and weigh more. So far, TPWD has declined to make that exception.

But it didn’t take Ross Gomez any later to catch a ShareLunker, there. He caught the second one of the season on January 22 and it weighed 14.74 pounds. He used a jerk bait, this time.

Wait; did I just say “this time?” Indeed I did. Gomez caught the SAME BASS TWO OTHER TIMES. The first time he was crappie fishing.

Does that sound familiar? (Think Barry St. Claire’s existing State Record bass.) Gomez was using artificial lures all three times, however.

Like Barry’s record, catching the same ShareLunker three times is probably a record that will stand the time.

JJ