by John Jefferson

Well, it’s not as large a let down as the end of summer vacation is to kids, or as dusk on the last day of whitetail season is to deer hunters, but to big bass aficionado’s, it is almost as depressing as if those two were combined.
The competition in the Lunker Class of the Toyota ShareLunker Program ended March 31. This year was a weird one.
Think back; was it cold in your neighborhood this winter? Did it bounce between pleasant and frigid several times? If you don’t remember our yo-yo weather from January until last week, you may have lost memory due to Corona-isolation.
Let me review: Regular readers of this column might remember we cancelled a trip to the Dallas Safari Club’s convention in January due to cold, stormy weather. Then it got mild before freezing again, bringing snow to north and West Texas. The Toyota ShareLunker season had begun on January 1, and some years, there are several January entries.
Not this year. The first entry came the second week in February when Blake Cockrell boated a 14.36-pound largemouth on Lake Alan Henry shortly after the little lake south of Lubbock had been blanketed with snow. That’s usually one of the coldest lakes in the state and has a late bass spawn. Go figure.
The next lunker would have come in March, but Leap Year saw it hooked on February 29. Joe Castle caught it on Lake Nacogdoches in East Texas, weighing 15.34 pounds. It became the new lake record and first ShareLunker there since 2008.
Before that weekend was over, Blake Cockrell (yeah, same guy!) caught his second ShareLunker on March 1, again on Alan Henry! Unless the sheltering has affected MY memory, too, no one has ever caught two in the same season! We expected more coming after that.
And we were wrong again. That was becoming a habit. The next ShareLunker came to boat on March 29, two days before the end of the competition. James Maupin and his father had gone to Lake Amistad for their annual trip and caught fish. But returning to the ramp, they discovered the lake had been closed by COVID. So, they drove to O.H. Ivey, four hours away.
Good move. On the last day of the trip, Maupin landed a 13.15-pound bass, the first one from Ivey since 2012. And the fourth and last one of the 2020 “Lunker season”. It ended two days later.
Many years have produced more 13-plus pounders, but Craig Bonds, TPWD Inland Fisheries Director, says Texas only averages 4.8/ year. He also says three were pure Florida largemouths and the other was a former ShareLunker’s offspring.
Alan Christenson, Jr., dean of Lake Travis fishing guides, says the fluctuating weather confused the bass. They didn’t know whether it was winter or spring. And the chilling weather obviously kept fishermen off the water. Duke Kinley, a seasoned bass angler agreed that weather influenced fish and human behavior.
At least fewer bass were disturbed.
Gotta go now — the crappie are biting!
JJ