Month: March 2008

Lake Waco Produces Budweiser ShareLunker

Ricky Culverhouse and his big bass

Lake Waco produced it’s first-ever Budweiser ShareLunker when Ricky Culverhouse caught a largemouth bass weighing 13.87 pounds on Sunday, March 9, 2008! The bass was also a Lake Waco water body record. The big fish will be brought to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens, Texas. The eggs from Budweiser Sharelunker fish are used to raise (genetically better) bass for stocking at the TFFC.

The Stats on the Bass:

ShareLunker No. 444
Caught by Ricky Culverhouse of Waco, TX
March 9, 2008 in Waco
13.87 pounds, length 25.5 inches, girth 21.5 inches
Bait/Lure: black-and-red flake Baby Brushhog
Water Body Record? Yes
Day of Week: Sun
Moon Phase: N+2

Alton Jones Puts on Fishing Clinic at TFFC

Alton Jones

Question: When was the last time you had the chance to talk one-on-one with a professional bass angler who had just won $500,000? That’s just what you can do at the largemouth bass seminar set for March 28 and 29 at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, Texas.

Bassmaster Classic winner Alton Jones of Waco will speak on fishing techniques for largemouth bass in small impoundments at the Athens meeting following the Friday evening fish fry put on by the Texas Game Warden Association.

Jones took home the top prize of $500,000 at the Bassmaster Classic in Greenville, S.C., February 24. Over three days of competition, Jones weighed in 49 pounds, 7 ounces of bass. Continue reading Alton Jones Puts on Fishing Clinic at TFFC

Rounding Up Longhorns in Big Bend

Longhorns in Bend Bend

Big Bend Ranch State Park’s most popular program — the Texas Longhorn Cattle Drive — is on the horizon. The spring round-up of the park’s Texas State Longhorn herd will be held April 3-5, 2008.

Two times each year up to 25 “city slickers” from throughout the state and around the world come to participate and experience a piece of Texas’ cultural heritage. The three-day event allows one to experience life as a cowboy and lasso a lifetime of memories.

“If you’re looking for a genuine taste of the wild, Western range life,” says Colorado travel writer Christine Loomis, “the Big Bend Ranch State Park cattle drive is about as real as it gets.”

Participants have the opportunity to see cattle in the rugged and remote pastures of the 300,000-acre ranch, learn how the herd is moved with horses and help drive the historic longhorn herd to ranch headquarters, where they can take part in branding calves, recording lineage and practicing the traditions of the North American cowboy culture, according to park interpreter Marvin Steinback. Continue reading Rounding Up Longhorns in Big Bend

Deer Management: The Spike Debate Continues

Spike debate is still alive

Dr. James Kroll, Stephen F. Austin State University professor, argues that spikes should be removed from restrictive antler regulation if the goal is to protect young white-tailed bucks.

With requests from hunters and landowners in hand, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is considering another round of expansion of counties operating under special antler restrictions.

Already the rule in 61 counties statewide, the department is now considering expanding into 11 additional Pineywoods counties for the 2009-10 hunting season. Those on the current shortlist include Angelina, Hardin, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Newton, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, Tyler, and Walker.

Under the regulation a legal buck is described as one with an inside spread of at least 13 inches or a spike. Hunters are restricted to just one of the larger bucks.

The goal of the regulation is to improve the age structure of the deer population by taking more pressure off the 1 1/2-year-old and 2 1/2-year-old bucks. It is, some would say, a case of the state getting neighboring landowners and hunters to do what the landowners and hunters can’t get each other to do. Continue reading Deer Management: The Spike Debate Continues