LONOKE, Ark. — “This is probably one of the most exciting things I’ve been a part of in my career.” Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Fisheries Division Chief Tommy Laird could have been speaking for at least a dozen members of the AGFC’s staff when he said those words in mid-July at the unveiling of the Legacy Lunker trophy bass program that will kick off Jan. 1.
Arkansas Legacy Lunker combines citizen science with advanced hatchery technology and techniques to reinforce superior genetics in Arkansas’s largemouth bass populations.
Here’s the scoop in a nutshell: Any angler who catches a largemouth bass weighing 10 pounds or larger from Arkansas waters from Jan. 1-March 31 each year can call the AGFC’s new Lunker Line (833-948-2277) any time, day or night, and someone from the AGFC will meet them at the lake and take possession of the fish if it is healthy enough, return it to the AGFC’s Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke and spawn it with genetically superior male bass to create improved fingerlings that will be stocked in the lake. The “Legacy Lunker” also will go back to the lake where she was caught once the spawning process is complete. In return for their participation, anglers will receive a free replica mount of their fish, crafted by Harper’s Pure Country Taxidermy, and be entered into a drawing to be held later in the year for a brand new boat.
This sort of legacy hatchery program is new to Arkansas, but not to the bass fishing world. Texas Parks and Wildlife has conducted its Sharelunker program in the Lone Star State for almost 40 years, and, according to Jeremy Risley, the AGFC’s Black Bass Program coordinator, much of Texas’ work served as the blueprint for success the AGFC’s Black Bass Program is following…