“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…