The Toyota ShareLunker Program is a powerful example of what innovative fisheries science combined with angler collaboration and long-term conservation can achieve.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Toyota ShareLunker Program — a landmark effort that has helped make Texas one of the top bass‑fishing destinations in the world.
Since 1986, the program has partnered with anglers like you to collect and selectively breed largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more. Their offspring are stocked back into Texas lakes, strengthening genetics and improving fishing quality statewide. Thanks to decades of research and science‑driven management, Texas now regularly produces more trophy bass, more record-class fish, and more nationally ranked lakes than almost anywhere else.
The impact reaches beyond the water: trophy bass fishing fuels tourism, supports local economies, and keeps Texas at the center of the national fishing conversation.
Here's to Texas bass anglers and 40 years of big bass — and the generations of both still to come!
Highlights of 2025—another banner year!
The 2025 ShareLunker season was another banner year and we'd like to thank everyone who contributed their lunker bass and lunker genetic samples to the program.
- Records broken: 469 anglers entered a record 1,071 lunker largemouth bass into the program from 93 Texas public waterbodies.
- The largest fish of the season was submitted on April 2 by Cullie Belveal of Lindsay, Okla. His 16.39-pound Lew's Legend Class ShareLunker was reeled in at O.H. Ivie and became the 19th heaviest largemouth bass in Texas history. This fish was a recapture of Shawn Strength's Lew's Legend Class entry on Nov. 15, 2023, which at the time weighed 16.65 pounds and was the 13th largest in Texas history.
- Waterbody with most lunkers: J.B. Thomas Lake led all waterbodies with 442 entries during the 2025 season, followed by Lake Fork (104), Toledo Bend (89), O.H. Ivie (52) and Lake Conroe (24) to round out the top five. The complete list of 2025 entries can be viewed on the Toyota ShareLunker archives page.
- Most lunkers caught: Christian Gladfelter of Abilene entered a season high 112 catches, followed by Lawrence Lee of Tolar with 94 entries.
- Number of DNA samples anglers sent in: 201 samples, which is a 20% increase vs. 2024 samples collected.
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Winner of the $5000 Bass Pro Shops Shopping Spree
Congratulations to Jennifer Fisher whose catch was randomly selected as the winner among all eligible 2025 entries, earning her the $5,000 Bass Pro Shops shopping spree. Fisher reeled in her 9.85-pound Bass Pro Shops Lunker Class fish on March 20 at Joe Pool Reservoir in the Fort Worth area. Fisher is from Phoenix, Arizona, and traveled to Texas to fish and attend the Bassmaster Clas