Its that time of the year again! 1st SAL.

[Matt Fly]

The first share lunker of the season was landed at Lake Fork Saturday.   Texas is fixing to get its first nasty cold weather this year.    We have had some cold mornings that warmed up quickly, but this shot that is coming down now will be here for a week.

This will start the big fish, they will start showing up regularly now.  

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/budsharelunker/archives/lunkerdetails.phtml?fishid=424

There was a Bass reported and I have seen the tournament pictures of a 15 plus that was caught at Falcon last week during a tourney on a DD22.   Due to catch and release rules of the tourney and being caught on the Mexican side, it was not donated to the program.

Hookem

Matt.

[BD]

That's a very nice fish.  These next upcoming 3 months are going to be awesome!

[K_Mac]

Matt Fly

I always enjoy your SAL reports. What a great program. I sure hope to see a posting with one of our own in that picture soon. Maybe it will happen during the upcoming roadtrip. Anyway-thanks for the report.

[Matt Fly]

I would love for some of the guys to get one also.     A free replica comes with each share lunker donated for spawning purposes.

At the end of the summer, all contributors will be notified to come back to the lake of their choice to release the very same fish they donated, most release them back to the original lake, but some don't.

Matt.

[Matt Fly]

Heres one that didn't get donated from Lake Falcon.   The fish was caught on a DD 22.    Tournament weight listed at 14.97.

What a pig!!!!!

[Matt Fly]

The above picture has some comments that I for one have never thought about.

Some seem to think that the redness on the tail indicates this fish is dieing.

Any thoughts on this.

My first thought is that Falcon is one of our southern most lakes on the border of Mexico and she looked like she could be a spawner.    I have caught spawners off lakes in Texas in late Oct-Nov if weather has been mild before.    And none of the lakes that have had bedders in the fall are power plant lakes.

Matt.

[Gatorbassman]

I bet Lane knows the answer, but I will tell you what my experience with it is. I have noticed that bass's fins and tails get access blood flow when stressed. Like while being kept in a livewell for several hours.

[MALTESE FALCON]

WOW, THOSE ARE TWO BEAUTIFUL FISH!!!!

I WISH WE COULD GET SOME BASS LIKE THAT HERE IN MICHIGAN.

HEY MATT, HOW LONG HAS THE SHARELUNKER PROGRAM BEEN GOING?

[Alpster]

I was told that the eyes will begin to get cloudy from lack of oxygen when they are on the way out. You could never tell this from a picture. That is some amazing fish, blows away the record in my state.

Ronnie

[Matt Fly]

Here are some other shots.   I was hoping for more angles to observe the fish.

[Matt Fly]

Last one I can find.

[Matt Fly]

After looking at this last picture, all of the fins looks very reddish.

Fluke,

Something I will study for now on when observing fish from livewells.      Wish I had all the facts.

How long she was in livewell.

Size of livewell.

Was she released alive?

Matt.

[BD]

Geezus!!!!!

In all seriousness, look at the other fins though, it's surely either disease or lack of oxygen...........right? :-/

[Matt Fly]

The fish looks to healthy for sickness.    

All the stuff I have read, all the years of experiencee, all the swapping of stories.

 I have associated some redness to being in the livewell with other fish in close-quarters, fanning the bottom drain screen, rubbing the pump out nozzles, or fanning other cull tags.

I just never stopped to think about it as stress related.     And it makes very good sense.

I know livewells on most boats don't consider the kicker to be 15 lbs, plus some other fish added in to boot.

I would like to know more about this subject.

Matt

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Both are great fish...and I kind of like the look of the fins. Kinda cool looking IMHO.

Wayne

[New 2 Bass]

Wow those are some nice fish.  Gotta love big girls!!

[Gatorbassman]

The fish looks to healthy for sickness.

All the stuff I have read, all the years of experiencee, all the swapping of stories.

I have associated some redness to being in the livewell with other fish in close-quarters, fanning the bottom drain screen, rubbing the pump out nozzles, or fanning other cull tags.

I just never stopped to think about it as stress related. And it makes very good sense.

I know livewells on most boats don't consider the kicker to be 15 lbs, plus some other fish added in to boot.

I would like to know more about this subject.

Matt

Lane and Toni are the experts on this subject. They make the stuff you put in the live well to keep the fish calm and stress free. It's called Please Release Me and Catch and Release. I have used the stuff and it's great. I used it when I caught my 25lb limit with a 9.98 kicker. I kept them in a larger cooler with an aerator and added Please Release Me. The fish were calm the whole time and hardly ever jump around in the cooler. The two big fish were in the cooler for almost 6 hours and the picture shows what they looked like just before we released them. Notice very little red in the tails. The statistics on the additive is that 98% of fish kept in a live well with Please Release Me survive even after being released. I would suggest if you are serious about the health of the fish in your live well they you read about this stuff on Lane's website ( http://www.sure-life.com/pro_catch_and_release.html ) and decide if it's worth a try. Or you can just talk to them when we get to Fork. They are bringing their holding tank for our SALs. 8-)

On a side note. The other additive that is available Rejuvenaid, is not good for your fish. It has garlic in it witch is an irritant to the bass and causes a large amount of stress to the bass. If you use it you will notice that the fish are very active and jump around in the live well and scale basket allot giving the false impression that the fish are doing fine. You will also notice that after a couple of hours in Rejuvenaid that the very edge of the bass's gills will turn white due to the lack of blood. This means that the fish is not getting the proper amount of oxygen it needs to survive for very long after you release. The death rate with Rejuvenaid is staggering.

Lane, Feel free to jump in on this when you log on.

[NEBassMan]

i noticed something odd about the tail on a fish i caught this past saturday...it's like purple at the base and then the tail seems more red than usual...

I didn't know if this was just because of the colder water (42 degrees) or if it was a sign of sickness or close to death or what.  She did fight really well, so she seemed healthy as a pig.

Jason

[Blaker]

Wow those are some great fish for sure.  This is a great idea for a program of this sort. We do not have anything like this in Ontario.  I am also a huge fan of Sure life products and have used them for many years up here in our tournaments.  The products work great and have always kept the fish healthy in the livewells during the day and for the weigh in.

[Randall]

After looking through 100s of photos on my computer I have decided the red tails like that are common on colder water fish over nine pounds whether they were in livewells or not. This one was never in a livewell at all.

[Randall]

This one was in a livewell for a couple of hours.

[Randall]

Most of these were in a livewell all day.

[Randall]

Forgot to add all these fish came from 46-48 degree water.

[BD]

Now my interest has really peaked. Can someone state for a fact why the tails are red? (biologists here etc???)

I can see the livewell theory, the colder water theory, and stress theory. Maybe once we've caught them they do this but in the wild they are not red minus spawning??????  :-/