Toledo Bend Lunker Bass …¬¬¬

Catch a largemouth bass, 10 lbs. or bigger out of Teledo Bend Lake and enter it in the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program. The TBLBP should not be confused with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Share Lunker Bass Program, a year-round format that offers prize incentives to anglers who catch big bass weighing upwards of 8 lbs., and electronically enter their fish in one of several categories.

The Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program was initiated by the Sabine River Authority of Louisiana in 1992 and continued by Toledo Town & Tackle in 1998. Sponsorship was transferred to the Toledo Bend Lake Association in 2005. According to the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program website, from the 1992 through the 2013-2014 season, more than 590 Lunkers have been caught and released through the Program.

In the Summer of 2000, Eric Weems landed the bass that is still the lake record, weighing 15.33 pounds. Gill caught the second biggest bass just a couple of years ago in 2009 by landing a 15.03 lb. bass.

The rules are simple: the bass must be 10 lbs. or larger, weighed on a certified scale, a picture taken of the catch, and released alive back into the lake.

The goal of the Program is to encourage the return of trophy fish to the lake by rewarding anglers a replica bass for catching and releasing their Toledo Bend Lunker back to the lake. TBLA hopes it will spawn and produce more potential lunkers and continue to grow and be caught again by another angler.

In 2019 the Toledo Bend Lake Association (TBLA) awarded 42 lunker bass replicas to anglers at the Toledo Bend Sealy Outdoors Big Bass Splash at Cypress Bend Park on Sunday, May 19. The largest fish was caught by Sean Kennon, of DeQuincy, LA, weighing in at 14.0 pounds, qualifying in the “Top 100” largest reported largemouth bass caught on Toledo Bend. Four of the fish caught and released were previously tagged fish in the TBLA Lunker Bass Replica program.

Rules of the program are found at https://toledobendlakecountry.com/toledo-bend-lunker-bass-program. The 2019-2020 program ends in May and begins anew at the end of May for the 2020-2021.

Photo courtesy TBLA