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TopCat Canyon Lake Challenge Large Mouth Bass March - August, 2010 Certificate of Recognition and $25 Canyon Tackle Box Gift Certificate will be awarded to any angler who catches a Large Mouth Bass on rod and reel that weighs 8 pounds or more by the girth x length weight formula below. No take home - catch and release only.
The rules are simple.
1. Catch a large mouth bass on Canyon Lake. 2. Photograph the fish at the catch site. 3. Using a cloth tape measure, measure and photograph a: the length b: the girth (around the largest part of the belly) To check the weight, multiply girth x girth x length and divide by 800. This will give you a close-enough-for-TopCat weight. 4. Photograph the release of the fish back into Canyon Lake. 5. Send photos and information to Ray@TopCatFishing.Net Include the following with your entry: Name, Address, Phone, Catch Location, Date of Catch, Witness Names and Phone #, Measurements, Type of bait or lure One entry per address, phone number, and/or email address. TopCat reserves the right to disqualify any entry that fails to furnish any required information or photographs or any entry that is deemed to have been caught at a location other than Canyon Lake or any entry that is not released back into Canyon Lake or any entry that was caught by any method other than rod and reel. Topcat also reserves the right to end this challenge at any time.
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The Herald Zeitung column that led to the Challenge Anglin' with Austin Welcome to another week of Anglin’ with Austin. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having this week. Van Dam is the man. Kevin Van Dam just pulled the win at another Bass Master Classic. Advanced fishing technologies combined with record setting numbers of anglers has created new challenges in fishing tournaments. Winning a tournament is the ultimate challenge and Van Dam has just won another Classic. His check for the day? Half a million dollars. His career earnings? Over four million dollars. His Bass Master Angler of the Year awards? Five! Makes me want to put glitter all over my boat and start chunking lures again. In the Bass Champs tournament this past weekend at Falcon the winning team brought in a five-fish total of 41.9 pounds. Imagine the nerves at the weigh in of the tournament when the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams all finished above 40 pounds for five fish. Four spots, twenty grand to the winner and five grand to second place and just .34 OUNCES between the two places…ouch! I think I’d be the guy at the back of the line that keeps asking to reweigh my fish. This past full-moon weekend three more share lunkers were added to the Toyota Share Lunker program. The three fish were hauled in on the same day on three different lakes. The first toad of the day came off of Lake Austin and weighed in at 13.1 pounds. The second fish of the day came from one of my favorite road trips, Lake Amistad. The Amistad lunker weighed in at 13.02 pounds, barely clearing the 13 pound mark and entry into the program. The third monster of the day was hauled in at O.H. Ivie, near San Angelo, and weighed in at 13.03 pounds. According to reports, the Amistad fish beat my state record largemouth bass by .25 inches in length, measuring 27.5 inches. All three fish were reported as healthy when they were picked up and made the long trip from their home lakes to the Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. Hopefully, they will create more Share Lunker offspring to be spread amongst the qualifying lakes. If you look through the Texas Parks and Wildlife stocking reports for the lakes you will see that several lakes have been stocked with the share lunker offspring over the past few years. Since October 2009, twelve of the 13-pound-plus largemouth bass have been turned in to the 2010 Toyota Share Lunker program. Given the number of anglers chasing largemouth bass this is just a drop in the bucket. In my opinion, another category of awards should be available for the lakes that are a little harder to fish and not blessed with the ability to grow these lunkers in large numbers. Our own Canyon Lake is a good example. It does carry some nice largemouth bass but an angler has to be determined, smart, or just plain lucky to land anything over eight pounds. I’d like to encourage anyone that catches one of these to do CP&R – catch, photo and release. I’ll even put my money where my mouth is. Between now and August, I’m offering a TopCat-Canyon Lake Largemouth Bass Award to anyone who catches a verifiable largemouth bass that weighs more than eight pounds. Those that qualify will receive an unofficial but official-looking certificate of achievement and (drum roll please) $25 gift certificate from Canyon Tackle Box. Please visit my website www.TopCatFishing.Net for the fine print details and entry information. Canyon Lake will never be able to match the records set at the Forks, Amistads and Ivies of the state but I’d like to recognize the effort and dedication that goes into catching an equivalent eight pounder. Make sure you have a cloth tape measure in your tackle box because you never know when that monster will tie on.
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