{"id":194161,"date":"2026-03-07T02:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/194161\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T02:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:23:09","slug":"something-really-special-east-texas-program-breeding-bigger-bass-for-future-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/194161\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Something really special\u2019: East Texas program breeding bigger bass for future generations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TYLER, Texas (KLTV) &#8211; Catching the fish of a lifetime is every angler\u2019s dream, but a program right here in East Texas is working to make that dream more likely by breeding bigger bass for future generations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Toyota Sharelunker Program is changing the game for bass fishing in Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"> \u201cBig old beautiful bass,\u201d says Natalie Goldstrohm. \u201cI\u2019m an angler myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She is no stranger to these big fish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI love to go bass fishing,\u201d says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">More specifically, when it comes to Sharelunkers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIf you just look at them, there\u2019s something really special about the way that they look at you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Goldstrohm runs the Toyota Sharelunker Program in Athens and her mission is simple: breed bigger, better bass for Texas anglers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be able to do this program without angler support,\u201d says Goldstrom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jack York, a Bassmaster angler from Emory, caught a nearly 14-pound <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kltv.com\/2026\/02\/27\/i-freaked-out-emorys-york-catches-sharelunker-bass-lake-tyler\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kltv.com\/2026\/02\/27\/i-freaked-out-emorys-york-catches-sharelunker-bass-lake-tyler\/\">Sharelunker bass at Lake Tyler<\/a> a week ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Goldstrohm shared that victory with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBeing able to meet anglers on their very best day when they caught probably their personal best fish is the thing that keeps me going,\u201d says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">And it\u2019s giant Sharelunkers like these that play such a huge role in conservation efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For York\u2019 Sharelunker bass, she is now in the selective spawning program inside the lunker bunker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhenever someone submits a fish to our program, each fish gets their own bunker, and we wait until the timing is right and we bring them out into the raceway to spawn,\u201d says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Although these sharelunkers don\u2019t have names, they are recognized by a number- and his catch is Number 693.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As the weather warms, female bass develop eggs and become heavier. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019ll put several spawning mats in there similar to these so that the bass can lay their eggs on here,\u201d says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The program has also shown that the genetics are working. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe take DNA from them, and we determine whether or not\u2026 they\u2019re related to any of the other share lunkers that have been submitted to the program,&#8221; says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In one case, biologists traced a giant bass caught in 2020 by angler Joe Castle&#8212;back six generations to Sharelunker number 9; one of the earliest fish ever entered into the program. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThose offsprings are sucked back into those reservoirs that produce legacy class fish that year, and then they grow up to be other legacy class for anglers to catch,\u201d says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">And that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about, creating generations of giant bass and giving more anglers the chance to catch the fish of a lifetime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThat\u2019s how I would describe them\u2026big old beautiful bass,&#8221; says Goldstrohm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If you catch a 13-pound bass before April, you could be part of the legacy class program. C<a href=\"https:\/\/texassharelunker.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/texassharelunker.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">lick here to learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KLTV) &#8211; Catching the fish of a lifetime is every angler\u2019s dream, but a program right&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[76991,1168,76990,1167,76988,76987,27,29,28,21936,76989],"class_list":["post-194161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-angler","tag-bass","tag-bassmaster","tag-fish","tag-lake-tyler","tag-sharlunker","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-toyota","tag-toyota-sharelunker-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}