NORTH TEXAS
Toward the Red River, Durocher noted, two North Texas lakes could raise a big bass eyebrow or two in 2006. In fact, one of those lakes -- 29,592-acre Lake Lewisville, north of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex -- has already done just that with a sizzling summertime big-bass run last year that produced three lake records in a span of less than two months. BASS pro Kevin VanDam, the 2005 CITGO Bassmaster Classic champ, got the record parade started in June with a then-lake-record 11-pound, 13-ounce largemouth, and Charles Pratt capped the run in late July with the current lake record bass weighing 12.67-pounds.

"Several years ago, they raised the level (of the dam) on that lake," the TPWD's Durocher said. "When you do that, you flood a lot of good habitat. That changed the complexion of that lake. We knew the population would jump, and it did -- it's almost a new lake."

Durocher believes that nearby 25,600-acre Lake Ray Roberts could also produce a big bass blitz soon. "I'm just waiting for Ray Roberts to explode," he stated. "I think it has as much potential as any of these lakes."

While "Ray Bob" has given up just four ShareLunker fish to date -- the last was a 13.9-pound bass caught by Roger Frazier Jr. on March 6, 2005 -- Durocher has plenty of reason to back up his big-bass hopes for this water body lying in Cooke, Denton, and Grayson counties.

"You've got to have three things to raise big fish," he said. "First, you've got to have a fish that can get big -- the Florida bass -- and Ray Roberts has a lot of them. Plus, you've got to have a good food supply, and Ray Roberts has a lot of food there. And they've got to live long enough. Ray Roberts has some pressure, but it's less than some lakes, so maybe they can live long enough to get there. I would love to see it."

* * *

What Durocher certainly must love seeing at the moment is a state chockfull of waters that can furnish anglers with some really good bassin'. In fact, there are so many noteworthy bass lakes across the Lone Star State that there's simply not enough space to cover all of them in this article. After all, 52 different Lone Star State bodies of water -- from Lake Austin to Lake Conroe to Richland-Chambers to Possum Kingdom to White River Reservoir -- have yielded ShareLunker fish since the program began in 1986.

But for all of those once-in-a-lifetime bass that have been caught -- more than 390 ShareLunkers had been entered into the records at press time -- what really makes Texas' bass fishing the best in the land is that anglers regularly land untold numbers of good-sized but not double-digit-weight largemouths.

"Anglers like to talk about the 13-pounders," Durocher said, "but the bread-and-butter fish in Texas is the 8- and 9-pound fish -- that's where we excel. There are a lot of those being caught all over the state.

"As far as 8- or 9-pounders go, overall, Texas is the best spot to catch them. We're trying to produce fishing that gives people an opportunity to catch the fish of a lifetime; that's what they come here for."

And you can rest assured that in 2006, as in other years, that is no Texas tall tale."