AUSTIN – The 2025 Toyota ShareLunker season rewrote the record books again thanks to 469 anglers who entered a record 1,071 lunker largemouth bass into the program throughout the year from 93 Texas public waterbodies.
ATHENS – The 2026 Toyota ShareLunker program kicked off its 40th anniversary season this past week at O.H. Ivie Lake and Lake Alan Henry. Legendary reservoir O.H. Ivie has produced 59 Legacy Class largemouth bass over the past six years, and at Lake Alan Henry, one lucky angler caught the same giant fish for the third time since 2023.
AUSTIN —For the past 24 years, countless volunteers band together in February to search the Texas coastline for abandoned crab traps. The abandoned traps can foul shrimpers’ nets, snag anglers’ lines, and create unsightly views. In addition, lost or abandoned fishing gear, such as nets, traps and pots continue to catch and kill marine life (called “ghost fishing”). To date, volunteers and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff have hauled off nearly 45,000 of these derelict traps, saving an estimated 740,500 blue crabs.
AUSTIN — El Departamento de Parques y Vida Silvestre de Texas (TPWD) está cerrando el Área TX- 19 en la Bahía Matagorda al aprovechamiento comercial y recreativo de ostión a partir de las 12:01 a.m. Miércoles, 21 de enero. Este cierre o veda está basado en muestras recolectadas recientemente por el TPWD que mostraron baja abundancia de ostiones de tamaño legal.
AUSTIN – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is closing TX-19 in Matagorda Bay to commercial and recreational oyster harvest beginning 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21. This closure is based on samples recently collected by TPWD showing a low abundance of legal-sized oysters.
ATHENS – New Year’s Day 2026 will launch the 40th season of the Toyota ShareLunker Program, another major milestone for Texas’ highly acclaimed and storied largemouth bass selective breeding and stocking program.
TYLER – Celebrate the start of the new year by introducing a kid to the Texas winter tradition of rainbow trout fishing. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) “Trails to Trout” fishing days are scheduled for Jan. 4 and Jan. 10 at the Tyler Nature Center.
AUSTIN – Due to technological advancements with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drones, now widely available, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has noticed an increase in questions connected to their use in relation to fishing and wildlife. Some of the most frequent questions have been about the legality of using drones for deploying bait by surf or bank fisherman.
AUSTIN — Texas anglers have access to a premier location for rainbow trout fishing during the peak of the winter stocking season thanks to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) “no fee” access lease on the Guadalupe River.
AUSTIN – Just in time for the holiday season, rainbow trout arrives at waterbodies across the state for the annual Texas winter tradition of trout fishing. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will begin stocking thousands of rainbow trout Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.