The 2009-2010 Toyota ShareLunker season ended April 30, and for Lake O.H. Ivie it was a good final day.

In a previous column, I mentioned that Lake Ivie, located southeast of Ballinger on the Colorado River, had produced more ShareLunker bass this season than any other lake in Texas.

ShareLunkers are largemouth bass over 13 pounds that are donated by anglers to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center to be used in a selective breeding program. Some offspring from these fish are stocked back into the water body from which the parents originally were caught. Other offspring are stocked in public waters around the state in an attempt to increase the overall size and growth rate of largemouth bass in Texas.

On the last day of the season, two 13-pound-plus bass were caught in Lake O.H. Ivie and donated to the program. That raised the total ShareLunker bass from the lake to 11.

From the numerous public lakes and reservoirs in the state and thousands of smaller private lakes and ponds, 33 bass over 13 pounds were entered this season. Of that number, an astounding one-third came from Ivie.

Why has Ivie produced so many big largemouth bass this season? I don’t have the answer, but I know that for several years the lake was very low due to drought conditions. For the past two years, good rains have almost filled the lake and flooded vegetation. As a result, Ivie is like a new lake. And new lakes always produce larger fish due to a plentiful food supply.

On April 30, Jerry Bales of Hico had two large bass in his livewell that he landed on Ivie. He had a feeling one of them was big enough to become a ShareLunker. When the fish was weighed at Elm Creek Village Marina, however, the scales read just 10 pounds.

Disappointed, Bales and his fishing companions already were headed back to the lake when one of them realized they had weighed the wrong fish.

Sure enough, they had taken the fish from the wrong livewell. When the other fish was weighed, it came in at 16.08 pounds, making it not only ShareLunker No. 503 but also a new lake record that bested the old mark by nearly a pound and a half.

He caught the fish on a Berkley Power Worm. Bales’ fish missed being the largest entry of the season by only 0.09 pounds. That honor, and the Angler of the Year title, went to Keith Burns for the 16.17- pounder he caught from Caddo Lake in March.

Bales, though, takes over the No. 19 spot on the top 50 list of biggest bass caught in Texas.

On the same day, Wesley Pullig of Eden went to Ivie to meet ShareLunker program manager David Campbell to return a ShareLunker bass he previously caught back into the lake. Shortly after he put the fish in the water, he caught a 13.24-pounder that became ShareLunker No. 504.

Pullig is one of only a half-dozen anglers who have caught more than one ShareLunker in the same season. He landed both fish using an Xcite Baits raptor tail craw.

If you want to see more information on current catches, including short videos of interviews with anglers, check out www.facebook.com/ sharelunkerprogram.

After the spawning season, most bass are returned as soon as possible to the lake where they were caught. A few are put on display at the Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, if the angler agrees.

The 2009-2010 year could be called the season of the big bass, as the 33 largemouth entered in the program far exceeded the yearly average of 23. This bodes well for bass fishermen, since most of these bass were returned to the lake. And with one more year to grow, there should be more opportunities to catch a ShareLunker during the next season. Of course, anglers have the opportunity to catch a trophy largemouth any time of the year in Texas.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@wildblue.net.