Tagging efforts help identify big bass that keep right on giving
TPWD fisheries biologists discovered a PIT tag inside the 13.89 pounder that Nolan Sprengeler (left) caught on February 24 at Lake O.H. Ivie. The tag identified the fish as the same fish Jim Smith caught two years ago. It previously weighed 14.22 pounds. (PHOTO COURTESY JOSH JONES)
PIT tags are small, cylinder devices implanted in fish using a needle. The tags do not require power to operate, so they last for the lifetime of the fish. The tags have an internal microchip that is activated when it passes close to a special wand or antenna. Each tag carries a number specific to that tag. (FISHBIO ILLUSTRATION)
The biggest Texas bass ever documented as a recapture belongs to Sean Swank of DeBerry. Swank’s 16.07 pounder caught in March 2011 was identified as the 16.17 pounder Keith Burns of Jefferson caught at Caddo a year earlier. The fish currently occupies two spots among the Texas Top 25 heaviest bass of all-time. (TPWD PHOTO)
Not every fish that is released after the catch lives to fight another day, but many of them do. A few turn out to be really busy bees that keep right on giving.
One of the overachievers recently surfaced at Lake O.H. Ivie near Voss.
On February 24, Nolan Sprengeler of Plymouth, Minnesota reeled in a whopper largemouth that weighed 13.89 pounds. Sprengeler subsequently put t...
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