End stocking of invasive Bass in Texas

Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD) has been stocking non-native Florida Largemouth Bass into Texas lakes and rivers since 1972. This year alone the TPWD stocked 6,349,388 Florida largemouths of different ages vs only 148,912 fingerlings of the Northern Largemouth Bass which is the native largemouth in Texas. Exotic fish should not be being stocked in higher numbers then native fish!

The original reason for stocking Florida largemouths in Texas was to increase bass sizes, and the plan worked. The idea was thought of by TPWD's fisheries director Robert J. Kemp who shipped the Bass from Florida to Texas in 1971. Soon TPWD was stocking the exotic bass into Texas lakes and rivers. The rest is history.

Florida largemouth bass hybridize regularly with the native Northern largemouths diluting both species genetics. This is a problem because if hybridization continues Florida largemouths and their hybrids will push out the native largemouths. This could potentially ruin Texas's fishing industry because only 50% of Florida largemouth bass are catchable, compared to 70% of Northern largemouth bass being catchable. The rest of the bass simply are not aggressive and will not bite a fishing lure. It has also been proven that breeding non- aggressive bass together will produce offspring that are less aggressive. This is also true of aggressive Bass because breeding aggressive Bass together will produce offspring that are more aggressive. As more and more aggressive bass that readily bite lures are caught a higher proportion of these bass will die either by the fishermen keeping that fish, or bad handling of the fish before releasing. This means that bass that are not aggressive or don't bite fishing lures have a higher survival rate and this means as these fish breed a higher percentage of the bass population will become uncatchable.

Florida Largemouths being uncatchable is well known to fishermen who have either themselves or heard of a friend who had stocked Florida largemouths into their private lake in hopes of catching large bass. This would be true for a few years but then the fish would seem to disappear making the pond owner think the bass have died. Upon draining the pond he is then surprised to find that the pond was filled with massive bass, but they just wouldn't bite a lure. This is becoming true of large public lakes too, and is the reason why TPWD stocks so many Florida largemouths into Texas lakes not because there is a shortage of bass, but because the bass already in the lake won't bite. Florida largemouth bass genetics are here to stay in Texas, but overall protection of our native largemouth bass can be increased, thereby increasing the amount of catchable bass.

It must be remembered that very few Florida largemouths grow to over 8 lbs. If stocking of Florida largemouths ended there will still be record sized bass to catch in the future because Florida largemouth bass genetics has become established in Texas. At this point there is no reason to continue Florida largemouth stocking because the bass sizes will not increase anymore, and now it is important to keep our native largemouth bass alive and well in Texas and making sure largemouth bass will be catchable for future years of fishing

Sign the petition now, to stop the spread of invasive Bass, and the future of Texas  bass fishing. Demand TPWD to stop stocking Florida largemouth bass, and start breeding native Northern Largemouth Bass to be more aggressive at fishing lures. And most important make TPWD stock these aggressive Northern Largemouth Bass into Texas Lakes.

Help preserve Texas rivers and lakes.