Classic: How big are the bass in Conroe?

Those who know Texas’ Lake Conroe best are anticipating heavyweight excitement when the nation’s top bass anglers compete there March 24-26 in the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

In a nutshell, the 21,000-acre fishery has a “very healthy” largemouth bass population in a “very healthy ecosystem with excellent water quality,” according to Mark Webb, fisheries biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). That translates not only into good numbers of bass, but good numbers of big bass, with favorable odds that some double-digits will be weighed in at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros.

In amateur tournaments this past spring, Webb continued, the average big bag was five bass weighing 25.9 pounds, while the average big fish was a hefty 8.3 pounds.

“Seventeen largemouth bass over 13 pounds have been entered into the Toyota ShareLunker Program, with the most recent in 2015,” the biologist said, adding that the program’s team leader will be at the Classic, in hopes of entering more fish in the trophy bass propagation strategy.

The lake record, meanwhile, stands at 15.93 pounds, caught with a crankbait on Jan. 30, 2009, by Ricky Bearden.

More recently, Conroe yielded some 30-pound limits this past summer, according to Tim Cook, conservation director for the Texas B.A.S.S. Nation. “I’m expecting that six to ten over 8 pounds will be caught each day (of the Classic),” he said. 

Cook added that Texas anglers also know how good the Houston-area fishery can be based on the Toyota Texas Bass Classics staged there. In 2013, Keith Combs claimed the top spot with a three-day weight of 62 pounds, 12 ounces. The year before, Bryan Thrift won with 53-4. Big bass for those tournaments weighed 9-4 and 7-7 respectively. And both of those events occurred in early fall, a season not as likely to produce trophy fish as spring.

Recent TPWD electrofishing, meanwhile, “exhibits a moderately high density with very good growth and condition,” Webb said. “Reproduction and recruitment are very good. Primary forage for largemouth bass are threadfin shad, gizzard shad, and sunfish dominated by bluegill and longear sunfish.”

And here’s what biologists found in the lake’s three main types of shoreline habitats:

-Bulkhead (wood and steel, boat docks, piers, etc.) dominated by 11- to 14-inch largemouth bass with 2 percent of adult fish 16 inches or greater.

-Vegetated shoreline offered higher catch rate of 8- to 11-inch bass with 15 percent of adult fish 16 inches or greater.

-Riprap (dam and bridge) featured a higher catch rate of bass of 16 inches with 43 percent of adult fish that length or greater.

Still, that bulkhead cover can attract some giants, especially in spring. In 1998, the biggest largemouth bass ever collected by TPWD in an electrofishing survey was taken from beneath a Conroe boat dock. It weighed in at 14.1 pounds.

Of course, the reservoir impounded on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River in 1973 also offers offshore structure and habitat, including creek channels, points, dropoffs and manmade fish attractors. Biologists don’t typically electrofish these deeper water areas, but Classic contenders certainly will be exploring them, as well as the shoreline cover.

Along with good water quality and an abundance of varied habitat, Conroe trophy potential is enhanced by stockings of Florida-strain largemouth bass fingerlings when hatchery production allows. The introductions are intended to keep big-bass genes abundant, rather than simply increase numbers. Most notably, more than 500,000 were stocked annually in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2013. As they have matured and reproduced to strengthen the gene pool, some of those bass from the earlier stockings almost certainly have reached double-digits and possibly even ShareLunker size.

More recently, nearly 200,000 were stocked in 2014, while more than 100,000 were added in both 2015 and 2016.

Where will Classic anglers find some of those Florida bass or their genetically enhanced offspring in late March?

“Largemouth bass anglers can expect to take bass in shallow water, particularly around marinas and boat docks in the early spring and mid to late fall,” TPWD said.

“Anglers are most successful with a variety of shad imitation lures or soft plastics.”