C.R. Stevenson was fishing in a pond near his house in Texas when he landed this beast. Texas Parks & Wildlife then contacted me and asked me to paint a portrait of this fish with its exact proportions & measurements for the March 2024 Texas P&W magazine. The fish was 25 1/2" long and 14.83 lbs! They printed it as a gate-fold spread at actual size as well. So I started right off with some pencil sketches.
The more I worked on this painting, the more I became curious about this fish and its origin. The team of biologists and designers I was working with called this fish a "Sharelunker" which is what Texas P&W names any largemouth over 24" or 8 lbs. When I asked what the "share" part of the name meant, they showed me a whole phylogenetic family tree of these TX catches that have all had their DNA sequenced. The Sharelunker program, sponsored by Toyota, is a statewide effort to share the unique DNA of these gargantuan bass in lakes & ponds to increase the overall size of Texas bass.
I was blown away at the science of this project. As a former fisheries biologist I was also scratching my head a bit. On the one hand, this unique hulk DNA could be easily lost forever if it was only found in one pond and something happened to this pond such as an oil spill. Sharing the DNA across multiple bodies of water would ensure the survival of these genetics. On the other hand these ponds each have their own unique strains of genetics and introducing this DNA from these eating machines could overtake the existing genetic makeup & reduce overall genetic diversity. What do you think?
Either way this was an interesting project & I'd love to catch one of these lunkers someday. The original painting at actual size really has a massive presence. This original painting is available for purchase now as well as signed and numbered prints which you can view by clicking here.
