Arkansas Legacy Lunker program off to ‘Austell-ar’ start with 12-pound bass donation

WYNNE — Ask 100 anglers to name a “big bass” destination in Arkansas, and 85-acre Lake Austell within Village Creek State Park may never be mentioned. That is, unless you ask Kevin Riney, a bass angler from Jonesboro. Riney ignored some of the more well-known big bass lakes like Millwood and Monticello for his fishing trip last Saturday and set the hook into Arkansas’s first official Legacy Lunker bass, a 12.04 largemouth.

Riney called the Legacy Lunker Hotline (833-948-2277) as soon as he caught the fish, which prompted the AGFC’s new Legacy Lunker Program coordinator, Will Lancett to hop in the truck and drive.

After consulting with partners, including Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Sharelunker Program, and preparing for the last year, Lancett said the process for the first official fish went very smoothly, but it was exciting nonetheless.

“Eric Naas, the AGFC’s Black Bass Program Biologist, joined me at the lake and we did everything we could to make sure the fish was well taken care of while we got a few photos and completed the check-in process,” Lancett said. “Any time you’re dealing with someone’s trophy catch like that is nerve-wracking, but this being the first official one in the program upped that responsibility even more. Riney reached out to us as soon as he verified the weight being over 10 pounds on his Bubba handheld scale. He did a great job of handling the fish with care, and we have her back in Lonoke resting and waiting for the spawning process later this spring.”

The Arkansas Legacy Lunker program offers the ultimate opportunity for anglers to be a part of improving fisheries throughout The Natural State. Any angler who catches a largemouth bass weighing 10 pounds or more between Jan. 1 and March 31 each year is encouraged to keep the fish healthy and call the hotline before leaving the lake. Lancett or another AGFC fisheries biologist will come to the lake and take the fish, delivering it to the newly renovated Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke, where hatchery staff will care for it and spawn it with males, provided by Red Hills Fishery in Georgia, that have proven genetics for fast growth.

Once the bass spawns, she and her offspring will be returned to the lake where she was caught, increasing the potential for trophy-sized fish in that destination.

In return for his cooperation and donation, Riney will receive a free replica mount of his fish, created by Harper’s Pure Country Taxidermy, and he will also be entered into a drawing later this year for a new 21-foot XPress boat outfitted with a 250-horsepower Yamaha valued at more than $75,000.

Vic DiCenzo, AGFC fisheries assistant chief, said Austell may not have been on anyone’s bingo card for the first Legacy Lunker to be turned in, but it really isn’t a shock to some of the fisheries biologists and local anglers.

“We had a feeling we’d get one from the Crowley’s Ridge area eventually, but we were really looking at DeGray or Millwood to turn in the first one because they’ve been fishing well for big fish lately,” DiCenzo said. “But Austell sits right next to where we should have had the state record.”

In February 2012, an angler caught a 16-pound, 5-ounce bass in Lake Dunn, a 65-acre lake less than a mile from Lake Austell within Village Creek State Park. That fish would have stood as the new state record, toppling the current record of 16 pounds, 4 ounces, caught by Aaron Mardis from Mallard Lake in 1976. In a tragic turn of events, the angler who caught the fish did not have a current fishing license at the time of the catch, so it could not be recognized as a state record.

Oddly enough, the AGFC has no records of Florida largemouth bass, the species known for growing to trophy proportions, ever being stocked in Lake Dunn. The AGFC has stocked Florida bass in Austell, and records show retired Florida bass broodstock from the Andrew Hulsey State Fish Hatchery in Hot Springs placed in this lake in 1999 and 2006.

Visit www.agfc.com/legacylunker for more information on this exciting new effort offered by the AGFC’s Black Bass Program.

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CUTLINES:

BIG BASS
Jonesboro angler Kevin Riney caught a 12.04-pound largemouth at Lake Austell Saturday, donating it as the first official Legacy Lunker catch in Arkansas. AGFC photo.

HANDOFF
AGFC Legacy Lunker program coordinator Will Lancett takes Riney’s trophy catch for transport to Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke. AGFC photo.