Lake Tawakoni Delivers its First Legacy Class ShareLunker

ATHENS – Angler Clayton Braddock of Argyle reeled in Lake Tawakoni’s grand entry into the Toyota ShareLunker program Sunday, catching the waterbody’s first Legacy Class fish.

The lake became the 79th Texas public fishery to produce one of these

massive largemouth bass, and Braddock’s 13.30-pound ShareLunker 676 Sunday bumped the overall total to seven during the 2025 Toyota ShareLunker collection season

“It is always exciting to see new reservoirs added to the list of waters producing Legacy Class fish, showcasing the outstanding fisheries across the state,” said Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator. “Thank you to the anglers who make this program possible and help us continue to enhance and celebrate these world-class fisheries.”

Braddock competes in Team Trail Outdoors fishing tournaments and has one scheduled at Lake Tawakoni in a couple of weeks. He headed out Sunday morning to practice and due to some rain, didn’t get on the water until roughly 8:30 a.m. They fished a couple of spots and came up empty, so they decided to go fish on some rocky areas.

“I was throwing a medium diver crankbait, and she bit in about six feet of water,” said Braddock. “All she did was headshake and it almost felt like I had a five-pound channel catfish on the line. I finally got her up closer to the surface and saw her side and knew she was different. I told my friend who I was fishing with to grab the net because I knew it was a giant. We got her in the net, celebrated, put her in the live well, gave her some time and decided to weigh her. When we saw the weight, we knew at that point our plans had changed.”

Sunday’s catch was a personal best for Braddock and broke his previous personal best of nine and a quarter pounds, which he set last year.

“My experience with the ShareLunker program was phenomenal,” said Braddock. “Natalie was great to work with, we weighed the fish on the certified scale, sent her the video and she headed over to collect the fish. Everything was perfect.”

During the first three months of the season (Jan. 1 through March 31), anglers who reel in a 13-plus pound bass can loan it to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the ShareLunker selective breeding and stocking program. These anglers can call the ShareLunker hotline at (903) 681-0550 to report their catch 24/7 through March 31, 2025.

Legacy Class ShareLunker weights are all verified using a certified scale, but anglers may use a digital scale to get an initial weight to inform the ShareLunker response team. Once the TPWD team arrives, they can take a certified weight on site.