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 Jan. 10 and set the hook into Arkansas’ 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 Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’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.
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“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 fisheries biologist with the commission will collect the fish from the lake and deliver it to the newly renovated Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke, where staff will care for it and spawn it males with proven fast-growth genetics, supplied by Red Hills Fishery in Georgia.
Once the bass spawns, it and its offspring will be returned to the lake where it 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 be entered into a drawing for a new 21-foot XPress boat outfitted with a 250-horsepower Yamaha valued at more than $75,000.
Vic DiCenzo, commission fisheries assistant chief, said Austell may not have been on anyone’s bingo card for the first Legacy Lunker, 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 state record, toppling the current 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, so it could not be recognized as a state record.
Oddly enough, the commission has no records of Florida largemouth bass, known for growing to trophy proportions, ever being stocked in Lake Dunn.
The commission 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. Details: www.agfc.com/legacylunker.
Randy Zellers is an assistant chief of communications with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.