Dr . Gary Schwarz with the 15-pound 6-ounce bass he caught during the December shocking survey .
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A finfish , but the top food source that turns the most biomass into protein per dollar invested is our prawns ,” explained Schwarz . Weaned on a healthy diet of catfish feed , these large slow moving crustaceans are farmed within the forage ponds and a key piece to the La Perla puzzle . “ The limiting factor for something that eats something else is can it catch it ? And if so , how many calories did it expend to do so ? With that in mind , the prawns became the perfect match for growing huge bass .”
“ We also cull fish at La Perla by shocking in conjunction with a strict bimonthly population study ,” explained John Jones , Fisheries Biologist for Lochow Lakes Management . “ It gives us a good sample of the size fish we have , and the ability to remove them in accordance with our management program .” As part of the aggressive plan to grow only giant bass , Schwarz ’ s team culled around 6,000 fish under 18 inches last year , and Jones estimates removing 5,000 more under 20 inches this year in order to keep up with La Perla ’ s aggressive goals .
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Along with culling , nutrition , and habitat , Schwarz stocked La Perla with genetically superior pure Florida strain bass , and later hybridized fish ( F-1 crosses between pure Florida and native largemouth commonly referred to as Tiger bass ). “ La Perla is producing some huge fish , but to get to the world record we had to start over with only pure Florida strain and no hybrids in our new Lake Jalisco ,” said Schwarz . Lake Jalisco is the new project that Schwarz is confident will break the world record . The perfected result from the trial and error of his first several lakes , this 60-acre bass factory dramatically increased the volume of forage ponds that La Perla employs to 50 % of the total lake size , already producing several eight pounders in less than two and a half years of age . Under a 15-year cooperative contract with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department , Schwarz has agreed not to fish the lake without their approval as its still part of the Operation World Record research project . The program matches TPWD genetics obtained through its ShareLunker Program with Schwarz ’ s unique ecosystem in a combined effort to first grow a new state record , then be the first to break the 20-pound barrier in Texas , and ultimately grow the next world record largemouth . Stocked in May of 2015 with offspring hatched from a pure Florida 13-pound female , and the male offspring of another 13-pound Florida behemoth , recent data predicts the lake has a very high chance of producing the next world record . But Schwarz is humble in his outlook . “ All I want to do is be all that I can be , and push this ranch to be all that
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