David L. Campbell, coordinator of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s ShareLunker program, will retire at the end of March. Campbell has worked for TPWD for 46 years and was inducted into the Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in 2011.
As manager of the Tyler Fish Hatchery, he was instrumental in the introduction of Florida-strain largemouth bass into Texas and has helped stock fish into almost every public reservoir in the state. He has been associated with the ShareLunker program since its beginning. He picked up the first fish entered into the program in 1986 and most of the more than 500 entered since.
Through his years of experience of caring for trophy largemouth bass, Campbell contributed a great deal to the knowledge of how best to care for big fish and communicated this information to the public through countless interviews with media.
“David Campbell and the ShareLunker program are almost synonymous,” said Gary Saul, director of TPWD’s Inland Fisheries Division. “He is without doubt the No. 1 ambassador for the ShareLunker program, which is TPWD's most highly visible program, gaining more media coverage annually than all other TPWD programs combined. To hundreds of anglers and the public, Campbell is Mr. ShareLunker.”
Campbell is unfailingly modest about his achievements, preferring to give credit for his success to others.
“What stands out more than anything else from the 26 years of the ShareLunker program is the cooperation from the anglers,” he said. “Anglers have been very supportive of the program. They have learned how to care for their big fish, and they understand the objective of the program is to increase the number of trophy bass caught in Texas.
"If you don’t have the support of the people using the sport fishery itself, you haven’t accomplished anything.”
