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				“Cash for Bass” The Lakes of Danbury is one of the oldest and largest privately managed bass fisheries. Field & Stream (South News) By Phil H. Shook Last August, a novice angler casting a white spinnerbait along the shoreline of a 20-acre Texas farm lake caught and released the largemouth of a lifetime. Based on length and girth measurements, the Florida-strain bass would have weighed in around 15 pounds. At another lake on the same property, a veteran angler fishing a pumpkinseed-and-chartreuse plastic worm caught and released sixty bass one spring day last year, while his partner landed and put back ninety fish. Both of these fisheries are located at The Lakes of Danbury, a carefully managed sportfishing complex about an hour's drive south of Houston. At Danbury, fish stories like these hardly raise an eyebrow these days. A one-time rice-farming and cattle ranching operation run by the Zwahr family, The Lakes of Danbury is one of the state's oldest and largest privately managed bass fisheries-and it is the model for a host of other fee-fishing waters springing up across Texas. Increasingly, Lone Star anglers are turning to Danbury and other private waters to sample uncommonly good, high-fish-density, big bass angling in relative solitude, and they're willing to pay for the privilege. Most fee-fishing operations charge $100 to $275 a day. On a good day at Danbury, for instance, you can average catching ten to fifteen fish an hour, says the Rev. John Morgan of Houston, a Baptist minister and long-time angler at the complex. "If you want to catch fish," he said, "this is the only way to go." Mark McDonald, Editor of "Pond Boss," a Boerne, Texas-based newsletter specializing in private waters management, says the growth of these fisheries reflects Texas landowners' interest in quality bass fishing as an income producer. "It is putting recreational management of lakes and ponds on about the same growth curve as deer hunting was eight or ten years ago," he says. What all of these fisheries have in common are careful management of fish populations, ample stocking of forage fish, and rigid control of vegetation and water quality. Several of the operations have fisheries biologists in residence. "The reason that Danbury can grow 12-pound bass is that they can manage the numbers of those bass," says fisheries biologist Bob Lusk, an independent fisheries consultant. "They make sure they don't have too many of them trying to feed on a given amount of food. The fee waters also provide variety. On Danbury's ten fishing lakes, for example, anglers have a choice of Florida-strain, Florida/Northern (native) hybrid black bass, and Cuban largemuths, as well as hybrid stripers and coppernose bluegills. To sample these fisheries, located outside the town of Danbury, 40 miles south of Houston, visitors pay $200 a person a day. "We also provide guides and boats in that price," says Danbury's manager Jack Boettcher. "Or customers can fish from the bank if they choose." Some of the other operations that offer high-quality, big-bass fee fishing include the following destinations. June, 1995