LoneOStar Outdoor News
Page 1
DSC Show Program
Texas’ Premier Outdoor Newspaper
December 27, 2013
December 27, 2013
14 INSIDE: Generations, 20
LSONews.com
Volume 10, Issue 9
Picking up the stragglers
Inside
Flounder gigging still strong, even after cold fronts By Conor Harrison Lone Star outdoor newS
After a tough fall gigging flounder due to high tides and stained water, midcoast guides are reporting a resurgence in big flounder. “We are hammering them,” said Capt. David Dupnik near Rockport. “We are still getting
❘❚ HUNTING
Coastal ducks
bigger fish this late in the month, which didn’t happen last year. After the first cold front last year, it went downhill quick. The tides have receded and water clarity is great. “I am gigging fish in 4 feet of water when everyone else is up shallow.” Dupnik said his average size
is 4 pounds and up, with lots of 8-pound fish and the occasional 9-pounder being gigged. Farther north in Galveston Bay, Capt. Greg Verm is still See FLOUNDER, Page 25 GIGGING BIG ONES: Flounder giggers are still finding big flatfish on sandy bottoms during December nights. Photo by Capt. Greg Verm.
Lots of hunters, mixed bag on ducks. Page 4
Dove season reopens
Cover curse Another buck previously on the LSON cover hits the ground. Page 27
❘❚ FISHING
Late-season dove hunting can be fantastic across the state and the few remaining serious dove shooters will be out looking for birds. According to Shaun Oldenburger, Migratory Game Bird leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the percentage of doves killed during the second split drops off significantly from the first. “Harvest numbers go way down during the second season,” Oldenburger said. “For mourning doves in the North Zone, only 2 percent are harvested in the second split. In the Central Zone, it is 8 percent and in the South Zone, it is 12 percent.” Those numbers are even lower for white-winged doves. “Percentage of the harvest for white wings during the second split is zero percent in the North Zone, 2 percent in the Central Zone and 7 percent in the South Zone. In the Special Whitewinged Dove Area, only 1 percent of the birds are harvested in the second split.”
What a morning Falcon produces epic catch.
Page 8
Slaying the reds Redfish action in LLM is on fire.
❘❚ CONTENTS
Classifieds . . . . . . . . Crossword . . . . . . . . Freshwater Fishing Report For the Table. . . . . . . Game Warden Blotter . . . Heroes. . . . . . . . . . Outdoor Datebook . . . . Prime Time . . . . . . . Products . . . . . . . . . Saltwater Fishing Report . Sun, Moon and Tide data .
Page 8 . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 16 Page 22 Page 10 Page 22 Page 12 Page 18 Page 26 Page 17 Page 24 Page 16 Page 22
❘❚ LSONews.com PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PLANO, TX PERMIT 210
See DOVE, Page 27
Time Sensitive Material • Deliver ASAP
LOOKING FOR DOES: Big bucks are moving in South Texas in search of does, which spells opportunity for the hunter. Photo by David J. Sams, Lone Star Outdoor News.
Busting wide open South Texas rut peaking By Conor Harrison Lone Star outdoor newS
The buck crisscrossed the road 150 yards away from the hunter seated in a ground blind strategically placed to look down the cut walled in by the almost impenetrable South Texas brush. The buck paid no attention to the corn on
the ground as he zigzagged from one side of the road to the other like a bird dog on the scent of a quail. When he came to a spot in the road he froze, locked in on an invisible trail. Head up, he took off grunting at a dead run into the brush. Twenty minutes later, a doe burst from the brush with the big buck right behind her. So it went beginning around December 14 See RUT, Page 21
OFTEN FORGOTTEN: Some great dove hunting remains during the second split, which opened Dec. 20. Photo by Lone Star Outdoor News.