DUX EXPO PROGRAM INSIDE Texas’ Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper Since 2004
March 25, 2022
ATV/UTV TEST DRIVES LIVE FIRE GUN RANGES
APRIL 8-10
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
DUCK CALLING CONTESTS, DOG DEMOS, FISHING, CONSERVATION AND MORE
Official show program published by Lone Star Outdoor News
Volume 18, Issue 15
Spawning season, bass staging By Nate Skinner
For Lone Star Outdoor News
Wyatt Frankens landed this 11.77-pound largemouth on Lake Nacogdoches off of a secondary point in about 8 feet of water. Photo from Wyatt Frankens.
The spawning season for largemouth bass is getting cranked up across many Texas lakes and reservoirs. Smaller, buck or male bass are beginning to move in the shallows and around beds, while the heavier, female bass seem to be staging just offshore. Stretches with shallow grass and aquatic vegetation have been producing plenty of bites. Most of the larger
catches are taking place in deeper areas leading toward the shallows, such as secondary points or channel swings along creeks near the mouths of shallow coves. Kellie Renfro was fishing with her husband, Brandon Renfro, on Lake Nacogdoches when she set the hook on what she thought was a soft bite, but then gave her the impression that she had hooked a stump or some other form of underwater obstruction. “There’s this running joke with my husband that I’m always the one to Please turn to page 9
Wildfires impact ranches, small towns
Texas A&M Forest Service fire resources mobilized to contain the Eastland Complex wildfires. Photo from Texas A&M Forest Service.
By Craig Nyhus
The names of the small towns about 100 miles west of Fort Worth may not be known to many Texans, but they are to dove, duck and turkey hunters. Seven wildfires, now known as the Eastland Complex, have burned more than 54,000 acres, with the Kidd Fire in Eastland County at 42,333 acres. It was 60-percent contained as of March 22. The town of Carbon, located on Highway 6 south of Eastland, suffered much of the losses. Hunting outfitter Benny Prince said 95 percent of the town, population 348, burned to the ground. Prince owns a building in town where dove hunters meet before heading out. “My building in Carbon made it,” he said.
Aerial view of the Eastland Complex on March 18. Photo from Emily Mitchell/TAMFS.
“I don’t know how.” Prince said his dove-hunting properties and his home have survived so far. “About a third of my land is burned,” he
Traveling wild game chef By Nate Skinner
For Lone Star Outdoor News Holly Hearn is a Texas-based wild game chef who loves to hunt and fish. Rather than serving as a chef for a particular establishment, Hearn works for herself, and travels wherever her services are needed. She is often hired by private entities or individuals to prepare gourmet meals for special occasions, events or adventures. This has allowed her to pursue her passion for cooking on many private ranches and sport-fishing vessels, all the while being around what she loves the most — the outdoors. Hearn’s work has provided her with the opportunity to meet many people, some within the food and culinary industries, whom she has been able to introduce to the outdoors. Growing up on the northeast side of Houston, her earliest memories of the outdoors began on her parents’ boat on Lake Houston. “My dad was always into big boats, and hunting,” Hearn said. “I grew up around deer hunting, but at age 14, I fell in love with quail hunting. Bird hunting was the first outdoor endeavor that I was successful at and got to do completely on my own, and I was just eaten up with it.” As she got older, she had opportunities to travel to many different places with her parents, due to the nature of their jobs. “I was able to experience the outdoors in different places,” Hearn explained. “This is what really developed my love for a variety of cultures and foods.” After graduating high school, Hearn began college but after two semesters, she decided to take a break. “I really just wasn’t happy with what I was doing and I needed to make some lifestyle changes,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to take in terms of a career path.” During her break from school, Hearn moved to Beaumont to work for her family’s business, and during that time she began cooking a variety of foods and found her calling in the kitchen. “I had access to freezers full of wild game, because of all of the hunting and fishing my
Please turn to page 5 Saltwater Fishing Report . . Page 9 Freshwater Fishing Report . Page 10 Game Warden Blotter . . . . Page 12 Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Sun, Moon & Tides . . . . . Page 15 Datebook . . . . . . . . . Page 18 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . Page 18
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Lone Star Outdoor News
Holly Hearn loves to hunt and fish, and switched her career choice from engineering to cooking. Photo from Holly Hearn.
Please turn to page 6
HUNTING
FISHING
Turkey season opener (P. 4)
Spring break trout, reds (P. 8)
South Texas birds still bunched up.
Kids landing fish.
The swimming hog (P. 4)
Targeting all the bass (P. 8)
Swine swims a mile to island.
Fly-fisherman seeks six species.
