Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper in Texas
May 22, 2020
Volume 16, Issue 19
Breaking through on CWD
Reds bending rods By Nate Skinner
For Lone Star Outdoor News Redfish have been pulling for plenty of anglers fishing the Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay, and southward to South Padre Island. Success has come to those both wading and drifting. The reds are stacking up along shallow flats during the early morning hours before staging in deeper water later in the day. Spoons, soft plastics, top-water plugs and flies have all rendered strikes. Stacy Todd said she has been spending a lot of time focusing on the waters near the mouth of Baffin Bay with her friends, Chris Saunders and Garrett Reeves. “I’ve had the most luck throwing a gold spoon,” she said. “Most of my success at catching redfish has come from playing the wind and the sun.” Todd has been stalking redfish while wading shallow sand flats anywhere from shin to knee deep, early in the mornings. “My approach on the flats early in the day has been to walk the shallows in a way that allows me to cast with the wind and use the rising sun to my advantage to see where the fish are staging,” she said. As the sun rises higher into the sky, the reds are moving off of the flats into waist-deep water. “We have been catching bigger fish during the midday hours when they begin stacking up in deeper water,” Todd said. “The best action has occurred during an incoming tide.” Most of the reds have been from 20 to 25.5 inches, and Todd said the fish have been willing to strike the spoon on a straight-andsteady retrieve. “On days when the reds have been a lit-
A new study sheds light on deer that are more resistant to chronic wasting disease. Photo by James Richard.
Study identifying core genes By Craig Nyhus
Lone Star Outdoor News
weather windows with southeast winds. “Channels and guts in between spoil islands have also been excellent for redfish lately,” Long said. “It seems like every little gut between spoil islands is good for at least a few reds. Red and white or chartreuse soft plastics have been the ticket in these areas.”
A new study at Texas A&M University found that genetic variations in white-tailed deer can be used to produce accurate predictions for the risk of susceptibility to chronic wasting disease. Dr. Christopher Seabury with the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences led the study, and called the findings “the first novel strategy for reducing the prevalence of CWD.” The study, Accurate Genomic Predictions for Chronic Wasting Disease in U.S. White-Tailed Deer, probed chromosomes to see if they were
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Stacy Todd, of Corpus Christi, caught this redfish while stalking a shallow flat and chunking a gold spoon near the mouth of Baffin Bay. Photo by Chris Saunders.
tle more finicky, a more erratic retrieve with twitches and pauses has worked better,” she said. Capt. Preston Long has found plenty of redfish in Baffin Bay. White top-waters worked over bellybutton-deep grass flats with sand pockets have rendered the most bites during
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PLANO, TX PERMIT 210
Time is right for big ling By Robert Sloan
Capt. Bill Platt landed this 61-pound ling on a Spanish sardine. Photo from Bill Platt.
At times, ling can seem to disregard logic, especially when they swim out from the shade of a rig and right up to your boat. “One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen was the day a ling, probably weighing about 40 pounds or so, came up out of nowhere and attacked the anchor rope buoy,” said angler Terry Davis. “We were about 32 miles out of Sabine Pass and fishing around pipe stands in
30 to 50 feet of water. We ended up catching that ling on a silver and white Super Spook. After hitting the float on the anchor rope, it just kind of stuck around our boat. I’ve never seen anything like that.” Other times, the unpredictable cobia will show up out of nowhere, see the boat and hightail it down into the depths, never to be seen again. “Over several decades of chasing ling I’ve seen them show
up, and then mysteriously disappear,” said Capt. Bill Platt. “Usually when they see the boat and disappear, they won’t come back around. But you never know. That’s why it’s so important to keep a couple of pitch baits handy.” When a ling comes into view, Platt said it’s time to throw something to them as soon as possible. “That’s when you’ll more than likely get them to hit something. My biggest ling weighed about 91 Please turn to page 11
Freshwater Fishing Report . Page 10
HUNTING
FISHING
Game Warden Blotter . . . . Page 12
Fawns ahead of schedule (P. 4)
Largemouth landings (P. 8)
Some say dropping early.
Athens hot, other lakes good.
Exotics for those in need (P. 6)
Tournaments resume (P. 8,9)
Exemption makes legal to process, donate.
Redfish, bass events take place.
Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Saltwater Fishing Report . . . Page 16 Products . . . . . . . . . . Page 17 Sun, Moon & Tides . . . . . Page 18
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For Lone Star Outdoor News