Tagging, releasing speckled trout

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McKinley hopes the tag color coordination system will help track the migrations of trout that may have happened to move between different portions of the coast, or from the Gulf to an estuary, and vice versa.

“Tagging efforts initially began with me, and I quickly got the support and help of some veteran fishing guides in the Matagorda area,” McKinley said. “As we began to post about these efforts, more and more folks began reaching out about wanting to help, and there was a large conservation movement that began. It’s been great to see how many different anglers want to promote catch-and-release and help us tag speckled trout.”

Trout Tagging Texas now has a field of about 25 individuals — both fishing guides and avid recreational anglers — who are catching, tagging and releasing speckled trout up and down the Texas coast from Sabine Lake to South Padre Island.

After tagging a trout, the angler enters the tag number, the date, the time and the location into the Trout Tagging Texas database.

Additionally, the organization aims to learn more about the conditions at the time of each catch, such as weather, moon phase, tide status and what the fish was caught on.

McKinley said there have already been two reported recoveries of tagged speckled trout.

“Both occurred on the middle coast,” he elaborat- ed. “The first tagged trout to be recovered was recaptured a little over 2 miles away from where it was tagged 21 days prior. The fish was originally caught and tagged by an angler using a soft plastic, and it was recaptured by an angler chunking a topwater lure.”

The second tagged trout was caught more than 9 miles from where it was originally tagged and released.

With about 200 speckled trout already tagged — a number that’s growing by the day — anglers can expect to see more and more tagged trout along the Texas coast.

There is a phone number for anglers to call on the tag of each speckled trout that is tagged by Trout Tagging tion from 50 youngsters, a number that nearly doubled last year’s turnout. east and west jetty.

Texas. McKinley strongly encourages anglers to promptly call the number on the tag of any recaptured fish to report it.

“We’d also love it if you released the fish again, so that we can continue to study its movements,” he said.

Trout Tagging Texas is currently waiting on approval from the IRS to become a registered nonprofit organization.

“We are also currently working on future plans to partner with CCA and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies to further expand the efforts of the organization,” McKinley said.

The tournament also included silent and live auctions for several bay and offshore guided fishing trips, as well as nilgai antelope hunts at two of the area’s largest ranches north and east of Raymondville, respectively.

‘’The boat cuts move a lot of current that pushes lots of shad and mullet on any given tide,” Norris said. “If you just want to catch big reds, the boat cuts are where you need to fish, but if you are targeting trout, I recommend tying on something like a Super Spook Jr. and fishing the end of the east jetty. Bone or chartreuse colors are good in sandy or trout-green water.”

Fishing Reports From The Guides

O.H. IVIE: Brett Cannon of ohiviefishing.com reports bass fishing has slowed down a little as the fish are moving out to summer locations. He said a few fish can still be caught shallow, but most are on a post-spawn pattern, and those fish are being caught on natural-colored plastics that are either Texas-rigged or Carolina-rigged. Most of his clients’ fish are being caught on some kind of deeper structure, including secondary points or rocks, in water 15-20 feet deep.

LIVINGSTON: Michael Richardson of lakelivingstonadventures.com reports the white bass fishing is excellent. He said the size and quantity of fish are among the best they’ve ever been there with lots of 15-inch fish being caught. He said his clients are catching fish while jigging white and chartreuse slabs in 8-15 feet of water while the fish are pushing bait on flats as well as out in open water on humps, ledges and drop-offs in 24-26 feet of water.