Saltwater Fishing Report

TEXAS SALTWATER FISHING REPORT

SABINE LAKE: 80 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are good along the shorelines and around the jetties on shrimp and topwaters. Flounder are good around rocks on scented plastics.

BOLIVAR: 77 Degrees. Speckled trout are good near the bridge and along the surf on live shrimp. Redfish are good on shrimp and soft plastics. Black drum are good around vegetation or structure on crabs.

TRINITY BAY: 82 degrees. Speckled trout are good over shell reefs on live shrimp. Black drum are good around structure on crabs and shrimp under a popping cork.

EAST GALVESTON BAY: 85 degrees. Redfish and speckled trout are good near Seawolf Park on shrimp.

WEST GALVESTON BAY: 85 degrees. Redfish are good on shrimp along the shoreline. Speckled trout are good on topwaters and shrimp.

TEXAS CITY: 85 degrees. Redfish are fair to good along the shoreline on live bait. Speckled trout are good in the shallows along the shoreline on shrimp and soft plastics.

FREEPORT: 85 degrees. Redfish are fair to good on shrimp. Speckled trout are good on shrimp near the pass or in the shallow water.

EAST MATAGORDA BAY: 84 degrees. Speckled trout are fair to good over reefs on shrimp and soft plastics. Redfish are good on soft plastics and top-waters. Black drum are good on blue crab or dead shrimp.

WEST MATAGORDA BAY: 84 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair to good over mud and shell on live shrimp and topwaters. Black drum are good on blue crabs and shrimp.

PORT O’CONNOR: 85 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are good in 8-10 feet of water using red/white soft plastics and black spoons. Black drum are fair on blue crabs.

ROCKPORT: 85 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair to good on shrimp under a popping cork. Black drum are good around vegetation on blue crabs and shrimp.

CORPUS CHRISTI: 84 degrees. Redfish and speckled trout are good in Nueces Bay on live shrimp under a popping cork.

BAFFIN BAY: 88 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair to good on darker soft plastics.

PORT MANSFIELD: 86.5 degrees. Speckled trout are fair on ball tails. Redfish are fair on paddle tails in red and white, spoons and top-waters.

SOUTH PADRE: 82 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair to good in water less than 5 feet deep over sand bars and on KWigglers.

PORT ISABEL: 82 degrees. Speckled trout are fair where grass is thick on shrimp. Redfish are fair to good on shrimp and top-waters.

—TPWD

Continued from page 4

species for several decades.

In addition to habitat restoration, reintroduction of wild birds will also be a part of the project.

“When the habitat is right but the wild birds are not there, researchers turn to reintroduction as an option,” said Dr. Bill Palmer, president of Tall Timbers. “By strategically moving wild quail from source areas with high populations to qualifying areas that have invested in the necessary habitat improvements, we have helped create over 80,000 acres of new wild quail lands.”

Tall Timbers has been refining the quail translocation process for decades and has moved more than 7,000 wild quail to date.

The Pineywoods project will fine-tune management for quail in East Texas by studying radio-tagged wild quail moved from Florida to explore their habitat use, survival rates, breeding success and other important demographics.

An 8,000-plus acre private property in Polk County provides a core for the program. Habitat improvements including timber thinning, mulching, prescribed fire and herbicide application began in 2019 and continue.

The project is led by Brad Kubecka, a Texas native with a Master of Science in Range and Wildlife Management at Texas A&M-Kingsville, and currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Georgia. Kubecka is bridging quail recovery efforts in Texas as the Tall Timbers Western Gamebird Director, and as the new executive director of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation.

“Restoring habitat takes time — it’s a process,” Kubecka said. “But it’s possible to see Georgia-style wild quail hunting in East Texas as an end result.”

Kubecka said the program has two goals — research and sharing the results with hunters and landowners.

“The management we have done provides a good baseline for East Texas,” he said. “There hasn’t been much research in East Texas in the last 30 years.”

The researcher said East Texas has some advantages once the habitat is improved.

“East Texas has similar rainfall each year to the red hills of Florida and Georgia,” Kubecka said. “And there are similar sandy soils in Georgia.”

Prescribed burning along with thinning will be keys in habitat improvement in much of the Pineywoods, where fire hasn’t been used in a long time.

“It’s critical,” Kubecka said. “The ground needs to see fire every few years. There are old accounts in East Texas when there were black bears and ocelots. The timber was a lot different then.”

Kubecka is excited about improving some of the public lands in East Texas, as well as private property, and has been coordinating with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists.

“There is stability in East Texas because of the rainfall,” he said. “If we get the habitat right, we can get a more stable population. A bad year in South and West Texas could be a good year in East Texas.”

Tall Timbers has secured over half of a $4 million endowment campaign to secure the Pineywoods project positions in perpetuity.

Habitat restoration includes timber thinning and prescribed burns. Photo from Tall Timbers.

T-POST MOUNT

MOUNT UP TO 2 CAMERAS PER MOUNT. EASY SET UP, NO TOOLS REQUIRED. FIND US ON EBAY OR CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR STORE LOCATIONS NEAR YOU. RETAILERS WELCOMED.

TEXASHOGBLOCKER.COM STEPHENVILLE, TX 254-631-9883 MIKE.ROGERS1967@YAHOO.COM

FIELDPRO