072619 Lone Star Outdoor News

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Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper in Texas

July 26, 2019

Dirty politics

Volume 15, Issue 23

Excitement for jug liners

Changes, amendments frustrate bill proponents, legislators

By Nate Skinner

For Lone Star Outdoor News

By Craig Nyhus

Lone Star Outdoor News When a last-minute change to legislation is proposed, some who oppose the change may call it dirty pool. Others call it part of the process. Examples of revisions to bills creating a stir and unraveling hundreds of hours of hard work appeared in Texas and nationally. Eminent domain Eminent domain reform was the prime focus of the Texas Wildlife Association in the past legislative session, and it almost happened. The original bill, SB 421, after heavy negotiation with industry representatives and the lieutenant governor’s office, included basic protections of landowners facing condemnation proceedings by private companies. “The bill provided some minimum legal standards on an initial offer, some minimum easement terms and communication between landowners and the condemnor, similar to what is required when a public entity condemns property,” said TWA Chief Executive Officer David Yeates. The bill passed out of the Senate and went to the House and its Land and Resource Management Committee, chaired by former House Speaker Tom Craddick. “The bill nearly made it out of the House,” Yeates said. “The committee supported the Senate version, but Craddick named

Devin Pawlik, left, and Christi Yosko show off a 28-pound Choke Canyon blue catfish they landed while jug lining. Photo from Christi Yosko.

The catfish lurking in the waters of Choke Canyon Reservoir are feeding at a variety of depths and locations, and alligator gar are swimming alongside them, competing with the cats for an easy meal. This aggressive activity from both species is providing anglers with thrilling surprises, especially for those using jug lines. Wilson County resident Christi Yosko spent a few days recently at the lake fishing with her boyfriend and some friends. “We caught a bunch of keeper-sized catfish fishing with cheese bait on rod and reel in 20- to 30-feet of water, but the best part of the trip was catching fish on jug lines,” she said. The crew put out five jug lines baited with squid and cut shad along humps and drop-offs at a variety of depths. They tried to strategically set the jugs along areas with significant depth changes. “All of the bigger catfish we caught came from the jug lines baited with squid,” Yosko said. “The largest one was a 28-pound blue cat caught in about 27 feet of water.” The most excitement occurred when the group started catching alligator gar on their jug lines in the same areas that the catfish were biting. “All of a sudden these big gar started hitting,” Yosko explained. “It made things interesting, because then we weren’t sure what we were going to pull up when a fish hit a line. At first, we didn’t expect to catch anything other than catfish.” The largest gar weighed more than 30 pounds, as it bottomed out the 30-pound scale they were using. “We didn’t measure it, but it had to stretch nearly 5 feet in length,” Yosko said. Yosko said they pulled a couple of smaller catfish from their jug lines that were mangled and had obvious teeth marks from alligator gar. TPWD inland fisheries Corpus Christi District Supervisor Greg Binion said it is not uncommon for alligator gar to strike baits that many recreational anglers use for targeting catfish. “We use jug lines to gather samples of alligator gar for specific studies, and cut bait seems to work the best when it comes to getting their attention,” Binion said. “If folks are using any sort of cut bait or fin fish when fishing for catfish on Choke Canyon, whether

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PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PLANO, TX PERMIT 210

Weedline wahoo By Robert Sloan

Finding and fishing Sargasso weedlines last summer was one of the worst many offshore boat captains had experienced in years. But this summer is proving to be one of the best, especially when it comes to fishing weedlines about 35 to 50 miles out of Port Mansfield.

“We’ve been doing real well on the wahoo,” said Capt. Chad Kinney with Bamm Bamm Fishing Charters. “The Sargasso weedlines have been holding some pretty good numbers of wahoo. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve caught lots of them in the 18- to 20-pound class. But recently we’ve been catching the big ones from 45 to 48 pounds.” It’s the best wahoo fishing Mike Flanagan left and his son, Travis, boated this wahoo while fishing aboard the Wet N Please turn to page 21

Wild. Photo from Travis Flanagan.

Freshwater Fishing Report . Page 10

HUNTING

FISHING

Saltwater Fishing Report . . . Page 11

Evolving deer blinds (P. 4)

Rockport fixture dies (P. 9)

New features, materials.

Fox was legendary guide, conservationist.

Pronghorn numbers up (P. 4)

Bass deep at Falcon (P. 8)

Trans-Pecos, Panhandle permits to increase.

Shallower up north.

Game Warden Blotter . . . . Page 12 Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Sun, Moon & Tides . . . . . Page 16 Products . . . . . . . . . . Page 19 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . Page 21

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