7 minute read
Heroes
Jose L. Zavala Jr, Fishing Locos team member, caught and released this 12- foot, 10-inch hammerhead shark on a South Padre Island beach.
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Camille Mendoza, of Dallas, shot her first dove in Albany.
Mercer Clemons, 9, of Fort Worth, with his first alligator taken outside of Bay City.
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Gigi Mendez, of Austin, landed this 27 3/4-inch redfish while fishing with Capt. Brad on Aransas Bay.
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Teal and dove
Continued from page 1
Billy Shoemaker, an avid supporter of conservation causes, died in April of 2019 at the age of 60. His legacy, though, will live on through a memorial fund established by the International Wildlife Crimestoppers organization.
Shoemaker, also a longtime volunteer with Dallas Safari Club, became an IWC supporter after meeting with Maine Game Warden Chris Simmons, who also appears on the television show, North Woods Law. Simmons is the assistant director of IWC.
“Billy gave to IWC every month,” said his friend, Mark Cavanaugh. “That’s how important it was to him.”
Lewis Rather, IWC’s director and the former director of Texas’ Operation Game Thief, said Shoemaker and Simmons hit it off over their mutual passion to stop poaching in North America.
“After Billy died, Chris had the idea to create the Billy Shoemaker Memorial Fund,” Rather said. “The fund will be used for conservation and youth education in his name, with the goal to stop poaching.”
IWC currently provides grants to state agencies for equipment, like decoys, used in efforts to catch poachers, and to agencies for Wall of Shame trailers used to educate the public about conservation and poaching. It also offers cash rewards to those who turn in poachers. The nonprofit group has plans to expand its grant programs, in part through the memorial fund.
“It’s a great memorial to Billy and all the work he’s done,” Rather said. their flight paths. We had some dove hunters that never even fired a shot.”
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist and El Campo resident, Clint Faas, said whitewing reports in the area were much different from normal years.
In the South Texas region, outfitter and operator of Speck Ops, Luke Bledsoe, said a lot of the teal he had been scouting the few days before the opener seemed to push out with the cold front that passed through the area right before the season commenced.
“We were still able to have a decent teal hunt on opening morning near Riviera, and although we didn’t have the numbers of birds I had been seeing, there was plenty of decoying action taking place,” he said.
Bledsoe said the best part about his teal season opener was hunting with 8-year-old Tildyn Glover on his first duck hunt.
According to Bledsoe, whitewing numbers in South Texas around the Crystal City area were down as well.
East of Houston in Winnie, hunting guide Devin Cryer said bluewings have been thick over flooded rice fields since opening morning.
“Most of our hunters have experienced limit to near-limit shoots,”
Tildyn Glover, 8, went on his first duck hunt near Riviera with guide Luke Bledsoe on the opening day of teal season. Photo from Luke Bledsoe.
Longtime IWC supporter honored with memorial fund
By Craig Nyhus Lone Star Outdoor New
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