Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper in Texas
September 11, 2015
Volume 12, Issue 2
Sizzling Galveston trout bite By Jillian Mock
FOR LONE STAR OUTDOOR NEWS
BEST IN YEARS: The Galveston Bay trout bite has been very good this summer, with good numbers and size being caught throughout the past few months. Photo by LSON.
As summer turns to fall in Texas, Galveston Bay is in the middle of one of the best spotted seatrout seasons it has seen in years. Guides predict the conditions will continue or even improve in the cooler months. “Trout are biting everywhere. You can rip off a piece of T-shirt and catch one,” joked Galveston Bay guide Roy Dupree. “Beachfront, jetties, up in the bays, anywhere from 3 foot of water to 30 or 40 foot of water.” Guides attribute the excellent conditions to the flooding rains earlier this year that broke a longstand-
ing drought in much of the state. Veteran Galveston guide Mike Williams said, in addition to having a restorative effect on the strained bay system, the rainfall and Trinity River floods flushed the coast with fresh water, pushing all the fish into the lower part of the bay where they stayed and have been massacred — like shooting fish in a barrel — since Memorial Day.” The bite has been so good that skill level and approach matters less than it normally would. “It doesn’t make any difference whether you throw in artificial or live bait,” guide Bobby Elliott said. “Everybody is catching them — even the people that Please turn to page 15
Doing dove Texas hunting season opens By Conor Harrison LONE STAR OUTDOOR NEWS
Some very good opening week hunts mixed in with a bunch of below-average hunts were the reports from many hunters. That was the prevailing sentiment around North Texas as the 2015 dove season got underway in the North and Central zones. Near the DFW Metroplex, many hunters were wondering where the birds had gone. Several groups of hunters around Crandall and Terrell saw few flocks of birds and harvested even fewer. Similar reports emerged from around Rockwall, where some groups of hunters never fired a shot on opening morning. One of the main reasons for
CONTENTS Classifieds . . . . . . . . Crossword . . . . . . . . Freshwater Fishing Report For the Table . . . . . . . Game Warden Blotter . . . Heroes. . . . . . . . . . Outdoor Datebook . . . . Saltwater Fishing Report . Sun, Moon and Tide data .
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Page 40 Page 30 Page 10 Page 30 Page 12 Page 22 Page 42 Page 14 Page 28
poor hunting was a lack of food in the area because of spring and early summer rains. “Normally south and east of Dallas there is lots of corn and grain sorghum planted,” said Rick Maxwell, Collin County Ag Extension agent. “We were prevented from planting much corn at all this year. There is a cutoff period as to when farmers can get a specific crop in the ground because of insurance. The cutoff for corn is April 15. Most farmers who couldn’t plant corn switch over to grain sorghum, but what little that was planted was planted very late.” Maxwell said in Collin County, the late planting of sorghum means farmers are still harvesting fields that normally would have been harvested last month. As a result, many fields that would have drawn dove to them with the spilled seed aren’t available. “That food just wasn’t there this year,” he said. “Even the migrants won’t stop because there isn’t much for them to eat.” Please turn to page 19
LOTS OF SUCCESS, SOME FAILURE: Hunters reported very good dove hunting west of Fort Worth, around San Antonio and in the white-winged zone in South Texas, but hunters to the east of Dallas and south along the I-35 corridor are dealing with a lack of food and fewer birds. Feathers on the hunter’s hand gives a sign of successful shooting, while Thomas Sutton prepares to drop another white-winged dove in a good day of shooting near the Rio Grande. Photos by David J. Sams, Lone Star Outdoor News.
LSONews.com PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID PLANO, TX PERMIT 210
Not singing the blues By Conor Harrison Blue quail populations received a major boost, along with most other wildlife, this GET READY TO RUN: Lots of blue quail out year thanks to timely rains across much of West Texas and the Trans-Pecos region. west this year will put hunters’ skills to Although the birds are more drought the test, as the birds tolerant than their bobwhite cousins, love to run instead of numbers had been on a steady decline fl ush. Areas like Elacross much of their range. ephant Mountain and “Blue quail certainly have rebounded Black Gap WMAs much like bobwhites with the great range have large populaconditions across the landscape,” said tions this season. Robert Perez, Texas Parks and Wildlife Photo by David J. Department’s quail leader. “Certainly in Sams, LSON.
INSIDE
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L ONE STAR OUTDOOR NEWS
HUNTING
Scary situation
Dad knows best
Dove hunters held at gunpoint by Air Force base security in San Angelo. Page 4
Dad lets son miss one day of class for the opening of dove season. Page 4
FISHING
the Trans Pecos, even those mountains and basins received the good rains and cooler summer temperatures throughout the summer. I was out there in July and Big Bend, Black Gap and Elephant Mountain are all seeing really, really good production of blues.” Perez said it has been some time since quail densities in the area were as high as they were this summer. “It really wasn’t that long ago that the blue quail densities were pretty high — 2007 we had 26 birds per count,” he said. “This year, we averaged 28 birds per
Rivers bouncing back
Please turn to page 18
Reports from the salt
Read reports on Port Mansfield and South Anglers report a good Hill Country river bite Padre Island inside. after spring floods. Pages 8, 11 Page 8