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Lots of little footballs caught on this morning as temperatures rose, tides came back in, and trout pulled up shallow ahead of the next front! Lure selection doesn’t seem to matter when the stars align!
I caught the biggest redfish of my life on the tiniest bait I throw - MirrOlure Lil’ John!
Jennifer Villa with a nice flounder to go along with some nice trout on a weak tide, high pressure day.
View The Video
Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
Tips for Catching February Upper-Coast Speckled Trout
CONTACT
STEVE HILLMAN
12 | February 2021
Steve Hillman is a full-time fishing guide on his home waters of Galveston Bay. Steve fishes the entire Galveston Bay Complex, wading and drifting for trout, redfish, and flounder using artificial lures. Phone 409-256-7937 Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com Web www.hillmanguideservice.com
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e s h t s a P
Hat
(Old Straw) STORY BY JOE DOGGETT
T
he old man always fished alone. During the spring and summer of 1966 several school friends and I often waded a flat on lower West Galveston Bay behind San Luis Pass. On the mediocre days of gusting wind and marginal water clarity we never saw him. But when the wind was light and the tide was right, flowing rich with promise, he was there – a tiny stick figure shuffling slowly amid the vast sparkle. He was a plugger. He used only lures for speckled trout and redfish, and we were fascinated by his game. We passed him several times, coming and going on the beach. He was tall and lanky and we agreed he was pretty spry for an old geezer. He would nod and we would nod. His name was Frank – “Mr. Frank” to us. We were too intimidated to say much. He waded in faded khakis and a long-sleeved cotton shirt. A large straw hat was cinched with a neck cord against the prevailing breeze. A jaunty red bandana protected his gobbler throat from the glare. He had silvery hair and bushy eyebrows and crinkly ears, and his leathery face was smeared with sun oil and white zinc oxide paste. The loose weave of the floppy hat crown bristled with colorful lures – “killer baits,” all. They were pinned through the thick straw like campaign medals – hard plastic plugs such as Bingos, Humps, and MirrOlures, and metal spoons of silver and gold, mostly Johnson Sprites, Tony Accettas and Dixie Jets. Nobody back then knew what a soft-plastic tail was. The old man used a long two-handed fiberglass rod and a little Shakespeare Sportcast reel. The well-oiled reel, like the well-oiled angler, was a throwback. The light, fast narrow-framed model was a go-to choice during the early 1950s for serious Texas waders – a high-performance reel mostly forgotten now, but elegant in its compact simplicity. The Sportcast had a stainless steel frame with a marbled creamcolored plastic spacer on the right sideplate. The trim handle knobs were molded from a similar opaque plastic. It featured a smooth levelwind mechanism but offered no freespool or anti-reverse or star drag. Stripped of these gadgets, the Sportcast weighed about seven ounces. It typically was spooled with 10- to 12-pound braided line. 30 | February 2021
And it typically was in the hands of a specialist. Most inshore anglers during the pre-Ambassadeur “Red Reel” era used larger direct-drive reels with heavier lines. Top-tier examples were the Shakespeare President and the Pflueger Supreme. These were go-to choices for casting live shrimp under popping corks, or for rough-and-tumble fishing from the jetties or in the surf. But the bayshore waders casting lures increasingly favored the finesse of a lighter touch. And the tuned casting outfit with 1/4- to 1/2-ounce lures was well-suited for the murky “trout green” tides of the upper and middle Texas coast. The old man wore a leather belt fitted with a molded piggy-back sheath for a fillet knife and a pair of needle-nose pliers. A metal stringer clip was riveted into place. When he donned the hat and buckled the belt like a high tide gunslinger we knew we were looking at a purist. He showed the power and beauty of using an “educated thumb” to casually lay the long casts across open water. The whippy rod would flex behind a fluid stroke of hands and forearms, and the bright flicker of lure would spring from the tip and arc like a well-driven golf ball. Quick spray would puff from the spool and the spinning handle would blur. Each cast was an unencumbered flight of fancy, the essence of free spirit. We were potlickers but we were learning. We suffered bad casts and backlashes but waded with the determination that comes from dedicated practice. Regardless of reel and regardless of era, those clean, mean levelwind casts must be earned; promotional hype aside, they do not always come guaranteed out of the box. The old man would play a bucking, boiling trout slowly, working it in a wide circle and keeping it well away until it was tired and manageable. The struggle was a delicate give-and-take, with the poised thumb feathering the spool during the bursts of “give.” Then he would glide the fish back and forth, checking the lure and hook placement. The speck would slide on its side, head lifted against the bend of the elevated rod tip, and a brown knuckly hand would clamp across the shoulder, just behind the flared gill plates. He rarely missed a grab.
We have quick-drying miracle-fiber clothing, pull-over miracle-fiber masks, specialized wading boots, nylon tote packs and polarized glasses – and dozens of other custom items I’ve lost track of documenting. Large logos and decals are standard-issue. Almost nobody wears a simple straw hat festooned with lures. And almost nobody has a hand-tooled saddle leather wading belt, dark and stiff and cracked from decades of use. But I do. It’s always satisfying to don the bonnet and strap the belt. And I have special fondness for chunking the old “hard” lures – the Texas plugs, the Bingos and such. They worked then; they work now. Squiggly plastic tails are hugely effective, no question, but they are boring – unpleasant to handle and utterly lacking in style points. I suppose this stubborn stance is a tribute to the old man – to his generation of “old salts.” They carried themselves with casual grace and confidence, with the pride of doing it right. The hat, especially, was a signature statement for wading and plugging. It was their school of fishing, the one that now is so popular and refined on today’s tides. I would like to think that the old man saw in our fumbling efforts a desire to pick up the light rods and fast reels and bright lures and move ahead into the next green tide. If so, he was right. We never knew his last name. It was enough to know that Mr. Frank with his straw hat was an original Texas plugger.
JOE DOGGETT
CONTACT
He sometimes held a good trout at arm’s length and turned it slowly to admire the slim profile and black-spotted hues of silver and green and lavender. He was correct in this silent tribute. He knew that a freshly minted trout with a gaudy plug pinned to its jaw is one of the most beautiful sights in all of angling. He trailed a 10-foot cord stringer with a cork knotted to the end. The green cord was heavy, trailing straight without twisting and tangling against moving current and tugging fish. He used a big slip knot that would release the cork and allow strung fish to slide off the far end. This economy of effort only reaffirmed his excellence. Our cheap nylon stringers were too thin; on the occasions when we caught enough fish to matter, they invariably would wrap into terrible knots. One morning when the current was pouring green through the guts behind the pass, we hit a magic tide. We caught 10 or 12 solid specks apiece, mostly on chrome Tony 5Hs with yellow bucktails. Several were legitimate sows in the four- to five-pound class. We never had done better. The late-morning sun was hot when we quit, wading in against the weight of our stringers. The shallows were active with life. Pods of finger mullet and tracers of minnows scattered ahead of our steps. Several large blue crabs scuttled sideways, waving big pincers, and, once, a plate-sized brownish-yellow stingray fluttered from the sand. Laughing gulls wheeled overhead, clamoring, and black-and-white skimmers raked with red bills across the shallows. It felt supremely good to be a part of it all, to glance back at the twisting, flashing saltwater bounty. Approaching in the distance was the lone silhouette. The broad straw hat was unmistakable. The old man was leaning forward, shuffling slowly with the long rod over his shoulder. We stalled, keen to strut our stuff. He pushed close and we stared in shock and awe. He was towing 10 feet of trout. Gorgeous sows filled the stringer and the largest topped six or seven pounds. A scarred Bingo was hooked to the little reel. The plug was translucent yellowish green, with a red head and large painted eyes. I shook my head and smiled – a Gulf Coast classic on either end of the line. Not long after, the old man was gone. At least, we never saw him again. I still think of him. Alarmingly, from my aged vantage, I’m probably older now than he was then. I used to wonder why he waded alone but now I know: That was his special spot and he enjoyed the simplicity and solitude. He could fish at his pace and maybe reflect at his pace. Many things have changed since that summer. For starters, following decades of struggle, we have functional bag and size limits on the fish that matter. Catch-and-release is SOP on big trout. At least, it should be. And the trappings of inshore angling have evolved. We have faster, smoother rods and faster, smoother reels, and thinner, stronger lines – and any number of must-have, can’t-miss soft plastic baits. Not to mention custom shallow-water boats and sophisticated electronics.
Joe Doggett was an outdoors columnist with the Houston Chronicle for thirty-five years. Retiring in 2007, Doggett writes occasional freelance pieces between hunting, fishing and surfing adventures. Contact: DoggettJ@SBCGlobal.net
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J AY WAT K I N S
ASK THE PRO
MEMORY LANE:
HOW I GOT WHERE I AM TODAY What a year 2020 was…right? But let us not dwell on the negative. Let us instead be thankful for all that we have endured, knowing that we are stronger for the experience. I hope all of you are doing well with the Covid pandemic and the economic struggle it has brought for many. Texas is a great state in a great country with tougher than tough residents. I am just so proud of us and I hope you are as well. This month’s article is going to be a departure from my normal, How-Where-When teaching pieces. I am going to share a perspective gained through a fishing guide’s now 63-year-old eyes, things my 25-year-old eyes could not see. I hope you will not be disappointed. For background – I began writing for the Rockport Pilot in the early 1980s and then graduated to Tom Nix’s Saltwater Angler. When Tom passed unexpectedly in 2003 I came to work for Everett and Pam here at Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine and it has provided me a platform from which I could promote saltwater fishing alongside the effort to promote my guiding business. In addition to my writing I have presented fishing seminars all over Texas. Seventeen years ago I started the Jay Watkins Fishing Club with the help of Ken Vestal of Creative Visions. The online updates on that membersonly platform provide day by day, wade by wade, blow by blow information every day that I fish. None of what I do would be possible without the help of many great people. My latest fishing education outreach is Instagram, mostly tips and other little things that can make us better anglers. Lisa and Lindsey Laskowski, owners of Magnolia Moon Media, are huge helpers with this social media venture and the real reason many of you have received messages from me. Heck, I’m a fisherman, I basically had no clue about Instagram messaging when we started this gig. So, there’s lots going on in my fishing world and with copy deadlines, video updates and blogs, I sometimes forget what it is that I truly love about fishing. In this article we are going to focus on learning more about how to truly enjoying fishing, please bear with me as I try to allow you to see through my eyes all the enjoyment a day on the water can provide. Hopefully, you will see and understand how I arrived at the point where I am today. All the perspectives I will share are based on my own guiding experiences, no others. For the record, I am guilty of having negatively impacted and promoted the wrong aspects of the sport, and the fishery, in my younger career. I was a “string ‘em up” guy in the beginning. Hero
32 | February 2021
stringers, “Hey, look at me!” I said it was good for business. Mike McBride says it was a “sausage measuring contest.” Crude way to put it but, looking back, that’s pretty much what it was. Good days were gauged by how many we could string and limits were the goal. I cultured this attitude amongst my clients; I alone was to blame. The focus eventually shifted to catching bigger fish, especially trout. I spent my entire career in a bay system that was never known nor likely will ever be known as a trophy trout fishery. Have we caught trophy trout in the Aransas Bay System? Yes! Does the possibility still exist? Certainly, but several other bay systems offer anglers much better chances for success. I enjoyed the success of being able to target and catch larger trout but I had still not been able to return many of these fish to the water. I was not promoting keeping larger trout because I believed my people needed them; the honest truth is that I felt it made me look good. This continued until the late Tom Nix organized the first saltwater tournament series with emphasis on live weigh-in. The tournament also featured a four trout limit for a two man team – groundbreaking stuff. The success and upshot of Tom’s tournaments spawned what we see today in just about all the major redfish and trout tournaments here in Texas. I did the tournament thing, won some and lost more than I won. At one point I had to decide what and who I wanted to be. Chase the tournaments or become a better guide and step out of the limelight to become someone that led others to memorable days on the water? Little did I know that the direction I chose would start me on a journey that I’m still on today. Over the next seventeen years I started to incorporate teaching and coaching of individuals wanting to become better anglers. I hope in the following paragraph you can get a sense of the emotional connection I have gained with the world I call my home most days. I have grown in my belief of the importance of the role we as fishermen play in the conservation efforts that will preserve our fishery for future generations. My day starts around 4:45 AM. My truck is loaded with fishing gear, my fishing cloths are laid out in the laundry room the night before. Coffee is brewing as I wash my face and teeth and get dressed in my tackle room so that I will not wake Renee. Out the door by 5:15, which starts one of the best times of the day for me. Rockport is so peaceful in the early morning hours. I roll my windows down to enjoy the smell of the bay. I love sipping coffee and riding along the waterfront.
All fish caught during afternoon minor feed period, up shallow on Custom Corky Floating Fat Boys. Great group of guys that are totally catch and release anglers.
I remember living on Water Street and walking downtown when downtown was only a few stores. I like the sound of the shrimp boats idling in the harbor and the waking of the birds. I love the silhouettes of the cranes that roost in the windswept live oaks. Heading north I stop and put ice in the boat. There’s the nice man that owns the two automatic ice plants in town. He is deaf but he signs good morning to me. Hard working man and I admire that in people. Motoring north on 35, I cross the Copano Causeway. When the old causeway fishing pier was still open I could see the fishing lights on the pier with a few hardcore anglers still fishing. I sometimes see me and my dad standing at the twelfth light, him towering over me as I lean over the rail working our modified speck rigs. My dad would cut the back jig off and replace with a 52M MirrOlure. I wonder if from heavens shores he checks in on me from time to time as I wade the Cavasso shoreline, another of our favorite areas. When I think of Copano I can’t help but think of Robert Brooks. He helped me learn Copano’s winter fishing patterns, lessons I will never forget. Heading into Lamar, I pass the old Mills Wharf-Sea Gun resort. Still pink but much faded. This was the hub of saltwater fishing where many of the charter boats were moored. On the Park Road and slowing so the deer can move to the side as my high beams signal my approach. On my left I see Charlie Hale’s house and Bob Parks, two old-time guides from way back. Charlie did more with one arm than most could with two. Bob was the gentler one, nice man as I remember. Mullet Gregory and his wife June lived a couple of streets over. They shrimped in Copano and St. Charles bays. Everyone on the water knew their boat, the June Bug. Entering the State Park and pulling up to the dock to ready for the day. It’s very crowded most days, this being only one of three
“
launching facilities in the area. I am typically short and sometimes not too nice at the dock. Jay Ray tells people that Dock Jay and Bay Jay are totally different guys. He’s right, I am particular about my routine. Any interruptions can start a negative vibe in me. I’m working on this. My guys are on time, rigged and ready. I am happy again as we idle away from the dock. Up and running now, sound of the boat and the smell of the day trigger all the senses that make this the only thing I could ever do. Now the questions begin about where we might start our day. My answer is most always the same. “The fish will tell us the answer to that.” Running east, the grey light of predawn yields to brilliant orange and shades of blue. No sunrise is ever the same and the view from my office window is never the same, nor has it ever disappointed. “The man sure can paint,” I think to myself. I am checking the ICW marker pilings and points of shell reefs to determine tide level and movement. Quick glances at the onboard water temperature gauge adds valuable intel. With the conditions present on this particular morning, I am headed to windward shoreline guts or windward reef edges. There’ll be signs that point me in the proper direction. Scanning the horizon I search for what looks like bricks hitting the surface in the distance. Brown pelicans hitting the surface over schools of baitfish the wind is stacking along shorelines or reef edges. “There they are, 500 yards out,” I mutter to myself. My talking, which is too much most of the time, is just me verbalizing what I am thinking. By repeating over and over, the patterns have become ingrained in my head. When I see a familiar scene, my brain computes what my eyes are seeing. Ease in now and get my group mentally prepared by laying out the picture in front of us. “Ease in guys. Make long casts and be patient, we
As bites are received and fish are caught, it is often easy to overlook all of the things around us. These are things that are meant to be enjoyed and deserve our attention.
”
TSFMAG.com | 33
want the fish to come to us.” Being observant is the key to any good fisherman’s success, but taking mental notes of these observations are the keys to being able to repeat the process. As I instruct I notice a kingfisher sitting on a dead salt cedar, waiting for a small fish or crab to come into view. In the background I hear that telltale calling of three whooping cranes feeding just inside the flooded grass. A male and female with their juvenile chick call to one another from time to time. A redfish crashes in in the flooded grass, a sound that one never forgets once identified. An osprey chirps as it hunts from hundreds of feet above. “If we are lucky guys, we’ll see her dive and catch a fish.” Kingfishers are the absolute best of fishermen. A great blue heron stands motionless in the tall, flooded grass. It’s become part of its surroundings and goes almost unnoticed by the group. “See that small slick that just popped in the gut along the shoreline? Look upwind for the first piece of underwater structure. That’s home to what made it.” As bites are received and fish are caught, it is often easy to overlook all of the things around us. These are things that are meant to be enjoyed and deserve our attention. On this day I watch my group as they slide parallel to the shoreline gut that we are focused on. Bites are scattered but when we get bit, it’s the right fish. Question: If they happen to not be the right ones, if there is such a thing, are we to be unhappy with the wade? If we are we are missing all too much of what the day is offering. I think you can see this in the lines above. Our day ended with some solid fish and a lot of what I refer to as “just trout.” Something I am trying to correct. Fishing for me is still about the chase. It’s calling your shots, making it happen when it is not supposed to happen. But it’s also about being observant and appreciative of all that is going on around me all of the time. If teaching leads to learning and learning becomes knowledge we should be smart enough to take in all that we can each and every day we are able to be on the water. We owe it to ourselves to give ourselves the chance to truly enjoy all there is to fishing, besides simply the catching. I hope you enjoyed this month’s article and I hope that your next visit to your favorite shoreline provides you with a little better insight into all that is really out there for us. May your fishing always be catching! -Guide Jay Watkins
View The Video
Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
C O N TA C T
Pinch Points Concentrate Fish
34 | February 2021
Jay Watkins has been a full-time fishing guide at Rockport, TX, for more than 20 years. Jay specializes in wading yearround for trout and redfish with artificial lures. Jay covers the Texas coast from San Antonio Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. Telephone Email Website
361-729-9596 Jay@jaywatkins.com www.jaywatkins.com
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C A P T. S COT T N U L L
S H A L L O W W AT E R F I S H I N G
BITE ME –
SALTWATER FISHING PODCAST; IT’S ALL ABOUT PASSING FISHING KNOWLEDGE TO OTHERS. A couple of years ago I was approached by John Lopez about doing a podcast on saltwater fishing. John is a longtime Houston sports radio personality on 610 AM and the station wanted their guys to start doing podcasts in addition to their on-air shows. John is also eaten up with saltwater fishing. Y’all might laugh, but the first order of business was to explain to me what the heck a podcast was. I had heard of them and knew there was an app on my iPhone for podcasts, but I didn’t know how they worked. Once that hurdle was cleared, John clued me in to his vision for what the podcast would be. He wanted to just sit down and talk fishing for an hour every week. Locations, techniques, fish biology, how weather affects fishing, lure selection, etc. The same things we all talk about when we’re on the boat or just hanging out with other fishermen. Bite Me - A Saltwater Fishing Podcast was born. I honestly figured we would run out of things to talk about within about six months. Well, here we are twenty-six months later with a new show every week and we’re still going strong. It has been a fun ride. During this time we’ve built a very cool community of fishermen. While it started with us simply coming up with our own topics along with the occasional email question 36 | February 2021
First redfish. It may not be the biggest, but for a fellow from Wyoming it was pretty cool.
Sometimes we like to record out in the field.
Recording podcast in studio with regular guest, Capt Caleb McCumber.
And yes, we do actually fish together.
Lopez with a red on our trip with Capt Caleb.
from a listener, it has evolved into an interactive show. The addition of a Facebook group has opened up a never-ending supply of topics. Everyone from the raw beginners to the knowledgeable old salts are welcome…so long as you are willing to help without judgement. That has been our motto from the start and it has served us well. The Facebook group is pushing 4500 members and the most recent numbers show over 30,000 downloads per month. This experience has really opened my eyes and reminded me that there are a lot of people out there who really want to learn about fishing and don’t have the sources many of us have taken for granted. Not everyone has a parent or other family member to teach them. Many people didn’t grow up fishing and come into this sport as adults. Some don’t find time in their busy life of careers and kids until they are retired. Still others have been relocated to the coast from landlocked states and are transitioning from freshwater to the salt. Their passion to be a better fisherman is just as strong as those of us who have been going at it since childhood, but their availability to resources where they can ask questions is often limited. I was fortunate
to grow up with parents who loved to fish and it sparked my fire at an early age. As a teenager I worked at Marburger’s Sporting Goods where I was surrounded by seasoned fishermen. Many of them invited me to fish with them and were willing to share their knowledge. Some were guides who took me out to scout on their days off while others were just old salts with many years of experience. I also ran with a bunch of young guys with like interest and we learned from each other, often through trial and error. We learned as much from our failures as our successes. One thing John told me when we started this was, “You don’t know what all you know.” Sounded odd at first, but now I get it. There are so many things that we have picked up over the years of doing this that we take for granted. It is all knowledge gained through friends, mentors, studying, or simply time on the water. All of these experiences and lessons added together are what make us above average or even great at what we do. You weren’t just born with all of that coded into your brain. We get questions every day that seem so basic and obvious to me, yet someone out there doesn’t know. It isn’t that they aren’t intelligent, it is simply that they have a hole in their knowledge. A personal TSFMAG.com | 37
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38 | February 2021
as to why. Or worse, the guide who assumes they should know and doesn’t even suggest making a cast. And you don’t have to be a guide to help out a fellow angler. If the guy fishing with you is missing something tell them about it. You never know when he might return the favor. None of us know it all and should be willing to accept knowledge when someone is willing to pass it along. So what is the point of this collection of words? We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Take this as a reminder to share your knowledge without looking down on the recipient. They likely are experts in some subject that you have no clue about. Also, if you are on the other end, look for mentors. Sure, we can learn most everything from watching YouTube videos these days, but I think directly learning from someone trumps that. When you are standing waist-deep next to your buddy and he is whipping your butt with a topwater you can ask questions and observe what he’s doing differently. That interaction is more effective and sticks better than trying to figure it out on your own after watching a video or reading an article. In the end this obviously benefits the recipient, but it also rewards the teacher. I get great joy from seeing that lightbulb come on and watching them be successful.
C O N TA C T
example would be dealing with computer issues. I have a basic working knowledge, but that’s about where it ends. My wife and oldest daughter have more advanced knowledge and often kid me about it. My response is to let them know that while I may not always know how to transfer a file from one program to another, I can build an entire house. I know framing, plumbing, electrical, and finish work. They do not. When I first started guiding I was often surprised when someone didn’t react to a cue that seemed very obvious to me. Signs of fish activity or just situations that called for a cast went ignored. A windy point with water being pushed around it will always get an exploratory cast from me. I know there is a small eddy behind that point where a gamefish might be lurking while waiting for a baitfish to get pushed around the corner. It has worked for me enough times that it is now second nature, I don’t even think about it. I regularly have clients fail to notice or react to much more obvious signs than that. Shrimp scattering in succession along a shoreline, a small shower of baitfish or the reflective flash of a gamefish swiping at bait all deserve a cast but don’t always get one. My response is not to just shake my head and think less of the guy on my bow. Instead I suggest a cast and then explain why. I don’t want to be that guide who just tells their client to cast to a spot with no explanation
Capt. Scott Null is a devout shallow water fisherman offering guided adventues via kayak, poled skiff, and wading. Telephone Email Website
281-450-2206 captscottnull@gmail.com www.captainscottnull.com
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By Paul Silva | Ecosystem Resources Program
FIELD NOTES PROTECTING AND ENHANCING ESTUARY HABITATS IN THE REDFISH BAY STATE SCIENTIFIC AREA BY RESTORATION OF DAGGER ISLAND Redfish Bay contains the northernmost extensive stands of seagrass on the Texas coast and is unique in that it is one of three bays that contain all five species of native seagrass in Texas. In 2000, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) created the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area (RBSSA) for the purpose of protecting and studying the native seagrasses (Figure 1). The area contains approximately 50 square miles (32,000 acres) of prime fisheries habitat, including 14,000 acres of submerged seagrass beds dominated by turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum) and shoal grass (Halodule wrightii). In addition to seagrasses, the RBSSA contains other fragile biological communities including oyster reefs, tidal flats, mangroves and estuarine marshes that serve as valuable feeding and nursery habitat for commercial and recreational fishery and avian species. These habitats are critical for the health of the entire bay ecosystem and for sustaining a matrix of vertebrate and invertebrate species, many of which are of economical
and recreational importance. The value of these shallow water resources to recreational fisheries in Redfish Bay is evidenced by recent angler survey data collected from 2013 to 2017. Southern Redfish Bay represents only about 7% of the areal extent of the Corpus Christi Bay Ecosystem, yet survey data indicate that this small area accounted for 18% of the angling trips taken by boat and 21% of the angler hours throughout the Corpus Christi Bay Ecosystem. These survey data also indicate that southern Redfish Bay accounted for 37% of spotted seatrout, 31% of red drum, 23% of southern flounder, and 12% of black drum landed throughout the Corpus Christi Bay Ecosystem. Dagger Island is in Redfish Bay due east of the Ingleside peninsula and immediately north of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel (CCSC) in Nueces County, TX and acts as a natural protective barrier for estuarine habitats in RBSSA. Since 1956, the southern section of Dagger Island has lost over 89 acres and the northernmost section of Dagger Island has lost over 35 acres of land due to erosion from both natural and human causes. The natural causes of shoreline erosion include the predominant southeast winds, storm events and decades of sea level rise accompanied by subsidence. Direct human impacts contributing to the erosion include high energy ship wakes caused by vessels traveling down the CCSC and extensive dredging from past oil and gas explorations. Future dredging projects and the widening and deepening of the CCSC to allow larger vessels to transit to existing and proposed docking basins will only exacerbate the problem. Because of the ecological and economical importance of this area, TPWD was concerned that if Dagger Island erosion continues, it could have harmful impacts on the aquatic resources within and surrounding the RBSSA. To address these concerns, TPWD initiated discussions of options to protect Dagger Island and the Figure 1. Redfish Bay State Scientific Area with Dagger Island Restoration site (green star). surrounding Redfish Bay ecosystem.
40 | February 2021
The natural resource objectives of this project were to protect and conserve approximately 5,200 acres of diverse estuarine habitats within the RBSSA, eliminate shoreline erosion of the island, create oyster, invertebrate and fisheries habitat, develop a natural living shoreline and restore approximately 25 acres of land lost to historical island erosion. A preliminary evaluation was conducted to identify feasible alternatives for shoreline protection based on cost, environmental impact and location of the Figure 2. Nearshore breakwater protection. The desktop analysis adjacent to south Dagger Island. evaluated nine different shoreline protection methods based on 12 parameters and recommended three alternatives for further consideration: (1) quarry-stone revetment, (2) nearshore reef breakwater, and (3) offshore quarrystone segmented breakwater. Assessments for bathymetry, topography and geotechnical composition were performed to determine the best protection design, construction method and site placement for the shoreline stabilization project. Using the desktop analysis and site surveys, three priority areas were identified Figure 3. Beneficial use site with nearshore breakwater. for potential shoreline protection based on shoreline erosion rates. After reviewing the recommendations for shoreline protection alternatives, a combination of nearshore and offshore breakwaters was selected. Nearshore breakwaters, located within 100 feet of the shoreline, provide protection by intercepting incoming waves and creating intertidal zones between the shore and breakwater structures. To further protect and enhance the shoreline, a living shoreline will be created through the planting of smooth cordgrass and saltmeadow cordgrass in the intertidal zone. Offshore breakwaters protect from incoming waves but provide additional protection from winds that blow across a long fetch. They are used in cases where nearshore breakwaters would impact natural resources, in this case, existing seagrass beds. In addition, twenty-five acres of the northern section of Dagger Island will be restored by constructing containment levees for the beneficial use of dredge material. The shoreline protection and habitat restoration project were a collaborative effort between TPWD and Ducks Unlimited (DU), with funding provided primarily by TPWD using funding awards from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) – Gulf Environment Benefit Fund and Texas General Land Office. Additional project funding was secured from DU, Coastal Conservation Association – Texas/Building Conservation Trust and federal funds from a North
American Wetlands Conservation Act grant. Part of the preliminary design funding was acquired through a grant from the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program. The completed project includes 6,765 linear feet of nearshore breakwater along south Dagger Island (Figure 2) and adjacent to the beneficial use site. A total of 6,185 linear feet of levees were constructed to restore 24.8 acres of eroded land by placement of approximately 260,000 cubic yards of dredge material (Figure 3). Dredge material donors are currently being sought to immediately fill the beneficial use site. In addition to the original objectives, predicted project benefits include return of seagrass beds in bare areas behind the beneficial use site, restoration of healthy smooth cordgrass and saltmeadow cordgrass habitats, a new site for avian resting, roosting and nesting, and another venue for recreational fishing opportunities in Redfish Bay.
Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or tpwd.texas.gov for more info. TSFMAG.com | 41
Mom with her striped marlin.
DAV E R O B E R T S
K AYA K F I S H I N G C H R O N I C L E S
FISHING CABO I know that traveling in the past year has been more than difficult, but some communities have found a way to safely accommodate traveling guests. I, for one, have truly missed getting on a plane and flying to a location where I can experience a different culture of people and, of course, trying to catch a few fish. Here recently, my family and I decided we were all going to take a trip down to Cabo San Lucas for a few days and do exactly that. As far as me and my parents, it was going to be our first trip to the area but we were accompanied by my brother and his girlfriend who have been there several times. My family decided to head down a few days early and I was going to meet up with them midweek. After a short 2.5 hour flight, I arrived in Mexico and caught a taxi down to the peninsula. Once I met up with the family, I decided I was past due for a few tacos and something cold to drink. Later that evening we sat down and decided what our plans were going to be for the next few days. We all agreed that we should spend at least one day fishing as a family. The next morning, my brother and I made 42 | February 2021
a short walk down to the marina and found one of the guys he has used for fishing in the past. He showed us a 35’ boat and there was plenty of room for all five of us. We settled the deal and he told us the boat will be ready for us to board at 0600. The next morning we all got up, got our coffee and headed down to meet the captain of Guerita. We hopped on board and away we went. The good thing about fishing out of Cabo is that the shelf is no more than a few miles off the coast; so within a 15 minute boat ride, we were trolling lures. It didn’t take long into our morning before one of the reels started to scream! As soon as I picked up the rod, a Mahi jumped and twirled and it was just enough for her to escape. No worries, at least we were off to a good start. About 30 minutes later and getting lost at the lures trolling behind us, I see a splash behind one of the plugs. Before I can register that it could be a fish, the captain yelled, “Marlin!” Everything happened really quickly with the deckhands scurrying around the boat but as soon as he hooked up, a big striped Marlin broke the surface of the water. Mom was up first and we put
her in the big chair and as soon as the Marlin quit jumping, she got the rod. The deckhands and all the rest of us cheered her on and encouraged her not to quit because we knew she had a really good one on the line. About 20 minutes later and several more jumps, we got the fish next to the boat and in her lap for a victory picture. They measured the fish and it taped an impressive 102 inches. A very nice fish, especially for your Mom’s first! We quickly made the release, dropped the baits back, and begin trolling again. It couldn’t have been ten minutes and I’m pretty sure we all yelled “Marlin!” at the same time. It’s always exciting to see nothing but their bill sticking above the water and swiping at your lure. Once again, we were hooked up and this time it was Pop’s turn. This fish was not near the size of Mom’s (which we heard about for the remainder of the trip) but gave some impressive head shakes. A little bit shorter fight followed and we repeated the scenario, putting the fish in his lap, taking a few quick photos and making another successful release. Back to trolling we went and the whole boat was enthusiastic of how the morning was already going. Once again, it was not 20 minutes later and another bill pierced the water. This time it was my turn but we quickly backed down on this Marlin and were in a rush. The captain spotted a group of birds working and a few dolphins hanging around them. My fight was less than 5 minutes but I am completely alright with that because I knew we need to be the first boat to the tuna. It was not long and we started hanging into them and finally getting to put some fish in the cooler. We did this for the next several hours and put eight smaller tuna on the deck and landed another smaller marlin, making our total of four for that day. That evening, we found one of several restaurants on the marina that would cook our fish and it was the best meal we had while being there. We replayed all the scenes of the day and thoroughly enjoyed our evening. My parents were scheduled to get back on a plane and head back home the next morning, leaving my brother, his girlfriend and me. We decided that the last day we would spend one more day fishing but this time get an earlier start and try for roosterfish. We got to our boat and made a decent run up the beach, away from all the condos, and began trolling live bait just off of the beach. It was by far one of the prettiest mornings I have seen in a really long time and that in itself was worth the trip. As the morning went on we lost a few baits
Dad and his marlin.
Meghan was thrilled to get a marlin.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was this gorgeous Cabo sunrise.
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My brother was tickled to finally get a roosterfish.
out to his bait. He gave it a few seconds and reeled down quickly – Fish On! After fighting it for a few minutes and not sure what he had, we were able to see the dorsal fin…unmistakable a rooster. We got it in, made several pics and then accomplished a clean release. It had taken him several trips over a span of five years and roosterfish was crossed off his species list. As the day went, we caught two marlin and a mahi, and my brother’s rooster. We packed up that evening and headed out the next morning. On top of the fishing, we got to see the whales migrating through the region and that in itself is worth making the trip. Cabo was an absolute blast. The fishing was phenomenal, the food was incredible, we had perfect weather and the people were very welcoming. What else could you ask for?
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to needlefish and it was looking grim for a time. I glanced over at my brother and he had perked up and I could see he was feeding line
44 | February 2021
C O N TA C T
Sight Casting Reds
Dave Roberts is an avid kayak-fishing enthusiast fishing primarily the inshore Upper Coast region with occasional adventures to surf and nearshore Gulf of Mexico. Email: TexasKayakChronicles@yahoo.com Website: www.TexasKayakChronicles.com
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The future is in the hands of the growing generation of young anglers. It is the present generation’s opportunity to educate them and instill conservation-minded ethics so that the coastal resources are available for theirs and future generations.
Story & Photos by John Blaha
T S F M A G C O N S E R VAT I O N N E W S
CONSERVE IT, RESPECT IT, USE IT RESPONSIBLY As I sit here reflecting on 2020 and what lies ahead for 2021, a thought that continuously comes to mind is, how do we continue to maintain the beautiful Texas coast and the marine resources available to us? In the face of the COVID pandemic, people from all over the state fled to the coast for time away and the opportunity to enjoy the coast we all love. Once restrictions were somewhat lifted and relaxed, people simply wanted to be outdoors whether it was at the coast, lake, or simply going for a stroll down the street. The outdoors and the coast was simply the getaway. It didn’t come without a price socially, but that’s a story for another publication and for leadership within communities to figure out, and hopefully in a constructive and reasonable manner. What did this mean for the coast? Number one above all, it was another jump in pressure on the resource. Fridays became Saturdays, Thursdays become Fridays, and Mondays became Sundays. People came to the coast and did not want to leave. Take a look at real estate sales for communities like Rockport/Fulton, Port O’Connor and other coastal communities. People are investing in the coastal communities, and it’s time they invest in the very reason they have come to the coast. Whether it is fishing, hunting, birding, or simply walking the shores of the bayfronts, we all need to step up and take care of it. 46 | February 2021
How can we all get involved and make a difference? We can start by being stewards of the resource and above all respect it. We all love to keep fish to eat, give a little to our families and friends, but take what you need and put the rest back. The fishery is not infinite and we have to take care of it. This is not about one user group over another, and it really does not matter what you used for bait – a dead fish is a dead fish. Whether you are the weekend angler, an avid angler that fishes 10 or more days a month, or a guide, we all need to hold ourselves accountable. There is nothing worse than seeing a fish going to waste in a freezer. These statements are not meant to say do not keep fish, they simply mean take what you need and let the rest go. Speaking of letting go, consider releasing those upper slot redfish and over 20” trout. These are prolific breeders and frankly, the smaller ones are a lot tastier. Be an educator! This is especially important to those that are avid anglers and guides that have an understanding of the resource and habitat. Explain to your beginning friends and clients the importance of habitat, letting some fish go, and above all respecting the resource as well as one another. We have all seen way too many times where respect is simply shoved out the window. We all make mistakes and a legitimate mistake
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is just that. Own it and move forward with it as a Everyone likes to keep and eat fish. learning experience. We all have the opportunity Take it a step further and only keep to be an educator and/or set an example on the what you need and release the rest. water. Take that opportunity, seize it, and make a difference in someone’s day. At the end of the day, it will be remembered. The health of the coastal habitat is a huge part of the overall health of the entire eco-system and the fisheries. Without healthy seagrass beds, oyster reefs, upland and lower marsh, and water quality to name a few, the eco-system simply will not thrive to the fullest extent possible. CCA Texas has worked tirelessly to help ensure these parts of the eco-system are healthy and continue to remain as strong as possible. Whether it is working with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and industry members to ensure reasonable harvest practices within the oyster industry; helping TPWD educate the public about importance of seagrass beds; working with TPWD and others to ensure fresh water inflows to bays; and working with TPWD and others to restore and create habitat up and down the Texas coast, CCA Texas is committed to ensuring the coastal habitat is healthy for present and future generations. Taking care of the resource does not stop with CCA Texas, TPWD, and other organizations or agencies. We need to all be part of the solution. Several opportunities exist for taking part in cleanups, including the Abandoned Crab Trap Renewal Program, Billy Sandifer Big Shell Beach Cleanup, and Marsh Mania events around Galveston. The current COVID situation is putting some Dagger Island is one of many projects that CCA Texas and Building Conservation Trust events on hold and discussions are being held on have been supporting. CCA Texas and BCT are committed to ensuring that Texas how to modify some, but the TPWD Abandoned coastal habitat is healthy through these projects executed with many partners. Crab Trap Removal Program will happen once it is windy and rough, but just think about what you are doing and again. The crabbing season will be closed between February 19th and th the long term consequences. Just because we can does not mean we 28 , and the main push for the all-volunteer event will take place on should. We all have our moments, and it is time for all users to check February 20. Be sure to follow TWPD on social media and check their their attitudes and think about the future. website for more details. It is on each of us to be a better steward, educator, and user of the In addition to these opportunities, we can help in other ways every coastal resources available to us. In the end it comes down to this: time we head out on the bay, and one of the greatest ways is to simply Conserve It, Respect It, and Use It Responsibly. If we do not, there is respect the resource. Unfortunately we see way too many instances always someone willing to change the rules and access to it for all of where anglers have driven over grassbeds needlessly or cut through us. Let’s keep that reasoning out of their hands. The new year will offer small marsh creeks - just because they can. Running through these many challenges, for sure. Let’s all move forward together and help little creeks and making “new paths” through the marsh is a huge ensure our coastal resources are healthy and available and ready for detriment to the resource. ALL users need to remember this. High future generations. tides seems to give many the “look at me” bravado, and in the end the marsh pays the price. These small little creeks are widened by erosion and the newly created indentions allow water to flow where it did not flow before, and in the end the flow creates erosion and the marsh View The Video slowly disappears. Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube. All one has to do is look at St Joe and Matagorda Islands. Creeks and trails created by boaters have slowly grown larger due to erosion, Moving Forward in 2021 and the force of Hurricane Harvey has opened many areas were water had not flowed before. We all take a shortcut, and especially when 48 | February 2021
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Photo by Krista Lundgren/ USFWS. Licensed by CC BY 2.0.
STEPHANIE BOYD
F I S H Y FA C T S
CATTLE EGRET The cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, is a cosmopolitan species of the heron family found in the tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate zones around the world. Despite the similarities in plumage to the egrets of the genus Egretta, it is more closely related to the genus of herons, Ardea – though it belongs to neither. It has its own genus, and is the sole member (although some authorities regard the two subspecies as full species: the western and eastern varieties). In the day herons family (Ardeidae), there are over 60 recognized species. These loose-plumaged wading birds have slim bodies; long necks; long, straight, sharp bills; medium to long legs; and a few toe peculiarities. Some are called bitterns or egrets instead of herons. Herons, egrets, and bitterns each have their own genus, but it’s the heron and egret genera, Ardea and Egretta, that seem least clear in their classifications. In general, egrets are white, smaller than herons, and sometimes have decorative plumes. (The word “egret” is derived from the French aigrette, meaning plume feathers.) Herons are generally larger with dark plumage. Good luck classifying a medium-sized bird that can be dark or white! The cattle egret’s genus name, Bubulcus, is Latin for “herdsman,” referring, like the English name, to their association with cattle. The species name, ibis, is a Latin and Greek word. Greek authors recognized three types of ibis: the glossy ibis, the northern bald ibis or waldrapp, and the sacred ibis. The sacred ibis, T. aethiopicus, was revered by the ancient Egyptians, who considered it to be a representation of Thoth, the moon god, because of its crescent-shaped bill and bright white plumage. In the 1700s, Swedish explorer Fredrik Hasselqvist was persuaded by his Egyptian guide that the cattle egret 50 | February 2021
was, in fact, the sacred ibis of the ancients. Hasselqvist’s papers eventually found their way to Linnaeus, who unwittingly perpetuated the deception in the egret’s scientific name. Adult cattle egrets reach about twenty inches in length with a wingspan of about thirty-seven inches and can weigh up to a pound. They are rather small and compact and typically stand in a hunched position. Their feathers are usually white, but during the breeding season, orange-buff plumes appear on the head, neck, and back. The bill is yellow and the legs are yellow to gray-green – except during breeding season when the bill, legs, and eyes turn red. Juveniles have dark legs and bills, sometimes even after fledging (for a short time), which can lead to some confusion in identification. Males are slightly larger than females, though not noticeably so at a distance. The oldest cattle egret on record was at least 17 years old when it was captured and released in Pennsylvania in 1979. It had been banded in Maryland in 1962. Few in the wild live longer than 7 or 8 years. Originally from Africa and Southeast Asia, cattle egrets were first sighted in Surinam (southeastern South America) in 1877. Although the mechanisms and details of this range expansion are not known, it is thought that their introduction to the Americas was a natural and migratory event. In 1916 or 1917, during WW1, R.B. Cunninghame Graham surveyed the cattle industry in Colombia and observed several “white ibises” on the backs of cattle in the lower Rio Magdalena. These birds were probably cattle egrets. From their foothold on the northeast coast, the species moved north across the Caribbean to North America. Willard Dilley of Clewiston, Florida, saw cattle egrets in South Florida in the early
1940s, but didn’t report the sighting, thinking the birds were escaped captives. More unreported sightings occurred in Florida throughout the 1940s, but in the spring of 1952, Richard Borden photographed some “snowy egrets” with cattle at Lake Okeechobee, Florida, that were correctly identified as cattle egrets after the fact. Later that same spring a cattle egret was captured, with some difficulty, on a farm near Wayland, Massachusetts. Thus, on April 23, 1952, a new species was officially added to the list of birds occurring in North America. In the next 50 years, they became one of the most abundant herons of North America, showing up as far north as Alaska and Newfoundland. In 1959, cattle egrets were intentionally introduced into Hawaii as a biological control for flies and other cattle pests. However, they are now considered a major pest on the islands. Cattle egrets originally arrived Texas in 1954, migrating south and west along the Gulf Coast states from initial heronries in Florida. They increased from about ten pairs in the state in 1959 to about 300,000 pairs by 1990. By 1995 they occupied 266 heronries, usually containing snowy egrets and tricolored herons, along the coast, east of the Balcones Escarpment. Between 1987 and 1995, a few small scattered colonies nested in the South Plains, Trans-Pecos, and Panhandle. From 1959 to 1972 the cattle egret population increased at an average rate of 180 percent a year, and large colonies began to develop. Between 1972 and 1990 the rate of increase dropped to an average of 120 percent per year, possibly indicating that the species was reaching its maximum sustainable population in Texas. The remarkable range expansion of the cattle egret represents one of the great avian success stories. Their rapid spread stems from versatile feeding and breeding abilities, an aptitude for dispersing to new areas, and rather uniquely, human expansion. As people have converted land for livestock production and crops, cattle egrets have gained foraging habitat. Their original habitat, in Africa, was short grass meadows that periodically flooded. The pastures, marshes, and plowed fields of the US turned out to be great alternatives. National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Counts have recorded wintering cattle egrets in Texas since 1956 – though compared to the large breeding population in Texas, the winter population is extremely small, with most of them in coastline counties, increasing southward. Scattered individuals sometimes spend mild winters farther north on both coasts, up to Washington and Rhode Island. Sightings away from coastal areas are inconsistent and infrequent. True to its name, the cattle egret often associates with cows and
other large grazing animals (or farm machinery), waiting for the cow to scare up its next meal. (Elsewhere in the world, they forage alongside camels, ostriches, rhinos, elephants, hippos, tortoises, etc.) Cattle egrets have broad, adaptable diets. Foraging mostly on insects disturbed by grazing livestock, they also hunt the edges of wetlands and fields that have been disturbed by fire or machinery. They’ll actually fly towards smoke to catch insects fleeing a fire. Grasshoppers, crickets, and livestock-associated flies are the biggest item on their menu. They also prey on owlet moths and their larvae, cicadas, wolf spiders, ticks, earthworms, crayfish, millipedes, centipedes, fish, frogs, mice, and sometimes small birds. Adult cattle egrets are hunted by peregrine falcons, great horned owls, barred owls, raccoons, foxes, and dogs. However, the major cause of death is shooting, most of which occurs when the flocks migrate south out of the US in the fall/winter. Breeding occurs throughout most of the US and in three Canadian provinces, but it is concentrated in eastern Texas and the Gulf states east to Florida. In Texas, cattle egrets breed throughout the entire coastal and eastern regions, eastern portions of north central and central prairies, and a few scattered sites in the south plains, west Edwards Plateau, and Trans-Pecos. They nest in multi-species heronries established by other heron species, primarily the snowy egret and tricolored heron along the coast. Colony size may vary from fewer than 100 to over 15,000 pairs. Since they nest about three weeks later than native herons and egrets, they often reuse abandoned nests, or deconstruct them and use the materials for their own nests, a behavior which is also common among the natives. Each breeding male establishes and defends a territory from spring through early summer. In elaborate courtship displays, the males spread their wings, fan or sway their plumes, and prance from foot to foot. They may also make short flights with exaggerated deep wingbeats. Pairs are usually monogamous within each breeding season, with occasional trios of two females and one male. Once a female chooses her mate, nest building begins. On the coast, they generally nest in trees, shrubs, or reed vegetation on natural islands and dredge-material deposit islands. Depending upon the site and vegetation, nest heights may vary from ground level to about 30 feet up. The male collects sticks and the female positions them. Dead sticks are preferred, but live twigs will suffice if dead aren’t available. Stick stealing is rife and unattended nests (except those solidly glued together with feces) quickly disappear. Nest tweaking continues through incubation but is mostly restricted to the mid-morning Image by Dishan Jeremiah from Pixabay.
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and may have more to do with reinforcing the pair-bond than reinforcing the nest. The nest is composed of two or three layers: a lower platform foundation of robust sticks, an upper layer of smaller twigs or vines, often bearing fresh leaves, and an occasional lining of herbaceous materials. Some nests are built on top of old ones and make a very solid structure. Others are so loosely constructed that the eggs can be seen through the lattice of sticks. The upper layer measures about 7-24 inches across and 2-12 inches deep. Nests are typically untidy and coarse, with excrement cementing the latticed sticks into a solid structure. Eggs are laid one or two days apart, as a rule, and a clutch usually contains 2 to 4 pale blue or green eggs. Since the female starts incubating with the first egg, the chicks each hatch one or two days apart, 24 days after being laid. Cattle egret eggs have occasionally been found in the nests of little blue herons, snowy egrets and great egrets – so they may sometimes stash their eggs for other species to raise. Both parents feed the young by regurgitation. Chicks fledge at about 5 weeks old and are independent by about 8 weeks. Once independent, juveniles disperse to other territories. They become sexually mature at 2 to 3 years. Cattle egrets are sometimes seen as a nuisance, when close to populated areas, because their colonies can be large, noisy, and smelly. And in nesting colonies, the deposition of guano changes the soil chemistry, which can kill some plant species, such as oak, pecan, and winged elm. However, they may benefit the livestock industry by eating flies (and on rare occasions, ticks) from the bodies of cattle, and they don’t seem to have a negative impact on native heron species.
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Additionally, because they accumulate residues of some contaminants in their feathers, some researchers view them as a useful species for monitoring levels of environmental pollutants. When cattle egret heronries occur over water, their guano can cause increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in water beneath or in the vicinity. These nutrients often stimulate production of thick mats of floating and submerged vegetation, particularly algae and duckweed, which can be a concern for anglers because the filamentous types of algae entangle and stop propellers of motorboats and prevent retrieval of fishing lures. (The moral here being don’t boat or fish under large heronries.) Egrets and herons are covered under the
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Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Once nests have been constructed and eggs are present, the rookery site becomes a protected area. After the birds nest, they cannot be harassed, or their site disturbed, without permits from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
University of New Mexico sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/jfo/v043n03/p0205-p0212.pdf sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v082n03/p0502-p0503.pdf
Where I learned about cattle egrets, and you can too!
Avibase – The World Bird Database avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=AB1CB2161CDC177A
Audubon Texas tx.audubon.org/cattle-egret
IUCN Red List www.iucnredlist.org/species/22697109/155477521
Herons, Egrets and Bitterns: Their Biology and Conservation in Australia by Neil McKilligan www.publish.csiro.au/samples/Heron_sample.pdf
Audubon Guide to North American Birds www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/cattle-egret
Internet Archive: The Helm dictionary of scientific bird names by James A. Jobling archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._ Jobling/page/n201/mode/2up?q=Bubulcus+ibis
Texas Breeding Bird Atlas txtbba.tamu.edu/species-accounts/cattle-egret/
Internet Archive: The Birds of North America Online web.archive.org/web/20080517084700/http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/ species/113
Texas Invasive Species Institute www.tsusinvasives.org/home/database/bubulcus-ibis Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0134.pdf
Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_egret
The Cornell Lab: All About Birds www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cattle_Egret/overview
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Texas State Historical Association www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cattle-egret University of Nebraska digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1434&context=gpwdcwp
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Cattle egret vs snake.
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The sandbar’s outsized dorsal fin is usually the first signal of its identity.
ERIC OZOLINS
E X T R E M E K AYA K F I S H I N G & S H A R K S F R O M T H E S A N D
SANDY CLAUSE As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to appreciate the pristine atmospheres present on South Texas beaches during cold, crisp winter nights. Low-humidity levels pave the way for some of the clearest skies of the year, allowing a fantastic display of stars and other celestial objects, setting up an amateur astronomer’s dream scenario. On these dark, cold nights, I sometimes share the spectacle with one of my favorite creatures, the sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus). The sandbars visits to the Texas coast bring life to otherwise deserted and desolate beaches. This species prefers cool water, and is most abundant in our surf from December through March. While not our biggest sharks, they do attain weights of over 200 pounds, and rank at the top of the list of most aggressive beasts to battle on sand. For nearly two decades, I’ve earned seemingly endless excitement pursuing the spunky species. Two major peaks in activity for the sandbar sharks occur, one around Christmas, the other in lateFebruary. During these periods, large mature male and female sandbar sharks roam the South Texas surf in great numbers, likely mating. The males often have 54 | February 2021
swollen claspers (reproductive organs) which indicate recent mating activity. The species can be encountered throughout the winter, more likely close to the beach when water clarity runs highest. January is often our coldest month, and the turbulent effects of strong fronts and variable water temperatures usually create dirty water. Like most bigger shark species, sandbars prefer pretty green water and light to moderate wave action; most anglers meet them during optimal times, while benign conditions prevail. The anatomy of a sandbar shark adds to its iconic appeal. Other than the hammerhead species, this shark has the largest dorsal fin, in terms of surface area. Unlike the hammer’s tall saber-like dorsal, the shorter dorsal of sandbars have wider bases. Often, the first evidence seen of a sandbar after it’s hooked is this broad dorsal slicing through the water. Once beached, another tell-tale anatomical feature presents itself—the raised ridge running along a sandy’s back between the first and second dorsal fins. Depending on the size of the specimen, this raised
inter-dorsal ridge may span from one to two feet in length. The only other shark with a similar ridge on its back is the closely related dusky. Dusky and sandbar sharks look pretty similar, but the sandbars’ dorsals are larger. A sandbar’s husky body shape looks more like a bull’s, while a dusky’s body looks more slender and elongated. In Texas, the timing of a catch offers a clue about species, too. While Florida anglers catch an occasional dusky from land in winter, here in Texas we only encounter them from the surf during the summer, in the midst of cold-water upwellings. Chances run high that a big shark landed on a beach in Texas during winter is a sandy. Mature individuals, which average just over seven feet in length, use their agility and speed to chase down and eat all kinds of prey, from small whiting to speedy pompano and sluggish black drum, all of which occur in the Texas surf in abundance during winter months. Perhaps because they’re so numerous and relatively easy for the predators to catch, whiting are the favorite food for this voracious species. Consequently, anglers hoping to catch sandbar sharks don’t have to run giant baits like those used to entice bites from mammoth bulls or beastly tigers. A large whiting with a single circle hook threaded through its mouth, out the gills, then in and out again in its stomach region is among the most effective baits to use when targeting sandbar sharks. Sandbars don’t behave like blacktips or bulls, which come right up on the beach to feed. I’ve only seen a couple large sandbars caught on a casted bait. More often, these sharks prowl the deeper guts for their meals, so anglers willing to kayak baits out to such depths stand better chances of hooking one. Fast, powerful and aggressive, much like blacktips and spinners, sandbars are one of only a few shark species known to breach the surface regularly when hooked. They fight with great attitude, maybe due to the increased level of hormones they possess when breeding. The power inherent to their physical nature becomes most evident when they’re dragged onto the beach. Like some other sharks, sandbars’ flexibility allows them to bend their bodies
Late night sandbar release. The dorsal fin is unmistakable.
A massive New Year’s Eve sandbar for Ron Richmond – released!
Author practicing social distancing on the beach and scoring a double-hookup with sandbar (left) and blacktip (right).
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enough to touch their tails with their noses. This makes handling them on the beach quite dangerous, even for sharks. I’ve only had two unfortunate battles with sharks where I physically sustained an injury. One was with a massive dusky while I floated offshore in a kayak; the other was with a large sandbar on the jetties. Bearing safety in mind has the utmost importance when handling these brutes. One must remain ready to move out of their reach if they decide to swing their head around. Though they likely have no real intention of harming someone, their physiology makes them inherently dangerous when they’re flopping around on a beach, swinging their open mouths back and forth so forcefully. Using a long tool to extract a hook from a sandy is a good idea, as it is with all sharks in general. For me, one of the most relaxing, surreal and mystical aspects of
“
shark fishing is being camped on a calm, frigid evening when one of these ghostly fish hits unexpectedly. When a sandbar shark makes an appearance, euphoria resonates and burns the chill right off a lonesome winter night. These critters bite about equally well on dark new moons and bright full ones. In nearly 20 years spent pursuing this species, I’ve maxed out around seven and a half feet. I’ve landed and handled countless sandbars up and down the coast, but never that magic eight footer. It may take me another 20 years before I see my first 8-ball sandbar. Rest assured, I won’t be sitting home streaming movies to ride out the icy winter doldrums. Instead, I’ll be camping out on the chilled sands of the South Texas strand under a twinkling canopy, hoping to duke it out with an impressive and welcome winter visitor.
When a sandbar shark makes an appearance, euphoria resonates and burns the chill right off a lonesome winter night.
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DICKIE COLBURN
DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene
This is not a monthly column that you would ever expect to read in the best fishing magazine in Texas, nor is it one that I anticipated writing any time soon. Unfortunately, Covid has thrown a kink in those plans. S ab i n e I just completed my forty-ninth year of hiring out to take folks fishing and always thought that the decision as to when to call in the dogs would be Dickie Colburn is a full on my own terms. However, that all time guide out of Orange, changed on December 10, 2020. Texas. Dickie has 37 years My daughter called that morning experience guiding on Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes. and suggested that I get tested as several church members had just Telephone tested positive. We have worn masks 409-883-0723 and given Covid a wide berth since Website losing a friend back in June, but much www.sabineconnection.com to my surprise, while exhibiting little more than a slight cough, I indeed tested positive. My initial thought was that I would act responsibly, quarantine, and just find something exciting to do around the house for the next fourteen days. Two days later, however, everyone in the family had tested positive and were suffering different degrees of discomfort. The grandkids never missed a beat, my daughter, son-in-law and wife were now coughing and running a low grade fever and I was feeling a little worse than expected. The following evening, I was lying in a hallway in the ICU making God promises I will never be able keep for just one more breath! The inability to inhale one more time is not only life threatening, but scary as well. I have since learned that the only thing worse is watching a loved one or friend go through the same thing knowing there is nothing you can do to help them. While I seem to be improving and still have every intention of dying on the water, the doctor assured me prior to leaving the hospital that it won’t happen with clients in the boat. That proclamation wasn’t as alarming as it could have been as I was
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already concerned about passing a Coast Guard physical to renew my license. That is no longer a concern. My Mom and brother are still in the hospital, but I am convinced that even with pneumonia, I am steadily improving and will continue to get better. The dog and I are back to walking three miles a day with an added pause or two, but shortness of breath might be the new normal and is a minor problem. After several failed attempts, I wasn’t sure that I could ever type these words, but if even one of you now takes Covid more seriously we have a chance of putting it in the rear view mirror much quicker. It is not going to go away by itself! A very good trout bite has recently slowed down due to the rain, marsh-draining north winds, and some really muddy water from one end of Sabine Lake to the other. Capt. Chuck, Capt. Johnny, and some very dependable fishing friends have been keeping me abreast of what is going on every night. Nothing like fishing vicariously! Further confirmation of the effects of the unneeded glut of fresh water is that Capt. Johnny recently hooked what he first thought to be another near record redfish on a swimbait. The month before he had missed the lake record by only ounces, but this hard-pulling redfish proved to be a beautiful twenty pound channel cat. Even the redfish have been hard to come by of late, but I think things will bounce back quickly with a little drier weather. As usual, look for the south end to improve the quickest, but never drive by a marsh drain spilling clearer water into the main lake. I have no idea as to how this will all out play out as Everett has always relied on some of the best guides on the coast reporting on their respective venues. That fact is not lost on the hoard of coastal fishermen that eagerly await each new issue. If indeed this is it, I cannot possibly thank Everett and Pam enough for the opportunity to not only share information and tips, but encourage folks to take kids fishing as well. They are the future and the biggest joy of our life. As I mentioned before, I will continue fishing and intend to always be only a phone call or email away for the latest on Sabine Lake. I pray that the vaccine will be available to you and your family ahead of the Covid. Take the kids fishing!
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BINK GRIMES
THE VIEW FROM Matagorda
It can be tough sometimes to get anglers excited about fishing in February. Patience is not a virtue for most folks. The texting generation who want it now and often are not willing to wait them out. February catches are M ata go r d a often a patient play of methodically working a slow-sinker or tick-tocking a light jighead over every inch of cold shell. That’s head-banging torture to Bink Grimes is a full-time fishing those guys who have their phone in and hunting guide, freelance their hand 24/7. There remain plenty writer and photographer, and of us though who enjoy a sunrise or a owner of Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay. frigid thump on a Texas Custom Corky. Slow it down – life and lure – and enjoy it. February fishing is good practice. Telephone 979-241-1705 It’s often tough to find baitfish to Email key in on fish activity in winter. One binkgrimes@sbcglobal.net mullet in February is like acres of Website mullet in June. Sometimes it’s hard to matagordasunriselodge.com find even one mullet, but that doesn’t mean pack up your tackle and go home. Some of the lowest tides of the year occur this month, so you can eliminate lots of water. Concentrate on the areas that fall from waist- to chest-deep during the summer – those same areas are probably kneedeep in February. Find points of sloughs and bayous and work the troughs and guts. These points normally hold the deepest water as outgoing and incoming tidal flows carve depressions in the bay floor. The best way to figure out February is to keep fishing. The middle of East Matagorda Bay is where we like to drift, but you have to pick your days. A typical February sees a good bite every other day, believe it or not. Really, we guides have tried to figure out why, but we are still searching for the answers. Those tough days when everything is right but they don’t bite are head-scratchers. However, if they don’t bite today, better chances are they will feed tomorrow. I have watched that happen in East Matagorda Bay too many times to tell. If you would rather stay in the boat, the Colorado River and Diversion Channel are always players no matter how hard the wind blows, provided the water is salty-green. For years locals have fished 62 | February 2021
the river at night from lighted piers and caught trout that would make most blush. Those fish are still there and fishing only gets better the colder it gets. Winter rains in January have the river flowing a little fresh right now. However, with a dry-out, it doesn’t take long for the green brine to return. If you target oversized trout, treat them with respect. They are the prize of our estuaries. Do the same with redfish, especially the over-sized breeders. Treat our bays with respect. Think of the bay as your backyard pond. You wouldn’t throw trash in your pond and you wouldn’t keep everything you catch from your pond just to post it on social media. We have a gem of an estuary in Matagorda. I have seen more pressure from improved anglers with better catches than I can remember in a decade. Without sounding like a crazy liberal, we must be aware and remind ourselves to keep only what we need. The law says only one trout over 25 inches; however, if I truly believe in making our bays better, I as a steward of the bay, must be proactive instead of reactive. I have a tough time sticking a knife in a trout over 20 inches. The encouraging thing I have noticed is the clients on my boat agree. “Times they are a changing.” Follow our reports on Instagram and Facebook (@matagordasunriselodge).
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Matagorda Bays - February Fishing Strategies
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CAPT. GARY GRAY
MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays
Old Man Winter has finally arrived after what seemed a considerable delay. In late-summer I couldn’t have been more ready to see some cooler temperatures but the downright chill that we have had lately for days Port O'Connor at a time makes me almost miss the Seadrift summer heat. Not really, but a little warmer weather wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all. Now that we are in Captain Gary Gray is a full more of a cold weather mode when it time guide, born and raised in comes to fishing there are a few things Seadrift. He has been guiding that you will want to consider before the Seadrift/Port O’Connor heading out into the chill. region since 1986. Gary One of the greatest things about specializes in year ‘round wade fishing for speckled trout and fishing in wintertime is that an early redfish with artificial lures. start is not as important as during summer. On the coldest of days, Telephone look for fish to feel more like feeding 361-785-6708 during the warmest time of the day, Email bayrats@tisd.net somewhere between 10 AM and 4 PM, Website especially in the shallow back lakes. www.bayrat.com And, because the weather drastically Facebook affects fish activity level, some of the @captsgaryandshelliegray best conditions can be right before a cold front passes through. If you happen to be fishing post-frontal then keep in mind that fish tend to be less tide dependent and more sun dependent this time of year. Unlike summer months when water color is almost always off, in the winter months clear water, think aquarium clear, will be the norm. That might not sound too bad but honestly fish are at their absolute wariest in clear water and if you can see the fish they can see you, and almost always tend to stay just out of casting distance. This is one of the many reasons I will look for water that is somewhat off-colored or even muddy this time of year. High winds are the most obvious reason that water will become muddy and most of the time this happens on the windward shorelines. I get asked often, “What is a windward and/or leeward” direction? A windward shoreline is the shoreline that the wind is blowing into. The leeward shoreline is the one protected from the wind. In mild to moderate wind, I will typically opt for fishing the windward shorelines because the water tends to have more suspended sediment – which we would term – slightly off-color. Water clarity on leeward shorelines can be quite clear – almost too clear sometimes. Most baitfish that haven’t ventured out to the deeper waters will be looking for some type of protection and/or structure to hide. In this case, the most readily available structure, if it can be termed such, will be the off-colored water. Baitfish typically hide amid seagrass, but during winter the grass is quite sparse in our area due to colder temperatures and shorter days. If it’s one of those days when the wind is howling 20 to 30 mph from the north then I will choose to fish the quiet “leeward side” seeking protection from the gusty situation. This leeward side will also have better clarity and less turbulence so baits that are more buoyant with slower action are a good call. In clear water, they can see much better 64 | February 2021
and as such become more scrutinizing in what they eat. In dirty water, your darker baits get bites because it provides an excellent silhouette for the fish to chase. Noisy lures are also a good bait to have in your arsenal when fishing slightly off-colored to dirty water. Opt for baits that have rattles in them, lures with paddletails and spoons like “Nacho Daddy” that has a rattle built into the spoon itself. Mirrolure’s Pro Catch 2000 is a suspending twitchbait that emits a low-frequency vibration and greatly mimics an injured baitfish in shallow water. In clear water though, opt for baits in more natural colors like whites, bones and translucent, these will be more effective than blacks, blues, and chartreuses – for all lure categories. On those really cold days, when fish are more lethargic, you can expect fish to be a little more hesitant to to accept what you are offering. This is when scented baits can really come into their own – scent attractants encourage fish to bite, and hold on once they do. In closing, I want to wish everyone the best of winter fishing luck and a very prosperous 2021. With all that we’ve been through during 2020 I’ll take all the good luck I can get…just to be safe! One of the “other” fish on San Antonio Bay reefs that likes Bass Assassins.
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Crazy Released Redfish Wanted To Stay With Us!
TSFMAG.com | 65
DAVID ROWSEY
HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey
Packing up the bow and cleaning shotguns for the last time in early January is symbolic in the sense that my sole focus now is putting clients on giant trout. Not so long ago fishing tournaments were also a big part of that equation. Upper I made the decision after the Laguna/ 2011 season that I would no longer Ba f f i n fish tournaments. A year later Eric Simmons announced his first big SCB Tourney with a $20,000 guaranteed first place. My old tourney partner, David Rowsey has over 25 years Mark Holt, tried to get me to fish it and in Baffin and Upper Laguna I declined. My charter books were full, Madre; trophy trout with although I was thumping some big artificial lures is his specialty. trout at that very time. David has a great passion for The Monday before the event I conservation and encourages was cleaning a handful of fish at catch and release of trophy fish. Bluffs Landing while my clients Telephone were showering to get on the road. 361-960-0340 A couple of fast boats docked up Website and some young tournament guys www.DavidRowsey.com Email jumped out and began a conversation david.rowsey@yahoo.com behind the partition wall at my back. They were comparing notes and one @captdavidrowsey group suggested they would win the tournament if they weighed-in today. A few laughs followed when one of them announced, “One of our teams may actually have a chance ‘cause Rowsey isn’t fishing tournaments anymore.” My ears perked up and was feeling kinda proud until another said, “Rowsey has won too many for too long. He’s washed up.” Well, I couldn’t believe anybody thought I was washed up at age 42. I eased my head around the corner to see which had said it and my competitive nature went instantly to Mach 2. When I got in the truck I called Mark and told him what had happened, and added that we now “had” to fish the tournament. He had a good laugh and agreed to jockey his work schedule, while I had to con my three-day charter to let me take the Friday back. Meanwhile, I called Chris Coulter of Haynie Boats and asked him to sponsor the $1,000 entry fee and we would be Team Haynie in the SCB Cup. Chris agreed after I told him I was on big trout. “How cool if team Haynie won the SCB Cup?” My clients asked that we target reds on Thursday for a few fish to take home. I obliged and took them to an area that was stacked. Their rods loaded up as soon as we got in the water. About the third hookup for each of them the reds magically morphed into 6- to 8-pound trout. This was a whole new group of fish that had moved in. It’s the day before the tournament and I know for certain I’m the only one who is aware of them. Not to 66 | February 2021
mention; I still have big fish holding in other areas. Tournament morning started off at the redfish hole without another boat in sight. Mark and I had an epic morning and we made the decision not to sore mouth them all, and got out with a bag of trout that was within a half-pound of the lead. Perfect position! Day two started back in the same area. Knowing that a big front was forecast to arrive around 0900, we’d have to catch fast. Damn the luck; the reds moved back in and we never got a trout bite. On to Plan B, the original plan, before the discovery of the redfish hole and we scraped up another big bag in 30+ NW winds. Only one other team had a big day, so we knew it would be close to get the win. We managed to pull it off by the narrowest of margins, and got to do the big stage walk and talk. While we were up there I scanned the crowd for the young man that said I was washed up. “Oh, there he is,” I said to myself. As we came off the stage I walked by him with the big $20K check and giant trophy. I purposely took a step past, paused, and stepped backed to face him. Very politely, I said, “Young man, I want to thank you. You were my inspiration to fish this event.” He looked confused and asked, “How’s that?” I replied, “Monday at Bluffs Landing you told your buddies I’d had my time and was washed up.” His eyes widened, looked more confused, and asked , “How could you even know that?” Now grinning, I replied, “I was on the other side of the wall cleaning fish. Heard it all, and made the decision on the spot to fish this tournament.” I could tell he was embarrassed and, to his credit, he apologized saying, “It was all in fun with no disrespect intended, sir.” I accepted his apology, and bought new a John Deere tractor with the winnings. Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey
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Capt. David Rowsey - Cold Morning/Upper Laguna Madre/Big Trout on Bass Assassin!
TSFMAG.com | 67
WAYNE DAVIS
WAYNE’S Mansfield Report
Greetings from Port Mansfield! I doesn’t work, we will fish shallow muddy drains and draws near flats am watching palm trees sway in with scattered, isolated grassbeds. northwest wind while blackbirds on Based on our plans we should have a shot at a good one or two. powerlines grip the wires tenaciously. And, if none of these options works on day one, we will try again Temperatures are steady at 50° with the next day. We may or may not change our strategy, but if we do Port grey clouds, thick and low. We are make a change it will be a subtle tweak based upon slight wind shifts, Mansfield coming off a full moon and the forecast increasing cloud cover, water level rise, etc. It would be unlikely that for the days ahead calls for crisp we will make a major deviation from these plans. mornings, bluebird skies, NNW wind, Remember that late-January through February can be the coldest and high atmospheric pressure. Water months. Move slowly and work the area thoroughly. Pay attention Captain Wayne Davis has temps were low-70s yesterday and I to changing weather and water conditions and adjust accordingly. A been fishing the Lower suspect they will fall to high-50s by good fish or two could be the signal that you have found a honeyhole. Laguna-Port Mansfield for morning. Who doesn’t like a challenge? Wintertime fish tend to concentrate in smaller areas. Even if the bite is over 20 years. He specializes The odds might not be in our favor slow, resist the urge to go exploring. Stay put and catch a bunch. in wade fishing with lures. but knowing what I know, I believe Best baits continue to be KWigglers Willow Tails and Ball Tails. strategy will be more important the Topwater bites have been very few and scattered of late. Give it a Telephone next several days than ever before. So, month or so and that should change. My all-time best topwater bite 210-287-3877 are there any factors at all in our favor? Email was in early-March, more than a decade ago. Forty-plus trout between captwayne@kwigglers.com Let’s take a look. five and eight pounds on Skitter Walks. The anglers coming aboard my I would like to remind everyone that our trout fishery is a fragile 24-foot Shallow Sport Classic the next several days are trophy trout resource and deserves our utmost respect. Some of the videos and enthusiasts; they want a big Cynoscion nebulosus. Their angling skills photos on social media are alarming to me. Same old familiar faces are well above average. Our tides are low, which means sunny skies who, if you follow their posts, seem to think the fishery is there only should warm the shallow water where we will be staged. The trout for their personal gratification. Let’s all strive to be better stewards and will have been or will likely be eating large mullet and piggies. These fish more responsibly. Stay safe! fish will be heavy if you catch them right after a big Ol’ Mike McBride meal; otherwise they will be on the lighter side if they knocked the haven’t found that big meal yet. We will be fishing as the dust of his rod Marisol De La Garza barometer reaches a high point and then begins to fall. and reel…still and daughter Alexis has the touch! We will leave the dock 8:30-ish and my prediction is that got into a good the best bite should occur in the afternoon, from about school of redfish. 2:00pm until dark. The biggest thing in my favor is that these anglers “get it” which is huge in this wintertime trophy trout game. So, there you go, a recipe for tasty lemonade from a pile of lemons, in theory anyway. I have dealt with this scenario for years and you must learn to dissect the best possibilities from a host of less than optimum conditions. Does this mean we will catch trophy trout each day the guys are here? Maybe, maybe not. One thing is certain though, we know what we are up against and we have identified the best strategy for the conditions we will be facing. We will likely limit our efforts to three specific areas. First, we will set up along shallow coves, wading toward deeper water. The bottom will be a mixture of sand and some mud. Working deeper, we will encounter grass and potholes. We will fish slowly with a variety of lures – KWigglers Ball Tail Shads, Willow Tail Shads, and 4-inch Paddle Tails. View The Video Light jigheads, 1/16- to 1/8-ounce max. A favorite jighead is the new Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link KWiggler 2/0 Black Nickel in 3/32-ounce. One angler may toss a Corky appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube. or similar, but only if the grass isn’t too thick. Capt. Wayne Davis - Tagging Trophy Our next move will be to a large sand flat with little depth change Trout for the Harte Research Institute at first, that slowly transitions deeper with sticky mud bottom. If this 68 | February 2021
TSFMAG.com | 69
CAPT. ERNEST CISNEROS
SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene
February reminds me of a garden in springtime about to give up the fruits of the gardener’s labors. Please don’t misunderstand; February is by no Arr o y o means a spring month, but through C ol o ra d o my own green thumb experience I t o Po rt know that spring causes things to I sa bel sprout and grow. That is precisely what happens in February, big trout seemingly sprout up out of nowhere. A Brownsville-area native, Tides in the Lower Laguna are Capt. Ernest Cisneros fishes the Lower Laguna Madre from currently running very low on Port Mansfield to Port Isabel. average, which means our target Ernest specializes in wading species can be found reliably along and poled skiff adventures for drop-offs, in deeper depressions on snook, trout, and redfish. flats, and in muddy-sandy potholes. Redfish are winter-fat and providing Cell 956-266-6454 exciting tug-of-war battles. While Website they might not always slam your lure www.tightlinescharters.com aggressively due to the cooler water temps, believe me when I say their fighting ability is in no way impaired. Work your baits slow near bottom and hang on when you set the hook. Speaking of running your baits slow and near bottom, I had an interesting experience recently. Wading with customers the other day, everybody was catching fish except one member of the group. Poor guy just couldn’t get bit. Guessing what his problem might be, I switched him from an 1/8-ounce jighead to a heavier 1/4-ounce. Problem solved almost immediately with his bait now running lower in the strike zone! I am very pleased with our redfish numbers currently, as well as the many areas we are finding them. Our go-to baits continue to be the KWiggler Mansfield Margarita and Turtle Grass Willow Tail Shad, along with the Ball Tail Shad in Plum-Chartreuse. February is the month big trout enthusiasts wait all year for and already we are beginning to see encouraging numbers of larger fish roaming the grass flats on warm days. Weather conditions play a huge role and will dictate whether they will be on the hunt and actively feeding or hunkered down until a ridge of high pressure begins to moderate behind a passing front. Once you can learn how to pattern these big trout they will tend to stay close to where you find them consistently throughout the winter season. They will move deeper for a few days when the weather turns cold but will return to their usual haunts during each warming period. When bait is not visible on the surface, look for swirls in the water and pay careful attention to bird activity to discover areas with feeding activity. Brown pelicans, gulls, and ospreys have been great indicators for me over the years and I have learned to trust them. 70 | February 2021
I tend not to move around too much when targeting trophy trout. As a matter of fact, I will usually concentrate my efforts in only two to three areas during a full day of fishing. It is definitely a waiting game when going after the big ones, and you need to be patient and work with the odds in your favor as much as possible. Prime baits to fool trophy trout can range from topwaters when conditions are favorable, to Paul Brown suspending baits. The Barboleto Lele will also be part of our arsenal. Year in and year out, the baits that produce most for us are KWiggler Willow Tails and Ball Tails in the natural Turtle Grass and Mansfield Margarita colors. And, of course, my old standby Plum-Chartreuse. Hitting the water at first light is not as critical during winter as other seasons. I like to allow the sun at least an hour and sometimes a bit more to begin warming the water. Remember that the closer you fish to a gulf pass the warmer the water will be. This water temperature thing can be ultra-critical in winter and I have learned that water temperature below 55° will not only slow the bite considerably but also make it nearly non-detectable – even with the most sensitive rods and braided line. Once the water warms to 58° and above, the bite will be easier to detect if you’re paying attention. Now, 66° and warmer water temps will bring much stronger strikes. And, finally, learn to pace yourself and fish patiently. Some of best days happen when we simply hang in there and let the conditions develop naturally. Our fishing is phenomenal right now and should continue that way throughout the winter. What that means is there are a lot of fish being caught. Please consider keeping only enough for a fresh meal or two. Never gauge fishing success by the number of dead fish you haul to the cleaning table. Adrian Villarreal scored his personal best trout on a recent charter.
Nick Villarreal also scored big.
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Unbelievable Catching - Trout and Redfish - All Day In One Spot
Science and the
Sea
TM
Even Elephant Seals get Lice You might think spending ten months of the year in icy waters, diving for hours deep under the surface, would be enough to discourage lice from hitchhiking and feeding on you. But you would be wrong. Southern elephant seals must deal with the same bloodsucking insects that pester so many other mammals, including humans.
Despite diving in icy waters, southern elephant seals still get lice. Credit: Liam Quinn, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 The lice that burrow into the top skin layer of an elephant seal’s hind flippers are known to scientists as Lepidophthirus macrorhini. The Argentinian marine biologists studying the lice believe they may be the only insects in the world who can survive the extreme cold and pressure found more than a mile below the surface of the waters off Antarctica. After all, elephant seals will spend nearly two hours at a time foraging for food as deep as 6,500 feet below the surface.
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The scientists decided to test the lice’s tolerance to such extreme conditions. First, they removed lice from 15 elephant seal pups born on the Argentinian coast. Soon after seal pups are born, the lice crawl from the mothers to the pups, so the lice can reproduce while the pups remain on land. Lice eggs won’t hatch underwater. Then the biologists put each louse in a small container and applied pressure equivalent to what they experience at depths of 980 to 6,500 feet for 10 minutes. Out of 75 lice, all but six survived, even when the pressure changed as quickly as it would during a seal’s dive and return to the surface. The big question now is, how the lice do it. The biologists are planning another set of experiments to see what adaptations the lice have to survive such intense conditions. These experiments may help scientists understand how even elephant seals get lice, despite living in icy Antarctic waters.
www.ScienceAndTheSea.org © The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
TSFMAG.com | 71
FISHING REPORTS
ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica
AND
Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 James will be ready to do plenty of wading once February arrives. “We’ve been catching some nice trout lately in pretty deep water. All our big ones are coming from depths over ten feet, more like fourteen mostly. This won’t be the case once we get closer to the end of winter. February is more about wading, for me. We have had a few decent trips wading lately, catching fish on soft plastics, MirrOlures and Leles. These days, wading is best when the tide is low, especially in West Bay. Places I used to wade years ago are just too deep anymore. When the fish pull into the coves, they don’t always move into the shallows in the back. If they stay out front, in the deeper guts, they’re much harder to get, unless the tide’s low. The opposite is true in some of the bays and lakes closer to San Luis Pass. Down there, the catching is often much better when the tide is relatively high. Probably because the fish stay in the deeper water of the pass itself if the tide’s low and the weather’s cold. They spread out in the shallows when it warms up and the tide gushes in.”
Matagorda | Bay Guide Service Tommy Countz- 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037 Tommy likes to target some of the big trout known to haunt the shallows in East Matagorda in February, but other options also provide thrills to anglers heading to the area. “In East Bay, some big trout will be caught by waders on both sides of the bay. Typically, the fishing is better on the south shoreline when the weather’s warmer and the tide’s high. After fronts, when it’s colder, the bite is usually better around some of the reefs close to the intracoastal on the other side. Of course, people who don’t like wading can also target trout out in the middle of the bay, throwing soft plastics on relatively heavy jigheads in streaky water around the reefs out there. In West Bay, when the tide is low, fishing for reds in the depressions and guts on the south shoreline can be great this month. Throwing dark soft plastics on light jigheads usually works best to target them. And, when it’s windy, the fishing in the Colorado River can provide a way to keep on catching. As long as the runoff isn’t too heavy, there will be trout and reds hanging around the ledges and drop offs in there.”
Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Jim uses special tactics to target the bigger trout this time of year. “I fish mostly afternoon hours in February. We’ll leave the dock in the middle of the day and spend some time in the bayous throwing tails. This produces a few big fish and is a way to make something out of the daylight hours. But, the bite for big trout is usually much better in the last hour or two of the day and into the early part of the night. I spend my time wading shallow, muddy flats then. The water is warmest at this time. I like the fishing best when the wind is blowing enough to add some color to the water. What we really don’t want are calm conditions and crystal clear water. Mostly, I throw Paul Brown Lures like FatBoys and the broken-backed Corkies, sometimes 51M MirrOlures, anything that looks like a small fish, which is what the big trout want to eat. I don’t spend much time throwing soft plastics when I’m wading this time of year. Often, the key to getting bites is working the lures slow. Too much speed with a FatBoy or broken back will render them useless.”
Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 Our fishing has settled firmly into winter patterns here in the Palacios area. Trout are seeking shelter in the depths of rivers and harbors when it’s cold. The best bite then is on DSL soft plastics in colors like watermelon and purple rain rigged on three-eighths ounce jigheads. The fish typically hug the ledges at the edges of deep holes, right near the bottom, biting best while the lure is dropping. The turning basins have produced well too, with freelined live shrimp working best in there. A small split-shot placed about two feet above the shrimp seems to keep them at the right depth. The super low tides have pulled the redfish out of the marshes and onto main-bay shorelines. In the super clear water, sight-casting opportunities have been good. We’re using threeinch pearl Gulp! shrimp on sixteenth-ounce heads for that drill. Pier fishing has been a pleasant surprise so far this winter, with lots of keeper trout being landed on glow and pink beetle and shad rigs. We should continue to see fish caught on all these patterns for the rest of the winter. In spring, moving tides and rising water levels will likely change things significantly.
West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Randall likes the fishing in February as much as in any month, especially since it offers a great chance at the next opportunity for a photo with a big trout. “Wading has been good lately. When the water temperature is above 60, which it has been quite a bit, we’re throwing topwaters most of the time. The bite has been really exciting, at times. When the blow ups stop coming, we’re switching over to Paul Brown Lures. We’ve been catching some solid trout mixed with slot reds, and this should continue into February, which is a great month for fishing this way, if it’s warm. If the weather’s cooler, I prefer drifting areas of the open bay where the water is at least four feet deep. Out there, I like to key on areas where I see cormorants, pelicans or terns working, anything which might lead me to a concentration of bait. Staying in close proximity to the rafts of mullet is the key to catching fish on this pattern. When drifting the scattered shell at such depths, we generally throw Norton Sand Eels on jigheads heavy enough to keep them close to or in contact with the bottom.” 72 | February 2021
Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 Lynn says he has pretty much a singular focus when he’s fishing in February. “This month, fishing is all about big trout for me. We don’t spend time working patterns that produce numbers of smaller fish, and we do our best to ignore the redfish too, though we sometimes find ourselves fighting a few while we’re trying to catch a big trout. I’m somewhat stubborn about lure choice this time of year too. Some people want to throw topwaters all the time, but I stick mostly with slow-sinking twitch baits like Paul Brown Lures this month. They work better on average than the topwaters. You can catch plenty of fish on soft plastics too, but the big trout really like the bigger lures that look more like a fish. We spend most of our time in backwater areas, in depressions associated with the drains. We key on areas which are holding some bait at least, preferably good concentrations of bait, which tends to mean mullet for the most part this time of year. This
kind of fishing is a patience game, and a stick to details and plans game. When it works, it’s about as fun as fishing gets for us.” Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 With duck and dove seasons winding down and ending, Blake will get back to fishing all the time this month. “We still like to target reds in some of the backwater areas this month. By February, I usually have a really good idea which areas are holding some fish. In warmer weather, with higher tides, it’s usually possible to catch some on topwaters in the shallows. When it’s colder and tides run lower, the guts and drains hold more fish, and soft plastics work better to catch ‘em. For trout, we key on several different kinds of areas this month. When it’s colder, the fishing is usually better over a muddy bottom with some scattered shell, in relatively close proximity to a drop off into deeper water and/or a major reef. We’ll throw dark Sand Eels with chartreuse tails when fishing this pattern, mostly. Slow-sinking twitch baits and topwaters will work better when the weather’s warmer. And, we will do more of our fishing in places with a grassy bottom, mixed with either mud or sand. Usually, by the end of the month, the sand and grass pattern becomes more reliable. That’s a a spring staple in the Coastal Bend—wading sandy, grassy shorelines.” Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 In the month of February, both water and air temperatures are typically cold. With the hunting seasons winding down and ending, more people start thinking about fishing, and this month is a great time to hunt for some of the trophy trout which made this area famous. With cold temperatures, the fish tend to prefer deeper water over a muddy bottom at night, then move into shallower water as the sun shines and heats things up during the daytime hours. Early in the mornings, I like to start off fishing along channel edges and casting into water that’s more than five feet deep. I throw salt and pepper/chartreuse, glow/ chartreuse, plum/chartreuse and chicken on a chain Bass Assassin Die Dappers rigged on quarter-ounce Spring-lock jigheads when doing so. I like to work the lures slowly, very close to the bottom. By midmorning, especially on warm, sunny days, I switch over to four-inch Sea Shads in the same colors, and rig them on eighth-ounce heads. Once the shallows heat up, I concentrate my efforts in areas where I find concentrations of mullet or shad close to the surface. Normally, this is in places with a bottom covered by lots of dark grass. Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230 February is a famous month for fishing the Upper Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay. “Baffin has produced some giant trout in February. But the action for big trout can be as good or better in the Laguna Madre as in Baffin in some years. Typically, the lagoon has really clear water this time of year, so the bite can be best in low light conditions, when the fish are most active, and aren’t so spooky. Perhaps the best way to catch them in broad daylight in shallow, clear water, is by sight-casting. Big trout are easiest to see when they’re over a sandy bottom. They look almost black against the white sand. Casting well out in front of them from a good distance away and moving the lure into their field of vision works best to earn strikes. Most people experienced at this game start by making casts which don’t bring the lure within inches of the fish’s face. They start a bit farther away, and work the lure closer on subsequent casts, if the fish doesn’t react. When trying to catch big trout in places like Rocky Slough and the King Ranch this time of year, we also catch plenty of slot redfish.” P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins 361-877-3583 | Oceanepics.com We’ve now made it to the heart of another mild winter; no major
arctic blasts have passed over the Texas Coast. Because this is true, water temperatures have maintained at high enough levels to sustain activity in the surf. This has been another fantastic year for Florida pompano. We’ve seen them in great numbers. Best bet for targeting these tasty fish is to get a long-range casting setup and launch a combo of Fish-bites and peeled shrimp. While targeting the pompano, redfish, black drum, whiting and even sheepshead might bite instead. In terms of bigger fish, small numbers of bull reds should remain in the surf, scattered here and there. The three main species of sharks present will be bonnethead, sharpnosed and sandbars. The sandbar sharks are by far the biggest. If water temps remain well above normal, blacktips might move in early. Fresh whiting serves as ideal bait for both sandbars and blacktips. The smaller bonnetheads and sharpnosed sharks might pick up baits intended for pompano and drum. This is a calm and relaxing time in general on Texas beaches, with low traffic levels. Keep an eye on the weather, as the passage of strong cold fronts can create dangerous driving conditions. Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 Fishing has been good lately. The normal bite has not been too aggressive, it’s more of a soft tap, or the line just feels heavy. Occasionally, we’re feeling that solid thump, especially when the fish are biting Paul Brown Lures. With water levels low, we’re targeting fish in areas where we wouldn’t normally be able to wade, in places which have current depths of thigh to waist-deep. KWiggler Willowtail Shads on eighth-ounce jigheads are producing best. Colors like dirty jalapeno, Mansfield Margarita, bone diamond and flamingo are effective lately. Both floating and sinking Paul Brown FatBoys have worked well too. South of port, areas in West Bay, the northern parts of The Saucer, The Pipeline and Bennie’s Bar have all held fish recently. North of town, fishing is best on days with good weather and light winds on the west side, where even a few mullet can indicate a good school of fish. If winds are stronger off the gulf, the east side is better, around potholes in places like The Weather Station and Dubb’s Island, also the spoil islands closer to The Land Cut. Since tides are so low, remember some of the places you normally fish are too shallow to access. Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com – 956-639-1941 We’ve been enjoying great winter fishing on the Lower Laguna Madre. Trout have been biting consistently in depths of three to five feet. Steady action has been in areas with a predominantly grassy bottom and some large, sandy potholes. Often, on the warm days, we find schools of slot reds in these same areas. We’re throwing mostly KWiggler Ball-tail Shads in plum/chartreuse rigged on eighthounce screw-lock jigheads, working the lures slowly, with occasional pops to bring them up in the water column. Redfish action has been fair to good, with best action on flats of one to two-foot depths, with sandy bottoms. Of course, this is weather dependent; the fish move deeper for a while during cold spells. Plum/chartreuse Ball-tails have worked well for the reds too, with bone Spook Juniors working better when lots of bait activity is seen at the surface. Slow retrieves have done the trick. I expect these patterns to continue working through February, as long as temperatures and tides stay low. Fish will remain congregated in deeper areas of the flats as long as the tide remains at current levels, which makes locating them fairly easy and keeps the catch-rates high. TSFMAG.com | 73
Reese & Carson Carroll, & Colton Coan Port O’Connor - red snapper
Tamay Anderson North Packery Jetties - speckled trout
Jonathan Smith POC - 76 lb cobia 74 | February 2021
Patrick Anderson Port Aransas - 33.25” snook CPR
Connor Sneden Freeport - 26” first keeper red!
Kollyns Roberson Laguna Madre - 28” trout
Mireyda Briggs 25.5” 7 lb personal best flounder!
Corky Warrington Aransas Bay - 31” redfish CPR
Emily Friesenhahn Rockport - 32” redfish CPR
Kaylie Friesenhahn Rockport - 34” redfish CPR
Megan Friesenhahn Rockport - 24” redfish
Karol Blake Rockport - 35.5” redfish
Quentin & Isabelle Means Port O’Connor - first kingfish!
Photo Gallery Guidelines First come – first published! Photos are judged on artistic merit and sporting ethic displayed. No stringer, cleaning table, or hanging board images allowed. Digital images only. Adjust camera to high or best quality. All images become property of TSFMag. Email to: Photos@TSFMag.com Include short description of your catch with name, date, bay system, etc.
Steve Sullivan Padre Island - mangrove snapper
Alex Potter Freeport - 36” 15lb first bull red TSFMAG.com | 75
PAM JOHNSON
Gulf Coast
Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share? Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: 361 792-4530
Shrimp with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce I want to thank Donna Boyd for sharing this wonderful recipe. My dinner guests raved about the flavor of sundried tomatoes blended with the fresh shrimp and creamy goodness of the sauce.
INGREDIENTS
PREPARATION
2 lbs shrimp tails, peeled and deveined Cajun seasoning, to taste 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 4 tablespoons oil from jar of sun-dried tomatoes (make up with olive oil if needed) 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and diced 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots 1/2 cup chicken broth 1-1/2 cups heavy cream 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley pasta of choice, prepared per directions
1. Sprinkle shrimp with Cajun seasoning and set aside. 2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until just done. Transfer shrimp to a plate, leaving juices in pan, and cover shrimp to keep warm. 3. Add sun-dried tomatoes and shallots to the pan. Cook, stirring, 1-2 minutes. 4. Add the chicken broth to pan and scrape up any browned bits to deglaze. Continue to cook until liquid has mostly evaporated, about 2 minutes. 5 Reduce heat and stir in cream, any accumulated juices from resting shrimp, and the salt and pepper. Simmer about 2 minutes, until slightly thickened. Add shrimp back in, stir until heated through. Serve over pasta of choice. I prefer farfalle (bowtie pasta) with this recipe. Sprinkle fresh parsley over top.
76 | February 2021
TSFMAG.com | 77
S P O N S O R E D B Y C O A S TA L B E N D M A R I N E
C H R I S M A P P ’ S R E PA I R & M A I N T E N A N C E
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR CONTINUED SAFETY AND ENJOYMENT ON THE WATER One of the most exciting aspects of our business is helping people recreate safely and keeping their products running smoothly on the water. Looking at 2021 from a technical perspective offers some new challenges. My background is heavily automotive diagnostics and repair with twenty-plus years in the business. I was motivated to change paths because of my passion for boats and the gulf coast. Technology is shifting at rapid rates and to understand and be a part of this evolution is exciting. Evinrude, which has been the flagship brand for our dealership, is now gone except for service and warranty. We have always trained vigorously through the years, and now Chris Mapp, owner of Coastal Bend Marine and Flats Cat Boat Company. Great Service, Parts & Sales. “What can we do for you?”
78 | February 2021
starting in 2021, we have set up an in-house training center to increase knowledge to provide better service. Each tech and support staff must complete three hours per week of continuing education before attending a factory class each year. Even with all the new technology, two basics are always constant, no matter how many engines or boat sizes. If you have a problem with your boat on the water, the two constant denominators to check first are fuel and fire. Did you squeeze the primer bulb to get fuel to the motor, and are the battery connections clean and tight? Thank you and Happy New Year to you and your family. Chris Mapp Coastal Bend Marine – Port O’Connor, TX Coastalbendmarine.com – 361-983-4841
TEXAS SALTWATER FISHING HOLES M ATA G O R D A B AY Speckled Trout / Redfish
Fin Tastic Coastal Charters
USCG Licensed Captain Stan Sloan
832.693.4292 www.fishfcc.com
GET YOUR USCG CAPTAIN LICENSE Operator Uninspected Passenger Vessel (OUPV 6 Pack) Masters Upgrade 100 GRT Weekdays or weekends ● Small classes ● Successful teaching methods Established 1994 ● Located in Seabrook TX
Captain Roy’s Marine Training info@capt-roys.com
281.461.6186
www.capt-roys.com
• Bay Fishing, Offshore, Floundering, Waterfowl, Dove • Night Fishing off Lighted Pier • Right On The Water • Lodging with/without Meals www.matagordasunriselodge.com 979-241-1705 ON THE WATER
Saltwater Fishing Clinics WITH
Capt. Robert Zapata
Designer & Manufacturer of Specialized High Performance Fishing Rods Office: 361.573.0300 805 B. South Bridge Victoria, TX 77901
TROUT REDFISH FLOUNDER
Fax: 361.573.0304
Capt. Lynn Smith’s Back Bay Guide Service Port O’Connor Area
If you are having difficulty catching fish on a consistent basis, the clinic is designed for you. Learn Capt.Robert Zapata’s secrets to finding and catching more fish from his 25 years of experience as a professional fishing guide.
For Information Call 361-563-1160
Wade & Drifting the Back Bays & Surf
Call 361.983.4434 (cell 361.935.6833) Email lynn@tisd.net (tswf.com/lynnsmith) TSFMAG.com | 79
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