June 2015

Only $3.95 www.tsfmag.com June 2015

TIDE PREDICTIONS & SOLUNAR FEED TIMES INSIDE!

about the Cover Federal water red snapper season off the Texas coast (beyond nine nautical miles) will run June 1 through June 10 this year. A disappointingly short opportunity!

Brent and Melinda Scheps made the best of last year’s short season and hope to do the same this year.

Contents

JUNE 2015 VOL 25 NO 2

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

10 The Time is Now for Open-Water Redfish!

16 Positive and Negative Effects of Burning 22 The Unknown 24 Tommy Has Some Trouble - Part VII 28 Just Getting it Done 34 Launching in the Surf 40 For the Love (and hate) of Spinning Reels

46 Let’s Ask The Pro Jay Watkins 52 Shallow Water Fishing Scott Null 56 TPWD Field Notes Tara Topping & Greg Stunz 62 Fly Fishing Scott Sommerlatte 66 Kayak Fishing Chronicles Dave Roberts 70 TSFMag Conservation News CCA Texas 74 Fishy Facts Stephanie Boyd 80 Inshore | Nearshore | Jetties | Passes Curtiss Cash 86 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks...

Eric Ozolins 116 Science & the Sea UT Marine Science Institute 118 Boat Maintenance Tips Chris Mapp

Steve Hillman Kevin Cochran Billy Sandifer Martin Strarup Chuck Uzzle Joe Richard Everett Johnson

62

28

WHAT OUR GUIDES

HAVE TO SAy

92 94 96 98 100 102 104

Dickie Colburn’s Sabine Scene The Buzz on Galveston Bay The View from Matagorda Mid-Coast Bays with the Grays Hooked up with Rowsey Capt. Tricia’s Port Mansfield Report South Padre Fishing Scene

6 | June 2015

Dickie Colburn Caleb Harp Bink Grimes Gary Gray David Rowsey Capt. Tricia Ernest Cisneros

REGULARS 08 90 106 110 114

92

Editorial New Tackle & Gear Fishing Reports and Forecasts Catch of the Month Gulf Coast Kitchen

114

Editor and Publisher Everett Johnson Everett@tsfmag.com VICE PRESIDENT PRODUCTION & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Pam Johnson Pam@tsfmag.com Office: 361-785-3420 Cell: 361-550-9918 National sales representative Bart Manganiello Bartalm@optonline.net regional sales representative Patti Elkins Patti@tsfmag.com Office: 361-785-3420 Cell: 361-649-2265 PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Donna Boyd Donna@tsfmag.com Circulation Subscription – product sales Linda Curry Cir@tsfmag.com ADDRESS CHANGED? Email Store@tsfmag.com Design & Layout Stephanie Boyd Stephanie@tsfmag.com Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine is published monthly.

Subscription Rates: One Year (Free Emag with Hard Copy) Subscription $25.00 E-MAG (electronic version) is available for $12.00 per year.

Order on-line: www.tsfmag.com Make checks payable to: Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine Attn: Subscriptions P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 * Subscribers are responsible for submitting all address changes and renewals by the 10th of the prior month’s issue.

Email store@tsfmag.com for all address changes or please call 361-785-3420 from 8am - 4:30pm. The U.S. Postal Service does not guarantee magazines will be forwarded. how to contact tsfmag: Phone: 361-785-3420 fax: 361-785-2844 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 Physical Address: 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, TX 77983 Web: www.TSFMAG.com photo gallery: photos@tsfmag.com Printed in the USA. Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine (ISSN 1935-9586) is published monthly by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, Texas 77983 l P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 © Copyright 1990 All rights reserved. Positively nothing in this publication may be reprinted or reproduced. *Views expressed by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine contributors do not necessarily express the views of Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine.

Periodical class permit (USPS# 024353) paid at Victoria, TX 77901 and additional offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983.

EDITORIAL

TSFMag Growth and Direction

I take a number of outdoor magazines. My reading list is about as long as it diverse and includes fishing titles, waterfowl, upland bird hunting and shotgun sports, gun dog training and big game hunting—pastimes in which I avidly participate. I obviously enjoy reading about the outdoors and, while doing so, the editor-publisher side of me cannot help but notice editorial style, layout and graphic techniques displayed in each. The reading list has evolved over the years and changes with my interests, most caught my eye on a newsstand and, enjoying the content, decided to become a regular subscriber.

Without fail my favorites are specialized publications flavored with lots of how-to and where-to articles. Many of the fishing and hunting trips Pam and I have taken over the years were inspired by these. Ditto; equipment, gear and gadget purchases.

Some of my favorite articles have been published in nationallydistributed magazines while others appeared in local and regional pubs. Writers of greatest personal appeal are highly-qualified and recognized experts in their fields while others are outdoor professionals with credentials forged making a living hunting, fishing, etc. Fluff, meaning obvious hyping of places and products the author seems (to me) less than qualified to cover or endorse turns me off immediately.

So, having said all the above and as editor and publisher, the content we provide here must first pass my personal criteria before it goes to the reader. Our primary mission has always been to provide truly

8 | June 2015

useful, up-to-date fishing information for Texas coastal anglers, from bank fishing to bigger game. To insure the quality of content, we rely on local fishing experts; guys and gals that have earned reputations for exceptional skill, knowledge, character and sporting ethic. A few are professional writers but most are not. As Billy Sandifer once said, “We are fishing professionals that fish for a living, not professional writers who sometimes go fishing.” I think Billy hit the nail on the head.

Conservation of coastal resources has always been a major part of our presentation. I said in the beginning that if we are going to teach folks to enjoy Texas fisheries, we must also teach them to respect the resource. Hence our association with CCA Texas and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

This brings me to inviting readers to participate in planning the future content of this magazine. Despite what many so-called media experts have to say about the future of print publications, TSFMag continues to grow. There is always risk that if useful fishing content is not added commensurate with growth of advertising, our publication will eventually become more of a catalog of fishing products than a fishing magazine.

I am reaching out to readers. Tell me what you like and would like to see more of. Also, if we are not covering it, tell me what you might want to see incorporated in the future. Email ideas and suggestions: Everett@TSFMag.com.

Thank you and best wishes for the summer fishing season!

STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN

O

n our way in, crossing the open bay, I noticed some large terns and seagulls hovering, spinning and diving over boiling water.

It seemed a little early in the year to see jackfish, but it would also be uncommon to witness open-water schooling reds in March, especially schools of this size. I shut down the big motor after idling within about 120 yards of the school. While trolling closer we could see ribbon fish and shrimp getting terrorized. Seeing literally hundreds of these bronze-armored specimens on the surface provided more of a rush than the Monster energy drink I had downed an hour earlier. Catching and releasing dozens of 27 to 40 inch reds was a great cap-off to a spectacular day of trout fishing.

I know many who tend to turn their nose up at redfish as trout apparently have more glamour in their eyes. While trout fishing is fun, it’s nice to do something different once in a while. Call them what you wish; Rubber Lips, Bottom Feeders or Carp, but targeting reds offers a new element and the thrill of the chase can be exhilarating.

A fair number of anglers think redfish only live in marshes, back lakes or along grassy shorelines. Without a doubt there are good numbers of reds in those areas, but for much of the year there are large schools out in the middle of our bays. Many open-water schools go unnoticed because they’re not being pursued. Knowing what to look for and devising a good plan of attack can turn an ordinary day on the water into a day to remember.

Prime Months I’ve seen open-water schools as early as January here in the Galveston Bay Complex, but the most consistent time frame is May through early November. Other bay systems can vary as to when and where giant schools show themselves. I believe salinity, water temperature and available forage controls the timing. The large school mentioned above was the direct result of excessive rainfall pushing shrimp, shad and other forage species out of the rivers and marshes

over a very short period of time. Aside from such anomalies, the best opportunities begin during early summer when most forage species become more abundant and reach a large enough size to induce redfish schooling activity.

What to Look For

As mentioned, schools can drive bait to the surface causing terns and gulls to hover fairly high above the surface before spiraling down to nab their prey. Birds over open-bay redfish schools have a different formation than those feeding above trout. The ones working over trout tend to stay closer to the surface in more of a low, hovering fashion.

Mud boils that have the appearance of underwater plumes of smoke can be a tell-tale sign of feeding schools. Keep your distance while trolling and find the most well-defined clouds of mud. This is most likely the front of the school.

Other days you’ll see extensive trails of small slicks often merging together to make larger slicks. Observe the wind and current then hone in on the smallest (new) slicks. Now you’re on to something!

You may observe just one of these signs or you could see all of them occurring at once. Always keep your eyes peeled for signs as your cruising across the bay. It’s not uncommon at all to stumble across an open water school while you’re heading to your next trout spot.

Keeping a pair of binoculars on hand is a good idea.

Location Herds of reds can be found in 3 feet or 13 feet of water here in the Galveston Bay Complex. While redfish do like structure, they tend to be more partial to large concentrations of food. Remember, we’re talking about large schools here, not one or two redfish cruising a grassy shoreline. The very reason they are “schooling” is because of the food. Forage species generally travel in tight schools and move along certain corridors with the currents. Current can be wind-driven or tidal depending on the area. Common areas here in Galveston Bay to find such forage include near deep

Sometimes I get to play too!

TSFMAG.com | 11

(L to R) Berkley Power Bait Rib Shad, Wedge Tail Mullet, Assassin Sea Shad, Queen Cocahoe, Yum Money Minnow, ¾ ounce Johnson Sprite, and ¾ ounce Kastmaster.

It’s rather obvious with birds, but when observing slicks or mud boils - focus on the small ones. Large mud boils or slicks are generally old meaning fish could be hundreds of yards away. Whether you approach them from the leading or trailing edge depends on how fast they are moving. In my opinion, it’s more effective to intercept the fast-moving schools. Setting up 100 to 150 yards ahead and letting them swim towards you is often the best option, especially schools that are on the run. The slower moving schools are usually more occupied with feeding rather than running. These are the ones that should be approached from the trailing edge and at an angle. The

channels such as the Houston Ship Channel.

Mud and shell flats will hold schools that have converged upon prey as well. Redfish are very territorial and will frequent the same areas during the same time of year nearly every year. Once you have them patterned it becomes fairly predictable.

Ashley was elated with this big red!

The Right Approach Now that you’ve found them, it’s time to get into stealth mode. How you make your approach is probably the most important part of this entire process. It takes patience and having a good trolling motor and batteries is a must. I use a 36 volt lithium ion battery which charges through an on-board Stealth One charging system while running my outboard (www.breakwatermarine.com). Sometimes it takes 30 or 45 minutes to finally catch up to them before making the first cast.

I’ve witnessed some boat operators plowing into schools under the power of their outboard. The “Rambo” method is not the answer and usually only results in one or two bites before the school vanishes forever. The only legitimate excuse for using this method is if you ate paint chips as a child or grew up under low-hanging power lines.

Whether the schools are slicking, mudding or feeding under birds, the first thing is to determine which direction they are moving. Then, take notice of the tide and wind direction and begin your approach.

12 | June 2015

angle of the boat should allow everyone the opportunity for a hook-up. Another thing worth mentioning is making sure your reel is properly tuned, cleaned and has plenty of line. There’s nothing more frustrating than finally catching up to a school and not being able to cast far enough. Keeping your eyes on the rest of the school while you’re fighting the one on your line is also important.

Otherwise, by the time you land your fish, you may look up and have no idea which direction they went or how far. It’s also not uncommon to catch sand trout, specks and gafftop on the trailing edge of a school. This is usually a good sign that you’re getting close.

I thought we’d never catch up to this school.

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What to Throw There are times when I think just about anything would work, but there are a handful of baits that have proven to be very effective. The majority of the reds we catch are on Salt Water Assassin Sea Shads (4 and 5 inch) rigged on 1/4 to 3/8 ounce jig heads. The 3/8 ounce jigs are especially effective for making long casts because there are times when it’s difficult to get very close to the school without spooking them. The 3/4 ounce Johnson Sprite gold spoons and KastMaster spoons work well especially when the sun is high in the sky. Sometimes reds will hit a gold spoon when they won’t eat anything else and I can’t think of very many other baits that will cast further than a KastMaster spoon. The vibration created by swim baits such as Berkley’s PowerBait Rib Shad and YUM’s Money Minnow have also proven to be irresistible to big reds. And, much like Assassin’s Sea Shad, depth of presentation in the water column is easy to control with these cast-n-reel baits by simply changing the speed of your retrieve.

Thank God that’s a Waterloo Rod.

Whether you stumble upon a school or are actively in pursuit, the open-water game is a fun one to play. Please be aware that chasing giant herds of reds in the open bay can be habit forming and may result in missing those precious moments you would have otherwise spent pursuing the supposedly more glamourous speckled trout.

Considered yourself warned!

AMERICAN BORN, TEXAS BUILT Call Today!

14 | June 2015

855-879-5225

Contact

Steve Hillman 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

STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN

W

hile manning the wheels of remarkably effective, shallow-running boats, most coastal anglers occasionally pass over fish in water clear enough to see them.

Some, of course, intentionally attempt to locate fish by “burning” through the shallows every time they embark on an outing, navigating from specially designed towers, which allow them to see more of what’s in the water as they go.

I generally find tower boats obnoxious, and I wonder about the dangers inherent to operating a skiff in skinny water while standing in a bucket so high above the deck. My disdain for such things reflects a personal attitude, but does not make the activity unethical in a broader sense. I do believe locating fish by sight while driving a boat has both positive and negative potential outcomes.

On days when lighting and water conditions make seeing into the water easy, most of us will eventually find ourselves passing through areas where we observe plenty of fish swimming around. In cases where we locate the right kind and/or size of fish, we will likely shut down and either get out and wade around trying to catch some, or perhaps put the trolling motor in the water to accomplish the task.

In other cases, we might make a mental note as to where we have seen the school, or mark the location on the GPS as a waypoint, so we can return another time to try and catch some, without first spooking them with the boat. Schools, pods and even individual fish sometimes stay in relatively small areas for extended periods of time; many anglers know returning to a site where they’ve burned fish can produce excellent catches.

Often, people see a single, large trout in places surrounded by lots of empty water, when passing through shallow areas. It might pay to mark the site and return later, using more stealth, to attempt to catch those fish. Allowing the spot to “rest” for a couple hours might, in many cases, make the fish much easier to catch, as opposed to shutting down close by after burning them, and then casting at them within mere minutes.

Coming back a day or two later might even make more sense.

Making such a patient plan pay off requires the fish to remain at or close to the spot for a considerable amount of time. I’d say the likelihood of a fish staying in a specific spot for days at a time depends on the attributes of the spot and the stability of the weather. If the area proves to be a Stained water didn’t prevent JP “feeding station”, meaning it regularly holds forage of the type the fish Dafonte from catching his first thirtyprefers, the specimen most certainly might linger there for extended inch trout in March. Suspending a soft plastic under a cork proved to be the right trick for the moment.

TSFMAG.com | 17

periods of time. If, on the other hand, one sees a fish cruising through a transitional area, moving from a feeding zone into deeper water, for instance, finding it This ten pound specimen measured again in the specific location might over thirty one prove quite unlikely. inches in length. She Additionally, different species attacked a soft plastic display different traits related to the suspended under a cork in murky water. tendency to remain in one place, as opposed to moving about over larger spaces. Immature redfish, for instance, gather into schools in the bays and move around while feeding, basically hunting as a pack. Schools of relatively small trout do the same, especially those intent on feeding on shrimp. In such cases, returning to the coordinates where we see such a school one day might rarely result in catching the same fish in the place. However, anglers who target such schools of fish know it pays to look for them in the general area after locating them, as they often remain within relatively short distances for several days or weeks at a time, particularly during stretches of stable weather.

Basically, I believe anyone who spots an individual fish or a group of fish which meet the standards for what they seek and who doesn’t make any effort whatsoever to catch the fish can’t see the forest for the trees. In other words, any smart angler would use the information they get to attempt to catch what they see; not doing so simply seems foolish and needlessly stubborn to me. Making an effort to catch a fish after seeing it first does not constitute “cheating”.

I recall specific incidents where I (or in some cases, friends and partners of mine) saw large trout in an area one day, then returned later to the location and made a memorable catch. In a poignant case, a buddy told me he’d seen a “knee buckler” trout among some twenty five to twenty eight inchers in a long set of potholes adjacent to a shallow shoreline in the Upper Lagoon. Two days later, without any other particularly attractive ideas, I headed over there to see what I and a client might catch, though I hadn’t fished the spot in a couple years or more.

Within no more than two hours, I landed a thirty two inch, ten pound specimen!

I don’t know if I caught the same fish my partner had seen, and the truth about that really doesn’t matter to me. He saw some of the “right” fish in the area, one of which appeared to be a true behemoth, and I caught one of the biggest specimens of my life there soon afterward. The events prove it sometimes makes sense to return to places where we see fish in the water, especially if those fish meet our standards for what we want to catch.

All these things relate to the positive potential outcomes associated with seeing a fish or a school of fish in the water while passing by in a boat. Conversely, some negative aspects associated with burning fish certainly exist.

Most of the downside to burning relates to the way boaters begin 18 | June 2015

to behave once they see fish in the water a few times while driving around. Some anglers become essentially “addicted” to burning, and consequently, they spend lots of time running around in the shallows, looking for their next fix. In some cases, this need causes them to become less friendly toward other people during their regular forays. I have experienced many situations, especially with large redfish tournaments looming on the schedule, when numerous boats insist on driving around all day, zig-zagging through the shallows in search of fish they will attempt to target later.

I don’t subscribe to a “smart fish mantra”, and I don’t really think a boat passing through an area has much of an influence over one’s ability to catch fish, even in the short term. However, if dozens or scores of boats spend enough time carving a maze of bubble trails through an area, fish might certainly move away, in search of a quieter place, with less disturbance. Too much reliance on seeing fish in the water before targeting them inevitably leads some anglers to spend too much time running around in the shallows looking, instead of stopping the boat and fishing.

This particular aspect of burning deals with how “burn addicts” affect the fish and consequently the other anglers with whom they share the bays. On a different level, too strong a reliance on burning also carries a potentially negative consequence for those riding high on the towers for hours, day after day.

Once someone becomes overly accustomed to seeing their fish before attempting to catch them, they run the risk of dulling

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Kevin Cochran Contact

their angling skills over time. For one thing, seeing the fish before and while targeting them usually makes it easier to catch them. Though sight-casting does not always prove easy, it does provide opportunity for tweaking presentations with immediate feedback. Making repeated casts in front of fish and noting their reactions provides ripe opportunity for adjusting presentations to eventually cause the fish to strike.

An entirely different truth applies when fishing blindly. Without seeing the fish they target, anglers must rely on a more systematic approach to altering presentations. Those who don’t become addicted to seeing everything they target become more likely to learn how to methodically adjust presentations to increase their consistency, compared to people who must first see a fish (or a bunch of fish) before even making a cast. At its core, the essence of fishing resides in the act of probing the water with some kind of “bait” in search of a fish, not in driving around looking into the water for a fish, then probing around in front of its nose in an attempt to catch it.

Not only does burning fish potentially reduce an angler’s presentation skills, it also affects their ability to make sound lure choices. Most anglers who show high rates of consistency when fishing blind show a high aptitude for picking the proper lure for the moment, in addition to a good understanding of how to effectively present the lure, given the vagaries of the situation. They also develop a sense of the appropriate amount of time to give a spot to

produce, before moving elsewhere. All these specialized skills diminish when not practiced; those who insist on burning fish before casting have little West winds muddied chance of maintaining them. up the water on a cool Additionally, people morning in who show little willingness late-April before Clay to make an effort to catch Williams caught this pretty trout on a soft plastic. fish without seeing them first eventually have no motivation to fish when the wind makes the water murky, or when other conditions make seeing into the water difficult. In the worst case scenario, burning fish causes anglers to shy away from places which don’t regularly hold clear water, and/or to forgo the opportunity to fish on marginal days.

Rather than go out and learn the skills necessary to catch fish on such days, they tend to stay home and do other things. Eventually, then, they don’t develop their skills as fully as those who make the effort to fish in places and on days when burning fish isn’t possible.

Some people have likely realized all this, and have made a conscious decision that they don’t care about the negative aspects of burning. They like what they like, and do not wish to work on maintaining the high levels of skills which enhance productivity when fishing blind. For them, that’s okay, but for people sincerely interested in improving and/or maintaining their skills in a general sense, falling in love with burning can lead to heartaches.

Too heavy a reliance on burning carries negative potential consequences for those participating in the activity, and for those attempting to fish areas where the “burn junkies” show up on a regular basis. In a perfect world, all anglers would recognize the potential benefits of hunting fish from the helm and make use of the technique in a responsible, ethical and limited manner, without becoming obsessive and overly committed to it as a basic way of operating.

Kevin Cochran is a full-time fishing guide at Corpus Christi (Padre Island), TX. Kevin is a speckled trout fanatic and has created several books and dvds on the subject.

Kevin’s home waters stretch from Corpus Christi Bay to the Land Cut.

Trout Tracker Guide Service Phone Email Web

361-688-3714 kevxlr8@mygrande.net www.FishBaffinBay.com www.captainkevblogs.com

STORY BY Billy Sandifer Editor’s Note: We are bringing you another vintage article written by Billy Sandifer and published in this magazine in the January 2004 issue. A devout conservationist, Billy’s writings have always included exceptional and valuable fishing advice blended with conservation messages. His byline; “If we don’t leave any there won’t be any,” is more than a catchy phrase. It is what he practices and what he strives to have others practice. Hopefully, Billy’s health will improve soon and he will back down the beach more regularly, bringing us more tales of fishing adventure and observations of the natural wonder we know as Padre Island National Seashore. ________________________________________________________

O

ne of the most intriguing aspects of fishing in the surf is the element of the unknown.

Unusually strong and fast fish that denude reels of all line in extremely short periods of time, leaving no clue as to their species, are fondly remembered for a long time. Veteran surf fishers call them freight trains.

They are the stuff of legend and they are the essence of what drew men to challenge the sea in the first place. Regardless of where one fishes certain fish species are expected but, the surf doesn’t fit the mold. I know of sixty-five species of fish having been encountered in the North Padre Island surf and I have no doubt that number sixty-six will show up sooner or later.

Yesterday something picked up a live-lined finger mullet on 10-pound line and in mere seconds took 250 yards off the reel so fast the loop knot in the 50-pound leader was pulled in two. Minutes later a second fish struck and the reel simply could not keep up with the speed at which the line was traveling, even though the drag was set properly, and snapped the line. The line was badly frayed for 6-feet above the point where it had parted.

As I went through the list of possibilities I discarded each for one reason or another and was left with only one glaring fact. I don’t have a clue what species of fish was involved. But I do know that there is a pattern to this type of incident as I can clearly remember other times the same thing has taken place while fishing in the same manner, in like conditions and at the same season of the year.

One incident I immediately recall was when a fish completely stripped a spinning reel and broke the line at the knot before I could cover the four steps separating me from my customer. Now, I believe it would be fair to say, that critter was moving right along.

22 | June 2015

Likewise during the dead of winter, fishing for surf-run speckled trout with 51M MirrOlures, we will occasionally hook up on freight trains in the rather small but deep holes located in the wade gut.

The light strike is typical of the winter trout but upon setting the hook the line screams off the reel at an outrageous pace racing to one end of the hole, then immediately reversing direction without slowing down and running to the other end of the hole. And then just about when you think you are finally going to get the slack out of your line and catch up with the fish, it returns to the center of the hole and charges directly offshore through the cut across the sandbar and rips the hooks from its mouth. Same scenario each time, never any variation.

I would like to believe that it is learned behavior exhibited by that monster speck I have been chasing all my life but, in reality, nobody has a clue. All I know is to re-hook with 3X or 4X strength hooks on your 51M MirrOlures rather than the 1X strength trebles they come equipped with.

At the other end of the spectrum, large Penn Senator reels are occasionally stripped of line and stainless steel aircraft cable leaders up to one eighth inch in diameter are bitten in half by unknown adversaries in short order. Here again the angler finds himself in dazed disbelief and awe of what it might have been.

One would expect this from the only beach I know of in North America that can boast of having a record of a mako shark being landed from shore.

On 20 February 1999, Mark Davidson, of Alice, Texas landed a 9-foot 2-inch mako from the surf of the Padre Island National Seashore.

And now, almost unbelievably, we have another record, as on 7 December this year Eric Ozolins and his fishing partner, Scott Nelson, landed a 9-foot 6-inch female shortfin mako on the same beach. Even more incredibly, they managed to tag and release the fish.

The capture of this large apex predator of the open sea from the beach is accomplishment enough for any angler during his entire fishing career but, the subsequent successful tagging and release are definitely one for the history books.

Still quite lively and with an estimated weight of 500-pounds, this was an extremely dangerous marine creature to be anywhere around, much less to physically wrestle in the surf, free of the leader, and then tag it and return it to the sea. This was an extraordinary feat accomplished by two extraordinary young anglers dedicated not only to the sport of shark fishing but also to the future of the resource.

By sharing their belief in the need for catch and release with others, and acting on that belief with unselfish acts that are not without a

certain amount of heroism and personal danger, they lead the way into the future. The mako was not the only shark released by these two that day as they also released three other sharks greater than 6-feet in length.

I read an entry on a fishing message board today regarding this event in which the poster asked, “OK, now having done all this what do you guys intend to do for an encore?”

My guess is they are plotting on that right now and I have no doubt we’ll be hearing plenty about the exploits of these two for a long time to come. My hat is off to you fellas; I am big time impressed and I do not impress easily.

And by the way, please do not e-mail me for information concerning exactly where and how this catch was made as the two anglers have expressed a desire to not give that out in order to further protect the resource and certainly it is their right to insist on this.

For far too long it has been accepted by many anglers that it is impossible to successfully release large sharks caught from the beach. In certain cases this may be true but in many others it isn’t true at all. On my charters we have been successfully releasing sharks over 8-feet long for years and so have many other anglers as well. The most common justification for killing large sharks landed from the beach has always been that the fish swallowed the hooks and was injured too badly to survive.

The numbers of incidents of this happening can be diminished to a large degree by modifying both our terminal tackle and our techniques. The number and size of hooks placed in a single bait can be downsized to cause less damage. And setting the hook quicker on the strike will often result in a hook up before the fish has the opportunity to swallow the bait.

The longer the fish is allowed to run with a bait prior to hook setting obviously increases the odds of the fish being gut hooked.

Large circle hooks are also an option and gut hooking will be a thing of the past with them. A word of caution on circle hooks—do not offset a circle hook. If you offset a circle hook it will no longer work as designed and will gut hook just like any other style of hook.

An old marine biologist pal of mine once told me that if you could catch a mako off the beach then, in reality, all the rules went straight out the window and the potential existed to catch any other open sea creature in the same area.

Another very reliable and long-term experienced saltwater fisherman pal of mine once told me he hooked a 40-pound yellowfin tuna on a finger mullet one fall several years ago in the first gut down near the Mansfield jetties.

I wonder what type of topwater I have in my box that might interest a yellowfin tuna.

Contact

Billy Sandifer

Greater Yellowlegs Tringa Melanoleuca 14” tall. Yellow legs. Stout, often upturned bill. Throat and breast heavily streaked. Found in wetlands.

Usually just one bird and at times up to 5 or 6. Here during August through May. Nests in tundra.

Photo by Jimmy Jackson

Retired after 20+ years of guiding anglers in the Padre surf, Billy Sandifer (“Padre of Padre Island” to friends & admirers) is devoted to conserving the natural wonders of N. Padre Island & teaching all who will heed his lessons to enjoy the beauty of the Padre Island National Seashore responsibly.

Website www.FriendsofPadre.com

TSFMAG.com | 23

Part VII

STORY BY MARTIN STRARUP

B

odie was unnerved, and madder than he’d ever been. Having had his home invaded, especially by the likes of Raymond Woodford. If in fact it was he who left the rifle cartridge with his name on it.

But then again some of Bodie’s friends were noted pranksters, and a couple of them knew where he hid the spare key.

Thinking of that, Bodie walked outside, pistol in hand, and around the side of the house. Looking at the piece of river rock he’d brought from Utopia years before he noticed a footprint in the flowerbed, left by a boot with a lugged sole. Combat boots have soles like that, he thought, and he also noticed the rock slightly out of place. The spare key was under the rock alright, but facing the wrong direction.

“Okay, so if Woodford did this, I’d say he’s sloppy,” Bodie muttered.

But, he wanted me to know that he’d been in my house, leaving that cartridge and all. So what difference would it make how he placed the rock or the key?

Bodie went back inside and opened the folder Dale had sent him, photos and more information about Raymond Woodford than he cared to know. His military history was there and other bits and pieces about his post-military occupations and, of course, his arrest and prison records. From what Bodie could gather Woodford didn’t like to be told what to do and, he preferred to operate solo. “No wonder he had problems with the Army,” Bodie thought.

Bodie read carefully and what interested him most were the reports of Woodford’s life after the army. Bodie was familiar with the names of some of the countries the government knew he had worked in and others he would have to look up. In any case, from what he read, Mr. Woodford was very good at what these governments and groups hired him to do.

Bodie called Red to see where he was and, learning he was at the hardware, asked him to buy two high-dollar dead bolts. Bodie wanted to replace the ones on his doors just to be safe, but he’d leave the old key just where it is for now. Red said he’d be happy to oblige but the locksets wouldn’t be free. Bodie quipped back that he was good for it.

Bodie then phoned Dale and related the recent events.

“Maybe you should be staying somewhere else, Bodie.”

“Nah, Dale. I’m wondering though, why he’s bothering me, knowing that we’re onto him,” Bodie replied.

“I’ve no idea, Bodie, but I shouldn’t need to tell you that you need to watch your 6. And, if I were you, I’d have something more powerful

than a handgun with me...if you know what I mean,” Dale added.

Bodie assured Dale that he understood and that he’d already put a deer rifle in his truck just that morning.

“I’m going to call Vince this evening and set up a meeting,” Bodie informed the deputy. “He should be off starting tomorrow and I want to sit down and talk with him.”

“I have to be in court but if you want to hold off a day or two I can ride along,” Dale said.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I just want to visit with Vince and see if I can pick his brain on his old buddy, Woodford.”

Dale told Bodie he’d learned the FBI was inquiring about the interest the sheriff’s office had in Raymond Woodford. Then went on to say the Feds also seemed interested in things that had happened in other places around the world while Woodford was there.

“So is there an agent assigned and coming down, or are they just curious as to what’s going on with our investigation?” Bodie asked.

“An agent will probably show up to see what’s going on but, as for right now, they have not opened an investigation of their own and they’re not part of ours,” Dale stated flatly.

Bodie called the number Vince had given him and it answered on the second ring. “Bodie, is that you?” Vince asked.

“Sure is, Vince, how about we get together for a talk and some lunch tomorrow. Maybe you can help me figure a way to find Raymond Woodford.”

“I’m on my way back to Corpus right now, Bodie, so any time tomorrow is OK with me. I know a place that has good food, cold beer, and out of the way. We won’t be disturbed there.”

“Sounds good. Give me an address and I’ll be there around 11:30,” Bodie replied.

Red stopped by Bodie’s and delivered the locks. “Here’s the receipt, Bodie, they were pretty high. Didn’t know if you’d believe me if I just told you the price.”

“Hell, I’d have believed you, Red. I knew these locks were expensive, but they’re also bump proof.” He then informed Red about the cartridge on the kitchen table and the key being moved; the reason for new locks.

“Well give me a screwdriver and I’ll get the back door while you do the front. Any beer in the fridge?”

“Should be plenty…unless Woodford drank ‘em all up,” Bodie joked.

Bodie and Red made short work of installing the locks and Bodie gave him the spare key to each. “Don’t think I’ll be hiding a key TSFMAG.com | 25

26 | June 2015

“Are you planning to go hunting?” Monroe asked.

“Yeah…sort of,” Bodie replied, and left it at that.

Bodie drove over to the range and to the 100 yard backstop. He scribbled a bull’s-eye on a paper plate and stapled it to the plywood nailed between cedar posts.

Going to the shooting bench, Bodie rolled a jacket for a rest and placed it under the forearm of the old pre-Garcia Sako. The rifle was old but well maintained. The finish showed years of use and the bluing was thin in places. The barrel had to be replaced about ten years ago, but this was the most accurate rifle he had ever owned— or had ever fired for that matter.

Taking a plastic cartridge box from the center console of his truck he scanned the load data on the label. “Seems a waste of time for me to even write that down anymore. I’ve been loading the same exact round for thirty-five years and it’s not like I’m going to forget,” he chuckled.

Bodie loaded three rounds into the old .270 and snuggled into the stock. He cycled the bolt and was aligning the crosshairs on the target when he remembered his ear plugs. He put the rifle’s safety on and reached into his pocket for his hearing protection. Once he had them in his ears he snuggled back down into the rifle.

Bodie cranked the scope to 6-power and set the cross hairs directly on the bull’s-eye, let out a breath and began a careful trigger squeeze. The rifle went off with about three pounds of pull on the tuned trigger and after settling from the recoil he could see the shot about one inch above dead center. “Danged old 130 grain Noslers are just pure poison,” he whispered.

Smiling, Bodie cycled the bolt and sent another round downrange.

And then the third. Studying through the Leupold glass he could clearly see one elongated hole. Wiping the rifle with a silicone rag he slid it back into its case and gathered his gear. If he left for Corpus now he’d be early…and he liked being early.

The drive was uneventful and pulling into the parking lot of El Cabrito Loco, Bodie realized that when Vince said a place was out of the way he wasn’t joking. “El Cabrito Loco…the crazy kid, huh? Well let’s go see if they know how to cook a baby goat.”

Hearing the crunch of gravel, Bodie turned to see Vince Meyers rolling up in his new pickup. First time he’d seen him in quite a while.

“It’s good to see you again, Bodie,” Vince said sincerely, extending his hand.

“You too, Vince, it’s been a while. Maybe with your help we can get the guy who beat and robbed Tommy.”

Still clasping the work-toughened hand of the cowboy fisherman, Vince looked him square in the eye, “That’s why I’m here Bodie…”

Martin Strarup

Contact

anymore, not with this character nosing around.”

Placing the keys in his billfold, the concern on Red’s face told Bodie that he agreed.

Bodie drove to Haddon’s for supper and Eloisa had fried shrimp and oysters on the chalk board as the special. Probably the reason for all the vehicles out front. “I thought fried shrimp and oyster specials were for Fridays and Saturdays,” he said in greeting her.

“Normally is, Bodie, but Mr. Haddon decided it might draw more locals on slow nights so we’re going to try it for a couple weeks.”

Bodie looked around the place and was glad to find a stool at the bar. “I’d say it’s working, Eloisa. Go ‘head and bring me the special, please. Extra tartar sauce.”

“You need a cold one?” she asked.

“Thank you, but I’ll just have tea tonight,” he replied.

Everyone in the place that knew Bodie came to ask how Tommy was doing and each in turn told him what they were planning to do for him went he got out of the hospital.

Ol’ Boggs Ford said that he’d replaced the belts on Tommy’s boat lift and greased the cables and pulleys. “I did it to be nice, Bodie, and also because I’m tired of being awakened when Tommy decides to put the boat in the water before daylight or during my afternoon nap. Those darned pulleys screeching will raise the dead!”

“Tommy will appreciate it, Boggs. I guarantee he will,” Bodie said.

After dinner Bodie visited with a few folks before heading home.

He drove down the long driveway to his house fully alert and paying close attention to what was going on around him, which as far as he could tell was nothing. Instead of parking where he usually did, Bodie parked where should someone take a shot at him, the truck would be between him and his back door. Slipping the .45 from its holster Bodie got out of the truck and stepped quickly to the door and unlocked it.

As soon as he got inside he stopped to listen, but all seemed normal. I need to get a big old pot licking dog and keep him around here. He’d let me know if someone was about the place, he said to himself. Entering and checking the front door deadbolt, he hit the shower.

Bodie had just settled into his recliner when Monroe’s number flashed on his cell phone.

“Boss, the A/C went out in my house so I’m going to stay in the office at the barn tonight, if it’s alright.”

“Well I hate that you have to do that Monroe but give Brian a call in the morning and have him come out and either fix or replace the unit for you,” Bodie said. “I know that I’ve been scarce around there lately but I’ll make it up as soon as we get everything squared away.

Which I hope is real soon.”

“I sure appreciate it, Boss. It was getting plumb hot in the house but this bed in the office is comfortable and the A/C keeps it cold enough to hang meat.”

“I have to run to Corpus in the morning, Monroe, but as always if you need me for anything just call. OK?” Morning came early and Bodie headed out to Mr. Connor’s ranch to check on things before he headed for Corpus. Monroe was there and they went over some business. A new bull was going to be delivered and Bodie wanted him to have a two acre pen to himself for a while.

As he prepared to leave Bodie turned to Monroe and said, “I’m going down to the rifle range and check the zero on my rifle.”

Martin Strarup is a lifelong saltwater enthusiast and outdoorsman.

Martin is also a collector and dealer of vintage fishing tackle and lures, especially those made in Texas.

Email

Trouthunter@swbell.net

Art Wright showing off a nice red that absolutely crushed a Bagley Rattlin’ Finger Mullet on a recent trip to the marsh.

STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE

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he familiar sound of the garage door opener breaks the silence of the morning as it rattles along the tracks and comes to an abrupt stop. Before I take my first steps outside I’m already looking at the trees to gauge the wind speed and direction, even after having already checked my favorite weather website. And so it begins—the process of deciphering where to fish and how to attack that particular area based on the conditions of the day.

Every angler is faced with these same decisions to some degree, some more than others.

For example, a kayak angler is far more vulnerable to windy conditions than your average boat angler who frequents the bay in a 22-foot center console. Each angler has their own set of parameters in which to work and how they handle it determines success or failure. One cannot just go blindly out on the water and expect to have success on a regular basis; it takes a little more methodical approach.

Having a plan before you leave the dock sounds very simple but in all reality many anglers neglect to do that very thing and waste valuable time using the trial and error method. Now it’s understandable that variables like wind direction, cloud cover, and just weather in general will change during the day and force you to adapt to certain situations. The angler who has a plan for such changes will more often than not be successful while others will struggle.

In the expansive marshes that I fish from Keith Lake to Cameron Prairie, my list of variables to deal with are wide ranging. Just like everyone else the obvious weather concerns are there, especially the wind. Setting up in an area to fish from a poling skiff takes a little more thought or a whole lot more physical effort. Standing on that platform all day bucking a headwind is not the preferred method by any means unless you are one of those workout fanatics who enjoy selfinflicted misery. Last time I checked my waistline I’m certainly not a workout buff so I will continue to play the wind in my favor.

Once I get a good idea on what the wind is going to do I can decide where to start my route.

My basic idea is to try and put together a string of ponds or flats that can be fished consecutively, very similar to a golfer walking through a course. If you have access from different directions you can always start upwind and drift your area with minimal effort. There are however some places that are dead ends and can only be fished properly with either the correct wind or no wind at all.

TSFMAG.com | 29

Areas like this really require a good feel for wind direction so pay close attention and, if possible, make some mental notes for future reference because that could be the difference between success and failure. A string of productive ponds with the right wind setup is a joy to behold and my goal for each trip.

After deciding what area I’m going to start off in I start looking at water next, specifically clarity. Now clarity is not necessary to catch fish, they’ll eat in muddy water just as well as in clear but it’s much

A

nicer to be able to see those fish if possible. Clear water also usually means there is good bottom grass in the area and that means there should be bait in there as well. I have found a couple of different species of grass that seem to be more productive than others so I constantly search for those when I can. The long and stringy widgeon grass is always good and the shorter, flat-bladed shoal grass is home for many bait species and provides better clarity, on average. The other species that look like cabbage or hyacinth seem to be less productive for me for some reason so I tend to pass them over.

Now that I have found the water I like, it’s time to see what kind of bait is calling this area home. Perhaps the top forage type for redfish would have to be crustaceans, crabs and shrimp. Hands down I find more shrimp and crabs in the stomachs of fish I clean than anything else. Now don’t get me wrong, a redfish will destroy a mullet or mud minnow with the best of them but they really go after the crabs and shrimp. Silver dollar-size crabs are a great sign because the redfish won’t be far behind. The shrimp, both brown and white, make up a huge portion of the redfish diet and the grass in those marsh ponds are full of them. Some folks believe the darker-reddish color of marsh redfish doesn’t happen by accident, it comes from all the iodine in (A) The Savage Gear TPE Panic Shrimp lures are so realistic…no wonder redfish love ‘em.

(B) An “unusually-colored” backcountry Sabine redfish.

(C) That’s a Savage Gear Panic shrimp in there!

(D) Yep…the Bagley Rattlin’ Finger is a keeper!

D

B C

30 | June 2015

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32 | June 2015

tougher to scratch than other plugs on the market. The hardware is also equally impressive, heavy duty split rings and top notch hooks that require no extra sharpening. This plug sits a little different in the water compared to many others, it floats with its head out of the water the way we see mullet gulping air and scooping plankton on the surface. The Rattling Finger Mullet comes in 3.5” and 4.25” models so you can adjust accordingly. This new plug is certainly worthy of a look next time you hit your local tackle shop.

Hopefully now that we’ve outlined a basic plan from weather to bait and a few things in between, you can take this information and put it to work for you. Late May and June mark the beginning of more predictable conditions and that spells good things for anglers. Having a plan and fewer variables is always great recipe for success that will certainly help put odds in your favor and help you get it done.

Chuck Uzzle

Contact

the crustaceans they eat. Whatever—when crabs and shrimp are abundant we usually find lots of redfish.

Speaking of shrimp, over the past few weeks I have been trying out a new shrimp lure from Savage Gear called the TPE Panic Shrimp. So far I have been really pleased with the results as the redfish have just gobbled it up under a cork. The Panic Shrimp separates itself from other lures by being ridiculously durable and flexible all at the same time. In the water it’s about as close to the real thing as I have seen and the colors are top notch. The other nice thing about the Panic Shrimp is that you can rig it to swim forward or backward thanks to a hollow hook channel built into the body. Savage Gear also has some fantastic looking crabs in the same TPE line that I haven’t gotten my hands on yet but I’m looking forward to any day now.

Now once we’ve established some of the key factors like bait, clarity, and vegetation, there’s not much left to do but start fishing. I will usually keep a baitcaster and a spinning rig handy with one of a couple of baits handy. Like I mentioned before a shrimp imitation like the Panic Shrimp under a cork is a “go to” combination that I never leave home without.

Next on my list is some sort of surface plug so I can cover a lot of water if I can’t see the fish. I ran across a new plug from Bagley called the Rattling Finger Mullet that is rapidly climbing up my list of favorites. This is a new plug for 2015 and I have to say it’s been impressive so far. Right out of the package you can tell it’s made really well. The finish is the first thing I noticed, it’s durable and much

Chuck fishes Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes from his home in Orange, TX. His specialties are light tackle and fly fishing for trout, reds, and flounder.

Phone Email

409-697-6111 cuzzle@gt.rr.com

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

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This rig is ready to head offshore, leaving the beach crowd far behind. Low tide is best for launch and retrieval of aluminum boats, since they will float in about four inches of water, safe from surf.

exas is blessed with a fairly even spread of jettied passes, that allow us to launch in sheltered waters and then prowl around offshore. But there are gaps in the coverage, fairly long stretches without a ramp. And the only way to fish them, at least in small boats, is by launching in the surf. Now, the thought of backing a boat into the surf at the beach is enough to make most coastal anglers break out in a cold sweat. Most have never considered it, because they know burying a tow vehicle in quicksand and saltwater isn’t much fun. And it can take years off your vehicle, like maybe ten.

I suppose we did it years ago because we started out in such small boats, and they could be wrestled onto trailers. We yearned to explore new horizons, and did. And the beach was quite an experience.

It’s a pleasure not launching at crowded boat ramps, and banging your way down a ship channel several miles to the Gulf. Instead, at the beach, you can go barefoot while launching, taking your time, and usually without another boat in sight. Point that boat offshore, and right away you can start looking for action. Tarpon rolling or jacks working 400 yards out? Darn, that 25-horse motor barely warmed up. Still has a full tank of gas, too…

You want calm weather, of course. Typically during summer you get a calm morning, or a breeze blowing off the land into the Gulf, which flattens the surf. By noon, it usually switches around to an offshore breeze, which kayakers certainly appreciate. When that happens, you can ride the waves right back onto the sand after a day of fishing. Just don’t monkey around in the surf when returning, keep going until the boat is on hard sand. There are also entire days out there that remain flat calm. July through September are best, however the best surf fishing trips I’ve ever seen were all in October, running up and down the beach and stopping here and there to fish close to the sand. It all goes back to the versatility of aluminum boats.

They’re very keen on that in neighboring Louisiana.

Think light, when launching in the surf. Aluminum boats are best. Forget about launching heavy fiberglass on flat sand. They do that sort of thing in countries where there are no protected inlets, where they have no choice. Boats launched in South Africa may spin 180 degrees on the trailer, launching bow-first into the surf with the crew already on board. Its launch, crank it and hit the throttle. Returning, they simply race the boat up on dry sand. Which is a good idea, with high surf right behind you.

Don’t go lite with tackle out there, off the beach. If you’re tossing artificials around a state water platform, or looking for tripletail, baitcasting reels with 20-pound line have really done the job over the years. But for open-water fish such as tarpon, jacks, bull reds and sharks, leave Mickey Mouse gear at home. Spencer carries five or six Shimano TLD-15 reels with stand-up rods, and they really get some workouts. An electric motor can be handy out there, too. As a reminder, always remember to refrain from charging into a rolling school of tarpon offshore, like they’re a school trout under birds back in the bay. Jackfish might not care, but tarpon are sensitive. Outboard noise can put a thousand tarpon down for the rest of the day. And especially don’t harass offshore tarpon with bay tackle. To my knowledge, no big tarpon has ever been landed off the Texas coast on trout tackle. These fish when hooked simply go deep, and that’s if the hook actually stays in them. Of course, miracles do happen. Maybe a tarpon will jump and break his own neck, and just lay there.

Obvious Texas beaches to launch from would be along the upper coast, from the Brazos River almost to Sabine. The extensive barrier islands along much of the remaining coast would prevent towing a boat down the beach. Short stretches south TSFMAG.com | 35

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of Port Aransas to Padre Island National Park will work. Also the 40mile stretch south of Mansfield Pass, and then the short stretch from South Padre jetties to the Rio Grande. Padre Island National Park is off-limits to powered boat launchings, but the kayak crowd can launch there and has certainly made all sorts of fine catches within sight of the beach. Even big kings and limits of red snapper. If they can be accessed by kayak, imagine what a fast aluminum boat can do off the Texas coast. If weather threatens, you can race back to the beach in about 10 minutes.

Mike Spencer is one of Port Arthur’s veteran fisherman who still launches in the surf. We both graduated PA high school way back in ’71. Though I’ve been remiss in recent years, Mike still launches on the beach and makes big catches. (One day, 29 jacks if I remember correctly, which sounds painful).

Mike advises coating the boat’s trailer bunks with Teflon instead of carpet, to make it easier to launch and retrieve the boat. A breakdown trailer helps, of course. And some young muscle.

“I tell my friends, don’t even think about backing your truck in the water like a boat ramp, because it will sink,” says Spencer. “If you want to pull your boat ashore without manual labor, buy a length of stout (A) Marci Hebert and Jolee Spencer are old hands at fighting big fish offshore, from a surf-launched jonboat.

(B) Cori Williams with another school-sized jackfish. Is that the Crystal Beach water tower in the background? Shhh, don’t tell anyone.

(C) Here’s a decent tarpon landed from Spencer’s surf-launched jonboat. This is an older photo, they no longer drag these fish into the boat for a picture. Today they’re revived in the water.

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36 | June 2015

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rope, maybe an inch thick, and use that to tow your boat up on Two johnboats ready to launch the beach, high and dry. You really at low tide. Light enough to manhandle into the water. Judging don’t want to be cranking that boat by the clothes, this is a dated photo. on the trailer with waves splashing Best wear more protective clothing, over the stern; adding more weight since these boats carry no shade. every few seconds. Once on dry ground, take your time cranking it on the trailer. Heck, you can eat lunch first. Be sure you have a strong belt on the trailer winch, not a ski rope.”

Mike says anglers keep using bigger and heavier boats, even heavier gauge aluminum, and this just makes it more difficult to launch on a flat beach. His 16-foot aluminum jon boat is a tarpon, bull redfish and big jack veteran. Along with countless blacktip sharks in the 40- to 80-pound range. He takes two of his daughters out there, and they battle fish all day.

For checking out the Gulf far from any Wrestling a big blacktip boat ramp, it’s a lot smoother ride in a shark on a slick-calm Gulf. On pickup truck cruising along a coastal some days, you can paddle a beach with the AC going. Better gas bathtub around out there. mileage by a long shot, and you can launch within sight of action if you’re patient and use binoculars. Writer Ray Sasser got away with it for many years out of Port Arthur, where he kept a small Boston Whaler and launched quite often at the beach.

One evening back at Sabine Pass he was shocked at the Sportsman’s gas station, to see our catch. We’d been surflaunching my 15-foot Thunderbird, really a ski boat from Toledo Bend, a boat that saw many trips further offshore.

Both our boats had been a little ways off the beach that day, but 20 miles apart. The Thunderbird held at least a hundred pounds of solid trout (no limits then) and Ray for once didn’t have much to show. We wouldn’t tell him where we’d fished, but it was at state water platforms visible from the beach. By a twist of fate we had the right water that day. A line of clear, green water makes all the small, cheap boat. Watch for green water, make a good launch, and difference when you’re throwing artificials. The sick thing was, it was enjoy the freedom of uncrowded water. And watch for action on the our second trip in ten hours; the morning catch was identical. Foursurface. If you bring your own frozen shad (menhaden) as bait, be pound mackerel were scattered through each catch. You could say prepared to get your boat towed around. we had ice cream conditions that day. Heck, a MirrOlure wasn’t safe out there. This happened on a Labor Day weekend and we never saw another boat. It was one of those days you can repeat, if you ever get to Heaven. Or just launch in the surf again, and hope for something similar.

During some of those summer surf trips, the tripletail tore us up.

One afternoon I was yanked overboard, after sticking a good one next to a standpipe. While jumping from the bow and middle seat to the stern (we were tied to the rig), the fish made a hard run out to the Joe Richard has fished the Gulf since 1967, side and next moment I hit the water face-first. Underwater with a starting out of Port Arthur, but his adventures bent rod, the red reel still giving up drag. Finally realized I was losing have taken him up and down the entire coast. He was the editor of Tide magazine the battle, so I free-spooled, swam up to the boat, handed the rod for eight years, and later Florida Sportsman’s off to my buddy and climbed back in. We actually landed that fish, book and assistant magazine editor. He one of six hefty tripletail and a dozen solid trout. It was a triumphant, began guiding out of Port O’Connor in 1994.

His specialty is big kingfish, and his latest soggy ride back to the beach in short, evening wave chops. I jammed book is The Kingfish Bible, New Revelations. that boat right up on the beach, and then it was Miller time.

Available at Seafavorites.com This is a very efficient means of fishing several miles offshore, in a 38 | June 2015

Joe Richard

Spinning reels have been around a long time. Learning to manage twist in fishing line makes them a lot more fun to use.

STORY BY EVERETT JOHNSON / PHOTOS BY PAM JOHNSON

S

o spinning reels have been around a long time. The the web of your thumb and forefinger and your elbow. Somewhere earliest concepts of a device with a stationary arbor around the two-thirds point of rolling up a hundred-footer…it’ll all running parallel with the axis of the fishing rod, become clear. capable of winding and stowing fishing line, date as Does this mean we should avoid spinning reels like a plague? far back as the nineteenth century. Probably the first Absolutely not! Modern spinning reels are still the boon to anglers and best example of a modern open-faced spinner would be the legendary Mitchell 300 manufactured in France and introduced to the US market in 1948.

Spinning reels exploded into the era of clunky, direct-drive baitcasters and found immediate acceptance by anglers of many persuasions and skill levels. The primary attribute was the sudden ability to lob flies, lures and other terminal rigs unheard of distances— no educated thumb required, no pesky backlashes. With but a few hours practice lures and baits as tiny as one-eighth ounce could be launched with ease and accuracy. Another obvious advantage, also part of the design intent, the reel is mounted under the rod so that gravity negates the need to grip the rod to keep the reel positioned correctly, and casts (for right-handers) are made with the stronger and more dexterous right hand while the left is free to begin winding line.

Lefties simply swap the handle to the opposite side.

Life is good until a few hundred casts and retrieves produce a fishing line so twisted that snarls and “spring” knots render it all but useless. Why is that?

The plain and unavoidable truth is that A line winding machine makes spooling simple any device which wraps line around a but if you crank it on by hand you can still get stationary arbor induces one coil of twist it right if you’re careful. Make sure to check for per each wrap of line collected. A very twisting; turn the spool around when you find it. common example can be seen by coiling a long electrical extension cord around

Wear a glove and pinch the line tightly when cranking it into the reel.

they were originally designed to be; we just have to learn to manage line twist.

Stiffer nylon monofilament lines are probably the worst as monofilament possesses a high degree of memory. When it becomes kinked or twisted it naturally wants to stay that way. Many fishing line manufacturers have refined their products over the years to offer softer and limper lines to combat the memory tendency but it cannot be erased completely. Braided micro-fiber fishing line has greatly reduced memory tendency but, again, when it becomes all twisted up it behaves very similarly to monofilament during casting and line retrieval.

It goes like this. You fire a vigorous cast to reach a distance target and as line runs out of the reel you notice a “swashing” noise, different from the usual hiss. What just happened was the line, full of twist, became bunched in front of the first guide and slowed to the point

that the coils of line feeding through the guide became loose and disorganized. Being full of twist, the otherwise free-running coils decided to snarl around each other. The nasty, snarled ball may straighten to the point of flowing through the remaining rod guides but probably does not completely unravel.

Somewhere down the line is a train wreck trying to happen.

Another common scenario develops when twisted line is retrieved.

Let’s say you are walking the dog with a surface plug or maybe popping a cork; live shrimp or Mansfield Mauler type. Popping the rod to walk the plug or create chugging and clicking with the cork almost invariably creates momentary slack in the line which, if twisted, will perform the same pesky snarling trick.

If you haven’t pulled the knotted section too tightly, the snarled coils may untangle fairly easily. But if you get a bite and set the hook you can pretty much forget about it, especially with braided line. So what can you do about it?

Start from the beginning; there is a right way and a wrong way to load new line onto the spool of a spinning reel. All too often new line is twisted badly during installation and everything goes quickly downhill from there.

Best method for installing new line is using a line-winding device that places the axis of the reel spool parallel to that of the bulk or package spool. Line transfers directly with no coiling between spools.

Most manufacturers advise filling reel spools to within about 1/8-inch of the spool’s lip but you can get away with 1/16, no more. Overfilling encourages stiff or twisted line to “spring” from the spool and you will not like what happens next.

Suitable, but not always as good, is having a helper hold the filler spool at right-angle to the rod tip and cranking in coils of line to fill the reel, from a distance of about 10 feet. Quite often we find that facing the filler spool label toward the reel will Most manufacturers say to fill the spool allow the coils feeding from the filler to within 1/8-inch of the forward lip. The spool to unwind as they are collected author agrees when using mono; a 1/16 by the reel. Crank the reel 20 revolutions will work with most braids. and have the helper move the filler spool

42 | June 2015

Soft plastics rigged even the slightest bit off-center is just asking for trouble.

Rig ‘em straight and they won’t twirl. No line twist and…more bites!

Adding a quality swivel to your jigs such as this Spro #8 helps prevent twist from accumulating in the line.

close to the rod tip so a belly of slack hangs between them. If the line snarls and coils, turn the filler spool over and try again. One side or the other will usually pay-off line in un-twisted fashion.

No matter the method, winding machine or simply cranking from a filler spool, it is highly advisable to hold tension on the line as it is cranked into the reel.

I wear a glove and pinch it between my thumb and forefinger. Some will say you need to “pack” braided line very tightly into the reel. I do not completely agree with this as not all line retrieves during fishing include “re-packing.”

Fishing with lures requires many casts and, with each crank of the reel inducing twist, there are some things we can do to prevent line twist from accumulating and shutting down our fishing.

Listed below are some of my tricks learned in the fishing school of hard knocks.

-Soft plastics must be rigged onto the jighead perfectly straight to eliminate twirling through the water like a propeller as twirling baits twist the hell out of fishing line. Paddle-tails have less tendency to twirl than straight-tail baits.

-Placing a split ring and barrel swivel on your jigheads and also spoons to be used with spinning rigs does two things. First – it will prevent a twirling lure from twisting the line.

Spoons too need a swivel on spinning gear. BTW- this Bagley 1/4 ounce gold/ weedless with hammered finish is absolutely dynamite on redfish.

44 | June 2015

Second – since the reel itself is also creating twist, the barrel swivel provides a “vent” if you will, a place for twist to work itself out of the line as you retrieve the lure.

-Surface plugs, twitch and crank baits—I find that tying a barrel swivel to my main line and then about 18-inches of leader to my lures provides the same twist venting opportunity.

-Learn to close the reel’s pickup bail by hand, not by cranking the reel. Always lift the rod tip to remove slack line in front of the reel before cranking.

-Feather the cast! This means allowing the index finger of the casting hand to lightly brush against the coils emerging from the reel during a cast. This slows the line just a bit and reduces bunching at the first guide.

-Never crank the reel against a strong fish if line is not coming in. All you’re doing is creating twist as the bail revolves around the spool.

-Twisted line, with nothing attached, can be trailed behind a moving boat or into a current to allow the line to untwist itself.

-Spreading line across the lawn and retrieving through pinched fingers will remove some amount of twist.

-Keep a spare spool handy! When I was guiding fishing clients who needed spinning gear I always kept a number of pre-filled spools handy and swapped them out rather than deal with twisted, knotted lines all day.

Obviously, I do not have all the answers, if I did I would invent a spinning reel that did not twist fishing line. But twist or no twist, the spinning reel is a wonderful device, more popular on some coasts than ours, but definitely here to stay. As long as I have been sight-casting the flats I still find the pinpoint Many reels come with spare spools casting accuracy and overall and/or spares can be purchased control I get out of a spinning separately. Don’t waste time on the outfit superior to baitcasters… water fighting twisted line…swap it for a spare filled with good line. and I love my baitcasters!

Aransas Bay 30-incher that weighed almost 9-1/2 pounds. CPR!

J AY WAT K I N S

A S K THE P R O

Why wade? Why use lures?

I often believe that I have the easiest job out of all the writers in this magazine when it comes to what I will write about. Everett did me right when he suggested we title my column- Ask the Pro. Topics are seldom an issue as my clients are encouraged daily to ask lots of questions that test my knowledge and demand good answers. What I try to provide is the guidance that enables them to become better fishermen, which in turn will enable them to return to these same or similar areas and catch fish on their own.

The respect I have gained through willingness to share knowledge with my anglers has way outweighed any detrimental effect it has had on my fishing. I routinely have clients pull into an area and see that I am already there, and then quietly ease out. Giving is normally rewarded with giving in return.

So the other day I had a group that asked why I preferred wading versus drifting and using lures versus natural baits. What prompted the question was the approach of boat-bait fishermen arriving to the area as we waded the windward shore of a spoil island. It was an easy question for me to answer but as I did I realized that one of the main reasons I chose this route had to do with 46 | June 2015

something much bigger.

Growing up in a lower-middle class family and being an only child from the age of eight set the stage for much of my angling knowledge. Understand that by no means did I have the first clue back then that fishing would become my career. Like many a coach’s son I wanted to play college football though I possessed neither size, strength nor speed for anything beyond high school football. Truth is I would have ridden the pine if I even made the squad at any major school and a lot of smaller ones. As a career I often talked of becoming a lobster fisherman. Don’t know why I wanted to do that, probably read something in National Geographic. My family had a subscription for years while I was growing up.

My dad took me fishing often during my childhood and teenage years but we seldom bought bait and when we did it would be fresh-dead shrimp. I doubt live bait was in the family budget and besides, there was no way my mom would have gone for carrying a bucket of salt water and shrimp in the back of the old Galaxy 500. So we bought a few lures and that is what we used.

Mostly we chunked spoons and the popular 52M

Series MirrOlure. Soft plastic was relatively unheard of back then in the saltwater world. I still have a few of my first 72-Series MirrOlures I bought way back when and many of the old 52-Series. I became a lure fisherman because my family could not afford bait, simple as that.

We waded because a family budget that could not afford a bucket of shrimp surely could not provide the luxury of a boat. My dad gave me the opportunity to fish and for that I will always be grateful.

As a beginner guide in the late-70s I chose to fish with lures because I honestly did not know how to fish with bait. We had such an abundance of trout and reds in those days that it didn’t seem to matter what you used. There was not a fraction of the anglers or guides back then so the fish stocks easily withstood the pressure. Then we had

Opening your reels after using and allowing them to dry out thoroughly inside can eliminate a lot of heartache.

48 | June 2015

freezes. I got married, had kids and divorced, remarried and divorced again, married and divorced a third time, and married again.

Through all that and needing to earn a living for my family, using bait during summer months became a strategy to gain business. It was short-lived and painful but did aid in introducing me to another facet of the fishing world that ultimately made me a better angler. I met some good people during that period that followed my lead and are still getting wet with me on a monthly basis, nearly thirty-five years later.

Then one day it came to me. If you can sit in an anchored boat and catch thirty on bait, why couldn’t you stand quietly in the same spot and catch as many on lures?

It was tough at first, took quite a few years for me to become confident in myself and then learn to convince clients; that we could actually stand in a good spot and wait for the area to develop. Once this is learned though, it is lights out for anyone trying to compete against you.

Another reason behind the wading-with-lures gig was the simple fact that with lures I could promote a year around fishery. After all, lures are available all the time, not just during certain seasons. What it boiled down to was being able to fish 365 days, and that certainly beats trying to earn a living in only five or six warmer months when bait is available.

Not once have I had to stand in line with a bucket at 4:00 AM, only to be told they’d sold out when it was finally my turn. My spoons, MirrOlures and Bass Assassins have never died in the bait well although I have had seagulls dive-bomb my topwaters until they figure out that it is not something they want to eat. Loons are

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another story. In winter they will eat a Corky or Bass Assassin, given the opportunity. Maybe we can talk more about that someday.

Another good thing is never having a bag of Bass Assassins stink up my truck while I was on vacation. Can you imagine what one shrimp or croaker that hopped out of your bait bucket and ended up under the back seat would smell like after a week in the summer sun at Hobby Airport?

Back when I started fishing this is pretty much all we ever used.

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The final reasoning behind wanting to pursue and promote wading with lures was based on a sportfishing world that (at the time) was dominated by freshwater bass fishing and a want that pushed me to be viewed differently. Different is how I describe being recognized as better, for any that might be confused. And I wanted to be recognized as the best at what I did.

I spent many hours watching Hank Parker and Bill Dance in my younger years and admired their knowledge and willingness to share it. Seldom did I see these anglers using live bait even though many still did in bass fishing at the time. I viewed them as better anglers, making a living fishing with lures. To make a decent living fishing I knew right then I would need to become a better angler myself and recruit a clientele who also wanted to become better anglers.

I believe I was right to take this less traveled road, moreover to take the route of sharing my knowledge, teaching what I have learned to others. This has proven to be very satisfying to me. Maybe I should have followed my dad and became a school teacher coach instead, as much as I enjoy teaching. What I guess I’m trying to say is I am fortunate to have found my place in the hustle and bustle fishery that surrounds me and it has provided an excellent living.

For the record, this is not to bash any form of natural bait. I want everyone to know that I have nothing against fishing with whatever kind of bait one wishes to fish with. I just like the challenge of making them take something that really isn’t real.

May your fishing always be catching. -Guide Jay Watkins 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 LL O W W ATER F I S HIN G

Why I Quit Tournaments This is one of those articles that kind of rolls around in your head for a couple months while you debate whether or not you should put the words on paper. So at the risk of ticking off a few folks, here goes.

A while back I was guiding one of my regular fly fishing customers on an overcast and windy day. It was not exactly ideal; actually it was pretty damn poor. Any red we did manage to see left in a puff of mud from under the bow. No worries, this guy has fished many years and fully gets that there are days you’ll have to grind it out. We also happen to enjoy each other’s company and spend the slow times solving the world’s problems.

As we eased through the marsh he asked a question I’ve heard dozens of times. “Since you know redfish so well, why don’t you fish all of those redfish tournaments? Seems like there’s one nearly every weekend somewhere along the coast.” I replied with my standard answer, “I just don’t enjoy fishing them.”

That usually suffices and the conversation moves on to another topic. Being an attorney he sensed a scab and started picking until I told the whole truth.

At one time I did fish tournaments. I traveled all over the Gulf coast fishing kayak tournaments for 52 | June 2015

I call this my thinking platform.

Your Catch Counts!

Report your Red

Snapper Landings

Get involved.

Help manage the red snapper fishery for future generations.

At the end of each day’s trip, parties that land red snapper are strongly encouraged to report their landings via a mobile app or online.

It’s fast, simple and easy!

load n w o D pp the a ! today

Download the free app at

www.iSnapper.org or report online at iSnapperonline.org Each submittal is important to the management of the red snapper fishery off Texas shores and beyond.

Anglers fishing from party boats are exempt as the captain reports for you.

FOR INFO ABOUT THE REPORTING PROGRAM Harte Research Institute iSnapper@sportfishresearch.org www.sportfishresearch.org

FOR INFO ON THE RED SNAPPER FISHERY TPWD Coastal Fisheries cfish@tpwd.texas.gov www.tpwd.texas.gov

54 | June 2015

Too big…really?

My customer never turned to look at me throughout this entire speech. At times I’d pause to see if he had lost interest and I’d gone over the line. Nope, he wanted it all. There were more instances of bending the rules, questionable behavior and outright nastiness that I related to him. Most of this I’d never really talked about, but it sure felt good to let it all go.

My decision to walk away from tournaments gets verified every so often by things I hear about or read. One stuck with me recently and perhaps pushed me to go ahead and scribble down these thoughts.

It was a post on Facebook by a young man relating his tournament day experience. He had apparently stumbled into a motherlode of oversized redfish in some marsh lakes. He and his partner spent the entire day catching and releasing these beasts. They managed one slot red but never could pull off that second one. He was ticked off and wondering why he was cursed in regard to tournaments.

So here’s the deal. If you truly enjoy fishing tournaments, more power to you. But if you do fish tournaments please take a long hard look in the mirror. If you get mad about catching an oversized fish, settle down and have some fun. If winning a tournament makes you even consider straying from your moral compass you might want to rethink what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If being in a tournament makes you feel like you should do things like burning a shoreline, crossing a bay in crazy dangerous weather or maybe just snubbing an old friend’s request to go fishing because you’re afraid he’ll steal your tourney fish…you need to stop. If you wouldn’t do it fishing with your dad, a tournament is not an excuse.

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three years. It was fun. There wasn’t a huge emphasis on winning. It was more about the camaraderie among like-minded people. As with many things, it quit being fun when a few guys started taking it too seriously and bent the rules to the point of breaking. The series eventually imploded over a rules violation by a team backed by a company that was a title sponsor. The director let the violation slide and just like that, nobody wanted to fish that series any longer.

Later I got involved with the beginnings of the Redfish Cup and Texas Redfish Series.

Again, I enjoyed the camaraderie among fishermen…at first. Then there was talk of a shaved tail to get in the slot, icing live fish to shrink them to size, baiting up an area; etc., etc.

I ignored most of it. My partner and I agreed we were in it for the fun and if we won anything it would be a bonus.

Then one day I was standing in the weigh line behind a very well-known and respected angler and fishing guide. He had one hand inside his fish bag and was obviously straining a bit. He went on to say he had a couple good ones, but one was just a touch over the last time they measured it. While waiting to weigh in he had that red by the wrist of the tail and was shoving it with all his might into the corner of the bag. It made slot, but probably needed to see a chiropractor afterward. At that moment I started to reconsider my participation in these events, but I was committed to my partner through the end of the season.

Towards the end of the season there was an event on my home waters. My partner was tied up so I went to do a little scouting. I eased up onto a long shallow flat at the far back of the marsh to find it absolutely loaded with reds crawling around with their backs exposed. Awesome. Now I’ll just catch a couple to check their size.

Hmmm. Every one of them was more than willing to eat, but none were over about five pounds. That would never cut it on tourney day.

I stuck around for a little while and caught a few more to make sure.

Every one of them was the same size. Dammit, I need eight or nine pounders. I left in search of larger.

I found some, but I was really irritated with myself. If it hadn’t been for this tournament fishing I would’ve had a fly rod in my hand, eased out of the boat and proceeded to have one of those days you remember for the rest of your life at that first stop. It was right then and there that I made up my mind. I have nothing to prove to anyone regarding whether or not I can catch that perfect 27 7/8” redfish. All I want is to enjoy every day I get to be on the water to its fullest. I want my customers to have fun and get to experience the sights, sounds and smells that I live for.

I know the need to compete runs strong in some people. I apparently missed out on that gene when it comes to fishing, hunting or anything in the outdoors. Being there and living in the moment simply for the joy and satisfaction of being lucky enough to experience it is fine with me. I fully enjoy seeing someone else catch the bigger fish on any given day. I’ve had many great days, so why should it bother me that someone “beat” me?

Capt. Scott Null is a devout shallow water fisherman offering guided adventues via kayak, poled skiff, and wading.

Telephone Email Website

281-450-2206 scott@tsfmag.com www.captainscottnull.com

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F IELD N O TE S

iSnapper: A “Smart” Solution to Improve

Red Snapper Management

There is something that draws people to the Texas Gulf Coast. It might be the beautiful sunrises, or the relaxing sound of waves crashing on the beach, but to many of us, we are drawn to the sound of line screaming out of a reel when you hook up with a big fish! While Texas waters offer plenty of fish that are worthy table fare, red snapper is king and one of the most targeted offshore species.

Unfortunately, because they are so highly sought after, the management of this fishery has become one of the most contentious in the United States. Red snapper have been considered overfished since the 1980s, and while the stock is rebuilding, anglers have 56 | June 2015

seen a drastic reduction in both the fishing season and bag limits over the past several decades. Anglers are catching (and releasing) more red snapper recently, so it’s hard to understand why the season keeps getting shorter. This has created uncertainty and skepticism over the data that fishery managers are using to manage this resource.

A major challenge to fisheries management is the ability to collect timely, accurate catch data from the private recreational fishing sector. Shorter fishing seasons for red snapper have created “derby” style fishing conditions making it difficult to collect catch and effort data using traditional creel surveys; thus, there is

an overwhelming need for rapid in-season and real-time data collection. Currently, due to the lack of real-time data, the annual federal recreational harvest quota has a 20% buffer built in to help ensure that the quota is not exceeded. With the buffer in place, private anglers caught much less of the quota than allocated resulting in tremendous costs and economic losses to the fishery. This is a severe blow to recreational anglers resulting in very short seasons. Clearly, a data collection program that has the ability to rapidly and more accurately estimate the total number of fish harvested would help reduce this uncertainty and lower or potentially eliminate the need for the federal courtmandated buffer.

We have a solution, or at least a step in the right direction – iSnapper ! This mobile application (app) has been recently developed by researchers at the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at the Harte Research Institute as a unique way to gather fishing data. The app was initially created for the for-hire (i.e., charter captains) sector and was very successful.

This new version is VERY different in that our targeted group is the everyday angler; a group for which better data collection is desperately needed to improve access to this fishery. And, you can help! The data from iSnapper will be used in addition to current TPWD surveys to provide a means of rapid in-season (federal) and year-round (state) data collection. However, the only way to improve data collection is if Texas private recreational anglers download and use iSnapper to record their catch information. Academic researchers and TPWD need you to provide your catch data, which will directly benefit fishery management decisions from both a harvest and economic perspective!

Despite being a data collection tool, iSnapper was created with fishermen in mind. No one wants to spend 15 minutes on their phone filling out a survey about their fishing trip after a long day of fishing.

With iSnapper, you can complete the survey while you are idling into the boat ramp or marina, in 5 minutes or less! There are only 3 steps to submit a trip: • Create a New Trip prior to leaving the dock. Once you begin a trip, you can put the phone away and enjoy your day fishing.

• At the end of the day enter in the 58 | June 2015

species and number of fish caught, as well as fishing depth and approximate fishing location.

• Submit the trip before you hit the dock.

That’s it! Doing your part to help improve the red snapper fishery is easy and fun with iSnapper. The more anglers using the app, the better the data researchers receive, which is how you can make a difference in red snapper management!

Numerous additional features make iSnapper a great fishing tool in itself.

These features include weather and tidal information, a listing of TPWD Artificial Reef sites, photographing your personal best fish and sharing it on Facebook and Twitter, or having scientists identify that peculiar fish you caught. These are only a few of the features that iSnapper provides to anglers as a way to make the app not only a data collection tool, but also a great resource to have in your pocket.

With iSnapper, private recreational anglers have a means to become “accountable” in the Red Snapper management process.

Other sectors of the fishery have taken advantage of having “better” data to improve their access. iSnapper is your chance to let your voice be heard and to ensure that we can continue fishing for red snapper for generations to come. In order to improve red snapper management, we need help from anglers like you! Visit www. iSnapper.org for more information or www. iSnapperonline.org to input your catch without having to download the app. Either way, remember – use iSnapper and make Your Catch Count!

To learn more about the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at the Harte Research Institute please visit: http://www.sportfishresearch.org http://www.youtube.com/user/ SportfishCenter https://www.facebook.com/ SportfishScienceCenter Tara Topping is a marine biologist who was first introduced to the red snapper controversy while working on her M.S. in Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures at Auburn University. Upon completion of her degree in 2011, she worked at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with both recreational and commercial fishermen, providing her a unique opportunity to interact

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with both user groups. Recently hired by the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation, she is the program manager of iSnapper while also assisting with a variety of inshore and offshore research projects currently being studied by the Center.

Dr. Greg Stunz is a marine biologist that specializes in sportfisheries. He is the new director of the recently formed and CCAfunded Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation. He holds the Endowed Chair of Fisheries and Ocean Health at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and is a Professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Dr. Stunz was the first “G” CCA graduate scholarship recipient. The Sportfish Research Center is currently focusing on habitat requirements of marine fish and migration patterns of marine life using a variety of state-of-the-art electronic tracking devices for fish such as sharks, red snapper, and dolphinfish. The center also has a variety of projects dealing with red snapper and research directed toward understanding the importance of tidal inlets on sportfish populations.

Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or www.tpwd.state.tx.us for more information.

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S C O T T S O M M E R L AT T E

F LY F I S H I N G

Fly Fishing:

Version Four Point “Oh Sh&#!”

Since picking up my first fly rod back in the middle 1980s I have seen the sport of fly fishing go through numerous changes. Having dedicated the majority of my adult life to this sport and to a point secluded within it, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I’d hardly noticed, until a fishing customer asked for my take on how and what had transpired over the past thirty-or-so years.

I didn’t comment right away but, after some thought and during our boat lunch, we began a discussion. So, with that said, I have come to the conclusion that the sport of fly fishing in general has gone through three major changes since I first took up the long rod back in my youth.

Looking back, there were three types of fly fisherman back when I started. First you had the atypical fly angler who was, not always but usually, an old rich dude. The next kind of fly fisherman you had was basically the hippie guide who catered to the old rich dude. Then of course there was the third kind of fly fisherman.

This person, well, they were just looking for a more challenging way to fish and that’s where I fit in. I was definitely not old and most certainly not rich. Neither was I the happy-go-lucky hippie type.

The next phase of fly fishing that I experienced was when, in the early 90s, a little movie called A River Runs Through It came to the silver screen. This is the timeframe in which the mountain streams of the Rockies and the flats of the Florida Keys became inundated with yuppies.

Yuppie of course being the acronym for young urban professional. This yuppie invasion eventually made its way to the Lone Star State and Texas saltwater fly fishing

62 | June 2015

began to become more and more popular. In fact, many of the veteran Texas fly fishing guides, me included, owe Robert Redford a dab of gratitude for giving us a career.

So, speaking on behalf of the group, “Thanks, Bob.” As you can expect though, all things must end, and so it was with the River Runs Through It craze. And so, the sport of fly fishing lay somewhat stagnant from the late 90s until the mid-2000s.

I’m not sure when, but I suspect it was around ‘03 or ‘04 when the next metamorphosis of fly fishing began to happen. I kind of like to call it the do-it-yourself phase. You see, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, fly fishing was predominantly a guided sport. Especially saltwater fly fishing. But, several things were happening that made it easier for the do-it-yourselfer to get into the sport. The economy was booming, which allowed people to go out and buy their own skiffs, and the fly tackle manufacturers decided to start making fly rods and reels over seas.

This made entry into the sport much more affordable for many. Then there was of course Google Earth and GPS chart plotters that allowed the person, who did not have the time to go out and learn their way around, the chance to overrun the more remote areas that others of us worked decades committing to memory.

And now we have arrived at what I call, Fly Fishing— Version 4.0. This version is fueled, and I expect will be for quite some time, by digital media and egos. Now before I go on, I need to come clean and admit that I too got caught up in this kind of thing for a little while before I realized how potentially detrimental it was to the sport.

You see, between all the YouTube and Vimeo videos out there and people posting pictures and comments on Smart phone cameras and social media, everybody internet access allow instant now knows exactly what’s information delivery to the whole world. Photos happening on the water long are often encoded with before they have a day off. In date-time-location tags, fact, I know people who have even down to GPS numbers admitted to lurking on social depending how they are set up…information that would media just waiting for the be better kept to ourselves. conditions to get perfect and then will take a day off or even call in sick to get down to the bay as quickly as possible.

Between digital cameras and the internet, the fish don’t stand a chance. And, in all reality, at least right now, it really isn’t

about the fish as much as it is about being crowded out of spots to fish. Over the last couple years I have had two spots that in 20 years, I had never seen another poling skiff, go from quiet and productive little spots into a circus with numerous clowns. The reason for this is because one guy discovered it and had to brag and put it on social media and, now, everybody knows about it.

Many moons ago I heard a very seasoned and talented angler say,

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A harmless photo of a great day with friend Mike Barbee of Fishing Tackle Unlimited. However, had this image been posted on social media the day it was made, well…you know the rest.

“Ten percent of the water holds ninety percent of the fish and ten percent of the fishermen catch ninety percent of the fish.”

Through boat and tackle technology, the internet and social media, the second statistic is probably falling closer to the 50/50 mark, nowadays.

This leads me to ask, “What will happen in another five to ten years when technology advances even further and information flows even more freely?”

Frightening to me is that at some point we could eventually run out of fish and, when that day comes, we will no longer be worrying about getting crowded out of our fishing spots.

The next time you feel the need to post photos and brag about your catch on social media, you might think about who you are inviting to the water…just something to think about.

Best of tides and stuff like that.

Scott Sommerlatte is a full time fly fishing and light tackle guide, freelance writer and photographer.

Telephone Email Website

979-415-4379 vssommerlatte@hotmail.com www.scottsommerlatte.com

I E LD 41ST AN N U F S N A M T AL POR

FISHING TOURNAMENT July 23 - 26, 2015

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Author with a fat marsh trout‌in a redfish tournament!

DAV E R O B E R T S

K AYA K F I S H I N G C H RO N I C L E S

Kayak Fishing–

Tournament Style

S

ummer has finally arrived in Texas and the fishing is really starting to turn on. The redfish have moved back to the flats and the trout are schooling in the lakes and bayous. Along with good fishing comes more competition on the water. Online forums become flooded with photos of fish and reports of how well anglers are doing. Some people just enjoy catching fish but others take it a step further, entering tournaments for the challenge of catching fish when it really matters.

We are currently at the peak of tournament season and this gives anglers the opportunity to test their skills and knowledge of the water. I have been fishing tournaments just about every weekend, all over the coast. I have fished local events and all the way down to Delacroix, Louisiana. The outcome of how my teammates and I performed has varied, some days were better than others.

Along the way I have been able to 66 | June 2015

fish new places and learn different tactics. At the weigh-ins you can occasionally squeeze out a little information and get some insight of where and how others fished.

One of my favorite things about kayak tournaments is the strategy that goes into it and we have learned that time management is a key factor. You have to choose fishing spots wisely and be confident that there are fish in the area; starting the engine and relocating across the

I only managed one in a two-fish event but she was a beauty at nearly twenty-eight inches.

lake is not an option. Also, I need to mention that getting deep into the marsh and losing track of time will hurt you, especially when you have 15 pounds of redfish to drag back, and the calculated 20-minute paddle turns into an hour.

A similar occurrence befell my partner, Chad Lyden, and me at Delacriox, Louisiana while fishing the Adventure Fishing World Championship. The basis of the tournament was that at launch time everyone was given a map with five checkpoints identified, two of which designated as “double points.” Arriving to a checkpoint, a team receives a token and then starts fishing. When you catch a fish you move to the next checkpoint and the total inches landed wins.

Chad and I decided to paddle to a “double point” for our first stop. We began fishing and could not buy a bite while other teams were coming and going. We were so focused on catching a fish there that we lost track of time. Unfortunately we were not able to hit the minimum of three checkpoints and successfully land a fish—time management got the best of us.

On a side note, Delacroix is one of the most amazing places I have ever fished. Not many places that you can catch bass, sight-cast redfish and catch a limit of trout in the same pond.

The very next weekend the Saltwater Boys here in Southeast Texas were hosting a kayak Texas slam tournament. After talking to several anglers we all knew that catching a slam would be difficult due to the recent rains. Trout had been hard to find, so landing one would put you ahead of the crowd and a giant stepping stone to the winner’s podium. My partner was Stu Flowers and we were on the water early. We had a slow start on a windy day but not long after daylight I heard him yell that he had a trout. Excited, I paddle over and she measured 15 1/4”. We’ll take it!

After another hour or so we decided to move and find a redfish because the weight would help out against anyone that had two fish as well. We arrived to our launch and we started making our way to a familiar reef that has given me redfish in a time of need. Lo and behold, five casts later I landed a 25” redfish on a black and green Norton Sand Eel. This gave us four a half hours left to catch a legal flounder to complete the slam.

We fished that spot without a flounder bite and decided to hit a few other holes that are renowned for them. After catching several in the 10-12” range I began counting the minutes until we had to leave to make the close of the weigh-in. Despite our best efforts we did not manage a full slam. After checking in and weighing our trout and red we learned that nobody had turned in three species. Stu and I ended up third and we will gladly take that any day of the week, especially with only two fish.

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The following weekend brought my favorite tournament, the Lone Star Kayak Series. This tournament has always attracted a field of prominent kayak anglers. It provides a substantial number of prizes and pays out to the top 25% of the field. My personal favorite aspect is the “half pound live bonus” awarded for keeping redfish alive. The intent is obviously to promote catch and release, which I am all for.

I started my morning off in a rain suit but thankfully the weather cleared quickly. I began fishing in a back bayou trying to stay out of the wind and was doing everything I could not to drift too fast. Right at daylight I got a bump and when she started to pull I knew I had a good one. I netted her, put her on a stringer and threw her on the measuring

C ontact

Joe Strahan’s winning stringer.

stick. She went right at 27 3/4”, a money fish for sure. I just knew that I needed one more and I would be looking good. I continued to throw my Norton Sand Eel and was only lucky enough to pull in a 22” trout. I headed to the scales and my only fish went 7.19 pounds, but enough to land me a small paycheck. I mingled with anglers that I have not seen in a while, talked fishing and had an absolute blast. I would like to say congratulations to the winner, Joe Strahan, with a two fish weight of 18.25 (with live bonus)—pretty impressive. Also, I would like to give credit to Werner Paddles Pro, Jeff Herman, for the photos I included here.

I would like to encourage all fishermen to enter the CCA Texas STAR tournament that runs Memorial Day through Labor Day. CCA does a great job in conservation along the Gulf coast. The STAR tournament appeals to everyone with scholarship prizes, trucks, boats and motors awarded to winners in various categories. Who knows; you might be one cast away from trading that paddle for a new bay boat and a truck to tow it!

Enjoy Life!

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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68 | June 2015

BOATS MOTORS TRAILERS SALES SERVICE PARTS & ACCESSORIES

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T S F Mag C o ns e r va t i o n N e ws

Science behind the Projects CCA Texas volunteers work hard to raise money at CCA Texas events all across the state. These dollars are raised to help fund projects that CCA Texas partners with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), other like organizations, and government entities. We have talked about Cedar Bayou a lot in the last couple of years and our most recent article gave an update on how the project is progressing. CCA Texas, along with its partners in conversation get a lot of questions about the monitoring phases and the science behind projects and, more

Quentin Hall presenting “detections” of redfish implanted with sonar transmitters passing receiver stations located within the Cedar BayouMesquite Bay region, travelling through the recently opened pass.

70 | June 2015

specifically, how is it captured and analyzed.

At Harte Research Institute’s (HRI) Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, Master of Science student, Quentin Hall, is currently working on his thesis titled, “Determination of Seasonal Abundance, Density, and Distribution of Nekton Species Proximal to Cedar Bayou Pre- and PostOpening” under the direction of Dr. Greg Stunz. His specific research focuses on the effects of reopening the Cedar Bayou tidal inlet on nekton species. Nekton refers to aquatic organisms within a body of water able to move independently of water currents.This study is a key component in quantifying the success of the Cedar Bayou-Vinson Slough project and has drawn a lot of interest from CCA Texas volunteers and the local community. CCA Texas funded $32,000 for the pre-opening monitoring of the project area and the post-opening monitoring costs are being funded by Aransas County.

On Saturday, May 2, 2015, Quentin and other

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TAMU Corpus Christi-HRI masters study candidate, Alex Tompkins and Lindsey Laskowski obtaining a sample using the epibenthic sled method.

researchers from HRI hosted approximately twenty CCA Texas members and volunteers who had shown great interest in this part of the project. The day started out at Goose Island State Park and we made our way out to Cedar Bayou on a beautiful day. The group made its first stop not long after entering the bayou and stopped for a talk about the monitoring portion of the project where the movement of redfish in the system is being tracked.

Quentin and his team discussed the method for tracking and gave hands on demonstration of the acoustic telemetry Gabe Comacho equipment used in the study.

(Hill Country Chapter CCAIn this particular project, HRI Texas) working has installed ten receivers in the sled for the Cedar Bayou and Mesquite another sample.

Bay area, placed at main travel points in and out of the bay and Cedar Bayou. Eleven redfish are a part of the project study and have been implanted with transmitters. This has proven to be a simple and effective method used by HRI in several related projects to monitor fish movement. In less than a year, over 16,000 detections have been recorded from these eleven fish and, to date, all eleven are all still swimming free in the bay and back and forth to the Gulf. If you should happen to catch a redfish in the area and it has a green tag, please release it and notify the Center for Sportfish Science at HRI or CCA Texas that you caught it and released it.

The group then moved down toward the mouth of Cedar Bayou-Vinson Slough and received a demonstration on the use of the epibenthic sled. The epibenthic sled is invaluable in the study and helps determine what species of marine life are present in the area and their density based on analysis of 72 | June 2015

samples from various sampling locations. Attendees were invited to pull the sled and see the results of the samples.

Quentin discussed the methods and analysis of this sampling method and what has been seen since the bayou was opened and earlier when it was closed. Hall stated, “In the two years prior to the opening, not a single juvenile redfish had been found in the immediate Cedar Bayou area. Within days of the opening, juvenile redfish were present.” Other samples taken earlier this spring have shown flounder, blue crab, Atlantic croaker and many other species that are all vital to the surrounding ecosystem.

One attendee was high school student, Lindsey Laskowski, who commented, “Thanks to HRI for giving us a great opportunity to see how important research is being done on habitat restoration projects. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me and makes me really excited about my future studies at Texas A&M Corpus Christi where I will begin my freshman year in the fall.”

Attendees included members from across the state, which only drives home the interest in the Texas coastal resources by our members, and shows that the desire to be involved in CCA Texas is for the good of the resource. Special thanks to the Harte Research Institute, and the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation for hosting this group for a day of “Science on the Water.”

(below) Alex Tompkins examining results of sled sample. Young Blane Nystedt (Mid-Coast Chapter CCA Texas) gets a firsthand view.

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STEPHANIE BOYD

F I S H Y FA C T S

OCEAN CURRENTS There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent. ~ Dave Barry Current, when referring to water, simply describes directional motion, especially through a surrounding body of water or air in which there is less movement, such as rainwater flowing down a hill. This motion, similar to how creeks, streams, and rivers flow, is caused by gravity.

Oceanic currents are driven by several factors, mainly tides, winds, and thermohaline (temperature & salinity) circulation. Examining all the different types of currents and their causes could fill a year of magazines, so this article will focus just on the currents closest to home, the Gulf Stream and the Gulf Loop. Their backstories are more than enough to fill these pages.

To understand what moves these currents, you’ll need a little background information.

Pressure Gradient Force When a full basketball is deflated with the needle, the air flows out effortlessly, even though it took work to pump 74 | June 2015

up the ball originally. The air flows out because of the pressure gradient force. In nature, regions of excess move towards regions of deficit, working towards a balance. Air (or water) under high pressure will flow towards areas of low pressure until the pressures equalize. Atmospheric pressure differences are due to density differences in the air. For example, warm air is less dense and creates less pressure than cold air, so wind often moves from cold areas to warm areas. The pressure gradient force is created when air (or water) with different pressures end up next to each other.

Coriolis Effect If Earth were stationary on its axis, the atmosphere would circulate between high-pressure areas and low-pressure areas (i.e. the poles and the Equator, respectively) in a simple back-and-forth pattern (pressure gradient force).

But the earth does rotate, west to east, and it rotates faster at the Equator than it does at the poles (because the earth is wider at the Equator, so a point on the Equator has farther to travel in a day). Imagine a cannon ball fired due northward from a point on the Equator. Although fired in a straight path, the ball would seem to curve to the east because, being fired from the Equator, it was traveling eastward faster than its target point to the north.

TSFMAG.com | 75

So it goes with air in the atmosphere (and water in the oceans) – the air that would have circulated in a simple back-and-forth pattern, were the earth not rotating, is diverted. Instead of moving in a straight pattern, the air curves (toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere). This deflection is called the Coriolis effect, named after the 19th-century French mathematician, Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis, who studied the transfer of energy in rotating systems like waterwheels.

Ekman Spiral The Ekman spiral is a consequence of the Coriolis effect; it is named after Swedish scientist Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954), who first theorized it in 1902. When surface molecules of water are pushed by the wind, they, in turn, drag deeper layers of water molecules below them. Each deeper layer moves more slowly than the layer above it, until the movement ceases at a depth of about 330 feet. Each layer of water, in addition to being dragged by the wind-pushed surface layer, is also being deflected by the Coriolis effect (to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere).

So each layer has these two forces acting upon it. If the surface is being pushed north by the wind, but pulled east by the Coriolis effect, the effective direction of movement of the water just under the surface will be northeast. And each successively deeper layer of water moves more slowly, so that the layer under the water moving northeast will be moving east, and the layer under that will be moving south east, etc., creating a spiral effect. The Ekman spiral is a factor in ocean gyres, large systems of ocean currents circulating around warm, high-pressure areas.

With those bits of information in mind, we’ll return to the topic at hand. Surface ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream, are driven primarily, but not exclusively, by the complex global wind system.

As we know, wind only affects water down to a depth of about 330 feet, so other forces take over beyond that. The Gulf Stream begins in the Gulf of Mexico as a geostrophic current called the Gulf Loop.

A geostrophic (Earth-turned) current occurs when the pressure gradient force is balanced by the Coriolis effect. In other words, when water moving from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure is equal and perpendicular to the deflection of the Coriolis effect, the resulting current flows along lines of equal pressure and is known as geostrophic.

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a powerful western boundary current, a surface current making up the western side of a subtropical gyre. It flows along the eastern coastline of the United States and Newfoundland, and is part of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, one of the five major ocean gyres. It was first described in 1513 by the Spanish navigator and explorer Juan Ponce De León as a “current such that, although they had great wind, they could not proceed forward, but backward, and it seems that they were proceeding well; at the end it was known that the current was more powerful than the wind.” It was later charted

by Benjamin Franklin – in his role as deputy postmaster of the British American colonies – with help from his cousin, Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaling captain, and other experienced ship captains. The 76 | June 2015

chart was published in 1770 in England (where it was ignored), and subsequent versions were printed in France (1778) and the United States (1786). It was years before the British finally took note of the chart, but once they did, they were able to shave off two weeks of sailing time between Europe and the United States.

Most of the waters that feed into the Gulf Stream have been driven westward from Northern Africa across the Atlantic by the Northeast Trade Winds. Trade winds, so named because ships have historically exploited them in their journeys between Europe and the Americas, are an artifact of the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis effect.

In the Northern Hemisphere, warm air from the equator flows north towards the pole. As the air moves away from the equator, the Coriolis effect deflects it to the east. It cools and descends, circling back to the southwest, back toward the equator. A similar wind pattern occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.

Once the current from Northern Africa reaches the Caribbean Sea, it is funneled through the many channels of the Antilles, the islands of the Caribbean, and the Yucatan Channel before looping into the Gulf of Mexico. It is here that the Gulf Stream first becomes an organized flow on satellite images, which is why the current is said to begin in this area. As it circulates through the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream gains strength. When it exits through the Straits of Florida, it is a powerful underwater river that transports water at a rate of 30 sverdrups (Sv). The sverdrup, named in honor of the pioneering oceanographer Harald Sverdrup, is a volumetric measurement used almost exclusively in oceanography and is equivalent to 264,000,000 gallons per second. The Amazon River moves at 0.2 Sv; the Mississippi River, in flood, is a mere 0.016 Sv. The movement of the Gulf Stream gradually increases as it moves up the eastern coastline of the United States, from 30 Sv in the Straits of Florida to a maximum of 150 Sv south of Newfoundland.

Clearly, one of the difficulties of studying the Gulf Stream, or any ocean current, is its extremely complex makeup. Not only are there multiple forces causing it or acting upon it in some way, it’s also more than a single ribbon of moving water; it’s a complicated network of currents that sometimes shift course, or disappear and reappear, or develop eddies, etc. Today, satellites are equipped with temperature and color variation sensors that trace the changing patterns of the current.

Gulf Loop The beginning of the Gulf Stream, the part that extends northward as a clockwise flow into the Gulf of Mexico, is called the Gulf Loop Current. Its circulation is similar to a cul-de-sac, transporting warm Caribbean waters northward into the Gulf and then southeast around to Florida’s coast. It is the dominant circulation feature in the Gulf of Mexico, transporting up to 27 Sv and reaching flow speeds of 6 feet per second. Present in the Gulf about 95% of the time, the current stretches about 125-190 miles wide and 2600 feet deep. Specifying a length would be pointless because, sometimes, it barely enters the Gulf before heading towards the Atlantic. Other times, it may travel nearly to the coast of Louisiana before swinging back towards the Straits of Florida, hence the name, Loop Current. But this elongated loop is unstable and pinches off in large rings, or eddies, called Loop Current Rings, that drift westward towards Texas and Mexico. The rings are quasi-regular in occurrence, spinning off the main current every six to eleven months.

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These unusual current patterns may control the Gulf’s fauna, to some extent, because many species depend on currents to transport larvae. The path of the current also potentially isolates animal populations in the deep Gulf from the populations in the larger deep Atlantic. The deep water in the Gulf flows in from the Caribbean, not directly from the Atlantic, and the islands of the eastern Caribbean act as a very leaky wall with many shallow gaps, but only a few deep gaps, limiting the flow of deep water – but not putting a big dent in the influx of warm water, a boon to many species, but a fret for those of us on the Gulf Coast.

During summer and fall, the Loop Current provides a deep layer of very warm water that acts as a huge energy source for any lucky hurricanes that might cross over. When a Loop Current Ring is pinched off at the height of hurricane season, it becomes a vast reservoir of energy, available to any hurricane that has already crossed over the warm current. This type of situation fueled both Katrina and Rita in 2005.

This same warmth that fuels hurricanes is carried out of the Gulf by the Gulf Stream and becomes a warming effect on climates all the way to England and Norway. Although there are no definitive conclusions yet, the Gulf Stream could be impacted by global warming. Some studies suggest that the release of cold, dense water flows from melting glaciers might disrupt the Gulf Stream and other major currents, which could subsequently cause a change in weather patterns worldwide (another topic that could fill a year of magazines).

In summary, ocean currents are complex (and perplexing), and this was just a snapshot of what’s going on inside the circus tent.

78 | June 2015

Where I learned about ocean currents, and you can too!

NOAA oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/loopcurrent.html oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/welcome.html oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02mexico/background/currents/ currents.html Weather Underground www.wunderground.com/hurricane/loopcurrent.asp?

Encyclopaedia Britannica www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/249180/Gulf-Stream The Weather Prediction www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/475/ LiveScience www.livescience.com/26273-gulf-stream.html Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/loop-current.html Coastal Carolina University marine.coastal.edu/gulfstream/p2.htm

www.power-pole.com

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Four great rigs for jetty kingfish; deep diver, shallow runner, topwater and a natural bait leader.

CURTISS CASH

I N S H ORE | N E A R S H ORE | JETT I E S | P A S S E S

Slam Dunking in June Jetty Kings June typically offers reliable inshore kingfish action. These fish can often be found near the line of demarcation at ship channel jetties and gulf passes. Nearshore currents and tidal forces align kingfish and their prey along current seams and tide lines. Current seams are the defined lines of flow near deeper channel edges or other major changes of depth. To locate seams, look for notable changes of color and clarity and also lines of floating sargassum, man-o-wars and schools of bait.

Swift currents overwhelm smaller finfishes, pushing and pulling them along the seams where they commonly school. Congregations of bait make easy prey for slash-and-dash feeders. Mackerel knife through forage at high speed, snapping at all in the path. They often slice prey in half only consuming part, leftover pieces sink quickly, consumed by school mates or other opportunistic feeders.

To key in on peak feeding periods look for days with good current flow. The new and full moon phases always produce the strongest and longest duration of tides.

80 | June 2015

Choose a couple of days prior, the day of and soon after each phase for prime times.

When favorable weather conditions occur in conjunction with strong water flow the odds of scoring increase. I typically watch the weather forecasts and look for a string of days with light wind. I prefer incoming tide that peaks in velocity around mid-morning. Fresh green gulf water is normally clearer on a flood tide where This jetty king cut in while Chino Sosa casted to schoolie tarpon. Luck was with him, considering the 40lb mono leader attached to the chrome Red-Fin lure.

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the kings feed in the strong current. Many ship channels will have a shoal between the main center channel and the bordering rocks.

These shoals have high spots that impede the current flow and cause upwellings. Hapless bait is pushed to the surface and kings can be seen skyrocketing through them.

Topwaters catch lots of surface feeding kings and I like the 5�

Good eating size jetty king hooked while dragging a deep diver down the seam.

82 | June 2015

Heddon Chug’n Spook rigged on a 10 inch trace of 58 pound wire.

Imitate a spooked ribbon fish skipping across the water with troutclass tackle by ripping it about five feet and then resting it five seconds. Most strikes come on the pause but can happen any time, use caution as the lure nears the boat.

Many times I move toward the bay as the current increases following the feeding fish. With favorable weather, kings will often swim into the bay on the stronger incoming flows.

Sensing the slackening of flow after the peak, kings will turn back toward the gulf. Being out of full feeding mode, they now seek the easiest route. The tide is still coming in, but on the channel edges there will be backflow eddies, kings like to snack on the edges of these eddies while riding the current.

You can catch fish on an outgoing tide, but the schools tend to scatter as they move back into the gulf. One benefit from the ebbing tide is that the seam has a very defined color line to follow. This color line forms excellent structure to used as camouflage for bait as they are swept from the bay. Instead of fishing in the heavy current with turbid water, move to the calmer clearer areas.

Along the seam look for sharp turns or bends in the flow, these areas could be upwellings similar to those found inside the jetties. If slow trolling natural bait I like to shift into neutral to drift or bump troll slowly to keep the lures away from the propeller. This is a good time to blind cast some lures, if fish are nearby either method will prove it. If you have a strike or hookup, turn back around and make another pass.

On either tide direction I use similar techniques. I normally start out fast trolling a couple of lures, one deep like and a surface runner.

To get deep I use a Bomber CD25 or similar to get down 15 feet or

more. To tempt fish nearer the surface a chrome Cotton Cordell Red-Fin or a chrome #18 Pet spoon are excellent. Each of these lures flash, wiggle and gyrate on or near the surface. The bites on the RedFin are explosive and the kings may blast up into the air 8-10 feet.

A pass down a current seam near the center of the channel will let us know where to start. Many times trolling at 5-mph or faster, fish can barely miss the hooks, a quick buzz of line off the reel or a bounce in the rod will tip us off. If you troll through a large school or if they are on a blitz a solid hookup is almost guaranteed.

I start bump trolling natural bait if the current is running light and still ramping up. Ribbonfish are the Texas favorite, I believe, and very hard to beat.

Hand-sized menhaden are a very good choice as well as croaker. Dead baits can be trolled or drifted but live baits on the drift can be deadly. My favorite rigs are one live menhaden or two live croakers hooked individually near their tails. The croakers put out bright flashes and vibration fighting against each other. Each of these baits are especially good cast into upwellings and on the edges of backflows.

Personally, I like to use two hooks only on my bait rigs. A pair of #4 Mustad 3592HD Kingfish trebles rigged 7 inches apart keeps toothy fish attached.

Adding a couple of feet of 40-60 pound single strand

Big snapper are anxiously waiting to be caught by Texas anglers. The federal red snapper season for recreational anglers begins June 1st and runs through June 10.

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wire ahead of the hooks gets the most bites. Egg weights from 1-3 ounces can be slid in front of the #7 black barrel swivel for additional depth. Three hooks work almost too good at snagging, especially anything within its reach if not embedded in the fish.

Red Snapper The federal-water red snapper season (beyond nine miles) opens at 12:01 AM June 1st and runs for ten consecutive days. Not much time for the recreational angler to get out there. With only two days falling on a weekend please try to go for a thinning of the herd before it closes.

Catching a limit pair of “keeper” snapper is pretty much a slam dunk.

They are bountiful in just about any area you choose near structure deeper than 80 feet. For fun each year, friends and family go with me during this special season. Last year and as many as I can remember, limits were incredibly simple to obtain. In fact, last fall while targeting grouper, the red snapper were so thick on most structure that the grouper never got to the bait. We were releasing red snapper over 30 inches on 15 inch live blue runners.

Towering over this 23” surf run speck, angler Matt Henkle is all smiles with his catch.

Surf Specks

C ontact

June usually kicks off the surf run each year with periods of calm wind. I run the beach looking for an area with abundant brown pelicans and gulls grouped at the water’s edge. This normally means bait is in the first couple of guts where trout and reds are running them up on the sand.

Washouts between sandbars perpendicular to the beach and areas with obvious rip currents make good ambush points to target. A live croaker hooked through the roof of the mouth and out the bridge of the nose works like magic. Carolina rigged with an egg weight heavy enough to barely hold bottom and a 5/0 Mustad 37160 “Croaker Hook” puts them in the boat. If it’s redfish you’re after, go heavier with the egg weight and toss a live pinfish into the first gut and hang on.

Grab a bag of ribbonfish and a few dozen live croakers and head to the rocks, surf or deep structure. The strategies outlined here should make catching a slam dunk in June!

84 | June 2015

Capt. Curtiss Cash offers charters in the Port O’Connor area; specializing in fishing the bays, passes, jetties, surf and nearshore waters. Species targeted include speckled trout, redfish, flounder, tripletail, black drum, bull reds, sharks, snapper, kingfish, ling and tarpon, when seasonally available.

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PINS surf surprise – we expect a few kings later in summer. John Pettyman’s “smoker”-class king mackerel was totally unexpected!

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

ER I C O Z O L I N S

Opportunity Knocks After years of enduring brutally frustrating amounts of sargassum in our surf zone, 2015 has been most kind to coastal bend surf anglers. Thus far, this has been the first spring season in the past fifteen of my heavy surf fishing career in which the beaches of south Texas have not received a lick of the menacing weed. In return, we were offered a unique opportunity to fish the surf in what is usually hard or impossible conditions during the prime months of April and May. The results for many anglers were nothing short of spectacular. Many large and impressive sharks were caught and released by countless friends, charter clients, and yours truly. We were able to see the scalloped hammerheads run the beach in great numbers this spring, something Capt.

Billy Sandifer had always talked about but very few modern-era sharkers have been fortunate to witness. I couldn’t help but consider this phenomenon to be more myth than fact—until now.

86 | June 2015

Spring and fall are usually the most productive seasons on our beaches with multitudes of species moving in or moving out in search of prey. There are times when a single feeding frenzy can include a considerable list of “top of the food chain” species. The problem, for surf anglers, is that we are usually covered up with huge incoming mats of sargassum. This arrival sometimes appears as a mirage, a small island, inching its way toward the sand. In addition to the absence of sargassum the past few months, we had exceptional water clarity and lightmoderate winds to add to the formula of productivity.

With our great fortune this past spring we were able to experience and participate in the fishery on its grandest scale. Nearly four or five days out of each week allowed for some sort of fishing opportunity, something that has not been seen in the springtime the last two decades.

Other than the anomaly of monsoon rain and random fog, spring has been just phenomenal.

Many anglers have been taking advantage of the rare weed-free conditions, especially those who participate in the Texas Shark Rodeo—a year-long event sanctioned by Sharkathon. The “rodeo” has a research intensive premise and is conducted with all the best possible intentions. Sharkathon in conjunction with the Harte Research Institute located at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi,

James Clark landed an exceptional cobia recently while shark fishing… in true “sharker style” he released it after photo.

work together in getting tags out to willing anglers for shark study.

Like the Kayak Wars tournament format, submissions for this online event are through the website and offer a points-based system for species and size. While the only prizes are bragging rights, there is a great deal of interest for the Shark Rodeo, especially with the younger and middle-aged crowd. The downside is that it has heavily populated our normally desolate beaches with large shark fishing camps stacked on top of each other, many of those being weekend warriors from out of town. Imagine the chaos of Sharkathon, but not just one weekend of the year, but virtually every weekend!

Getting back to the positive aspect of this unique tournament, the large amount of anglers that have taken to the water this spring have produced astonishing results. The vast majority of sharks landed by these individuals were tagged and released in the name of science. While the blacktip was the species landed in greatest amount, there have also been dozens of both scalloped and greater hammerhead sharks and a handful of stud bull sharks weighing up to

TSFMAG.com | 87

300lbs and more. Normally these catches would not be possible in traditional weed-infested waters. With each passing week, substantial catches were made in and throughout the month of May. Interestingly enough, while we were joyous about the presence of the hammerheads, we did not see a tiger shark hit the beach until May. With the absence of weed there should be plenty of good sharks landed through the first part of the summer.

Aside from the always exciting and popular sharks, there have an exciting variety of other species. Jack crevalle have been fairly plentiful as they typically are in spring and fall. While they were not in huge numbers as we have seen in the past, they were around and consistent.

Red drum also got a late start but showed in fair numbers and were often sight-casted from the beach. A really cool event that we were able to witness as well this year was the sheepshead migration into the gulf to spawn.

Due to the absence of sargassum and almost gin-clear water, you could see schools of sheepshead traveling the guts and on the bars the entire length of Padre and Mustang islands. I also stood on the Port Mansfield jetties watching literally thousands making their way to the gulf one afternoon. There was a day in early-April when people actually caught more sheepshead than whiting. Very cool!

More cool surprises were landed by lucky surf anglers. Good friends James Clark and Dani Zirkel who have had one heck of a spring with astonishing catches of scalloped hammerheads and big bull sharks, also managed another unique catch. While shark fishing, they landed

a 53” cobia from the surf which was interestingly enough released— conservation at its finest!

Late spring is typically a time when cobia can be caught from the beach. Looking back, in April of 2003, my largest cobia ever (that came up to my neck while holding it vertically) was caught on a shark bait as well. This year, I had a large cobia surprise me and then follow my kayak on the third bar while running a shark bait. Another very impressive springtime catch was from one of my charters. On a casted bait going for reds and jackfish, John Pettyman had an experience of a lifetime hooking into and landing a thirty-five pound smoker king—definitely an oddity off the beach. This fish too was successfully released by the decision of the angler!

Where does this leave us for the rest of the summer? Historically, the weed has always tapered off along southern Texas beaches around June. Does this mean we still won’t see any until possibly the fall? Or does this mean the inevitable has been delayed and we will eventually get hammered by this floating nuisance? Only time will tell but educated predictions are calling for much of the weed to wash in around the Yucatan and Caribbean leaving us free and clear.

It is important to note that while sargassum wreaks havoc on surf fishermen, it is a unique set of biomass that is habitat for hundreds of species of life, from plankton-sized crustaceans to the largest of mahi. The small prey seeking cover under this biological flotsam attract all top predatory species of gamefish. While we can’t have the best of both worlds, at least for now, surf fishermen are certainly the fact that there is none.

C ontact

Dani Zirkel preparing to release a scalloped hammerhead.

Brad Tabor with a husky surf bull shark.

88 | June 2015

For the past decade Eric ‘Oz’ Ozolins has been promoting shark catch and release and assisting various shark research programs. Eric offers guided shark fishing on Padre Island National Seashore. Also renowned for extreme kayak big game fishing, Eric runs Kayak Wars; one of the largest kayak fishing tournaments in the world.

Email Websites

oz@oceanepics.com extremecoast.com | oceanepics.com | kayakwars.com

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Dickie Colburn

DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene

Sabine

Dickie Colburn is a full time guide out of Orange, Texas. Dickie has 37 years experience guiding on Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes.

Telephone 409-883-0723 Website www.sabineconnection.com

92 | June 2015

Today marks the third in a row with no rain and no fisherman within casting distance of Sabine Lake is taking this phenomenon for granted. We have a cold front due in tonight with 90% chance and Toledo Bend is running both generators 24/7, but this was still a welcomed respite.

We have rescheduled lots Reds couldn’t of folks while trying to figure care less out what the trout are doing to about all the fresh water. adapt to the massive intrusion of fresh water and we obviously are not quite there yet. Other than lure choice, muddy water is of little or no concern to dedicated Sabine Lake trout fishermen, but water this fresh is another story.

Hoping to find trout closer to the ICW last week we drifted East and Middle Pass bouncing GULP and live finger mullet off bottom. We eventually kept one slot red, a drum and six channel cats. We also released one small flounder and two bass!

While it has been a struggle for me, it is due in part to my unwillingness to cast my lot from south of the Causeway to the jetties. While it is not exactly the north end of the lake, I have made a handful of decent trips between Willow and Green’s on the Louisiana side and the north revetment wall on the west.

I have been unable to score consecutive good days fishing this mid-lake area but the pattern proved to be exactly the same on both sides. Trout were holding closer to bottom in 6- to 8 feet; GULP, 4” Assassin Sea Shads and 3” Usual Suspect Swimbaits soaked with garlic or menhaden beat anything we tried.

In each instance the fish were holding well off the shoreline and constantly moving, presumably to either follow better salinity or massive schools of juvenile shad. The moving part is the killer when hunting trout that are not

Jacks love crankbaits too!

The 12” Flex Fillet Knife Now That’s a Knife! relating to shell or a depth change. I don’t think for one second the trout have vacated the lake but if you can’t find them they might as well have. The incredible amount of bait stacked in the bayous and the river will, however, eventually attract a lake full of hungry trout that have seen little pressure this spring!

The best news for less stubborn anglers is that swelling tide changes that usher in saltier water and more bait have produced a reasonably consistent bite south of the Causeway. When the wind allows, the Gulf side of the jetties has been red hot for oversized reds, jacks and some very solid trout.

Trout have been close to the granite and will jump all over a Die Dapper or Split-Tail Mullet crawled off the rocks. They will also eat a Swimming Image but so will bull reds and jacks and those bullies will just wreck your little crankbait.

The more dependable bite, even when the wind is blowing, is taking place on the five to eight foot breaks along the ship channel.

Lighthouse Cove gets a ridiculous amount of pressure but the shoreline all the way from north of the LNG plant to just south of Lighthouse is producing decent numbers of 16- to 23” trout.

For anglers that happen to find themselves at the right place at the right time, the redfish bite can be “stupid good” when schools of slot fish start pounding away at small shad parading down the shoreline.

Surprisingly, some very nice flounder are mixed with them most days.

Look for egrets lining the bank and you are in the game.

I believe the first trout bite to light off in June will occur on the reefs north of the Causeway. We have already had a couple decent days in that area and while most of the trout have been small, they were there when all else failed. The most accepted technique for catching fish on shell is drifting with tide or wind and bouncing a tail off bottom.

Watching your GPS will help you duplicate productive drifts.

Easily the single biggest mistake many folks make when fishing these reefs is fishing only this one technique. These trout are notorious for feeding higher in the water column depending on the available food supply and will aggressively chase everything from a Catch 2000 to a tail fished under a cork. Regardless of your approach, always keep an eye open for schooling redfish as tide changes and time of day mean nothing to them when they decide to go on a rampage.

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TSFMAG.com | 93

Capt. Caleb Harp

The Buzz on Galveston Bay

Galveston

Capt. Caleb Harp has fished the Galveston Bay System since childhood and, now a charter captain and fishing guide, he uses his knowledge to enable clients to enjoy the excellent fishing the area offers. His specialty is the year-around pursuit for trophy trout and redfish with artificial lures

Telephone 281-753-3378 Website harpsguideservice.com

If I could describe the current status of fishing in the Galveston Bay complex in one word it would be, crammed, for sure. The sad part is there are tons of fish in all the bays but not much area to fish for them.

This time of year is one of the best on the Galveston bays and even though we are A solid specimen only able to take a small taste for Justin. of it right now we just have to be patient. Soon the water temps will stabilize in the 70s and begin to push toward the 80s on warmer days. Trout will begin to school out in deeper water and as their metabolism increases and they feed for longer periods they will be throwing off slicks more regularly. The fishing is great right now, at least in the places we can fish, but until the water clears up it seems we are all fishing the same places.

Sure, you can catch fish in muddy water, but who

really wants to look at that all day? Due to the rippin’ spring wind and almost everyday rainfall (seems like anyway), the water is staying generally dirty in many areas. But just as the push and pull of the tide will always do its thing, it’ll clean it up and we’ll be looking at emerald green water before too long (hope).

West Galveston Bay has decent water conditions right now, on average, and has been very consistent for reds although trout action has been generally spotty. Most of the trout in West have been caught wading over sand and shell mixed bottoms, throwing topwaters early and then switching to soft plastics such as the MirrOlure Provoker in plum and chartreuse or Geaux Gleaux. Redfish have been great over grass and sand pockets as well as the back lakes on Bagley spoons

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Brandon Gralheer shows off a deep water toad from East Bay.

and Berkley GULP. Speaking of Bagley spoons, I have just recently been introduced to them and I must say they are changing my shallow water redfish game. I recommend you try the Bagley Brite 1/4 ounce size with the hammered finish. These spoons are especially aerodynamic, a dream to cast, and they shine like diamonds even in murky water.

Still talking West Bay, we should see improving trout action down toward San Luis Pass and over deeper hard bottom (oyster pads) during June and continuing through summer. Slicks will become more prevalent and are always a great way to locate feeding fish in expanses of open water. Once you find a school, mark your GPS for return trips.

There is most likely a bottom feature that is holding them.

Trinity Bay is still out cold from the fresh water punch. If you motor around Smith Point you better trim up and watch carefully for logs and other debris. I’d love to say that it won’t be long but Lake Livingston is still pumping a brutal 25,100 cubic feet per second, straight down the Trinity River. It’ll be a running battle between incoming tides and river inflow. I’d expect it might take until late-June…if the rain will ever stop up north in the Trinity Basin.

East Galveston Bay has been providing very steady trout action and is also very populated with fishermen; I think I mentioned crammed earlier. We’re seeing good numbers of trout coming on the shorelines, a strong early-morning topwater bite for waders. Normal in wet years, the glass minnows and shad are thick there. Given the abundance of this type of forage we’ve been doing very well with the MirrOdines. I like the MirrOdine XL 27MR whenever it’s windy or the water is a bit dirtier. If the conditions are relatively calm and the water is clear you can’t go wrong with the finesse action of the smaller MirrOdine 17MR. The trout are beginning to move onto East Bay’s deeper reefs and we are also beginning to find scattered groups of redfish. As June rolls along the fishing on these reefs will only get better and better. Tidal Surge’s Split Tail Mullets and MirrOlure’s Lil John are excellent reeftrout producers on 1/8 ounce BAAD Marine “Knotty Hooker” jigheads.

Try the bright colors like limetreuse when the water is cleaner and morning glory or pumpkinseed with chartreuse tail whenever it has more color to it.

What a relief it will be when we can all spread out a little. In the meantime, remember to be courteous to your fellow anglers. We are all in this “crammed up” situation together.

Stay tight! – Capt. Caleb

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TSFMAG.com | 95

Bink Grimes

The View from Matagorda

Matagorda

Bink Grimes is a full-time fishing and hunting guide, freelance writer and photographer, and owner of Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay.

Telephone 979-241-1705 Email binkgrimes@sbcglobal.net Website www.matagordasunriselodge.com

96 | June 2015

It’s a good feeling as a charter captain to look at the long range forecast for the week and see nothing but, “Southeast wind 5-10 knots, seas 1-2 feet.”

That’s often the case in June, my favorite month to fish because of all the possibilities.

Often the toughest decision to make is which way to go and which way to fish. East or west?

Wade or drift? Flip a coin.

When wading, we traditionally focus on the grass beds during the summer. Most of this terrain can be found in the lee of southerly winds and stay fishably clean even with gusting wind. Our grass beds are in West Matagorda Bay. June normally affords ardent morning incoming tides, perfect for walking a She Pup or Super Spook Jr. over the flats.

I will also hang out within sight of the Port O’Connor water tower. Flats sandwiched between the Matagorda Ship Channel jetty and Pass Cavallo see the best tides and the fastest action.

We toss topwaters, Bass Assassins, Down South Lures and MirrOlure Soft-Dines in some of the most beautiful water you will ever wade. We enjoy the dolphins, turtles, an occasional tarpon and

sometimes deal with sharks.

Working close to the jetty also offers us quick access to the beach.

The surf normally gives us a few days to fish in June and there is nothing better than watching a plug get crunched in the foam.

We wade the first gut on an incoming tide but choose to remain in the boat and drift outer bars in 4- to 6 feet of water on an outgoing flow. It’s much safer in the boat, trying to reach fish on the third bar and beyond.

We don’t forget about the jetty, either. Some days it’s large trout, others it all redfish.

Then there is East Matagorda Bay. We are really seeing the fruits of a wet winter and spring.

Freshwater runoff has done wonders for our estuaries. Glass minnows showed up in East Bay in force for the first time in a long time. We are seeing lots of little crabs and many more healthy adults. Shad, shrimp, mullet, they’re all are thriving. When baitfish and other forage species thrive, so do our gamefish.

With light winds, all of East Bay is in play, including mid-bay reefs.

Few bays in Texas rival East Matty for its potential to grow large trout; and, when the weather allows you to wade one of those coveted reefs in the middle of the bay, you better hold on. I can’t tell you how many arms-length trout I have released over the years while tossing a topwater or Bass Assassin.

We like to talk about the good ol’ days and the fish we caught, but I believe with the plentiful rain and fresh water inflow rejuvenating the bays the best is on the horizon.

So many anglers these days have never waded and really don’t want to try, so we stay in the boat; and, that’s okay. Most of the sevenpound-plus trout caught with me last year were taken out of the boat.

There are some days in June when I head across the bay as the sun eases over the horizon and I just know it is going to be an easy trip.

We make our first cast, get thumped, and everyone is smiling. That’s Matagorda in June.

TSFMAG.com | 97

Capt. Gary Gray

MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays

Port O'Connor Seadrift

Captain Gary Gray is a full time guide born and raised in Seadrift. He has been guiding in the Seadrift/ Port O’Connor area for 28 years. Gary specializes in wading for trout and redfish year round with artificial lures.

Telephone 361-785-6708 Email bayrats@tisd.net Website www.bayrat.com

98 | June 2015

Well guys and gals, spring really sprung here on the middle coast since my last article. The fishing for me and my customers has really been a big step above the previous several years. The trout and redfish are thick on the shorelines chasing schools of menhaden and mullet. The rafts of bait make it a lot easier for us as it gives us a target to cast our lures at and around instead of just blind-casting on an open flat.

Chasing these schools of baitfish while wading and teaching my clients what to look for and where to aim their casts got me to thinking. A lot of fishermen are having trouble understanding what goes through “this” guide’s mind when I see scattered bait or a school of bait.

When I see a school of menhaden or mullet rafted down a shoreline, just cruising up and down, I picture in my mind how the redfish or trout might be cruising under the schools.

From the way the bait is acting I try to picture if they

are directly under, in front of the school, or maybe a short distance behind. When doing this I can recall certain situations where the mullet were rafting up and acting similarly to the ones I am watching at that time. I can even relate when I saw single reds or trout, staged nearby, shadowing the bait. I always try to remember how the mullet or shad reacted or perhaps showed no reaction to game fish presence. All of these mental notes came from time on the water and experiences while fishing. Recalling details of prior encounters is the basis for how I will approach the

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Bay Harbour Subdivision Alpha Slip Rd, Matagorda, TX 77457 situation I am observing.

My imagination gets away from me from time to time but I do put a lot of thought into situations like this while fishing. Some would say too much thought. But I beg to differ as the dissection of the smallest of details while fishing has paid off for me more times than not over the last twenty-nine years of guiding. Okay back to the story.

If you’re asking yourself what brought this to my mind, it’s because for the last three weeks I have had some experienced wade fishermen sharing wades with me and we have been following these schools of mullet. It just amazed me after telling them to look for the rafts and imagine that there is probably a redfish or a trout under each one. I would go on fishing and pulling a red or a trout out of the bait schools pretty regularly.

They would ask again, “How are you catching those fish when I’m not?” I would reiterate my approach to the schools and yes, not every school that came by had a game fish under it but, more had game fish than didn’t.

Some of the guys would eventually catch on but most would just wander around blindly casting towards the shorelines, which at times can also be productive. But not when the 90% of the bait is rafted up seventy-five feet from the shoreline.

I brought this situation up to remind everyone that even though you are fishing close to where the action might be you should put all your senses to work to dial in even closer. It will make your experience that much better when you put a plan together and it works out.

This rafting bait scenario will play out all summer long and into the fall so just practice watching baitfish and their actions, and use your imagination.

During these shoreline wades we have been starting the mornings throwing obnoxious topwaters such as the MirrOlure She Dog and the He Dog. We have been letting the fish tell us when to swap back to the Bass Assassin 4” Sea Shad.

As far as colors on the topwaters, just pick one. It doesn’t seem to matter to the fish. We have been sticking with more natural hues while throwing the Assassins like, Copperhead and Green Moon. I always rig my Assassins on a 1/16 ounce Assassin jig heads.

In closing I would like to let everyone know that my new Shallow Sport X3 is still proving to be a very valuable asset to my business.

No longer do I have to worry about going the long way around rough bay waters or worry if my clients and I will get home safely when weather and water gets rough. Not to mention…it is one good-looking vessel!

Fish hard, fish smart!

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david rowsey

HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey Launch time comes early in early-summer. This and all-day pounding sun are tough on the captain as June creeps in. Getting up at 0400 and home around 1600 is taking its toll on the body. Clients and friends always ask me how I keep up, after starting Upper the season in December. I sometimes ask myself the Laguna/ same thing—as most guides do.

The honest answer is that you had better LOVE Baffin what you do and have a brain that is capable of tricking your body into thinking it is not worn out. I reckon I’m getting pretty good at mind games as I hit the mid-40s. The most important thing to me is that David Rowsey has 20 years experience in the Laguna/Baffin I am blessed to be able to make a living doing what region; trophy trout with artificial I love to do.

May 3rd brought the full moon. As expected the lures is his specialty. David has a great passion for conservation tides came rolling in right on schedule from down and encourages catch and south, but so far they have yet to have the big green release of trophy fish. impact on the brown tide problem that we have been experiencing since 2012. Some greenish hues are Telephone noticeable on the easterly shorelines but we are a 361-960-0340 Website long way from trout green nirvana. www.DavidRowsey.com Along with the big May moon and high tides came Email a migratory push of new life in the form of baitfish, david.rowsey@yahoo.com and predators. This is really a special time of year

100 | June 2015

when it takes place, and one that will produce as much action as any other time in the twelve month calendar. Big schools of mullet have been cruising about every known structure in the bay system.

That is obviously a positive. The downside is that the brown tide hinders us from spotting all of those productive potholes and large rock piles. Making calculated, precise casts is pretty tough with such limited visibility. Expect to lose a few jig heads on snags and walking through some good structure while in pursuit. Until we have a weather event to flush the system we will just have to do our best to adjust and deal with it.

There is however some good news to come out of the doom and gloom of the brown tide. We are catching plenty of fish and have just been nailing some monsters lately. Numerous clients have broken the 30-inch barrier during this late spring and early summer. There have been a few specific days that have just left us in awe of the numbers of big trout we were blessed to catch in one outing.

How are we catching them? When I am targeting trout this time of year, my first instinct is to look to the major corridors of fish travel and then find the

Ian Beliveaux with a big 31” that was caught on a custom painted 5” Bass Assassin. Ian has shared many days on the water with me and has witnessed some huge fish caught within our circle of friends.

His perseverance paid off!

structure along those routes. The visible part of the equation is to locate bait and slicks. During this time I will be heavily focused on structure along the ICW and shallow flats that are located within close proximity to these travel routes. The structure could be a steep drop off of a spoil island, scattered rock piles, and potholes in two to four feet of water. Fortunately for me, I have the advantage of knowing these areas even when water clarity and visibility is poor…a good time to reflect on your journal, if you keep one. Add good structure to bait and slicks and you will be catching solid fish in short order.

Lure choices have not varied much but I am having much more success with topwaters than I have had in many moons. The She Dog

by MirrOlure has been a heavy favorite for me and has produced some big trout of late. As always my go-to lure is the 5” Bass Assassin in a variety of colors. My top three choices would have to be Mississippi Hippie, Morning Glory and Alewife (white). A 1/16 ounce jig head is standard fare for me although I always have some 1/8s handy for deeper situations or if dealing with high winds.

If hunting redfish is the name of the game I am all about the paddletail line of lures by Bass Assassin. I typically rig these on the 1/8 ounce heads as I like to swim the lure more than jigging it. The swimming jig is not just for reds! We catch some smoking big trout using the same technique. Not to mention its excellent vibrating attributes in stained water. Great lure choice for the current conditions.

Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey

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Capt. Tricia

TRICIA’S Mansfield Report Fishing around Port Mansfield so far this spring has color changes with flipping bait and several pelicans been very good overall, even when Mother Nature working signaled where you wanted to start. threw some interesting weather challenges for us to Water conditions at this writing are good except deal with. We often did very well through the 25- and for a few areas on the King Ranch shoreline and into 30 mph blows but, when afternoon gusts push above Gladys Hole during and after northers. Also worth 45 it’s just not as much fun and noting, the springtime bloom Port can be downright dangerous. of fluorescent green Easter Mansfield Yet, for those determined to basket grass (OK – its real give it a shot we were rewarded name is filamentous algae) is with some good catches in probably the worst in recent blustery conditions. memory on the west side of Capt. Tricia’s Skinny Water Water levels rose significantly the bay. I expect the clarity up Adventures operates out of in late April and with that many north will improve with fewer Port Mansfield, specializing in “new” areas came into play. north wind events in June but wadefishing with artificial lures.

Naturally we had to rethink the nasty “Easter grass” will fishing plans during high most likely linger a bit longer. winds, mostly fishing where The topwater bite is still Telephone 956-642-7298 we could instead of where we strong. Full-size Rapala Email should. Thankfully we usually Skitter Walks and Heddon shell@granderiver.net managed to locate green One Knockers are still my Steve “Harbormaster” Website go-to in most conditions.

Hamilton enjoyed great www.SkinnyWaterAdventures.com streaks in leeward shallows topwater action. The and on the worst days these When the wind really gets green-chrome Skitter Walk would often hold until at least cranking, pulling out the was the ticket all day. midday. In these “new” areas, noisier MirrOlure She Dog can

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keep you in the surface game. A good presentation is usually more important than color pattern but a darker plug in dark water and lighter patterns in clearer seems to work for me. I favor color patterns such as Okie shad, bone-silver, and chrome-green in green and clearer water and solid colors like plain old bone or black in dark or murky. The same concept applies in bright sun versus overcast skies. I generally select my soft plastic baits via the same criteria.

I am often asked which brands and styles of soft plastics I prefer.

First let me say that I prefer paddle-tails over rat-tails. As for brand, I can truthfully say that most often you will probably see me throwing K-Wiggler paddle tails for their durability and tail-thumping action. Saying that, Norton’s Sand Shad and Bull Minnow along with Down South Lures are certainly also part of my arsenal. There is no denying the tail action each of these lures exhibit is outstanding, and can trick fish even during a finicky bite.

My fishing program and outlook will take on a new face this month as daily trophy seeking gives way to a fun day, focused more on simply catching fish. There’s still great opportunity to catch magnum trout in June, 28- to 30 inches and maybe longer, but with spawning well into its second month the daily expectation of heavy-nines and tens can only diminish. So – while June is still a great month for hardcores and tourney types – it is also a great time for

less serious stuff. School trout up to three and maybe four pounds should feed voraciously on deeper grass and along spoil edges and that’s always a ton of fun.

For those still locked in trophy mode, great places to look are shallow, windward shorelines, remote backwaters, and also along spoil banks that drop quickly to deep water. Another option is stalking the flats and sight-casting to them midday on shallow sand with sketchy grass patches.

June’s just a great month all the way around.

Great for waders, drifters, polers, and even The Hind family anchored-boat anglers. Everything the Lower prevailed again this year!

Laguna is famous for should be in play…ankle deep to armpits. Wind will continue to be an issue but hopefully not as bad as springtime.

We actually need some wind and a little chop to enhance feeding periods.

A good plan is an early start, up shallow, and eliminating water going deeper until you find them. A strong south wind can mess things up as it discolors the water rather quickly.

Remember that fish do not leave the area when this happens, and correct lure choice and presentation can still prevail. I am looking forward to early summer and I hope to see you out there. Please be courteous, safe, and please leave a few out there so we can all continue to enjoy a healthy fishery.

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TSFMAG.com | 103

Capt. Ernest cisneros

SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene

A rr oyo C olorado t o Port I sabel

A Brownsville-area native, Capt. Ernest Cisneros fishes the Lower Laguna Madre from Port Mansfield to Port Isabel.

Ernest specializes in wading and poled skiff adventures for snook, trout, and redfish.

Cell 956-266-6454 Website www.tightlinescharters.com

Summer is still weeks away and already we’re seeing resource—if they are willing to share. increased traffic on the Laguna. Some are wellI believe that anglers with decades of experience seasoned and others are first-timers, anxious to wet would agree; consistent catching has become a line and maybe take a fish or two home for dinner. increasingly difficult over the past ten or twelve years.

Over the years I’ve seen boats stop in an area only I attribute this mostly to ever-increasing fishing effort because others are fishing and boat traffic. Our fishery there or maybe because they today experiences enormous caught fish there on prior trips. pressure and, as a result, This will work sometimes but patterns of the past that often with so much information lasted weeks seem to vanish in available nowadays there a few days, if they emerge at all. is definitely a better way.

I say all this, not to discourage Catching is not all luck! people fishing, but to encourage This magazine, the internet, fishermen to fish smarter. fishing shows, and tackle Every trip out should be a stores such as Bass Pro and learning experience with facts Fishing Tackle Unlimited and details logged in journals are all excellent sources of and filed into your memory fishing information. DVDs bank. We sometimes find fish such as Tobin Strickland’s relating strongly to structure TroutSupport series contain and other times it’s all about the Peter Landry caught this loads of useful knowledge, abundance of forage. Tide levels trout minutes ahead of hints and tips. Local fishing and currents also play a major his dad Andre. guides are another great role as does wind. Locating fish

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Andre Landry caught this nice trout on a topwater in windy conditions.

and gaining an understanding of their feeding patterns reminds me of a game of chess. Just when you think you have them figured out they make a move on you.

Let’s talk redfish as they have been quite unpredictable. One of our problems is that they are scattered lately as opposed to running in schools. Wind has also been a factor the past month or so dictating where we might try to fish. But despite these things, I have come to the conclusion that our better catches have been more of a timing thing.

Our best bites have been relatively short, about an hour to an hour and a half, just after daybreak. Late-afternoon and continuing into evening has also been consistently good. I study solunar and tide tables religiously and take notice of current strength and direction constantly when I’m fishing. It did not surprise me to discover that our fishing was most productive during the periods of peak water movement, when boat traffic was light. This is what I mean by fishing smart.

Redfish have been fairly eager to go on topwaters during lower light periods but when they start giving us weak blowups or they charge the plugs, only to turn off at the last second, we quickly make the switch to K-Wiggler plastics. I have great faith in the Ball Tail Shad in bone diamond, flamingo and plum-chartreuse on their 1/8 ounce jigheads.

Refining our wades to target potholes and sandy nooks and corners along edges of large grass beds usually produces the most strikes.

In my column last month I wrote of exceptional big trout action on my charters. Well, all good things must eventually come to an end and our sow trout numbers have dwindled dramatically. But, we’re still getting lots of nice trout! Numbers of really solid keepers averaging 20-inches has been the norm and trout have been available in many more locales than redfish. Wading in evening hours in and around bird activity has actually been pretty phenomenal. Even with poor water clarity it has been fairly easy to find limits. Shrimp are very abundant right now along the ICW and adjacent flats and guts. I expect this will continue well into summer.

Wrapping up, I also want to mention flounder as we have been finding quite a few wading for trout and reds, not specifically targeting them. Although I have not put in a dedicated effort, from the numbers we are catching without hardly trying, I will predict that focusing on the edges of the ICW, old pipeline cuts and Mansfield’s East Cut should produce excellent results. Everybody has their own flounder tricks but location and current are very important.

Lastly, with the onset of a busy summer season upon us, please be mindful of your fellow angler. Take a good look around before you motor in or blow out of an area. Others have the same right as you to enjoy our wonderful natural resources.

TSFMAG.com | 105

FISHING REPORTS

ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica

AND

Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 Fishing is getting better with each passing day. As of now, the fish are holding in clean water adjacent to the ship channel. Long Point, West Cove, Joe’s Cove, Black Lake and the south bank of Calcasieu Lake are all holding trout. In June, the fish will move to deeper reefs in the middle of the lake and reefs directly adjacent to the ship channel. When fishing the channel, look for clean water north of Nine Mile Cut on incoming tides and on the outgoing tides look for water to be pretty along the entire channel. Soft plastics will be the lures of choice. MirrOlure Lil’ Johns, H & H Grubs and Sparkle Beetles rigged on sixteenth to quarter ounce heads will be the tickets. Focus should be on the tides when fishing the channel. Strong tides produce stained water, so fish reefs further out in the lake then and fish right along the channel during weaker movements. Also this month, the Cameron jetties, beachfront areas both east and west of the jetties and the close rigs produce ling, triple tail, Spanish mackerel, specks and reds.

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 James says he has already seen diminished results while wading, and an increase in the productivity when fishing out of the boat. “We did catch ‘em pretty good a while back wading. Good topwater bite at times, much better on soft plastics at other times. The fish were shallow,

occasionally in shin deep water over the shell reefs. Lately, though, the action has been better in deeper water. All the freshwater flowing into the upper parts of the bay have stacked the fish up in parts of the lower bay. Where there are fish, there are lots of fish. Controlling the depth of presentation is the main key. We’re mainly catching on shad tails rigged on light jigheads. The speed of retrieve and the amount of jigging are critical, since the fish suspend at times at the depths we’re fishing. In the near future, the boat fishing along the channel and in other parts of the bay around the dike and the jetties will heat up. Free-shrimping along the jetties will blow up really good in the near future as the brown shrimp move through.”

Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Jim and a client caught two monster trout on the same day, not long before he gave this report. “My customer had one about nine and a half pounds, super fat, full of eggs. Mine was about eight and a half, really fat too. It is quite unusual to catch two trout that big on the same day in Galveston. Those fish came out of the surf, the day it cleared up. Once the water had been clear for a few days, the fish weren’t there anymore.

That’s the key to catching in the surf, being there when it first gets right.

Fishing in the bay has been good, if you are in the pile of fish. The west side of Lower Galveston Bay and the south end of East Bay are holding a ton of fish. They’ve been pressured out of the upper parts of the bay by all the runoff coming down the rivers. Since the water is marginally salty,

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it is susceptible to being blown out by the wind. On the better days, we’re catching really good out in the middle, using Gulp! lures to deal with the ugly water if necessary. As we get into June, if we don’t have a bunch more rain, the water will improve.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Trout fishing had picked up on recent trips, according to Randall, and fishing for redfish has been really easy on most days. “Yesterday, I saw the first big push of shrimp coming through, and the ribbonfish will be following close behind them. By the time we get to June, things should blow up along the beachfront. We’ll target the trout with the big Sand Eels, red magic and glow/silver, rigged on three eighths ounce jigheads.

The bite has also been good lately on topwaters like Skitterwalks, white with red head. Normally, when the trout show up thick in the surf in June, those lures work great out there. The end of spring and beginning of summer typically offer up some of the steadiest action of the year.

With any luck in the weather, meaning we don’t have a bunch of storms or windy weather, we will have warm, green water, lots of migrating bait and aggressive fish. It’s a great time of year to be on the water in this area. Things are looking good for a productive run in the near future.”

Matagorda | Charlie Paradoski Bay Guide Service - 713.725.2401 June is a good month to fish various patterns in the Matagorda area, depending on the weather. “We fish shorelines in both East and West Matagorda Bays, wading for redfish mostly, when it’s windy. Right now, we’ve got lots of freshwater coming down the river, which pressures the fish into those salty pockets along the shorelines, so that kind of fishing is good. Of course, as we head into the hot period, we’ll be trying to get

into the surf as much as we can. When winds are light, that will be one of the best options. Surf fishing can also be enhanced by lots of freshwater flowing down the river. We also like to wade and drift out in the middle of East Bay when winds are light, focusing on areas around the mid-bay reefs. Wherever we go, we like to throw topwaters a lot this time of year, but won’t hesitate to fall back on soft plastics if the bite isn’t easy with them. June is usually a relatively calm month, compared to the earlier spring months. We’ve had lots of unsettled weather this year, and our resource is basically untapped.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 The runoff from the Tres Palacios River has our local bay fresh, but the good news is all the freshwater has pushed fish out to the wells and reefs in West Matagorda Bay. Half Moon reef has been holding great numbers of keeper specks up to nineteen inches. Live shrimp and Vudu Shrimp rigged about eighteen inches under popping corks have been on fire. The glass minnow run is in full effect on the south shoreline and good numbers of specks and reds have been chasing the schools of migrating baitfish. Cajun Pepper Bayou Chubs and bone Spook Juniors have accounted for best bites. Tripletail are starting to show up in the far reaches of the bay, and we have caught two so far, but once the bay settles out, it should be easier. The best bait for these fish continues to be live shrimp rigged four to six feet under popping corks fished next to structures and grass mats in the bay. The surf should be one of the best options for this month, in the guts closest to the beach early and out deeper as the day progresses.

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Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 In June, Lynn expects to hit the surf as much as possible, throwing topwaters in the first gut early and moving out as the day heats up. He also mentions other productive options he’ll probably try. “I like to fish close to the passes, either on the outside, along the beach, or on the flats just inside, staying close to deep, moving water. I like to focus on shell reefs and sandy areas, keying on rafted up mullet along area shorelines and on reefs and spoil banks. We’ll use topwaters a lot, and have been catching pretty good on them. Normally, soft plastics are the best back up to the floating plugs. The spoil banks are generally a good option once the weather heats up. The whole key when targeting the bigger trout is to stay close to the large rafts of mullet, whether in the surf or in the bays. If and when the trout bite slows down, we’ll head into the back lakes to go after the redfish. Fishing for them is generally pretty steady this time of year too, but the first goal will always be to catch some of the big surf-running trout on top if we can.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 Blake says fishing for trout in the Rockport area has been steadily improving, and he expects a great summer run. “The opening of Cedar Bayou has made it easier for me to get into the surf on a more regular basis. I’ve been out there quite a few times already, and the fishing has been really productive almost every time. Of course, fishing in the bays has been good too. This time of year, I like to fish the surf or shallow shorelines in the bays which have a mix of sand and grass on the bottom. We throw Bass Assassins and Sand Eels a lot, in colors like pumpkinseed/chartreuse and purple/chartreuse. We’re also having good luck lately on Super Spooks, those with chartreuse on them and also chrome. In fact, on most days, we’re catching a majority of our trout on

108 | June 2015

top. Yesterday, for instance, we had several fish right around the twenty five inch mark or a little over, all on Spooks. One other thing I like to do when it’s calmer this time of year is fish on the mid-bay reefs some.

That’s another productive plan, generally.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 Anyone who likes to fish should like the month of June, because it is such a consistently great month for fishing. My confidence in catching fish is high during June, and it consistently shows in the catches we bring to the cleaning table at the ends of the days. Water temperatures and the weather are generally good during this month, making it a great month for fishing and catching. Despite all the rain we’ve been getting over the last few months, much of the Laguna Madre is covered with brown tide so this means fishing with bright colored and/or noisy lures.

My favorite soft plastics at this time are Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like morning glory/chartreuse, chartreuse dog and salt & pepper silver phantom. The trout will suspend themselves about twelve inches below the water’s surface, and I will use the MirrOlure Catch 5 lures to target them. Fishing along drop offs and grass lines with live croakers and sight-casting with Fish Bites in ultra shallow water will also be good.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.937.5961 Joe says the water in some areas of Baffin Bay and the Upper Laguna Madre have cleared up some, but other areas remain inundated by brown tide. “I like to stay out of the stained water. We do have several areas which have clear water, and the fishing has been good in those places. We’re catching a good mix of trout and redfish on most outings.

The fish have been hanging out in shallow water over a sandy bottom, especially early in the mornings. We’ve been targeting them with soft plastics rigged on light jigheads when trying to catch them in places like this. Later in the day, or if it’s windier, we fish a bit deeper and use a bit

heavier jigheads, which are easier to control and feel with more wind and current. In the best scenario, we’re fishing with enough wind and light in the sky to allow us to see into the water well, so we can see the fish we are targeting before we cast at them. I expect to continue fishing this way into June, trying to stay in the clear water and targeting the fish shallow early, them moving a bit deeper in the middle of the day.”

Padre Island National Seashore Billy Sandifer - Padre Island Safaris - 361.937.8446 It’s been some time since surf fisherman had really good conditions in the summer months and it looks as if this may be our year to get a break. As of early May there is NO sargassum at all and the fishing has been great for big whiting, bull sharks and scalloped hammerheads.

Three hammerheads have been caught on cast baits and there have been more big bull sharks caught than in many years. June is prime time on PINS and barring the arrival of sargassum or constant high wind June should be great. King mackerel and ling have already been caught in the surf. It’s rare to catch ling in the surf and although we do get kings it is usually later in summer. Spanish mackerel, trout and reds should be available in varying numbers…skipjack by the thousand. Lot of debris on the beach and some soft spots. Blow sand has filled up some of the high road. Nesting ridley turtles showed up April 30 and we’ll see many more through June.

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 Trout fishing through the recent full moon period was spotty. Luckily the birds have been working off the edge of the ICW. Normally you would find mostly small trout under them but there has been a good ratio of solid keepers. Pods of reds are starting to show up on the sand.

When located, a 1/4 oz (you can get away with 1/2 oz) weedless gold

spoon or a K-Wiggler moon beam paddle-tail on a 1/8 oz jig will get the job done. Topwater action has been good lately while working the potholes and working the edge of the ICW. From there, switching to a K-Wiggler Ball Tail Shad on a 1/8oz jig or their red and white shrimp tail will keep you in the game. The tide level is higher than normal so fish the areas that you wouldn’t normally try because they’re too shallow.

As mentioned earlier birds have been a key factor in finding trout, gulls and pelicans, so pay attention as you leave the harbor early and all during the day. Tight lines and calm seas!

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty – www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 The water has cleared with more calm days, and the tides are much higher, so the bait has stayed in the freezer. We’re catching good numbers of trout, some nice ones up to thirty inches throwing the Berkley Gulp! Live three-inch shrimp under Cajun Thunder round corks with quarter ounce jigheads. The more colorful Gulp!s work on trout and the darker on the reds. Redfish can be a little more challenging to find with increased boat pressure, but when the tide is right, we’ve managed limits regularly. Freddy says, “Large herds of reds were once readily available and easy to find in the Lower Laguna Madre any time the bay was flat; these days, it’s rare to find anything larger than a pod of eight to ten fish. The obvious reason for this, is that boat traffic, the only thing that will get reds off their patterns, is running them off the flats.”

This time of year is the beginning of tournament and tourist season, so everyone needs to practice smart and courteous boating, keeping the ramps clear and the bays safe. Help stop open bay dredge disposal.

TSFMAG.com | 109

Hillary Drozd Sabine Lake - 8.5 lb redfish

Jeff Hobbs PINS - 8’6” bull shark

Joel first snook!

Cory Mackey Sabine Pass - 26 lb tilefish 110 | June 2015

Aaron Heth Port Mansfield - 26.75” trout CPR

Don Lancello 40 lb - black drum CPR

Emma Doria Nueces Backbay - 28.5” red

Steven Lancello

Pascual Pena Arroyo City - 33.5” red CPR

Bethany Almond Port Aransas - king mackerel

Edgar Floyd Brazos River - flounder

David Lee Doria Nueces Backbay - 24.5” trout

Vincent Priestly Boca Chica - 5’6” yellowfin tuna

Robbie Reyna Port Mansfield - 22” redfish

Jennifer Merchant Port Aransas - 43” first jack crevalle!

Michael Breda Port Mansfield - 28” 9lb redfish

Harry Craig Trinity Bay - 24” trout

Scott Groza Baffin Bay - 29.25” trout

James Halsell Sabine Pass - 27” redfish

Bryley Brown Anahuac Anahuac - 23.5” redfish

John Dent Freeport - 27” trout

Erin Caraway East Matagorda Bay - first winter red!

Rick Fabian Lavaca River - 46” red CPR

Tanner & Walker Hale Port Aransas - 59” kingfish

Lee Cockrell Port Lavaca - 44lb black drum

Sandra Barraza Freeport - 43.5” black drum

Collin Loxterman 22” trout CPR

Arkansas Moreau first redfish!

TSFMAG.com | 111

Tiffani Reyes Galveston Bay - 25” trout

Gina York ICW - 24” trout

Corey Seyler 29” 7.6lb 1st place trout in TOCIFT

Samantha Valdez Port Mansfield - 40.5” red

Patrick R. Robillard POC - reds

Julie Robillard Port Aransas - 23” red

Allie Weaver Mustang Island - 34” spotless red

Jennifer Zeplin San Antonio Bay - shark-bitten trout

Damon Solle Lower Laguna Madre - 31” trout CPR Eduardo Coronado South Padre - 32” first redfish!

Angelia Chiang Laguna Madre - 22.5” trout

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Email photos with a description of your Catch of the Month to: Photos@tsfmag.com

Joe Anthony Garcia Matagorda - 6’4” bull shark 112 | June 2015

Payton Shiflet Galveston - 42” 25 lb redfish

Mail photos to: TSFMag P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983

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Pam Johnson

Gulf Coast Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share?

Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: 361-785-2844

BACON COATED SHRIMP

AND AVOCADO FRIES

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

Vegetable oil for frying

Pour 2 inches vegetable oil into a deep frying pan or Dutch oven and heat to 350°F.

2 firm ripe avocados, sliced into thin wedges 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined 1 - 5oz bag croutons, garlic and butter flavor 3/4 cup Real Bacon Bits or 8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, (plus more to taste) 2 large eggs, beaten

While oil is heating, place croutons in food processor and pulse 3-4 times, until croutons become coarse crumbs. Pour into a shallow bowl and add bacon bits or crumbles.

Place flour and salt in separate shallow bowl and stir together.

Place beaten eggs in third bowl.

Line up ingredients in this order: shrimp, sliced avocados, salt/flour mixture, eggs, crouton/bacon mixture. Dip avocado first in flour shaking off excess, next in egg and finally in the crouton/bacon mixture. Carefully place in preheated oil and fry for 30-60 seconds, or until avocado fries are golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Repeat using shrimp.

Sprinkle with additional salt or dip in ranch dressing when serving.

114 | June 2015

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TSFMAG.com | 115

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Science and the Sea

TM

Venus Flower Baskets The white vase-like sea sponge known as the Venus flower basket would seem incredibly fragile since it’s made of silica, the main ingredient of glass. Further, the only thing keeping this glass sponge anchored to the sea floor is a tuft of tiny glass structures called spicules, each about the thickness of a human hair.

A golden crab with a group of Venus flower basket glass sponges. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Yet these sponges manage to hold firm and resist bending in the current in harsh environments as deep as 1000 meters below the surface, while they filter nutrients from the water. The secret to their strength is in the geometric structure of those thin glass spicules.

Engineers investigated their configuration and found that the narrow glass core of each spicule has between 10 and 50 tiny concentric glass cylinders surrounding it – all within a structure about five one hundredths of a millimeter thick. The organic material between each concentric cylinder becomes narrower and narrower moving outward from the center toward the edge.

So the engineers built a mathematical model of the structure of a spicule to determine the ideal configuration of layers for withstanding the greatest load. The model predicted that the strongest arrangement was one with each successive concentric layer being increasingly thinner – exactly as they found in the actual animal.

But this finding is more than a curiosity. Nature’s designs can inspire human designs, especially when it comes to building strong structures.

Knowing how effectively those tiny glass spicules hold up the cylindrical sponge for years may help engineers design stronger load-bearing beams on land.

The University of Texas

Marine Science Institute www.ScienceAndTheSea.org © The University of Texas Marine Science Institute 116 | June 2015

ON THE WATER

Saltwater Fishing Clinics WITH

Capt. Robert Zapata

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

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M ATA G O R D A B AY Speckled Trout / Redfish

Capt. Billy Penick III

USCG & TP&W Licensed • Galveston Bay System • Full and Half Day Trips • Trout, Redfish, Flounder

281-415-6586 www.gypsyguideservice.com penickbilly@yahoo.com

USCG Licensed Captain Stan Sloan

832.693.4292 fintasticcoastalcharters.com

Capt. James Land

Galveston Bay 281-814-0119

J.R.Land@att.net *Accepts all major credit cards

matagorda to corpus • 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 TSFMAG.com | 117

CHRIS MAPP

BO AT M A I N TE N A N C E T I P S

Cavitation plate or whale tail?

Chris Mapp, owner Coastal Bend Marine.

Yamaha, Evinrude, Suzuki, Mercury, Honda, BlueWave, SilverWave, Haynie, El Pescador Service, Parts and Sales.

What is the difference between a cavitation plate and a whale tail and when do you know if you need one or the other?

Outboard engines are equipped with an antiventilation fin, an integral part of the mid-section casting, located directly above the propeller.

The cavitation plate, or more correctly anticavitation plate, is a full-wrap device that is secured completely around the anti-ventilation fin, extending both forward and trailing behind the outboard’s midsection.

The whale tail is not a full-wrap, designed to be installed on the anti-ventilation plate, extending only behind the midsection.

There are many manufacturers that build these great products and each one has a variance that caters to specific desirable results.

The cavitation plate is very desirable on most tunnel hull designs. We prefer to use this on the boats that have a full tunnel.

There are three types of tunnel hull boats.

Full tunnel - The area starting from approximately under the boat’s center console, center of the keel, designed into the hull going all the way to the transom. (Used to feed water to the prop while on plane and to achieve maximum shallow water ability while using a jack plate).

Half tunnel – Same as above but the tunnel starts further astern between the center console and transom, approximately mid-way. (Function is similar but not as aggressive as the full tunnel).

Pocket tunnel or no tunnel – This would be

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described as more of an indentation or panshaped depression at the keel going toward the bow approximately 8 to 15 inches. (This is usually very moderate and is intended to provide greater stability for the hull while increasing shallow planing performance.)

The cavitation plate would be used on full tunnel hull applications where the desire to get up shallow would be enhanced by forcing the bow down and creating lift on the furthest, most rearward point.

(Hydraulics says you cannot compress a fluid).

This also keeps water around the propeller while getting up on plane, maintaining plane in shallow water, and allowing less cavitation while turning.

(Anti-Cavitation in this case would be described as improving the propeller’s ability to maintain a solid bite, minimizing slippage due to air being introduced into the stream of water feeding the prop while running.)

The whale tail also helps reduce cavitation on boats with partial or no tunnel and significantly enhances the same abilities but in a less aggressive way. These also are great tools for boats that have stabilization issues or have to compensate for bow porpoising while on plane.

Think of the cavitation plate or whale tail as a water suppressor and great performance enhancer.

Have a great boating season, Chris Mapp Coastal Bend Marine | coastalbendmarine.com Port O’Connor, Texas | 361 983 4841

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TSFMAG.com | 119

the only stop for your fishing needs

M

www.sportsmanboats.com San Benito, TX 800.503.4044

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The BEST Choice… Any Place, Anytime!

Introducing Shimano’s latest in comfortable and light weight footwear - the Shimano Evair Marine/Fishing shoes. The Evair are an ‘open’ style shoe, meaning they’re quick drying and allow your feet to breathe even in the hottest day time conditions. A non slip sole gives the wearer added confidence when navigating slippery decks.

Utilizing the new CI4+ material for construction, Stradic CI4+ is the ultimate in lightweight reels designed for the ultrafinesse angler using lightweight fluorocarbon, braided or monofilament lines. From drop shotting to shakey heads and small texas rigs, this reel has you covered.

The Shimano Curado I Series Low-Profile Baitcast Reel features an aluminum frame that is lightweight and durable. X-Ship technology ensures great gear durability and a high gear ratio allows for fast retrieves, while the SVS Infinity centrifugal brake system provides smooth control.

S3D Shimano spool design for stability.

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The Shimano Chronarch 200-E7 Baitcast Reel features 7 bearings for precise, smooth casts. The Super Free bearingsupported pinion gear system helps prevent friction on the spool shaft for increased freespool. Super Stopper II antireverse with a 1-way roller bearing helps eliminate backplay for instant hook-setting power.

ROY’S Bait and Tackle Outfitters

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Tidal Corrections Location Calcasieu Pass, La. Sabine Bank Lighthouse Sabine Pass (jetty) Sabine Pass Mesquite Point Galveston Bay (S. jetty) Port Bolivar Texas City, Turning Basin Eagle Point Clear Lake Morgans Point Round Point, Trinity Bay Point Barrow, Trinity Bay Gilchrist, East Bay Jamaica Beach, Trinity Bay Christmas Point Galveston Pleasure Pier San Luis Pass Freeport Harbor

High -2:14 -1:46 -1:26 -1:00 -0:04 -0:39 +0:14 +0:33 +3:54 +6:05 +10:21 +10:39 +5:48 +3:16 +2:38 +2:39 +2:32 -0:09 -0:44

Low -1:24 -1:31 -1:31 -1:15 -0:25 -1:05 -0:06 +0:41 +4:15 +6:40 +5:19 +5:15 +4:43 +4:18 +3:31 +2:38 +2:33 +2:31 -0:09

For other locations, i.e. Port O’Connor, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and Port Isabel please refer to the charts displayed below.

Please note that the tides listed in this table are for the Galveston Channel. The Tidal Corrections can be applied to the areas affected by the Galveston tide.

Minor Feeding Periods coincide with the moon on the horizon, and the last from 1.0 to 1.5 hrs after the moon rise or before moon set.

Major Feeding Periods are about 1.0 to 1.5 hrs either side of the moon directly overhead or underfoot.

Many variables encourage active feeding current flow (whether wind or tidal driven), changes in water temp & weather, moon phases, etc. Combine as many as possible for a better chance at an exceptional day. Find concentrations of bait set up during a good time frame, and enjoy the results.

Te x a s S a l t w a t e r F i s h i n g M a g a z i n e l

w w w. t e x a s s a l t w a t e r f i s h i n g m a g a z i n e . c o m