June 2016

QUENTIN HALL, PAGE 36

STEVE HILLMAN, PAGE 10

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about the Cover Gulf red snapper are one of June’s highlights. But don’t blink – unless you are able to target them in Texas “state” waters – the season will run but nine days!

Contents

June 2016 VOL 26 NO 2

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

10 Retrieval Methods for Soft Plastics Steve Hillman 16 Beautifully Useless Kevin Cochran 22 Douglas Sellers is Going Fishing: Part IV Martin Strarup 26 Epic Fails Chuck Uzzle 30 Snapper Time Joe Richard 36 Open for Business: Cedar Bayou...

Quentin Hall & Greg Stunz

42 Let’s Ask The Pro 46 Shallow Water Fishing 50 TPWD Field Notes 54 Fly Fishing 58 Kayak Fishing Chronicles 62 TSFMag Conservation News 66 Fishy Facts 70 Inshore | Nearshore | Jetties | Passes 74 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks...

108 Science & the Sea 110 Boat Maintenance Tips

36

WHAT OUR GUIDES

HAVE TO SAy

82 84 86 88 90 92 94

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

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

58

REGULARS 08 Editorial 80 New Tackle & Gear 96 Fishing Reports and Forecasts 104 Catch of the Month 106 Gulf Coast Kitchen

104

94 6 | June 2016

Jay Watkins Scott Null Zack Thomas Scott Sommerlatte Dave Roberts CCA Texas Stephanie Boyd Curtiss Cash Eric Ozolins UT Marine Science Institute Chris Mapp

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EDITORIAL

A Great Month

June is special in many ways and full of opportunity for coastal anglers. Angling possibilities abound as springtime gales finally settle into summer’s breezes. Nearshore and inshore – trips can be planned with far greater likelihood of being made safely and comfortably. Migratory forage species as well as predators that pursue them range close to our coastline as fishermen enjoy the presence of hungry and sporting king mackerel, dorado and occasional ling. Tarpon travel northward from the Bay of Campeche and, on good days, can be seen wrecking bait within sight of the beach.

Too bad – the current red snapper situation. For whatever reason (that none of us understand), we are being allowed only nine days (12:01 AM June 1 – through – 12:01 AM June 10) to fish for them in federally-managed waters, even though by all anecdotal observation the red snapper population may have recovered to an all-time high.

Luckily, for anglers able to make the run south to fish off Port Mansfield and SPI-Port Isabel, red snapper can be taken year-round in Texas waters, (less than nine nautical miles offshore.) Thank TPWD for holding steadfast to the historic right to manage state-water fisheries and CCATexas and their allies for building fish-attracting artificial reefs that lie within reach of the small-boat recreational fleet.

June’s inshore opportunity is the stuff of legend as speckled trout and redfish settle into summertime patterns. There is perhaps no better month for so many Texas anglers to find steady action and, the numbers of boats on the water prove it. What makes it even more special is the

8 | June 2016

to be on the

Water!

opportunity to involve families and especially younger anglers, now that schools have closed for summer.

I mention getting kids on the water frequently. Dickie Colburn is one of my heroes in this. Closing his column this month he said, “The kids may someday forget where they buried you but they will never forget a single day spent fishing with you!” I got a good chuckle out of that… because it is possibly very true.

While on the subject of kids and fishing I would like to remind everybody that the CCA-Texas STAR Tournament kicks off over the Memorial Day weekend. Do not be the parent of a son or daughter that lands a winning fish without being registered in STAR. In the April 2016 issue of TSFMag we covered Collin Dziuk, winner of the 2015 STAR-TEENS Lower-Coast Trout Division. This was actually Collin’s second potential STAR-winning trout. The first, a nine-pound twoounce giant landed five years earlier, didn’t count because his dad had procrastinated getting him registered.

Can you imagine the disappointment? Luckily for Collin, lightning (or maybe in his case exceptional angling skill) can strike twice.

The water will be very busy this month and I want to encourage everybody to practice safe boating and put forth their best etiquette and sportsmanship. No situation could possibly justify a confrontation. Remember the Golden Rule and walk away, wade away or motor away – respectfully. The only actions we can control are our own…lead by example.

Take a kid fishing!

STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN

S

everal small slicks emerged along a portion of reef that dropped off from 3.5 to almost 7-feet as we troll-motored to our first stop of the morning. I felt like a duck hunting guide as we maneuvered into position, “Alright guys, Take ‘em! Oh, I mean cast!” Having caught nice trout the day before on this reef with identical conditions I felt confident that success would be duplicated with this group, especially considering their skill levels. Like ducks cupping their wings as they unsuspectingly drop into the decoys, the trout were generous enough to provide slicks that signaled their location. This was going to be too easy, I thought.

With pinpoint accuracy, all of the guys landed their jigs in exactly the right location in relation to the slicks, based on the wind and current. I knew we had the right choice in soft plastics and it wasn’t our first rodeo, so how did we not get a bite?

Could it be that on this particular morning everyone in my boat including me had the funk?

I always say, “It’s the Indian, not the arrow.” Well, the Indians on my boat had been catching fish using the same basic retrieve for years and they were damn good at it. I’d seen them catch many trout and reds while employing their tried and true techniques. I was learning that “tried” may not always be so “true.”

Scratching my head, I made a long cast off of the stern then noticed another set of slicks popping about 30 yards off the bow.

Before reeling in, I trolled in the direction of the slicks with my worm dragging behind the boat. Bam! “This is a good fish.”

The healthy five pounder couldn’t quite resist a trolling jig.

Hmm. “Hey guys, just cast out and rip your worm straight in….

Just flat-line it.” It turned out that all of those years of experience jigging, jerking and wiggling soft plastics had been dumbed down to a simple cast and reel technique. Many nice trout were duped that day using a method that required zero finesse. A different angle and the fleeing silhouette of our worms evidently triggered a sense of urgency that a classic lift and fall retrieve had failed to produce.

We’ve come a long way from the days when Nick and Cosma Creme of Akron, Ohio, melted plastic on their kitchen stove and poured it into molds to create the first soft-plastic worm (the Creme Wiggle Worm) in the 1940s. As with many lures we use today, bass fishing was the birthplace of soft plastics.

Enter the saltwater realm. Pat Kelley poured plastic in his Pearland, Texas garage in the late 1960s launching the Kelley Wiggler shrimptail (aka “tout tail”) that legions of Texas anglers cut their soft-plastic teeth on. Mister Twister rolled out the Curley Tail grub in 1972. Bass Assassin became a force in the saltwater market during the late 80s and legendary lure maker, MirrOlure, rolled out their line of soft plastics within the last decade. And yes, there are many more that I haven’t mentioned, but let’s not kill more trees than we have to.

Vin Mire with a healthy CPR trout caught by employing a classic pop-pop-fall technique using a MirrOlure Tidal Surge Split Tail Mullet on an epic trout bite day.

Shrimptail body styles eventually morphed into eels and shad bodies. Over time, advancements in technology and materials resulted in more lifelike appearances and durability. Paddle tails, curly tails, rat tails, split tails, both short and long; there’s a soft plastic for everyone and every application. Every color, style, shape and size imaginable is available on the pegs of every sporting goods outlet. There are scent-impregnated soft plastics, some with rattles inserted, and even worms with tentacles and legs. Take your pick. Is your head spinning yet? Should we even discuss the vast array of colors available or the imaginative names they have?

As we get into the warmer months of the year, soft plastics will become our primary choice of baits on most days, for several reasons. A worm, jig, tail, tout tail or whatever nickname you prefer enables you to cover more water in less time compared to other baits. Drifting open-water reefs and slicks in bays such as Galveston requires rapid-fire and accurate casts as trout are often on the move in pursuit of open-water schools of bait. A perfect example was a recent trip when we followed a school for over 300 yards while catching trout the entire time. More boat fishing is done on this Bill Higgins with a part of the Texas coast compared to our friends to the south nice 24 incher caught using simple straight and a good trolling motor is a must-have. Chunking worms is retrieve (CPR). the perfect approach for this summertime run-and-gun style of fishing. Moreover, soft plastics are the most effective and versatile bait in the artificial category. “Soft plastics are the most effective artificial bait when targeting sport fish in Texas and second overall. Live shrimp is number one.” (Art Morris, Texas Parks and Wildlife Outreach Specialist – Corpus Christi Field Station). Tails can be modified to suit the application by changing jighead sizes, rigging weedless, rigged under a rattle cork, dipping the tail, etc. No other artificial lure is as versatile as a soft plastic.

Get Into the Zone, Then Figure it Out Survey the bottom landscape, water depth, water clarity, wind and current when choosing the right soft plastic to fit the application.

Wading a shallow flat laden with grass and potholes will require a different approach than drifting a deep oyster reef. A 5-inch rat tail rigged on a 1/16 ounce jig head is fine while wading in knee to waist deep water and the grass isn’t suspended. A worm rigged on a weedless H&H Flutter jig would be more suitable when there’s The East Bay Jiggle did the trick on this floating and suspended grass. A textbook pop-pop-fall motion 29-inch CPR trout. while casting cross-wind may get the job done. If not, then a slow sweeping up-and-down retrieve with a 4-inch paddle-tail plastic may work. There is no right or wrong retrieval method. Also, some soft plastics are more buoyant than others so paying attention to the sink rate will help when choosing jig head sizes. I seldom use anything heavier than a 1/16 ounce when wading.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we’ll find ourselves drifting over shell in 7 feet of water with a moderate wind and current. In this situation an 1/8 ounce lead head would most likely be employed.

Again, we always make an effort to cast cross-wind and cross-current.

This will enable us to present the worm in a more natural fashion as all fish face into the current. We’ll start by letting the worm sink to the bottom then use a vertical lift-pop-pop-fall routine. This allows our lure to find where the trout are holding in the water column. When the trout seem to be in more of a negative or slow feeding pattern the East Bay Jiggle may have to be employed. The East Bay Jiggle

12 | June 2016

process. Vertical jigging is not usually used with this method. I have tricked many finicky trout using it and while I’m not crazy about its name, at least it’s not called the Chicken Jiggle or the Chicken Finger.

Soft plastics should be a staple in virtually every tackle box year-round but especially during the summer months. Remember, there are no rules when working a worm. By experimenting to find the proper presentation you will gain more and more confidence over time. Whether you’re trolling, dead-sticking, worm burning or dangling it under a rattle cork, this is the time of year for soft plastics. Try different retrieves until you find what works in a specific situation. When you do, you can give it a funny name and call it your own.

Brent Ballard tricked this nice trout on a hot weak tide day by basically slow-rolling his jig near the bottom in 7 feet over hard shell (CPR).

Power-Pole shallow water anchors deploy down and out of your way so you can fish 360 degrees around your boat.

At the touch of a button it can be lowered for casting nets, low bridges or just getting into your garage.

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14 | June 2016

Steve Hillman

Contact

isn’t a dance that I start performing after spending too many sleepdeprived days in the hot sun. It’s a name coined by one of my clients for a strange looking retrieve that I sometimes use. It works best using a soft-tipped rod like Waterloo’s HP Lite. The East Bay Jiggle involves a straight retrieve with varying speeds and a compact erratic whip of the rod tip about every 4 or 5 turns of the reel handle. This is done while keeping the rod tip pointed toward the lure. After 3 to 5 quick whips the worm will settle. This is usually when the strike occurs. If not, then begin the straight retrieve again followed by the whipping action. The reel handle should not be turned during the whipping

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 playing golf in the years of my youth, I learned a valuable lesson about freakish, crazy-good events which I will not repeat. These unique occurrences bear scant significance in the long run; useless as benchmarks, they set the bar well out of reach. I can recall several specific shots I hit in my career which fit this description.

While attending the University of Texas, I worked summers at the Woodlands Inn and Country Club, playing as much golf as I could. One steamy afternoon, I joined two teens for a round on the North Course. The pair ranked first and second on a good high school girls’ team; they regularly broke 80. Boys being boys, I wanted to impress the two cuties with my prowess and skills.

Since they played from the front tees, I moved up from the tips, where I usually teed off, and this changed the nature of the first hole. The dog-leg par five normally requiring a tee shot played to the right of a bunker guarding the left side of the fairway became potentially much shorter, if the bunker could be cleared in the air off the tee. I realized this as I stood over my ball, making ready to begin play.

In those days, I disdained the use of a tee with my persimmon driver, preferring to make a small

divot with it and place the ball on the fluffed-up turf at the front of the depression. A purist at heart, I thought this allowed me to make more consistent swings with all the clubs, and I had been driving the ball powerfully and accurately. On this particular occasion, I lined up the shot straight at the fairway bunker, hoping to clear the sand and reach the garden spot beyond.

Then I hit a shot I could never hope to repeat, a screaming, low laser exactly where I’d aimed; my ball easily carried the trap and hit the ground running on the other side. I found it in the middle of the fairway, a full 345 yards from the tee! In those days, with woods made of wood and balls made of rubber bands, it was a prodigious clout indeed. I needed just a seven iron to reach the green on my second shot. Adrenaline, special circumstances and a precisely powerful swing combined to create the perfect context for a once in a lifetime drive.

These kinds of things happened to me sporadically throughout my career on the links. After college, I worked as assistant pro at Deerwood Club in Kingwood. Once, while hitting 6-irons on the practice tee, I struck another immaculately worthless shot. Prior to making the swing, I imagined a string attached to my spine, with a weight dangling from it, just above the ground. I tried to make a complete swing without causing the fantasy pendulum to touch the turf, or lift farther from it. In other words, I worked to keep my spine angle entirely consistent throughout the process.

I’d hit perhaps a dozen shots with the 6-iron, all of which landed near a hill adorned with a flag approximately 175 yards from me.

Then, I made the flawless swing. The resulting shot carried the ball a full 50 yards beyond where the others lay. At the moment of impact, I knew what I’d done. Predictably, I could not repeat the scene. Most importantly, expecting to hit a 6-iron 225 yards in those days would have set me up for consistent failure. My “stock” shot, one made with normal effort and resulting in solid contact, went 175 yards. Success in the game partly results from distance control and precise planning.

Using freak shots as the basis for planning sabotages consistency.

Unless, of course, circumstances conspire to eliminate all possibilities except a heroic gamble. I recall just such a situation, which occurred on a tight par five at Deerwood, one where I regularly struggled to hit the fairway off the tee. On this occasion, I’d driven into the trees right of the short grass, my ball coming to rest in thick rough surrounded by towering pines. Pitching back to the fairway

would have been difficult, given the specific position of the ball relative to the trees and the fact the narrow, sloping fairway wouldn’t likely hold a shot struck from such thick grass.

I looked long and hard and eventually high for a route to escape the snare into which I’d sent myself. I realized I had one chance, and one chance only. If I could hit the ball straight up into the air with a 5-iron, using the moisture on the blades of grass as an aid, I might be able to sling a “flier” skyward, over the tall tips of the evergreens, and carry the ball near the raised putting surface, which lay a full 250 yards away. Though the outcome seemed unlikely, I could find no other reasonable way out of the jam, so I lined up the shot and took a mighty rip.

To my utter amazement and sheer joy, the ball rocketed straight up, like a missile, clearing the verdant needles and disappearing into the gray mists above them. I turned my attention then to the target, which I could see through the vertical trunks of the pines. An improbably long time later, I saw the ball drop onto the front edge of the green and bounce toward the pin. Incredibly, my Titleist stopped mere feet from the hole, leaving me a good chance for an eagle.

During a hot run on a I could have tried to execute the shot a million consistently productive more times and never created a better outcome. spot, Matt Mauger Truly, the height, length and accuracy of the caught a dozen trout in blow combined to create a fluke, one which the four to five-pound class on topwaters and I could never expect to repeat. Sometimes, twitch baits. circumstances combine forces with confidence to create an unforgettable, desired outcome, one which does not lend itself to repetition. This rings true on the water as well as on the links.

In a way, the events I experience while fishing differ significantly from the ones on the golf course. Mostly, golf’s grand moments result from perfectly executed shots. In fishing, a purely analogous situation would relate to casting a lure. Sometimes, a cast comes off ideally, sending the plug much farther from the rod tip than normal, causing it to land in a distant, distinctly fishy place. But the unusual angling events I’m referring to here relate to the “situation” or “circumstance”, not to the physical act of casting.

While fishing, we sometimes encounter Catching solid trout ephemeral situations which render some places like these provides temporarily perfect for catching the fish we pleasure beyond target. The fleeting nature of the environmental what catching variables in play ensure the situation will likely smaller ones can. not repeat itself. Recognizing the temporal qualities inherent to these situations prevents us from chasing after illusory dreams, trying to make them repeat.

Tide levels, tidal movements, extreme weather conditions and other related types of events can create scenarios which provide ripe opportunity for a once in a lifetime catch, but won’t provide potential on a consistent basis. A historically bad flood which occurred in the autumn of 1998 did just that for me. Massive volumes of cold freshwater poured down the Guadalupe River into San Antonio Bay, pushing the tide a full three feet above normal, forcing the saltwater onto Matagorda Island, where it reached the back side of the dunes fronting the beach.

The trout and redfish retreated to this narrow strip of

18 | June 2016

favorable water, and when tides returned to a more normal level, the predators became effectively trapped in the backwater lakes on the island side of the bay. People did not figure this out, since most of San Antonio Bay looked like a red river, so I had the place all to myself during the first Troutmasters’ Classic event. I caught a 7.09-pound trout in one of the Twin Lakes, claiming the prize for big fish, and nearly won the stringer portion too. I fished the place several times before that tournament and many after, but never came close to catching a trout of those dimensions again. The flood likely forced extra fish into the place, including some big ones.

I watched a similar scenario unfold in Baffin Bay a few years later.

Again, weather events helped elevate the potential of a mediocre fishing spot. In this case, cold northeast winds had pushed the tide up and in for several days. When those brisk breezes died on the memorable morning, the abnormally high tide naturally began to retreat toward a lower level. This caused water on a tidal flat to rush through a narrow slot in the shoreline, back into the body of the main bay. Visible for quite a distance, the ripple at the mouth of the slough lay at the edge of a bountiful school of mullet. Giant trout found their way to the grass beds on either side of the drain, lying in wait to ambush their prey.

I and two others caught nearly two dozen big specks once we wandered into the scene, casting our Fat Boys into the shallows around the dark grass beds and pulling them with the flow coming out of the lake. Several times, we watched giant sows shoot forward, off the dark bottom and snatch our wobbling plugs, revealing flashes of yolk yellow in their mouths as they attempted to dine in the crystal clear current.

One of those trout weighed ten pounds. Four others weighed over

eight. At the end of the session, when we could no longer make a fish strike, I walked right up to the sweet spot and spotted a fish of truly epic dimensions During the same run lying where we’d made hundreds of casts. on which Matt Mauger Though I’ve seen current coming out of that caught his fish, Willie lake a few times, never with such amplitude Spaeth caught this bigger and velocity, I have caught just a handful of specimen on a day when the four to five pounders quality trout there since. I now recognize the did not bite so readily. events for what they were, a freakish fluke.

Whether standing in shallow water casting at fish, or addressing shots on the rolling hills, fairways and greens, anglers and golfers benefit from recognizing the futility of attempting to make some kinds of events repeat. In both endeavors, hedging the bet in favor of things which reliably repeat creates a foundation for consistency. In order to increase the odds of success, anglers and golfers must resist the temptation to try things which have relatively low probability of producing desired results consistently.

Recently, a customer told me he caught his personalbest trout on his daughter’s “Snoopy Pole”, after she lost interest in waiting for a bite and began frolicking in the calm water along the beach. Any sensible person would recognize the luck involved in such a catch and the futility of basing future fishing decisions on the chance it might repeat. Other situations, even ones with the same low level of reliability, prove much more difficult to judge, showing more potential to beguile any angler who fails to discern their fruitless beauty.

Keeping accurate records and identifying places and patterns which demonstrate consistency provide the best ways to avoid the pitfalls which accompany attempting to repeatedly catch fish in places where one freakish event played out, due to extenuating and temporary circumstances.

Wise captains stay prepared to recognize situations which provide fleeting, fantastic opportunity, but base most of their decisions on proven sites and strategies. They don’t try too hard to relive beautifully useless events, nor search for Mermaids in a Sea of Serendipity.

Whether standing in shallow water casting at fish, or addressing shots on the rolling hills, fairways and greens, anglers and golfers benefit from recognizing the futility of attempting to make some kinds of events repeat.

20 | June 2016

Contact

Kevin Cochran

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 MARTIN STRARUP

PART IV

I

t was still on the dark side of dawn as Bodie made his first cast toward an ancient duck blind up near the shore. He thumbed the spool gingerly, hoping to land the plug as softly as possible. Gathering his slack, he let the plug rest in its own ripples.

The surface explosion to his left, followed by Red’s signature hook-set grunt and screeching drag, told Bodie his salty partner would be tied up for a while. “Better him than me…” he thought to himself. “I’d rather stick a good trout any day!”

Bodie gathered a bit more line and twitched his rod sharply left, pausing another few seconds as the Super Spook Jr. stuttered briefly sideways—a technique he’d learned to entice shallow fish. Nothing.

Working it walk-the-dog, he quickly retrieved the final yards of line and cast to the other side of the old blind with barely enough time to lock his reel when the water exploded and his lure was blasted

several feet in the air. Bodie let the lure sit again and then worked his rod furiously to impart the dying twitches of a finger mullet. No blow up this time. The hand-painted plug just seemed to vanish. He set the hook as soon as he felt the weight of the fish.

Red called to him in a low voice, “Bodie, do you think Doug might want some redfish fillets?”

“Go ahead and string him, Red,” Bodie answered softly.

Suddenly the thought of Doug enjoying a slab of Red’s red grilled over mesquite made him almost want to apologize for laughing when he hooked it.

The fish that Bodie was playing and believing to be another red was too soon in giving up, and turned out to be a fat 22-inch trout.

He grabbed it quickly with his hand on the first pass and placed it on his stringer.

“That’s one!” Bodie signaled silently to Red.

Doug was about 20-yards on Bodie’s right when he heard the unmistakable surface smack of a solid trout. Light was coming quickly and he could see Doug’s rod bent deeply with the line running sideways toward the shallow part of the reef. In a flash it peeled straight back toward him, Doug reeling franticly, and then out into deeper water.

Doug worked the fish close and in what he and Red would talk about later, he deftly snagged its lower jaw with the Boga Grip as neatly as they’d ever seen it done.

“Nice fish,” Bodie and Red said in unison. Bodie watched from the corner of his eye as Doug tucked his rod under his arm like a pro, shook out his stringer, and strung the fish.

“What in the world could be keeping Tommy?” Bodie half-whispered to Red. “I hate that he’s missing this.”

“Maybe pirates got him,” Red replied devilishly.

Bodie tried to force a frown but the look of hope on Red’s face wouldn’t allow it.

“I guess I better go find out what he’s gotten himself into now,” Red snarled.

Bodie made several more casts toward the duck blind with no takers, then waded behind Doug to where he could cast to the edge of a gut that ran parallel to the reef. As Bodie passed, Doug set the hook on another solid blow-up and turned to Bodie mouthing the words, “Thank You.” Continuing 30 yards or so, Bodie made a cast to the edge of the gut.

It didn’t make three feet before the water exploded and a heavy fish rose halfway out of the water, shaking its head. The big trout pulled drag easily and Bodie knew better than to horse it. Just keep steady pressure and let the reel do the work he thought to himself. Admiring the fish, he scooped her up with both hands for Doug to see.

“That is a beautiful trout!” Doug exclaimed.

Bodie held her alongside his rod as best he could and announced, “Right at 28!”

He carefully worked the trebles loose with his pliers and began swishing her forward and backward to move water through her gills.

“Wait, Bodie.” Doug called to him excitedly. “I want a photo before you let her go.”

Bodie adjusted his grip and posed for the camera. Doug made the shot and announced he could let her go as soon as he verified a good image on the digital screen.

“Let’s just cruise this shoreline together,” Doug suggested. “There seems to be some nice fish here.”

The pair continued a slow wade with Doug bringing a nice 24-incher to hand. Bodie snapped a quick photo before Doug let her go. The strikes came steadily and nearly an hour passed as “fat keepers” were added to the stringers. Caught up in the catching, Bodie eventually realized that Red and Tommy still hadn’t joined them.

“Now what do you suppose those two are up to?” he mused aloud.

“Well, if I had to say, without being sure, I would guess that Red is looking for a place to bury a body,” Doug chuckled.

Bodie laughed at that and informed Doug that Red’s bark was worse than his bite, although he had bitten some folks in the past and it wasn’t pretty.

Doug laughed and suggested they should go find them. Bodie waved him off, saying, “Nah…Tommy probably saw some bait over on Cross Reef and Red’s with him. We’ll find them when we’re done here.”

The pair made it to the end of the reef where it met the island as Bodie announced a plan. “We’re going to walk across and fish the deeper water on the other side.”

“I can only keep one more trout,” Doug informed him.

“Yeah, and I already have a limit but we can catch and release.

Maybe we’ll pick up some reds along the shell.”

They waded out waist-deep and spread apart, Doug following Bodie’s lead. Doug finished his 5 trout limit with a nice 18-incher and Bodie hooked and lost with what he described as a “bruiser” of a trout.

The action slowed and Bodie suggested it was time for a break.

An old log on the bank made a comfortable seat as the pair chatted about fishing and life in general. Bodie learned that Doug had been in Europe only days earlier to attend a board meeting. He was the company’s chairman.

24 | June 2016

Bodie nudged him with the toe of his wading boot several times to no avail.

Doug spoke up. “Why don’t we just let him sleep and make our way back to port? Breakfast at my place?”

Red said he liked the idea of letting Tommy sleep. “If he’s sleeping he ain’t talking, and if he ain’t talking, I’m happy,” he whispered.

Gear stowed, Bodie cranked the quiet four-stroke outboard and began a slower-than-normal ride across the bay.

Even the noise from the pulleys on Bodie’s boat lift didn’t wake Tommy. As quietly as they could, everybody helped clean fish, grabbed their stuff, and locked the boat stall as they left.

“If it’s alright with you Doug, I’ll come on out and have some coffee, but I’m not really very hungry,” Red offered politely.

“Sure thing, Red,” Doug answered. “We need you along to help celebrate a great fishing trip.”

“What about Tommy?” Doug queried Bodie. “How will he get out of this boat stall if it’s locked from the outside?”

“Well, Doug,” Bodie answered, laughing. “The way I see it, soon as he sleeps off that fried-chicken hangover, I expect he’ll call me on his cell phone to come get him out. And he’ll try the next three days to convince me it was all Red’s fault.”

“This has been the best day I’ve had in years,” Doug proclaimed.

“Thank you for taking me and I do hope that we can do it again soon.

Now let’s head out to my place and rustle up some breakfast!”

Bodie had no more than climbed into the truck when his cell phone rang.

“Bodie, this is Tommy. I need help. Somehow I got locked inside your boat stall.”

Bodie got out of the truck, and with the others watching, unlocked the door. Tommy stumbled out rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“Did I hear somebody mention breakfast?”

Martin Strarup

Contact

“Bodie, have you ever been to Europe?”

“I’ve been to Mexico a few times but that’s as far as I’ve traveled.”

“If you could arrange some time off at the ranch, you should come with me the next time I go,” Doug said.

“There is a lot of history over there and so many things to see and do. So much older than our United States and so different from us.”

“Sounds a little like Mexico.”

Doug laughed and said he was serious—there would be plenty of room on his jet and he was sure Bodie would enjoy it. The sincerity in his eyes said more than his words.

“Well then, I guess I better go ahead and get that passport I’ve been putting off all these years.”

Doug chuckled. “Indeed my friend you most certainly will need that unless you want to stay on the plane the entire time we are over there.”

Doug told him about England and France, Greece and Germany. “I should think a real cowboy would be a big hit with the people over there.”

“Well Doug, I don’t know about all that, but being able to see all the sights and sample the food and drink sure fits me to a tee. Now, what say we head back to the boat and see what those other two yahoos caught this morning?”

Red and Tommy were nowhere in sight as they rounded the bend.

Bodie thought they must be fishing around the point. Handing Doug his rod and stringer so he could wade faster, he headed the shortest route across water that would fill any ordinary man’s waders. Doug headed for the boat.

Barely twenty yards, Bodie heard Doug clearing his throat rather loudly and turned to see him pointing.

Stretched out on the deck fast asleep lay Red and Tommy, an empty Popeyes bucket between them.

Summoning his meanest voice, Bodie yelled, “I sure hope you knuckleheads saved us some of that Popeyes chicken!”

Red jumped up and sheepishly took an ice chest seat—the way a scolded youngster would do. Tommy rolled over and squinted, said nothing, and pulled his wading jacket over his head.

“It’s really not my fault,” Red offered, meek as a mouse. “I came back and found Tommy drinking a Coke and eating fried chicken. He wouldn’t get out so I climbed in to throw him out. I don’t know exactly how it happened...Tommy was teasing me waving a drumstick under my nose…it smelled so good and…”

“Dadgummit, Red, I would expect as much from Tommy,” Bodie bellowed, biting his lip to avoid laughing.

Doug couldn’t hold back, already in tears.

“Dang it, Bodie. I knew I should have scratched this trip and gone to Victoria with my wife,” Red muttered embarrassedly.

Lying on his back, Tommy’s stomach looked like it would bust.

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

STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE

F

or some unknown reason, society seems forever interested and amused by the misfortunes of others.

Television has had countless shows dedicated to “bloopers” and other gaffes made by everyday people doing everyday things and the masses tune in weekly to get another dose of these antics. I’d be willing to bet that most fishermen you know are at least familiar with the Bill Dance blooper videos, a compilation of outtakes and blunders that fishermen can certainly relate to and laugh at as well.

I can remember walking through a Bass Pro Shop and turning a corner to see the display for Dance’s blooper video for sale. There was a TV playing highlights of the video and I stood and watched for a moment. Within a few minutes I was no longer alone. A crowd of at least a dozen shoppers had joined me and almost everyone was laughing or at least relating to many of the events on the screen.

Fast forward to today’s ultra-high-tech world of instant social media gratification and you can take the Bill Dance example and multiply by millions. Funny videos that get posted to places like YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram go viral almost instantly and the entire electronic world howls in laughter. What the old school called bloopers are epic fails in today’s social media lingo. The thought of these unfortunate mishaps being shared on social media got me thinking about some of my own epic fails and all I could I do was look back and laugh.

Offshore anglers have to keep a close eye on marine weather forecasts to avoid gaffes and other potentially dangerous situations.

When you should have turned left instead of right!

I do not know a fisherman who has not had a mishap at the boat ramp or at least seen their share of them. Saturday afternoon at a busy launch can provide some cheap entertainment. I’ve seen some funny stuff that made me laugh and cringe at the same time.

One morning after a duck hunt on a cold December morning I watched a pair of hunters prepare to load their boat on the trailer like they’d done a million times, or at least that’s what I thought. It became very apparent one of the hunters had minimal experience as he was being coached along at every step of the process. All appeared to be going well until it was time to winch the boat onto the trailer. This particular ramp has a steep ramp and that means added stress on the winch strap and winch itself so you can easily guess what’s coming.

Snapping the winch strap to the boat and beginning to crank the boat toward the bow stop, our novice let go of the handle and Never crank the boat paid dearly for it. Apparently onto the trailer without the anti-reverse mechanism the anti-reverse ratchet that prevents the winch lock engaged! spinning in reverse was faulty or he had failed to engage it.

The tension on the winch caused the crank to spin violently backward and just absolutely beat the heck out of his knuckles. I was in one of those mixed emotion situations…wanting to laugh at his antics hopping around alternately flailing his right hand as though to shake off the sting, and then stopping for a second to stare at it and flailing again. Poor bugger had to be in some kind of pain.

Another less painful example that comes to mind involves a good friend who was fishing at night by himself.

It seems he had recently purchased a high-dollar flashlight of which he was both very proud and fond of. The light 28 | June 2016

was a magnificent piece of machinery and the brightest thing you’d ever seen this side of the sun. During the night my friend had to answer nature’s call, the kind that cannot be put on hold. You know the one I’m talking about. He dropped his shiny new light midway in the process of responding to the call. The first bounce on the deck switched on the high-power beam and the second bounce carried it overboard. Pants around his ankles hanging over the gunwale, he could only stare in disbelief as the brilliant beam vanished into the depths. This would definitely qualify as an epic fail.

Oh, and I’ve had my share. Like being so excited to fish a new area that after a 30 minute boat ride I realized I’d left my tackle bag in the truck. I’ve launched my boat and forgotten to attach a bow line to the trailer – twice. Watching in the rearview mirror as your boat slides off the trailer and drifts off out into the bay is horribly embarrassing and puts an awful knot in your stomach. If you’re lucky, another fisherman present can ferry you with his boat to retrieve it. If you’re not so lucky you have to strip down and go for a swim.

The time I fished with clients in their boat and buried it in the marsh. I took a wrong turn and spent two hours pulling it to water deep enough to float.

And the guy that whacked me in the back of the head with a heavy leadhead jig while excitedly casting into a feeding frenzy under swarming gulls. I saw stars and nearly blacked out. The list goes on and on as do the lessons learned.

Most fishermen can relate to at least a few of these. Some will admit their mistakes and laugh along while others will go to great lengths to keep their gaffes under wraps. I think that sharing your failures as well as your success stories enables you to learn more

problem coming and plan or react accordingly.

Blindly jumping in a boat and heading out for a day on the water without researching the weather possibilities is just not a good practice, especially on bigger lakes and bays where you have to cross open water. Nothing says epic fail like getting caught in a storm or bad weather that had been predicted…and ignored.

You not only owe it to yourself and all aboard your boat to invest every effort to avoid weather fails, but you also owe it to the first responders who will risk their lives to save yours. Unforeseen circumstances aside – and because they cannot be predicted we should not classify them as fails – statistics point out the fact that a great majority of life threatening situations while boating could have been prevented with common sense, being advised of weather systems approaching, and simply being prepared.

Don’t be the guy everybody on Facebook laughs at (or cries for).

Chuck Uzzle

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about whatever your interests are—if for no other reason than a good laugh as well as the opportunity for somebody to offer helpful solutions to avoiding future pitfalls. Don’t be so thin-skinned… laughter is good for the soul.

So, back to social media, the information pipeline that we all love to hate and hate to love, is a powerful thing. Social media in all its glory can share both positive and negative images so fast to so many that it will literally astonish you. Use the technology wisely and enjoy it but, be smart. I’ve seen plenty of cases where some folks were so anxious to post things they’d done that they actually told off on themselves as lawbreakers.

You think game wardens and other law enforcement do not watch Facebook? Think again. If you are dumb enough to break the game and fish laws and post it on Facebook—all I can say is epic fail!

Now, since we have covered a few humorous examples of how we fail along with a couple serious ones, I think we should also address some everyday situations that determine how successful we are when we head for the water.

Probably tops on my list of determining fishing success on a day-in and day-out basis is actually reading and learning to interpret weather forecasts. Watching the TV weather guy or gal before you head out is one thing but I’m talking about really digging into the facts. Besides the fishing, your life could depend on it.

Most trips that don’t go well often have at least one weather excuse built into them. How many times have you heard anglers say the wind was bad or a front blew in? There are tons of other excuses but in most cases there is enough information available to help you see the

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 409-697-6111 wakesanddrakes@yahoo.com Email Website wakesndrakes.com

TSFMAG.com | 29

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

J

une marks another short season where we can legally spank offshore snapper, without fear of retribution from various law enforcement agencies. It’s a season too short that shows no signs of improving. Friends and I simply try to catch and freeze maybe a half dozen 12- or 14-pounders apiece, before the season ends. That’s ten or 12 dinners, often an entire fillet with skin and scales still attached, cooked over a mesquite grill. Shrink-wrapped, they do well in the freezer. That means we can ration out a snapper

dinner each month before the next season.

Texas does allow year-round snapper fishing out to nine miles, but that can be a sketchy call.

Especially along the upper coast, where you can catch trout offshore, and not see a snapper the entire day. For consistent, state-water keeper snapper action you would need a fairly secret (GPS) number, which is a dicey proposition within sight of land. The best time for state water action is the offseason—like November through March when boat traffic is greatly diminished, compared to summer.

There are small, natural rock formations off Padre Island only a mile or two offshore, but they’re best kept secret, or they could be cleaned out. It is nice to know kayakers launching from the beach have legitimate shots at keeper snapper, however.

To address fishing in federal waters: It’s now so easy to catch the daily bag limit of two snapper in June, there’s no use even hauling bait out there. Unless you want to fish the easy way with dead bait, and catch and release lots of big snapper. Which doesn’t sound too bad, if you can use (easy on the fish) circle hooks and release them quickly in good shape. With snapper, almost any bait will do; last

Dale Fontenot from Vidor with a ponderous snapper. Barely visible is the short wire leader and big silver spoon he used to catch it.

summer I caught two or three gallons of 8- to 12-inch mullet with the cast net (they were schooling on top at the jetties) and so next morning hauled them offshore. These mullet were iced down, not kept in a live well— no need to get extravagant with snapper.

We anchored over a rock in 75 feet of water, and fought many big snapper until our bait was gone. That’s fairly shallow water, and almost all of our released fish swam back down if we got them back in the water quickly. It was a glorious day, topped by 11 kingfish at the very same spot; out of bait by then, we used trolling lures. I’ll cover some of that king action in the July issue).

With the snapper, what would have been sporting is if we’d used artificial baits, as well. (And maybe trout tackle).

And why not? Catching red snapper on dead bait in June, in federal waters, is just about the easiest thing in the world if the wind isn’t blowing. I’ve seen eight-year olds using circle hooks practically dragged out of the boat while trying to hang on to their rods. With circles, you don’t even have to set the hook. On top of that we had an unusually calm “Heavy metal” jig that June last year, which is historically a windy month can sink down 600 in the western Gulf. I have theorized in the past that feet. A variety of fish the Feds schedule snapper season in windy June, to will hit these, including red snapper. hamper the harvest in our area. If so, it backfired on them last year.

This year we will try something different. Maybe chum snapper to the surface like a bunch of big goldfish, and try different tackle. Trout gear, using plugs or poppers. I even know guys who have caught big red snapper with fly rods.

Friends of mine in Beaumont have been using these big silver musky spoons for 25 years out there on snapper, and one of them this past April caught and released a 28-pounder on a spoon. They’ve also caught all sorts of other fish on spoons, from sheepshead to kings. They use the big, old-fashioned flutter spoons, modeled after something we use in the bays, and those take a little while to sink deep, but they work.

A flutter spoon is a little unusual, and impractical when snapper are deeper, say 200 feet, and the current Big snapper caught this running. What more offshore anglers are turning April by Pete Churton in to today, especially in Florida, is what I call “heavy Beaumont, again with a metal” jigs that are thin, heavy, and up to a foot silver spoon. He’s been long. These suckers will shoot down 600 feet to the tossing spoons offshore for more than 30 years. bottom on braided line, and with that setup you can feel every hit even at that depth. We’ve used them off Texas in maybe 120 feet of water, and the metal jigs not only caught big red snapper, but bonus fish such as scamp and Warsaw grouper. Even kings, way down deep. Our guy Alan Reynolds using these jigs caught a better variety of fish than anyone else on the boat, including my usual two-ounce bucktail jigs, which I’ve used out there for 30 years. Anyway, jigs are more sporting. I was bent over the rail fighting big snapper, (we could see them milling around only 25 feet down), but Alan was getting bonus grouper even deeper. I’m always envious when someone catches a scamp grouper, a rare treat on the dinner table.

For jigging it helps to have a longer rod (eight feet seems ideal), to lift the jig quickly off bottom and let it drop back Alan Reynolds with keeper mangrove snapper, yanked out of a nearby platform.

32 | June 2016

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in small segregated groups around maybe one corner of an oil rig.

One night before bag limits, years ago, we caught 200 pounds of nice three-pound lane snappers, at a small rock off Louisiana in 90 feet.

It’s been said that lane snapper have softer meat than red snapper, though I never tried comparing them on the table.

34 | June 2016

Joe Richard

Joe Richard has fished the Gulf since 1967, starting out of Port Arthur, but his adventures have taken him up and down the entire coast.

He was the editor of Tide magazine for eight years, and later Florida Sportsman’s book and assistant magazine editor. He began guiding out of Port O’Connor in 1994. His specialty is big kingfish, and his latest book is The Kingfish Bible, New Revelations. Available at Seafavorites.com

Contact

down. A long rod means a bigger sweep. I was on a Florida party boat and the deckhand walked around, hooking fish for different people. He would yank that jig high overhead with one sweep, before letting it flutter back down. Then set the hook multiple times on a big fish. If he missed a strike, it was back to the overhead sweeps. It should go without saying that using mono line, with its inherent stretch, prevents a good hookset. Braid will knock the crap out a fish far below.

I’m fond of 65-pound braid for that job.

There are a greater variety of metal jigs Releasing red snapper available today. Some are center-weighted, not is now a common shaped like a bread stick, and designed to flutter sight. Use bait out down on a slack line. They say you can use a rod there in federal waters, and you can be doing only five and a half feet long for that work, so this all day. it’s not quite so labor-intensive as using longer rods. If you have a bad shoulder, this energetic jigging can get tiresome in a hurry, although it usually doesn’t take long to get a hookup.

If you’re in decent shape, why not use jigs? Snapper off Texas are always hungry, not too smart, and almost always hit artificial baits down deep. Even in the early 1970s we used standard leadhead, brush-tail jigs off party boats, and they could be deadly, especially on amberjack. But also snapper up to 18 pounds—back when a snap of that size usually won the daily fish pot. Often on slow days, we had the only action going, while the rest of the group leaned against the rail, watching us.

Game wardens check Keeping only two red snapper in red snapper in state federal waters is a drag, but consider waters off POC during bonus snapper. Catching the muchearly Spring. Photo smarter gray or “mangrove” snapper courtesy of Ted and Weslene Gaetjen, and has become popular. You tie the boat Fred Cheney, who up close to the rig and fling handfuls of made a good catch chum inside the structure. Mangroves are and said the wardens seldom on bottom, they prefer working were professional, courteous, and tried to much higher in the water column. make the check easy.

Chumming turns them on, and that’s when you cast a bait chunk in there with 30 or 40 pound line, and a four-foot fluorocarbon leader with maybe a 4/0 hook hidden inside the bait. Just a line and hook, no hardware. When a snapper grabs on, you’d better try to pull his head off, because they really know how to find cover and cut that line in about three seconds. Trout tackle would be ineffective here, around all that sharp structure.

Vermilion or “beeliners” prefer underwater rocks in blue water, generally in 100 to 200 feet. They feed above bottom, have small mouths, and a small chunk of squid with small hook works best.

The biggest beeliners are called “ocean liners” and hang out in their deeper range. They often feed after sunset; the biggest I ever saw were caught on a black night from an anchored party boat at Candy Mountain off Louisiana, where the bottom comes up from 180 feet or so, to 66 feet. A jagged limestone mountain top down there; we dove it at mid-day to look around. The beeliners were only 30 or 40 feet below the surface, milling around day and night.

Lane snappers are what we used to call “candy snappers.” They look just like red snapper but have yellow horizontal stripes, as well.

They stay right on bottom and eat cut bait. I’ve seen them schooling

. Ph.D. STORY BY Quentin Hall, M.S. and Greg Stunz,

An aerial view of Cedar Bayou from the Gulf of Mexico. The almost straight-line access that Cedar Bayou provides to Mesquite Bay is clearly visible from this vantage point.

I

n the nearly two years since being reopened, Cedar Bayou has reclaimed its hallowed reputation in hearts of Coastal Bend anglers. Research findings from the Harte Research Institute’s Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation are definitively showing that the inlet is once again serving as an aquatic highway, allowing the exchange of organisms between the Gulf of Mexico and the onceisolated Mesquite Bay. Reestablishing this vital gulf-to-bay link allows millions of tiny young estuarinedependent sportfish and crustaceans a doorway to nursery waters from offshore spawning grounds. Access to these estuarine habitats is critical for sustaining and building healthy sportfish populations and a robust ecosystem. Not to mention—the flowing bayou has restored stellar fishing opportunities for inshore anglers.

Fry of key sportfish species, particularly redfish, have responded vigorously to a flowing Cedar Bayou. This is exciting given that these quarter-inch-long redfish were completely absent during two years of sampling effort prior to the reopening. Within weeks of Cedar Bayou being opened, hundreds of fry were found at our sampling sites.

During the second year of post-opening study, redfish densities increased substantially.

The numbers of redfish fry Mesquite Bay is now sheltering are some of the highest we have observed anywhere along the middle Texas coast. Given that many young sportfish, including redfish, have higher survival rates once they reach seagrass nurseries, the delivery role Cedar Bayou now plays could potentially create a new source population of redfish in the Mesquite Bay region. This is fantastic news given that this area is well-known for its outstanding fishing.

While sportfishing reigns supreme, the basis for any healthy gamefish population is an abundant forage base. Texas’ iconic inshore predatory sportfish rely heavily on blue crabs, croaker, and These young redfish shrimp for prey. The data we have collected over the past were collected near four years (2 years pre- and 2 years post-opening) has shown Cedar Bayou at the a significant increase in the number of prey species making same site on the their way into Mesquite Bay’s nurseries since Cedar Bayou same day. The size differences may was reopened. look significant To be more specific—we found nearly 8-times as many but given the rapid croaker fry, 16-times as many juvenile blue crabs, and growth rate of this 25-times as many post-larval penaeid (brown, white, and species all of these fish are only a few pink) shrimp since Cedar Bayou was reopened! days apart in age.

It is important to keep in mind that most of these animals are smaller than your pinky nail when sampled, and use the plentiful habitat to support their populations. These staggering increases in young prey species will almost certainly provide more sportfish fodder in Mesquite Bay than what was Sampling near Cedar Bayou. available before Cedar Bayou was restored. The fact This special net is called that these higher productivity trends are continuing an epibenthic sled and is into the second year post-opening is perhaps the most specially designed to collect encouraging aspect of this project. small fish, shrimp, and crabs, from seagrass beds.

Increases of estuarine-dependent species have been so acute since reopening Cedar Bayou, the entire marine community in Mesquite Bay has changed for the better.

Pre-opening communities were dominated by species commonly associated with Texas bays that do not require access to tidal inlets; post-opening communities now support high densities of some of the most desirable estuarine-dependent species. Much like redfish, many of these estuarine-dependent species were completely absent prior to reestablishing flow to Cedar Bayou.

Star drum fry and young clupeids (mainly Gulf A young pinfish and menhaden) are now present in Mesquite Bay and occur post-larval penaeid in large numbers during certain times of the year. Overall, (white or brown) blue crabs, post-larval penaeid shrimp, and pinfish were the shrimp collected during the spring main drivers of this community change and their increased sampling season. Both abundance can be directly attributed to Cedar Bayou. of these species are From a broader impacts perspective, this increase in important prey items crustaceans, particularly blue crabs, will almost certainly for many sportfish. be an important prey-base for the endangered whooping cranes that forage in this area during their winter stay. We predict that as time progresses this community will continue to stabilize and strengthen through the diversity delivered by Cedar Bayou, thus creating a sustainable and highly productive marine community in Mesquite Bay. We often compare Cedar Bayou to an aquatic highway and, just Southern flounder fry were present near Cedar Bayou during the winter months. A wide range of variables influences southern flounder populations and further study is needed to better understand recruitment patterns.

38 | June 2016

like a highway across land the traffic moves both ways. While fry use inlets to move into bays The total number of redfish fry sampled after hatching offshore, adults by year. Notice there were none found prior to the reopening of Cedar Bayou. of many species require inlets to move out into open water to join on the spawning grounds. Some, such as redfish, leave to never return, while flounder leave in the fall and return during spring.

Certainly gulf-access during these migration events is key.

To better understand these migration patterns, one of our main objectives during this project was to use acoustic telemetry to examine how adult organisms use Cedar Bayou.

Briefly, acoustic telemetry involves surgically implanting a small sound-producing transmitter into a fish. Once tagged, each fish emits a unique code at a certain frequency that is picked up by a series of receivers, allowing scientists to track the movements of individual fish with a great deal of accuracy.

Restoring this inlet has given Mesquite Bay’s extensive seagrass Given their hardy reputation we decided to implant adult redfish nurseries massive potential as “Mother Nature’s Hatcheries” for a with acoustic tags capable of transmitting for two years. In the year variety of species. This “shot in the arm” to the region’s ecology prior to opening, when no flow was occurring, there was not a single is now ensuring a steady seasonal supply of young organisms to detection within Cedar Bayou and most of the fish stayed near their these nursery areas that provide plentiful food supplies for rapid original tagging locations in Mesquite Bay. This sedentary lifestyle growth and structured habitat (seagrasses, marsh, and oyster reef ) continued even after the inlet was reopened, that is until the fall of to escape predators.

2014. During a ten day period in mid-October however, we began The future will reveal the full impact of restoring Cedar Bayou, but detecting extensive activity in Cedar Bayou as cooling weather patterns so far the inlet’s positive influence on the Mesquite Bay ecosystem is and shorter days triggered the annual migration event. quite amazing. If you haven’t visited Cedar Bayou, it should be high Given that most of these fish moved offshore and did not return, we on your list. Not only is observing nature in this remote undeveloped are confident in saying that the implanted redfish used Cedar Bayou barrier island region spectacular, the fishing is just as great. as a migration route to offshore spawning grounds within months of it being reopened. The information we gained from our acoustic study Quentin Hall received his Master’s degree in Marine Biology from Texas with redfish has prompted us to investigate how spotted seatrout use A&M – Corpus Christi and currently is a full-time scientist with the Cedar Bayou. This project is underway with 25 transmitter-implanted Harte Research Institute’s Center for Sportfish Science. Quentin’s thesis trout that will help scientists at the Sportfish Center uncover some of research focused on the impacts of reopening Cedar Bayou on juvenile the migration patterns for this popular sportfish. fish populations.

The opening of Cedar Bayou and its associated benefits are the direct Dr. Greg Stunz is the Director of the Center for Sportfish Science and result of years of hard work. Aransas County Commissioners, Coastal Conservation, as well as the Endowed Chair of Fisheries and Ocean Health Conservation Association, and untold numbers of private citizens at the Harte Research Institute. The Center focuses on habitat requirements managed to bring this natural treasure back from the brink of obscurity of marine life using a variety of state-of-the-art equipment including and destruction. Allowing the inlet to naturally meander and reassume tracking devices for sharks, red snapper, and dolphin-fish. The center also previous courses has been a quite remarkable process to watch. oversees a number of projects directed at understanding the importance You can help to ensure a lasting impact as well. By minimizing wake of tidal inlets on sportfish populations. The CSSC team aims to provide erosion causing an accumulation of sediment in the channel, Cedar scientific data for sustainable management of marine fisheries and ocean Bayou will retain its natural ability to wander and remain open. With resources to ensure healthy sportfish populations. Check out this project smart boating practices Cedar Bayou will continue to evolve, providing and videos of Cedar Bayou at: www.sportfishreserach.org visitors with an ever-changing and unique experience every trip.

40 | June 2016

High tide conditions will push trout right up to the shoreline.

J AY WAT K I N S

ASK THE PRO

Winning the Mind Game Weather patterns during late-April and thus far in May have been particularly unpredictable. Late-season fronts have been dropping water temperatures and tide levels and this seems to disturb the trout spawning activity as well as the migration of finger mullet and menhaden.

I typically target concentrations of these important forage species, believing that trout follow them closely, especially during the spawning period.

Prior to the opening of Cedar Bayou I observed that spring bait migrations in Aransas Bay ran predominantly from south to north as mullet and menhaden entered the bay system through the Port Aransas jetties. This is not to say that some may not also head south but I have not witnessed it to be as prevalent. I have no science to support my theories, just many days on the water monitoring baitfish and gamefish movements.

Apart from the bait movements, another important reason for starting my spring season on the south end of the Aransas system and working progressively further north would be historic fishing pressure. In late-April and throughout May, weekdays are practically void of boats on the south end. However, as soon as school lets out, 42 | June 2016

angling pressure increases dramatically on the south end and up north we have traditionally had lots of water to ourselves.

The new wrinkle, with Cedar Bayou open, an abundance of finger mullet and menhaden entering through this pass has opened up Mesquite, Cedar, Carlos and all points north of Ayre’s Dugout to earlier arrival of forage species for spawning trout in these systems. I have most definitely seen an increase in the numbers and quality of trout we are catching in these areas since the bayou was opened.

With conditions changing back and forth with weather, our fish have been somewhat trickier to pattern. Water is still very clear due to 70â ° water temps, which are quite cool for the time of the year. Clear water often sends shallow-orientated predators into a pattern I refer to as deep and dark. Light penetration diminishes as depth increases and the water naturally becomes darker. This seems to cause a stacking effect along dropoffs where deeper-darker water lies adjacent to primary shallow-water feeding areas. I believe that trout are programmed by nature to stage in areas as close to their

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but there will always be something changing weatherwise that requires that we rethink what we believe we already know. My daily commitment to myself and my clients is to continually compare and confirm (or question) that which we encounter on the water throughout the day.

Right now it’s a mind game for all of us and, because it is a game, if we want to win we must play through the fourth quarter. I am paying close attention each day to the changes in conditions as they arise.

I am continuously aware of solunar major and minor feeding periods as well as areas that have been consistently holding the right types of food for the species I am targeting.

With trout, it’s finger mullet and menhaden over submerged grass in slightly sandy to downright dirty water, preferably along windward shorelines and spoils islands. For reds its small shrimp and crabs and these too are commonly found along windward shorelines and spoils, but up shallower, where sand and grass meet the actual shoreline. The higher the tides the better the bite becomes in these areas for reds and remember that huge trout will sometimes slip in to eat their share of crabs.

Once an area has been located we often wait until the timing is right (solunar feeding periods) before entering and beginning to fish. This is the ultimate mind game and calls for supreme confidence in your game plan. My dad told me a few weeks before his passing to never worry about things I could not control. “Control the things you can,” he said, “and react in a positive manner to those you cannot.” Excellent advice for anglers fishing mind game conditions.

May your fishing always be catching! -Guide Jay Watkins

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primary food source as possible to conserve energy.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we find fish living on large expanses of shallow flats exhibiting a totally different attitude. Many times the largest of trout go extremely shallow on virtually nothing but white sand. I find these fish to be the absolute hardest to catch on a daily basis. Getting close enough to get a cast to one is a challenge in itself.

Taking all that I have mentioned so far into consideration, what’s the game plan when patterns don’t seem to be developing?

Now we’re talking the brain game.

My son Ryan was being interviewed recently in a tournament in which we finished second. That’s first loser to those who believe winning is everything. Too many trophies and medals awarded nowadays simply for participating in my opinion, but of course this is a whole other issue.

Conditions were less than favorable on the week prior to and also on the day of the tournament. Ryan Reds too will feed on shrimp and jumped all over it and stated that on small crabs up against windward days such as this the tournament is shorelines when tides are not won with rod and reel alone but running unusually high. between the ears. What a profound statement and how true it was.

He went on to explain that many anglers allow the conditions to get into their heads—too windy to fish windward shorelines, too cloudy to sight-cast, too windy to run schools—everybody forced to fish the same protected waters. We did not catch much while pre-fishing while some of the locals knew where good fish were holding prior to the bad weather moving in.

The brain game is often a dangerous thought process that convinces many they simply cannot compete. Always remember that a defeatist attitude more times than not produces defeat and through this 75% of the field will eliminate themselves before the game even begins. The mind game is the biggest of all the games.

Every year we encounter something new to take into consideration when trying to predict seasonal patterns and quite often this is the biggest challenge facing less-than-seasoned anglers. I cannot over-emphasize how important it is to maintain an accurate log and record each fishing trip as soon as you return. Tides, wind, water temps, water clarity, etc., the list is almost endless and writing it down while the details are fresh in your mind helps the learning process.

Over the years, definite fishing patterns will emerge for each season

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

Jason on the water.

C A P T. S COT T N U L L

S H A L L O W W AT E R F I S H I N G

Heroes on the Water If you are a longtime reader you may recall me writing in the past about Heroes on the Water (HOW). I have a special place in my heart for this organization. Years ago I was privileged to participate in the beginnings of what would become HOW. It all started with a group of paddlers taking wounded soldiers kayak fishing as an escape from their hospital rehab stay in San Antonio. I saw firsthand the benefits of a few hours on the water.

Actually, catching fish was secondary to just being in the outdoors away from rehab routine. It did wonders for their attitude. You could see them unwind and relax and it did a lot for me, as well.

Through the leadership of Jim Dolan, HOW has grown into an incredible support group. It has expanded farther than I ever dreamed and has helped thousands upon thousands of veterans and their families.

A couple weeks ago I attended the Texas Music Throwdown, an annual fundraiser benefiting HOW. As the name suggests, it’s a night of great Texas music with Scooter Brown and Sean McConnell putting on a fantastic show this year. The event raised $66,000. As good as the music was, it was a soldier who stole the show.

I’ve known SFC Military Policeman Jason Austin for a couple of years; we met through HOW. I knew Jason had been through rough times but never knew his story until 46 | June 2016

he took the stage, perched on a stool in front of a huge American flag and started talking. You could’ve heard a pin drop. Powerful. That is the only word I could use to describe his story. His matter-of-fact delivery was amazing to me. It takes one hell of a man to talk about something so deeply personal and traumatic, but Jason believes deeply in Heroes on the Water and is willing to do anything to help them reach others like him. The least I can do is share his story in hope that it moves you as it did me.

Many vets have what they term their “alive day.” The day they should have died. Jason’s is April 13th, 2007.

This is his story…

“I’m coming up on my nine-year alive day. April 13, 2007 my driver decided to run over two South African 155 rounds and a pile of 80 millimeter Japanese or Chinese mortars. The next 900 days I recovered from a broken neck, back, left frontal brain damage, hearing, some vision loss and some pretty serious head and leg damage.

I died eight times on the way to Germany. I stayed there about a week until stabilized and then ended up in a polytrauma center in Tampa.

For about the next year I was there, I was told I was never going to walk again. My brain may or may not heal.

If you ask my wife now, it never did. But, for the most part, I’m better, I think. The physical side of it obviously heals

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Jason Austin with combat vet, Mike Ethridge.

If you happen to see Jason somewhere along the coast, shake his and thank him for his service to our country. He deserves it!

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Jason telling his story on stage at the recent Texas Music Throwdown.

and you start to deal with it. The mental side of it was what I really struggled with. Day to day, trying to remember things, bits and pieces.

Friends don’t know who you are anymore. Your family really doesn’t recognize the face standing in front of them. And you don’t either.”

So again, you have all this stuff going on. I mean, I was in the Army nineteen years. Now I don’t have a career. My wife left about a year into it, couldn’t take it anymore, and took my infant daughter with her. So I don’t have a career, I don’t have a family, I don’t have friends. What do you have? A shotgun, a letter apologizing…and you make that decision that I’m just gonna leave and be done with it. And that day came.

I sit up here and tell you about the story and I can taste the metal in my mouth. I can see everything going on that day. And I’ll be damned if the phone didn’t ring and interrupt me killing myself. A voice on the other side of the phone said, “Hey I don’t know what you’re doing tomorrow, but you wanna go fishing?

Huh? If you only knew what I was going to be doing tomorrow you’d know that I don’t want to go fishing. But something told me, go. You can kill yourself tomorrow if it doesn’t work out. So I went. Spent about four or five hours on the water in Sarasota, Florida with a guy I didn’t know. I didn’t catch a single fish. But my life changed forever.

He was a representative of Heroes on the Water.

I went home and thought about the day. My girlfriend at the time, she comes home from work and says, Boy, you’re in a good mood.

Yeah, I went fishing today with some guy I didn’t know…and I didn’t kill myself. She always worried about that. She figured she was going to come home and find my brains splattered all over the bedroom.

And from that day I never looked back.

I sold that shotgun and put the money toward a kayak and some fishing gear. For the next five years I’ve done nothing but travel the Gulf coast fishing kayak tournaments. I wrapped my truck, some of you might have seen it out there with a redfish on it, because I needed to reach out to guys like me that are sitting at home ready to wash their mouth out with a 12 gauge.

So if you’re ever wondering if it’s worth coming here tonight listening to the music. Or is it worth bidding on that stuff over there. To me it is. Because everyone in this room basically saved my life. Thank you. I love you for it. My family loves you for it.”

If you’d like to watch the video of Jason’s talk, go to the Facebook page of Harbor America. They are a great sponsor of Texas Music Throwdown and Heroes on the Water. I dare you to watch that video and not get a lump in your throat.

I was going to add in a bunch of statistics and such proving the program works, but I think Jason said it far better. If you’d like more information on HOW, visit www.heroesonthewater.org.

If you are a vet in need or you know one that could use some help, there are 60 chapters in 32 states as well as chapters in Australia and the U.K. Pretty damn cool from just taking a few guys fishing in Aransas Pass a few short years ago.

And if you see a guy in a truck with the HOW logo plastered all over it, walk up and shake his hand. Thank him. He deserves it.

48 | June 2016

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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By Zack Thomas | Natural Resources Specialist

FIELD NOTES

Citizen Science on the Go:

The iSnapper Self-Reporting App During the 2014 red snapper season Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) asked red snapper anglers to log onto the TPWD online snapper survey site (https:// apps.tpwd.state.tx.us/snapper/) upon returning from a fishing trip to report the number of red snapper caught in both state and federal waters.

TPWD routinely conducts creel surveys to monitor fishing effort of a variety of species, including red snapper, but having the ability to collect self-reported catch data online introduces additional efficiencies in data collection and has the potential to reach a large number of anglers compared to more traditional data collection methods. The TPWD online snapper survey site was created in an effort to improve estimates of the total recreational harvest of red snapper that can be used in validating current harvest monitoring programs, planning future harvest monitoring programs, and further assisting in the overall management of the fishery.

Then, in 2015 TPWD partnered with the Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Harte Institute to use the mobile application iSnapper, in an attempt to reach a larger populous of recreational anglers. iSnapper had been previously used in a pilot study in the for-hire industry to determine if electronic devices could accurately collect recreational fishery data. The pilot program quickly became 50 | June 2016

a success, and shortly thereafter was revamped to include real-time data collection and to also give the private recreational sector an opportunity to provide data to help improve red snapper management. To do this, iSnapper was redesigned and now includes user-friendly features for recreational anglers to easily and quickly enter their catch data. In 2015, 393 individuals registered to use the app with 171 trips submitted during the federal season, and 95% of those trips were submitted by private recreational anglers from Texas. Additional app features include a trip/ catch log, trip statistics, local weather reports, ability to save fishing photos and share fishing updates on social media. Download free at www.iSnapper.org.

The red snapper season is open year round in Texas state waters (15� minimum and daily bag limit of four), however, regulations differ in federal waters (outside 9 nautical miles). The Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, which is made up of representatives from the five Gulf States and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), manages the red snapper fishery in federal waters. Federal recreational fishing regulations for red snapper are more restrictive (16� minimum size limit and a daily bag limit of two and a very limited fishing season). Although recent stock assessments show there are increasing abundances of red snapper, due to more restrictive seasons (Figure 1),

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

Figure 1. Length of the federal recreational red snapper season.

the age structure of the population is getting larger. And, the Annual Catch Limit is being reached much sooner because much larger fish are being landed. As a result, this has led to conflict amongst user groups involved in the red snapper fishery. In federal waters, NMFS determines the red snapper season based on fish abundance data collected by both state and federal agencies, and based on that fish abundance data, NMFS determines a total poundage of red snapper that can be harvested from the Gulf and sets the season in federal waters based on historical landings. NMFS has attempted to alleviate tensions between user groups in the past by improving and refining the recreational catch data survey processes.

Your use of iSnapper in both the for-hire industry and recreational private sector will give TPWD additional data that will be used to validate red snapper landings data collected during our routine creel sampling program. A more precise estimation of recreational landings will result in a better understanding of the fishery and will allow scientists to continually improve the sustainable management of the red snapper fishery. Thereby using iSnapper allows you, the angler, the opportunity to ensure that future generations of anglers have the opportunity to experience the excitement of catching this highly sought after species, not only along the Texas coast, but in the entire northern Gulf of Mexico! Help us make your catch count!

For additional information concerning federal fishing regulations, please contact the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council at (888) 833-1844 (toll free) or visit them online at www.gulfcouncil.org If you have any questions regarding the red snapper fishery and/or regulations in Texas state waters or the iSnapper app, contact the TPWD Coastal Fisheries Division at (512) 389-8575.

52 | June 2016

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 HING

“Trade Secret” Tying Technique

OK folks it’s that time of month. Here I am racking my brain to write something interesting. And, since I’ve been failing miserably at that for three days, I’ve decided to do something I don’t normally do. I’m going to share what I consider one of my best-kept fly-tying secrets.

It’s no stretch to say that I am stingy with information as it pertains to how I do my job, and while I will help anybody with casting technique or teach them knots and rigging, I have always been reluctant to divulge fishing spots, how to find a fishing spot, and/or certain flies I use and how I tie them. Trade secrets, if you will. I don’t usually share these but, I’m gonna break my rule.

Over the years I have mentioned my fondness for the dubbing brushes created by EP (Enrico Puglisi). In fact, outside of a few exceptions, I incorporate his brushes into nearly every fly I tie. Now, with that being said, I am also continuously trying to create new flies that might get the job done a little better.

Last year during a stretch of ridiculously clear water, I was having particular difficulty getting tarpon to eat my flies. I was of course spending plenty of time at the vise trying to figure out something different, yet very realistic, that might get a nod from one of 54 | June 2016

those picky shad. The result is what I am going to share with you here.

Since my rye-fueled revelation I have had many individuals inquire as to how I do it. The “it” being the method I devised for producing color fade from top to bottom rather than front to back, using only brushes.

The sky is of course the limit in regards to this tying method because an individual can create some of the most realistic small baitfish patterns ever seen by a fish.

Let’s get down to business.

The trick to tying this type of fly lies wholly within the imagination of the person tying. By that, I mean, it could be a pattern that incorporates only two colors or potentially three or four, and could utilize any number of materials for the tail section. It all depends on what you might trying to imitate.

Step 1

Step 1- Choose a tail material. I used grizzly hackle. But, remember, you could use some EP Fibers, bucktail, ostrich hurl or even craft fur. It all depends on the length of the fly you are trying to create.

Step 2 Step 2- Choose a light-colored brush and make three to four wraps, secure it and then tie in some EP Game Changer eyes or maybe Clear Cure Goo Dumbbell Eyes. Be sure to pick out or brush out the brush using a dubbing needle or fine-toothed comb.

Step 5 Step 5- Pick out the darker brush and trim below the shank of the hook.

Step 6 Step 3

Step 6- Trim the darker material BELOW the shank of the hook.

Step 3- Re-secure the lighter-colored brush (this does not have to be the same color) at the point where you finished making the initial wraps of the first lighter-colored brush.

Step 7 Step 7- Fold the lighter-colored material below the shank of the hook forward (this creates the belly of the fly) and then secure it.

Step 8- Go catch a big fish!

Step 4- Choose a darker-colored brush that will be secured in the same place as the lighter colored brush and then palmered forward past the eyes, to the eye of the hook.

56 | June 2016

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Step 4

This is an excellent pattern that catches the hell out of stubborn fish, for me anyway. Apply the techniques I have demonstrated and use your own imagination.

Until next month. Be good…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

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Wear your PFD, and cover up from the sun!

DAV E R O B E R T S

K AYA K F I S HING CHR O NIC L E S

Kayaking MUSTS

for Summertime Safety Summertime has once again made its way to Texas and anglers can rejoice. Along with the temperature, the fishing is heating up along the Gulf coast and everyone is eager to hit the water. But before you throw your kayak in your truck, there are a few things that need to be considered to ensure that you will enjoy a safe day on the water.

Before I go any further with this, I will be the first to tell you that I have been 100% guilty of not following all the “musts” I am about to discuss. I was once a stubborn young kid with a mindset that I was invincible. Coming of age and becoming a bit wiser, I have realized that I am surrounded by potentially dangerous situations on every excursion. Some may be more immediate, others could prove deadly or debilitating down the road.

I know everyone is guilty of this, myself included, but we MUST start wearing our PFDs every minute we are in the kayak, on every trip we make! Even though the law

58 | June 2016

does not require it to be worn, it does you no good if you flip out of your kayak and your PFD is stowed inside your dry hatch.

I do not know the exact number, but I know for a fact we have already lost at least three kayak anglers to drowning this year.

I have heard the excuse that PFDs are uncomfortable in the kayak more times than I can recall and I’m sure there are folks out there who actually believe this.

Fortunately, it is not true and, anybody perpetuating this myth has simply not checked into it very well. Several companies offer PFDs designed and manufactured specifically for kayaking applications. I wear a Kokatat Bahia Tour PFD; it is so comfortable that I have been halfway home when I realized I was still wearing it. Onyx and Stohlquist are other notable brands and can be found at Fishing Tackle Unlimited. Be sure to purchase a good one…your life depends on it.

60 | June 2016

A good PFD designed for kayaking can be worn comfortably all day.

a threat. I want everyone to get out on the water and enjoy their time kayaking. I do not want to deter anyone from making a trip but I want you to be mindful and make good judgments BEFORE your outings. Wear your PFD, let somebody know where you are headed, watch out for others, and dress appropriately.

If you are safe on the water, you MUST be having fun!

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I know Scott Null touched on this Dropping a pin and sending it to subject in last month’s issue (which a friend is a great way to let them was spot on) but it is important know where you will be fishing enough that I want to reiterate some should anything go wrong. of his comments: -We MUST start making better judgments regarding “less-thanideal” weather days. Hectic work schedules and other obligations often allow very limited opportunity to get on the water but this in no way justifies a “hell or high water” attitude. Launching in bad weather or with a forecast of bad weather likely to arrive during your outing needs some serious reevaluation.

No doubt in my mind—bank or pier fishing on that one day you can go may not sound near as glamourous or offer the same catching opportunity—but it sure as heck beats risking becoming a drowning statistic!

-Another MUST is letting a friend or relative know where you will be fishing. This has been one of my greatest personal failures over the years and a bad habit I am working to break. I have a tendency to fish by myself frequently and if a situation was to occur, no one would know where to find me. Realizing how potentially dangerous this might be I have begun informing others of my fishing plans. If they have not heard from me by a specified time they need to start looking. I completely understand keeping honeyholes secret and I am guilty. But at least inform a non-fishing friend or relative. Drop a pin and send it to their cell phone. If something happens they know to contact the right people and start looking for you.

Another potential hazard we all face comes from others on the water. We MUST watch out for ourselves and others fishing with us because some people on boats or jet skis simply do not understand how dangerous a large wake can be to a kayaker. Even a moderate wake can be enough to throw a kayaker off balance. Keep a good lookout and watch your own back.

As kayakers and fisherman we are constantly exposing ourselves to the elements. The scorching Texas sun is no joke and can ruin an angler’s day very quickly. Simply put—we MUST start protecting ourselves from the sun. I am on the water 1-3 times a week, so I spend a lot of time sitting in the sun. The typical sunburn was almost second nature to me in the past but lately I have become concerned with the long term effect of exposure to U.V. rays and the possibility of skin cancer somewhere down the road.

Cover up! Rarely do I leave even an inch exposed. Long pants, long sleeve shirt, facemask and a wide-brimmed hat should be standard equipment on every paddling trip. Magellan, Columbia and Simms all make great SPF-rated fishing clothes. I particularly like the Simms facemasks as they are perforated in the face region to help eliminate your glasses fogging from your breath. A good pair of polarized glasses is not only helpful in fishing but they also offer excellent U.V. protection for your eyes. One of the primary causes of cataracts later in life is sun exposure.

Whether you are a first-timer or a veteran, all of these hazards pose

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

Story by John Blaha

T S F M a g Co n s e r v a t i o n N e ws

What Can You Do For

The Resource?

I am often asked, “How can I help CCA…what volunteer opportunities are available?”

When responding to these questions earlier in my career with CCA, I would have to routinely ask myself first, “What would make me a better steward of the wonderful resources the Texas coast has to offer?”

As saltwater fishing enthusiasts, opportunities are plentiful up and down the entire Texas coast to enjoy our state’s marine resources. As the population along the coast and families that travel to the coast continue to grow at a rapid pace, we must put our best foot forward to continue to educate all users, and ourselves, in the

62 | June 2016

importance of the conservation of our marine fisheries and put our best foot forward to individually take the next step in securing them for the future.

The populations of speckled trout and redfish are doing well according to the recent resource surveys of Texas Parks Wildlife Department (TPWD). Most recently there has been plenty of freshwater inflow into the bays and greater conservation measures have been put in place for speckled trout. These two factors alone are already showing signs of improved fisheries and the success of the effort to restore redfish populations continues to be one of the greatest conservation stories of all times.

This is great news for recreational fisherman, but as the number of fish stocks appears to be in good shape we must keep a constant vigil to make sure we sustain these valuable resources. Texas’s coastal estuaries seem to be under constant attacks from continued coastal development and the continuous loss of vital freshwater inflows due to drought and a water starved population and industry inland of the Texas coast.

In addition to the growth of our coastal-area towns, the number of licensed recreational fishermen is expected to continue climbing, and the primary charge we have as stewards of the resource is to instill a conservation ethic into future fishermen as well as our current fishing buddies.

This conservation ethic can come in many forms including keeping only the fish we need, picking up trash and other items while we fish and disposing of them properly. Working with a conservation organization is the next step, through fundraising efforts for projects and management initiatives, and educating young and old about the importance of respect for the resource.

TPWD, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program (CBBEP), Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF), CCA Texas and other like organizations offer many ways to instill a stewardship mentality into the general fishing population and at the same time sharpen that of those that are already active conservationists. All of these organizations offer many educational opportunities in not only literature but also hands-on experience such as hatchery tours, volunteer grass plantings, fishery surveys, beach cleanups and much more.

Non-profit groups such as CCA Texas are always looking for new volunteers to work with local chapters in the day-to-day operations of the chapters and the fundraising process for the organization. The fundraising process provides the necessary funds to help advocate proper fisheries and habitat management, provide invaluable college education funds for future marine biologists, insuring that research is current and cutting edge, providing necessary equipment for local game wardens, and much more. CCA Texas is proud to help provide these important dollars and to work with other organizations in the fight to insure the coast for future generations.

In the end, conservation and stewardship is so much more than not keeping all the fish you can legally keep in a day. It is teaching our families, friends and peers to care for a resource that has been given to us, and why we have to take care of it now for the future. Many of us fall into the routine of fishing with our buddies, staying on the always elusive trophy fish hunt or fulfilling that internal competitive fire by fishing every tournament we can.

Take some time every so often and take your kids, family and others out and let the beauty of the Texas coast soak in. You never know what you might see or learn that you have routinely overlooked. Education 64 | June 2016

and individual action are the keys to the future and if it’s overlooked our resources will decline, our efforts will be lost, and we stand the chance to become overly regulated in the use of our resources.

In closing, take a moment to think about the last time or two you have been on the water and what you could have done differently.

Could you have picked up a floating plastic bag that you just ran by, maybe explained to your fishing partners why the marsh they were fishing is so important, pointed out shallow seagrass beds to avoid prop-scarring to someone fishing with you that may be new to the area, inform the local game wardens or local biologists of any unusual activity you may have seen? Or maybe only kept a couple of fish for dinner that night instead of boxing a full limit on a day that was on fire with bites?

CCA Texas 2016 Life Member Program Have you given any thought to becoming a CCA Texas Life Member?

Don’t wait any longer. After a very successful program in 2015, CCA Texas has taken it to the next level – again!

CCA Texas has partnered with Henry Rifles to offer a special edition CCA Henry Golden Boy .22 magnum rifle. Sign up for a life membership in 2016 and you will receive this special rifle with CCA engraving and a special CCA serial number. The price for this lifemembership package is $1,000 plus a $25 shipping fee for the rifle to be delivered to a local gun dealer.

For more information, visit www.ccatexas.org.

Oyster bagging: Volunteers recently helped collect oyster shells from Rockport restaurants. These were bagged and placed in area bays for reef habitat creation and restoration.

Galv Bay: Volunteer seagrass planting in Galveston Bay. CCA Texas cooperated with Galveston Bay Foundation and TPWD in this project.

Nueces Bay: Volunteers planting seagrass in Nueces Bay.

STEPHANIE BOYD

F I S HY F AC T S

It’s a shark! It’s a ray!

No, it’s… …a guitarfish!

Okay, the guitarfish actually IS a ray, but it doesn’t quite look like one. Guitarfish have an intermediate body form between sharks and rays. The tail has a typical shark-like shape with two dorsal fins, and in most species, the head has a flat triangular shape, similar to the more-familiar disc shape found in other rays. People the world over look at these flat shark-like rays and associate their triangular heads with guitars. Except Russia, where because of a difference in the culture of stringed instruments, the guitarfish are called by a different name: balalaika fish.

People often cite the guitarfish as the “missing link” between sharks and rays, but that’s not quite accurate.

Though modern ray species may have evolved from primitive guitarfish (still some research to be done on that), guitarfish did not evolve from sharks, and current consensus is that rays did not evolve from guitarfish.

What they DO have in common is an ancestor, possibly from the early Jurassic (about 190 million years ago) or perhaps the Carboniferous (some 100 million years earlier). The neoselachians (a grouping of cartilaginous fishes containing all living sharks, skates, and rays) diverged several times throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, creating an astonishing diversity of new forms and lifestyles. It was during the initial Jurassic

Clinton Robertson, a fisheries biologist with the TPWD at San Marcos, caught this guy with his bare hands. He says, “You just got to sneak up behind them while they are buried in the sand and grab their tail very quickly!”

Photo by Charles Robertson.

66 | June 2016

explosion that the flattened skates and rays appeared.

All modern skates, rays, guitarfishes, and sawfishes are collectively termed batoids. The oldest articulated batoid fossils date back to the late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. (“Articulated” means that the bones of a skeleton are in the same relative position to each other as they were when the creature was alive. If a skeleton is articulated, it is assumed that it found its final resting place while there were still ligaments and flesh holding it together.) These well-preserved body fossils, found in what is now France and Germany, are clearly ancient guitarfishes (family Rhinobatidae). The guitarfish of this period were the first of the rays and skates to emerge on the fossil scene, and they were a little more primitive than the guitarfish of today, with more shark-like skeletal structure and fin spines. The most recent additions to the batoid tree are the stingrays, which showed up a mere 60 million years ago.

The combined range of the various guitarfish species is tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters worldwide.

Most can tolerate saltwater, freshwater, and brackish water. Our local guitarfish is the Atlantic guitarfish, Rhinobatus lentiginosus. Also called the freckled guitarfish, this species occurs in the western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan, Mexico. The Atlantic guitarfish is the only guitarfish appearing within its range.

They are usually found around sandy and weedy bottoms from the shoreline to depths of 98 feet, sometimes near patch reefs, often buried in the substrate.

The dorsal side of the Atlantic guitarfish is grayish to olive brown or chocolate brown with white freckling covering the surface, a creamy pale white hue below, and darker colorations on the pectoral fins. Its long, wide-pointed snout is almost translucent. Unlike many other rays, these critters do not have spines at the base of their tails. One of the smaller species of guitarfish, the Atlantic guitarfish only reaches a total length of approximately 30 inches.

As with all guitarfishes, the Atlantic guitarfish swims in a similar manner to sharks, by moving its tail from side to side. They also use their pectoral fins

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for acceleration and maneuvering. Instead of swimming perfectly horizontal, guitarfish typically maintain a positive swimming angle with the head just slightly higher than the tail. They have limited color vision, probably restricted to the blue-green spectrum, which may be to enhance the contrast of prey against their environment. Guitarfish are bottom feeders, feeding on small crustaceans and mollusks, worms, a variety of small fishes, and other bottom dwellers. They have molariform dentition: the teeth are fit closely together, rectangular at the base with rounded corners, similar to stingrays, and are ideal for crushing and grinding. Prey is detected by special electro-sensory organs and captured with suction. To make the acquisition easier, guitarfish sometimes use their flattened heads to cut off escape routes and hold prey on the bottom while feeding. It is likely that large predatory sharks sharing the same geographical location and habitat prey on the Atlantic guitarfish.

Guitarfish are ovoviviparous, meaning the embryo matures inside an egg that is inside the mother until it is ready to hatch. Embryos feed initially on yolk, then receive additional nourishment from the mother by indirect absorption of uterine fluid enriched with mucus, fat, or protein. Young are born fully developed and measure approximately eight inches long. There can be up to six pups in a litter. Males are believed to mature at 19-21 inches, indicated by welldeveloped claspers at this size. Females mature at about 23 inches. Along the lower Texas coast, the females are thought to give birth during late spring to early summer.

Though guitarfish are an important commercial catch in many coastal nations, in the United States, they are primarily caught as bycatch in shrimp trawls, and there is no commercial interest. Because shrimp trawl fishing is intense in the Gulf of Mexico, particularly in shallow waters where this species occurs, population is an area of concern. With their limiting lifehistory characteristics (low fecundity; large, precocious young; late maturity, etc.), guitarfish are particularly vulnerable to population depletion. Given that fishing pressure is very intensive throughout the southern part of this species range, it is given a precautionary assessment of Near Threatened on the IUCN red list. They’re not really good to eat, so there’s not much of a recreational fishery either, though catching a guitarfish can be quite surprising if you’ve never seen one! They aren’t harmful to humans. In fact, they’re generally easy to approach. You can sometimes even scoop them right off the seabed (if you’re sneaky).

Where I learned about guitarfish, and you can too!

Fish Base www.fishbase.org/summary/2548 www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary. php?Family=Rhinobatidae Texas Parks & Wildlife Department tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/didyouknow/amazingfish. phtml Marine Bio marinebio.org/species.asp?id=1487

American Museum of Natural History www.amnh.org/learn/sharks/Resource1 The Houston Museum of Natural Science blog.hmns.org/tag/guitar-fish/ Florida Atlantic University www.science.fau.edu/sharklab/courses/elasmobiology/ families/Rhinobatidae.pdf

IUCN Red List www.iucnredlist.org/details/161743/0

Research Gate www.researchgate.net/publication/21172506_Rod_and_ cone_pigments_of_the_Atlantic_guitarfish_Rhinobatos_ lentiginosus_Garman

ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research www.elasmo-research.org/education/evolution/rise_ modern.htm

Journal of Fish Biology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.10958649.2012.03493.x/abstract

Shark Trust www.sharktrust.org/en/shark_origins

Elasmodiver www.elasmodiver.com/Atlantic_Guitarfish.htm www.elasmodiver.com/elasmobranch_evolution.htm

National Center for Biotechnology Information www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9808831 Florida Museum of Natural History www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/atlanticgfish/ atlanticgfish.html

68 | June 2016

The Beachside Resident thebeachsideresident.com/2009/05/shark-report-atlanticguitarfish/

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Ruben and Felipe Lacerda hoist a nice oversized red caught from inshore sand pocket.

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IN S H O RE | NEAR S H O RE | J E T T IE S | P A S S E S

Shortest snapper season

but still plenty of opportunity The big news this month is the opening of the gulf red snapper season in federally-regulated waters beyond nine miles. Much to the chagrin of private recreational anglers, the 2016 season is scheduled to be the shortest-ever on record. At a mere nine days, the season opens at 12:01 a.m. June 1 and closes at 12:01 a.m. June 10. This season will include only one weekend, June 4 and 5, for the participation of your average private-boat anglers.

Federally permitted recreational charter-forhire season will run June 1 through July 16. Both recreational seasons will have a federal-water red snapper daily bag limit of 2-fish with a 16-inch minimum length.

Historically, the federal fisheries managers have split the allowable annual harvest with the larger half going to commercial fishermen. This year they decided to tilt the hat slightly toward the recreational anglers, allowing us 51.49% compared to 48.51% for the commercial sector. The commercial fishing vessels have a 365-day fishery in federal waters to fill their quota.

70 | June 2016

George Gomez enjoyed the fight. Kings like this should be plentiful in June, nearshore and also around passes.

The exact wording, explanation of annual catch limits and summary of NOAA’s Southeast Fishery Bulletin (FB16-028) is available at http://sero.nmfs. noaa.gov/.

I have read the summary and personally I am disappointed for the very few days allowed for the recreational private angler compared to the commercial sector’s bounty. On the other hand I am glad to see that the boats which are federally permitted for-hire will have a few weeks to catch them. Per the requirements of their limited-entry Reef-Fish license they cannot target red snapper in Texas state waters.

This 365-day state-water red snapper season is the basic reason for separation of the seasons for private and for-hire fisheries. The feds penalize the private anglers for their ability to harvest red snapper at will in state waters year around. Like it or not that is what we have to work with.

Out of curiosity I decided to contact two friends with federal permits, Wayne Timmerman and Matt Jensen, for their take on the seasons. Coincidentally both said they have not relied on targeting red snapper in the past. The previously short seasons have never been something to rely upon. Last year’s extended season for the federally permitted vessels came as a welcomed surprise being that it was a last minute decision. Plans for each and every season can change and the feds can close the season at any time Only nine days for federal-water red snapper this summer; let’s hope we get good weather!

TSFMAG.com | 71

Gulf Jetty/Pass Action Welcomed this month will be the return of many migratory species nearshore and within reach of the average small-boat angler. King mackerel, Spanish mackerel, cobia, little tunny and tarpon will be riding swift currents toward the beaches. The strong current flow near the passes and ship channels that lead to the gulf will concentrate baitfish for them to feed upon.

In the TSFM June 2015 issue I outlined some strategies for targeting these species at the jetties. Check out archives at www.tsfmag.com. To keep repetition to a minimum, I’ll hit only some key information: * Choose days with increased current velocities for best results.

Days preceding and soon after the new & full moon phases have the strongest and longest duration of tides. * Concentrate your efforts on the inside of the channels on an incoming tide, working with the water flow. Move to the outside of jetties/passes working the obvious water color changes formed from the ebbing tide. * Look for days with calm winds before and during fishing dates for best results. Favorable weather conditions make for clearer, less turbid

72 | June 2016

Luis Garate used his bass fishing skills to land this nice redfish.

water and better overall fishing conditions for smaller boats. * Find and fish the current seams and color changes in and around jetty rock outcroppings or natural passes. These areas concentrate the schools of baitfish that in turn attract gamefish species. *For kingfish action, try trolling a variety of deep-diving lures, surface plugs and spoons, with the current flow. For natural bait, ribbonfish is one of the best. Try drifting baits with the current, freelined without weight and also weighted in varying amount, to seek fish at different depths within the water column.

Redfish Action June really heats up when the tide drops out early in the month and the sun tries to boil the shallow water. As the tide level falls during the daytime so does the bait off of the flats. Reds cruise the primary drops-offs, moving up on and down off the shelf. Nearby sand pockets and shell beds are great areas to soak some cut mullet, live pinfish or Spanish sardines. Take plenty of extra bait to change out often and to also use for chumming the area. Chopped sardines and menhaden make the best slicks.

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if they believe that the allotted quota has been fulfilled.

Capt. Wayne Timmerman operates Empire Lodge in Port O’Connor and captains the 60’ Hatteras sportfisher Honesty. He said it was great that they have 46-days to target snapper this year. They have booked some trips for targeting red snapper specifically but, the boat is more designed to provide ultra-comfort while running to the 100-fathom curve and beyond. “Out there we target marlin, sailfish, tuna, wahoo, swordfish and mahi-mahi. Yes, on the way in we can try for grouper and limit on snapper in just a few drops. There are so many out there, limits are guaranteed.”

Capt. Matt Jensen operates Coastal Bend Charters, also hailing from Port O’Connor. He captains the Nauti Kat, a 28-foot Pro-Kat powered by twin Suzuki outboards. He makes daytrips targeting a variety of fish but never relying on snapper alone. “To get as many bends in the rods as possible you need to target variety. Sure, some red color always looks good mixed in with a nice box of wahoo, dorado, grouper and tilefish. But if a snapper specific trip is booked we normally get a mix of mackerel, ling, beeliners or possibly some great eating African pompano. Four fisherman can really fill the fish boxes on these trips.”

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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Kayla’s first bull shark.

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

ERIC O Z O L IN S

The New Face of

Shark Fishing

For as long as most of us can remember surf shark fishing has been a male-dominated sport. Generations of fathers raised sons and passed along love for the adventure, danger, and respect for the resource. The final rite of passage came when sons ventured off for a weekend on their own and returned with photos and stories of their first tiger shark. But times are changing. Lo and behold, women are joining the sport in ever-increasing numbers.

The reasons for the rise in female participation vary, ranging from men wanting to spend outdoor recreation time with wives and girlfriends, to the gritty “anything they can do I can do better” mantra. Whatever the reason or motivation, I have recently seen more than a few women making spectacular catches. Some expect and rely on help from male companions while others advance and relish the challenge of doing it on their own.

You would likely not expect a petite 20-year-old to be found fumbling razor sharp shark hooks, covered in slime, prepping a bait. However, this scene is playing more and more often on Texas beaches. Women who can catch, rig, and deploy their own shark baits through crashing surf deserve respect…and they certainly have mine.

A huge boost in female sharking interest no doubt arises from a combination of social media and fishing tournaments. The Texas Shark Rodeo attracts a multitude of surf anglers from all across the state and women have 74 | June 2016

become a part of it. Notable catches and experiences get shared on Facebook. The Rodeo allows up to 5 anglers on a team and naturally, wives, daughters and significant others are added to the roster in many cases. Some may be rookies but many are not. The social media impact of this event alone is enormous.

Historically speaking, hardcore shark fisherman are a rather crusty lot. Rugged and sometimes ruthless, sharkers new and old have a specific way of doing things and they do whatever it takes to get that big fish. I have yet to discover their equal in any other segment of recreational angling. But women dedicated to this sport, strapped into a shark rig battling a giant predator, can be as ruthless and tireless as any man.

Shark fishing regularly requires large baits—often larger than trophy fish sought in other angling genres. Physical and mental stresses are also part of shark fishing but soon forgotten when an epic catch is made. Women are starting to notice this and they are becoming increasingly anxious to prove their mettle on Facebook. Let’s face it, a girl in a bikini posing with a large shark gets noticed!

Joking aside, there are some good and beneficial aspects of having a wife or girlfriend on your shark trips.

I have a good friend who has fished with me for many years. He started bringing his girlfriend down the beach a decade ago. She joined us on a few excursions but

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Melissa Bounds with greater hammerhead.

Loren Hollon with a blacktip landed from PINS beach.

Celeste Hickey with first-ever shark.

76 | June 2016

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after having a child, never really got back into beach mode. Then recently this girlfriend (now wife of 9 years) caught a shark. Now she is addicted and hardly passes a chance to hit the surf. For my buddy, this is fantastic. She participates in planning trips, helps monitor weather and water conditions, and understands fully the stress shark anglers willingly endure. The upside for my buddy is more quality sharking time. If there is a downside it would be her requesting her own arsenal of shark rods and reels.

The growing female presence in shark fishing is very welcome in my opinion and will do great things for the sport. As with kids, when you see the thrill and enthusiasm on the face of a lady as they have just landed one of the ocean’s apex predators, it brings a good feeling to those around.

On my shark charters, the guys will quite often catch the first shark, and the next goes to the woman. It tickles me, the guy’s reaction as their girl battles an apex predator on rod and reel.

There is a degree of excitement that cannot be put in words, you just have to be there.

Move over guys, the women are coming!

ROY’S Bait and Tackle Outfitters

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.

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TSFMAG.com | 81

Dickie Colburn

DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene

Over the past three weeks we have hosted two Redfish Elite tournaments on Sabine, weathered two more rounds of local flooding, fished in the rain twelve of the last sixteen trips and it Sabine is pouring right now. The Sabine River Authority has also had to once again increase the water flow out of Toledo Bend due to big rains north of us.

In spite of all of that we are still Dickie Colburn is a full catching fish in Sabine Lake and time guide out of Orange, Texas. Dickie has 37 years surprisingly enough, that includes experience guiding on trout. We haven’t been catching the Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes. big fish we normally find cruising the shallow flats this time Telephone of the year, but no one is 409-883-0723 complaining.

Website www.sabineconnection.com While we have been both surprised and pleased by how quickly the trout bite has rebounded, I have been even more energized by one of the best flounder bites we have experienced in years. Part of that is due to the fact that I initially targeted them virtually every trip while waiting out the trout, but there is no doubt that changes in regulations have made a difference.

Due to the mild winter the migration was average at best and a significant number of flounder refused to ever pack up and leave. We have not only been catching easy limits, but better size as well. Initially the key was fishing the dark water exiting the marsh drains, but with improving water clarity in the lake, we are now catching easy limits simply working the cane on the east shoreline.

There is really no need to fish live bait as that will only slow you down. While most of my clients prefer to fish a GULP swimming mullet I do almost as well with a three High water hasn’t bothered flounder like this one.

82 | June 2016

inch Usual Suspect. As a rule, I tend to catch a few less flounder with the swimbait than they do, but more redfish and trout. You can’t go wrong with chartreuse or white in the GULP and both silver shiner and morning glory have been good colors in the swimbait.

With the extremely high water inundating the marsh lakes, the redfish bite has been phenomenal for folks that enjoy sight-fishing.

The jetties have been nearly as good, but most of the redfish taken off the rocks are just too darn big!

It took nine 27-inch fish redfish weighing 70 pounds to win the first pro event and 67-pounds to win the second and they fished in absolutely miserable conditions. The winners of a recent local tournament brought three 27-inch fish to the scales that weighed 25.77 pounds anchored by a 9.30 pound fish. We are talking quality redfish doing their thing right now!

I have yet to find them schooling in the open lake, but with more normal tides and a little less rain, Doug Patterson that bite is just around the puts another corner. We are still catching one back. a few drifting the flats with plastics under a cork. The most productive tails thus far have been 4 inch Sea Shads, 4-inch Lil’ Johns and a Vudu shrimp. Chicken on a chain and purple demon have been our best colors.

If the daily soggy conditions we have been forced to endure thus far dry out even a little, the trout bite should be excellent this month. When the wind has allowed, the veteran rock walkers have already put together some very good days fishing both the north and south revetment walls on trout up to eight pounds.

Some are fishing live bait under a cork, but Catch 2000s, Swimming Images and topwaters have worked as well. Even following a howling southeast wind, that water clears up pretty quickly. Due to the wind and fresh water runoff, the bite on the flats off the mouth of the Neches has been hit or miss thus far, but it will happen.

The Causeway reef has been very consistent for anglers willing to take the time to figure out the bite, especially on incoming tides that usher in more bait and saltier water. Exploiting that bite to the max requires more than just dragging a tail over the deep shell and hoping for the best. Pay attention to your depth finder, don’t be afraid to fish from five to twenty feet deep and never ignore tight groups of terns while fishing other patterns.

Remember…the kids may someday forget where they buried you but they will never forget a single day spent fishing with you!

5

THE FISHING GODS ARE CALLING YOUR NAME. And so is $15,000 in cash prizes. Come to your island and catch the big prize at The Wahoo Classic, September 9th – 11th.

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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 yeararound pursuit for trophy trout and redfish with artificial lures

Telephone 281-753-3378 Website harpsguideservice.com

84 | June 2016

Summer at last. Drifting deep shell or wet-wading sand flats at sunrise, sunburns and fired-up fish giving their location away by slicking all over the place.

You’ve got to love that!

Seems like everything is going to set up very nicely for another jam-up summer season and I am predicting a repeat of 2015’s massive stack-up in the southern regions of the system as trout flee excessive fresh water inflow in the north. Add some tide runners and it should be dynamite.

In my May article I wrote that freshwater inundation in lower Trinity Bay was beginning to dwindle…but don’t go thinking it’s going to be all gravy until we see April’s showers. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

We received 8-10 inches of rain weekly through most of Hook Spit rod and April and toward the end of MirrOlure Lil’ John the month many areas were won the battle. receiving 2-3 inches daily. The

region northwest of Houston reported upwards of 20 inches during one event. The San Jacinto River raged straight down the Houston Ship Channel engulfing the whole “West Side” from Morgan’s Point to Bolivar Roads. Now the Trinity River is pumped back up to another major flood stage. As of right now the Lake Livingston Dam is discharging 68,000 cubic feet per second, making this the seventh flood (greater than 45,000cfs) in the last sixteen months. Visualize this—56,000 cfs is equivalent to 259 dump trucks full to the brim, dumping their load every second—24/7 around the clock.

But – You know what guys?

It’s not the end of the world.

We experienced it last year and fishing was phenomenal. Almost too phenomenal in a handful of spots, resulting in thousands of trout being pillaged daily. Harvest in that amount from East Bay and Lower Galveston was definitely not good for the long run. Sure,

going out in the middle of 50 boats, turning it sideways and stroking out your limit of 40 trout before 10:00 AM sounds fun, but it can only last so long like that. I pray that our salinity will come back as soon as it possibly can to help spread some of the fish out and about.

Besides the doom and gloom of flood talk, fishing has actually been great between thunderstorms and hard blows, and I’m still under the impression that a lot of patterns are running early. We’ve seen a lot more brown shrimp from the marshes and ribbonfish from the gulf this year so that’s always a good sign that the tide-runners might be coming with them.

My dad with a Drifting has been a lot more successful lately, solid trout on as I believe the greatest part of the biomass topwater last June…look move out deep whenever the water temperature for more of stays above 75⁰ for extended periods. Wading the same. can still be great on sand and grass flats right at sunrise, though!

East Galveston Bay Obviously, East Bay is going to hold the motherlode again this year. If drifting alongside 50-70 boats on one reef is your style, look no further. Drifting oyster reefs in 6-8 feet of water is the name of the game. Dark soft plastics such as the “purple demon” MirrOlure Lil’ John rigged on a 1/4 oz jighead worked slowly on the bottom cannot be beaten. Wade fishing isn’t as crowded but isn’t nearly as productive as it was in the

cooler months. Top Dogs and She Dogs on shallow sand flats can produce trophy caliber trout this time of year though, no doubt about it. Redfish action will be picking up the hotter it gets around bayou drains and inside the marsh as well as ponds off of the ICW. West Galveston Bay West Bay has the prettiest water as it is barely effected by fresh water inflows. Trout and redfish have been good lately on sand flats with MirrOlure Marsh Minnow paddletails rigged on a 1/16 ounce jigheads.

As June develops, the trout will start to pull out towards deeper oyster reefs and also adjust location to grassier flats. Soft plastics are still the best lures to throw at them, but if there’s a lot of larger baitfish in the area don’t forget about the old school MirrOlure 51 and 52 MR. Redfish action will pick up as well in areas like Greens and Carancahua Lakes on gold Bagley spoons and GULP under popping corks.

All in all, fishing is good and will continue to get even better as the fresh water inundation mixes with June’s strong incoming tides. Always remember that rain is a good thing for the bay in the long run. You don’t want to miss summer in the Galveston Bay Complex because “Food Grows Where Waters Flow.”

-Capt. Caleb Harp

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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 matagordasunriselodge.com

86 | June 2016

The tattered white “LIVE SHRIMP” flag was hanging limp at Harbor Bait and Tackle at first glance as my pickup scaled the levee at Matagorda Harbor.

Surprisingly, I was the first one at the dock.

First time all summer I had arrived before Capt.

Bill Pustejovsky—really the first time anyone had braved an earlier alarm than the seasoned veteran.

My charter arrived on time and we departed in darkness. I had every option at my helm – light boat traffic, a tranquil incoming emerald tide, and fishing clients who had played the game before, obvious by their ForEverlast Stingray Boots, Shimano Core reels and Waterloo Rods.

My first stop was Cotton’s Bay in West Matagorda. We dumped over the gunnels just as the sun was creeping over our shoulders.

Telltale signs were present – birds hovering and diving, small minnows scurrying, shrimp hopping and the

sweet smell of watermelon.

Fifty yards into the wade we were rewarded with a blow to our Super Spook Jr. - then another, then another, then another.

We had the fish to ourselves for the first hour of daylight, then I heard the distant hum of an outboard

traveling from the east. “No big deal,” I thought as I made a cast toward a commotion of baitfish. Then the boat got closer and the engine began to shed RPMs. “Surely not,” I whispered. “Surely he sees us and knows we plan to keep wading to the end of the bar.”

With the wind at our back we kept casting and watched as the boat circled wide of the outside bar and idled back, setting the anchor right where we heading.

It was a classic “cutoff”—totally inexcusable since the “veteran guide” knew exactly what he was doing and where I was intending to fish.

We took our dozen trout back to the boat; I took a deep breath and headed for another spot.

The early bird gets the worm when fishing in June. Ardent incoming tides push baitfish on flats like Cotton’s, Green’s, Pipeline and Oilfield Cut. You better be in the water as the sun eases over the horizon to intercept the best bite or a tardy, inconsiderate captain.

June is by far my favorite month to wade. Yes, we catch fish wading throughout the summer, but June is just special.

Many memories have been made with a topwater and a green tide easing over a grassy flat. I remember days of 100-plus fish, catching 10 trout in a row on a plug and catching so many trout by 9:00 a.m. that I honestly was tired of catching.

Make no mistake, we wade East Matagorda Bay as well. Some of my fondest memories have occurred just as the sun was easing over the horizon on Drull’s Lump. And, with all the large trout we have caught and released in East Bay this spring, any piece of shell has the propensity to cough up a trophy.

Yeah, we will drift too. You think big trout are only caught while wading? Sorry to dispel that myth. Too many gator trout to remember have been duped while drifting.

June is here. Take a deep breath and enjoy it.

Follow us on Instagram @matagordasunriselodge TSFMAG.com | 87

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

88 | June 2016

All I can say is that if you haven’t been catching fish for said, “Idled away?” The few that had already left did the past month you may want to take up golf. It hasn’t not give us that courtesy, leaving us banging the mattered whether we fished back lakes, bay shorelines dock in their wakes. Back to the trip... or San Antonio mid-bay reefs, we have been catching We arrived at our first stop and rounding the corner good numbers of quality fish.

I let out a sigh of relief—no boats in sight. But my OK – maybe there was more to it than just throwing excitement was short-lived. Riding the troll motor a line out and reeling in a fish but it has consistently toward the back of the cove I could soon make out been as good as I’ve seen in a very long time. several waders and a boat with no anchor light.

To give you an example, I will recap a recent trip.

No problem, just make a little adjustment and we It was Saturday morning and as I sat in my Shallow would make our first wade along the opposite bank Sport X3 watching unusual hustle and bustle, it occurred that there must be a tournament going on. Not that I have anything against them, but tournament days can sometimes be tough. Anglers get all amped up and do things they wouldn’t normally do, like cutting your drift or crashing your wade. Worst of all I hadn’t told my guys to come to Can’t thank owners of Coastline Charlie’s early to beat the crowd.

Marine in Seabrook enough Luckily my crew showed up early.

(Cole and Chad Starr) for giving We got their gear stowed and idled me the opportunity to fish from away from the dock, clear of the this beautiful office every day. boats that were tied there. Notice I

Trout fishing on the Middle Coast has been better than I have seen it in a long time.

of the large pocket. There were no large rafts of shad like I had fished the previous few days but there were mullet milling about.

After an hour everybody had caught some fish but not what I was expecting. Loading everyone back into the X3 we headed across San Antonio Bay to an unnamed reef that had been producing quality trout. Along the way I began noticing slicks that had been stretched by the wind. The origin appeared to be the drop-off along a reef I have trampled many times in my thirty years of guiding.

Turning to the guy next to me I announced a change of plans. I circled back and lowered the twin Power Poles, proceeded to go over the plan, taking time to explain to two first-time waders why I had selected this reef. When I told them about the slicks they just looked at me like I was crazy. They’d never heard of it.

But to their benefit they listened intently to the plan. As for the seasoned member of the crew, he too listened but then approached the area the way he thought he should. Long story short, I was the last guy out of the Shallow Sport and I headed right up beside the newbies and made a long cast toward the drop-off. “Let it sink…let it sink… don’t reel,” I told them. Thump! I proceeded to reel in a healthy 18-inch speck. I explained that if it happened on my next cast, “Just stand right here beside me and do the same thing.”

One of the guys replied, “I’m not waiting to see if it happens again,” and stood right beside me and proceeded to start on his limit of quality fish. The other newbie soon moved in and got in on the action.

Where we stood was about thigh deep and we were throwing to the drop-off that was 5- to 6-feet deep. We were throwing the tried and true 4-inch Bass Assassin Sea Shad paddletail on 1/16 ounce Assassin jigheads – sugar & spice and copperhead.

After achieving their limits they switched to MirrOlure She Dogs and landed more quality trout throwing out over the drop-off. The largest trout caught in this area came on the She Dogs. We left those trout biting and headed for an area that had been producing redfish on a regular basis. But that’s a whole other story.

The point I wanted to make was to never take things for granted while looking for fish. It’s no different than any other type of hunting.

Use all the signs available and then make a game plan. Had I ignored those slicks we might have arrived at the unnamed reef to find it already covered with waders, and there’s no telling how the day might have unfolded.

Fish hard, fish smart!

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david rowsey

HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey

Unofficially, summer is here. The waders have been hung up for another cool season and my charter books have lightened some as many fisherman start using live bait instead of plugging with lures. You probably Upper already know, I wade with lures with great success year Laguna/ round. I would encourage any of y’all with the same Baffin mindset to contact me ASAP to get on the books for summer wade fishing in Baffin and the Upper Laguna.

June on Baffin provides some of the best action you will see all year. Most of the big trout are spawned David Rowsey has 20 years out, but they are still long and awe inspiring. The water experience in the Laguna/ temperature is now stabilized in the high-70s and all Baffin region; trophy trout with species will be crushing the buffet line of new baitfish. artificial lures is his specialty.

The bait continues to roll in from the south and the David has a great passion for surface is just alive with mullet, shad, and fleeing conservation and encourages shrimp. Every cast brings the potential of catching catch and release of trophy fish. trout, reds, and flounder. If you are looking for lots of Telephone bites, June is a great time to be on the water.

361-960-0340 As I sit here and write this article on a day off, I can’t Website help but notice how light the winds are outside. The www.DavidRowsey.com past week just blasted us with 30 mph winds and Email david.rowsey@yahoo.com made fishing for trout pretty dang tough. Definitely one of those weeks when the old redfish saved the day(s). The winds will certainly be more stable in June Trokar_TexasSaltwaterFishing_L197_Redfish_June.pdf 1 4/26/2016 4:16:13 PM

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and the ability to fish where and when you want will become a regular occurrence.

Patterns for June are pretty straight forward. With all the clean water and large supply of bait, you can almost fish any structure you prefer. Hard sand and grass bottoms, countless rock formations and windward sandbars will all be holding fish. After winter and spring fishing in the mud, I’m looking forward to standing on some firm ground to chase the big trout of Baffin and the Upper Laguna.

Steady topwater action began in April and will continue throughout summer. As the day warms up, the surface bite will slow down, but that morning action is well worth the trip. Switching to plastics and suspending lures as the sun gets higher will bring you continued success in the same areas, although the fish usually pull out to deeper water.

An observant eye will notice where the bait is headed and you can rest assured that the trout are right there with them. Follow the bait, fish a Bass Assassin closer to the bottom, and you should have continued success. My regular clients know this routine well and understand that trout are just like us when it comes to feeding. Once we have a big meal

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©2016 EAGLE CLAW FISHING TACKLE | DENVER, COLORADO | EAGLECLAW.COM 90 | June 2016

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Allen Williams with a big early-summer trout. CPR!

we are not inclined to keep gorging, but if we are sitting in our easy chair resting after supper, and the good wife brings by a tray of warm cookies, we will still grab one regardless of how full we may already be.

The point is, fish the water levels where the fish are held up after their morning feed but slow everything down. Get the lure right in front of their face. Trout like cookies too and you can make them eat again with a proper presentation.

Top lure choices are the 5” Bass Assassin (BA) on a 1/16 ounce jig head and a must-have at all times for trout. The 4” Sea Shad by BA is my go-to for shallow redfish. I’m going to let a secret out of the bag when it comes to topwaters. I have been going old school with the original Top Dog by MirrOlure. I rarely see folks use them much anymore, but I have been keeping my box stocked with them.

They have a unique “thud” of rattle that has really been getting the trout’s attention.

In closing I would like to remind everyone that summer boat traffic and fishing participation will be at its peak starting this month. With so many users (tournaments, guides, and recreational anglers) on the bay and its resources, practicing some catch and release is never a bad idea. In fact, more of it needs to be done on a much wider scale to preserve this treasure of a bay system we all enjoy down here.

The CCA STAR tournament trout division has an eight pound minimum weight to qualify. Over the past fifteen years only two trout have won that weighed less than nine pounds, and they were both bumping it. Don’t be looking at that Boga Grip through beer goggles.

Make sure you have a contender if you must kill it.

Remember the buffalo! -Capt David Rowsey TSFMAG.com | 91

Capt. Tricia

TRICIA’S Mansfield Report

Port Mansfield

Capt. Tricia’s Skinny Water Adventures operates out of Port Mansfield, specializing in wadefishing with artificial lures.

Telephone 956-642-7298 Email Capt.Tricia@gmail.com

92 | June 2016

Late spring on the Lower Laguna has been giving us many days that would likely be blowouts on many Texas bay systems. This is such a unique area that even during a prolonged stretch of dry and wind-whipped weather patterns, our local waters have been holding up well and the fish have been mostly cooperative. We are still enjoying some great fishing and things should become even more interesting as we move into June. As fun as it has been, we all certainly look forward to days with less than 40-mph gusts!

Even before the waders came off, troublesome creatures such as skipjacks, jack crevalle, and sharks started showing up. The skipjacks were especially annoying, and trying to remove sharp topwater trebles from a skippy can be quite challenging, not to mention their unmatched ability to fray leaders. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to cut-off and retie to avoid the risk of breaking off a solid trout over the past month.

They were all after the same thing and it seemed all the inshore predators were concentrated around an extraordinary shrimp migration.

It was also all about the grass as that was where

What to expect in June!

Shawn Dinwiddie showing off a solid 27-incher.

the favored forage has been congregating. The best trout have been found about knee to thigh-deep over sand bottom dotted with grass clumps. Several clients landed some great trout from 27 and 30-inches.

Pictured below is Shawn Dinwiddie with a nice 27-incher. This fish was fooled by a K-Wiggler paddletail, which remains my confidence bait most of the time.

We have also been experiencing a steady topwater bite for both trout and reds. Skitter Walks in green chrome, blue chrome, and bone have been living up to their reputation as good producers, as have the One Knocker and Spook Jr. When the fish are finicky and will not come all the way to the surface, K-Wiggler Ball Tail Shads are a very good lure for getting them to commit.

Besides enjoying steady trout action, redfish appear to be thriving too. They can be fickle, though. One day you can find them in predictable areas and the next day they simply seem to vanish. Redfish opportunities should grow more consistent as summer moves closer and those exciting sight-casting chances should become more likely.

My fishing program will take on a new face this month as the pressure to produce trophy-class trout gives way to simply having fun days of catching. School trout should be feeding voraciously on deeper grass beds and spoil bank edges, but don’t think that a big lady can’t show up without notice. June is fun fishing, and everything the Lower Laguna is famous for should be in play from sight-casting reds on the flats to wading shoulder deep for trout.

As a side note, two things we have no shortage of is stingrays and fishing pressure. We always get spoiled in cooler months when the rays pull off the flats and we have the water mostly to ourselves.

Fishing participation on the Lower Laguna continues to grow every year, or at least it seems to, but still lighter here than in most other bays. There is plenty of water for all to enjoy if areas with anglers present are approached respectfully.

More about the rays, the entire system is alive with things we want, and also with things we don’t, so please consider wearing protective gear. Rays are nothing to be frightened of, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The only thing I enjoy as much as fishing is creating ways to cook the ones we keep. Fish cooked well can be gourmet fare, but remember to take only what you need for a meal or two and leave the rest. CPR is good insurance that we can all continue to enjoy the best sport available standing up. Here’s to a great summer!

TSFMAG.com | 93

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

94 | June 2016

The days are already becoming longer and hotter, even by Deep-South Texas standards. Fish patterns will soon change as water temperatures reach the 80s and continue climbing toward the 90s. The school year will end soon and many anglers and family groups will be hitting the water – I expect greatly increased boat traffic. Leaving the dock at first safe light will be necessary to beat the crowd to your first spot of the day, especially if there is a tournament or two underway.

I mentioned last month that we had been enjoying one of the best years for Javi had a great day with the respectable trout this redfish – plum/chart K-Wigglers. winter and early-spring.

I expect that trend to continue into June and I credit the five-trout limit and increasing numbers of anglers practicing catch and release on trophy fish.

I believe our trout fishery is in great shape and should continue to get even better.

The present overall excellent water quality and the recent above-average tides have given us unusual opportunity for finding concentrations of trout in several back-bay areas. Areas normally thigh to waistdeep are currently up to our chests. And while all this water has made us think more creatively to find fish, the upside has been so many places normally too shallow are holding solid numbers of trout with little boat traffic.

There are two predominant keys to locating these fish—stable supply of bait present in the area and good current flow.

Generally low levels of boat traffic seem to encourage trout to remain once they have settled in.

The trout have been more than willing to feed on the surface lately, the Super Spook Jr., Skitter Walk and Bagley Finger Mullet baits have all been great producers. Rigging with single hooks will

The current of an outgoing tide through marsh drains has been the key to catching flounder.

soon be necessary as we are seeing more floating grass by the day.

Evening trout action under the birds in open water has been pretty consistent but you need wind in the range of 20-mph and stronger.

Off-color water is no problem, this pattern actually seems to work better as the water becomes murkier. Plum-chartreuse K-Wiggler Ball Tails are a good bait choice. Keep an eye on the area the birds are working, this will tell you the size of the school. Don’t surprised if you find a few redfish.

Speaking of redfish, with the water being as high as it has been we’ve been having loads of fun catching them in skinny water, way up on the sand. They have been very willing to crush topwaters. As long as the tides remain high I expect the Eastside sand flats will remain very productive.

A few words on flounder. If you really think about it, I believe they never truly left our bays this winter as we are accustomed to seeing. We managed steady numbers through winter and I believe a big part of that could have been the generally mild temperatures we experienced.

Taking advantage of an outgoing tide along natural drains on the east and west sides of our bays have produced excellent numbers of flounder so far this spring. What a rebound flounder have made! The numbers are great for this time of the year, but look for it to get even better in June and the coming months.

Writing this, I have a big smile on my face because I am now fully retired from education. For those of you that didn’t know, I have been an educator for the last 28-years in the field of science and still managed 140-150 trips a year for the last fifteen. It’s a wonderful feeling to follow your dreams, and now I am eager to follow my passion on a full-time basis. You could say I have moved my teaching facility from a building with walls to a sea with no boundaries. I will no longer have to decline a charter because I’m tied up in class or race the students out the door to make it to the dock in time for an afternoon charter.

To Everett Johnson-Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, and all those that believed in me from the beginning, I say, “Thank You!” Thanks also to all my sponsors: Fishing Tackle Unlimited, Shallow Sport Boats, Simms, Costa Del Mar, K-Wiggler, Concept 13 Reels, Power Pro and MirrOlure.

Special thanks is also in order to all who have fished with me over the years, my close friends that have been with me through my growth and, most of all to a person I hold very dear in my heart, my Mom. I did it!

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1/12/16 10:10 AM

FISHING REPORTS

Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 June is when our trout fishing really kicks into high gear. By this time, we’ve usually gotten rid of all our freshwater issues, and speckled trout will be found throughout the entire estuary. However, we will concentrate most of our efforts on mid-lake reefs as well as along parts of the the southern end of the Calcasieu Ship Channel. The jetties, beachfront and offshore platforms will produce fish on days when the weather calms enough to allow us to fish them. We will catch most of our trout this month on quarter-ounce jigheads and MirrOlure Lil’ Johns. Big trout are still present and biting during June too. Sand flats in the Long Point area will produce on incoming tides early in the morning and again right at dusk. Most of these fish will be caught on topwaters like Super Spooks, SkitterWalks, and MirrOlure She Dogs. Be ready to catch plenty of bull reds in this area, since many of them live around there, but big trout will often be lurking in extremely shallow water right against the shoreline.

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 “Fishing has been really good lately. It’s pretty much of a carbon copy of last year. All the freshwater stacked up the fish in the deeper, middle portions of the bay. We are keying on slicks mostly. Some of the areas are holding bigger fish, up to five pounds or so, on

96 | June 2016

ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica

AND

topwaters. But mostly, it’s just regular-sized trout. Soft plastics have worked best, in bright colors like pink and chartreuse, bright colors which stand out in the murky water. We’ve seen reports of some really big trout coming off the jetties too, up to ten pounds. Calm winds are necessary for catching out there. Birds are working regularly in some of the saltier areas in lower parts of the bays, and the trout are running up to about three pounds under the flocks. When tides are high, we are wading and catching some pretty decent trout, up to over seven pounds. MirrOdines and topwaters are crushin’ ‘em when we’re wading. Best wading has been in shallow areas adjacent to deep water. That should become even more of a reliable pattern when we get to June.”

Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 “We have gotten into that pattern where the fish are stacked up out in the middle around the reefs. So, you can catch all the fish you want out there when winds allow the water to clear up. Birds are working, and most of the fish are kinda small under the flocks, though some groups of birds have bigger trout. Working slicks generally has been producing bigger trout when we’re fishing out of the boat. North end of the bay is fresh right now, so the water is better in the middle and south side, and that’s where the fish are. We’re catching some good fish while wading too, quite a few bigger trout. When it’s windy, wading protected pockets is usually a much better option. When wading, we tend to have a bit

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better luck on the topwaters and twitch baits, but catching fish around here lately is much more about location than lure choice. We’ve got lots of fish in small areas, and if you locate them, catching them is generally fairly easy. With all the recent rains and water coming down the rivers, this will likely remain true all summer.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 In his usual, enthusiastic way, Randall spoke glowingly about the prospects for fishing in his area when he gave this report. “The buffet has officially arrived. We have had a tremendous influx of all manner of species which are food sources for our trout and redfish, everything from shrimp, shad, mullet, ribbon fish and even squid. Catching trout and redfish has been good on a daily basis. We are changing our lures regularly, to cope with changes in water clarity and what we are trying to imitate. In the clear water, a good color has been tequila rock, which has dark brown parts which look like shrimp and a glow belly, which seems to mimic the shad. When water clarity is off, we tend to swtich over to a trick or treat or salty chicken Norton Sand Eel Junior. The tequila rock Norton Sand Shad has been good in the murky water too.

We’re rigging them on three-eighths ounce Norton shad-style jigheads.

By the time this report comes out, we should see the fishing in the surf kick off really good. I’m watching it as I speak!”

Matagorda | Charlie Paradoski Bay Guide Service - 713.725.2401 Charlie says both bays in the Matagorda area have been jammed with fish, and June should make a few options even better. “We like to fish the surf as much as we can when winds allow in June. Need a calm stretch of weather to kick that off, and we usually get some this month.

98 | June 2016

Out there, we normally start off really shallow, tight to the beach, throwing topwaters early and work our way out deeper if and when the bite slows down in the first gut. Then, we switch over to soft plastics and sinking plugs in the deeper water. Wading the mid-bay reefs in East Bay is also good when conditions allow the water to remain in good shape. So, either of those patterns will produce well when the weather’s good. When it’s windier, fishing the protected parts of West Bay usually works better. We’ll target our fish around guts and grass beds in the coves and along shallow parts of the shorelines, where we finds lots of bait. Redfish are thick over there at times, but we’ll expect to catch plenty of trout too. June is just a great month for consistent catching.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 We have been blessed with some rains that have sweetened our bays and concentrated our fish in certain areas. The trout bite in our area is as good as it has been in recent memory. Drifting over shell in two to four feet of water, throwing VuDu shrimp under popping corks has been the best ticket to fast catching. The fish have been mostly solid eighteen to twenty inch fish with a few up to twenty three inches. The flounder have also made their way back to the bay, and we have been having some good nights gigging fish up to eighteen inches when the winds allow.

Our redfish have been a little hard to pattern with all the recent rains. We have been coming across a few throwing topwaters on area shorelines, while trying to find a consistent bite. I look for June to be lights-out fishing. The amount of bait in the bays and the warmer temperatures we are seeing should bode well for a good month. The surf will be one of

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our most productive spots, along with the deep reefs and wells out in West Matagorda.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 Lynn was waiting for strong winds to subside when he gave this report.

“It’s really windy today, so we can’t go, but winds won’t likely last. In June, we tend to target our fish in the surf any time we can. We also like to fish around the pass and jetties when winds are lighter. We will target our fish around grassbeds and shallow, sandy areas using topwaters and soft plastics. Incoming tides in the morning generally produce best when we’re fishing areas like that. All the freshwater flowing down the rivers has forced some really good trout toward POC, and we’re catching some on a consistent basis. When winds get up a bit, we’ll be fishing areas in the bays along protected shorelines with grass beds and potholes. We will try to stay around big rafts of mullet and other bait fish, throwing topwaters and twitch baits as long as they are working, soft plastics when the bite slows down. We might also start targeting fish along spoil banks lying next to the ship channel this month, especially toward the end of the month, if the weather’s really hot.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 Blake says the fishing in the surf has already been productive for him, and he expects it to continue and get even better. “We’ll be heading out to the beachfront as much as we can. It’s already been good at times.

Topwater bite is usually really good out there. When I’m fishing in the bays, I’ll be working areas from Aransas Bay northward. San Antonio and Mesquite Bays have been really good lately. When targeting trout, I tend to focus on waist-deep water, and when I’m going after the reds, I usually move shallower, onto the tops of the reefs, and close to the shorelines. I’ll be throwing the limetreuse Gulp! split-tail shad a bunch.

It’s been working really well. Of course, I also throw topwaters on most days, and my old standby lures, the dark Norton Sand Eels with chartreuse tails. I haven’t really started using bait much yet, but by June I will be using live croakers more, wading and free-lining them in the same types of areas where I’m fishing with lures now.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 The month of June is one of my favorite months for fishing because of its consistency. The weather is normally good, and this contributes to it being a good month for fishing. The better conditions also add to my fishing confidence, which leads to better catches for my fishing clients.

With the warmer weather and water temperatures, the fish will be in shallow water, two feet or less, early in the morning. I will start looking for fish along shorelines with pot holes that have sand or mixed gravel on the bottom. If the wind is not blowing too hard and there is not too much suspended grass in the water, I’ll fish with a MirrOlure Catch 5 in colors like CHBL or BNSBO. As the day progresses, the fish will probably move into deeper water and I’ll switch to Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like Sand Trout or Trickster rigged on sixteenth-ounce Spring Lock jigheads. When fishing with live bait, I’ll use free-lined croakers on a #5 Mustad Croaker hook along grass lines, drop offs and potholes.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.937.5961 Tides still stand at extremely high levels in the Upper Laguna Madre and in Baffin Bay at the time of this report, and water clarity is excellent over most of the area, Joe says. “We look forward to continued opportunities for sight-casting as long as we have such clear water lying over shallow spots with bright, sandy bottom. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, look for areas which are too shallow to hold fish on normal tide levels, like the spines of spoil banks, and sand bars immediately adjacent to the shorelines. Sight-casting works best from the boat when

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light winds create enough waves to allow for seeing into the water well, but don’t create lots of hull slap. We target our fish with soft plastics for the most part, when we are trying to catch fish we’ve seen first. Most of the time, simply throwing the lures past the heads of the fish and reeling them steadily in, close in front of the predators, will get the bites. Of course, on days when sight-casting becomes difficult, we target our fish in slightly deeper areas.”

P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins We are entering the summer surf season. Warm-water species are beginning to show and the highly-anticipated surf trout bite is here!

Throwing topwaters early morning and evening should produce. Midday, target deeper pinches and suck-outs with suspending lures and soft plastics. We get some of the largest surf trout of the year in early summer. The only drawbacks are pesky ladyfish and jack crevalle that can dump light reels. Sharks of all species should be present. Red drum will still be present and available on artificials and mullet. Whiting and pompano, though not as prevalent or large as in winter, will still be available on shrimp. Spoons tossed amidst birds and bait could result in various species—Spanish mackerel to tarpon. King mackerel are possible depending on water conditions. Stingrays are plentiful. In the unfortunate event you get hit, immediately heat water as hot as you can tolerate and pour continuously over the wound. This will alleviate pain long enough to make the journey to the hospital.

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 Topwater action has been on fire the past several weeks! Heddon One Knockers (bone) have been producing solid trout—all day sometimes. You’ll get lots of small ones, too, but the action is steady.

Tides have been running 1.5 to 2-feet above normal bringing lots of

102 | June 2016

backwater areas into play. Marsh drains and sloughs are the place to be for concentrated feeding activity when the tide is receding. Trout, reds and flounder will stack up waiting for bait to come through—try smaller topwaters but rely on soft plastics on lighter heads. Shrimp have been migrating through the ICW and flocks of birds will point the way. There will be ladyfish and small trout but, good trout as well.

Schools of slot reds have been holding north and south of East Cut. Also at East Cut, the jetties have been producing plenty of Spanish mackerel, kingfish, and smaller tarpon. Large schools of mullet and menhaden have moved in and the pelicans and gulls will be great indicators of gamefish feeding activity. Take breaks and stay hydrated.

Cover up and wear lots of sunscreen.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty – www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 The trout fishing continues excellent. We’re limiting on trout every trip, but the big news, is the consistent number of large trout, many of which are being released. Freddy says, “Catching the larger fish of any species is what separates the average fisherman from the pros, which is based on many things. The easiest way to fish like the pros is to use what the pros use. We have added the FP3 to our Cajun Thunder corks with phenomenal success! The attraction is evident in the number of strikes and overall size!” We’re also catching reds on the cork with the FP3 and Berkley Gulp Live! three inch shrimp, whether we’re drifting deeper potholes or shallower flats in our Shallow Sports. The biggest problems in locating redfish are increased tournament traffic and the lack of habitat in the LLM that continues to plague the schooling redfish. We used to get a perch hit almost every pop, but since the flooding, bait and turtle grass have become scarcer and so have the herds. We must stop open bay dredge disposal to allow the grass to grow back!

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Cutting Off Its Limbs to Save Its Life You might remember the story about the mountaineer who amputated his forearm so he could survive after his hand became trapped under a boulder. But imagine amputating a limb to escape a predator — again and again and again? Such is the everyday life of the otherworldlylooking lion’s mane sea slug.

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The Venus flytrap-like head and cerata are clearly visible in these three lion’s mane sea slugs. Credit: August Rode Just four inches long and an inch wide, this translucent carnivore lives in eel grass, kelp forests and other seaweeds along the West Coast, from Alaska to Baja California. Its large hooded mouth resembles a Venus flytrap but acts more like a net, scooping up and closing around tiny crustaceans, mollusks, jellyfish, invertebrate larvae and other tiny creatures. Its other distinctive features are the flat, oblong appendages along its back — similar to the plates along the back of a stegosaurus — with brown organs branching out within each plate.

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www.ScienceAndTheSea.org © The University of Texas Marine Science Institute 108 | June 2016

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CHRIS MAPP

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Full-line Mercury Dealer and Boat Care Tips Chris Mapp, owner of Coastal Bend Marine.

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Great Service, Parts & Sales “What can we do for you?”

There is so much to talk about within the marine industry, and lots going on even right here at our shop. We are now a full-line Mercury dealer— from smaller two-strokes all the way up to the big Verado four-strokes.

We are continuing to expand our technical education and training to provide the best possible service for this new opportunity and we hope you will find our parts, service and sales product knowledge growing every day to service your outboard needs.

As you may already know our technicians have gained the highest levels of training and certification available in servicing Yamaha, Evinrude, Honda and Suzuki, and will continue the same commitment to our newest product addition.

Commitment to product knowledge and customer service are our primary goal at Coastal Bend Marine and there are certain products that make our job easier. The Corrosion Technologies line comprises some of the products we depend on every day.

Corrosion X Red and Green have been staples in our service department for years and just recently we started carrying the full line of Corrosion Technologies products in our store. Let me share with you what I have found over the last month or so.

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110 | June 2016

believed for many years to be a great marine wax and have been recommending and selling it this way, but it is really much more.

Rejex is not just a wax, it is like putting an impenetrable shield on surfaces you want to protect. Plexiglas, fiberglass, aluminum, plastic, painted metals, stainless steel—the list is long and I would like to provide a few examples.

On large boats where diesel soot collects on the transom near the engine exhaust ports, when Rejex is applied per instructions the soot does not stick, and any remnant will rinse away easily or when washed lightly with a soapy sponge. Corrosion Technologies has also developed Xhaust & Soot Remover to help clean seriously stained surfaces that have not been treated prior with Rejex.

It’s love bug season! Cars and trucks, and boats towed on the highway, get splattered with bugs and this is another great way to use Rejex. Properly cleaned and applied, fiberglass, plastic windscreens and bright work will look as good as new with rinsing and light washing. You could spend hours trying to accomplish this without the help of Rejex.

Thank you to Corrosion X for your great products. Visit www.corrosionx.com to learn more, and stop by our store to purchase these great products.

Here’s wishing you a happy and safe summer fishing and boating season.

Chris Mapp Coastal Bend Marine | Port O’Connor, TX coastalbendmarine.com | 361-983-4841

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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.

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