June 2024

Erica Hirsch is our cover angler with a great Lower Laguna redfish. Erica was fishing with the Texas Womens Anglers Fish Camp group out of Port Mansfield. It was an epic topwater bite that lasted all morning for eight women, all throwing Mansfield Knockers in Cinderella Story color. Many blowups, misses, and hookups happened throughout the day.

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June Issue Highlights View The Video Open Camera & hover over QR Code. When link appears, tap to open in YouTube.

JUNE…IN ALL HER GLORY!

June has arrived and the Texas fishing scene is jam-packed! I cannot name a better month for just about any type and style of fishing that appeals to angler appetites.

Let’s start with surf fishing. Everything from speckled trout to a variety of sharks fill the Texas surf zone this month. Green tides reaching the beach are a sure sign of fabulous fishing. One of my greatest June memories dates back to the days when TPWD was still running the Matagorda Island shuttle vessel McBride, between Port O’Connor and the old Army Base. Between myself and three buddies, not one had a boat in service, all in for repairs. Determined to fish the surf, we hopped aboard the McBride and then took the truck ride they offered down the beach. It was the year MirrOlure introduced the Top Dog. My goodness, the swells were full of trout, and they absolutely crushed that lure.

June 1st marks the traditional opening of Red Snapper season in federal waters, a day offshore anglers pray will dawn with calm seas. A flat gulf is an open invitation for the small-boat fleet; here’s hoping it happens this year. And, Red Snapper

aren’t the only attraction. Many’s the day we got our snaps early and trolled our way back, catching kings and tossing spoons to frenzied bonito nearly the entire way.

Wide-open bay fishing from Sabine to South Padre is always a June highlight. Reds, trout, and flounder are seasonally abundant; and there’s always the chance to tangle with hard-pullers at the jetties and passes. Bull reds and jack crevalle are headliners for jetty-jerkers. Down south, in the Lower Laguna’s South Bay, June is a great month to add a Texas snook to your all-time species list.

Family fishing outings are also some of my best memories. Colorful beach umbrellas, charcoal grill on a sandy shore, ice chests filled with food and drinks, cast nets and bait buckets, tangled reels…kids and dogs splashing and running wild. Man, what fun times we had.

And there’s a serious side to all of this. Boating etiquette and keeping an eye on the weather are two of the most important, especially when involving youngsters. Running a boat on a busy summer weekend deserves the same level of attention as driving on a busy freeway. Don’t depend on the other guy knowing the rules of the road. Yield right of way, even if they’re in the wrong. Show other anglers and boaters the respect you would want them to show you. Above all, don’t become a statistic.

June’s gonna be a great month; grab your family and friends. Show ‘em how great fishing can be in Texas!

Progressions

Richard Harmier has been fishing with me for years and knows exactly why we’re fishing this sand flat as water temperatures have crept up into the mid-seventies.

Trout Progressions

STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN

Abuddy of mine called one morning recently as I was driving to the marina. After about 30 seconds of small talk he asked me where I was planning to start my day. I told him where my first stop was going to be and while he didn’t come right out and ask why I chose to fish that spot I could hear the curiosity and maybe even a hint of doubt in his voice when he said, “Hmm. Oh. Okay.” Then I felt compelled to explain to him that the particular community of trout that I was following was due to filter into this certain area any day based upon the changing conditions. Every angler realizes that trout move over the course of the year but some may not understand all of the triggering mechanisms causing them to relocate, so let’s talk about some of the main factors that influence the whereabouts of the most sought after species of fish on the Gulf Coast.

This particular “community” of trout that I’m referring to spent their winter in a back lake comprised of typical preferred cold weather habitat characteristics. Vegetation, small oyster reefs and mud-lined bottoms with deep buffer areas (safe refuge from extreme cold) not only provided insulation but harbored many species of forage for these fish throughout the colder months. As water temperatures begin to climb during the spring these fish start to flow out into the bay, but not before spending a fair amount of time in neighboring grass-lined coves with a good mix of silt and sand-bottomed troughs. Coves possessing these features are where we typically spend most of our time from the latter weeks of January through mid-May.

Our fish will begin their move to hard sand and hard shell reefs as water temperatures creep into the low to mid-70s range. It’s important to understand that I follow this community of trout (and many other groups of trout) every year as they move from place to place. Therefore, the words I type on this keyboard are true representations of my observations while on the water over the course of the year. The Galveston Bay Complex is very large (more than 600 square miles) and each and every part of our bay shares the same counter-clockwise trout migration from winter to summer every year. I stay on top of these schools by relying upon my historical knowledge and what I think I know about the timing of when they make their move.

When I say timing I’m not necessarily referring to any particular date or set of dates on a calendar. Obviously, the time of year is important when it comes to patterning seasonal migrations of trout but we cannot get completely caught up in the calendar. While I’ve found that there are date ranges where seasonal trout movements occur, those dates fluctuate by as many as two to three weeks just about every year based mainly upon water

temperature, salinity levels, food supply and availability of suitable habitat. Obviously, mild winters lend themselves to earlier spring and summer patterns. Conversely, I can remember catching beautiful trout on Corkys in early April in some of my winter spots because those late fronts just didn’t want to stop coming.

The water temperature is holding consistently in the 70s now, and by the time this fine magazine hits our mailboxes trout will be living over sand flats near passes and on mid-bay oyster reefs. Forage species such as shad and brown shrimp will have grown to larger sizes and trout will have begun to form actual schools and their metabolism will be at the highest level it’s been in months. Our topwater bite will be the best it’s been all year. Areas of bunched-up bait or “nervous” bait are telltale signs of predators such as trout and reds staging nearby. Tightly rafted mullet are also flashing neon signs that we shouldn’t pass up. And, those small well-defined, hard-edged slicks might as well be Buc-ee’s billboards along Interstate 10 advertising Beaver Nuggets and clean restrooms. You just gotta stop!

Our larger specks will continue to exhibit somewhat of a nomadic loner

Hopefully we’ll start seeing more and more of these upper age class fish in years to come with the new slot limits in place.

Lots of solid flounder mixed in with the trout while fishing marsh drains leading out to the bay.

Live habitat is everything when it comes to targeting fish of all species. It’s no wonder we caught over 30 legal trout before noon while drifting over this live oyster reef.

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behavior, staying tight to shorelines in moderate depressions, out of harm’s way and safe from apex predators, and also as far away as possible from boat traffic. Those of us who choose to target these above average sized specimens will need to do so in a stealthy and methodical manner. Wading quietly up into the shallows while crouching and keeping a low profile with the sun in our face is a must as our shadows will easily spook them. Oftentimes small topwaters like a MirrOlure She Pup or a Baby Skitter Walk will create the subtle presentation that we need to trick these larger trout. Other times it will be the soft rattle and suspending action of a Texas Customs Double D or a Borboleta Lele.

When the wind is up, don’t be afraid to make long casts up against a windward shoreline with a Saltwater Assassin rigged on a 1/16 ounce Pro Elite jig head. A MirrOlure Lil John rigged the same way can be just as deadly. The advantage of fishing a windward point, bank or shoreline is that the water is typically streaky or even off-colored, which makes it easier for us to trick those photo-worthy trout that would otherwise turn their nose up at our offerings in clear water. Additionally, mullet, shad and other prey tend to get pushed up against the windward grass and shell banks where they become easy pickings for trout, reds and flounder.

We’ve been noticing multiple hatches of shad and glass minnows. The brown shrimp are steadily making their way from the bayous and back lakes to the Gulf. Consequently, the trout we seek are also on the move with warmer water temperatures and bait migrations. Speaking of being “on the move,” our trout seem to be on the move these days

View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

Trout Progressions

more than ever because of a shortage of live habitat to hold them in certain areas. The addition of increased late-spring fishing pressure has become an issue as well. With boats that can run in as little as 4to 6-inches of water, I’m seeing folks fishing in areas that were never accessible in years past. It gives a new meaning to the famous Captain Kirk quote from Star Trek, “To boldly go where no man has gone before.” In addition, there are channel dredging projects and other activities continuously going on throughout our bay system that has an effect on trout movements. Regardless of the ongoing changes, we must fish harder, smarter and find ways to navigate around the changes and obstacles thrown our way. The effort usually ends up being worth it in the end.

Water temperature, food, salinity and fishing pressure all affect trout movements. Extreme high tides tend to scatter the fish. Very low tides will concentrate them. The list goes on. Paying attention to the factors affecting trout movements will keep us several weeks ahead of the crowds. It’s always better to make reports then to follow them because following fishing reports never seems to pan out that well. As you plan your fishing trips, always remember to do your homework. Use common sense, historical knowledge, and trust your instincts.

Please don’t keep ‘em if you don’t need ‘em! Be safe and best of luck!

STEVE HILLMAN

CONTACT

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 4 09-256-7937

Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com Web w ww.hillmanguideservice.com

Justin Catrett caught this behemoth redfish while drifting over live oyster reef. This will be a common theme all summer.

Gene Flores lands another solid trout on a recent trip when our fish first showed up in numbers on hard sand bottom.

STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN

Ifirst fished Baffin Bay in March of 1992, with my second wife, during our Spring Break. We hired the top guide in the area at the time, a Canadian who came to call South Texas his home. Doug Bird proved himself admirably, and we caught plenty of trout and redfish, mostly on lures, overcoming the hampering effects of a nasty brown algae bloom.

Many years later, I recognize March as a prime month for chasing trophy trout in the rock-studded hypersaline estuary framed by famous ranches. Captain Bird did too, and he said so, but when my wife asked him to name his favorite month for fishing Baffin, he didn’t mention the month when winter ends and spring commences. “I like June,” he said. “The weather is nice most of the time, and the fishing’s easy more often than not.”

Over the course of two decades spent guiding in the waters south of the JFK Causeway, I’ve come to appreciate Bird’s assessment. I’d say several factors contribute to making the month when spring ends and summer begins one of the best on the calendar for fishing Baffin and the Upper Laguna Madre. Surely, most people think of June as a summer month; for many, the season starts after Memorial Day. But the calendar speaks a different truth.

Most of June falls in the spring. I’d argue the second half of spring and the first half of summer offer the best conditions for a kind of fishing most lure chunkers love, whether they prefer to target speckled trout, peacock bass or any other species. On most days from about the end of April to the middle of July, floating plugs draw plenty of strikes from trout, especially, but not exclusively, early in the mornings.

This is why I and anglers with priorities like mine find the sport so satisfying as the calendar approaches and steps through the Summer Solstice. Lots of June mornings start off with the wind dying to a whisper over calm, clear water. While the rising sun splashes soft pastel hues on the almost ever-present cumulus clouds, prowling specks cast their eyes upward, looking for ripe targets and easy meals.

Any coastal angler with more than a few trips in the log knows what often happens then. Most of us who write about the sport have done what we can to accurately describe a blow-up, using onomatopoeia to invent words for the sound, making analogies to other dramatic things, all with the goal of honoring the essence of one of the most satisfying events we experience. The snapping jaws of an attacking trout stopping a pinging plug with a whoosh and combining air and water in a sparkling cloud of foam slakes a persistent craving.

I’ve said it many times during a hot topwater bite–blow-ups never get old. The next one feels every bit as good as both the last one and the first one. When the fish rise to the baits repeatedly, the sound of laughter inevitably follows. Relatively calm winds, low light levels and pretty green water measuring about 80°F or so generally encourage trout to tackle topwaters recklessly. On many mornings in the month of June, they do so for several hours, and anglers who know how to walk the dog with cigar-shaped plugs catch plenty.

When I first burst onto the Texas saltwater fishing scene, I favored a full-sized Super Spook above all other floating lures, probably because I caught my first 27-inch trout on one. But time and several key incidents taught me to favor a slightly smaller plug for duty when generic, bread and butter retrieves earn strikes at a high rate. I now contend a medium-sized lure like a One Knocker works best in such situations, though I know many others will work to produce blow-ups when trout feed actively at the surface. Surely, some situations make finding a topwater the trout won’t strike more difficult than finding one they will.

But as the dog days of summer drag along, and water temperatures climb to their maximum values, smaller lures begin to work better on

Christina Geer used a One Knocker to catch several terrific trout on a morning when the captain could not hook a fish on other floating plugs.

In murky water, especially under strong winds, topwaters like She Dogs, with high-pitched, raspy rattles, draw more strikes than most others. This truth applies more if the targeted fish swim in water too deep for wading. In places, where numerous large menhaden make “flitting” noises at the water’s surface, as is sometimes the case in the summer surf, topwaters enhanced with one or two propellers earn more strikes than ones without whirling blades. The utility of specific kinds of sound production makes sense to me in both these situations.

My two buddies and I did not need either of these types of topwaters on the June day which perfectly illustrates the potential beauty of fishing for trout in the waters of Baffin Bay this month. On the memorable occasion, back in 2002, we started off wading at the west end of Cathead, standing in the shallows on top of the sand bar, tossing at visible rocks in deeper water, soon after daybreak. We all threw different lures; the blow-ups came fast and easy on each of them, and the attacking trout had consistently satisfying size.

One of my friends and I walked away from the hot bite before it waned, because we’d already caught over 50 trout, at least 80% of which measured 22 inches or more, though none stretched much more than 27 inches. We walked toward the north shoreline, into shallow water over grass and potholes, switching to Paul Brown Fat Boys, hoping to entice some bigger trout into taking a bite. Our mission failed, though we did catch more three to five-pound fish. The other member of our trio stayed out by the rocks, switching to a soft plastic dangled under a cork, and he continued catching at a fast clip.

After one move which further convinced us most of the trout, including some of the big ones, preferred water about three to five-feet deep around rocks, we ventured over to Penascal Point. There, we started another topwater rodeo, finding a bucking school

of hungry trout around just about every rock. In the end, we caught several dozen trout each, with about 100 of them falling into the 22 to 27-inch class. For me, the day epitomizes the primo potential inherent to throwing topwaters in Baffin this time of year, also the plan’s shortcoming; in June, floating plugs produce plenty of large trout, but few giant ones.

This month, live croakers become most effective at urging strikes from the biggest trout in Texas bays. The fact doesn’t dissuade lure chunkers like me from continuing to try and trick the sow of a lifetime on something made entirely by the hands of man. We have zero interest in using live bait, especially when lures can and do produce such satisfying results on a regular basis, as is the case in South Texas when the days stroll out of the season of beginnings under a sizzling sun.

Maybe Doug Bird lied to me and my wife all those years ago when she asked him to name his favorite month for fishing Baffin. He knew we were school teachers. Maybe he thought we’d come back and fish with him again after the school year ended, if he built some hype around June. I doubt it, though. I believe he had long since learned what I came to know; this time of year, Baffin ranks high on the list of best places to get a blow-up in the Lone Star State. On these legendary waters, this month’s sultry, placid days provide us ample opportunity to regularly scratch one of our most enduring itches. Breaking the Rhythm View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

KEVIN COCHRAN

Kevin Cochran is a long-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.

Phone 361-688-3714

Email kevincochran404@yahoo.com Web www.captainkevblogs.com T ROUT TRACKER GUIDE SERVICE

Rob Ramsey proved large topwaters sometimes work well in really shallow water when he caught this beastly trout on a Super Spook.

Rapala Skitter Walks rank high on the list of the captain’s favorite topwaters, with Super Spooks, Spook Juniors and One Knockers.

Despite all the challenging conditions we have been facing there are still bright spots to be enjoyed

on Sabine Lake.

Give a Little to maybe Get a Little….

STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE

It’s way too early in the year to be making excuses or looking for silver linings, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to get through it. Three nasty words describe the conditions that have been plaguing us here on Sabine so far this spring and we just can’t seem to catch a break – cold, fresh, and muddy. Rather than cry in my beer and cuss the hand we’ve been dealt; I’ll take a shot at finding a few positives.

After having experienced more productive fall and winter fishing, the good fortune appeared to be carrying over into the new year as January and February were solid for both trout and redfish as water quality remained well above average. Fast forward to March and that’s where the misery begins; heavy rain, runoff, and late cold fronts stopped a solid bite in its tracks. April produced more of the same with higher water levels being the only real difference. It appeared the trout grabbed their passports and headed for parts unknown. Under normal circumstances these conditions would be catastrophic but in this case they may be a blessing in disguise.

During the second half of 2023 we encountered some drastic drought conditions that greatly affected Sabine in both positive and negative ways. On the positive front we saw ridiculously clean water rush into the lake from the gulf and usher in all manner of bait and game fish species. Speckled trout populations along with redfish seemed to be flourishing and that was very evident as many anglers enjoyed some fantastic days on the water.

Now, with all the saltwater that was pouring into the lake and surrounding estuaries, there had to be a tradeoff, and that came in the form of much higher salinity in the marshes. For those that are not aware of how fragile or fickle our brackish water marshes are, let me explain.

The thousands and thousands of marsh acres that border Sabine Lake are the lifeblood of the entire ecosystem and when they get out of balance bad things happen. In this case we were much too salty and that set off a chain of events that saw pristine backwater lakes and ponds that are normally lush with a variety of aquatic vegetation become suddenly barren and empty. Our summertime brown shrimp hatch was way down, as was the white shrimp hatch later in the fall. These shrimp provide the main forage for most of the fish in Sabine Lake at certain times of the year and when the food source is scarce, the fish will soon be the same.

Fishermen were not the only ones who were affected, the waterfowl folks really took it on the chin when the grass became non-existent in most of the marshes. The wintering populations of ducks that call our part of the world home for a few months showed up to an empty cupboard and quickly made their way towards better areas with more food. The delicate balance between too much or not enough salt had swung too far one way and things got out of hand.

Now, fast forward to today and the current conditions where things appear to be in a much more normal pattern with salinities in a better range for this time of year. The “big flush” that we have received, thanks to some heavy rains and plenty of inflow from Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn, appear to have rejuvenated the surrounding marshes and set up Sabine for a much better year, overall. Thus far I have been very impressed with the amount of quality vegetation that’s flourishing

in many places. All the grasses that grow in the marsh offer not only places for bait to grow and hide; they also filter the water on tide changes and help keep erosion in check. The better shape the marshes are in means the better overall shape Sabine Lake will be in, and that is good for everyone.

Speaking of the marshes, that’s where I have spent the bulk of my time lately due to the less than desirable conditions in the open lake and we have had some decent success. The redfish continue to prowl around but they are much more difficult to chase with high water levels. Look for much better conditions to help this pattern as we head into the dog days of summer. There are very few things that get me excited like seeing those double-digit redfish with half their back out of the water, trying to gobble that last shrimp or crab on a shallow flat.

On a recent trip I had the pleasure of showing some of what the marsh has to offer to my good friend and long time Galveston guide James Trimble and Rebecca Schmitz. Rebecca had traveled all the way from Washington state for a visit and wanted to catch a redfish and see an alligator; so Trim told her, “I got a guy,” and they headed my way.

It only took about ten minutes to get the alligator encounter out of the way and then we were off to hustle redfish. My better half, Leslie, also came along for the ride and made the day that much more enjoyable. While Trim and I stood on the bow of my Gulf Coast enjoying the opportunity to just “buddy fish” and catch up on things, we also got to witness Rebecca catch her first-ever red, which just so happened to be a healthy upper-slot

The Mulletron from ZMan is a highly adaptable lure that be rigged in a variety of ways…and they all catch fish!

Rebecca Schmitz came all the way from Washington state to see an alligator and catch her first redfish…both missions accomplished.

Leslie Uzzle, my better half, also got in the catching. Mulletron rigged as a swimbait go it done.

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specimen. Seeing someone who had never before been in a place like our marsh enjoying everything it has to offer was very satisfying and a reminder as to why I guide.

Another great thing about guiding is being able to help folks catch more fish, and that gets done in a variety of ways; like sharing tips or tackle that might increase their success. In the last month or two I have found a couple of noteworthy items that will definitely help most any angler catch a few more fish.

The good folks over at ZMan have come out with a new swimbait called the Mulletron and so far I have been very impressed with it. The Mulletron can be rigged several ways and they all catch fish. You can use the wide-gap offset hook and rig it weedless where it can be presented as a swimbait, or put it on a regular jig head and fish it like a conventional soft plastic. You can even run it under a cork…each method works well. The Mulletron sports the famous ZMan ElazTech plastic which is virtually indestructible and flexible at the same time, which makes this new bait a must have in the arsenal.

Also noteworthy is a new rod from Laguna called the Javelin. Built on their new American-made blanks, this medium-power extra-fast action rod is a dream come true as you can effortlessly switch from

View The Video

Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

topwater to Corky and all things in between without losing any feel. The Javelin comes in three lengths; 6’2”, 6’5”, and 6’8” so you can pick which length works best whether you plan to wade or fish from the boat. I love the 6’2” option for several reasons including storage when I put them inside my truck or just having the shorter length for those of us who are “vertically challenged” and still like to wade. I have seen the prototypes and they are first-class so I can only imagine how slick the new models will be. If you are looking for a “do everything” rod you may want to take a look at the Javelin from Laguna. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

With May in the rearview and summer approaching we now have some of the best fishing of the year ahead. Take advantage of every opportunity to get on the water and be sure to take a kid fishing every chance you get.

CHUCK UZZLE

CONTACT

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

Email wakesndrakes@yahoo.com Website wakesndrakes.com

Big kingfish off Sabine Pass, tailed into the boat and about to be released.

Where are the Kings?

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

Kingfish landings, both commercial and recreational in Texas, seem to be plummeting and no one is sure why. The entire Gulf has seen a big drop in kingfish landings and in Florida, the same has happened with Spanish mackerel. Are there fewer fish, or fewer anglers going after them? What’s going on?

Texas has essentially a three-month summer kingfish season and June is sometimes too windy to fish offshore. That leaves two month before Labor Day arrives with school, football and dove season. Most of the oil rigs are gone now and one could argue that reduced catches are because the fish are less concentrated. For decades it was easy to find a rig on the horizon, tie up, and often catch a bunch of kingfish. The same was true around many anchored shrimpboats starting July 1 each year. Few shrimpboats are still working offshore now, because they’ve finally been overwhelmed by Asian imports of cheap shrimp.

Today, several generations of offshore anglers who grew up on fast action with kingfish, are getting too old to face the whitecaps; they’ve now switched to bay fishing. In addition, tight bag limits or season closures on everything found offshore is a further hindrance. Another possible factor: non-ethanol gas so favored by outboard motors is over $4.00 a gallon at many marinas, making offshore trips expensive. Those of a certain age, myself included, can look back fondly on our overnight offshore trips back in the day, when gas was 35 cents and then went all the way up to 90 cents during the 1970s and ‘80s. When we used single outboards.

It’s possible Texas still has a decent population of kingfish, but they’re just not being pursued and found. Some fish migrate down to Mexico each winter, though how many isn’t known. Some of our kingfish stock may also winter offshore, but once again how much is undetermined. I’ve certainly seen fast action between November and February out there on the bigger snapper rocks. It would be nice to catch and tag a few hundred kings out there during winter, and see where they reappear.

An undetermined portion of Texas kingfish also migrate east for the winter, all the way to the Florida Keys and even up the Atlantic coast for a hundred miles. That’s another hazardous migration, passing through an area where Florida kings seem to have been decimated without explanation. One Gulf Council member, Ed Walker, who is quite the fisherman with numerous world records, has a theory that the 10-month long red tide they had there from St. Petersburg on south, 2-3 years ago, leaving miles of floating fish, may have killed off a great many kingfish and Spanish mackerel as they migrated through that area. Unlike most coastal species, kings and Spanish mackerel always sink when dead, making it difficult, if not impossible, to find the evidence. Or counted, and that’s what biologists want to see, visual proof and numbers and grid patterns. Without evidence, scientists are skeptical of Walker’s red tide mackerel die-off theory.

Other theories are being discussed as well. “Some fishermen think kingfish migration routes may have shifted, but I’ve seen no evidence of that,” says the Gulf Council’s Kesley Banks in Corpus Christi. “If they are migrating further offshore, there is less chance fishermen will interact with them. A portion of our kingfish also migrate south into Mexico to winter, and the rest go to Florida. We also know there is a mixing zone off Louisiana between eastern and western stocks. We’re hoping for some funding to determine what percent of Texas fish migrate to Mexico. There is definitely a north-south movement, and there were kingfish tag recaptures around Vera Cruz back in the late 1980s and early 90s.”

My own kingfish recapture chart assembled in 1994 for my kingfish book, shows there were at least 15 Texas kingfish tag recaptures in Mexico during the seven years prior. The data was compiled by Steve Qualia in Flower Bluff, along with his tag volunteer fishermen.

“Because summer kingfish overlap with red snapper season each summer, it hasn’t affected the tourist fishing season that much,” says Banks. She also agrees that far fewer anglers are out catching kings

around anchored shrimpboats. “Most shrimpboats have been tied to the dock for a couple of years now, because of imported shrimp. There was lots more fishing pressure out there years ago, along with lots more structure to fish.”

I’m not entirely a stranger to kingfish and have believed for 40 years they should have received gamefish status. The commercial harvest was intense for many years Gulf-wide, often using huge gillnets where the fish gathered each winter off the Florida Keys. In addition, many tournaments still target kingfish and the smaller ones are often tossed back, because they don’t meet the 30- and more likely 40-pound requirement to win a tournament. These fish are tough in the water but fragile in the boat and poor candidates for catch and release. A great many boat crews aren’t experienced enough to land these fish by tailing them without a gaff, then dodging fish hooks in the cockpit and getting them back in the water quickly. It’s not a sport for the faint-hearted when flailing treble hooks and snapping teeth are close at hand.

Years ago I had people tell me that all released kingfish die, but our tagging efforts showed otherwise. We had our Galveston fish reappear in far-away lands like Mexico, Mobile in Alabama, even near Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic. Or they were caught the following summer only 10 miles from the original site, meaning they migrated somewhere during winter and then returned for another summer off Galveston. It helped us understand that the kingfish population was finite.

At the same time, they were being caught and sold

This map shows migratory routes of Texas kingfish.

This map shows migratory routes of Texas kingfish.

commercially around the Gulf and even in Galveston. Although a fishing season was briefly installed after the 1985 season, I took pictures of a commercial boat caught by game wardens, while they were unloading a thousand pounds of kings at Tiki Island near the Galveston bridge at mid-day. We also know that countless loads of assorted fish have been brought into Galveston harbor for unloading, late at night. And, I had an acquaintance tell me he’d caught 10,000 pounds of kingfish off my favorite snapper rock offshore. A place that was never the same after that. Can you imagine harvesting that many kingfish, just to fatten one’s wallet? There doesn’t seem much future for the species, without more protection.

The Gulf’s population of kings was immense only a few decades ago. There was massive commercial harvest using nets and spotter planes in the Florida Keys, where these fish winter. There was great wastage, because dead kingfish in the nets always sink and there was a lot of fallout. I remember my grandfather telling me an airline pilot spotted a school that was six miles long. Later in 1985, huge kingfish were discovered off East Louisiana. You could tie up to an oil rig a couple miles offshore, catch all the sand or gulf trout you wanted and use them for bait, which is why the kings were there. Sixty and even 70 pound kings were fairly common. The Cajuns had little use for them (which is saying something) but Florida net crews found out and brought in the big freezer trucks. Those huge female kings were decimated and hauled away to New York fish markets. Even today, Louisiana still has heavier kingfish than anywhere else, a big reason why the national SKA championship tournament for years was held at a casino in nearby Biloxi.

My recommendation for this summer is go easy on these fish. Either give them a break and target something else or use single hooks on them, maybe even barbless. Wear gloves and grab them by the tail. Jiggle the hook free and drop that fish over the side quickly, pointing them straight down. It’s a technique that works. If you’re lucky enough to find a gathering of kings, perhaps chummed up behind the boat, consider throwing a topwater plug with the hooks removed. These fish will skyrocket a dozen feet high with the plug and then make a fast run before dropping it. Whereby another king may grab on. It’s great fun, the ultimate in topwater action, and you don’t have to land and unhook fish. Last time we did it, we used baitcasting tackle with 20-pound line. Don’t forget a short wire leader of a size that doesn’t kink easily, like 86-pound strength.

CONTACT

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

Advancements in Fishing Technology Changing the Way We Catch & Release Fish Offshore

STORY BY NICK HADDAD

While scrolling my Facebook timeline, I stumbled upon a post regarding an early grouper closure that had the fishing community fired up. A captain commented, “We’ve done the circle hooks, we’re doing the descending device, and trying our best but the seasons keep getting shorter. What’s the deal?” He posed a great question that sparked my curiosity. If we are saving more fish, why aren’t we getting more fish to catch?

My simple conclusion was that we must be catching way more fish than ever before. Why is that? Well, certainly more people are fishing than ever before, but more importantly, more people are catching fish than ever before. The age old saying that 20% of the fishermen catch 80% of the fish might not be true anymore. Over the past couple of decades, fishing technology has undergone a revolution, transforming the way we locate and catch fish. Innovations such as spot-lock trolling motors, GPS, sonar, electric reels, and access to pre-plotted bottom charts have made it easier than ever to find and land fish offshore. However, as our ability to catch fish has improved, so has the magnitude of fish that are being released back to the water. This paradigm emphasizes the need for each of us to take better care of the fish we release.

Let’s dive into technology changes that have increased our catching efficiency:

Spot-Lock Trolling Motors and Outboards

Spot-lock trolling motors and outboards use GPS technology to automatically hold a boat in a specific location, even in windy conditions or strong currents. They represent a significant technological advancement when it comes to catching more fish. Gone are the days of constantly adjusting anchor lines to stay on top of productive fishing spots or re-anchoring several times to land perfectly over a spot. Now, it’s as easy as finding your spot and pressing a button. This allows anglers to spend a lot more time fishing without worrying about drifting away, increasing efficiency and catch rates. They are a true game-changer when it comes to offshore fishing, especially in deep water.

Electric Reels

Speaking of deep water, electric reels have revolutionized deep-sea fishing by automating the process of dropping and retrieving heavy tackle from great depths. With the push of a button, anglers can now effortlessly reel in large fish that would otherwise be out of reach. Deep-dropping has exploded in the last decade as anglers flock to greater depths in search of delicious snowy grouper, tilefish, queen snapper and many more species that previously were out of reach to most. The price point of electric reels kept them out of the hands of many anglers just a few years ago. Now, electric reel prices are comparable to most mid-grade offshore conventional reels and are much more broadly available. This technology has opened up new opportunities for targeting deep-water species with relative ease.

GPS, Sonar, Radar and Navigation Charts

The first two technology advancements improve efficiency of catching fish once you find them, but how has finding fish changed? GPS, radar, sonar, and relief shading have transformed fishing by providing anglers with advanced tools for locating fish:

1. GPS allows anglers to pinpoint their exact location on the water and navigate the open ocean with ease. This allows them to mark productive fishing spots, record waypoints for future reference, and navigate to specific locations. By using GPS, anglers can return to successful fishing spots, explore new areas, and efficiently cover more water.

2. Radar systems emit electromagnetic waves that bounce off objects to help locate not only fish, but birds, boats and other objects nearby. By analyzing the returned signals, anglers can detect the presence of fish schools, baitfish, and other structures beneath the water’s surface. When you’re in the open ocean, birds are often the best way to find bait and pelagics. Advanced radar now allows you to locate birds over 3 miles away to navigate to find fish.

3. Sonar uses sound waves to detect and provide realtime feedback of objects in the water. I remember the days when down-imaging was a huge deal. Then it was side-scan and now anglers cast at single fish in front of them, watch their lure drop and the fish eat, all while looking down at a screen. Whether you’re looking for structures like rocks, ledges, weeds, or fish in the water column, sonar now provides a near 360-degree view of the underwater environment around you.

4. Last but not least, the availability of pre-plotted charts with relief shading has completely changed the fishing game. No longer do you have to watch your sonar closely to find structure, as anglers can buy pre-mapped charts. Companies like CMOR Maps, Navionics and StrikeLine Charts have made finding fishing spots easier than ever before. Heck, StrikeLine Charts slogan is “We find ‘em. You fish ‘em.” The secret honey holes that took years of searching for are few and far between these days.

Two red snapper pulled up from 200 feet of water.

Dropping a Power-Pole MOVE PV trolling motor in the water to snapper fish.

Rigging up a Daiwa Seaborg electric reel to deep-drop for queen snapper.

Advanced Technology Calls for Responsible Releases

While these advancements in fishing technology have undoubtedly made it easier to catch fish, they have also resulted in more fish being discarded than ever before. Circling back to the initial question, “Why aren’t we getting more fish to catch?” Each individual angler is catching more and releasing more fish, many of which don’t survive. There are millions of recreational anglers that fish in the Gulf of Mexico each year and most will (and should) take advantage of these technology changes to become more efficient anglers. The simple truth is that the fish we save with best release practices and new release gear will never keep up with the increased pace at which we are finding and catching fish.

This increased catching efficiency highlights the importance of adopting responsible catch-andrelease practices to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries. It’s time to start thinking of best release practices not as a way to get longer seasons, but as a way to preserve the fish we have and take care of the resource to the best of our ability. As we continue to catch fish at a faster rate than ever before, we should be advancing the way we release fish, too.

The good news is that technology can make it easier than ever before to ensure more released fish survive to grow, spawn and contribute to the future of the sport. Electric reels can make descending fish suffering from barotrauma much more efficient for the angler. Spot-lock trolling motors can help retrieve fish that float away on the surface faster than a boat on anchor. Mastering sonar can help identify target species that are in-season to reduce bycatch. As we take advantage of new technology to find fish, let’s also remember to use it to take better care of the fish we put back.

Visit returnemright.org to sharpen your release skills and get free gear to support the future of the fishery. Why? Not because it gives you a longer season, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Garmin radar on top of a Cape Horn 31T (picture credit: Denes Szakacs).

eft: Standard Garmin Active Captain preloaded fishing chart. Right: Garmin Active Captain chart with relief shading. Both images are displaying the same reference area.

Great Gifts

AFTCO Ankle Deck Boots

AFTCO’s Ankle Deck Boot meets the rigorous demands of AFTCO’s pro team, guides, and customers alike. These waterproof fishing boots offer the perfect amount of cushioning, rebound, and support season after season.

Bart’s Bay Armor Gen3 Protective Wading Boot

The Gen3 Bart’s Bay Armor wade fishing boots are made from our patented, puncture-resistant material. Aggressive vulcanized sole provides great traction. Available in 14” Ambusher tall and the new 10” Capitan short boot.

Bass Assassin

Lit’l P&V

Lit’l P&V is the latest addition to Bass Assassin’s family of saltwater lures. Don’t be fooled, dynamite comes in small packages. Available in 24 colors... scented to attract more strikes. Made in USA!

Daiwa Regal LT Spinning Reel

DAIWA’s new Regal LT spinning reel in 5000- and 6000-sizes is perfect for lighter offshore, nearshore, and jetty fishing. An affordable fish-foreverything series, features include ZAION V body, and TOUGH DIGIGEAR drive.

American Tackle – Tsuka 2 Complete Carbon Handles

American Tackle’s Tsuka 2 delivers the industry’s first complete carbon handle. Engineered for discerning anglers and forward-thinking rod designers, the Tsuka 2 provides unprecedented strength, feel, and weight relief with a slim and ergonomic design.

MirrOlure Pro-Series Soft Dine, Soft Dine XL, & Fat Boy

MirrOlure has released new ProSeries Soft Dine, Soft Dine XL, and Paul Brown Fat Boy colors. These lures were designed to match natural baitfish patterns in a variety of water clarity conditions.

King Sailfish Mounts

Replica mounts of the highest quality are available from King Sailfish Mounts. Individually hand-crafted and finely detailed to resemble that species vivid and striking

A1A series from Huk

If you are looking for the best, A1A is built to take on anything. A1A Woven is the perfect choice for outdoor anglers, made with breathable and flexible fabric that provides sun protection and outstanding comfort.

For Dad

D.O.A.

Favored by expert anglers the world over, D.O.A. has a lure to match any angling situation. Inshore and offshore, our lures deliver fish-catching presentations from surface to any depth where fish are suspended.

Fish and Fame

A stylish way to display your fishing interest. ORIGINATOR GAFF® Belt, 1-1/2”(38mm) wide genuine full grain tooled leather, belt made with snaps for changing buckles. Buckle made from zinc alloy.

Gamakatsu

Innovators in fishing hook manufacture, Gamakatsu® is proud to introduce a proprietary new finish for their most popular hook styles. The Nano Alpha provides greater penetration and enhanced corrosion resistance.

Berkley Cutter 90 Saltwater

Berkley Cutter 90 is designed to imitate small baitfish. The proven shape delivers erratic rolling action and flash to deliver results in any fishing situation. 3X AntiRust Fusion19™ hooks for longlasting durability in saltwater.

Gone Coastal Jewelry

Your source for custom jewelry, specializing in fishing, nautical, and other coastal themes! All our jewelry is made of the highest quality making it the perfect gift for any Dad who loves fishing!

Okuma

The Okuma Makaira Sea Silver lever drag reels feature special edition gun smoke and silver anodizing. Carbonite drag system maximizes high-end drag pressure and overall smoothness. Oversized handle and lower lowspeed gearing provide extreme torque.

Millennium Marine Pro-M Series

Unique design provides unmatched comfort and durability, no matter how severe the conditions. Featuring breathable, cool ComfortMax seat for mold and mildew resistance. Mounts to any standard boat seat pedestal with one-year warranty.

Laguna Custom Rods

Laguna Texas Wader 1 was designed specifically for Corky fishing, while still capable of presenting your favorite topwater and favorite soft plastic on an 1/8-oz jig. Lightweight and versatile for grinding all day.

JAY WATKINS

ASK THE PRO

PRAYING FOR STABLE WEATHER PATTERNS

It’s been a slow start to my springtime fishing in the Rockport area. Weather conditions are having an impact, especially in the planning of areas to fish. April tides were lower than I can ever remember. On Monday last week I observed dry land over the southern end of Blind Pass, a small and shallow channel that is paralleled by a shallow bar that runs between San Jose Island and Aransas Bay. In my 45-plus years of guiding I have never seen this area out of the water. I probably should have stopped and waded to the east side of the channel and fished the drop-off where there are some pretty nice submerged grass beds.

I fish this area on occasion in the late fall and early winter months but have not been seeing as much submerged grass along our barrier shorelines as in the past. Honestly, last year we saw a diminished amount of shoreline grass beds and the trend seems to be continuing. I am seeing a few areas where we already have some pods of menhaden migrating into the bay and I am also seeing some slicking activity in the same

areas. When we start seeing full-on slicking my job in locating fish will become easier. Catching them might still be difficult at times but I find that angler confidence generally runs higher when fishing areas with slicking activity and my groups will be more willing to grind for longer periods. This grind-it-out approach will quite often result in good catches.

I am of the belief that platter-sized slicks popping in shallow water are often made by the best trout the area has to offer. I tell this to my guys all the time. But what about the times when we are not able to catch those fish? It is important to remember that trout are not the only fish that create slicks when feeding or regurgitating their food. Reds, flounder, hardheads and gafftop can also make slicks. Heck, even a Lay’s potato chip can produce a perfect slick. You’ll notice much of the time that when you catch a trout in the area where slicks are prevalent, a fish being reeled in will also make a slick. I am always very positive when it comes to fishing shallow shoreline slicks during the spring months.

I have caught some awful nice trout on windward shorelines and spoils where slicking was being observed. Slicking seems to be more prevalent when trout are spawning, a product of gorging and continuing to eat, in order to provide the oil and other nutrients necessary to support roe developing in their ovaries.

Bay systems notorious for growing trophy-class trout all seem to have a mulletbased food source, higher salinity levels, longer growing seasons, and less fishing pressure. I touched on this in last month’s article. This time of year, I am all about trying to locate and stay in areas where there is an abundance of mullet and menhaden.

I find that when I can do this the trout we catch are larger and the catching is more predictable. One strong tidal movement or a drastic change in our weather patterns changes everything overnight. Unpredictability is what keeps us coming back. If it was easy, we would move on to something more challenging. At this point I could use a little more predictability and some easier days, although it also true that tough days make us better anglers. I make varying bay runs each morning depending on the wind and tide levels. I will

Cindy Ramon with a nice springtime trout – CPR!

Great Gifts for Dad

PENN Squall II LD Fishing Tackle Unlimited

PENN Squall II Lever Drag boasts power and efficiency with a one-piece graphite frame and side plate, creating a more comfortable ergonomic feel, while reducing weight and increasing strength. PENN Dura-Drag system makes quick work of tough fish.

ROSCO EZ Clips

ROSCO EZ Clips are essentially a snap that does not need to be opened. Tie one on and quickly change lures without having to re-tie. Ideal for all lure types. Available in stainless steel or black oxide finishes.

SPRO Shimmy Flat & Shimmy Semi Long Jigs

Slow pitch jigs flutter and fall like a wounded baitfish. All styles and sizes come with Gamakatsu Assist 700 hooks. “If an angler just wants to tie a jig on and put it down, this is it, ready to go, right out of the package.”

TURTLEBOX Gen 2 Speaker

THE ULTIMATE OUTDOOR SPEAKER, available in 5 core colors. This rugged, portable speaker offers premium sound quality at an impressive 120 decibels. Fully waterproof—even saltwater. Why cut holes in your boat when Turtlebox offers everything you need?

The perfect rod for Dad! Designed specifically for Texas coastal fishing in a range of actions, lengths, and handle styles. These rods handle everything from topwaters to tails – including Corkys. Only at Fishing Tackle Unlimited!

Seaguar

Inshore Fluorocarbon Leader: Strong and Highly Abrasion Resistant, Excellent Impact and Knot Strength, Fast Sinking, Virtually Invisible Underwater. Seaguar Smackdown Lo-Vis Stealth Gray 8-Strand Performance Braid: Thinner Diameter and No Stretch, Ultra Strong, Abrasion Resistant, Super Sensitive, Less Visible.

Star Brite Ultimate Boat Care Kit

Boat Wash - Ultimate Xtreme Clean - Star Tron Gasoline AdditiveUltimate Vinyl Guard Spray Ultimate Xtreme Protectant - Ultimate Fiberglass Stain Remover - Microfiber Wash MittUltimate 5-Gal Bucket

Z-Man Texas Eye Jigheads

Adding snag-resistance and new dimensions of movement to Z-Man ElaZtech softbaits, the Texas Eye Jighead series features strike-centric 3D eyes and articulated, freeswinging jighead-tohook connections. Pairs perfectly with all Z-Man and other plastics.

burn a little more fuel looking for new areas that are showing signs of slicking or new bait arrivals. Watching brown pelicans, royal terns and gulls are helpful in locating menhaden schools and slicking is relatively easy to spot most days. We need to be conscious of the direction the slicks are drifting. Typically, along spoils or shorelines, there will be some type of bottom structure directly upwind or up-current of the direction they are drifting. Locating these areas of structure is a huge deal and will typically make or break your day.

Just a few days ago we located an area where there were scattered grass beds along a windward spoil bank shoreline. This shoreline also has a series of parallel guts running along it. Platter-sized slicks popped as we eased in, pointing us to the proper line that the trout were holding along. Bites came quickly; nothing big, just 16-to-17-inch fish, but the pattern is what mattered. Once a pattern is recognized, we can then decide to either stay with it or move on and try to locate better trout. That decision will usually be based on the conditions of the day and also the clients I am guiding.

As more menhaden move into our bays we will see more slicking, which makes the decision of where to begin our day easier. However, like I said earlier; just because you are seeing platter-sized popping up shallow does not guarantee you will be able to catch the fish that are making them. So, with that said, it is extremely important that we exercise patience and DO NOT enter directly into the area where the slicks are popping. Instead, we need to position ourselves offshore, making long casts to the area, and moving as quietly as possible. Entering the area will spook the larger trout you’re hoping to catch and will likely also ruin it for the rest of the day. We can always leave

and return a few hours later and see if they are ready to eat. Is it possible the slicks were made by another species? Certainly! And if they are from flounder they can be difficult to catch at the best of times. Redfish? The answer is yes again. But reds are pretty easy to catch in this situation.

Downsizing our lures can be a good strategy when the bite is tough in shallow, calm, and quite often clear water. For these situations, I try my best to influence my guys to use the best, highest-modulus rods they can afford and the reasons are several. For starters, you need to make long, accurate casts; but the lure is smaller and therefore lighter. My favorite jighead for these situations is the 1/16-ounce from Texas Customs. Another problem I see is that some clients just can’t feel that light tap that big trout are notorious for giving us in clear, shallow water. We saw this all week and the trout I was catching were 2 to 2 ½ pound fish here in Rockport. The one fish near six pounds I did catch tapped the lure so lightly that had I not been using a Custom Henri rod I would not have felt her. By the way, Henri is not the only brand that offers high-modulus rods – there’s also Waterloo, Sarge, and Laguna. By not feeling the take and not reeling into the bite, we allow the fish to swallow the bait more than I like to see. I know, you might be saying how can you prevent this? The right rod will allow you to feel the slightest of takes and then you must, without jerking or moving the rod, reel into the fish until you feel the line coming tight. Now you can set the hook, and more times than not, the trout will turn away from you and the hook will slide to the corner of the mouth where you have the best shot at getting a hookset in the corner of the mouth. Here recently nearly all the better trout we are catching have been

Amy McCutchin, windy day upper-slot red – CPR!

Yours truly, nice Aransas Bay speck – CPR!

holding on the upwind or up-current sides of the structure we are working. Right now, I am mostly working grass beds around shoreline points or along windward sides of small spoil islands. I have fished very little shell lately due to strong winds keeping us out of those areas. I have been positioning my groups as far offshore of these edges and structures as possible, just within reach of their longest casts. Right now, if you do not hit just beyond the edge of the grass and immediately twitch the bait off the edge and allow the lure to drop straight down the edge, you won’t get many bites.

It is always amazing to me how much being able to make an accurate cast to the exact spot can determine fishing success. I have some opinions as to why this is happening but no science to back it up. I believe that it’s all about predation from dolphins making the trout stage in the grass. Dolphins are really bad in some areas right now and there is no getting them off of us except to leave the area. My theory is that the trout don’t want to venture away from the protection of the grass that they are sitting in. We certainly don’t get many bites if the lure lands more than a few feet off the edge. The dolphins get theirs no matter what, so we just leave when they start eating what we are catching and releasing.

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I am currently throwing lots of MirrOlure Lil John XLs and smaller Lil Johns in Golden Bream, Watermelon, Opening Night, and Molting colors on 2/0 Texas Customs 1/16-ounce jigs. The Texas Customs Double D in Plum Nasty, Truth, Bay Mistress, and Grey Ghost are also getting a lot of play. The Double D is a great choice when the menhaden and mullet are rafted or stringing along shallow shoreline drop-offs. The Double D is also very effective when trout and redfish are only blowing-up topwaters but not actually eating them.

Hopefully the weather pattern will begin to become more stable and summer-like soon and my fishing will become more consistent. We don’t really want it to become too predictable, though. Not knowing is what keeps us coming back.

May Your Fishing Always Be Catching! -Guide Jay Watkins

Jay Watkins has been a full-time fishing guide at Rockport, TX, for more than 45 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 361-729-9596

Email Jay@jaywatkins.com Website www.jaywatkins.com

DAVE ROBERTS SHALLOW WATER FISHING

CHASING JACKS!

The tale I am about to relate happened several years ago but the memory is as vivid as though it was this morning.

A buddy phoned to say he was anxious to hit the water.

I quickly obliged and told him that I would be checking the weather forecast for the first good opportunity. Lucky for us, the meteorologists were predicting a string of several days with light north wind. I knew this was our window as it gave us several different options of how and where we might spend a day on the water. I phoned my buddy back and proposed that we make a full day of it by hitting the jetties at daylight and, then once the sun came up, we could ride around looking for tripletail. The plan didn’t require much convincing.

When we pulled out of the boat ramp there was a faint orange glow on the eastern horizon and I knew that our timing was perfect for a run to the Sabine jetties. Sure enough, we began catching some decent trout along the rocks and it didn’t take long to fill our

limits. We decided to head into the Texas pocket with hopes to throw the cast net and catch some live bait for the tripletail. Not long into our search I looked up and noticed a large V-shaped waking pushing through the water. Stu asked me what I thought it might be and my reply was, “I honestly have no idea but put that She Dog in front of it and lets find out.” A well placed cast and finding out is exactly what we did. A large head emerged from below the surface with mouth wide open and we watched as that topwater disappeared. Stu reared back with a mighty hookset and quickly asked what I thought might have grabbed his plug. “It’s a jack,” I assured him, “And you better hang on!”

As Stu did his best to control the beast I stayed on the big motor and kept the fish close, with hopes to not put too much stress on the angler or the fish. Chasing it down, I began to notice several more wakes being pushed across the surf and I knew they were also jacks.

We finally got the fish into the boat and my buddy was relieved. We snapped a few quick photos and sent her back on her way. As Stu was catching his breath I told him to look out front because it was time to do it again. With the adrenaline still pumping, he bombed a cast and a few twitches later he had had another giant blow-up. Pretty much an instant replay; as we released his second fish I told him that another one was headed straight at us. Being somewhat less than enthusiastic about tangling with a third jack in rapid succession, he decided to pass the rod to me. I gladly accepted and grabbed my 11-weight fly rod instead of the baitcast rig.

I managed a decent cast and a few strips with a white and chartreuse streamer got her attention. Once again, she came across with her mouth wide open and we watched as the fly got sucked in. I made a solid strip set and within seconds I was into my backing. While fighting the fish I began to look across the surface and that is when I realized that there were literally hundreds of jacks scattered about. As far as you could see in every direction there were wakes being pushed by either single fish or small groups of three to five. At that time I had never seen anything like it. We caught jacks steadily until almost noon, and with exhaustion setting in, we agreed we’d had enough catching for that day.

Since that memorable morning I have found jacks schooled and behaving very similarly on several occasions and it always seems to happen on the perfect weather days. Mostly when the surf is almost mirror-slick and you can easily spot them cruising the surface. The most amazing thing about fishing for jacks is that a majority

View The Video

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Lots of Rain! Sabine Still Has Fish

of fishermen want absolutely nothing to do with them. I fully understand that if you are trout fishing with light tackle, hooking into a jack may not be the ideal outcome. However, if you are using the right equipment and enjoy the challenge of whipping hardfighting fish, there should be no reason not to target jack crevalle when they are available.

The thing that makes these fish so desirable to me is that they are incredibly aggressive. They are mean, explosive, and by far the strongest inshore species you will likely ever encounter. On top of all of that they will rarely, if ever, refuse a topwater. Once you get their attention they will do nearly everything possible to chase it down and pounce on it.

Experience over the years has taught me that if you can’t spot them cruising the surface the next best plan is focusing on rafts of pogies. Pogies (shad) are one of their main food sources during the summer months and they are never far from them. Keep a topwater tied on and cast around the edges of the pogy schools. The jacks like to cruise around the edges and wait for a single pogy to drift away from the school before attacking. A lone topwater just off the edge will get smoked every time.

Summer is here and I am excited for the calm days out along our beachfront. We don’t get many days where the conditions are ideal, especially when fishing from a poling skiff. Until then, I will be eagerly checking the forecast for a stretch of a few days with light north wind pushing to the coast. When that time arrives you can be assured I’ll be out there, rod in hand with a topwater tied on, chasing the jacks!

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

By John Blaha

CCA TEXAS HABITAT EFFORTS CONTINUE TO MOVE FORWARD

It’s hard to believe, but when this issue hits the newsstands we will be five months through 2024. CCA Texas is once again off to a strong start due to the great efforts of the local chapter volunteers, sponsors and supporters. The CCA Texas staff looks forward to hosting the local chapter volunteers in Rockport for the annual Inter-Chapter Challenge. CCA Texas and partners continue to move forward with habitat restoration and creation efforts along the Texas coast. CCA Texas has now funded more than $10.3 million in habitat efforts and has committed another $5.0 million to oyster reef restoration and creation efforts in the near future.

Oyster Habitat Restoration

CCA Texas, partners and others are working to identify areas for restoration and creation up and down the Texas coast. Two that are currently being considered are the Mesquite Bay complex and Carancahua Bay. Working closely with Flats Worthy, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program (CBBEP), Harte Research Institute (HRI), University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI)

and others, areas are being identified and prioritized for restoration in the Mesquite Bay Complex. The number one priority at this time is the northeastern end of Ayers Reef. Although currently in design, this effort will be similar in construction to the St. Charles Bay Big Tree Unit restoration project, featuring a segmented reefing complex that allows for waterflow through the reefs and protection of the existing shorelines. The early phases of engineering will identify any necessary design changes and estimated costs. This area was chosen as a critical area to protect an eroding shoreline that would eventually create a large breach between Matagorda Island and Ayers Reef if not protected.

Matagorda Bay Foundation, local community residents and other organizations are looking at areas of restoration in Carancahua Bay. This bay was closed to all oyster harvest in 2017 after an intense commercial harvest in the years prior. Matagorda Bay Foundation has contracted with an engineering firm for the early stages of surveying to identify suitable areas for restoration and creation efforts. The long-term goal is to permit an area and beginning the restoration process with a heavy community involvement, much like the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Nearshore Reefing Program. Surveys should begin as this issue is released and CCA Texas looks forward to being a part of this future restoration effort.

Nearshore Reefing

CCA Texas has thus far contributed over $3.6 million in nearshore reefing efforts from Sabine Pass to South Padre Island. The Friends of RGV Reef continue to create nearshore reefing habitat on a scale never before seen on our coast. Currently there are over 14,000 tons of reefing materials and two vessels already cleaned and prepared waiting on the permit renewal from US Army Corps of Engineers for deployment. This permit is expected in

Friends of RGV Reef have built the RGV wholly from materials of opportunity and donations. Currently 14,000 tons and two vessels are awaiting deployment.

May 25-Sept 2

Two

May 25-Sept 2 Two

mid-May 2024, so it is with great hope that deployments will begin once again during summer 2024. The grassroots efforts by Friends of RGV Reef are some that are incredibly successful and set the basis for other like efforts. Friends of RGV Reef are to be commended and the recreational fishing community of South Texas and others that visit areas thank you.

Sabine Pass Nearshore reefs are moving into the next phase of habitat creation. The ne HI-54 Shallow Reef permit is now in place. Efforts are ongoing to secure materials of opportunity for reefing and talks are underway with contractors for pricing and possible timetables. This new site is unique in its location just off the beach of Sea Rim State Park. Located just 1.9 miles off the beach, this site will give recreational anglers easy access, including kayakers launching from the beachfront. Friends of Sabine Reefs have done a fantastic job of securing the help of local industry partners. These partners include Cheniere, Port Arthur LNG (Sempra), Motiva, Golden Pass LNG, Valero, and Dow Chemical Sabine Ops. These partners have supported the efforts of Friends of Sabine Reefs from day one. This type of support is the necessary element to make these types of efforts possible.

CCA Texas looks forward to seeing the many habitat restoration and creation projects continue to move forward and looks forward to being a part of them all.

Advocacy

CCA Texas’ Advocacy Team remains busy monitoring numerous water and USACE permits. Additionally, the team remains focused on fisheries management and oyster management issues. Be sure to follow the CCA Currents publication for updates and any advocacy related emails you may receive.

For more information about CCA Texas and other relevant issues, please visit www.ccatexas.org.

YOUR #1 CHOICE FOR JIGS

Scan to learn more Shimmy Semi Long Scan to learn more Shimmy Flat

A segmented reef design is planned for Ayers Point reef restoration. This design will be very similar to the restoration effort in St. Charles Bay.

By

Hook, Line and Storytime: Red Snapper Recreational Management in Texas

Federally Determined

Stock assessments: Studies that estimate the abundance of snapper in the gulf

Allowable Catch Limit (ACL) = Limit placed on catch to prevent overfishing; based on stock assessment

State Management

Red snapper = A gulf-wide fishery, federally managed under Magnuson-Stevens Act with authority to open and close seasons delegated to the states

Texas state waters are open 365 days a year. BUT the federal season opens June 1.

2024 Private Angling ACL: Gulf Region

4,611,326 lbs. (wet weight)

Stock Assessment is the driving force that informs the ACL

TPWD closely monitors in-season catch rates to determine the maximum time federal waters can remain open to prevent surpassing the ACL.

Help us monitor red snapper during the season by using the My Texas Hunt Harvest App!

Texas: 286,363 lbs. (wet weight)

Ways YOU can Help:

Report your red snapper catch with the My Texas Hunt Harvest App

Use descending devices or venting tools to return unwanted reef fish back into the water safely

Participate in state and federal rule making processes by submitting public comments on rule making items

Hook, Line and Storytime: Red Snapper Recreational Management in Texas

Red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) is economically and culturally significant to the Gulf of Mexico region, with a longstanding history of both recreational and commercial fisheries management. Federal management strategies have undergone extensive changes over time. Currently, the recreational fishery is managed through the use of an Allowable Catch Limit (ACL) from the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council. Notably, the recreational fishery’s ACL is separate from the commercial and charter-forhire catch limits. Stock assessments, which are studies that estimate the abundance of species such as snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, drives the ACL (both recreational and commercial) to prevent overfishing.

Each state receives an ACL, which determines the maximum red snapper poundage the state’s recreational fishery can harvest in a given year. Individually, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida manage their seasons with this poundage in mind. State management arose as a potential solution to increase season length and prevent overfishing. As each state manages their recreational ACL, each state is able to set the opening and closing of the recreational red snapper season in their state and also federal waters.

In Texas, state waters for red snapper are open year-round, and federal waters open June 1st. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) closely monitors catch to determine how long federal waters can remain open while maintaining the goal of the year-round state waters season. To do this, TPWD uses data from angler interviews to determine the pounds of red snapper harvested coastwide. Using past years’ fishing behavior patterns, TPWD projects how many more days the federal waters can remain open without overharvesting. Once federal waters close, TPWD continues to monitor state water red snapper harvest to ensure the state will remain at or below the ACL. If TPWD anticipates that the ACL will be exceeded, the fishery has to be closed.

Recreational anglers are a crucial aspect of fisheries management in Texas. By participating in dockside creel interviews and reporting red snapper harvest in the My Texas Hunt Harvest app anglers are ensuring that TPWD has the most accurate data possible to determine statewide harvest. The Texas Creel Program has been collecting harvest data since 1975, and the state is proud of the robust long-term dataset and its use to fisheries management at a state and federal level.

Anglers can also help ensure the health of the fishery by using descending devices to return unwanted or undersized snapper and other reef fish safely. Texas regulations now require all commercial and recreational anglers to use a venting tool or rigged descending device on reef fish exhibiting signs of barotrauma. Barotrauma is a pressurerelated injury fish experience when brought to the surface from deeper water. Some fish species are prone to barotrauma from shallower depths. Research shows that properly releasing reef fish, such as red snapper, reduces mortality. For more information on using descending devices, please visit returnemright.org

Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or tpwd.texas.gov for more info.

By Lizzie Harris | National Academy of Sciences Fellow, Policy and Education Team

ERIC OZOLINS EXTREME KAYAK FISHING & SHARKS FROM THE SAND

BAITS FOR BEASTS

As apex predators in the world’s oceans, sharks have ruled the earth’s marine ecosystems for millions of years. Generally, the ravenous appetites of these opportunistic and highly skilled hunters motivate them to take just about any available food source. Sharks aren’t picky eaters. For this reason, anglers find them fun and easy to target, compared with some of the other big game species.

In the realm of land-based shark fishing, our bait choices can be just as important as the high-end tackle and gear we use. While sharks will sometimes eat most anything, some baits attract more attention and earn quicker strikes than others. Size and freshness of baits play an important role, though some stale, seemingly rank baits also appeal to the toothy critters. As we approach big shark time on the Texas coast, reviewing a list of preferred and proven baits makes good sense.

When deciding which baits to rely on during prime time, one must know which species are present in our waters in the peak summer season. For much of the year, we can successfully target about ten species of sharks in the waters of the Lone Star State. But in the hottest season, when conditions allow, the number of

available species jumps to around fifteen.

As I type, we’ve entered BIG shark season along the Coastal Bend of Texas. Several smaller species are present and abundant, but more importantly, the beasts are moving in to feed. Over the coming months, we can target bulls, tigers, lemons, and great hammerheads, all of which rank among the largest sharks people expect to catch in the surf.

In addition to the big four, anomalies like dusky and mako sharks also occupy the list of monsters available to Texas sharkers this time of year. Each shark species has a characteristic feeding pattern. At times, they all venture into the shallows where anglers can hook and fight them. As the sport of sharking gains more popularity, anglers put out a metaphorical smorgasbord of different baits while trying to catch these brutes. Some of these baits work better than others.

Over recent years, increasing numbers of new, active sharkers have generated a growing demand for big baits. These days, nearly all the new anglers coming onto the scene drop big money for prime gear from square one and start targeting the biggest sharks. Almost all of them want to post pictures and details about a trophy catch on

Releasing great hammerhead that picked up a southern stingray bait.

social media as soon as they begin soaking baits.

Equipped with all the expensive, top-notch gear, many anglers are ready and willing to pay top dollar for the right big baits. Mostly, they spend their cash on whole jack crevalle and stingrays. The jacks are

perhaps the best all-time big baits, due to the attractive qualities of their smelly, bloody flesh. To a shark, a jack crevalle is like a rib eye steak with fins. Complicating the issue of using these effective fish as bait for big sharks, the Texas law requiring sharkers to use circle hooks makes rigging half and whole jacks tricky at best.

Rays also make productive baits for big sharks. The most commonly bought and sold ray is the cownose ray, which works nearly as well as a jackfish, and they’re fairly easy to find, since they populate the bays in pretty high numbers. One main negative factor makes using the cownose rays for shark baits risky at best. A cownose ray is a really bloody and oily ray, with soft skin and flesh, so hooks are prone to pull out of the bait when a medium-sized shark starts munching on it. If the shark is big enough, and swallows the ray whole, this problem becomes irrelevant.

Both jack crevalle and cownose rays are more common in the surf in spring and fall than in summer. Since summer is the peak season for targeting big sharks in Texas, another type of big bait perhaps exceeds either jacks or cownose rays in terms of producing bites from the biggest brutes. Both southern and roughtail stingrays inhabit the waters close to the beach in great numbers while temperatures reach their zenith. Both these species can reach weights of over 200 pounds, and big sharks love to feed on them when they can.

The majority of roughtail and southern stingrays found in the surf in the summer are pregnant females. They take advantage of the generally light winds and calm waters to scavenge or hunt fish, crabs and other crustaceans with less stress. But they face a regular danger—when night falls, giant tigers and great hammerheads move into the shallows to prey on them. These sharks attack the pregnant rays and consume them, sometimes despite suffering wounds during the process. It’s not uncommon to land a big shark and find stingray barbs sticking out of both sides of its mouth.

As a personal preference, I use some type of ray about 90% of the time when targeting big sharks. Jacks work well, but large blacktips will take them too, so I only run jacks when most of the smaller sharks get pushed out of the area by bigger ones, usually in July, during the shrimping season. The recently adopted circle hook law has rendered jacks less useful as well. Rigging them on J-hooks in the old fashioned way worked well, but they’re extremely hard to impale on circle hooks. Rays are easier to rig on circle hooks, either half or whole, or using pieces of the wings cut into thick, long strips.

Regardless of which bait is chosen, rigging is important. With any big ray, I like to stick a single 24/0 Catch Sharks Viper circle hook through the end of the bait. By doing this, a big enough shark will eat the whole bait and get hooked, but a smaller shark that hits the bait usually doesn’t get hooked, so the bait remains useful. When using whole rays, I like to place

Preparing to release a giant bull shark that hit a jack crevalle bait.

Oz posing with a giant tiger shark just prior to release; this one hit a whole cownose ray bait.

A successful night-gigging bait trip; the rays will be used for shark bait. The flounder are headed home for dinner.

the hook at one end, usually the head. I have tremendous luck with southern/roughtail baits.

One productive trick is to let these baits sit in the sun for several hours to dehydrate. This seals in the scent, displaces natural water, and keeps the bait quite firm. Many times, I’ve deployed freshly caught ray alongside sunbaked ray-jerky and the nasty, shriveled stuff usually gets smashed first.

Many baits can legally be used to produce bites from giant sharks, so there’s no real reason to fish exclusively with jacks and rays. I’ve caught dusky sharks, hammerheads and tigers on gafftops and other unregulated species, sometimes deployed as “multi-bait tacos.” It’s always wise to match the hatch, so I will try just about anything of the right size that’s abundant in the waters in front of me, including barracuda, tuna, Bermuda chub, and other species. Whatever bait is chosen should be rigged properly on a circle hook and allowed to soak for hours, sometimes for even more than a day, because in the big shark game, patience pays.

CONTACT

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 is the owner of Catch Sharks Tackle Company.

Email oz@oceanepics.com Websites oceanepics.com | catchsharks.com

Here’s Kaity with a recently landed jack, ready to be rigged for shark bait.

NATHAN BEABOUT

JUNE

– A GREAT MONTH FOR SIGHT FISHING!

There is a reason there are so many redfish tournaments in the month of June. It can be a fantastic month to chase these marsh donkeys. It does depend on what Mother Nature throws at us in the way of wind speed and wind direction, though. In just about every article I have ever written, I discuss the weather. Obviously, it is a huge part of spending days on the water, but more importantly it dictates where we can fish. I discuss topics like this in detail during the classroom seminars I present to individuals. In my opinion, above everything else, if you understand the layout of the bay system you are fishing, then you’ll begin to understand why fish are in certain areas and what makes them hold there. That is an article for another time, but in saying that, each day in June for me is a game time decision for a sight casting trip.

Under a normal summer weather pattern, the fishing possibilities are nearly endless. Normal water levels and a typical light southeast wind, there are so many places that will hold good numbers of reds and the occasional big trout. Right now, I am thinking of about 10-15 areas I would like to be troll-motoring through. Of these areas I could probably narrow it down to 3 or 4, given the fact that we know the temperatures can climb high during this month. For that, I would choose areas that have shallow flats with good bail off areas. A bail off area is a place where fish can go to be lazy and escape the midday heat. Something around 3 feet or more, adjacent to the shallow flat. Many of y’all might be thinking that you just

need to find some sort of creek that drains off a flat. And yes, you’re partly right, but here in my home waters of the POC/Seadrift area, many of these creeks are unfortunately running lanes for all boaters hopping between larger back lake areas. What I like to find and mark on my GPS are bowls or natural depressions on a flat itself.

While some flats are big enough to spend the entire day on, certain flats are rims, so to speak. The middle of the flat or a particular side/corner of the flat will have a bowl on it, where the water drops a foot or two. To us, that doesn’t sound like much of a difference but, to a fish, it might be all they need.

Our most memorable sight casting trips have us sitting on the same flat all day long. Mainly, because when we noticed the singles and small groups disappear from the shallow rim, we would go to the bowl and Power Pole down and just wait. I am a firm believer in the longer you sit quietly in an area, the more accustomed reds become to your boat being there. The deeper these fish go, the harder it is to spot them, but do it long enough and you will see a lot of reds crawling around, hunkered down on the bottom. To me, these bowls can be such small areas, and they hardly get any boat traffic over them.

Going back to how important it is to know the layout of your bay system, this will help you move from one area to another with no time wasted. If we are fishing in an area that has us concentrating on a bowl or depression, whether it works for us or not, I am immediately thinking

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of my next move, not wanting to waste time on the shallow flats because of the time of day. Instead, I am thinking where is the next depression we can check with this wind and how does it work to our advantage. In other words, I am trying to mimic the same thing just in a different area, because we see that the fish are using it.

Every one of us out there nowadays has Google Earth at our fingertips. I can’t tell you how many evenings I sit at the computer scrolling through the timeline looking at different images from over the years, trying to find that new or old bowl/depression/bail off areas I haven’t discovered yet or maybe some of the ones I have forgotten about. Don’t get me wrong, not every area will work every time you go to it, but that’s why I revisit areas under different weather conditions. If you do that, you will find the times they produce big time for you. Now you have a pattern, and if you keep a logbook, you’re already starting off each outing just a little bit ahead of someone not paying the same attention.

Do I love sight casting reds in June? Absolutely! It can offer so many different options and will make you do your homework to insure that each outing is successful. From the windy days to those days at the end of the month, just as the dog days of summer are about to set in. I’m talking the hot, slick-calm days. Each bay system has those areas that can produce on any condition. The question is, do you know which weather conditions make them produce the best? Understanding the layout will begin to unlock that secret to you.

From Port O’Connor to Rockport, we offer navigational trips. These trips are designed to help anglers of all skill levels, whether you are new to an area or an experienced angler in a certain body of water; we offer tips and tricks for each. We emphasize safety and boating etiquette on these trips, as well as teaching you how to run new waters safely and marking your GPS for any hazards along the way. We help you to read the water from a navigation and fishing standpoint and have fishing discussions in each area we travel to on the day of your trip. Some of these discussions are weather, tides, seasonal patterns, and what to look for and how to approach these particular areas. Whether you are new to fishing or an experienced angler, we try to customize each trip to fit your needs.

Captain Nathan Beabout

okumafishingusa.com

POWER INSPIRED BY

Okuma Komodo SS represents the pinnacle of performance in baitcast reels. Crafted with precision stainlesssteel gearing and drive shafts, and boasting an impressive 30 lbs of maximum drag output, the Komodo SS is engineered to tackle even the most aggressive bull reds, black drum, and other gamefish. Available in three sizes with a variety of gear ratios and handles tailored for comfort, Okuma Komodo SS reels are battle-tested and durable, empowering anglers to fish with confidence.

PRODUCT

Suzuki Marine

TEXAS ANGLERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SUZUKI MARINE’S 4-4-2 PROMOTION TO TRADE IN SMOKY OLD 2-STROKES FOR CLEAN RUNNING, FUEL EFFICIENT SUZUKI POWER

Suzuki Marine USA has unveiled a new national dealer program to help get boaters into fuel-efficient and clean Suzuki 4-stroke outboard technology while properly scrapping/recycling their old two-stroke motors. The program — named “4-4-2” (meaning 4-stroke for 2-stroke) — has been rolled out coast-to-coast and is a great way for Texas saltwater anglers to do good for the environment while upgrading to a great new Suzuki outboard.

Suzuki’s 4-4-2 Program incentives and dealer support apply to the sale of any new Suzuki outboard from 2.5 to 350 horsepower. Contact your authorized Texas Suzuki Marine dealer or visit www.SuzukiMarine.com.

Huk

The very best in performance gear defines the A1A series from Huk. It features the lightest, most breathable shirts and shorts with micro-drilled panels for quick cooling in the hottest, most humid locations around the globe, paired with unmatched sun protection. Durable, purpose-built guide wear with pro-tested custom features is combined to provide long-lasting clothing you can trust on your next adventure. If you are looking for the best, A1A is built to take on anything.

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TURTLEBOX Gen 2 Speaker

Turtlebox Gen 2 Speaker – THE ULTIMATE OUTDOOR SPEAKER, available in 5 core colors designed to elevate your adventures. This rugged, portable speaker offers premium sound quality at an impressive 120 decibels, ensuring your music soars over crashing waves. Fully waterproof, it fearlessly withstands any splash or spray— even saltwater is no match. Enjoy sun-up to sun-down playtime with a battery that lasts as long as your longest fishing trips. Treat it like your favorite fishing rod: use it all day, rinse it off, and keep the good times rolling. With Turtlebox, there’s no need for expensive, non-portable boat speaker systems that rust and require permanent installation. Save thousands and simplify your sound solution—why cut holes in your boat when Turtlebox offers everything you need? www.TurtleBoxAudio.com

HIGHLIGHTS

What Is Marfix?

Durability That Can Withstand Actual Harsh Fishing Scenes

When talking about Marfix reels, one of the most noteworthy points is its durability. All Marfix reels use an aluminum machine-cut one-piece frame body, and a frame with few seams boasts high strength that can withstand fights with all kinds of big fish.

The gear, which is called the heart of the reel, also uses a high-strength stainless steel machine cut gear. It exhibits durability, making it a strong ally for anglers who face large fish in harsh environments. This “aluminum machine-cut one piece frame body” and high-strength stainless steel machinecut gear” reduce reel distortion and power loss and are the basis of Marfix’s unique strong winding and durability. The Marfix is available in 4 models.

Marfix C3 RH & LH

Marfix N4 RH & LH

Marfix S5 RH & LH

Marfix W6 RH & LH

Marfix has a reel to fit all your fishing needs. www.Spro.com

Interstate Batteries

When the water calls, be ready for the season with the reliable power of an Interstate® battery. Our highquality marine batteries are engineered for durability and longevity, ensuring you maximize your time on the water. You can trust the performance of Interstate batteries to accompany you through every adventure, providing the power needed to navigate the waves and create lasting memories on the water. Find Outrageously Dependable® Interstate marine batteries at Academy Sports + Outdoors.

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Rattle-Snaker ®

Now Available at Fishing Tackle Unlimited. The Z-Man Rattle-Snaker magically implants your favorite ElaZtech or other softbaits with rattle attractors or extra weight. Patented tool design allows for precision insertion of rattles and weights into the bodies of ElaZtech and standard soft plastic baits via stainless steel insertion needle and pushrod. Built-in storage compartment holds extra glass rattles (10 glass rattles included).

Replacement rattle 10-packs also available, MSRP $4.99. Tungsten weights coming soon. Surgical tubing needle guard prevents accidental harm.

MSRP $12.99 – Tool and 10-pack rattles.

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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@yahoo.com

Website matagordasunriselodge.com

THE VIEW FROM Matagorda

I really think my favorite month to fish here in Matagorda is June. Everyone is so excited to be on the water and smiles abound since the whole summer is in front of us. Trout, reds, surf, bay, Gulf of Mexico – all are players in June.

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

Clear water isn’t always where the fish are, though. Most of the time there is a somewhat dingy section of a flat and that’s where most of the fish will be found. Waters get too clear at times to catch fish on lures.

I love fishing flats adjacent to the Port O’Connor jetty and Pass Cavallo. The best tides in the bay occur there  and we toss topwaters, Bass Assassins, Down South Lures and MirrOlure Soft-dines in some of the most beautiful water you will ever wade.

The surf normally gives us a few days to fish in June and there is nothing better than watching a plug get crunched in the foam. We wade the first gut on an incoming tide, but choose to drift out of the boat when tides are falling so we can safely fish the outer bars with MirrOlures, topwaters and soft plastics.

It remains to be seen how all of the flooding in the Galveston Bay complex in early May will affect the number of trout we see in the Matagorda surf. The last inundation of freshwater in Trinity and East Galveston Bay some seven years back resulted in a boon for Matagorda surf anglers.

Coincidence? Maybe. More fish in the surf heading south trying to find salty water? Probably.

Our surf was a bit lackluster last summer. There were several days with great conditions that did not coincide with great catches. I can’t wait to find out what 2024 holds on the first calm, green tide.

anyway. We finally received swollen tides at the end of April which deposited new fish; still, we are hoping for tropical moisture and tides to send a wave of reds through the passes and into the back bays.

Tune in to Space City Home Network and Bally’s Sports Southwest for my weekly Middle Coast report on the Texas Insider Fishing Report Thursday-Saturday. Or, follow @matagordasunriselodge on Instagram and FB for weekly photos and reports.

Please continue to take good care of our bays. Catch and release works; and it is cool to let them go so they can grow.

With light winds during June all of East Bay is in play, including mid-bay reefs. We like to wade the shell with topwaters and soft plastics. Some of the largest trout of the year will be caught in June in while wading East Bay.

That goes for drifting, too. Luckily for those who prefer not to leave the boat, some of the largest trout of the year will be caught in June while drifting East Bay.

As for redfish, 2024 has not afforded a consistent pattern, not yet

Port O'Connor Seadrift

Captain Shellie Gray was born in Port Lavaca and has been guiding in the Seadrift/ Port O’Connor area full time for the past 22 years. Shellie specializes in wading for trout and redfish year round with artificial lures.

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

MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays

Up until the first week of May we were primarily fishing springtime areas, meaning back-lakes and other backcountry waters. Since then our focus has shifted to more summertime patterns as bottom grasses have begun to flourish along major bay shorelines and hold better numbers of trout and redfish. The seasonal migration of menhaden coming into our bays and schools of mullet roaming the guts of these shorelines are another big factor in this transition. There is no set date that I switch my attention from one area to the other; I go more with what seems to be unfolding in front of me with each day that I spend on the water. When you spend every day in the fish’s environment you get to witness firsthand how they are transitioning from the backwaters towards the main bay shorelines.

When switching from springtime to summertime patterns you will also see a change in how long I keep certain lures tied at the end of my leader. You will see more of the Texas Custom Lures Double D’s in the colors of Crown Royal and Bay Mistress making a showing over the shallow grass beds. This lure has made me a better fisherman, enabling me to catch trout and reds from grassy flats during midday hours, where it often seems the fish are mostly sulking and not feeding actively.

My lure selection also begins to include more time spent with topwaters, though perhaps not as much as some of my clients who seem to just live for the thrill that surface lures provide. Just remember someone in your group needs to have one tied on. If that’s what the fish want on a given day, I too will tie one on.

My tried and true Saltwater Assassins will remain a mainstay of my lure selections. On the shallowest of flats I will have the 4” Sea Shad in

Purple Chicken or Magic Grass tied on, the paddletail seems to help me get more strikes in the often clear, shallow water. Along drop-offs and deeper guts, I’ll switch to the 5” rattail Saltwater Assassins. This lure seems to draw more strikes for me in the deeper water and my go-to colors are the same as the 4” Assassin baits. As far as jighead size, I have long been a believer in the 1/16-ounce Bass Assassin jighead to keep the lure hovering longer in the strike zone.

Hopefully, June will also give us some calm days to allow exploring the many reefs of San Antonio and Mesquite Bays. When fishing the reefs I will be mainly depending on my Saltwater Assassins but I let the fish dictate which lures they’re most willing to eat.

When selecting a reef, or for that matter any of the areas I have mentioned, I look first and foremost for the presence of baitfish. You also want to have some type of water movement. Water movement can be generated by tide or wind, they are both effective in moving water across and along the reef structure. Birds are another bonus, whether resting or feeding; birds are often an assurance of plentiful bait, even if it’s not visible and active.

And, we’ll hopefully get the opportunity to fish the gulf surf during June. The surf is my all-time favorite place to fish. It just seems like the trout hit harder, fight harder, and are generally of larger size than bay fish. I fish the surf both from the boat by trolling motor and by wading. Topwaters are dynamite in the shallow guts and soft plastics can draw lots of strikes in all depths, although you’ll likely need to switch to 1/4-ounce jigs for the deeper water.

I want to mention a product that I have been using lately, and that is Osprey Ultra-Premium Monofilament Leader Material. Longtime user of fluorocarbon leader material, I always had to make sure my knots were moistened sufficiently to prevent weakening during the tightening process. And even with 20-lb fluorocarbon, I never liked the stiffness, fearing it might restrict the freedom of lure movement. On a whim I tried a spool of the Osprey Ultra-Premium. It is a premium monofilament with plenty of flexibility and it also comes in a small spool with a built-in line keeper to keep the spool from unraveling in my shirt pocket. Give it a try, its available at all the finer tackle stores and also on-line.

Fish hard, fish smart!

Some products I have become quite fond of lately – Osprey Ultra-Pemium Monofilament Leader Material and Texas Custom Lures Double Ds.

CAPT. SHELLIE

The Texas surf never ceases to surprise; like getting into a school of bull reds within yards of the Matagorda Island beach.

Grandma Whales

As women enter middle age, their bodies gradually stop menstruating until they hit menopause, when they can no longer bear children. But humans aren’t the only mammals to experience menopause. In fact, five species of toothed whales go through “the change” as well—and it seems to be related to longevity.

Short-finned pilot whales, false killer whales, orcas, narwhals and beluga whales are the only species in the world besides humans and one group of chimpanzees that undergo menopause. But scientists haven’t known why. So researchers from the University of Exeter in the U.K. assembled a database of lifespans and reproductive lifespans—the number of years the species can reproduce—for 32 species of toothed whales. Then the researchers compared the species with menopause to those without it.

They found that females of the five whale species that have menopause live longer than any other whale species of a similar size, even though their reproductive lifespans are similar. They even outlast their male counterparts. Female orcas, for instance, have double the lifespan of male orcas and can live well into their 80s. Most animals can reproduce for their entire lives, which maximizes the chances of survival for their species. So, if an animal lives many years beyond its ability to bear offspring, there should be an evolutionary reason that living so long benefits the species.

It appears that toothed whales live so long so they can fulfill an important social role: being grandmothers. After menopause, they’re no longer competing with their daughters for mates, but they often share food with other individuals and use their knowledge to help their group find food when it’s scarce, thereby boosting the species’ chances of survival.

A few species of toothed whales, such as the beluga whale (pictured), experience menopause. Credit: NOAA/NMFS/National Marine Mammal Laboratory

Upper Laguna/ Baffin

David Rowsey has 30 years in Baffin and Upper Laguna Madre; trophy trout with artificial lures is his specialty. David has a great passion for conservation and encourages catch and release of trophy fish.

Telephone 361-960-0340 Website www.DavidRowsey.com

Email david.rowsey@yahoo.com @captdavidrowsey

HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey

I’m not sure what the official first day of summer is per the astronomers, but I’m confident in saying that it has started in south Texas. At least the trout think so. June has always been one of the best months for the angler that wants a lot of strikes and rod bending. Yes, the quality may be down a bit, but if you want to get kids or grown rookies into the sport, it’s about as good as it gets when it comes to fish at hand. Not every trout is four to nine pounds, but the action more than makes up for it.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record in my articles the next few months, our trout fishing traditionally follows a pretty simple pattern for myself and clients.

Our mornings start early in the summer months. I prefer to be in our first area just as the very first light is breaking. Coming into any area we are going to be fishing via trolling motor versus the big Mercury bouncing vibration off of the bay floor. This is very important as the areas I am targeting are almost exclusively nighttime feeding zones, aka, the edge of flats that have quick access to deep water for a trout’s perception of safety and cooler water temperatures as that summer sun creeps up to about 9:3010:00 a.m. Of course, this area will be predetermined by where I know a great food source (mullet) is available. In Baffin, this can be found up and down both the north and south shorelines. From Penescal Point to Los Corrales is always a high percentage area this time of year. Saying that, you need to use some caution approaching as there are many deep rock formations just off the flats in that area.

Just using this area as an example, I like to approach just to the edge of the flat before sticking the Power-Pole. I’ll have a guy in thigh-deep water (and casting shallower), and another in at his hips to work the drop-off itself, while myself or the next angler will be bombing out deep to be on the safe side. If you have chosen your area wisely (bait in area), it should not take long to start catching instead of just fishing. In one of those realms of water, one of the three will get the hot hand and determine where everybody in the group needs to start focusing their casts.

My favorite bite in this situation is when they are shallow, and still on their hunting grounds from the nighttime feed. Without doubt, getting them going up shallow will greatly improve your chances of catching “the one.” Why is that? Pretty simple really. The less water you are dealing with the more concentrated the trout will be, the more likely they are to strike a lure before the

fish next to them does. Trout are greedy, and you can use that against them while they are more concentrated in shallow water amongst other fish, competing for the same food source. Have you ever thrown a Cheeto up in the air in front of a bunch of seagulls and seen how many react to it? Sure you have! In my mind, it’s not much different under the water. They are not thinking, they are reacting. As humans, we know how that scenario usually plays out… hopefully not a hook in the face, but usually something else we regret.

This shallow water bite can run well into the morning, if all of the stars have aligned. However, the one thing that will end the bite in those shallow feeding areas is when the boats start burning by. When the inevitable happens, they will push the fish off the flat and right along that drop-off where you parked the boat. The trout have just become acclimated to having to do this. It’s there safety mechanism. They are not as concentrated now as the deep water lets them spread out more, but they are still there and can still be caught. It may take a little more patience from us to grind them out and they may have gotten a bellyful during the night feed, but they haven’t gone far and are still catchable for the guy willing to do a patient retrieve with a Bass Assassin dusting the bottom of the bay floor. It’s just fishing. Experiment with something new and just have some fun.

Remember the Buffalo! -Capt David Rowsey

Royce Moran of Victoria with one almost as long as him. Plum Bass Assassin tricked her into giving us another great memory.

Port Mansfield

Captain Wayne Davis has been fishing the Lower Laguna-Port Mansfield for over 20 years. He specializes in wade fishing with lures.

Telephone 210-287-3877

Email captwayne@kwigglers.com

WAYNE’S Mansfield Report

Greetings from Port Mansfield! Spring is slowly evolving into summer and what I’m seeing daily on the water is pretty close to what I had expected. That is, some trout began spawning during March’s full moon and it seemed another flurry came during April’s full moon period. Our bigger females were still robust but thinner in the belly. Smaller male trout were being caught more consistently in our “big trout” zones and the females were becoming less aggressive. I was pleased to see what I believe was a successful early spawning season and another layer of cement on our platform for a future trophy trout fishery.

I would like to touch on a recent learning opportunity. You could term it unfortunate or fortunate, depending how you value fishing knowledge gained the hard way. A couple of friends and I were fishing in a catch and release tournament and spent days scouting the Lower Laguna. We were taking careful note of water temperatures, tide levels, wind, boat traffic, etc. As tournament day approached we had identified two areas that were holding big trout. We kept a constant vigil on both leading up to the tourney, watching and hoping other anglers would not discover “our” fish. Anticipation was high and we just knew if we could get to “our” spot on tournament day we would be successful.

Tournament day arrived and by a miracle we were the only boat in our secret spot. Worth noting; the water level had dropped several inches and water temperatures had risen about 3°. With this in mind we fished the area and within an hour I landed a trout close to six pounds. We stayed within that three-hundredyard stretch more than five hours – back and forth. My tournament partners zeroed on landings but with enough strong blow-ups to keep it interesting. Still lacking solid confirmation that winning trout could be caught, my hardheadedness kept us there. Something was off, but I could not or would not allow myself to think more broadly. We made a late day decision to move to our second spot. It did not work out and we came in two trout short of a first day limit. The second day had us heading right back to what we thought was the perfect game plan. Same spot, no other boats. Three hours and nothing. The fish had obviously moved; but where had they gone? My tournament partners recommended a move, only about five hundred yards, with water about a foot deeper. The move was made and you guessed it, within 45 minutes we had two trout with combined weight greater than fourteen pounds. We did not place in the tournament but the

debriefing delivered a poignant reality check.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20, and we should not kill ourselves over it, but I can admit, and as painful as it may be in retrospect, I can recognize a learning opportunity when I see one. The takeaway is simple. When fishing tournaments or just out with friends; be open minded. Stubbornness has its place but be reasonable. Communicate with your fellow anglers and apply what you know based on variables in your fishing equation. It can be a fine line on when to move and when to stay.

Early summer means we will be finding pods of schooling redfish on shallow back-lake flats. A stealthy approach is best for spotting redfish tails wagging at first light. You can catch them best on small plastics with 1/16 ounce jigheads. I typically hold off making a cast until I’m sure there isn’t a big trout trailing the pod of reds. Target the edge of the pod if catching more than one from the school is your goal. Plopping a lure in their midst might mean a sure hook-up but also a guarantee to scatter the others.

There will still be opportunities for big trout in and around pods of reds, and there will also be a few on scattered grass high on the eastside sand flats. Here again, plastics of smaller profile in natural colors such as the Ball Tail Jr. or Wig-A-Lo Jr. would be excellent lure choices. If the water is slick-calm it is imperative to make long, accurate casts to fool these fish, which can be quite challenging when tossing smaller baits on lightweight jigs. Here, I recommend a topwater, such as the Mansfield Knocker in Glass Minnow color, which is basically translucent. Be sure to work it very slowly in the clear, shallow water. Your goal is to gain their interest, not spook them.

Wishing you the very best this summer, and always remember… Fresh Is Better Than Frozen. View The

Video

Travis Hobbs with a solid eight-pounder. Mansfield Knocker strikes again!

Capt. Trevor Kucia with a big red caught on Bart’s Sand Ninja Wig-A-Lo.

Arroyo

Colorado to Port Isabel

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

SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene

Fishing around the world as I have been doing the past several years in both fresh and saltwater, I notice a common behavior for fish to congregate in areas where food is abundant and delivered by water currents. A great example was rainbow trout in the river below Lake Taney Como Dam in Branson, Missouri. Wading along I noticed more than twenty rainbows shadowing my footsteps, taking advantage of the forage kicked up by my wading boots. This scenario sparked a deeper reflection on how fish seize opportunities. Some of their tactics are obvious while others are more subtle. The more we probe into fish behavior, the more successful our fishing endeavors can become. Beyond the influence of weather, our tides play a pivotal role in fish movement from one spot to another. Visualize the tides as a bustling subway system that fish utilize to migrate to new feeding grounds or to escape highpressure areas and seek refuge in more secluded spots.

The Lower Laguna Madre is a shallow hypersaline lagoon with average depth of 2.8 feet, so hiding places are few compared to deeper bays such as the Galveston Complex. Down here, a depth change as slight as four inches can be significant enough to draw plenty of fish, and a pothole-littered flat can be a gold mine.

Fish often congregate in the middle of a flat, but why? I’m frequently asked, “What made you stop here?” Well, having knowledge of the area is immensely beneficial. Knowing where depth changes occur, where the grass beds fade out, and also where greater tidal flows occur in a specific area are crucial to fishing success. You know the old adage, “being at the right place at the right time.” Google Maps can be a great tool for learning changes in bottom contour and water depths. Zoom in and learn.

Redfish catches have been consistent in many locations. The recent rise in tides has triggered bait movement into shallow back bays and the reds have followed. The west side of the ICW is currently holding more redfish than the east side because of this. If the wind continues to howl, look for the birds to continue working over redfish rooting for shrimp in muddy, grassy-bottomed areas.

shorelines will be hot spots for finding tailing redfish.

Trout catches have also been consistent. Many undersized fish in the mix but limits of keeper-size trout have been easily attainable. Most of our trout are coming from deeper, greener water. There are still some trophies out there, but by now, most female trout have spawned and lost considerable weight. Water temps in June should remain cool enough for trout to remain shallow all day, unlike later in summer.

The edges of the ICW should continue to deliver plenty of trout action. The sand in early morning will also hold trout, but they will retreat to deeper areas as the sun gets high. Deeper potholes can also hold good numbers of fish in June. Be attentive for slicks popping as they are sure signs of feeding activity.

We will be throwing lots of Z-Man products while targeting trout, not only because of their ten times greater durability but also because of their softness, which seems to encourage fish to hold on longer when they bite.

Flounder have started to show in good numbers, to the extent that it has lately become possible to target them specifically. The rise in tides and water temps will also trigger snook to move into our bays in increased numbers. Last year’s snook landings were the best in ten years for my charters. We hope this summer will be even better.

The Ron Hoover 4th Annual Fishing Tournament will be held July 1213 at South Padre Island. The cash payouts and prizes are phenomenal in both guided and non-guided divisions. Food and entertainment will be provided both nights. There will be drawings for two new boats –but you must be present to win! The format of the tournament makes it possible for anyone to win, whether you are an amateur or a skilled angler. Put it on your calendar and join the fun!

Redfish have been slamming topwaters and we are also doing very well with Z-Man soft plastics. I cannot say enough good things about their Eye Strike Texas Eye Finesse jigs. They are almost completely weedless and the swiveling head helps the bait swim with more life-like movement.

If you find small crabs and shrimp in a particular area, you can rest assured the redfish will be somewhere nearby. If the winds lay down,

View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

Nicky Vece with her first Texas redfish. Caught on Z-Man plastic bait.

Z-Man’s PaddlerZ rigged on the Eye Strike Texas Eye Finesse jighead is very productive combination.

FISHING REPORTS AND FORECASTS from Big Lake to Boca Chica

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag

Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242

James described excellent fishing in the mornings on days immediately prior to giving this report. “We’ve been crushing the trout when wading lately! It’s not really about all the freshwater coming down the rivers, more about the influx of fish coming in from the Gulf, which is the norm this time of year. We’re having best luck on topwaters and tails, and on the best days, we never get off the topwaters. Two recent trips saw us catch 45 and 78 trout, and on both those days, the bite was really hot until about 8 o’clock, then it died down fast. The best topwaters lately have been She Pups in pink/chrome and blue/chrome. We’re doing best on soft plastics throwing various kinds of Bass Assassins on light jigheads. As summer approaches, and we’re dealing with all the freshwater flowing into the bays, the same places over my way should just get better. We’ll start fishing out of the boat a bit more, once the winds settle and we’re able to function better in the deeper water. I expect some fast action in the coming months, because the fish will be concentrated in small spaces. And, as a bonus, tarpon season is right around the corner.”

Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054

Recent flooding rains had Jim looking at the reports related to water releases at the Lake Livingston Dam when we spoke. “The water coming through the dam is at record levels. So, we’ll get a flush of the Galveston Bay system in the coming days, because the San Jacinto River is also running really high. The fishing lately has been good in West Bay, and in places like Sea Wolf Park, Sand Island, Pelican Island and Campbell’s Bayou. These will remain the hot spots as long as all the freshwater is flowing down the rivers. Of course, the surf and the jetties will be productive too. The bite is usually best early in the mornings at the beginning of summer, and the best action is for waders, throwing topwaters, especially when the tide is coming in. I’ll be fishing some, but I’ve decided not to guide too many fishing trips during the hot part of the year anymore. I will hit the surf at times, but the days of me running charters and fishing out of the boat in the heat have passed. I do still expect to run hunting charters full-time, once we get into the dove, teal and duck seasons.”

West

Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays

Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service

979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323

Randall was quite excited when he gave this report. “Fishing lately in the area around San Luis Pass has really been hot. We’ve had an influx of a bunch of different kinds of forage species, everything from glass minnows, menhaden, ballyhoo, ribbonfish and more. With all the different food sources available to the fish, they’ve been feeding regularly and vigorously. I’ve been fishing most of the time with live shrimp, and catching plenty of fish when I do. Fishing with lures has been good too. I’ve been doing best on Norton Sand Eels in a color now called Trick or Treat. Some people will remember it as Habanero. When the topwater bite is good, we’ve been catching a good number of both trout and redfish throwing gold/black/orange Skitter Walks. I expect the action to continue hot as we move into June. As we always do this time of year, we’re anticipating the first chances to get into the surf. Once winds settle down

at the start of summer we should have some fast action on topwaters and soft plastics out along the beachfront, in the shallows. Most years, some of the first runs provide the best shots at the bigger trout.”

Matagorda Bays | Capt. Glenn Ging

Glenn’s Guide Service - 979.479.1460 www.glennsguideservice.com

June is one of my favorite months to fish in the bays around Matagorda. Wade-fishing in both bays will be good this time of year. Wading with soft plastics and topwaters on the shell reefs in East Matagorda and on the south shoreline of West Matagorda will be solid choices. While we think of the winter as the best big trout season, I have caught a remarkable number of big trout in East Matagorda Bay in June, some by wading, some while drifting. Drifting is a good choice in East Matagorda when winds are relatively light, both using live shrimp and soft plastics. With any luck, the winds will give us some opportunities to get in the surf and on the jetties a few times this month, so we’ll keep our eyes on the weather forecast and watch for the green water to reach the beach. Back-lake and marsh redfish action should be pretty hot this month too. I like to throw paddletails like the 4” Bass Assassin Sea Shads and small topwaters like Spook Juniors for redfish in backwater areas and the shallow parts of coves, but live shrimp or Gulp! lures under Coastal Corks catch ‘em pretty fast too.

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204

Fishing has been pretty dang good in our local bays lately, despite the constant winds. June should continue to be a great month for fishing, as we have an abundance of bait in the bays. Redfish have been plentiful on shorelines with scattered shell, biting live/fresh dead shrimp rigged about two feet under popping corks, Black drum are in great numbers as well, biting best on fresh-peeled dead shrimp. Our trout bite has been decent when the winds allow us to get out to our deep structures in West Matagorda Bay, Live shrimp fished around the deep reefs and wellheads about four or five feet under corks have produced good numbers of slot trout. The first June norther we get will give us a chance to hit the surf. We always work the first gut early and then move out to the deeper guts as the sun rises. Flounder gigging has been steady on protected shorelines and will only get better as we move into summer. Tripletail are starting to show up recently, but not in big numbers yet. There have been a few around weed mats floating just inside the bay, also a few around channel markers.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith

Back Bay Guide Service - 361.935.6833

Lynn says he had been fighting the winds and fishing mostly coves and back-lakes on trips prior to giving this report, but that the fishing had been good, despite the tough conditions. “We’ve been catching a lot more redfish and black drum than trout lately, using live bait some of the time, but we’re starting to see some evidence that the trout fishery is coming back too. About a week ago, I had a customer lose a real monster. Fish looked to be well over 30 inches, and it was really thick. She shook the hook right by the boat, after biting a topwater. We have had some other solid trout biting

on topwaters on the better days lately too. I am hopeful that the winds of spring will settle somewhat in the coming weeks, and we’ll be able to target the trout more effectively on a daily basis. Mostly, I like to fish the sand and grass flats close to the pass this time of year, targeting trout with topwaters, especially early in the mornings, when the tide is coming in. We’ll head out into the surf every chance we get, starting out early throwing topwaters right near the beach.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead

Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894

Blake has been having good luck catching trout in the bays of the Coastal Bend, and he expects June to be another fine month in a run of excellent catching. “We’ve been doing well fishing shorelines with sandy, grassy bottoms, catching a mix of trout and reds by throwing lures close to the bank where the grass grows along the shore. We’ve had some good days throwing topwaters, mostly small ones like Spook Juniors in chrome with either black or blue on them. Other days, the fish prefer soft plastics, and we’ve been doing well with my old standby Norton Sand Eels, dark ones with chartreuse tails. As we head into June, I expect the action to pick up around some of the reefs in open water, which we haven’t been able to fish as much lately, because of consistent winds. Action should also heat up in the surf. We’re always anticipating that with gusto. I will continue throwing lures when I can, and the action at the start of summer can be great on them, but I’ll start fishing with live croakers more and more as the water heats up and the action becomes much faster on them.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut

Robert Zapata | rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160

The month of June is such a consistently good month for fishing and catching. My confidence in catching fish during this month results in better catches at the end of the day. The water temperatures will be ideal for trout and redfish to be in three feet of water or less. The trout will still be spawning, so look for the big ones in less than two feet of water along grass lines and potholes with sand and gravel in the early mornings, and just before sunset. This is a great month to fish with MirrOlure Catch 5s in natural colors if there is not too much suspended grass. If the grass is a problem, try the Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like Trickster, Salt & Pepper/Chartreuse and Plum/Chartreuse rigged on 1/16-ounce Spring-Lock jigheads. Wading is a great way to approach the target areas, but because stingrays will also be in these areas, all wading anglers should wear ForEverLast Ray Guards. Look for fish slicks and jumping or flipping mullet. Sight-casting for red and black drum will also be fun, with most fish caught on shrimp flavored FishBites on light jigheads in less than a foot of water on sunny days.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez - www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230

June is a great month to fish the waters of the Upper Laguna Madre, Baffin Bay and Corpus Christi Bay, Joe says. “We have productive fishing for trout around the sand bars and rocks in Baffin this time of year. Since winds are usually pretty light, we’re able to cast at rocks we can see much of the time. On some days, the key to getting lots of bites is to keep the lures close to the rocks. Fishing in the Laguna is also good when winds are light. Early in the mornings, both trout and reds bite well on the King Ranch and Kenedy Ranch shorelines, tight to the bank. We like to fish out of the boat and use the trolling motor to move down the shoreline and throw at the potholes and rocks along the bank, but waders do well too. Over in Corpus Christi Bay, the fishing around the dumps in Ingleside starts to get really good once the water warms up into the mid-80s. Over there, the fish are usually pretty easy to find around rafts of mullet finning over grass beds coming off the main shorelines of the spoils on the Corpus bay side.”

P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins

361.877.3583 - Oceanepics.com

June is my favorite “big fish” month in the PINS surf. Large speckled trout will begin moving into the surf between waves of sargassum. They typically appear first near passes and channels, and then work their way down the beach. MirrOlure topwaters have always been a favorite—chartreuse and chrome with orange throats, along with black and chrome. I like to target areas with deep holes close to the beach, and what we call suckouts (guts cutting through the sandbars). The arrival of summer weather should bring improved water clarity. This will bring Spanish mackerel and also pesky skipjacks. There could also be possibilities of jack crevalle, tarpon, and occasional ling, depending on baitfish presence. Fish-bites and fresh dead shrimp should produce whiting, pompano, and small stingrays. The largest sharks of the year will be moving into the coastal waters—giant bulls, lemons, hammerheads, and tigers. During daytime, chances for having a close encounter with one of these monsters in thigh-deep water is not great, but still possible. Stay alert and return calmly to shore if you see a shark nearby. Stingrays will be plentiful, so all waders should remember to shuffle their feet all the time.

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com - 832.385.1431

Getaway Adventures Lodge - 956.944.4000

If conditions allow, try the jetties at first light. Tarpon like to hang around the end of the north jetty. If the tarpon don’t show there’s always a chance to tangle with bull redfish. Keep an eye out for surface explosions and pelicans working bait balls. Lots of toothy critters out there so rig with wire leaders. June is also a great month in the bay. The west shoreline, up north from Century Point to the Oak Motts can be very productive both drifting and wading. Start with a Ruby Tuesday or Bone Daddy Mansfield Knocker. If the surface action is slow switch to KWiggler Ball Tail Shad in Mansfield Margarita or Pollo Loco. Work the edges of grass beds and potholes. Due east is Wagner’s Bar, another good area for trout and redfish. Heading south, the Saucer Area is another productive area. The deeper water east of Bennie’s Island to the Pipeline is another good bet. Farther south, near Green Island and the area around the cabins north of it can hold lots of fish. Focus on color changes, active bait, and bird activity.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel

Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com - 956.639.1941

As expected, fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre has been improving steadily as tides and water temperatures continue to rise. Our best trout fishing on recent trips has been along the ICW and in and around deeper guts on the flats. Key areas to target are potholes on the flats and shallow ledges lying adjacent to the ICW. Trout numbers in general appear quite healthy. Z-Man’s 4-inch StreakZ in sexy mullet rigged on 1/4-ounce Eye-Strike Redfish Eye jigheads have been the most productive soft plastics on recent trips; working the lure vigorously with sudden pauses seems to draw the most strikes. The redfish bite has been consistent for quite a while now. Sandy shorelines as well as spoil islands have been holding good numbers of reds. The early-morning topwater action has been steady on the bone Spook Junior rigged with single hooks. Later, toward mid-afternoon, when the winds pick up, we’re finding plenty of reds in potholes on grassy flats with water ranging from two to four-foot depths. Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ in Redbone rigged on 1/8-ounce Eye Strike Redfish-Eye jigheads have produced best. All anglers should keep an eye on weather forecasts this month. Conditions can change quickly, and some of June’s sudden storms are dangerous.

Oliver Spears Old Coast Guard Station- first redfish!

Miles Willcox (middle) Dularge, LA - 41” 36 lb first redfish!

Patrick McRea Galveston surf- 28” redfish

Jaydon Thomas Shoalwater Bay- 23” redfish

Derrick Hayes San Luis Pass - 27.75”trout

Brittany Slafka Titium Tatium- 41” bull red CPR

Bradley Slafka San Luis Pass- 38” bull red CPR

Photo Gallery Guidelines

First come – first published! Photos are judged on artistic merit and sporting ethic displayed. No stringer, cleaning table, or hanging board images allowed. Digital images only. Adjust camera to high or best quality. All images become property of TSFMag. Email to: Photos@TSFMag.com Include short description of your catch with name, date, bay system, etc.

Angelica Slagle Sabine - 26.5”first fish!

John Gilbreath Laguna Madre - first flounder!

Daniel Rubio Nueces Bay- 26” redfish

Kason Kolle Espiritu Santos Bay- 28” red

Brian Davis redfish

Marvin Gohlke III Southpass Lake- 28” red

Alan Zablocki Upper Laguna Madre- redfish

Nicholas Solis IV Texas City Dike- redfish

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

Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: 361 792-4530

Gulf Coast

Chicken-Fried Oysters with Pico Cream

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cups whole milk, divided

2 dozen oysters, shucked

2 cup peanut oil

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup basic seasoned flour (see below) Kosher salt

¾ cup sour cream

¾ cup Texas Pico (see below)

Basic Seasoned Flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp freshly ground white pepper

Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl. Shake well before using.

Texas Pico

6 jalapenos, sliced

1 red onion, diced

6 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

2 bunches cilantro leaves, stems removed and minced juice of 2 limes

kosher salt to taste

Texas Gulf Coast Oysters are a delicacy found in season most of the year, and our brand of frying them makes the plump mollusks even juicier. The rich, spicy sauce adds a little luxury to the down-home treat.

PREPARATION

Pour 1 cup of the milk into a bowl and soak the oysters. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. While the oil is heating, combine the remaining ½ cup of milk and eggs in a separate bowl, mixing well. In still another bowl, combine flour and salt. Roll each oyster in seasoned flour, put into egg wash, and roll in flour mixture again. Fry in hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

To prepare the Pico cream, place the sour cream and Texas Pico in a blender and pulse just long enough to mix well. Chill the mixture for about 20 to 30 minutes and serve with piping hot oysters for dipping.

Learn to cook the cowboy way. Grady’s fine cookbooks are a wonderful way to learn cowboy cooking methods. Great additions to your personal cooking library and they make wonderful gifts. Find them online at Amazon and other places under Grady Spears cookbooks.

Cowboy Butters

BANDERA BUTTER

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (not melted)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1 tablespoon kosher salt

3 cloves garlic, minced

5 oven-dried tomatoes, chopped (see below)

Using a food processor, blend all ingredients just until smooth. On a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, shape butter into a log that measures about 11/2 inches wide. As you roll the butter into a cylinder, be sure to remove any air pockets. Wrap parchment or wax paper tightly around the log, secure with freezer tape, and place in freezer one hour before serving. Slice disks of butter onto steaks at serving time. Logs will store up to one month in freezer.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

12 roma or plum tomatoes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Cut each tomato in half, lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out pulp and discard. In a bowl, toss tomato hulls, oil, and thyme until tomatoes are well coated. Place tomatoes, skin-side down, on a baking sheet, arranging so they are not touching. Cook for about 1½ hours or until tomatoes are dried. Remove from oven and cool. Transfer to an air-tight container and refrigerate.

These flavored butters create a luxurious effect when put atop a sizzling steak, fresh from the grill. Experiment with various additions to the butter for use on your favorite grilled meats and poultry too, as well as on baked potatoes and breads and in grits and any seafood dish.

ROASTED GARLIC BUTTER

2 tablespoons roasted garlic (see below)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (not melted) kosher salt to taste

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

Purée roasted garlic in food processor. Add butter and process until light and fluffy. Season with salt and white pepper to taste and follow directions for Bandera butter.

Roasted Garlic

1 head garlic

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. With a sharp knife, slice off the pointed end of the head of the garlic, exposing the ends of the cloves. Wrap garlic loosely in heavy-duty foil and bake for 45-60 minutes or until cloves feel soft to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool. Squeeze each clove to force the roasted meats out. Mash in a bowl until it forms a paste.

GREEN BUTTERRED CHILE BUTTER

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (not melted)

2 cups coarsely chopped, loosely packed cilantro leaves

1/2 cup coarsely chopped green onions kosher salt to taste

Process ingredients just until smooth. Follow instructions for Bandera butter.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (not melted) 4 teaspoons freshly ground ancho chiles or cayenne peppers

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin kosher salt to taste

Process ingredients until light and fluffy. Follow directions for Bandera butter.

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