March 2015

Only $3.95 www.tsfmag.com March 2015

TIDE PREDICTIONS & SOLUNAR FEED TIMES INSIDE!

about the Cover Colin Keag landed this Baffin beauty while fishing with a friend. Thirtyand-a-half, she pulled the scale to an even nine pounds. Colin was throwing a pink Paul Brown Original Corky. CPR! Kudos on the release.

MARCH 2015 VOL 24 NO 11

Contents FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

10 Habitat Evolution and How It Affects Fishing 18 Narrowing the Search 24 Decker 26 Tommy Has Some Trouble - Part IV 30 In Search of Greener Pastures 34 Jackfish Rejuvenation

42 Let’s Ask The Pro Jay Watkins 48 Shallow Water Fishing Scott Null 54 TPWD Field Notes Kevin Son 58 Fly Fishing Scott Sommerlatte 62 Kayak Fishing Chronicles Cade Simpson 66 TSFMag Conservation News CCA Texas 68 Fishy Facts Stephanie Boyd 74 Inshore | Nearshore | Jetties | Passes Curtiss Cash 80 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks...

Eric Ozolins 108 Science & the Sea UT Marine Science Institute 110 Boat Maintenance Tips Chris Mapp

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

58

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WHAT OUR GUIDES

HAVE TO SAy

86 88 90 92 94 96 98

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

6 | March 2015

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

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REGULARS 08 84 100 104 106

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

106

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

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

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EDITORIAL We are heading into the busiest time of year in Texas recreational fishing. It all starts in March and rises like an orchestra in crescendo during July and August.

The Houston Fishing Show can be likened to the starter’s pistol- not only in the progression of sport and boating industry shows we will be attending and working, but also the general on-the-water aspect that always seems to get a big jumpstart through the timing of spring break, especially for folks with young families.

A few words on the Houston Fishing Show; unless you will be on the water all five days, I’m betting there is no excuse that will hold water for not spending at least one afternoon or evening at the George R. Brown. The show opens Wednesday, Feb 25 and closes Sunday, March 1. This is our show, meaning a Texas show for Texas anglers, filled with products for the way we fish and guides from every port along our coast.

I have some changes and additions to announce in our writing team.

Steve Hillman has moved up to take Mike McBride’s spot in the feature lineup. This is not meant to say that he is replacing Mike per se; I’m not sure who could do that, actually. In Steve’s own words, “Man, you sure are handing me a giant pair of shoes to fill. That guy has become something of a legend!” Mike was with us every step of the way until he announced his retirement and grew to become more like a brother to Pam and me than an associate. Steve’s first feature appears in this

8 | March 2015

Heading Into Spring issue and I have great confidence you will find his work informative and entertaining. He is made of the right stuff, was raised salty, and loves fishing and Galveston Bay as much or more than anybody alive.

Young Caleb Harp will be taking over Steve’s Galveston region guide column. Again, in Steve Hillman’s words, “Caleb is young and energetic.

He is a very accomplished angler and I have to say he is already turning heads and gaining respect as a guide. It took the rest of us a lot longer.” Caleb’s first guide column also appears in this issue and I trust everybody will extend a hearty welcome as he takes us across the Galveston Bays each month, pleasing clients and catching lots of fish.

I believe it appropriate at this time for Pam and me, along with all the TSFMag staff, to express our gratitude to all our loyal readers and the advertisers who continue to support our publishing effort.

The success we enjoy is certainly greater than we could have ever imagined, and springs from many, many sources. There are so many behind the scenes friends and supporters, too numerous to mention.

All I can say is we have been mightily blessed. Next month marks our fourteenth year since we purchased Gulf Coast Connections from Gene Baker, God rest his soul, and it has been a good ride.

Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, we’re hoping for at least fourteen more.

STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN

it always

amazes me how songwriters can keep coming up with new lyrics after all of these years. After all, what could there possibly be left to write about that we haven’t already heard? When I received the phone call from Everett asking me if I was interested in taking on a feature writing position following Mike McBride’s retirement two things immediately came to mind; A. How could I possibly fill McBride’s shoes? Let’s face it; he has molded his articles into an art form. And; B. What information can I share with readers that they haven’t read a million times?

Driving home from the Houston Boat Show the next day I called Everett and humbly accepted his offer to give me an opportunity to become an even bigger part of this fine magazine. I explained to him that I was just a simple-minded fella who grew up on the bayou and, while I am college edumacated, I typically don’t use many “big words.” He proceeded to tell me that easy-to-understand articles make for easy reading and that I should “just be myself.” I thought to myself, “well that sounds easy enough.”

Furthermore, I believe that while the desired message may be similar at times, some of the lyrics may be changed to suit the style and personality of the artist. Lending a different perspective especially one derived from personal experiences can occasionally shed new light on things.

As I tossed around ideas for this piece I couldn’t help but to think about the constant changes taking place in my life and the world around me. Some changes catch us by surprise while others are so predictable that they’re almost like premonitions. When we’re on the water we are faced with variables that must be addressed in order to give us the best opportunity to catch fish. Examples may include a wind shift or a slack tide. Those are easy ones that usually only require relocating. But, what if changes that have occurred over weeks or even years force us to reevaluate the way we plan our fishing trips altogether? Good and not-sogood developments have taken place along the Texas coast through the years. Many have happened at the hands of Mother Nature. Having the ability to adapt requires learning some history about the areas we’re fishing.

What elements made such an area productive before? What influences the area now and are its dynamics changing? Do we know where to go and what to do if something changes? How many times have we told a buddy, “Man, we used to catch a lot of fish on this reef?” We need to ask ourselves “why” then try to find answers.

Jake White with proof that big trout like topwaters even on “no-name” reefs.

TSFMAG.com | 11

Over the years, I’ve learned to study hard and pay attention to anything that would improve my ability to help clients catch fish. Learning the ropes was tough without much help, but it was the only way to truly learn.

Nowadays, internet anglers have the ability to eliminate years of hard work with a few keystrokes (hashtag lazy fishermen). Detailed photos are also readily available along with Dead oyster most likely because of “Dermo” in a high-salinity part of endless helpful hints from fishing Galveston Bay. Once the protozoan board hounds. Back in the day parasite is ingested by the oyster it lives there were a few local fishermen in its digestive tract until the oyster and a handful of guides that kept dies. “Dermo” is harmless to humans. what they knew to themselves, almost like trade secrets. Be that as it may, we must learn to accept and acclimate to the changes in this new era of fishing. Focusing exclusively on “spots” to Present day submerged oyster reef. Was catch fish is short-sighted and will bite you a small shell island less than 10 years in the butt sooner or later. Understanding ago. Notice the color change. Good stuff! the “how” and “why” is what separates the networkers from truly insightful anglers. The influences of weather, seasonal changes, feeding periods and hydrology are just a few of the variables that must be considered. I hear it all of the time… “Man, Steve, we went back to where we caught some nice trout a week ago and they just weren’t there. What happened?”

Sometimes the answers are obvious, but once a career day is experienced it’s easy to become oblivious to logic.

The part of the bay where he and his buddies caught their fish happens to be where multiple tributaries carry freshwater into the bay. The area’s watershed had already been saturated from steady rainfall then experienced almost another 4 inches since said fish were caught.

Redfish can handle low salinities, but trout will usually push elsewhere when it drops very much below 10 parts per thousand. Where will the freshwater flow to once it enters the bay? Where is the closest structure (reefs, grass beds, etc.) on the way to higher salinity? Where are the deeper areas in the vicinity? Because freshwater is slightly less dense than saltwater, higher salinities can usually be found lower in the water column. Some of the not-soobvious reasons may involve (above) Stingaree Marina, pre-Hurricane Ike. water temperatures plummeting (below) Post-Ike. Notice the new cut created resulting in metabolic slowresulting in deep guts and oyster reefs downs and less frequent feeding immediately north of cut. periods. Was there any tide movement? Slicks? The presence of bait? Maybe the fish were caught on She Dogs because there was a moderate chop on the water and then the surface was like glass on their return trip. Did you try throwing Paul Brown Original Corkys or Salt Water Assassins when you went back to your “honey hole” or did you stick with the same loud topwaters that caught them before? The list is endless.

The fact remains that circumstances change. All areas are subject to deviations. Sometimes changes occur within days, others over decades. Recognizing the change and effect determines whether we get “lucky” or go home with our tails tucked between our legs.

12 | March 2015

(left) Dave Pierce was able to get his Assassin down below the fresh layer to trick this nice speck.

On a broader scale let’s consider (right) Haley Matthews some of the changes that have found his personal best occurred beneath the surface over the on a secluded “submerged course of time. Erosion, subsidence island” last spring. and hurricanes have had a cumulative effect on what’s above and below the water. There are reefs that used to be islands and sand bars that are now flats. New cuts have been created. Knowing what used to be above will help us to better understand what’s now hidden from plain view. Nothing compares to witnessing such changes first-hand over thirty-plus years, but Google Earth’s Historical Imagery feature is a great start otherwise. This is a great way to find some really good no-name reefs!

Sustainability of our fishery begins with habitat. Without it, every living organism throughout the food chain struggles. Just ask our friends down south how their fishing was after excessive run-off caused the Arroyo Colorado to inundate the area with freshwater in

the summer of 2010, transforming the hyper-saline Lower Laguna Madre into what closely resembled a muddy catfish pond. Many acres of high-salinity thriving seagrasses were killed. Seagrass is to the Laguna what live oyster reefs are to Galveston Bay. Much like oysters, seagrasses provide food and shelter for a variety of marine organisms. Also like oysters, they absorb nutrients and help prevent erosion while also improving water quality. When habitats are damaged or removed, support for forage species (shrimp, finfish, crabs, etc.) diminishes. Once this happens, predator fish relocate.

Since 2010 things are improving for the folks down in God’s country as grass beds are returning and fishing is good again.

Here in Galveston Bay we have a similar issue with loss of habitat, but for a different reason. It’s a combination of several influences, but the two most glaring reasons are siltation from Hurricane Ike and perpetual high salinities. Ike silted over an estimated 60% of the bay’s live oyster reefs in September of 2008. While some areas have recovered through means of silt removal and oyster reef restoration projects, most areas are still struggling. A high salinitythriving parasite known as Perkinsus marinus (previously Well-defined freshwater line. called Dermocystidium marinus or “dermo”) has also devastated many of the oyster beds in the Galveston Bay Complex and other estuaries over the years. The foundation of most aquatic species in this estuary is live oyster beds. Gaining knowledge of where live reefs are will greatly increase your chances at catching more fish.

Our estuaries are ever changing. We as fishermen owe it to ourselves to stay abreast of past and present ecological changes.

Not only will it make us better fishermen, but it’s our responsibility as stakeholders.

14 | March 2015

Contact

Steve Hillman Steve Hillman is a full-time fishing guide on his home waters of Galveston Bay. Steve fishes the entire Galveston Bay Complex, wading and drifting for trout, redfish, and flounder using artificial lures.

Phone 409-256-7937 Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com Web www.hillmanguideservice.com

STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN

In order to

consistently catch fish, one must locate places holding enough fish to justify the effort to catch them. In essence, we strive to keep as many “dots” as possible on our available “screen”, meaning we try to stay within reach of as many fish as possible at all times. Some situations make doing so easier than others.

Three dimensions combine to form the prism we probe. Even shallow water includes both horizontal and vertical components. Deeper water makes locating and catching fish more difficult, since fish can suspend some depth off the bottom, adding further confusion to the equation, while shallow water generally makes things easier, because of the reduced scale of the third dimension.

I’ve developed a strategy for attempting to keep myself within reach of the trout I seek, one which involves thinking in “thirds”. The first step in this plan requires making a basic decision about which part of the area most likely holds the greatest concentration of fish. I start by thinking of the general layout of the part of the bay I’ve chosen, breaking it down into three parts when possible.

The photograph labeled Laguna Madre Shoreline One (LMS1) provides an example. It shows a stretch of water along the western side of the Upper Laguna Madre. I’ve described and marked three zones, using depth as the primary defining attribute for each. The shallowest, Zone One, includes the part of the area closest to the shoreline. Zone Two includes the mid-

range depths lying between the shoreline shallows and the edge of the deepest water, where the outer grass beds extend toward bare bottom. Of course, Zone Three, which I (and When calm conditions and/or other factors others) refer to as “the swag”, contains deep eliminate the ability to see into the water, water of relatively uniform depth and a prior knowledge of the area becomes bottom generally devoid of cover elements. necessary for narrowing the search. Richie With regard to my strategy, the first Kainer caught this pretty trout on such a day. decision involves deciding which zone will likely hold the greatest concentration of fish at the given time. In order to make such a judgment, I factor in various details, including the season, time of day, tide level and water temperature. On occasions when I conclude most of the fish prefer the swag, fishing from the boat becomes the only way to target them.

In such a circumstance, I don’t really break the zone into smaller parts horizontally to make my search for fish. In a worst-case scenario, fish in Zone Three lie scattered about randomly, suspended some distance from the bottom. In that case, locating and catching any of them might prove ridiculously difficult. When fish move deep and suspend at some depth between the bottom and the surface of the bay, catching them can become nearly impossible.

Dividing the water into three vertical zones can then become helpful in the search. I do so by making a basic prediction of the depth I believe the fish most likely prefer, breaking it down into the bottom, the mid-range depths and the depths closest to the surface.

When trying to make fish bite in such a scenario, depth of depths. For the most part, soft plastics work best to locate fish in the presentation becomes a critical component in the process. Where swag, though. Experimenting with speed of retrieve with all lures lots of surface activity indicates fish feeding near the surface, and the weight of the jigheads used on soft plastics can enhance the topwater lures and others worked close under the surface make ability to locate suspended fish. Keeping the lure in contact with the sense. Fast-sinking twitch baits like 51 and 52 series MirrOlures and bottom becomes necessary, of course, when fish hug the floor of the floating/diving crank baits effectively target fish in the mid-range bay, especially when they have their eyes cast down.

Fish found in Zone Three do sometimes gather in schools.

Targeting and locating them in such a situation normally involves first riding around and looking for signs of The author’s old tournament partner Ari fish, meaning wakes made by the schools of Shwartz coaxed a bite from this fat trout predators, concentrations of baitfish, flocks of on a cold day, by persistently focusing birds, slicks or muddy streaks in the water. If all efforts in Zone Two of the area. some kind of evidence of fish presents itself, drifts through the area often produce strikes.

All these strategies can allow one to locate fish in the swag.

Marking the spots on the GPS where bites occur can allow for circling around and passing through them repeatedly. These methods become useless in a more common situation I encounter, one in which I make the basic decision that Zone One likely holds the greatest number of fish.

When fishing Zone One, I do so by wading. Additionally, I like to sub-divide the zone, again into three “parts” if possible, using depth as the primary defining feature. The shallowest areas atop the sand bars (and in some cases grass mats) extending from the bank become Zone One. The edges of those sand bars and grass mats make up Zone Two, and the potholes lying in the grass beds further away from the shoreline define Zone Three. The picture labeled Laguna Madre Shoreline Two, a close-up view of Zone One from the other shot, shows this in detail.

I will either focus on one part or another to start with, based on the prevailing conditions and recent history, or I will attempt to cover all three simultaneously until fish start providing us the clues we need to narrow our focus further. Essentially, fish found in the 20 | March 2015

22 | March 2015

in predictable places, necessitating a “grinders mentality”.

Using a specific plan like the one I’ve detailed here can help one recognize and cope with such scenarios. But on many occasions, narrowing the search through division into thirds helps one locate aggressive fish which strike readily. All anglers, regardless of their level of expertise in making finicky fish bite, benefit from finding concentrations of fish in places with definable features.

Author’s note: I’ve created two more photos of a different type of area and labeled them the same way I did with the pictures included here. To view the photos, visit the Blogs page of CaptainKevBlogs.com and click on the blog dated 1/10/2015.

Kevin Cochran Contact

shallows prove easier to catch, because the vertical element of their location plays such a small role.

Using sound principles to make lure choices normally makes it possible to entice fish into striking. In one way, fishing this part of the area resembles fishing in the swag—if fish roam randomly around without relating to a particular depth or part, catching good numbers of them becomes more difficult. If, on the other hand, they bunch up in certain areas, locating and catching many of them proves easier.

If I find and catch a decent number of fish along the edge of a sand bar, for instance, and scant numbers elsewhere in the area, I will generally get in the boat and move to another stretch of shoreline with a similar feature and try fishing it when the bite dies out, rather than walk around and try to find fish in other parts of the area without getting in the boat. Of course, that depends on how many fish I catch in the first spot. If I’ve caught upwards of a dozen, I will always make sure to be thorough before I leave looking for a new school, working my way through the lures, including soft plastics, before I do.

Generally, conventional topwaters and twitch baits work best to catch trout found in the shallowest parts of an area. But sometimes soft plastics on super-light jigheads prove more productive, especially when a hot bite begins to dwindle, or when the water temperatures drop down around fifty degrees. The same truths normally apply to the fishing in Zone Two as well, where water depths lie in the mid-range.

In the specific scenario shown on LMS1, the depth of the water in Zone Two normally eliminates wading as an option.

If I decide to target fish in this corridor, I will sub-divide the zone into three parts of relatively equal size, meaning the shallowest part closest to Zone One, a middle part, and the deepest part, including the deep grass beds lying on the edge of the swag. As always, I try to determine which part likely holds the most fish before starting my search, using the prevailing conditions. Then, I begin making drifts to verify my hunch, working through all three zones eventually if necessary. Since I can normally see features on the bottom in this zone, I’ll often target areas with anomalies like potholes to further focus my drifts.

This kind of systematic method does several important things. It facilitates a more thorough and analytical approach, increases one’s focus on the task at hand and allows one to make more sense of the situation. All these things enhance the ability to locate and catch more fish.

Other types of areas in other bays can’t be divided into three parts in the same way as a portion of the ULM. A large oyster reef, for instance, begs for the following division: the shallows atop the reef as Zone One, the edges of the reef including areas where scattered shell covers the bottom as Zone Two and the muddy bottom adjacent to the reef in the swag as Zone Three.

In the end, I do all this analysis and division for one purpose—to increase my chances of finding small parts of an area which hold rich concentrations of fish. Schooling fish prove much easier to catch than scattered ones, because their natural, competitive urges make them more aggressive. In some scenarios, fish won’t reliably gather

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

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

Trout Tracker Guide Service Phone Email Web

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

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STORY BY Billy Sandifer

The heavy fog

the weather service had predicted never materialized and the night was crystal clear. There was no moon and the Big Dipper appeared so close it gave me the impression that I could just reach out and grab it by the tail, give it a big yank and straighten it out. The wind had laid off at dark and the sea had calmed to two rows of two foot surf, alive with dancing emerald phosphorescence. Mother Nature’s nocturnal light show in the surf zone is one of the greatest wonders of coastal Texas.

There was a chill in the night air that seemed to be creeping into my tired ol’ bones. The fire was not a large one but it had a grand set of glowing coals and I positioned my chair where I could enjoy watching them and the phosphorescence. I was the only human on the last 55 miles of Padre Island National Seashore and the realization of my solitude brought peace to me; as it always has. The call of Brother Coyote sounded in the stillness and I savored the sound as a special treat as it is rare to hear his cry above the wind so typical on Padre.

As I stared into the coals I got to somehow thinking about Decker.

Len Decker and I shared fires and fished together for fourteen years prior to his death in 1992. Len was a veteran of numerous tours in South East Asia with the Airborne Rangers and he was the surviving, original platoon sergeant on “Hamburger Hill.” He was quick to laugh and quick to fight and we took turns getting each other into and out of trouble of various sorts until he died. His family and I shook his ashes at the 25-mile post in the Big Shell.

My mind immediately went back to a late February day twenty-six years past, down south of the Port Mansfield jetties, on South Padre Island. Len and I had set up a shark fishing camp on the beach south of the jetties. Dickie and Mary Spenser had joined us in their small camper trailer. Temperatures were in the 60s during the day and 50s at night and the wind was minimal but the water was the color of chocolate milk for 400 yards offshore. Five foot breakers covered the nearshore bars.

Neither of us could succeed in getting a bait across those bars, even with minimal inflation in the life raft, and the water was icy cold. We 24 | March 2015

donned knee-high wet suits and swim fins and left just enough air in the life raft to keep the shark leader, sinkers and bait afloat. We each held on to the life raft and leader with one hand and paddled with the other while kicking with the swim fins, very effective actually.

When we saw a really big wave approaching we would go underwater and use our bodies as ballast to hold the life raft steady and we were both amazed at how well it worked and how quickly we could cover distance working together. We cleared the muddy water and stopped to catch our breath and evaluate the situation about 600 yards offshore.

We were debating whether to drop the bait or continue farther when I felt the sandpaper skin of a shark drag across my right calf.

Momentarily I felt it rub across the calf of my left leg. I never said a word or let on what happened to Len at all. I felt pretty sure of what was going to happen next and it was simply too good of an opportunity to spoil it prematurely.

He got to fussing about my taking so long to make up my mind and we were looking at each other across the raft. All at once his eyes got huge and he lunged straight up in the air about two feet and yelled.

No sooner had he settled back down into the sea than he repeated the entire maneuver, and when he came up this second time he looked at me and screamed, “Think porpoise! Think porpoise!”

I said, “My God, Len, a dolphin has skin as smooth as a baby’s butt and this guy is sandpaper city.”

By that time both of us had laid the upper half of our bodies across the life raft and were doing our best to extend as much of our legs and swim fins as possible into the air behind us.

“Len,” I said, “It appears this shark is hungry. If it’s ready to eat lets feed it the bait we brought out here rather than various of our body parts.”

I slipped back down into the sea while explaining my plan. I let the bait and about seven feet of cable leader down into the water beneath me and then wrapped the cable around my left hand three times. We talked about the dangers of my hand getting fouled in the cable and I told Len I would just have to risk it.

I took a death grip on the life raft with my right hand, planning to

set the hook with my left. Once the shark was hooked I would let the leader go and join him lying crossways on the raft. We would then vacate the area ASAP. I felt a gentle bump on the bait which was quickly followed by two others and then the shark took it. When the cable tightened, I did everything possible to set the hook manually and immediately cleared my hand from the coils of cable before the shark could make a run.

Joining Len crossways on the raft we hastily paddled shoreward and shortly we began to laugh as Dickie ran to the shark rig on the beach, waving his arms wildly.

We arrived on the beach and I unceremoniously cranked in a 6’ 4” sandbar that was far too small to be sporting on the heavy tackle. I grabbed my three pound shop hammer and thumped it between the eyes for five minutes, reward for having scared us so badly. Dickie butchered it so everyone could have fresh shark steaks for supper.

That evening at supper it smelled good enough to eat and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Somehow though, I no longer had any taste for shark meat. I took my plate up on a sand dune and watched the full moon come up over the eastern horizon and pondered the situation. How lucky Len and I were that one or both of us weren’t injured or killed. How it could just as easily have been a large and more dangerous species of shark rather than a sandbar.

How I have spent so much of my life hoping a shark doesn’t eat me and, then when it doesn’t, I repay it by thumping it between the eyes with a hammer and eating it.

Somehow there was something terribly ironic and ludicrous in the whole scenario and I realized that, for me, such actions were no longer appropriate.

And so, by the light of a full moon, I cut a treaty with Brother and Sister Shark. If they would not eat me I would not eat them. For twenty-six years now the sharks and I have kept that agreement.

Fishing is about so much more than simply catching. Fishing is about camp fires, camaraderie and communing with the Natural World. It is filled with wonder, wonderful memories, and the grandest of friendships.

I heard a song recently with a line that said, “Fishin’ is fun; and if it ain’t fun then it ain’t fishin’.”

Life is a hoot if you’ll let it be.

Editor’s Note: This story is reprinted from our archives. Our longtime writer and dear friend, Billy Sandifer, is suffering badly at present from the debilitating effects of exposure to Agent Orange during his military service in Viet Nam. Please join me in prayer that Billy will weather his present storm and regain strength to continue his writings soon.

By Scott H. Sexton

Galveston Island, Feb 22, 2014

Roseate Spoonbill Platalea ajaja A familiar sight to coastal Texas fishermen, the Roseate Spoonbill uses its spoon shaped bill to strain small food items out of the water.

Contact

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

Website www.FriendsofPadre.com

Galveston Island Jan 19, 2012 TSFMAG.com | 25

Part IV

STORY BY MARTIN STRARUP

Bodie tried

to call Dale but had no signal inside the hospital. He dashed to the stairway rather than squeezing into the elevator with nurses pushing patients in wheelchairs. He sprinted down a hall and through the lobby, never stopped until he was outside. With full signal he called Dale and told him what he had just learned.

“The only way Vince would know that Tommy was even in a hospital is if someone told him, and I think I know who that person might be,” Bodie reported.

“Who do you have in mind, Bodie?”

“Remember the receptionist at the dealership? She got on her cell phone as soon as we left her desk and I have a sneaky feeling she was calling Vince.”

“Man that’s a reach but what are we going to do, go back to Corpus and talk to her?” Dale questioned.

“I’ll swing by the office as soon as I get back into town and we’ll figure something out,” Bodie replied ending the call.

Dale went into the sheriff’s office and related Bodie’s news and they agreed it would be a good idea to post a 24 hour deputy guard in surgical scrubs near Tommy’s room.

If Vince made another visit he could be taken into custody.

Bodie was irritated that Vince had been able to get into Tommy’s room but what really confused him was that he didn’t bother to hide his identity. On the other hand, he had used his real name and did not hide the fact that he was Tommy’s brother. Knowing Vince’s shady nature, the only reason Bodie could come up with for Vince even going there would be to finish Tommy off.

Bodie hit the remote on his key chain to unlock the truck and was deep in thought about where Vince might be at that very moment when he dropped his keys.

Bending down to pick them up glass showered him as the driver’s side window exploded. He heard the shot as he dove to the ground and three more followed as he rolled under the truck and scrambled to squat behind the passenger front wheel.

Peering at the passenger door he saw three holes in a tight cluster. A sharp looking sports car in the next space had three holes punched through the driver’s door.

“Well if Vince is trying to shoot me he sure brought a big enough gun,” Bodie muttered aloud.

People were running into the parking lot and Bodie saw a police officer angling toward him. “I don’t know where the shooter is but you might want to take cover,” Bodie yelled. “You other folks need to take cover too!”

The policeman’s eyes went wide and he quickly dropped to a crouch and vanished behind a white van that had Flores Catering painted on the side. Bodie saw the officer peeking at him from around the back bumper and flashed his deputy badge. The officer nodded and told Bodie that backup had been called. That was when Bodie realized that bending down to retrieve his keys had saved his life.

Sirens blared as five marked cars skidded into the parking lot, circling the area Bodie and the officer were pinned in. Bodie risked a quick look over the hood of his truck. Seeing the situation, the arriving officers crouched likewise behind their cars.

“Is the shooter still on the scene?” one policeman shouted to him.

“If I knew the shooter was gone I wouldn’t be hiding behind my dang truck,” Bodie called back, irritated.

Bodie scanned the far end of the parking lot to several rows of trees but didn’t see anyone and figured the shooter was gone, probably left right after firing the last shot. Swallowing hard he stood up, much to the relief of his aching legs, and then walked around his truck to retrieve his hat.

The local police had a lot of questions but all Bodie could tell them was exactly what happened; someone had shot at him from a distance, probably from the trees, and had fortunately missed. Two officers were placing police line tape around the scene and Bodie thought that there were going to be some very unhappy people when they found their vehicles part of a locked down crime scene.

Bodie and a Detective Sergeant named J.D. Mansfield walked a straight line from Bodie’s truck to the trees at the edge of the parking lot. Bodie counted 228 steps to the first tree and scanned the area for a possible sniper’s nest. J.D. whistled and Bodie turned to find him squatting and looking at something on the ground.

“7.62x51mm military rounds, Deputy Allen,” J.D. announced.

“As rapidly as he fired it had to be an automatic, and TSFMAG.com | 27

judging where the empties fell I would guess he used that tree right there for a rest,” Bodie observed.

J.D. nodded agreement and using his ballpoint pen began placing the empty cartridges in a plastic baggie.

Surveying the layout of the area and the view of his truck it afforded, Bodie admitted that Vince, or whoever the shooter was, had picked a great ambush spot. Just opposite the trees, an onramp offered quick getaway access to a busy highway.

Bodie’s cell phone rang. “Bodie, are you okay?” asked a panicked Dale.

“Oh I’m fine. How did you find out so quickly?”

“The PD called to check your credentials and told dispatch what happened. Betty is about to have a stroke worrying about you,” Dale replied.

“Well my truck is going to need a little body work and so is a fancy little sports car, but other than that everything is okay,” Bodie told his friend.

As Bodie walked back for a better look at his truck he spied a small envelope tucked under the windshield wiper. “Hey J.D., got any spare latex gloves?” he called out.

“No, but I’m wearing a pair.

Whattaya need?” came the reply.

Bodie pointed to the envelope and J.D. removed it. Turning it over, they saw Bodie’s name.

“Do you want me to open it?”

J.D. asked.

Sarcastically, Bodie shot back, “Well I sure as hell don’t want you to mail it to me.”

J.D. slit the envelope carefully from the bottom with his pocket knife and removed a note.

Bodie I had nothing to do with my brother’s condition. I didn’t even know he was hurt until you nosed around the dealership where I bought my truck.

I have been seeing the receptionist and she let me know that y’all were trying to find me but I didn’t know why. I tried calling Tommy but got no answer so I called EMS thinking something bad might have happened.

They told me to check the hospital. After a few calls I found out why you are looking for me. We need to talk so call this number at 9:00 tonight and let’s try to set things right. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my day Bodie but I would never hurt Tommy. 361-555-1212—Vince “Bodie, you know this is evidence, right?” J.D. asked.

“Well it sure is, evidence in a case we’re working on, and we really need to try and keep the chain of evidence intact. If you know what I mean,” Bodie answered.

“Well let’s get this copied and cataloged and we’ll work it from both ends, but if your case ties into this attempt on your life, I really need to know what’s going on, OK?” Bodie filled J.D. in on the Tommy case and then said, “I’d sure like to get down to the Sheriff’s office and go over all of this with them, J.D., so is it okay to take my truck?”

“Sure go ahead, Bodie. We’ve got the pictures we need, but

watch your six!”

Bodie was sweeping glass from his truck seat when a beautiful young lady approached the driver’s door of the fancy sports car.

With his windows down, so to speak, he could hear her yelling at the officers as he drove away.

Bodie liked J.D., he reminded him of an older version of himself. “I wonder if he likes to fish,” he wondered aloud. Bodie decided to ask Dale if he knew the Detective when he got to the office.

Bodie walked into the Sheriff’s office and was relieved that Betty wasn’t at the dispatch desk. He found Dale in his office, on the phone, but Dale waved him in pointing to a chair. Bodie sat and waited until Dale finished his conversation.

That was Detective Mansfield. He was filling me in on what happened at the hospital and he says you’re very lucky to be alive.

“Well if I hadn’t dropped my keys I guess I’d have been a goner,” Bodie replied. “But I’m still alive and kicking and just want a chance to discuss marksmanship with whoever took those shots at me,” Bodie quipped with a wink.

Bodie handed Dale a copy of Vince’s letter and waited while he read it.

“Does it occur to you that Vince might have been the shooter and this note was a ploy to get you to stand still?”

Dale asked incredulously.

“I’ve been thinking about that. But even if it was Vince, we still have to find him. And… if it wasn’t him…then we’re looking for a well-armed man who knows how to use a rifle,” Bodie drawled with a serious tone.

“So what do you have in mind?” Dale asked.

“Well, for starters, I’m going to call that number at 9:00 this evening and see what Vince or whoever wrote the note has to say.”

“OK—we have three hours. Let’s see if I can get the District Judge to sign off allowing us to record the call for evidence. Get some supper, Bodie, and be back here at 8:30. We’ll know where we stand by then.”

“I don’t know where the shooter is, but you might want to take cover!”

28 | March 2015

Stay tuned for Part V, coming next month!

Contact

Martin Strarup Martin Strarup is a lifelong saltwater enthusiast and outdoorsman.

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

Email

Trouthunter@swbell.net

STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE

According to

Webster a nomad is a person or member of a tribe that has no permanent home, wanders about seasonally along traditional routes, usually in search of food or better pasture for herds. Some readers of this magazine seem to fit that description—constantly in search of big trout.

Now there are those who make their living catching fish and those who just live to catch fish, both groups are relentless in their quest and often times end up in the exact same locations. Unlike the majority of the fishing public who find a home bay and rarely stray, these “nomads” are comfortable in virtually any water or situation as long as the fish are there. And while most fishermen spend a lifetime gaining knowledge on a particular body of water, the modern day nomad takes it to a different level, eventually building knowledge and skill on many bays—a talent that few possess. I have great respect for these guys.

When I first began guiding, faraway places like the Laguna Madre and Baffin were mythical destinations where giant trout were a way of life. I would buy the Thursday Chronicle just for the outdoor section, and hang on every word from Doggett, Pike and Tomkins. Stories or reports would surface of a giant trout being caught, and like moths to a flame, dedicated legions of fishing nomads would make their way south to enjoy the run on big fish. Back then news spread at an almost glacial pace compared to today’s high speed world of social media. What once took weeks now takes only seconds, and makes the nomad’s quest infinitely easier.

The big trout chasers who subscribe to the mantra of “no mud too deep, no water too cold, no bay too far, and no weather too foul” make a habit of being in the right water at the right time no matter where it’s located. The thought of driving four hours to fish for four hours and then drive home is a concept that 99% of the fishing world would consider insane. For the dedicated few that are in search of that one giant fish it’s just another day at the office. (left) While Jim Leavelle, James Plaag and other Galveston guides were once winter nomads I can remember wading around Matagorda, modern-day pros such as a flat on the west side of Tommy Alexander are happy to ply the waters Calcasieu when I ran into a of East Matty year ‘round. And for good reason!

couple of guys who had the same idea. On the walk back to my boat I met up with them and struck up a conversation. These guys had been fishing in Galveston Bay just a few hours earlier and decided to go east and catch an afternoon tide change on Calcasieu, and then head back home. It seemed like the potential to catch a big fish outweighed the effort it took for them to do the travel. I happened to run into the same guys a couple of weeks later and they told me the trip was well worth it and they had pictures to back up their claim. All in a day’s work for a nomad.

Speaking of working nomads, it’s impossible to have a conversation about those who put the miles on their truck in search of big trout without mentioning the guides who take to the road looking for bigger and better fish for their customers. One of the very best guys I have had the good fortune to meet and call my friend was fishing guide nomad, Jim Leavelle. Jim ran Tarpon Adventures of Galveston while some other incredible fishermen like James Plaag, James Trimble and others ran Silver King Adventures. These guys were an amazing group that absolutely had Galveston and Trinity wired like few others. It was not uncommon to see the fleet of twenty-five foot Whalers they made famous in any bay from Matagorda to Calcasieu, or patrolling the beach front for tarpon. Back in February of 1996 when the Texas saltwater fishing world was turned upside down by the 13 pound 11 ounce state record speckled trout caught in Baffin

by Jim Wallace, many Galveston guides, including Leavelle, were already routinely venturing away from their home water. In fact many of those guides had become quite happy about their new destination of choice which at the time was East Matagorda Bay. “It didn’t matter if it was blowing 30 from the wrong direction, we caught them in East Matty,” says Leavelle. Not long after and at the urging of some of his customers Leavelle began to take clients to Baffin where some ridiculous days on the water followed. For the next several years it was a given that during the last half of January through the first part of March if you wanted to find Leavelle or several other high profile guides from the upper coast you need look no further than Baffin Bay. The time and effort to get down there was more than worth it when you saw the quality and quantity of fish that were there to be had. It TSFMAG.com | 31

because it does happen from time to time. All I’m saying is that it happens on a more frequent basis in other areas of the world, and if you want it to happen to you then maybe a road trip is in order. You never know what will happen if you decide to check out a new bay but by going to areas that are known to produce upper-end fish you can bet your odds certainly increase. And that’s all a fisherman can ever ask for.

A pinch over 9-pounds is a trophy fish anywhere.

was a fantastic time for many fishermen.

As each successive year passed Baffin still got the lion’s share of attention but other bays began to spit out fish big enough to make Texas anglers take notice. During the late 90s and early 2000s the focus shifted north towards Sabine where newly embraced techniques like wading in winter began to help anglers catch some really incredible fish. In 1997 the lake record was broken twice in less than a month and an 11 pound 8 ounce specimen came out on top.

The number of 8-9 pound fish that were taken during that time were phenomenal and that fact was not lost on the folks from Houston.

The opportunity to catch a fish in that class without driving forever south was an option many took advantage of. Thanks to the sudden increase in traffic, several anglers decided to leave Sabine and travel another 25 miles to check out Lake Calcasieu. What a surprise that turned out to be for several years, it was absolutely crazy. I can’t ever remember going to another bay and being mad if I didn’t catch a 7 pound trout that day and that’s how it stayed for quite some time.

We were spoiled and scared at the same time Anglers will roam far and wide because we knew it had to end eventually. for a shot at a giant speck.

Throughout that stretch of years there were some incredible stringers of fish caught that bordered on the unbelievable. Many times those fish were taken by the guys who paid more than their dues and logged more than their share of miles. The willingness to seek out new venues and become proficient at each one is just an unreal accomplishment that very few will ever achieve. For the most part the average angler will spend their career in the same water doing the same things over and over.

It’s more widely accepted in the hunting community to actually go to an area to increase your odds of success. If my personal goal was to shoot a Boone and Crockett whitetail I’m not going to sit on some public land in East Texas and expect it to happen; I’m going to South Texas, Kansas, Iowa or someplace like that because that’s where deer of that caliber live. Same thing goes for big trout or any other trophy fish, you need to be where they are if you want to succeed.

Now I’m not saying you won’t ever catch that trophy in your home water or kill that buck from public land in Podunkville

Contact

Chuck Uzzle

32 | March 2015

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

Phone Email

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

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

The true

herald of summer is the return of the bay’s most notorious fish, the jack crevalle. Hook one of these puppies in March, and that’s when you know winter is done. (Catch a few jacks on the same day, and you’ll be done too). Fighting these fish and stretching those muscles on a spring day can be a fine thing. Or not: Maybe you’re sweating over that killer trout plug that might not make it back to your rod tip. And it won’t, if you don’t show initiative with this fish. Or maybe you don’t care, and you’re just happy to wear out this beast that doesn’t know when to quit. The muscle power required to subdue a hefty jack must be the equivalent of landing a dozen slot redfish. Jacks are strong.

That’s because they’re solid red meat, much like a tuna. And it makes them much stronger than any whitebread fish. So, don’t bother trying to cook a crevalle. And be aware that anything moving in saltwater is threatened by the jack. Any natural bait if alive, and any artificial that moves. The crevalle is also widespread; I’ve seen schools of big ones chase our trolled sailfish baits in blue water off Cozumel. Also fought

Underwater crowd of jackfish beneath a shrimpboat, 30 miles off Galveston.

smaller jacks on Rat-L-Traps in almost pure freshwater lakes barely connected to the Caribbean, down in Honduras.

Jacks invade Texas bays and jetties as early as March if the weather is mild, usually first on the lower coast when water temps reach 70 degrees.

Green water helps too, commonly found off Padre Island. That’s where I lost a dozen gold spoons I’d brought along for spring break, one year.

Every jack on the Port Mansfield jetty was strong as a freight train, spooling me time and again at the end of the rocks. College babes back at South Padre were ignored: Instead we made the long beach drive each day in the sandy Volkswagen, catching a lot of fish, but none of them jacks. Our red reels (the reel that won the Gulf, years ago) couldn’t stop these jacks while we clung to our rocky perches on the jetty, and we never turned one around. When threatened with a spooling, I thumbed down and broke off the 20-pound line way out there at the spoon,

Port O’Connor guide Curtiss Cash lands a sturdy jack during summer, subdued with one of his tarpon spin outfits carrying 65-pound braid line.

reeling back more than 100 yards of line. A dozen of those brutes were last seen headed for the Yucatan, wearing my shiny gold hardware either with pride or indifference. Back then we didn’t have big tackle boxes like today, not even A bigger jack landed near the Port spare rods or credit cards, for that matter, and O’Connor jetty, using sailfish spin losing an entire card of spoons was a major tackle with 25-pound line. Great sport loss. I went through a lot of them in those and manageable, much easier than days, often a dozen cards in a summer, mostly using trout tackle. while walking the Sabine jetties. And very few were snagged in the rocks.

Since then I have dealt grief to many jacks, as recently as last summer, landing four tournament-size brutes from 24 to 26 pounds on a single day. This time, mostly with 25-pound spin tackle on a sailfish rod. On that day we banged the boat 20 miles offshore, located a prime anchored shrimpboat, and 200-300 jacks came swarming up to greet us; the water turned yellow. These weren’t the smaller 18-pounders, a common size each summer whether nearshore or in the bays. These were all around 25 pounds, some even larger, the size that win tournaments. My buddy Pete Churton refused to put a line in the water, so it was up to me, and it was warm work for July. A one-ounce jig head with a seven-inch twister tail worm caught their fancy. These fish weren’t that hungry, the shrimpboat must have fed them well, but they couldn’t resist a tiger-stripe twister tail worm. Time and again, they attacked.

Hard work on spin gear. I should have arranged extra fun for that bunch, maybe rigged 10 feet of dock line with a sturdy circle hook and bait. And just handlined them on a short leash—that would have been material for a YouTube video. After I worked that spin outfit for an hour we left, looking for something different.

Safely back at the jetties, I tied on a favorite thin, shallow-diving green plug to a small baitcaster outfit and soon landed a pair of three-pound trout. Things were looking up, the water was calm and green. It was a weekday, no potlickers in sight. And I had the magic plug. But then a big jack came from nowhere and inhaled it only 20

36 | March 2015

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feet from the boat…I freespooled the reel, thinking this one might get annoyed and spit it out, but it was no dice.

For 15 minutes I coaxed that fish on 12-pound line. Oddly, that jack never took more than 30 yards. In fact it seemed to gradually weaken. When we finally netted it, we found the lure and all three treble hooks disappeared down its gullet, the jack bleeding heavily. We would have had to gut this fish, to find the lure. So I cut the line and watched the jack sink from sight. Well, the sharks have to make a living, too. That was enough fun with jacks, that day.

Back when I was guiding in Port O’Connor, I was delighted to have jacks appear in March.

We could catch a few big drum if the tide was right, but fighting a jack was on another level. One guest from England had the battle of his life with a March jack, on what might have otherwise been a slow day. But catching jacks is relative; later in the season there were days we couldn’t get away from them, while tarpon fishing. Each October at Pass Cavallo, countless jacks migrated into the Gulf, hidden by a dozen feet of water, hugging bottom. They grabbed our tarpon baits, sometimes all four rods, and you can imagine our dismay. I cast-netted our bait each day, and jacks liked them all.

The savagery of those encounters Dale Fontenot of Vidor was something to see: We used got a good workout from this big jack crevalle.

Caught on a gold spoon.

38 | March 2015

Closeup of a sturdy jack crevalle, alongside the boat.

150- or 200-pound Ande mono leaders, often eight feet long, to accommodate tarpon. Hooked a dozen feet below, a jack would hesitate for several seconds, shaking his head, before sprinting for the horizon. I would pull mightily, grab the leader with one hand, and then make a quick wrap around a dock cleat at the boat’s stern. The jack would go crazy-bananas, but couldn’t break the leader, lathering the water white. When they were exhausted, we pulled them close and banged the big circle hook loose with a fist and away they went, probably headed for Mexico for the winter. If I missed wrapping the leader around the cleat, then it was another typical jack fight, though they didn’t run too far on our 40-pound outfits. We didn’t count how many we landed at one anchoring, but perhaps a dozen.

I don’t know where small jacks hide in Texas. I’ve never seen them while diving offshore, or heard of one caught in the bays. It would be nice if they were around to brighten up a slow day. In many years of fishing the Texas coast, I’ve only seen small jacks at the commercial docks in Brownsville harbor, which is a tiny area.

Where do our jacks come from? Small jacks are perfectly common in Florida’s Gulf bays and beaches.

In Texas, if you hook a big jack from jetty rocks, “it’s just you and him.” I first heard that term from a Port Arthur (Sabine) jetty fisherman, and firmly believe it. Jagged rocks, cruel oysters and marine growth, and the fight itself all add up to a hazardous experience.

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Chronicle tripped and Ian Richard in Honduras, after landing went flying years ago, a jungle-roving crevalle about 10 miles while chasing a jack inland from the Caribbean. His Honduran down that same jetty. guide has just scored a bundle of bananas from a rare, passing boat.

The results were an ugly and painful wound to his hand, also a broken rod, soon followed by a trip to the ER that cut the day’s outing short. He was hooked up with the jack of heartbreakers, that day.

Jacks are powerful even in the boat. One summer day we trolled Magnum Rapala plugs over the liberty shipwreck off Port O’Connor, in about 80 or 100 feet of water.

Every time we passed over that wreck, another jack would hit. Not the more-tasty cousin, amberjack, but a crevalle. One of them flounced around in the boat while I was trying to extract big treblehooks from it, and one hook impaled my palm. Every time that jack flounced around I yelled a little louder, and it wasn’t as much fun as it sounds. Somehow we got rid of that fish, and the hooks were backed out of my

Contact

palm. That was one more reason never to use big, multiple treblehooks with powerful gamefish; they can Hook a big jack from jetty rocks, flounce quick as a snake, and you’ve seriously got your the hooks are sharp hands full. Not many are landed and the ER far away. here, without using heavy tackle.

It’s far safer to bring One slip and the game is over. these fish aboard using big bucktail jigs with a single hook. Even safer are the big circle hooks we use while tarpon fishing. They’re almost foolproof, and we’ve never heard of anyone getting hurt with one. Too bad we didn’t have padded fishing gloves 40 years ago. Today I won’t make a cast, without wearing Buffs.

Anyway, if you hook into a big jack, savor the moment and show your skills at landing one. Hook a second one, and you know a tough day is ahead.

40 | March 2015

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

J AY WAT K I N S

A S K THE P R O

Dealing with boat traffic

and dirty water

I think two of the greatest mental blocks for new anglers is understanding how to effectively fish areas that commonly attract intense fishing pressure and confidence in working dirty water with artificial lures.

Early in my career, late-70s and early 80s, fishing pressure in the Rockport area was a great deal less than we see today. It seemed that we had more fish, and for sure they seemed less educated. Which begs the question: “Is it possible for fish in a bay system with high fishing pressure to become educated?” Perhaps Dr. Greg Stunz and his group of scientists can shed some light on this subject but, I personally believe it is definitely possible to alter normal fish behavior with increased

Michael Laskowski personal best: 9.5-pounds and 31-inches.

42 | March 2015

pressure over a prolonged period of time. Port Mansfield guide, Mike Mc Bride, asked me a few years back how in the world I dealt with the enormous pressure the Rockport fishery receives and without hesitation I replied, “Fish dirty water, work smaller areas of structure, and allow the pressure to push fish to me.”

More on dirty water; my home bays typically exhibit clarity similar to Florida and the lower Texas coast, which made getting a handle on dirty water patterns a lengthy process for me. As knowledge of how fish live and feed in a given bay was gained and structures located, the simple trial and error of daily fishing led to the conclusion that not only can we catch fish in dirty

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water, many times we catch them better and bigger. It took no act of brilliance on my part to quickly adopt this pattern into the play book.

I see boat after boat, day after day, run along a shoreline and pass up areas where wind or tide creates sandy to dirty water. I point this out daily to every group, explaining why they are running past water that many times gives us great action. No doubt the prevailing thought is that if I can’t see the structure or the fish, they simply don’t exist. This is bolstered by today’s high tech boats that run incredibly shallow and those aboard often see a bunch of fish. And if that does not work, just dial up someone and have them tell us where the fish are.

In my opinion, this leads to a general “dumbing down” of fish-finding skills. Gaining confidence in fishing in the “junk” is something I have fine-tuned for many years and pounded into the minds of clients and regular readers. The most important aspect to gaining such confidence is being able to mark during seasonal low tides and clear water periods the structure for any given shoreline or spoil. Once located and marked, either on GPS or mentally using land marks, we can continue to return to the area. Knowing what is below the water and what the water depths are will allow you to fish the area with confidence.

Over the years fishing pressure has caused me to seek out smaller “off the beaten path” areas with suitable bottom structure. I most definitely continue to work popular areas during mid-week and offseason times but find myself more and more attracted to the smaller areas. I refer to them as goo holes and I am not sure why.

There are two benefits to working smaller areas. The first is simple, the smaller the area of structure the more concentrated the fish can be. Second is the fact that it seldom takes very long to find out whether or not the fish we are targeting are present and willing to eat. It is nice to have several of these smaller out of the way spots along a fairly small distance of shoreline. This allows me to hop out and work the area for 45 minutes to an hour and then quickly relocate to the next. Obviously, having only one or two per bay system is not an ideal situation.

My favorite part of fishing the smaller areas is the fact that once fish have shown themselves willing to eat we can stop and very effectively present precise casts to the sweet spots. One bite usually leads to another and then another. I believe the reason behind this observation is that not all the fish in that particular area are holding over the structure itself. Some wander in and out and will continue

“The prevailing thought is that if I can’t see the structure or the fish, they simply don’t exist.”

Steven Teitze personal best: 9-pounds and 30-inches.

44 | March 2015

Roland Toscano personal best: 8.5-pounds and 30-inches.

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to do so as long as we have correctly positioned ourselves far enough away to avoid disturbing the structure that attracts them. This is an entirely different article that I will do soon, I promise.

Now I do not have the science to back up all the stuff I believe, and I know tons of anglers that are hung up on science to the point that is becomes a distraction. Fact is, all the tactics, strategies and patterns I have mentioned in most every article I have ever written truly work for me. It is true that I am more confident than most when I have a rod in my hand but there is definitely some logic to my madness.

Finally there is the boat traffic issue and how we can use it to actually help us catch fish. Boat traffic is something all of us know all too well.

This magazine and all of its writers, your local Chamber of Commerce, CCA Texas and other fishing-related organizations are all to blame in this. Not in a bad way, but we have all publicized fishing over the past twenty-five years to the point that every bay along our coast is more crowded today than ever in history. No system is immune to boat traffic, especially on weekends, so if you’re going to plan on fishing you might want to read the next several lines carefully.

I look for dirty water close to clean water. I most often find this type of scenario along windward shorelines and spoils. In the dirty water I like to have one or more of my small areas of structure. It can be scattered shell or submerged grass beds, either one works for me. I position the boat about 150 to 200 yards upwind of the area I intend to fish. This creates a cushion for me as long as anglers are somewhat courteous. Next I spread my guys out, but not so far apart as to take any of them out of the game. Quite often we encounter boats running along shorelines, some farther offshore than others, but most are zigzagging around patches of dirty water as they run down the bank. This will often yield patches of dirty water that have not been disturbed as much as the clear stretches. My positioning of the boat and my anglers helps enlarge that quiet zone and all the while the fish are holding on the small pieces of structure we are targeting. Now—throw in some major weekend boat traffic and ALL the water gets chopped up EXCEPT in the quiet zone we have created. So, is there any science that supports this theory? Nope…but I promise it works.

The past several weeks I have spent almost all my days in water less than many would ever consider perfect, and there have been a few boats in the area pushing me a fish or two from time to time. It’s all good and my stress level is almost sitting on zero.

Here’s a funny for you. I stand 5’7” and was once 5’8” although my wife does not believe me. She did tell me however that men and women alike tend to shrink somewhat in stature as we age. She also says that a man’s ears and nose continue to grow throughout his life.

Damn, I am sure gonna be a pitiful sight in my senior years.

May your fishing always be catching! -Guide Jay Watkins

Jay Watkins has been a full-time fishing guide at Rockport, TX, for more than 20 years. Jay specializes in wading yearround for trout and redfish with artificial lures. Jay covers the Texas coast from San Antonio Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. Telephone Email Website

361-729-9596 Jay@jaywatkins.com www.jaywatkins.com

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

S H A LL O W W ATER FI S HING

Thinking sheepishly So last month’s cover photo was apparently more popular than I imagined it would be. I’ve had a good number of inquiries regarding the “Convicted Killer” fly as well as techniques for sight-casting these wily rascals.

As willingly as they’ll take live or dead bait, it seems odd they’d be so difficult on artificial.

I have a love-hate relationship with sheepshead. In fly circles they’re jokingly called “Texas permit.” This is fitting since I feel similarly about tropical permit. Both species will eagerly take a look at your fly, giving you a rush of adrenaline, just prior to fleeing as though insulted.

48 | March 2015

I will never claim to have sheepshead wired and I would seriously doubt anyone who claims otherwise.

These fish are just too weird to have total confidence.

I have, however, learned quite a bit about what sometimes works and what never does. If you’ve read this column for any length of time you know that I’m addicted to sight-casting. I’m generally chasing redfish, but I have no aversion to dropping a cast in front of anything that might eat.

Throughout the first few years of owning a poling skiff I threw flies to literally hundreds of sheepshead. I

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did the textbook things. I used the suggested flies, threw way ahead of them and, resisted moving the fly more than just a wiggle. Fish after fish would approach and then flee for no apparent reason. Then one day I was casting a spoon-fly to redfish when I spotted a huge sheepie tailing on oysters. What the hell. The bright shiny spoon-fly is the furthest thing from the typically suggested drab sheepshead flies as you can get. The wind did its thing and sailed the spoon several feet off target. To top it off, it splatted down way too hard. The crazy fish rushed straight to it and snatched the spoon on the run. Go figure.

After that encounter I threw that same spoon to dozens of sheepshead, all of whom fled in terror. Then one day I was casting Buggs jigs to redfish and spied a nice big sheepshead nosing into the marsh grass. I tossed the jig in front of the beast and he instantly inhaled it. Hmmm. That afternoon the olive colored Buggs accounted for several more with better than 50% success ratio.

For those that don’t know, a Buggs jig is a lead head jig with rabbit fur the same as a fly. The jig “breathes” in the water with even the slightest movement. I’d throw it in the path of the sheepshead just close enough to get his attention and then let it sit on bottom until he found it. As he approached I’d give it the smallest movement possible by just wiggling the rod tip and bam. Fish On. This gave me an idea. A fly tied like a Buggs that was tied like a fly. Full circle; the Convict Killer was born. I’m sure this fly is nothing new and somewhere there’s an identical fly with a prettier name, meant for more glamorous species. Regardless, I tied up a few and went to try them out. I’d like to say they were gobbled up by every fish in the marsh. Alas, sheepies are still sheepies and never fully cooperative. But at least I upped my batting average above the Mendoza line.

The fly is dead simple to tie as you can see from the accompanying photos.

Start with a small, sharp hook. I’ll use a #8 or maybe a #6 depending on the brand. This one is on a #6 Tiemco TMC 811S. Sheepshead have a relatively small mouth that is hard as a rock and 50 | March 2015

difficult to set a hook into. Smaller hooks seem to work better.

Tie on a small lead dumbbell near the eye of the hook. Use a few extra wraps and a little super glue to fully secure the eyes. Sheepies are tough on a fly and one that’s poorly tied will get destroyed with one fish.

Next cut a short strip of olive rabbit strip with black barring, about an inch and a quarter long. Poke the hook point through from the underside of the hide about an eighth inch from the end. Slide it to the start of the bend and secure with several thread wraps. Next tie in a strip of olive cross-cut rabbit over the base of the tail strip. Make sure the fur is lying toward the rear of the fly. At this point I’ll put a very light bit of glue on the base thread to help hold the rabbit strip. I don’t know that it’s needed, but my flies never come apart so I keep doing it.

Carefully wrap forward slightly overlapping until you reach the weighted dumbbell. A few wraps to secure it and the snip of the excess.

Continue with several more wraps to fully secure the tag end of the cross-cut rabbit, pass over the dumbbell and then whip-finish at the hook eye. A little head cement and you’re done. I can easily knock out a dozen in half an hour.

Having this fly tied on isn’t a magic elixir, they’re still spastic little boogers with unpredictable personalities. With time and experience I’ve learned to read sheepshead a little better. Some will be found tailing over structure similar to reds, others will be cruising the flats and the ones in the marsh will often be found nosing along edges of salt grass.

They can be single or in loose schools.

I have had the least success on the larger schools on open flats. A school of reds on an open flat are a welcome sight as competition for food leads to a near perfect opportunity to hook up. With sheepies it usually ends with one spooked fish zigzagging through the rest of them and a suddenly empty flat. When taking a shot at a roving school you can try throwing way out front of the lead fish and then waiting patiently for them to mosey over. Once they’re close enough, give a couple little twitches to get their attention and

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let it sit again. If you get a positive response (he didn’t run for his life), give it the slightest little movement by stripping maybe an inch or just wiggle the rod tip. At this point they’ll either crush it to the bottom or flee.

Single tailers over structure are slightly easier. Since their heads are buried and they’re preoccupied you’ll need to get the cast in a little closer.

How close is the million dollar question. I’ll start by dropping in a couple feet away, but in the direction I feel they’re headed.

If they’re stuck on one spot I’ll make each follow-up cast a little closer hoping they’ll hear.

Eventually they’ll either come investigate or spook. If they turn on the fly, follow the same procedure as above.

Big singles in the marsh grass are the highest percentage shot in my book. They’re usually keyed up and feeding so they’ll be more aggressive. While those on the flats are rooting around for crabs and such, the marsh fish nosing into the grass are likely to run across fleeing shrimp or crabs. Given that, I like to land the fly fairly close and tight to the shoreline. If they hear the splat they’ll turn quickly. If they don’t respond hit it a little closer until they do. As soon as the fish

turns give a couple quick short strips. Quite often they’ll hit as you strip. If not, you have reached a fork in the road and need to make a quick decision. If you feel they see the fly just let it fall to the bottom.

They’ll follow it down and often tail on it. A little twitch will get you bit. But if the fish appears to be frantically searching it means he’s lost sight of it. Immediately pick up and splat the fly right back on him. This often results in an aggressive strike that would make a redfish proud.

As I said earlier, I don’t pretend to have them figured out, but if you’ll dedicate some time to pursuing them you’ll eventually be rewarded. Now if only I could get lucky on a permit.

52 | March 2015

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“I will never claim to have sheepshead wired and I would seriously doubt anyone who claims otherwise.These fish are just too weird to have total confidence.”

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

Telephone Email Website

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

By Kevin Son | TPWD Intern San Antonio Bay Ecosystem | Port O’Connor

FIELD N O TE S

Fish Consumption Advisories Coastal anglers are probably most familiar with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) because of its Coastal Fisheries Division. Catch limits that TPWD places on certain fish species, and angler surveys which you may very well have participated in at a boat ramp are a recognizable presence. Other related TPWD activities are much more likely to escape the avid outdoorsman’s attention, despite their relevancy.

In all likelihood you may have noticed many signs posted at or nearby boat ramps. These signs are meant to alert you to everything from the ramp-fee to baits being sold at nearby bait stands. TPWD maintains some of the signs displayed at boat ramps. Many of them are large and colorful public service announcements that draw attention to various conservation issues such as seagrass protection (“Lift, Drift, Troll), and suggestions about what you can do to help. But one particular sign often posted very close to many boat ramps carries a crucial message, despite its innocuous appearance. This sign isn’t dedicated to conservation – it’s a sign dedicated to protecting you!

Though TPWD posts and maintains these signs, they

are meant to draw attention to the work of the Texas Department of State Health Service’s (DSHS) Seafood and Aquatic Life Group. Its concise message aims to alert anglers to fish consumption advisories that DSHS posts on its website and provides a telephone number for public inquiries. Online, the web address (www.dshs.state.tx.us/seafood/) directs you to a page with the Seafood and Aquatic Life Group’s mission statement: “…to protect the consumer from disease or other health hazards transmissible by oysters, clams, mussels and scallops and crab meat produced in or imported into Texas. The Seafood and Aquatic Life Group also protects recreational anglers from disease or contaminants found in fish and other aquatic species caught in Texas’ lakes, rivers, bays or nearshore state waters.”

At their website, DSHS provides links to an expansive list of water bodies that their work groups sample. Water bodies are listed as being with advisories or without advisories. Those water bodies with advisories display a map showing the affected area, as well as the official written advisories that list the name of the affected area,

“This sign isn’t dedicated to conservation – it’s a sign dedicated to protecting you!”

54 | March 2015

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county, fish or shellfish species, and chemical contaminant(s) of concern. A quick look at the maps shows that contaminated water bodies span a large part of the state from the Gulf of Mexico all the way north to Lake Meredith. I suggest that it is “worth your while” to be familiar with the advisory areas.

Pertinent information is written below each map describing awareness recommendations or consumption guidelines; consumption advisories are different for adults, pregnant women, and children. Typically, the recommendations suggest that an adult can consume a certain number of eight-ounce meals of contaminated fish per month from the advisory area. Pregnant women, nursing women, women who may become pregnant, and children under the age of twelve are usually limited to fewer eightounce meals per month. In some cases, people are advised to not consume any fish from affected bodies of water at all.

In addition to the official written advisories, the DSHS provides background information about the affected water bodies. While these reports can provide considerable detail, they do not describe chemical contaminants, nor points of origin. DSHS health concerns are listed on the following web page (http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/ seafood/eatrisk.shtm). As stated, “these consumption advisories are not intended to discourage people from eating fish or shellfish; they are intended to help anglers make informed decisions on whether they or their families should eat fish or shellfish from specific water bodies. Fish and shellfish consumption advisories recommend consumption guidelines for people based on potential human health risks. People should also use these guidelines to

56 | March 2015

choose fish and shellfish species and water bodies that contain lower levels of contaminants.”

TPWD and the DSHS share a common goal of informing the public about these human health threats/concerns. For those interested in chemical composition, TPWD’s website (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/ faq/fishboat/fish/pcbfaq.phtml) provides information about two major chemical contaminants (PCBs and dioxins). Fish consumption advisories are not strictly enforced; they are meant to help anglers make informed decisions about their catch. Whether you are an experienced angler or a beginner, we need you to be aware of these fish consumption advisory signs. So, please help TPWD and DSHS spread the word about fish consumption!

It can certainly be tempting to get onto the water as quickly as possible on a bright and sunny day, but this sign might be worth a few moments of your time.

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

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

F LY F I S H I N G

Trolling Motors

for Fly-Fishing

A frequent question I hear from friends and clients is: “Should I put a trolling motor on my fly-fishing skiff?”

My response usually goes something like: “It depends on how you intend to use that trolling motor.”

And then of course there’s the typical reply: “Well for the days that I am by myself and don’t have somebody to pole, I can use the trolling motor to get around the flats.”

My answer then of course is: “No, you probably shouldn’t waste the money on it. However, there is a place in saltwater fly-fishing for trolling motors when they’re used appropriately.”

You see, as a rule, most of the fly-fishing we do in Texas is in water that is 6 to 18 inches deep. In my experience, it is the rare occasion that you can sneak up on the fish with a trolling motor in water less than 2 feet, especially if there is a lot of grass in the area that you choose to fish. It seems to me, it’s not so much the sound of the electric motor that spooks fish, but it’s the propeller striking grass or sediment such as shell or fine 58 | March 2015

gravel that it sucks up off of the bottom in shallow water.

Again, as a rule, trolling motors in water less than 2 feet are not very effective. However, they have many applications for the fly angler willing to think outside of the box.

Recently I took out the Seadrifter (22’ Panga Marine Marquesa) for her final voyage with me as her owner. It was an insanely beautiful winter day and I just could not sit still. So…Sonny (my pooch) and I launched the boat and picked a compass heading. The water was chilled to say the least and I knew that if I wanted to catch a fish I would have to fish in deeper water, so I kept an open mind. I decided to take advantage of the glassy conditions and over 6 feet of clarity and I headed north into the upper end of the bay to explore some deeper reefs on the edge of the ship channel.

Upon arrival at the first reef I dropped the trolling motor and pulled out my fly rod. I began in about 3 foot of water and started out slow but after several hundred

yards of seeing no signs of life I decided to move out a little deeper and start moving a little faster. This did nothing for me so I started zig-zagging, covering airclear water from about 3- to 6 feet and then it happened. I spotted a big fish lying near bottom in about 4 feet of water. I made the cast and I watched the fish swim off under the fly. Well, I at least had a starting point.

Utilizing the GPS tracking feature on my iPilot, I set a course that would take me down what I believed to be a track of water averaging about 4 feet depth. Lo and behold I started seeing occasional fish but I continued to go fishless. They would not rise to the fly and I just could not get the offering down to them. Fortunately I had a spare reel with a clear sinking line. This, combined with a fast sinking crab pattern, did the trick and I landed a 35-inch red.

Unraveling this puzzle was already enough to make the day a success but it continued to get even better. The next three fish were large black drum that bottomed out my 30-pound Boga Grip.

This made the day a huge success and a great way to end the Seadrifter’s career but, my point is, there are many other ways to utilize a trolling motor than in perfect conditions.

“It is the rare occasion that you can sneak up on the fish with a trolling motor in water less than 2 feet.”

Trolling motors, especially when used in tandem with iPilot, offer fly anglers the ability to work shorelines or hold position in channels hands-free, while blindcasting for numerous species ranging from redfish to tarpon and even make fishing offshore easier. We have used them to hold position behind shrimp boats while fishing for kingfish and even over wrecks while chumming amberjack from the bottom to

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for very exciting sight-fishing. In fact, one of my most memorable offshore trips would have been a bust if had not been for being able to utilize the anchor feature of the iPilot to hold position a couple of hundred feet off the up-current side of a rig and chumming cobia and snapper to the surface.

In all honesty, now days, a great number of the fish we catch are done so by utilizing a trolling motor to fish in deeper creeks, bayous and river channels, especially in the summer and winter months. And, we have had some stellar days doing so. The trick is to approach the use of an electric motor as a way to cover or hold position in deeper water.

In short, the electric trolling motor is a valuable tool for the fly angler providing they choose to fish in such waters deep enough to not spook the fish.

Until next month- Be good… and stuff like that.

60 | March 2015

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

Telephone Email Website

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

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

Getting Fixed Is it Christmas yet? OK – that’s an exaggeration but, good grief this year is just flying by. Here we are about to turn the calendar to March.

March is a good month. March is the month of my birthday. It is also traditionally the month of the Houston Fishing Show, although the way the calendar works out this year the show actually begins on February 25 this year and runs until March 1. If you have never attended this little fishing extravaganza in the George R. Brown Convention Center I heartily recommend you make plans to check it out this year. If you have attended in the past I am sure 62 | March 2015

you already have it marked on your calendar.

Throughout the fishing world March is commonly tabbed a “transition month” and aptly so. It’s certainly not winter anymore, even though Old Man Winter will make a few more jabs at us, but it’s sure as heck not summer either. Tides rise and we see more signs of life in the marsh, but nothing like we’ll see in April and May. Last year around this time I did a write-up on spring cleaning, general preparation and updating of my kayak and gear.

That routine will be repeated again this year and I encourage all serious paddle-anglers to do the same. It is amazing the state your gear can get into even when you fish frequently throughout the year.

Of course one of the most enjoyable parts of kayak fishing is the closeness you feel to your surroundings, right? While paddling along, when you move slowly enough to let everything sink in, you really can gain the feeling that you are a part of the wildlife. I always say that even if I have skunk day fishing, which is certainly not the norm, just being a part of the natural world for a few hours is reward enough. When you creep your way into prime fishing opportunity you are truly blessed.

With that being said, on a recent outing I was met with little to no wind (something that probably will not happen in March) and this made for a day of very peaceful and stealthy paddling.

It was one of those mornings that you just know aggressive fish will be around every corner. So there I was, slowly paddling along, my eyes prying the water ahead and around me for fish activity.

Anticipation ran sky high.

Minutes went by, then a half hour. No action yet.

No worries though, it’s still early, I assured myself.

One hour in; nothing. Two hours; nada. OK, now it’s starting to get interesting, the fact there is no sign of life present. I’m accepting the challenge wholeheartedly with each careful paddle stroke.

I continued on, paddling and paddling as quietly as possible, my rod in easy reach, searching every corner of that marsh shoreline. Nothing still.

Finally, with a slight breeze coming up, I decided to try a drift across the open water of one of the larger lakes in the area. Halfway across, I spotted a red cruising along the edge of a submerged grass bed, perfect cast placement was met with an instant strike. Heaven knows how proud I was. The feeling of accomplishment was enormous as I worked him to the boat but for whatever reason it was a feat fate would not allow me to repeat.

This was perhaps one of the most pleasant days I have ever experienced. I managed to find and land only one fish, they just weren’t plentiful, but I was OK with that. Work pressures have been growing enormously lately and the “fix” I received was exactly why I had decided to go fishing in the first place.

64 | March 2015

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Just this afternoon, stuck in Houston traffic on my way to an appointment, my mind drifted as I stared at taillights ahead for miles, wishing I was on the water. I will survive, the weekend is coming.

When the clock strikes 5:00 on Friday, I will be headed home.

Everything is laid out neatly and packing the truck will take only minutes. I need another fix!

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S t o r y b y J o h n B l a h a I A s s i s t a n t D i r e c t o r I C C A Te x a s

T S F M ag C o nse r v ati o n N ews

Watch CCA Texas’ Efforts to Conserve Texas’ Coastal Resources When CCA Texas was first established in 1977 and even until the early and mid 2000s, most of CCA Texas and CCA National’s efforts and success were focused on the advocacy side of business. Battles to ensure proper fisheries management; the fight for game fish status for species such as redfish and spotted seatrout; the banning of gill nets and many other issues were groundbreaking and tremendous successes. But unless you were an integral part of the process they were sometimes hard to appreciate and to some degree “seen” to take place. One might only see the difference years later when fishing for redfish and speckled trout came to life again. “Brick and mortar” type projects such as the CCA Texas Marine Development Center (opened in 1982) and Sea Center Texas (opened in 1996) offered members a hands-on success story to see and live. In 2009, CCA Texas made a strong commitment to further conserve the coastal resources of Texas when it established the Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow initiative to restore and establish coastal habitat in Texas. This effort not only gives the resource needed support, but offers members and the general public something to witness firsthand and be part of in a hands-on manner.

CCA Texas’s habitat initiative, Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow (HTFT), continues to play a very active role in the restoration and creation of coastal habitat along the Texas coast. Since the program’s inception in 2009 over $3.76 million have been committed to this important restoration and creation work through twenty-three projects to-date. These projects include marsh and oyster reef restoration and creation in the bays of Texas; 66 | March 2015

nearshore reefing projects in Freeport, Matagorda, Port O’Connor, Corpus Christi, and Port Mansfield; water inflow management work; and bay debris removal projects.

In 2013, CCA Texas staff took the next step to show its membership and the general public exactly what HTFT is doing. You can now visit www.ccatexas.org and click on the Conservation tab. There you will see the “Project Videos” link where you will be able to view all the great work of HTFT. To date, there are thirteen great project video productions that include interviews with CCA staff and members, project partners, and the general recreational fishing public talking about the benefits of these projects and what is being done to complete them.

This is an excellent opportunity for you, our member, to see how dollars raised in Texas are being used. The benefits of your support and the efforts of CCA Texas’ volunteer chapter boards are invaluable to the restoration and creation of coastal habitat along the Texas Gulf Coast.

For more information please contact Kim Ogonosky kogonosky@ccatexas.org or John Blaha jdblaha@ccatexas. org. Be sure to follow CCA Texas on You Tube and see all the great work being done for the Texas coast.

CCA Texas Fundraising Season Begins to Get Busy Looking for a CCA Texas event in your area? Be sure to visit www.ccatexas.org and click on the calendar tab to see upcoming events throughout the state of Texas.

March 5th – Sabine-Neches Chapter Annual Banquet March 6th – East Texas Chapter Annual Banquet March 12th – Brazos Valley Chapter Annual Banquet March 19th – Brazoria County Chapter Annual Banquet March 26th – Colorado Valley Chapter Annual Banquet

Inshore lizardfish, by Kevin Bryant.

STEPHANIE BOYD

F I S H Y FA C T S

LIZARDFISH Many animals are defined in the public eye by their most terrifying trait, and for several, that trait is teeth. Often it’s for their sharp, penetrating teeth, such as vampire bats and vipers; or for their unnerving abundance of teeth, such as sharks or crocodiles. The lizardfish has the best of both worlds.

Teeth for killing. Teeth for intimidation purposes. Some more teeth because “teeth is cool.” And then a few stashed away for a rainy day, because they’re quite prudent about that sort of thing. ~ Joseph Jameson-Gould Lizardfish, nick-named “grinners” for their distinctively toothy appearance, are in the family Synodontidae.

True lizardfish are bony, bottom-dwelling marine and estuarine fishes. They are generally small, though the largest species can reach about two feet in length. Their slender, somewhat-cylindrical bodies seem to be in a constant state of rigor mortis. You can pick one up by the base of its deeply forked tail, and its body will extend 68 | March 2015

straight out from your hand. No flab on this fish. They are equipped with pectoral and pelvic fins below and dorsal and adipose fins above, and their bodies range from greenish, brown, grayish, or cream colored to reds, blues, and turquoises, depending on the species and the environment. They are heavily spotted and mottled, allowing them to blend in many habitats.

Two other fish families, Pseudotrichonotidae and Bathysauridae, are also sometimes colloquially known as lizardfish. Both of these families are very small and their range is more limited than that of the true lizardfish.

The Pseudotrichonotidae are small relatives found exclusively in the southeastern regions of the Pacific Ocean. The Bathysauridae are found in much deeper waters than true lizardfish, below 5,200 feet, and have all the necessary deep-sea adaptations, including an almost-albino coloring, tubular eyes, and synchronous hermaphroditism (meaning each bathysaur is both male and female, because sometimes it’s hard to find love in the dark). Studies regarding these deep-sea adaptations suggest that lizardfishes first arose in the early Cretaceous

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or late Jurassic with separate sexes. Synchronous hermaphroditism evolved a single time in the suborder Alepisauroidei, a clade of deep-sea Aulopiformes in the Early Cretaceous. (A clade is a group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor.

Aulopiforms, meaning “flute-shaped,” is the order lizardfish belong to, one categorical step broader than the family Synodontidae.)

This is the oldest known evolutionary event of synchronous hermaphroditism in vertebrates.

True lizardfishes are benthic animals that live in shallow coastal waters throughout the world; even the deepest-dwelling species of lizardfish live in waters no more than 1,300 feet deep. They prefer sandy or silty substrates, as they sometimes bury themselves to hide from potential prey and predators. Originally, lizardfish were once thought to occupy a mid-trophic position as an ambush predator. It has since been discovered that some species occupy a high trophic position as active hunters that feed on other predatory fishes. In some systems, they are even considered the apex predators.

Of the eight species of lizardfish residing in the Gulf of Mexico, the species most commonly encountered in the bays is the inshore lizardfish, Synodus foetens. The

70 | March 2015

etymology of Synodus is of Greek origin: “syn,” meaning symphysis or grown together, and “odous,” meaning teeth; and teeth are what these fish are all about. They even have teeth on their tongues! The meaning of foetens is easy to guess if you’re familiar with the word “fetid,” sometimes spelled “foetid.” It means STINKY. After death, they deteriorate rapidly, and smell foul(er than other dead fish).

Also called sand pikes or galliwasps, inshore lizardfish are brown or

Inshore lizardfish buried in the sediment, by Kevin Bryant.

hobiefishing.com

olive in color on top / yellow or white on bottom, with a row of white spots down the upper side and a row of brown spots down the lower side. Young fish have sides that are darkly mottled; these blotches fade in older fishes. The snout is pointed and the mouth is large and wide, with the upper jaw extending beyond the eye. Their eyes look like alligator eyes. They regularly grow over a foot in length; while they’re usually under 16 inches, they can reach 20 inches and two pounds.

You can find little 3-4 inch ones in shallow, sandy beach areas. Adults seem less choosy about bottom types, and can be found over sand, mud, or oyster reefs, and in grass beds. In sandy substrates, they often bury themselves in the sand by vibrating their bodies. One habitat they don’t seem to occupy is the high-energy beach surf zone.

They are found coastwide, from beaches out to 600 feet deep, although they are far more common in inshore habitats, hence the name. Though lizardfish can often be found in close proximity, they live a solitary lifestyle, except when spawning. Unlike other species within the order Aulopiformes, many of which are synchronous hermaphrodites, lizardfish are dioecious, meaning there are distinct males and females. They do not build nests, nor do they guard their young. Instead, females deposit their eggs along the reefs at depths of 100 feet or more, and males follow behind fertilizing the eggs. In the southern Gulf of Mexico, peak spawning activity takes place between March and June. Once hatched, the transparent larvae float freely in the water columns, and are mostly eaten by an array of predators. As currents carry them near estuaries, the juveniles drop out of the water column and become bottom-dwellers. *Fun fact: When the larvae of some Aulopiformes were first discovered, they were so extremely bizarre-looking – not resembling the adult animals in the slightest – that they were not only described as distinct species, but even separated into distinct genera and a distinct family before their true identities were discovered.

Once the young lizardfish descend, that jaw full of small needlelike teeth is put to work catching large numbers of anchovies and silversides (which everything else in the sea seems to eat), along with some squid and shrimp for nutritional variety. Lizardfish lie in wait, sometimes buried in the sand with only their eyes exposed, but often perched on their fins under a rock or coral head. From this vantage point, they can dart both upwards and to the side to capture prey, as well as to escape larger predators. Their movements are so fast that the fish is almost invisible in motion.

Inshore speckled trout and redfish anglers have more interaction with this species than they realize. When something is just bumping your baits, and you can’t seem to hook them, the culprit is likely to be a lizardfish. Anglers using natural baits, such as shrimp on the bottom, are more likely to land these reptilian fish. Most people take one look at the teeth and use any lengths to de-hook them without actually touching them. (If I throw enough insults about its parentage, maybe it’ll just let go!)

Two other species of lizardfish you’re likely to encounter offshore are the offshore lizardfish (appropriately named), Synodus poeyi, and the sand diver, Synodus intermedius. These are seldom found in waters shallower than 90 feet, and most start to occur between 125 and 350 feet. The sand diver is similar in size to the inshore lizardfish; it has a prominent black spot on the gill cover near the top of the opening that the inshore lizardfish doesn’t have. The offshore lizardfish grows only ten inches long; its distinguishing feature is a prominent fleshy knob on its chin. While both are occasionally caught by people, they 72 | March 2015

are most often discarded, like the inshore lizardfish, because they are so bony. However, some members of the lizardfish family are fished commercially in Southeast Asia. Apparently, the flavor is worth the labor of bone picking.

Lizardfish are not dangerous to larger animals, like us, though their teeth can be unsettling to the unsuspecting snorkeler or diver. But if you choose to stick around for a closer look, they’re often quite easy to approach; they think of themselves as masters of disguise.

They’ll sit completely still as you advance, convinced you haven’t seen them. When it’s obvious (even to them) that they’ve been spotted, they’ll suddenly dart off, only to set up shop several feet away, where, once again, they think they’re invisible. Lizardfish might not be the brightest fish around, but they do have the best smiles underwater.

Where I learned about lizardfishes, and you can too!

Texas Marine Species txmarspecies.tamug.edu/fishdetails.cfm?scinameID=Synodus%20foetens Angler’s Guide to Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico

By Mike Lane Smithsonian Marine Station www.sms.si.edu/IRLFieldGuide/Synotu_foeten.htm FishBase www.fishbase.org/summary/Synodus-foetens.html Gulf Fish Database rodnreel.com/gulffish/gulffish.asp?cmd=view&FishID=131 wiseGEEK www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-lizardfish.htm National Center for Biotechnology Information www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20854916 St. John Snorkeling www.snorkelstj.com/inshore-lizardfish.html All at Sea www.allatsea.net/synodontidae-or-lizardfish-lie-in-wait/ Wikipedia Aulopiformes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aulopiformes Synodontidae: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synodontidae Inshore lizardfish: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inshore_lizardfish Sand diver: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synodus_intermedius Real Monstrosities www.realmonstrosities.com/2013/01/bathysaurus.html Deep Sea News deepseanews.com/2010/10/of-eyes-and-sex-in-lizardfishes/ *Special thanks to Bruce Collette for helping with this article National Marine Fisheries Service Systematics Laboratory | Smithsonian Institution

TSFMAG.com | 73

Fish-finder rigs and fish gripper; tools of the trade for earlyspring black drum fishing.

CURTISS CASH

I N S H OR E | N E A R S H OR E | J E T T I E S | P A S S E S

MARCH FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT March is the gateway to springtime with the much anticipated and welcomed warmer and sunnier days.

Short pants and visors are the norm with the spring break crowds, as well as sunburns and bent rods. There are many fish to be caught and good times to be had by all.

BLACK DRUM Large black drum are big crowd-pleasers for March anglers. These fish amass in large schools during their spawn, which peaks this month.

Many of the larger fish are found in the deep waters of ship channel jetties, inshore cuts in the bays, and natural passes to the Gulf. All one needs to find action is to look for an accumulation of boats anchored within close proximity in deep water.

A strong incoming tide will get the fish in the mood for food and any good water movement can lead to exceptional catches. Look for steep drop-offs or ledges formed from current gouging shallower areas. Fifteento forty feet are good depths to target, even areas with shallower cuts may hold schools in the bends and off the points. Inlets intersecting the Intracoastal Waterway and channels leading into bordering bays should be investigated also. I regularly fish areas like these, especially if there is live oyster shell on the edges or lining the channel drops. These cuts and navigation channels can often serve double for those seeking black drum and also willing to throw live shrimp for other species, 74 | March 2015

Even tough men are affectionate toward black drum!

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76 | March 2015

anywhere near or around the shell. We regularly catch a mixed bag of slot black drum, redfish and sheepshead while soaking drum baits in deeper waters nearby.

A prudent approach is needed for successful catch and release of these large black drum as not to cause undue stress or physical damage.

Appropriately sized tackle should be used as well as the terminal rigging on the business end.

Reels should have a firm drag setting and be spooled with 30-pounds/test or heavier line. Rods need to be stout enough to handle large fish in heavy current.

Drum do not have sharp teeth or fins, so heavy mono is preferred over wire leader material. I like to use at least 80-pounds/test mono leader material for abrasion resistance and to minimize damage to the fish. Heavy mono helps prevent injury if the leader gets wrapped around the gill plate or tail during battle.

Circle hooks are preferred for catch and release fishing. I like to use a hook that is sized to the bait and fish targeted. All circle hooks are not created equal. True inline circle hooks make purchase in the lip or jaw most often. Offset hooks actually works the best, but can catch in the throat, gills or stomach. Deeply hooked fish have a higher mortality rate and it may be better cutting the leader leaving the hook intact to rust away. To minimize injury, I prefer Mustad In-line Demon Circle hooks 39944BN, 39948 or 39965D when using offset. I recommend sizes 12/O- to 16/O for large baits and 7/O- to 10/O for the smaller.

We can do several things to help the fish survive and realize better hookups with circles. Rig with a fish finder leader which situates the bait where the fish are located. Use appropriately sized weights to maintain a tight line and keep the bait on the bottom. Setting the reel drag firmly and leaving the rod in a rod holder to allow the heavy pressure to slide the hook toward the jaw. A couple of hook setting pulls may help once the rod is bowed and the drag is slipping even though this is generally deemed unnecessary. In addition, while keeping a tight line, this will telegraph subtle bites or telltale taps as the drum “tastes” the bait. If the line becomes slack it should be reeled quickly to keep the bait from making it down to the crushers in the throat where many are deeply hooked.

Fresh bait over frozen is always best, like cracked crab, large dead shrimp, whole crawfish and one of their favorite being large mantis shrimp. Commonly, I see people using very large whole blue crabs with carapace still attached with limited success. Crabs, whole or cracked in pieces, should be trimmed to the size of a soda can’s top diameter to get the most bites. I prefer to remove the legs in heavy current to keep bait from spinning but leave them intact in light current to increase bait action and appeal.

ANCHORING I commonly employ twice as much anchor rode as normal to get my boat into an ideal spot.

The anchor is dropped in deeper water to get a good bite and then line is paid out to get near the intended area. Fine tuning the boat placement can be had by pointing the boat’s bow at intersecting angles to the current. Sometimes, the boats rudder or engine skeg can be used to turn the bow in the current. Additional tie off locations other than the center bow cleat can be used in heavy current or when the wind is opposing the current flow. Cinching onto spring cleats midship or utilizing a drift sock from a stern cleat can also help turn the bow.

NEW LIFE IN THE BAYS With waters warming more species of fish and bait will be showing up in the bays. The spring equinox will occur March 20 bringing much higher tidal levels. The warming trend coupled with rising water levels will bring new life into the bays.

The spring flounder run, or as I like to call it, “the flounder crawl,” kicks off early this month.

Most of the flounder we catch are small compared to the fall run fish. Many are just at or under the minimum size length. I’ve been told before that the males come in first followed by the larger females at a later time. We’ve done our best fishing on an incoming tide with live shrimp. Maybe because that is what we use this time of the year? Channel ledges and up-current of drains, points or hard structure are good places to target.

One man’s trash fish can be another man’s treasure. That’s right, I’m talking about the good old gafftopsail catfish. To the disdain of most anglers they come back into the bays this month in full force. Whatever you call them in vain, be it - slime balls, snot sharks, gas tops, sea cats, slime cats or sailboats - they actually taste good and put up a decent fight. I rarely target and retain them, but TSFMAG.com | 77

method, you don’t necessarily need to touch them until the cleaning table. A dedicated cooler with an ice and saltwater slurry works wonders to prepare the catch. Stirring the mix with a net handle occasionally will help strip the slime while chilling the catch.

These “mouths with fins” make for an excellent fish fry, and also a crowd-pleaser, especially if your dinner guests did not see you filleting them. The fillets have a strong flavored skin and red streak down the center that should be removed before cooking. Soaked in buttermilk, then fried extra crispy with a seasoned batter, this catfish makes believers out of most.

Pull your boat out of storage, dust the cobwebs off your tackle, and load up for the coast this month. Don’t forget the sunscreen!

on occasion, I have requests, especially during the S.T.A.R tournament.

In the same areas the big drum are caught the gafftop thrive.

Just about any terminal tackle rig will work, but circle hooks make unhooking them much easier. Almost any bait will work, but 3-inch long chunks of squid and eel are considered best. I like to employ The Fish Grip tool for ease of handling boat side; remove the hook, clip off their sharp fins with end-cutter pliers, and drop in the cooler. With this

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Jeanna Willet with a larger than life black drum.

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

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E X T R E M E K AYA K F I S H I N G & S H A R K S F R O M T H E S A N D

ERIC OZOLINS

Let there be WAR! Nearly a decade ago a fishing buddy and I hit upon a novel concept for a fishing competition. We were both very enthusiastic and involved in the kayak fishing craze that was already growing by leaps and bounds, and our particular interest was in the surf. Until that time, it was commonly thought that venturing “beyond the breakers” in a kayak, in search of large fish, was both dangerous and ludicrous. My rival and good friend, T.J. Pilgrim, was exploring the offshore waters along the upper coast.

There, they were discovering a remarkable kayak fishery for oversized red and black drum. Meanwhile, I and other surf specialists here in South Texas had already been targeting king mackerel and sharks from the kayak. Yes, I said sharks—everybody thought we were crazy!

Our friendly competitiveness sparked an idea. We would assemble a North vs. South format, like the US civil war, between T.J. and myself. We would each organize a 5-man team and battle it out for bragging rights. A point system for various fish was developed, as long as they met the state’s minimum length criteria for that particular species. Catches would be photographed and submitted online where points were issued to the two teams. At the close of the “season,” the team with the most points would be declared the winner—thus the dawn of Kayak Wars.

During that inaugural 2006 season, we had basically no idea how many folks were watching and the amount of attention our little competition was generating. A surprising number of anglers begged that we bring it back for 2007 and let them be part of it. It was then that 80 | March 2015

we decided to officially open this private event to the public. At the time, Kayak Wars was completely free-toenter (and even to this day there is still an early-bird free registration period). This drew the attention of the masses of new kayak fishermen getting their feet wet in the early stages of this exciting sport.

For the 2008 KW season we opened the boundaries to include the entire Gulf coast, thus allowing multiple teams from Florida to join in the war. One of the most impressive things about this format of fishing competition was the fact that you get to share photos of your eligible catches, along with the ability to view everyone else’s who are involved in the tournament. Being able to log-on and check out a photo of 150 pound tarpon, barely being held high enough for a photo alongside the kayak, made it even more impressive and addictive.

As the seasons went on, so grew Kayak Wars. Another good friend, Rick Underbrink, also addicted to kayak fishing and KW, approached me with an idea to handle and process the incredible mass of catch/photo submissions that was streaming in daily. Up to this time we relied on single, manual data entries to keep track of everything. Rick took his own crash course in computer programming to learn PHP code and created an automated submission system. Such an idea had never been implemented before, in any fishing tournament, anywhere in the world.

Essentially, Rick created a system whereby a participating angler could log into their account and

automatically enter their own submissions with their points showing up in real-time. This ingenious tool was a game changer. Now, with a rapidly expanding database, the possibilities became endless. Not only could we save and maintain current catch data, the data remained available forever. Anglers could easily access career data, much like

a professional sports league. Another benefit came in being able to establish and maintain a “record catch” file for the largest of every species ever entered in Kayak Wars. To this day, as each species record is bested, there is a great outpouring of praise and respect for the new record holder from the KW community.

With each season, improvements and features are incorporated into the Kayak Wars program, attracting even more anglers. By 2011, KW had spread to include the entire US coastline and the freshwater category was added. Great interest from the Caribbean resulted in the addition of the first foreign region. One of the Caribbean nations -Puerto Rico, was home to several dedicated teams and heavily promoted the event. Kayak Wars was going viral in the fishing community.

In 2013, the competition went global when teams from several European countries joined the battle. Teams from the UK also came onboard. By now, the online submission system was reaching a heavily loaded condition and new code was added to accommodate additional regions and species. Currently our database includes more than 150,000 submissions and photos - unmatched by any tournament in the world! During 2014 alone KW logged more than 40,000 event submissions from anglers around the globe—an absolutely remarkable feat.

Last year was astonishing for Kayak Wars. Everything from monster speckled trout to impressive red snapper were landed in our [Texas] region. The team to come out on top here was Anglers Elite led by long time KW participants Jantzen Miller and Todd Hart. The southeast region comprised mostly of Florida anglers also posted very

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impressive catches. Epic wahoo were landed along with a total of 35 billfish from the kayak. In this region, Aquatic Apes came out on top, piloted by Austin Collins and Adam Fisk. In the north-east, Elias Vaisberg helped push KFA -NY FLEET 1 with outstanding catches of stripers and tautog. In the Pacific, team NCKA dominated again with 15555 points. In the north-central freshwater only region, Trout Mafia reigned supreme through relentless leadership of Kalvin Sabel. Other notable teams were The Dutchies in the UK, Border City Anglers from Canada and FISHING ADDICTS KFT from the Caribbean. The 2014 Kayak Wars Angler-of-the-Year award went to New Jersey angler Larry Newman with a mindboggling 10435 individual points.

Kayak Wars 2015 already promises to be a year to remember.

New teams from the remote island of Guam have been added to the mix making things quite interesting. Registration is currently open and you still have time to enter yourself/team for the next couple of months. The tournament runs ten full months and will conclude December 14th. In its history, Kayak Wars has given away nearly $100,000 in donated prizes and awards, made possible from all our fine sponsors.

Prizes have been distributed to over 750 deserving individuals and the prize list grows each year. The split is 50/50, distributed to the top teams/anglers in each region, and the other half is given out in a random drawing to those who have garnered various “Kayak Man” points throughout the season. Kayak Man points are earned through various individual achievements; 3-fish single day slams, species count, and record-setting catches.

Just another way to spice things up the on the water!

Kayak Wars is fueled by fun, honesty, and the interactive concept that has made it popular since the beginning. Kayak Wars is as unique as kayak fishing itself and its exponential growth runs parallel to that of the sport of which it is a part.

The organizers and promoters of Kayak Wars TAKE NO MONEY. In fact, we often contribute from our own pockets to cover shipping expenses of prizes at the end of the year. Do not enter solely in expectation or hope of being awarded a prize. Instead, enter for the fun of the sport and the fact that you are sharing your catches with others who share your enthusiasm. Then, when you are possibly awarded a prize(s) like many are each year, consider it a wonderful bonus!

Whether your passion is targeting redfish in coastal waters or stalking lunker bass in Texas lakes, you are in for quite a ride. Register for Kayak Wars 2015 and/or inquire about sponsorship opportunities at our website: kayakwars.com.

Good luck, be safe, and Let There Be War!

82 | March 2015

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

Email Websites

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

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TSFMAG.com | 85

Dickie Colburn

DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene

Sabine

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

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

86 | March 2015

After closing out 2014 with excellent water clarity and salinity we are not accustomed to in December, Mother Nature served up a cold and wet January that has been a challenge for even the most persistent anglers. The freezes were not lengthy or that brutal, but they coincided with back to back major rain events that flooded the creeks and river from Toledo Bend to Sabine Lake.

Because they are still pulling water out of Toledo Bend, adjacent low-lying regions are slow to drain and the effect of additional rain is only magnified.

Bottom line—we’ve got lots of fresh muddy water in the lake with more on the way!

Our saving grace has been that any time the wind lies down or stays out of the southeast for a few days, the water along the Louisiana shoreline clears enough to at least boost angler confidence. Before you assume that local anglers just can’t handle a little off-colored

water—we’re talking water so muddy that your lure bounces when it hits the surface.

We are catching a few trout when we can find a foot of visibility, but the redfish bite is reliable with even four inches of clarity. We suffered through eight to ten days of 42- to 44⁰ water, but as soon as it climbed back into the high-40s catching redfish was all but a guarantee. As a rule we are still hunting magnum trout with the Corky, Soft-Dine XL and Maniac Mullet, but we switch to more durable hardbaits like the Catch 5 or 2000 when it becomes apparent that redfish have crashed the party.

Once the surface temperature climbed back into the mid-50s in late January, the trout bite improved significantly. We began to see more bait activity on the shallow flats and the larger trout started competing with the redfish for their next meal. In the dingier water we are doing far better with dark

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or opaque colors that provide a better silhouette—red shad and morning glory.

Because the vibration factor is also an asset we are more often leaning toward the Assassin Die Dapper and 5-inch Sea Shad to take advantage of the paddletail. Inserting a small rattle helps as well and there is no doubt that we are enticing more trout with the longer tails as these fish are looking for one big meal. Adding your favorite scent also makes a difference and we have had good luck with Pro-Cure gels.

It may not be in your starting line-up, but don’t overlook the power of the cork on even the coldest of days. It is not unusual at all for us to catch more fish under a TKO cork than swimming the exact same tail on a jig and the technique is as productive right now as it is in the spring and summer. Expertise aside, just the added noise and keeping the bait in the strike zone throughout the retrieve are decided advantages.

By the time you read this much more of the lake should be userfriendly and the pressure will be a little lighter on any given area.

A great deal of our scouting will be done with the four inch Usual Suspect swimbait as both trout and reds love it and you can more quickly and efficiently cover new water. A slower retrieve is still important, but it casts well into the wind and long casts are important when drifting in the boat.

As soon as we miss a strike or catch a fish I bury the Talon and we dissect the area with everything from topwaters to tails before moving on. Should you discover that the fish are holding over shell, mark it on your GPS as small isolated reefs are potential gold mines on Sabine!

The Talon and Power Pole have made the drift fishermen much more efficient as they can immediately stop rather than continuing to drift over what could be a group of active trout, but the odds of duping the largest trout still favor the wader.

Wading the east side of the lake is more physically demanding than wading the flats bordering the Intracoastal, but both areas will yield big trout this month. Never pass any opportunity to fish, but it is hard to beat an incoming tide on a warm afternoon and that bite can easily last well after dark. The flats along the ICW would also be my first choice immediately following several days of especially cold weather.

Hopefully, we will start seeing longer stretches of warmer weather this month and we can get the kids back on the water with fewer layers of clothing and greater expectations!

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Capt. Caleb Harp

The Buzz on Galveston Bay

Galveston

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

Telephone 281-753-3378 Website harpsguideservice.com

After five years of drought we are experiencing a return to normal and wetter winter weather patterns.

With all the local runoff and flow of the Trinity and San Jacinto rivers, the fish have recently been more scattered than normal. And, due to the ground staying saturated, any amount of rain we get just goes straight to the bay. Surely, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop but don’t give up hope. March’s stronger tides are coming and salinity in the upper regions of the Galveston complex will hopefully recover quickly.

As a whole, trout are numerous over the majority of the bay system. Each day is different though and sometimes harder to keep a consistent pattern.

My reasoning on this is that during winter, fish metabolism slows, and they do not have to eat every single day. However, when a feeding school of trout or redfish is located you could be in for an unbelievable session as they may not have fed in a few days.

Big trout have been harder to pattern lately as the back-bay regions

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they prefer in winter have been hit with so much fresh water. But don’t let that fool you, they are still around and still have to eat sooner or later. Wading with MirrOlures and Corkys works great for these situations since they allow you to fish much slower and stay down on the saltier bottom. Redfish have been easier, fresh water doesn’t bother them as much. Drifting has been productive while keying on deeper structure.

Drifting for trout in deeper water has been consistent for numbers.

While drifting, I like to throw more big bodied suspending twitchbaits such as Tidal Surge Maniac Mullets, MirrOlure 52MRs, and also Corky Devils and the Soft-Dine XL. These lures better represent the mid-sized mullet and large shad the trout are foraging on in the colder months. Having said this, you still cannot beat soft plastics such as the Tidal Surge Split Tail Mullet and MirrOlure Provoker for locating them.

Given the range of water and wind conditions of late-winter, finding bait is the primary key to finding trout. A

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sensitive high-modulus rod is super important to be able to distinguish the softer bites of those colder trout versus nicking a piece of oyster. I love my Waterloo Ultra Mags for these applications.

The Tri-Bay area is holding more fish along deeper drop-offs, ledges and channels rather than the shallow flats and spoils since the freshwater is still lurking on the surface. The deeper you go, the better chance you’ll have of breaking through the freshwater blanket and getting to the trout.

West Bay is still producing with a lot of trout on mid-bay reefs and coves throwing plum-chartreuse plastics, Corkys and MirrOlures. The trout are pulling up out of the deeper water and sliding onto the shallower ledges to feed for short periods of time, then sliding back down.

The back of East Bay has been inconsistent but still producing a lot of smaller trout with the occasional bigger bites. Wading the north shoreline in the afternoons with a moderate incoming tide and the south shoreline with an outgoing tide by bayou drains is your best bet. It’s always good to key on mud and mixed shell. While wading, if you start walking over some crunchy shell, take note and work that area thoroughly. It doesn’t take much structure to keep those big fish around in East Bay. Upper Galveston bays have been the most consistent across the entire bay complex. You still have to play the tide with the freshwater coming out of the San Jacinto River, but it’s definitely more manageable than having to deal with the Trinity River. Upper Galveston bays make such great winter/spring bays because of their significant drop-offs to deeper water. This allows the fish to slip off into the nearby channels at any given moment then slide right back up onto the muddy oyster-filled flats to feed. Wading with Corky Fat Boys and Soft-Dine XLs is always good in these parts.

Trinity Bay is pretty much wiped out, for now, due to the Trinity River inundation. It’ll come back, and when it does, it will be amazing.

But until then, we just have to fish elsewhere. If catching those high-fin blue cats sounds appealing to you, the Trinity marsh is the place to go.

Eventually the water temps will rise, the tides will flush the freshwater, and we will be back to normal. Stay tight. –Capt. Caleb Harp

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TSFMAG.com | 89

Bink Grimes

The View from Matagorda

Matagorda

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

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

90 | March 2015

Water is a powerful thing. Just ask anglers who have had to fight lack of water for most of the past two months. When water levels are below normal it eliminates back lakes and shallow reefs and flats; and, if the wind is blowing, it eliminates the middle of the bay where most often the deepest water is found. It is tough to find fish when only 25 percent of fertile fishing grounds are available.

The good news is better tides arrive this month, along with sunshine and excited Spring Breakers.

Some March mornings I have fished for hours with a charter and caught only a handful of undersized redfish. Knowing I was fighting the bottom end of the outgoing tide all morning, but hoping bigger

fish would show with a rush of water covering the reefs, I keep plugging. Then, magically, the fish appear. We catch enough, then play catch-andrelease. Patience is definitely a virtue in March.

As is often the case this time of year, the

prevailing incoming tide is the strongest in the afternoon. Hence, many captains wait until the afternoon to make a wade. There’s no sense in fighting it—the fish are going to show with new water flowing on the flats. So we get a few more winks, eat a little breakfast, read the paper and get to the dock around lunch.

Tides are a key variable but winds are just as important.

Winds from the north drop tides and put us in redfish mode. Back lakes dumping water also dump redfish. I have had some mornings when my charter makes six casts from the boat and catch six redfish.

For waders, we like to work the guts in West Bay for reds. Rarely, when tides are low enough to expose sand bars, have we not been able to find redfish stacked in thigh-deep water. By stacked I mean every cast.

We are excited about all the freshwater we received this winter from floods. We know freshwater helps our crabs, oysters, shad, shrimp, mullet and vitality of our bays.

This spring we hope the water gets the glass minnows going. March is a bit early for glass minnows, but with warm weather the first trickles of these bay anchovies might show at the end of the month.

Mid-bay reefs in East Matagorda Bay will be our target area for trout when the wind allows. You hear, “deep shell, deep shell” in just about every report you read. Well, there’s a reason—the bounty of trout are hanging on deep shell. We will tempt them with Bass Assassins; and, when fishing prowess dictates, live shrimp.

Pier anglers along the beachfront and stationed close to the ICW find the spring black drum run. Cracked blue crabs are the prized bait, with fresh table shrimp a close second.

The sun is shining and ardent tides are swelling the back lakes.

Time to get a little more color on that white skin.

TSFMAG.com | 91

Capt. Shellie Gray

MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays

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 12 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

92 | March 2015

Which is the best day to fish?

It seems everywhere you look there are apps and charts offering a heads-up as to tides and lunar phases to predict peak catching times. While these tools can definitely come in handy, local weather often plays an even greater role in fishing success.

March will be a cool month to fish with water temperatures often hovering in the 50s but an even bigger factor will likely be wind. It is no surprise to seasoned anglers how hard the wind can blow in early spring but don’t let high wind deflate your attitude. Fortunately in the Seadrift/Port O’Connor area we are blessed with many options in protected back lakes.

Many of our back lakes are shallow and one would naturally think shallow water would be colder. But actually, the opposite is true. Most of these lakes have muddy bottom and that mud is dark in color—kind of like a giant solar panel, the lake bottoms absorb lots of warmth from the sun. The water also becomes warm and this attracts lots of fish.

Not trying to get you all confused but there is something else to consider for March. If we have consecutive sunny days, fish often migrate back out to major bays. A big giveaway to this is when you can

observe bait schools on sandy shorelines near drains where they have been for weeks.

On a recent trip with a great group of guys we were forced to fish a scenario we would not normally fish on a cold day. As we got out for our first wade I felt it necessary to enlighten them why the heck we were fishing a hard sandy bottom in such frigid conditions.

With cold air and water temperatures and stiff NE wind we would normally be in a back lake with lots of bait present. However, with NW wind over several days prior, the tides were exceptionally low and the lakes all but drained. We weren’t the only ones forced out of the lakes, the fish had to vacate also. In this pinch, the nearest deep water was the high percentage place to fish, which in this case was hard sand.

Rick Healey and Jason Hagan were quick to let me know they were artificial newbies but eager to learn.

I gave them a quick tutorial and told them the fish we were after would be schooled and not scattered.

Off we went.

After about an hour wading, hoping we would trip across a school, it was time to move on. Even though we didn’t get our rods bent on the first wade it wasn’t a total loss. I was able to give them more

Jason Hagan with a tricky flounder that managed to get away – even after being in the net! Sorry if it is a bit blurry; I was shaking as bad as Jason!

information on the area and a few more “how to” tactics as well. We spent the better part of the day looking for the schools of redfish I knew were in the area.

Lucky for me my guys were some of the best a guide could ask for.

They came equipped with awesome gear for chilly conditions. Their optimistic patience was abundant and their witty sense of humor kept me laughing even though I was frustrated in not being able to locate the big school of redfish I knew had to be close by.

I was scratching my head wondering how in the world so many redfish could just disappear when I got the text from Gary letting me know he had found them. “Get your butts over here before they take off again!” As badly as I wanted it to be me that found the school, I was sure grateful to Gary for sharing his find.

We pulled up and quickly jumped out and the trash talk commenced. This day a 4-inch Assassins Sea Shad in either copperhead or chicken on a chain on a 1/8 jig was pure dynamite.

Lots of laughs and trash talk with nice reds bending rods. Good times for sure. Jason was even lucky enough to catch a nice flounder but somewhere in all the excitement between trying to string it and unhooking it, the tricky flounder managed to get away—even after being netted. Oh well, you’ll get ‘em next time Jason.

So what should you take away from this article? Well, on cold windy days the back lakes will be our go-to spot. Unless the tides have been horribly blown out and the lakes are dry. After consecutive warm days look for fish to relocate to main bay shorelines. March bridges the gap between winter and spring so it isn’t always easy. Preparation, patience and positive attitude are the best ingredients for coming out a winner.

TSFMAG.com | 93

david rowsey

HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey

Thus far 2015 has been good to clients and the captain. We have had a few tough days on the water, as all do, but the vast majority have rewarded us with great action and the trophy fish we are Upper hunting. Average days have produced multiple trout weighing more than seven pounds. The best days Laguna/ have had some eight-plus pounders in the mix and the Baffin occasional fish breaking nine. I’m confident that a true ten will grace us sometime in March. All of these big girls have been photographed and released.

As my charters have always done, we continue David Rowsey has 20 years to release every fish over 20 inches, giving them experience in the Laguna/Baffin region; trophy trout with artificial the chance to grow into the big trout of the future. lures is his specialty. David has a Unfortunately, there are still some Neanderthal guides around that evidently continue to feel the great passion for conservation and encourages catch and need to kill everything they can catch to promote release of trophy fish. their manhood on the internet and various social media. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist Telephone to understand that you will not have a good 361-960-0340 recruitment of trophy fish in the future if you kill Website www.DavidRowsey.com everything in the midrange today.

Email I think most of you know what to expect in david.rowsey@yahoo.com March. Besides (arguably) the best big trout

94 | March 2015

month of the year, we will start to experience some of the most rowdy winds of the season, and these will continue well into April. Although they can be somewhat intimidating to those who do not work in near constant windy conditions every day on the water, they can, in most cases, be worked to your advantage.

I despise calm, slick water conditions. They are great for boat riding but not for much else here in the

Hal Hargis with a beautiful 8.75-pounder that could not resist a panhandle moon Bass Assassin.

Upper Laguna and Baffin. Most areas of the Texas coast experience At any rate, this zone of turbulence is where predators will stage water movement via passes to the gulf and the gravitational to ambush prey (hopefully my Bass Assassin or Corky). The fisherman relationship between the earth, sun and moon. Not so much that is happy to glide through the day and fish on the easier (leeward) here. Due to our long-distance proximity to gulf passes, our water side will have some limited success, but the saltier guy that knows to movement is 90% wind-driven, and a must have for even average put his back to the chop and cast to windward structure will prevail on fish-catching results. If you have a trip booked with me, another both numbers and quality. guide, or are winging it on your own, don’t be discouraged by the Anyone who has ever fished with me can vouch for my unwavering southerly winds that would make most upper coast fishermen keep confidence in the 5” Bass Assassin for big trout—year round. Well, that the boat on the trailer. It works for us! has not changed. Day in and day out I rely on this rubber worm to find Making the wind your friend and using it to your advantage is one the fish for me, and scratch out some toads in the process. of the main ingredients to being successful in the Laguna and Baffin.

On days when we are in an area already known to be frequented As the wind blows and creates current, I like to look for areas that by a fair number of large trout, I love to put MirrOlure’s Paul Brown create a “stop” and break up that Originals to work, especially the Fat Boy. The flow of water. The “stop” always Fat Boy prevails on those mornings when there involves the windward edge of is little to no wind. The suspending nature of some type of structure; i.e., exposed the lure is the perfect medicine for trout that island-hump, grass line, sharp dropalso seem to want to suspend during calmer off, rock pile, gut-swag in the bay conditions. It’s been my experience that the floor, etc. As the wind-driven water Fat Boy is about as “in their face” as it can get collides with these types of structure and prevails in drawing big strikes on ice a certain amount of turbulence is cream days. I try and keep color choices simple produced, and this in turn interrupts on both lures. For clear water, I’m using natural the otherwise relatively smooth flow and dark colors. The stained water still finds of the water that is being pushed by me using the dark colors, as well as the bright the wind. Perhaps this explanation As evidenced by barnacles on their stuff; i.e., solid white, red-gold, chartreuse, etc. glasses, some guys just spend too will help you understand why I refer Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey much time on the water. to it as the “stop.”

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TSFMAG.com | 95

Capt. Tricia

TRICIA’S Mansfield Report Even though as I write this Ol’ Man Winter is still lurking and reminds us of his presence every few days, but my mind has already fast-forwarded to warmer Gulf breezes, and longer sunny days.

Life on the flats has been fine so far this winter, good fish and great people, and barring any catastrophic Port weather, March should be even more fun. Fishing Mansfield over the past month has been mostly about the grass beds. It has been a chasing game following fish as they move back and forth between deep and shallow, muddy, and not so muddy areas.

Capt. Tricia’s Skinny Water During colder periods, trout of better quality have Adventures operates out of been coming off dark grass beds on soft plastics and Port Mansfield, specializing in Corky Fat Boys. As water temperatures start warming wadefishing with artificial lures. many fish have been moving up skinny. I am also pleased to report good water clarity in most winds under 20mph, in most areas. We also saw some of Telephone 956-642-7298 the lowest water levels in recent memory, and it was Email exciting to see new depressions, grass beds, and shell@granderiver.net hazards to avoid. Taking advantage of new structure Website www.SkinnyWaterAdventures.com in old areas paid off with some of the better fish in the system, with three and four pounders, and occasional upper slot kickers. This time of year, fish of all classes are usually together, so stay there, and go through them.

Other fun this past month was exceptional redfish action in many areas after a good warming trend.

When the sun finally peeks through three or four days after a norther, it has been pretty much game on.

There is something for everyone during these times, sight-casting, tails, Corkys, and also some tops. Even hardcore big trout clients had a hard time passing up such fun in the sun.

The most consistent lures were the standard paddle

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96 | March 2015

and straight tail plastics, Corkys, and mid-size topwaters. In water with little clarity I still have high confidence in a paddle tail because of its vibration, especially in darker colors with a high contrast chartreuse tail. Aside from aggressive feeding periods, often times, the bite is so subtle that even a pro has difficulty detecting. I truly feel that my high end Waterloo Rods and Sufix Braid give me an edge over lesser grades of tackle available.

As much as we wish they would, we must remember that fish do not feed aggressively all the time. Our most productive approach during

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lulls between feeding periods is dragging a soft plastic on or near the bottom and through grass. Again, this is a situation that is all about feeling the light bite. So I will say it again, there is simply no substitute for top end tackle.

In March, we will begin to see patterns change and new areas to fish. Normally, towards mid-month water levels will rise significantly, and so will the wind. We will see more fish on the flats proper, especially in “crunchy” pothole areas. Redfish and some great trout will move high on the sand, affording some outstanding sightfishing. Some of the heavier trout will be found in backwater areas and secluded shorelines. As the water warms and their metabolism increases, they begin to feed voraciously for longer periods. Last year we had several fish between eight and nine pounds during March and April, and again, barring a late-season freeze, there’s no reason it can’t happen again. Ah- the beauty of early spring on the Lower Laguna!

Shoreline structure such as drains, points, guts and bars, and also the backwater areas and spoil banks can all produce big fish during early spring. There will be days when larger topwaters can be met with explosive results, but I cannot stress enough how important downsizing can be. Spring is the season of smaller forage, primarily juvenile mullet and sometimes pinfish. Instead of blind-banging a large surface plug all day, consider tightening it up. Precision casting to flashes and swirls on the flats with small floaters should be a major part of your approach. Yes they will often crash that larger plug but the precision aspect of the smaller baits just seems to make it so much more fun.

I am looking forward to clear, bait-rich spring tides!

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TSFMAG.com | 97

Capt. Ernest cisneros

SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene

A rr oyo C olorado t o Port I sabel

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

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

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

98 | March 2015

I am writing with mixed emotions. On one hand I blaming consistently too-clear water. hate the thought of winter fishing season leaving so Have you heard the saying, “We threw everything soon. It seems just yesterday I was writing how excited but the kitchen sink?” Well, that’s us lately. We I was for the colder weather to arrive. Bundling in have tried topwaters of all sizes, everything in the layers of Simms gear to ward off the numbing ache of MirrOlure-Paul Brown Corky lineup, soft plastics February’s misty mornings, dreaming of trophy trout. or every description and other lures too many to But on the other hand, even with mention. We have enjoyed days filled Ryan and his personal weather that has been consistently with lots of “keepers” but relatively best 8 lbs, great trip what I would term “fishable,” we have scattered big fish results. Certainly with his friend Paul. not caught nearly as many large not the results February has been trout as in years past—so far anyway. known to deliver. My hope now rests This is not to say they were not in what lies ahead. available, and this is the greatest March will bring increased tide source of my frustration. During levels and rising water temperatures, late January and early February I and of course a lot of wind. Having believe I have seen more large trout already witnessed the abundance of than ever before on the flats. I’m not trophy trout, the thoughts of longer talking scattered singles and small feeding periods due to rising water groups of three or four; I’m talking temps and wind-stirred flats (to add schools of trophy-class fish! Getting a bit of color) should add up to much them to bite has been the challenge, improved catching conditions. even with very little boat traffic My game plan will include earlier and almost no fishing pressure. starts, and when necessary, fishing Fishermen love to lay blame, so I’m late into the evening. Fish of the

Paul displays his personal best 8 lbs and one of multiple trout he caught over 7 lbs in a two day stretch.

caliber we seek this time of year are known for low-light feeding, especially in clear water.

Getting trophy trout to eat in clear, shallow water is never easy but neither is it impossible. The Zara Spook Puppy topwater will sometimes draw strikes when other floaters get ignored and dragging a weedless K-Wiggler Ball Tail Shad slowly through grass has been known to fool finicky trout. Another trick is to remove the hooks from a Spook Jr and trail a fly on a 10” leader. On many occasions, when I knew they were there because I had seen them, camping out all day and waiting for the evening low-light bite was the only way they’d take a lure. This may not be for everybody; it depends how serious you are about catching a trophy fish.

Our redfish have finally showed up in very good numbers and we are catching them very easily at present. Early- to midmorning we have been finding them relatively shallow, around knee to thigh deep, hunkered in potholes on the flats. Depending how early the sun comes out they can be a bit slow to bite. Once the flats begin to warm, soft plastics on 1/8 jigs have been the ticket, working the lure to the edge of the pothole and then slowing it to bounce along the sandy bottom. A bonus has been finding some very nice trout mixing with these pothole reds.

With the coming of March and the seasonal rise of the tides, backbay shorelines will once again come into play. Redfish will begin roaming and prowling grass flats that were nearly void of water during the low-tide days of winter. I expect them to become a bit more scattered than currently but hoping we will still be able to pattern their movements and feeding.

When comparing our current fishing to last year’s results during the same time period, I can say that the current situation and forecast holds much greater promise in my eyes than it did last year. There is no longer any channel dredging taking place, so our water looks to be in great shape. Keep in mind March’s infamous south wind and plan your fishing efforts accordingly.

In closing, I would like to thank all of my sponsors, without them I would not be having as much fun pursuing my passion all these years on the water. Here’s a shout out to: Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, CastAway Rods, Fish-N-Hunt Pro Gear, Simms Fishing Products, Power-Pole, K-Wigglers, MirrOLure Paul Brown Originals, Costa Del Mar Eyewear, Coastline Trailers, and Tony Clips.

May your spring fishing be the best ever.

TSFMAG.com | 99

FISHING REPORTS

Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 Cold temperatures have been keeping the trout bite somewhat slow.

However, during warm periods between fronts, good numbers of solid fish have been coming off the south bank of West Cove and Joe’s Cove. Redfish are still stacked at the weirs, and on the banks adjacent to them. There is not much going on in the main lake as of now for trout, but that will change as temperatures continue to rise.

The warmup will push big trout to the flats to feed and start preparing to spawn. If the water is clear, fish it! Turner’s Bay is always a March hotspot. Concentrate your efforts in this area during outgoing tides. West Cove and Joe’s Cove are also great early spring areas on incoming tides. As the month clicks along, trout will start to move up to the east bank of Calcasieu. Commissarry Pt. and Basket Reef are usually the first reefs on the east bank to be invaded. The weirs on the south end of the lake will continue to be an effective place to catch reds as winter gives way to spring.

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 Fishing has been good recently, James says, with a variety of options proving fruitful. “We have been catching well lately out of the boat at times, and by wading. When it’s windy, we are wading protected areas and catching best on slow-sinking twitch baits like Catch 2000s, Catch

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ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica

AND

5s and Paul Brown Lures. Also doing good with the old-school 51 and 52M MirrOlures in colors like pink/gold and gold/chartreuse. Action on soft plastics has been steady too. Out of the boat, the soft plastics on heavier jigheads are working better. We’ve caught some decent trout and lots of slot reds fishing the deeper water on calmer days. Once we get into March, and the end of winter, the wading will be even more at a premium. We’ll target the bigger trout along shallow shorelines in all the area bays, keying on areas holding lots of mullet and other bait fish. March is a windy month, and we do have some lost days, but in the breaks between the blows, it’s one of the best months of all to catch big trout by wading.”

Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 “We had a little dose of freshwater running into the back of the bay lately, and it created problems for a short time, but then stacked the fish into fairly small areas and made the fishing easier. People were whacking the fish in the upper parts of Trinity wading before the influx of freshwater. Now, the catching has picked up in the bayous over here in East Bay lately. The bite has been best in the late afternoon areas, and waders are catching more of the big trout. Paul Brown Lures and MirrOlure SoftDines are the go to lures for the waders. As usual, soft plastics are working best out of the boat. Not much action on topwaters lately. Any of the slow-sinking twitch baits will work, really. My normal drill this time of year normally includes leaving the dock in the middle of

the day and fishing for a couple hours out of the boat, then wading right as it starts to get dark. Most of the time, the best bite this time of year is around dusk, but in March, I’ll start leaving the dock in the morning, as warmer water temperatures improve the early bite.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Randall reports decent fishing on soft plastics, with a mix of reds and trout filling the boxes. “Today, we fished in about three to four feet of water and caught our limit of redfish on red magic Norton Bull Minnows pushed onto three eighth ounce Norton jigheads. We’re fishing areas with a bottom which has a mix of mud and shell. Yesterday, the same lures were working, and we limited on reds, with some solid trout mixed in. The other thing we’re doing is targeting areas with water which has some color to it. Clear water is a deal breaker. Topwaters haven’t been producing much lately. Paul Brown Lures have when we’ve been wading areas close to reefs, pulling them over shell and mud. Next month, we’ll be looking for an influx of glass minnows, in areas with some grass on the bottom. Early spring is one of my favorite times to fish, especially when we get a push of migrating bait. I’m loving my new E-Tech motor.

It has tons of power and pushes my JH Performance craft like a champ.”

Matagorda | Tommy Countz Bay Guide Service - 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037 “In March, we normally continue to catch some big trout in East Bay, especially when winds are light. When wading mid-bay reefs, we usually use topwaters during the break of day, then switch over to Paul Brown Lures or SoftDines. Eventually, we make it to soft plastics on light jigheads. We also spend some time wading the south shoreline with topwaters and slow sinking lures, targeting big trout. If we are

drifting the scattered shell and deeper reefs in East Bay, we’re using quarter ounce jigheads and keeping our soft plastics in contact with the bottom.

When we head to West Bay, we like to fish the shorelines with dark soft plastics, staying close to the grass beds right on the bank early, then moving out to the drop offs and guts around the offshore sand bars later. With the new 55 acres of reefs we’ve got in West Bay, drifting is also a good option on some days. I sometimes use topwaters when fishing them, but mostly we fish those reefs the same way we fish the ones in East Bay, using soft plastics on quarter ounce heads.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 Winter patterns continue to produce fish in our local bays. Trout have been stacked in the turning basin all winter and will continue to stay there as long as the water temps stay in the fifties. We have been catching plenty of keeper fish on VuDu Shrimp covered in VuDu shrimp sauce in the deep pockets of Turning Basins 2 and 3. Our redfish bite has come mostly from the local creeks and bayous that feed our major rivers. Quarter ounce gold spoons and VuDu Wedgetails in in Cajun pepper have accounted for most of the bites. March is one of my favorite months, as lots of bait starts the migration back into our bays, and with all the freshwater we’ve had this winter, we ought to have a good hatch.

Look for shell reefs in three to four feet of water to produce trout and reds, along with the occasional drum. Flounder fishing should be back in full force by March, and targeting the mouths of area drains and bayous ought to provide real opportunity for catching some good ones.

TSFMAG.com | 101

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 In March, Lynn expects to be wading around in the shallow areas of the back lakes in his area and targeting big trout. “We’ll be hitting areas with plenty of grass, mud and shell, using slow sinking lures like Paul Brown lures and other MirrOlures. Of course, we usually encounter some redfish in these areas while trying to catch the trout. Lately, the reds have been pretty easy to catch on main bay shorelines adjacent to the entrances of the lakes, because the tides are so low. Normally, toward the end of winter and on into spring, we tend to get some higher tides. When that happens, the fishing in the shallower backwater areas turns on. With Cedar Bayou opened up, I’ll also be heading down to the bays in that area, Ayers, Mesquite and Carlos. I like to target shell pads and grass beds on the shorelines in those bays during times when the current is moving and bringing water up onto the flats. The opening of that pass will help that pattern tremendously in the coming months.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 Now that the hunting seasons have ended, Blake intends to spend all his time fishing hard. “In March, I will throw topwater lures a lot, fishing in bays with sandy, grassy shorelines like Aransas and Corpus Christi Bays. With the topwaters, we generally target both trout and redfish in water about mid-thigh deep, working around points on the shorelines, where both sand and grass make up the bottom. Some of the best trout of the year tend to bite the floating plugs during the last month of winter/first month of spring. I will also be pulling out soft plastics like Norton Sand Eels in dark colors with chartreuse tails and bouncing them around some of the shell reefs in bays like Mesquite, St. Charles and San Antonio. This pattern also works well during the transition from winter to spring, especially when winds are relatively light and the silty water

around the reefs has a chance to settle out and holds good clarity. The spring break month is a great one for catching fish in the Coastal Bend.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 My fishing logs of the last few years reveal much information when I look at the month of March. The air temperatures are climbing and the water temperatures are also on the rise. This translates into the fish coming up out of the deeper holes and into shallower water. It is important to look for and follow the bait because that is what the trout and redfish are doing as well. I will be looking for mullet or shad just below the water’s surface, swirling on the surface or jumping. I’ll also be looking for seagulls hovering over a particular area, diving brown pelicans or fish slicks. My logs remind me that the fish are in about three feet of water or less, especially after four or five days of warm weather.

There will be a variety of baits on the end of my line, like live shrimp under a Bass Assassin Kwik Kork. If the perch are too hard on the shrimp, I’ll tie on a four inch Berkley Gulp! shrimp under the Kork. A sixteenth or eighth ounce Spring Lock jighead rigged with a natural colored Bass Assassin Die Dapper will always be ready for some action.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.937.5961 Clear water has inundated the entire Upper Laguna Madre and is also gracing the front of Baffin when tides are high, and the fishing is outstanding on most days lately, Joe says. “With this clear water, it’s easy to see the bottom, and that makes the fishing easier. If we have low-light conditions, meaning it’s overcast and cloudy, the fish are easier to catch in shallower water if the water is really clear. In such situations, I like to stay close to shallow shorelines and structures, casting at potholes in the grass or grass edges or around rocks in places like the Kenedy Shoreline, along the ICW and along the King Ranch Shoreline. When the sun comes out, catching is generally better in a

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102 | March 2015

little deeper water, in areas like channel edges, and along the edges of the deepest grass beds lying next to the open basins. Beacroft’s and Emmord’s Holes are good places to fish when the sun comes out, as are areas in and around the Crash Channels and the Boat Hole. March should continue to provide excellent opportunity with these patterns.”

Padre Island National Seashore Billy Sandifer - Padre Island Safaris - 361.937.8446 Spring equinox will occur on March 20, tide level along the PINS beach typically runs higher this month. Strong winds contribute to many unfishable and very marginal days but when conditions fall into place fishing can be very good. Sargassum can become a problem to beach fishers and good way to be daily advised is to monitor FriendsOfPadre website and various other internet surf fishing forums.

Large jack crevalle traditionally show within the first ten days of the month. Redfish action is often very good and bottom fishers seeking sheepshead, black drum and whiting will do well on freshly peeled shrimp and Fishbites. Lesser blacktipped sharks should be available on baits cast from the sand, occasionally bull sharks and other species too. Avoid beach travel during northers and always reference local marine forecasts before heading down the island. Beach drivers are reminded to observe the posted speed limits on PINS and to drive carefully when entering camps. Spring break can be busy, especially if the weather is favorable!

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty – www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 This winter had been a whirlwind of big trout and reds! We’re lucky to have the business of our Winter Texans, for three reasons: they can work around the weather, they have the right clothes for the season, and they all know how to fish. We’ve had a good winter, boating trout up to 28 inches, (no thirty inchers yet, but the season is still on), and some large redfish. Some weeks we get at least one oversize every trip on both boats. We’re fishing on the bottom with cut bait while the water temperature is below 70. Freddy says, “As soon as the water begins to warm up, the hardhead catfish move in and swarm the baits. The last couple of years have seen an increase in the number of the bottom feeders. We are even catching them on artificials, which was unheard of in the old days.” When we get good incoming tides, sunshine and a break from the cold, the trout turn on and feed voraciously. Limits of reds are most common, but when conditions permit, we’ve also been limiting on black drum. Help stop open bay dredge disposal!

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Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 Crazy weather, somewhat typical this time of year, but not much consolation when you’re trying to dial into a pattern. Deep water in the harbor can save a trip on a really tough “norther” day. The bite there is never fast and furious but it can produce some quality fish. Recovery

days between fronts have been good for both wading and drifting the Laguna, working structure around drains, guts and bars. The west shoreline has been producing solid trout during warm-ups. Corky Fat Boys, Bomber Badonk-A-Donk SS, and K-Wiggler Ball Tails have been producing fish. The bite is very light on cold days, you might feel a slight tick, and then the line feels heavy. Spoil banks along the ICW are always good places to try in March. The quick drop to deep water offers shallow feeding areas and also a nearby place to bail when the temps drop. Finding bait to point the way to feeding fish has been a challenge, some days all we see are a few flickers or ripples, but DO NOT PASS THEM UP! Tight lines and calm seas!

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Hannah Berg Galveston Bay - 5.3lb flounder

Trent Clemmer Austwell - 50lb drum

Drake & Blaedin De La O Trinity Bay - first shark!

Becky Pothier Cox’s Reef - 28” redfish

Robert Mosqueda Christmas Bay - 25” flounder

Ty Seeker Galveston - 54lb personal best!

104 | March 2015

Vasile Apostu Galveston Bay - 52lb black drum

Amanda Hernandez Port Mansfield - red from 1st Texas slam!

Larry Miller Quintana Jetties - 39” redfish

Augusta Anderson Galveston - 23” trout

Justin Bates Seadrift - 50” black drum

Emilio Herrera Galveston - 35” redfish

Fred Booth Laguna Madre - 30” redfish

Carlos Chavez Lower Laguna - 31” trout

Cameron Van Duzer Rockport - redfish

Everett Davies Offats Bayou - 23” first keeper speck

Brenden Van Duzer Rockport - flounder

Brent Vander Meyden Port O’Connor - sheepshead

Titus Clifton Keller Creek - redfish

Andrew McKnight San Antonio Bay - 25” personal best!

Cole Greer Freeport - first dorado! CPR

Colson & James Ginger SPI - sandbar shark David Woods SPI - sandbar shark

Timmy Nguyen Galveston - 42” bull red

Jacob Salinas redfish

Please do not write on the back of photos.

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

Eric Phipps Pelican Island - first redfish!

Craig Williams SPI - sandbar shark

Mail photos to: TSFMag P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 TSFMAG.com | 105

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

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

106 | March 2015

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Science and the Sea

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Why Are Sea Stars Wasting Away?

When a sea star (a.k.a. starfish) develops wasting syndrome, the disease hits hard and fast. Lesions appear on the star’s tough outer skin. Then the tissue around those white sores begins to decay. The sea stars “deflate” and lose control of their five limbs, which curl and twist and eventually begin disintegrating. The starfish gradually “melts” into nothing.

This sea star is suffering from wasting disease, which causes sea stars to disintegrate in a matter of days. Credit: Kevin Lafferty, USGS. Scientists have known about this syndrome since the 1970s but not what causes it. Then the largest epidemic ever seen began along the Pacific coast of the U.S. in June 2013, infecting at least 20 species from southern Alaska to Baja, California. Even aquarium starfish began wasting away, which pointed to something in the ocean water pumped into their tanks.

So scientists conducted experiments to identify the culprit. They learned that subjecting the water to ultraviolet light prevented starfish from developing the disease, so a virus or bacteria was a likely possibility.

Bacteria are larger than viruses, so the researchers sifted diseased sea star tissue through a filter with holes big enough for viruses to pass through but too small for bacteria. When they injected the resulting solution into healthy stars, the stars eventually began wasting.

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Next the scientists inspected genetic material in the solution, and they discovered a new virus – sea star-associated densovirus. They looked for this virus in more than 400 wild starfish and found that sicker starfish generally had more of the virus than healthy starfish. But this was the first study to identify the new densovirus, so scientists cannot definitively conclude that it’s the cause of the wasting syndrome. More experiments are needed to confirm that this virus is the culprit and to understand how it causes sea stars to waste away.

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110 | March 2015

That probably sounds Greek. So what does it mean when your factory-certified service tech says, “We need to perform a de-carbon due to excessive cylinder leak-down.”

What he just referenced is the manner in which compression and leak-down tests measure a combustion cylinder’s ability to produce pressure as the piston reaches the top of its stroke and, more specifically, the ability to maintain it. The de-carbon process is a method of removing harmful carbon build-up by injecting a specialized cleaning fluid into the engine while it is running.

Automobile engines generally operate in the range of 2200 RPM at normal highway speeds while 4-stroke outboard engines reach speeds up to 6000 RPM quite frequently. Very different.

An automobile has an oil sump that is primarily air-cooled, a cooling system with thermostats which operate at higher temperatures, and uses oils designed to achieve lower emission levels while also having exhaust systems that operate at thousands of degrees to burn off any excess hydrocarbons in the exhaust gases.

By comparison, 4-stroke outboards have oil sumps and exhaust systems which are immersed in water when the boat is not on plane, creating drastically lower operating temperatures. 4-stroke outboard oil is blended for greater lubricity, necessary because the engines turn faster. Combine this with very high percentages of low-speed operation (which do not allow higher, cleaner operating temperatures to be

achieved) and perhaps you will understand how carbon build-up in the combustion chamber occurs much faster than in an automobile.

When carbon builds-up in the combustion chamber, piston rings stick in their grooves and cannot seal tightly, cylinder walls become glazed (which allows exhaust blow-by and excessive crankcase pressure) that in turn causes gaskets to fail. When rings sticks and cylinder walls glaze, unburned fuel gets past the rings and contaminates crankcase oil—a condition called “making oil.” Highly detrimental to long engine life.

This problem is easily solved by changing the technique of engine operation (running the boat at different speeds) and performing a “de-carbon” every 300 to 400 hours of operation based on the engine history report.

The 100 hour or annual service is essential for many reasons and the engine diagnostic report records all engine profile information as well as operating RPM (low, medium, and high-range) and the percentage of time operating in each. Collected during successive service visits this information is invaluable when troubleshooting future problems.

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7613 SPID Corpus Christi, TX 78412 www.roysbait-tackle.com

361-992-2960

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

ROY’S Bait and Tackle Outfitters

To find a location near you, please visit us at www.speedystop.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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