NOVEMBER IS A GEM OF A
FISHING MONTH
Only $3.95 www.tsfmag.com November 2013
ci Spe
al Editio
TIDE PREDICTIONS & SOLUNAR FEED TIMES INSIDE!
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ABOUT THE COVER Marcos Garza, TSFMag’s Youth Fishing contributor, is a young hardcore salt for sure. Marcos landed and released this beautiful speck from his home waters of the Lower Laguna Madre at Port Mansfield.
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
NOVEMBER 2013 VOL 23 NO 7
NATIONAL SALES REPRESENTATIVE Bart Manganiello Bartalm@optonline.net
CONTENTS
REGIONAL SALES REPRESENTATIVE Patti Elkins Patti@tsfmag.com Office: 361-785-3420 Cell: 361-649-2265
FEATURES 08 That Horrible White Stripe… 14 Baffin Bay’s Defining Features 18 Catching Up on the News 24 Bodie’s Surprise: Part 1 30 Being on the “X” 34 True Confessions
72
Mike McBride Kevin Cochran Billy Sandifer Martin Strarup Chuck Uzzle Joe Richard
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Donna Boyd Donna@tsfmag.com
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DEPARTMENTS 39 Holiday Gift Guide TSFMag Staff 52 Let’s Ask The Pro Jay Watkins 56 Shallow Water Fishing Scott Null 60 TPWD Field Notes Gloria Alcaraz 64 Texas Nearshore & Offshore Mike Jennings 68 Fly Fishing Scott Sommerlatte 70 Youth Fishing Marcos Garza 72 Kayak Fishing Chronicles Cade Simpson 74 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks... Eric Ozolins 76 Fishy Facts Stephanie Boyd 107 Science & the Sea UT Marine Science Institute 108 Boat Maintenance Tips Chris Mapp
WHAT OUR GUIDES
102 4 | November 2013
Dickie Colburn Mickey Eastman Bink Grimes Shellie Gray David Rowsey Capt. Tricia Ernest Cisneros
DESIGN & LAYOUT Stephanie Boyd Stephanie@tsfmag.com Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine is published monthly. Subscription Rates: One Year (Free Emag with Hard Copy Subscription) $25.00, Two Year $45.00 E-MAG (electronic version) is available for $12.00 per year. Order on-line: WWW.TSFMAG.COM MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine Attn: Subscriptions P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 * Subscribers are responsible for submitting all address changes and renewals by the 10th of the prior month’s issue. Email store@tsfmag.com for all address changes or please call 361-785-3420 from 8am - 4:30pm. The U.S. Postal Service does not guarantee magazines will be forwarded. HOW TO CONTACT TSFMAG: PHONE: 361-785-3420 FAX: 361-785-2844 MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, TX 77983 WEB: www.TSFMAG.com PHOTO GALLERY: photos@tsfmag.com
HAVE TO SAY
82 Dickie Colburn’s Sabine Scene 84 Mickey on Galveston 86 The View from Matagorda 88 Mid-Coast Bays with the Grays 90 Hooked up with Rowsey 92 Capt. Tricia’s Port Mansfield Report 94 South Padre Fishing Scene
CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTION – PRODUCT SALES Linda Curry Cir@tsfmag.com ADDRESS CHANGED? Email Store@tsfmag.com
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REGULARS 06 Editorial 80 New Tackle & Gear 96 Fishing Reports and Forecasts 100 Catch of the Month 102 Gulf Coast Kitchen
PRinTED in THE uSA. Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine (ISSN 1935-9586) is published monthly by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, Texas 77983 l P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 © Copyright 1990 All rights reserved. Positively nothing in this publication may be reprinted or reproduced. *Views expressed by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine contributors do not necessarily express the views of Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine. Periodical class permit (USPS# 024353) paid at Victoria, TX 77901 and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983.
EDITORIAL November’s reputation for great angling is founded upon great weather and water conditions, and definitely bolstered by the number of Texans with their sights set on deer. Count the vehicles carrying folks wearing camo at any popular travel stop on any November Friday—competition for prime fishing spots will be about as low as it gets. The seasonal patterns of major forage species brings inshore gamefish within easy reach of wade-fishermen around mid-bay reefs and along most shorelines, and the lack of traffic on the bays contributes to feeding activity that sometimes lasts all day. You’ll probably need a jacket and waders, at least during morning hours, but this is an easy trade for the inescapable swelter of summer that forces us to wade neck-deep – for heat relief as much as bites. Thankfully, in this era of moisture-wicking fleece and breathable waterproof fabric, remaining comfortable all day is as easy as a stop at your favorite tackle emporium and affordable as a quality rod and reel. November also ushers in the long-awaited trophy season for diehard speck anglers, the same way B&C bucks lure deer hunters. Stretches of wonderfully mild days with green tides studded by increasingly frequent northers toward month’s end are known to produce storybook conditions for connecting with some of the year’s best fish. Despite the beauty of the season, we still must keep track of the marine weather forecast and, tempting as it might be when they’re
6 | November 2013
nOVEMbER
gem of a fishing month! biting…never push the weather window. I recall vividly the first weekend of November 1997. The weather had been uncommonly pleasant for a week and the waterfowl opener was disappointing on Matagorda Island. Returning from a lackluster morning hunt, we ran over several schools of reds. Anxious for any kind of action, we formulated a new afternoon plan. Getting on those reds was like taking candy from a baby and, given the long run of great weather, we never thought to check the forecast. Long about five o’clock we began noticing clouds building in the north but topwaters were getting slapped every which way. In less than thirty minutes the breeze that had barely shifted north became a gale and bitingly cold by the time we started across Pringle Lake. Swinging through the narrow boat lane and entering Espiritu Santo Bay, we were facing gusts of 60 miles-per-hour and the whitecaps between us and home looked like tall bales of cotton rolling across the angry black surface. The swells were so high that we had to struggle the first quarter mile before the lower unit quit smacking bottom in the troughs. We made it but, it was close – I kissed the ground. Whether you fish or hunt this month, practice good sportsmanship, be as courteous to your fellow outdoorsmen as you would have them be toward you – and above all be safe. When you gather for your Thanksgiving feast, praise the Almighty and give thanks for the bounty you are blessed to enjoy!
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STORY BY MIKE MCBRIDE
8 | November 2013
Joe Richard came up with an interesting idea.
Quoting his email… “I’ve been thinking of doing a story on getting skunked in the presence of greatness, or something like that.” Unfortunately though, I misread his invitation, so instead of sending a snippet about me that he could use in his story, I ended up just stealing his idea and using it for myself. Well heck, I never said I was all that bright. I certainly had plenty of examples of “where another guy in the boat or the guy in the next boat caught a cooler full of fish, while we sat there with the wrong bait or artificial, and caught nothing.” And more inspiring was Joe’s additional challenges of “whose egos will allow them to relate such a story,” and lastly “this ought to be fun.” The topic brought back more than a few memories. So despite blowing his request, here’s just one of many personal episodes where an ego can make you zero. Well just heck again, I think half the fun in life is laughing at yourself anyway. So here goes. It was around 2002 I think, back when this magazine’s operation basically consisted of just Everett, Pam and my new little eager self. Monthly travels up and down the coast made for quite a few gripping consequences, but for David Rowsey, one of the consequences was meeting me. As we were just getting to know each other, he happened to “smirkingly” mention that he was on some big trout, and then naively quipped, “Come on down and get you some!” I don’t remember many details but another relatively new victim ended up becoming involved in the adventure. Somehow, the middle of the night found my at-the-time factory-sponsored Pathfinder heading down Highway 77 behind Louie Baumann’s truck. This being the Louie of Baumann Propeller fame; Neanderthal-lumberjack looking dude who with just the power of his wrist, can gently lower a 20-pound sledgehammer to the tip of his nose - with either hand! No, I didn’t even think to tell David I was bringing company, probably because I had yet to learn Rowsey’s name was synonymous with anal retentive, at least where big trout were concerned. We pulled into Flour Bluff before sun-up, and although it was dark and we were delirious from lack of sleep, I could easily see that Rowsey had sprouted a set of strange and fully erect antennae. Despite him going through a mental thesaurus of derogatory adjectives and expletives, we ended up launching anyway into some “theoretically” perfect conditions; wintry prenorther situation under the influence of a full moon. A condensed version would be that it ended up being one of those nightmarish trips, where you end up sucking your thumb because everybody catches monster trout repeatedly and often, except you. Yeah, that’s funny as long as it happens to somebody else. Except this time the somebody would be me. When we got to Rowsey’s secret squirrel location it was familiar to me. However, I wasn’t about to mention that my longtime partner, Mark Holt, and I had been plugging the same area for years. We mostly did it secretly at night, but of course it’s always about knowing when to be where, and Rowsey certainly knew about both. He also knew how to catch them and it wasn’t long before he and Louie started doing just that. Some impressively fat trout in the six to seven pound range were soon being landed, and here’s where that ego thing I mentioned started to build into yet another story. It became one of those testosterone-driven moments where you fantasize that “even though I am bearing witness to near ‘epicness’ here, I’m just not going to participate because I think I can do better.” There has to be a degree of risk for any game to be exciting, plus a fair chance of the prey vanishing. Somehow it occurred to me that these fish were fenced up like deer at a feeder pen, with an obviously predictable outcome. TSFMAG.com | 9
“Anybody can catch them when you’re on them,” said ego. “The real skill is finding them in the first place.” “OK then,” I thought. “If this class of fish is feeding right here; what class of fish might be feeding over there?” Mark’s Mucky Hole, one of our tenured trophy spots, was about a short mile down the shoreline. I had to go do some research, or so I told them, but was honestly intending to trump the excellence David and Louie already had coming to hand. David later commented that I looked like Flo Jo in wading booties, streaking down the bank. And yeah, I was hurrying to catch that classic midday-full moon feed. That didn’t work. In the meantime, Louie was addictively tucked inside his newest fishing god’s back pocket like a new can of snuff. No doubt it was high opportunity, if all you wanted to do was catch, but to me this whole game is more about discovery. If there’s sixes and sevens here, there’s gotta be eights and nines over there. The bottom line is that I didn’t catch squat, not there, nor the entire wade back. And unbeknownst to me, the dynamic duo had been hammering good fish the whole time, and the whole time they kept getting bigger. I slinked back just in time to see Louie catch his personal best trout and, sucking it up, I wedged right in between them but still couldn’t catch squat. Here we go again. They were smoking big fish on Corkys but, Oh no, I could easily see that was working, so I decided I wanted
A grainy and dated image of me, losing “the beast” on that fated afternoon of near-epicness.
10 | November 2013
to catch them on topwaters instead. The results of the skunk strip continued to gain contrast, but finally, at the very end, I hooked what I thought at the time to be the biggest beast I’d ever seen. But before I knew it, Oh Hell Ego No – all I have to show for it is a picture of some questionable foaming whitewater. It pulled off. And it was time to pull out. We had pushed the weather limit and a fiery black tempest was descending to devour an ascending orange moon. I just thought I was going home stinking, however, it ‘tweren’t over yet. The humility demons wanted even more blood, and they got it. The stronger than expected norther hit right as we were leaving and two foot whitecaps were reflecting quite well in the light of the big moon, but not nearly as brightly as they soon did from a ten billion candlepower spotlight suddenly boring A much younger David into us from the bridge of an approaching Rowsey circa the time barge. It was right in our face and of the great skunking. impossibly blinding. We couldn’t tell if she was fifty yards ahead or five hundred. I backed down, wiped watering eyes, then pulled east and outside of the ICW, trying to make sense of the invading threat. After regaining bearings, we pushed back up on a slow plane, into the teeth of a 25 knot north wind, but it wasn’t long before another seismic event came our way. Right after hearing a sickening thump, the bow shot up and we all shot forward. A 14” diameter channel marker piling, evidently pushed over by an earlier barge, was laying in wait like a jousting pole just beneath the surface. And for me, it
While we never snapped a photo of the approaching front mentioned in this story, this one should serve to let you know we stayed too long.
gouged another large hole in an already seriously damaged ego, and an equally gaping wound in the bow of the Pathfinder at water line. As if that big white stripe down my back wasn’t enough, I ended up wearing a big red one right across my forehead where I face-planted the windshield’s grab rail. Louie hit the console like a football player on a practice dummy. Rowsey, I think, was saved by the cushioning effect of his designer undergarments, but that’s another story. We trimmed her to run bow-high to minimize taking on water and continued plowing northward. The looks we got when we finally made the ramp would have probably sunk any number of lesser vessels. Morals? Well actually, there are several. Many different levels of ego exist but few actually put fish on the wall. Leaving fish to find fish is rarely a productive idea. There is no fishing in the “go for it” category that doesn’t come without great risks of humiliation, as nature will routinely send even the best of outdoorsmen to the bottom – if we don’t do it to ourselves. (I got double hauled on this one.) And lastly, if somebody puts you on “near epicness” it might be wise to be a gracious guest. Yeah Joe, “this was fun!” Realistically though, stuff like this is just all part of trying to live large, and I still tease Rowsey about the antennae.
CONTACT
MIKE MCBRIDE
12 | November 2013
Mike McBride is a full time fishing guide based in Port Mansfield, TX, specializing in wadefishing with artificial lures.
SKINNY WATER ADVENTURES Phone Email Web
956-746-6041 McTrout@Granderiver.net Skinnywateradventures.com/ Three_MudSkateers.wmv
STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN
14 | November 2013
Trophy trout enthusiasts fervently
celebrate the legend of Baffin and its satellite bays. Across our nation and beyond, this unique hypersaline lagoon system has earned a reputation for producing giant speckled trout. In these waters, anglers sometimes catch multiple specimens weighing over eight pounds, and twelve-plus pounders occasionally come to hand. According to biologists, the relatively constant salinity level of its waters most significantly influences Baffin’s prolific production of big trout. The salt levels in Baffin almost always read higher than those in the open ocean, but hypersalinity in and of itself does not promote the production of big trout. A consistent salinity level does contribute to the growth potential of Baffin’s resident fish by reducing the number of times the fish must adjust their swim bladders in response to changing conditions. Every time heavy rains fill our rivers, freshwater flows into the bays they feed, causing salinity levels to temporarily drop. In response, resident fish react to the change in salinity (and consequently the change in the density of the water) by adjusting their swim bladders. The adjustment uses energy, which can’t translate into growth. Over the lifetime of the fish, this need for regulation of the swim bladder reduces growth potential in trout living in bays fed by large rivers. No such waterways flow into Baffin Bay. Other factors probably contribute to Baffin’s ability to produce ample numbers of trout measuring thirty inches or more. Water quality issues in parts of the bay make catching fish difficult much of the time. Some of those areas lie far from the nearest boat ramp, reducing the number of people fishing them on a daily basis. Less fishing pressure and less-effective fishing pressure combine to give more trout the opportunity to reach maximum size. Most likely, Baffin and surrounding areas of the Laguna Madre hold significant schools of magnum specks for all these reasons. Simply pointing the bow of a boat toward these prolific waters will not guarantee success, however. Catching Baffin’s big trout on a consistent basis requires anglers to possess knowledge and skills related to fishing the three major defining features which make this lagoon unique: serpulid rock formations, offshore sand bars and the alluvial fans associated with tidal flats. The remains of colonies of an extinct species of marine worms fossilized to form Baffin’s rocks. Some of the boulders protrude well off the bottom, becoming exposed on low tides, while other “bottom huggers” barely extend above the sand, mud or grass surrounding them. The biggest cover more area than the average center console boat, but some span just a few feet in diameter. Fishing around serpulid rocks produces quality catches for several reasons. For one thing, the rocks create anomalies on the bottom of the bay. Any distinctive feature on the bottom will occasionally attract fish. Areas in a bay which have a variety of types of bottom cover produce better than areas with a homogenous bottom. Additionally, the boulders serve as a starting point for the food chain. Microorganisms grow on the hard, uneven surfaces of the fossils, attracting small fish and other creatures, which in turn garner the attention of larger, predatory fish like speckled trout. Some of the fossils serve as platforms which forage species can use to “hide” from predators. When hungry trout begin harassing mullet, the panicked potential prey often gather in tight packs, crowding into the shallow waters covering the tops of rocks in a riffling “sheet”. Catching trout by casting around the edges of the schools of mullet often becomes somewhat easy in such a situation. This scenario most commonly develops during the warm half of the year. During colder months, fishing around the crusty fossils is a less-exact science. In winter, anglers often catch trout on muddy, grassy flats which contain serpulid rocks, but the trout and their prey don’t usually relate to the boulders themselves. Depth plays a more critical role. Determining the precise depth preferred by the trout and making lots of casts around potholes and grass edges usually produces better than throwing at rocks. In all seasons, rocky flats generally hold some of Baffin’s big trout. As do Baffin’s unique, offshore sand bars, which come in two basic types. Along both the south and north shorelines of the bay, basically parallel to land, stretch long, offshore sand bars with narrow, shallow spines. The most famous of these, the Tide Gauge Bar, extends from the shoreline just north of the west end of Cathead all the way to the rock formation lying off East Kleberg Point. On the “outsides” (open-bay sides) of bars like these, moguls form, much like those found along Gulf beaches. These alternating guts and bars generally have hard, sandy bottoms covered with grass beds, which grow thicker in some stretches than others. On the “insides” (shoreline sides) of the spines of these bars lie guts, which usually have barren, muddy bottoms. Extending from the edge of the inside gut to the shoreline, grass beds form in the shallows, creating a potholeTSFMAG.com | 15
covered flat between the bar and the bank. All these features hold trout, redfish and other predators at times. In general, I find better fishing on the bars themselves in warm months, during the same time-frame when fishing around specific rocks works well. The inside gut and the flats lying between the bars and the shorelines generally produce better during cooler weather. A second type of offshore sand bar system adorns Alazan Bay. Three large sand bars lie in the interiors of the coves and pockets in this shallow back bay’s eastern half. Under about two to two and a half feet of water, grass usually grows atop the crowns of these bars. Waters approximately a foot to fifteen inches deeper surround the “humps”. Especially during moderate-weather months, fishing around the grass beds growing on these sand bars can produce monster trout. Other Texas bays have no sand bar systems like these, so catching fish on and around them requires specialized techniques and strategies. Fishing the alluvial fans associated with Baffin’s tidal flats does not. Fringing the entire Laguna Madre, these shallow, sandy areas become alternately inundated by salty water, then left high and dry, as winds drive tide levels up and down. Over time, water moving onto and off of the tidal flats washes sand into deeper areas adjacent to their mouths, forming alluvial fans, triangular-shaped sandy areas within the predominantly grassy flats. As with serpulid rocks and offshore bars, these anomalies attract both prey and predator species. When tides are high, mullet, other small fish and crustaceans venture into the shallows of the tidal lakes. When tides fall out, these creatures retreat back onto the main-bay flats, where hungry predators often wait. This movement, like the transfer of sand from the lakes to the flats, has been going on for centuries, in effect programming Baffin’s predator species to take advantage of the feeding opportunities. Monster trout instinctively know where to go when looking for a meal. They respond to seasonal and weather changes predictably, just as migrating birds know where to stop for food and drink along their well-established routes. Fishing the sandy pockets in the grass beds fronting the entrances to tidal lakes produces plenty of big trout in Baffin, particularly when warm water flows out of the lakes onto cooler main-bay flats. One of the best sessions I ever experienced played out in such a situation. Up and down the shorelines of the Laguna Madre, particularly along its western side, alluvial fans fronting tidal flats exist. The other features which make Baffin Bay unique occur only within the confines of one of the best-known big trout fisheries in the world. Studious anglers who learn to safely navigate among these potentially treacherous features have a chance to experience firsthand why so many trophy trout fanatics hold this bay in such high regard.
Contact
Kevin Cochran
16 | November 2013
Kevin Cochran is a full-time fishing guide at Corpus Christi (Padre Island), TX. Kevin is a speckled trout fanatic and has created several books and dvds on the subject. Kevin’s home waters stretch from Corpus Christi Bay to the Land Cut.
Trout Tracker Guide Service Phone Email Web
361-688-3714 kevxlr8@mygrande.net www.FishBaffinBay.com www.captainkevblogs.com
STORY BY Billy Sandifer
18 | November 2013
i need to take a shoRt BReak on the “how to”
articles to bring y’all up to date on what’s going on in our salty world. Mr. Joe Ames went missing while wade fishing in San Antonio Bay and it is believed he might have been attacked by an alligator. It is unknown whether the alligator attacked him while he was fishing or if something else happened to him and the gator discovered his body. I’ve always felt that as a group we have long been far too complacent about the numerous, very real dangers wade fishermen face. Our sympathies go out to Mr. Ames’ family and friends. Wade fishing by yourself is always a risky business. The “Rim” Fire near Yosemite National Park has currently burned 255,000 acres of National Park. That’s 371 square miles with a cost of 81 million dollars. The fire is currently 80% under control. It was started by an illegal fire a hunter let get away from him. The largest California fire on record was the “Cedar Fire” in Cleveland National Forest, originally intentionally set by a lost hunter as a signal fire in hopes it would attract help. It burned 430 square miles, killed 15 people, and destroyed 2,200 homes. Here in Texas we all know a lot of us don’t hunt because it’s so expensive to lease a place and where government land is readily available to hunt on people carelessly burn up such huge tracts of
TSFMAG.com | 19
Tricked out ain’t the half of it – beach fisherman’s chuckwagon-style detachable grub box that mounts to fixed hooks installed on the side of the truck.
Scarlet Tanager -Piranga olivaceaMale is bright red and black in breeding plumage and molts to yellow green in winter. Present in Texas during April-May and again in September during migrations. Winters in South America and breeds in deciduous forests of Eastern North America. Subsists primarily on insects and is an enormous benefit to woodlands and orchards by consuming vast numbers of gypsy moths and tent caterpillars.
Jimmy Jackson photo
20 | November 2013
precious natural resource it’s genuinely tragic. Now I know its doubtful y’all have ever burned down a national park but the need is just as strong for proper care and consideration be given our coastal resources or they will disappear just as all that forested land has. September 1, Eric “Oz” Ozolins officially became a fishing guide on PINS. On September 9 I turned my business name (Padre Island Safaris) and website over to him. Jeff Wolda is still offering light tackle and sightseeing charters. His website is PI-Adventures.com and his phone number is 361-215-8400. His e-mail is Jeffwolda@gmail.com. Oz is an extremely successful, state of the art shark fisherman and will be doing shark fishing trips in addition to light tackle and sightseeing charters. Oz is honest and highly qualified and all you new shark fishermen and wannabe shark fishermen would learn a lot spending the day downisland with him. He is going to do overnight shark trips as well as day trips. Oz’s phone number is 361-877-3583. His e-mail address is oz@ oceanepics.com. Oz’s web site is extremecoast.com. Now these two young men are not really in competition for charters as there are plenty enough to support two guides on PINS. Problem is getting enough good condition days to do the charters. My personal hope is that both of them will get better at it than I ever was. There’s so much more information available now days than I ever dreamed of having access to and I’ll help out in any small way that might help as they get their routines established. We’ve had a lot of work done on the Friends of Padre website and I
Here’s a highly portable, detachable fish cleaning board that is very useful when camping or cleaning a mess of fish for lunch.
Not that I knew anything else to do anyway. God blessed me to be able to do that and I am and will forever be grateful for that as there really isn’t and never has been any place for me in town. Every time we get a new superintendent he revises rules and regs and we never know which way things will go. This is why I have tried so hard to build Friends of Padre into a force to be reckoned with. With a track record of stewardship so much better than NPS’s record that they would never even consider curtailing driving on the beach because we very simply are too much of an asset to their efforts and the overall wellbeing of PINS. That is why the Big Shell Cleanup is so important; it clearly emphasizes how much the beach user group cares about the beach. I figure sooner or later driving on PINS will end Beach camper’s cooking up as a legal case in the courts. There and dining table. is not and never has been a group to invite everyone to visit it at www.friendsofpadre.com. We are making stand up for the beach people. CCA or SEA isn’t going to go toe to toe at least one round trip down the beach to the Port Mansfield jetties with the feds in court on behalf of beach users. So with this reality per week and are posting updates on driving and sea conditions, the in mind Stephen Naylor and I formed the Friends of Padre group to amount of sargassum present, a fishing report, and a bird sighting fill the bill. Other than the cleanup it’s had a slow but steady growth report weekly. If conditions are too adverse to complete the trip then but with the gung-ho current hoard members it is growing rapidly. that will also be reported on the site. This report will be 100% truthful We need your help and financial support. And in this case you aren’t and accurate and done by professionals so it will be a real blessing to helping us; you are helping yourselves and future generations. folks from out of the area intending to travel to PINS in the near future. Although the surf seems to get tougher to fish successfully each These trips and the vehicles used come totally from Friend of Padre year, 2013 will go down in my records as the year we were shut out donations from the public and are carried out by unpaid Friends of through at least mid September with fishable days being few and far Padre board member volunteers. If we go between and the abundance of fish when Members of the Pena family the entire length of the beach; and normally we did have good days minimal at best. sharing in the fall bounty at PINS. we will, these trips cost us about $80 in fuel Our summer trout season tried to kick off a plus oil and wear and tear on the vehicle couple of times but sargassum or upwellings and ruined tires. Donations and anyone of cold, offshore water curtailed the action or group interested in helping sponsor or in short order each time. I’m hoping fall will support these activities would be most give us some good memories of 2013. welcomed. It’s a good organization well If we don’t leave any there won’t be any. worth supporting. Friends of Padre is also -Capt. Billy L. Sandifer the group that holds the Annual Big Shell Beach Cleanup each year. The next cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, 22 Feb, 2014. Many of you who have kept up with the numerous problems plaguing PINS for the last few years will be glad to know that superintendent Joe Escoto has transferred to a different duty station. Retired after 20+ years of guiding It will be a while before they get his replacement on board and anglers in the Padre surf, Billy Sandifer (“Padre of Padre Island” to friends & currently they have an interim superintendent. Hopefully the new admirers) is devoted to conserving the “super” will be more visitor concerned and user-friendly. God help us natural wonders of N. Padre Island & if he’s worse. As far back as I can remember I have believed and told teaching all who will heed his lessons to enjoy the beauty of the Padre Island others that I believe the day will come when the feds stop us from National Seashore responsibly. driving on the beach. I always prayed God would let me drive on it long enough for me to work out my career so I wouldn’t be out of Website www.billysandifer.com a profession and too old for anyone to hire me to do anything else.
CONTACT
BILLY SANDIFER
22 | November 2013
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24 | November 2013
STORY BY Martin Strarup
“Bodie, you should get a new boat,”
Tommy Meyers told his friend. “The last couple of months all you’ve done is work on the one that you have instead of fishing and you’ve just been cussing everything about this old tub.” Bodie had to grin just a little because Tommy was exactly right in what he was saying. He hadn’t fished much at all because all of a sudden anything and everything that could go wrong with a boat and an outboard motor had started going wrong with his boat. The problem was that new boats cost about as much as he paid for his house when he built it and, man oh man, to buy another would sure put a hit on his savings. “I’m hoping that this wiring job will take care of the current problems Tommy Boy, but I’m not going to bet any money on it,” Bodie said with a frown. “The tournament is in four months Bodie and you know that you have to fish the tournament, so why don’t you just call Donny and tell him to build that boat of your dreams because I ain’t really sure that this is going to fix your boat.” And unfortunately, Bodie wasn’t sure that his bad luck was going to improve with the complete rewiring of this boat either. After the last cow had been loaded on the last trailer, Bodie sighed with relief and told the hands to take the rest of the week off. Gathering the herd from the 1,800 acres of thorn, cactus, rattlesnakes and ground hornets had just about worn him, the horses, and his crew completely out. “Just be sure to check the bay side pastures and make sure that the water is running into the tanks and ya’ll decide who will be dropping the hay the day after tomorrow,” Bodie told his cowboys. He turned to his pasture manager Monroe and told him to take it easy
but to check on things, then climbed into his truck and headed home. He called Tommy but got no answer so he called Captain Red and told him that he was going to trailer his boat to the ramp and would Red be so kind as to meet him there so that he could take his truck and trailer to the boat stall. Red said that he would and Bodie hooked onto his trailer and set off for town. Red had gotten there before him and was kicking at a dead mullet when Bodie drove up. Red took the wheel while Bodie climbed into the boat and Red backed him down the ramp. The old outboard started right up and Bodie backed it off the trailer. With a wave to Red, Bodie idled out into the channel and headed to his boat house. “Well the gauges are working, the motor started and the GPS turns on; maybe I got this licked after all.” Bodie said to himself with a smile. As if on cue the gauges all went blank, the GPS turned off and the motor shut down. Bodie looked under the center console and made sure that the wires were tight on the battery terminals and they were. He pulled the cowling off of the motor and checked the wiring harness there but didn’t see a problem. About then one of the red Coast Guard boats came up behind him and stopped to see if they could help. “About all you can do for me Jim is to tow me back to the docks if you wouldn’t mind,” Bodie said. Bodie called Red on his cell phone and told him what was going on and, grumbling, Red got back into Bodie’s truck and headed back to the ramp. Bodie cast the line off from the Coast Guard boat and steered into the slip at the ramp. Red was backing down and Bodie jumped out to guide the boat onto the trailer as Red walked the winch strap down to him. “Dang it Bodie you should get rid of this relic and buy you a new boat.” Red said. TSFMAG.com | 25
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26 | November 2013
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“That’s what I’m hearing, Red,” Bodie replied. Bodie pulled out a ledger when he got back to the house, turned a few pages, punched some numbers into an old calculator, then cussing he tossed the ledger back into a drawer and got a beer from the refrigerator. “Maybe I’m just too tight but I just can’t see me paying that kind of price for a new boat,” Bodie said out loud. Sometime after midnight his dog started barking and Bodie slipped out the backdoor with his .45 in one hand and a flashlight in the other. He smelled the caustic smelling smoke right away and as he rounded the corner of the house he saw what was causing it. His boat was on fire and the fiberglass was literally melting off and hitting the ground. As the burning material landed on the dry grass the grass caught fire and the wind was going to blow the fire right to his shop and barn. Quickly he called the sheriff ’s office and they in turn called out the fire department as Bodie used a garden hose to try and keep the fire away from the structures on his property. Seeing that he wasn’t going to turn the fire with the hose, he ran into his house and grabbed his truck keys. He choked on the smoke as he made his way into the barn and backed the truck up behind his house. Then he got the tractor out and using the blade he tried to cut a small berm between the burning boat and grass and his buildings. He could see the fire lapping at the wall of his shop and he knew that it was going to go. While he was doing that the first person from the volunteer fire department pulled through his cattle guard and roared up to the house. “Has the gas tank caught yet,” the fireman yelled to Bodie. “Hell I don’t know but I don’t think so,” Bodie yelled back. The loud whooshing noise and the rush of flames a few moments later confirmed that no, the tank had not, until just then. Bodie drove the tractor over by his pickup as the first pumper truck made its way onto the scene and man did those boys have their routine down. In no time the two inch hoses were putting out the grass fire and hosing down the burning shop building. The firemen stayed until daylight to make sure that no more fires were going to pop up and after refilling their cups with fresh coffee. Bodie thanked them again for saving his barn. “Just part of our job Bodie and we’re sure sorry about your shop and your boat.” The young fireman said. “I can scramble up some eggs and sausage and heat up some biscuits if y’all want some,” Bodie offered, but the firemen thanked him for the offer and they left to go to their day jobs. Red, Tommy and some of Bodie’s other friends stood by not really knowing what to say but Bodie just told them to come on in and have breakfast. Tommy was the first one through the door. “Well the good thing about all of this Bodie is that now you can get you a brand new boat!” Tommy said with a smile. Red kicked Tommy in the shin and Tommy yelled and started jumping around on one foot but a look from Bodie made him take a seat at the big table and be quiet. After breakfast everyone left but Red and while he and Bodie sat at the table drinking coffee, Red asked Bodie what he had in mind to do. “That’s the problem Red and don’t you say a word to anyone else, but after I gave that chunk of money to my niece and her husband when he was hurt and not working, if I buy a new boat there sure isn’t going to be much left of my savings,” Bodie said with a frown. “She’s my late sister’s daughter, a good girl, and her husband is TSFMAG.com | 27
28 | November 2013
“I would have come out and helped but me and Red went out after he got home from your place and got into some really nice trout over by the slough near the boat cut.” Tommy said with a smile. Red muttered something about Tommy being a half bubble off plumb but Bodie just smiled and asked “Any size to them?” Tommy told Bodie that he had almost landed one that would have gone at least thirty but suddenly Red spit a mouthful of beer at Tommy’s exaggeration and said the fish wasn’t an inch over twentyfour. Bodie just smiled, ordered a bacon cheese burger, bought Red and Tommy a beer, and told them not to forget him the next time they went. – Part II next month! –
MARTIN STRARUP
CONTACT
a good man but they stood to lose the home place and everything they had so what could I do?” Bodie said. “He’s on disability now and what with losing his left leg and arm, but the drilling company dragging this out, who knows if or when they’ll be able to pay me back,” he sighed. Red just nodded his head and told Bodie that he could use his boat whenever he needed and then said goodbye and left. Bodie pulled the ledger out and once again cussed when he ran the numbers. “Sure think you’re accomplishing a lot in life, putting money away and then when you need it…well what can you do?” Bodie thought. On Sunday afternoon Mr. Connor stopped by Bodie’s place and Bodie stopped his cleanup chore to go talk to his employer. “I heard you lost your boat but I didn’t know you lost your shop too,” Mr. Connor said. “Well I lost the building but I had insurance on it so I’ll rebuild that and most of the tools are okay but the power tools are just a melted mess of plastic and copper now,” Bodie said. “Well anything you need Bodie you just let me know and I’ll see to it that you get it,” Mr. Connor said as he climbed into his truck. Bodie thanked him then went back to the sad chore of cleaning up the huge mess. Bodie had enough of hauling junk to his dump and decided to shower then head to Haddon’s to grab some supper and a beer. Tommy was in his regular spot with Red a few stools down, so Bodie had a seat between them. “You need any help out there Bodie?” Tommy called to him. “I’ve just about got it cleaned up Tommy.” Bodie replied.
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
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(left) We’ve been mixing morning hunting with afternoon fishing. Jack Dallas, Chance Lemoine, and Hunter Uzzle had a great cast and blast recently. (below) The morning shoot before fishing; Scott Vaughn, Blaine McElduff, Hunter Uzzle and Jack Dallas. You have to love teal season in the Sabine marsh.
(above) The promise of a calm marsh pond and cooler weather can mean aggressive redfish. (right) Flounder fishermen like Lauren Pickard will no doubt enjoy the fall months ahead on Sabine.
30 | November 2013
STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE
I guess Al Pacino
said it best in the movie Any Given Sunday — “Life is a game of inches.” The difference between being a hero or a goat on the water can often be measured in those same critical inches. Being off by just a fraction can spell defeat where victory was once believed to be an absolute certainty. Being “off the mark” in anything is obviously an undesirable position to be in and fishing is certainly no different. How many times have we all listened to other fishermen, as well as ourselves, recount stories of fishing trips when we “caught ‘em on every cast” or “couldn’t keep our bait away from them.” What are often lost in those stories are perhaps the most important pieces of the puzzle; like why were those fish in that location, what made that location so attractive to the fish, and so on. With all the water out there to choose from, why do certain spots produce so much better than others? Now I’ll be the first guy to admit that there are plenty of fishermen out there who are far more detail oriented than I am and that’s what makes them as good as they are. Right here in Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine there are some of the best in the business at deciphering the code and unlocking the answers. Guys like Jay Watkins, Mike McBride, and Kevin Cochran are some of the best you will find at detecting subtleties that translate into more and better fish. By truly studying the factors and understanding how different things affect fish at different times, these guys have honed their craft to a point that most of us can only strive to imitate. Their attention to detail is probably what impresses most, each day on the water is somewhat calculated and already planned out well in advance of reaching the location. Solving the problem or figuring out the puzzle is basically what we do when we go fishing and the grand prize is finding the “X”
that marks the spot where stories and heroes are made. I’m sure if you sit down and think about your fishing career, each one of us can come up with an “A-Ha” moment when the light comes on and suddenly it all makes sense. I can remember mine as plain as day and more vividly than any high dollar HD TV screen. Nearly 20 years ago as an aspiring fishing guide I somehow had the good fortune of becoming friends with TSF’s Dickie Colburn and he had decided to share his knowledge of the Sabine River with me. Very few folks have logged the hours on this body of water that Dickie has, so it was a real education to spend time in the boat with him. As we probed the river and Intracoastal Canal, Dickie was always very particular about how we set up on a spot and eventually I learned why. One particular area that we pulled up on showed me exactly why it was so important to understand your setup. As we slid the anchor over the side and got into position I could see a submerged point that ran out perpendicular to the shore toward the deeper channel. Dickie explained that the fish were relating to the point and their position would change with the tide movement. Our initial set up proved to be wrong as we failed to draw a strike. After 20 minutes of probing the area we pulled the anchor and moved 20 yards in order to reach the other side of the point. Our first casts were met with vicious strikes as a pair of redfish began doing their best to stretch our string. After landing the fish we proceeded to sit in that one spot and catch redfish until we were tired of them. That one move to reach a slightly different zone had been the difference between a busted trip and a lifetime memory. Another example that comes immediately to mind happened on Lake Calcasieu several summers back. Calcasieu is a much different body of water than Sabine due to the amount of structure; in fact it’s TSFMAG.com | 31
32 | November 2013
your approach when you feel like you have a pattern put together, and do not abandon it too soon. It may be a matter of a small adjustment that separates a bad day from one that could possibly be epic. In the coming weeks and months we will see a huge transition from our summer patterns as each progressive front will dump more and more bait into the open water from the marshes. The areas near drains and tributaries will become magnets for both predator and prey as each one clings to the structure for different reasons. Flounder fishermen in particular will pay close attention to these spots as big numbers of flat fish will congregate there in hopes of an easy meal. A patient angler who sets up correctly can often be rewarded with good numbers fish from one small spot. By taking the time to truly explore and analyze the areas you fish instead of rushing through them on the way to the next spot, your knowledge and skill level will continue to grow as will your success rate.
Chuck Uzzle
Contact
very similar Trinity Bay and the Galveston complex in general. After having spent most all of my time on Sabine not really fishing structure such as oyster reefs and such, it took me a while to understand the significance of these structures when I fished Calcasieu. During one particular stretch I had come to find a great bunch of fish that were hanging on an open water patch of shell about the size of a swimming pool, which made it a very small target. Due to the small size of the reef it was crucial to be in just the exact spot in order to take advantage of the fish that were there. For a week straight I had an ongoing duel with another guide to see who would be in the best position. Sometimes we would arrive and set up on opposite sides of the shell in hopes that you had picked the right side for the day. It usually didn’t take long to figure it out, one boat started catching fish and the other boat was relegated to spectator status, or just flat out leaving. I guess I wound up in the right spot about half the time and the other half found me watching as the guys in the other boat would catch fish nearly non-stop, four rods at a time. In fact I watched a couple of those days when the boat I had the ongoing duel with would finish their limit, untie from the anchor, back away, and then let their other guides tie up to the anchor already there, and start catching their fish. Talk about being on the X, they were exactly on it. Now what both of these stories have in common is the fact that there are certain places where fish want to be and it’s our job to figure out why they want to be there. Putting together a formula or pattern and using it to determine the most productive method takes time and patience; it’s not something that is discovered easily. Be thorough in
Chuck fishes Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes from his home in Orange, TX. His specialties are light tackle and fly fishing for trout, reds, and flounder. Phone 409-697-6111 Email cuzzle@gt.rr.com Website www.chucksguideservice.net
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STORY BY JOE RICHARD
34 | November 2013
We’ve all had that certain kind of day
on the water where the next boat, or wader, even someone in the same boat catches all the fish. As the years go by these trips are often forgotten, but there is humor and lessons to be learned. I recently came across my account from 1982 of such a day, back when details were fresh and not fogged by the prism of time. I’ve included it below, a very humbling day on the water. And as a bit of fun, I solicited similar confessions from TSF’s solid group of guides and writers. One would expect these stories to be dated, and they are. Guides in their groove today, with years of experience, are expected to salvage a day on the water if the fish are biting at all. I’ll start off with Houston artist Sam Caldwell’s account, since he was kind enough to provide his painting of jumping tarpon. Sam Caldwell: Us more-mature fishermen treasure memories of those moments when we yell with delight as a fine fish makes the drag scream, and a nearby fisherman has to watch with envy. “Luck has nothing to do with it,” you advise the unlucky angler as you wrestle the big ‘un closer. “You have to be prepared for anything.” There are those awful memories of times when the fish Gods smile on someone else. My hands-down favorite resentment story involves two of the best fishermen on the Texas coast, Ben Kocian and Joe Richard. It is midnight at Pass Cavallo, the tide going out, a full moon beating down. Tarpon time. We are collecting material for an overdue Tide article. Artist Ben Kocian and I are in my little POS boat, Not That Serious, lowering bait, which is shrimpboat cull procured from Bobby’s Bait dock. My tarpon gear consists of a handful of sockets TSFMAG.com | 35
and two spark plugs as weights, a few rusty circle hooks and an ancient Garcia 6000 reel. Ben grumbles. Anchored 25 yards right beside us, editor Joe Richard deploys a spread of four baits from the stern of his 23-foot SeaCraft. There are yells of delight, screaming, too many bull redfish, singing reels and flashes of a camera strobe from Joe’s boat. Often. At one point, Ben and I see two huge silver kings they’ve hooked, a double-header reaching high for that big moon at the same moment, imprinted on our retinas like a brilliant flash. But there is revenge: Joe missed the photo, so I painted that scene. Martin Strarup: Skunked? The first thing that comes to mind was a trip to the wells in West Matagorda Bay, back when plastic shrimptails first hit the shelves. I’d been bragging to a friend who had never fished the bay wells before, to put the shrimp away, get off the reefs and hit the wells instead. “Man, we get our limits fast, the trout are all solid 20 to 24 inch fish, all on plastic!” I was telling the truth. We were hammering trout at the wells and we’d limit so fast that we could just head on further to the south shoreline for redfish, and still be back in Port O’Connor or Palacios for lunch. I’d found some rootbeer shrimptails that Hogie was making. They were long, slim and had a “fire” tail, that when combined with a 3/8-ounce lead head were just deadly on trout at the wells. “I want to go,” he said, so we planned on a trip next morning.
36 | November 2013
All the way to Palacios I told him what he needed to do in order to catch those trout. I told him that he would feel a “thunk” when a trout picks the bait up, but don’t set the hook. Instead you just raise your rod tip and start reeling. I told him to count-five before he put his reel in gear, give the bait time to get into the zone. I probably went over this 50 times during the ride to the ramp. We arrived at my favorite wellhead, set the anchor perfect for an incoming tide, told him where to cast and then I moved to my spot in the boat. Before I could get my rod ready he had a fish on and I netted it, handed him the net and I made my first cast. Nary a hit, and before I could get my lure out of the water he had another trout on. Again I netted the fish and again I made an empty cast with nothing to show for it. This went on until he looked at me and said, “I think I have my limit, do you want me to help you catch yours?” I said no, told him to have a snack and let me fish from the bow where he was fishing. So we changed places, I took his spot and still couldn’t get a bite. He got tired of just sitting there eating lunch, so he made a cast and in seconds was hooked up. It made no sense at all, none. We were casting to the same dang shell pad using the same baits, same reels and brand of line, and the only difference was that he was using a Lamiglass rod and I was using a Fenwick. I didn’t know what to make of it but told him, after (much to my chagrin) he released another trout, to go ahead and keep them if he caught any more. He then caught a limit of trout for me. I wasn’t happy and pretty sure I tasted blood from biting a hole in my lip. But I was a good sport, I think. I made him buy us lunch at the Y Cafe in Palacios. True story and to this day he’ll grin and ask if I’ve been fishing the wells lately. And that was 30 years ago. Joe Doggett: Doug Pike and I stood side-by-side on a lighted pier at Port Aransas, casting frantically at the ghosting images of speckled trout swirling and “popping” amid the yellow glow. Pike and I are great friends but always competitive on the water. The score following an hour of trial and error with soft plastics, spoons, and the latest “killer plugs” was zero-to-zero. And these were good trout, most in the two- to three-pound class. The skunking was frustrating but at least Pike was equally inept. He clipped a jig from his TSFMAG.com | 37
line and eyed my plastic box of baits. “Mind if I take a look?” “Help yourself, rookie.” If I couldn’t produce, it wasn’t happening. Pike pawed through the trays and held up a forgotten Bingo Flash plug. The slow-sinking lure was a stubby baitfish imitation with a white head and opaque gold-foil sides. He knotted the Flash and lobbed to the edge of the illuminated water. The little plug drifted and fluttered about a foot under the calm surface. It canted on its flat side like a crippled minnow. Uh-oh, I thought. The Flash had an immediate and undeniable correctness, both in motion and profile. A three-pound trout thought so, too; Pike’s rod lunged against the solid strike. Naturally, that was the only Bingo Flash in my pier box. “Care to switch?” I asked. “Can’t hear you in all this wind, partner.” When the tide quit running 30 minutes later, Pike had six or seven solid trout on the planks. My tally remained zero. I had suffered a severe whipping with my own lure. The white Flash (flatter and wider than the regular Bingo) with gold foil sides remains a killer bait under lights. I’ve used if often since then. It has a ghostly look and very slow and subtle sink rate. But I’ve got to give Pike credit for picking up on it.
the net. Our own gold spoons easily landed by the same rock he was casting to, but we never drew a hit. We let the spoons sink deeper, only to snag rock. Finally, after about 90 minutes of serious action and putting on a show, the bigger boat was done. He pulled anchor, cranked the engines and sped off with about 100 pounds of redfish, and seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. “Yeah, I know why,” muttered Greg. Our humiliation that day was perfect, and we vowed never again to fish the Galveston jetties without live bait. Soon after, carrying my boat and motor back across green, slippery rocks and into the truck was less fun that it sounds. However. On a positive note, next time I visited Galveston the following summer, this time in a 21-foot boat, we won the first annual Tournament of Kings while competing against 600 offshore anglers. That was quite a switch. So, there is a lesson here in that song by Dire Straits called The Bug:
Joe Richard: Our worst beat-down happened at Galveston’s south jetty. By then we’d been spoiled by a decade of great fishing using artificials on our home turf at the Sabine jetties, and knew better than to fish Galveston’s rocks without live bait; we’d been burned there a time or two before. Yet there we were, anxious to launch my brand new 14-foot jonboat and have some fun. My former college buddy Shmo used poor judgement, spending our last dime on a 12-pack, so we didn’t have money for the boat ramp fee. Instead, we’d have to lug my boat over granite rocks and launch in the ship channel. It was 1-2-3 and heave-ho, my new boat flew sideways, cleared the rocks with a big splash, christened minutes later with the name Slutpuppy. Then, we strapped on my balky 15-horse Evinrude that hated cold weather. No problem, it was August and the channel calm. Safely loaded up, we then cruised down that long line of rocks, sticking close for safety. Around the jetty’s end, and we were there. Anchored only 50 feet from granite, we then began casting gold spoons and MirrOlures. But the water was murky and we had no hits... That’s when a 25-foot center console, the only other boat out there, pulled around the jetty and joined us, anchoring only 30 feet away. (Potlicked by a bigger boat, nobody pays attention to jonboats). The skipper was shirtless and well-muscled, actually wore a captain’s hat with gold anchors. His two hottie shipmates looked great in scanty swimsuits. Real party gals. Snapping out of our trance, we watched this guy lob a big, kicking brown shrimp near the rocks, weighted with only a couple of BB split shot. He paused, tensed, then rared back into something big, and pretty soon a 12-pound redfish surfaced. Still green, too: the fight was prolonged, because first one beauty and then the other took shots with a perfectly-ample landing net. They hung jackknifed over the gunnel for half a minute at a time, first this way and that, port side and starboard, flailing, reaching with the net over and over, straining, thrashing the water. Finally an exhausted redfish was landed. I was exhausted, myself. “Jebus, I need a cigarette,” said Shmo. This happened nine more times, the bag limit for redfish was 10. This guy fought more fish than that, but his gals knocked several loose with
Everett Johnson Last week of April, 1999. I was still working full time. Pam and I arrived in Seadrift late Friday afternoon, fixed a margarita and got the boat ready. We fished almost daylight ‘til dark Saturday and again Sunday. The fishing was on—big time. So work plans changed. Sunday evening I called and left a message; I’d be at work after lunch. At first light on Monday we headed straight to the spot where we left them biting the evening before. Everything looked right and Pam fell right back in the groove. Evidently I wasn’t holding my mouth right. After an hour or so I retrieved the boat and idled up to Pam, telling her I had another spot in mind. “Oh, you’re just jealous,” she said, “Look—I just got another blowup!” We were not married yet, so I pretended not to hear and sweetly coaxed her into the boat. Rounding a nearby bend further down the shoreline, I noticed Jimmy Skalak’s big scooter, he and Barbara wading ahead. Jimmy gave the c’mon wave and we joined them. Now you have to know Skalak; he nearly always forgets or loses something. This day a gear bag was missing, along with his wading pants and stringer. What a sight, knee-deep in boxer shorts, chunking a woodpecker Top Dog along the Spartina grass, and knotted around his waist was a long piece of clothesline trailing a limit of really nice trout and two reds. “Come on in here,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m almost done and Barb only needs a couple.” So in we went, armed with Top Dogs, same color. Pam hooked up on the first cast, and again, and again. Jimmy was releasing fish and by then so was Barb. The bite finally ended. Pam lacked one trout for a limit, my stringer still empty. We turned to wade back to the boat and Skalak says, “You know Johnson; it happens. Some days you’re in ‘em, but you’re just not on ‘em.” They all had a good belly laugh and I did my best.
38 | November 2013
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David Koch prepares to release a nice red fish during our first frontal passage this fall.
J AY WAT K I N S
ASK THE PRO
On being the best angler you can be I have been seeing quite a few ducks the past two weeks and we have received some much needed rain along with some serious high tides – sure signs that fall is upon us. Preparations are definitely in order, like checking the old waders for leaks before that first cold wade. My preparations include taking my boat to Chris’s Marine for a complete checkup before cold weather hits. Fishing is too good this time of year to be out of commission for repairs that could have been prevented with routine maintenance. My fourth Mercury Pro XS has continued the “zero-downtime Mercury record” so I am totally sold on the fact that a Merc should be your next outboard. I know some probably grow tired of me singing the praises of Simms Fishing Products but the truth is, their products are excellent and the warranty is matched by none. I still have my original wading jacket that— after nine years of salt, rain, mud, Jay Ray and Ryan— continues to keep me dry and warm. Look me up at the dock this fall and I’ll show it to you. I have a pet peeve. What bothers the heck out of 52 | November 2013
me after all my years as a fishing guide is that so few understand the dedication and hard work required to be good at the things we attempt in life. I was pretty much average my whole life and finally it made me sick. On his deathbed my dad told me, “Jay, if you are going to be a fishing guide, be the best guide on the water.” Dad was a high school coach and huge fan of Vince Lombardi. Lombardi said, “If you’re OK with losing, you can never win.” Another quote from the legendary Green Bay coach, “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” So in my career, I have grown from being mediocre to a guide that wanted to be the best, to a guide that wants YOU to be the best. Time and time again I fish with anglers that can recite all the best quotes that professional fishermen are known to spout but refuse to follow. McBride does a great imitation of me as a banty rooster kicking up sand as I preach to my guys. It makes me laugh every time. Truth is I have to kick a little sand once in a while in order to teach effectively. Understand, I wade and chunk
right along with you, always have and always will. If you want a guide that simply watches and tells you how good you are, (when you’re really not), well I’m not your guide. I fish alongside my clients because it gets me in touch with the conditions and mood of the fish. Yes, fish are moody, and it takes time each day to find the rhythm. Have you ever seen a bird dog worth anything that just laid in the truck box or hunted lazily in a straight line? The truly good ones are chewing the latch off the box to go to work, always quartering back and forth, searching for birds. I’m a latch chewer. When I lose my desire to be in the water first and get the first point – well just go ahead and shoot me because I’m done. I want my clients to be coachable. Thick skin can be needed when I feel epic moments are being blown. When opportunities are missed I ask clients how much they have practiced since our last fishing trip. I want you to practice because without it you won’t get any better. I want you to develop good techniques and we do this by having a coach continually critiquing our actions. I’ll praise you when you do well and bust your you-know-what when you don’t. I bet I told the guy yesterday ten times to stop reeling the fish so close to the rod tip. I did this because I wanted him to do it right when the right fish was on the line. And for God’s sake stop looking at the tip of the rod to see if the fish is still on the line. This drives me crazy. It’s all about feel and inadvertently you will stop reeling as soon as the rod tip straightens. When the fish hauls butt straight at you and the pressure on the blank is released, you’ll stop reeling and look at me like “What happened? I thought I had that one.” Here’s another – Your buddy has a big fish on and you’re just standing there watching it swim by. You flash the thumbs-up and then a dumb grin as the fish wraps your leg. When it breaks off he’ll show you a finger but it won’t be his thumb. For Heaven’s sake get the heck out of the way so he can land the fish. While he is fighting it you can slip around and catch the one he left in the pothole. This is also a good way to discretely move your buddy off the sweet spot. We call this move the Ol’ Bob Hallin. Well, Glenn Hornsby calls it that, but it’s a long story. One more thing; If the rod builder wanted you to grip the rod in the middle when landing a fish he would have put a piece of cork there! And last: If you’re going to use a net, use one big enough to get a slot redfish or trophy trout in it. To be the best you can be you need to first learn and practice the basics. Casting is basic, and essential, even though some may think otherwise. Long and accurate casts are needed along the middle and lower Texas coast due to the water being shallow and clear much of the time. Never cast without first aiming. You should be constantly picking targets, which comes in handy when a sight-cast opportunity presents itself. I cast to anything, even bubbles on the water when nothing else is there. Learning the proper knots is critical. I use the MirrOlure Loop Knot for all my Bass Assassins as I like the jighead to swing freely side-to-side during my presentation. I use mono leader material way more than fluorocarbon, due to the stiffness of the latter. I am a braided line guy, although a late convert. I prefer 20lb mono leader attached to 8x30 braid, via the Uni-Uni joining knot. Learn to tie fail-safe knots for every application. After all, your line is only as strong as the weakest spot – usually a knot. Practice your knots while watching Monday night football. We need to work slowly when wade-fishing areas of particular interest. I will line my guys up and walk them on a slow-steady pace until a bite is received. At this point I want everybody to stop including the guy down on the end; who hasn’t practiced and cannot cast ten yards, yet expects a limit by 9:00 AM. I’ll bark when the line is pushed forward too quickly. I have guys I fish regularly that I cannot control, so I typically put them on a separate line they can sprint without screwing up the rest of the group. Today for instance, my guys were new to wading, and after explaining the reason behind the slow pace, they got it. During a five hour wade we caught and released thirty reds and a trout over 29 inches. I simply asked them if they were fishing with bait and caught a fish on the first cast, would they pull the anchor and drift forward or would they quickly bait up and send a stinky hunk of whatever right back into the same area? For the record—I don’t care whether you fish with lures, croaker, cut skipjack or hunks of blue crab. Just do it right and keep only the fish you need. Let’s move on to our fall patterns. It should be better than we expected with the rains we have received the past thirty days. Bottom grass is holding very well right now along both TSFMAG.com | 53
San Jose and Matagorda Islands. This bottom structure will continue to hold some of the best trout as long as it lasts. Don’t be afraid to fish windward shorelines during periods of NE wind. Northeast wind pushes water along San Jose and Matagorda and seagrass produces a very clean strip of water along the first and second guts of the island shores. Good stuff can happen under these conditions. Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent a little. I meant this as a bit of a spoof and I hope I made you laugh a little but, I want you to become a good angler – the best you can be. Get some practice and come see me when you want to increase your fishing knowledge. May your fishing always be catching. -Guide Jay Watkins
C ontact
Note the moon in the western sky as we approached our morning moonset minor feed period.
54 | November 2013
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
C A P T. S COT T N U L L
S H A LL O W W AT E R F I S H ING
Helping American Heroes Back in 2007 I wrote a piece about taking some wounded soldiers kayak fishing. It was something a few of us were doing to help take their minds off of the rehab. We figured a day on the water would be a welcome relief from the realities they were facing in the hospital. A couple years later I wrote another piece about Heroes on the Water (HOW), the organization that was spawned by those first outings. At that time Jim Dolan, president of HOW, was working to get better organized in order to help as many soldiers as possible. By that point it had become clear that taking these young men and women kayak fishing was reaching far beyond just an outing away from the hospital, it was actually helping to heal the mental wounds suffered by so many of these young people. Kayak fishing is now accepted by the military as an effective rehabilitation tool. Jim commented, “Spend a day on the water with a group of soldiers and you will understand the passion behind this program. 56 | November 2013
The injured soldiers are literally captains of their own kayaks – moving around on their own at their own pace, experiencing nature up close, and earning bragging rights for their catches. Kayak fishing is therapeutic for anyone, but particularly for military personnel recovering from injuries and trauma. Our mission is to give these heroes a chance to enjoy a challenging outdoor sport
that allows them to decompress from the stresses related to combat and from the physical and mental rigors of rehabilitation, and to join the kayak fishing band of brothers.” Jim, an American Airlines pilot and military vet, along with his wife, have worked tirelessly since those first outings. HOW has grown far beyond what any of us could have dreamed. At this time there are more than forty chapters in twenty-two states with over 1,100 volunteers having provided more than 6,100 vet days on the water. Amazing. I was prompted to write about HOW again by a couple of things. First off, Jim has decided to retire from American in order to spend even more time working with HOW. I’m honored to call Jim a friend and admire his determination and dedication to help as many wounded soldiers as possible. Second was a recent interaction I had with the wife of a soldier helped by HOW. I was visiting my good buddy Captain Dean Thomas down in Aransas Pass while he hosted a couple young soldiers for a few days of kayak fishing. Over the years Dean has “adopted” several of the guys he’s met through volunteering with HOW. Dean and his wife don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. These soldiers and their entire families are often welcomed into their home. Between fishing trips I talked with the wife of one of the soldiers about what HOW had done for her husband. I always knew the program helped, but hearing their story made me want to further spread the word of this great organization. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but luckily she recently wrote an article detailing the story of his first HOW trip. I couldn’t have possibly written it any better so I’ll just let you read her words. “It’s like a painting in my memory—a single, significant moment of this journey. A few street lamps cast a surreal glow in the dark, early morning fog. He barely even looked at me as I dropped him off and helped with his gear. He didn’t tell me goodbye; he didn’t kiss me. As I drove away, I looked back up at him, planted in the middle seat of the white passenger van. The van’s interior lights highlighted his hunched form. His jaw was set and I could feel his scowl even though it was hidden by his ball cap. No one else was in the van yet, but he was ready. He was a man on a mission. He was a man going fishing. After he returned from his first Afghanistan deployment in 2009, he bought a fishing kayak. On Saturday mornings he loaded up the yak on our little Toyota Corolla and headed off to the lake by himself. He was always more relaxed and easier to get along with when he returned from those early morning fishing trips. When he deployed the second time, he daydreamed about fishing just to keep himself sane. The night they called to tell me he was injured, I paced our back patio as I made phone calls and arrangements. His kayak was there in the back yard, its outline visible in the porch light. Each time it caught my eye I wondered, “Will he ever be able to go out on the water again?” The days following my notification were filled with chaos. I left my home in the middle of the night a few days after he was injured. I just ran out the door with a suitcase and never lived in that house again. We were reunited at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. When I
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everything. He was emasculated, broken, and diminished. I wondered if this is how our lives would always be. At the time I failed to see the hope, though, in his belligerence—sitting there with his set jaw and his eyes forward. He was angry; he was robbed of his independence. But he was going fishing, come hell or high water. When I picked him up after lunch, the change in him was astonishing. He was no longer balled up in pain and anger. His body was visibly relaxed, his face broke into an easy smile. The cocky banter that I love, even though I pretend it annoys me, was flowing freely. While he was in the kayak he was able to move freely and gracefully again. When he came back that afternoon, he was confident. He felt like a man again. Just one morning on the water eased months of pain and anguish. That morning was the first time I saw my husband really return from the war—Heroes on the Water brought him back to our family, back to himself. Heroes on the Water brought him home.” Megan Should you find yourself moved to help with this worthy organization there is plenty of information available at www.heroesonthewater. org. They are a 501c3 non-profit organization and gladly accept donations as well as volunteers, but what Jim wants more than anything are connections to soldiers who need their help. If you know of a veteran suffering, whether physically or mentally, who could benefit from a relaxing day of kayak fishing, please give them a shout. These young men and women have sacrificed greatly to provide us with freedom and security, it’s time we return the favor as best we can.
C ontact
got too far away from him, my knees went weak and I had to hold the wall for support. It was an interminable cycle of surgeries and recovering from anesthesia and pain crises. I wasn’t sure that things were ever going to be okay, that we would ever live outside those walls again. I was waiting for an elevator one afternoon with my friends who were there to support me. When the door opened we stood in stunned silence. Unloading from the elevator was a double amputee. Thrown over his shoulder was a kayak. A man. Two prosthetic legs. Carrying a kayak. In an elevator. In a hospital. In that moment, my friends and I knew that things were eventually going to be okay. My question was answered. “He will be able to go out on the water again.” We tried to convey the significance of the elevator kayak amputee, but Ollie didn’t quite believe us yet. In those days, I’m not sure he believed in the existence of anything outside of that hospital room. It was several more months before I dropped him off that foggy morning. There was a lot more pain, more surgeries, a cross-country move, a reunion with our children and several changes in living arrangements. He did not cope well with his necessary dependence on me and others—not only was he mostly unable to walk, he couldn’t drive, and even needed assistance in the shower. He was taking a multitude of drugs in order to tolerate the pain of having pins in each of his toes. Some of those medications made him insufferably belligerent. It was a dark, unhappy time for us both. On the fishing morning, he woke up with his alarm for the first time since the injury. He got himself up and dressed, then went to gather his fishing gear that he’d prepped the night before. Chad Hoover and his kayak fishing buddies hooked Ollie up with some rods, lures, a PFD and other goodies. He meticulously organized it all and sat waiting for me at the front door, his milk crate on his lap and his PFD thrown across the back of the chair. Resentment flowed out of him—at the time I thought he resented me. Looking back, I think he resented needing me. I dropped him off and as I looked up at him sitting there insolently in the van, my heart broke. My fun loving, independent clown of a husband was now completely dependent on other people to do...
Capt. Scott Null is a devout shallow water fisherman offering guided adventues via kayak, poled skiff, and wading. Telephone Email Website
281-450-2206 scott@tsfmag.com www.captainscottnull.com
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58 | November 2013
By Gloria Alcaraz | CCA Intern Lower Laguna Madre | Brownsville
FIELD NOTES
You, Me, and Debris Take a moment and imagine that you are on a fishing trip with your family. As you are scouting the waters for a place to start your days fishing you come across a juvenile green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) swimming along in the shallows. As you reach for your camera, you notice a second object drifting in the water in close proximity to the turtle. You recognize the object as a plastic shopping bag, but the sea turtle visualizes the bag as a jelly fish (one of his favorite meals) and gives chase. Since you are too far away to intervene before the sea turtle reaches the bag, you have the unfortunate displeasure to witness the sea turtle’s attempts at consuming this plastic bag. This highly preventable scenario happens more frequently than is thought and affects marine life and their habitat throughout Texas’s marine ecosystems. This summer I had the privilege to work as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lower Laguna Madre Coastal Conservation Association intern in Brownsville, Texas. The experience I had there was like no other I have experienced before. The position put me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to perform at a higher level than ever before. The Brownsville Field Station’s 60 | November 2013
staff mentored and trained me through on-the-job training and various work assignments. Throughout the summer the one thing that I could count on was that no two days were ever going to be alike. By the end of the summer, I was confident with the field sampling techniques and using various sampling equipment. Most of my days were either spent out on a boat collecting fisheries independent data or stationed
at one of the local boat ramps collecting fisheries dependent data. However, no matter what kind of work I was performing, I noticed an unsettling trend‌ there was marine debris everywhere. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, marine debris is a problem along shorelines, in coastal waters, estuaries, and oceans throughout the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines marine debris as any manmade object discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters the coastal or marine environment. There are various types of marine debris such as plastics, glass, metal, Styrofoam, rubber or derelict fishing gear and vessels. The most common types of marine debris include
plastic bags, bottles, cans, cigarette filters, bottle caps and lids. Sources of land-based debris include littering, dumping, poor waste management practices, storm water discharges and extreme natural events. Materials can also be dumped, swept, or blown off vessels and stationary platforms at sea. Marine debris is a serious threat to marine life through entanglement, ingestion, and habitat degradation. Marine debris known to cause entanglement includes abandoned fishing gear such as nets, monofilament fishing line, and also six-pack plastic rings. Debris of this type may cause death due to drowning,
TSFMAG.com | 61
Gloria Alcaraz CCA Intern
suffocation or strangulation. Sea turtles and sea birds are more susceptible to harm from marine debris (especially plastics) than marine mammals and fish. Plastics are often mistaken for food by these species and are subsequently ingested. Ingestion often leads to death from starvation due to the loss of nutrition, internal injury and intestinal blockage. Debris materials can also damage important marine habitat. The Lower Laguna Madre contains over half of the State’s seagrass beds and there are reported instances in other systems where plastic bags have limited the ability of seagrass to photosynthesize which results in the loss of sea grass habitat. Marine debris can also suffocate sessile animals like tunicates and oysters. Marine debris is a global issue and will continue to pollute our waters and threaten marine life unless immediate action is taken. There are several government initiatives that are aimed at protecting our marine resources from debris. Such initiatives include the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act, Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act, Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, Beach Act, and the Clean Water Act. To be effective in cleaning up our valuable marine waters the general public also needs to be involved. This means you! You can make a difference that will prevent marine debris from entering marine environments. Avoid using single-use and disposable plastics bags and bottles, plates, dinnerware and razors. Use recyclable or reusable products and dispose of trash properly. Most importantly, remind or educate a friend or family member to do their part in preventing debris from entering marine environments, like our beautiful Lower Laguna Madre.
Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or www.tpwd.state.tx.us for more information. 62 | November 2013
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Research Vessel – Manta, is operated by the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
MIKE JENNINGS
TEXaS NEarSHOrE & OFFSHOrE
FLOWEr GarDEN baNKS From the earliest recollection of my interest in Gulf offshore fishing I remember the older fisherman that I admired and attempted to emulate, talking of a place called the Flower Gardens. I listened to their tales of the abundance and size of the fish it held. They talked of it being over 100 miles from shore and the two or three day trips to fish the area. At that time it was all but a pipe dream for me to think that I would ever get to see it. With today’s equipment we quickly lose perspective and many of us forget the day when 40 miles was going way out there. Now I run twice that on a daily basis, certain times of the year. Mind you I’m really not that old but this was also well before the modern 4-stroke outboard and boats that cruised in excess of 40 knots. The ability to make that kind of trip was just outside my means. None the less, the stories piqued my interest. When I finally got the opportunity to make the trip I jumped at it. I was in my late-20s and as with anything that we see as a milestone, my memories are vivid and will stick with me for life. The trip was in January and one of the best wahoo bites I ever witnessed. That one trip sparked my love for the Banks and made me want to learn more about them. This set me on a path that would ultimately land me the honor of being appointed to a seat on the Flower Garden Banks Advisory Council with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The purpose of the council is to bring together a diverse group of individuals with expertise in varying fields of interest in the Flower Garden Banks. The group ranges from recreational users to industry interests, researchers and conservation groups to name a few. The council serves as a source of advice to the sanctuary 64 | November 2013
manager regarding the management of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary From a recreational fishing standpoint, as we move into the fall of the year and these small weather windows between the cold fronts, many avid offshore fishermen start to think of the Flower Garden Banks and its incredible wintertime fishery. These pristine coral banks are located between about 75 to 100 miles offshore of Galveston and offer a long-range fishing destination that few really ever get the opportunity to experience. I am often surprised at just how few people even know that they exist just off our coast. The Flower Garden Banks are basically comprised of three large natural coral areas, East Flower Gardens, West Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank. These three banks make us a sanctuary that is one of only fourteen areas in the US protected by the US Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Flower Garden Banks Advisory Council meeting in progress.
These banks are home to hundreds of fish species and some that are extremely rare and native only to our local area. The Flower Gardens were said to have been first discovered by commercial fisherman in the late 1800s but the first recorded discovery didn’t happen until the late 1930s and because they rise to a depth of about 60 feet , the brightly colored corals and sponges can often be seen from the surface, lending to it being named the Flower Gardens. It wasn’t until the 1960s that scientists and government agencies began to really take a hard look at the geology and ecosystems associated with the banks. Many marine researchers, recreational divers and fisherman, began to see the significance of the Gardens and the need for protecting such a rarity with the passage of the Marine Research and Sanctuaries Act in 1972 and naturally, much discussion took place on having the Banks designated as a Marine Sanctuary. The Houston Underwater Club, a recreational divers group, is credited with the work and major push that was successful in getting the Flower Gardens nominated as a marine sanctuary in the late 1970s. Several issues delayed the process but in 1992 president George H. Bush signed the document making the Flower Garden Banks the tenth National Marine Sanctuary. This designation afforded the Banks a level of protection that would help to preserve them to what we know today as one of the healthiest coral areas in the world. Among some of the restrictions are anchoring within the sanctuary boundaries, and taking or harming any sanctuary
Fan coral at Flower Garden Banks.
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C O N TA C T
resources such as coral, plants or rock. The designation offered added protection to marine mammals, rays and whale sharks that frequent the Banks, often coming into contact with fisherman and divers. The designation as a marine sanctuary also affected fishing activities within the boundaries, basically prohibiting any fishing other than with conventional hook and line gear, and thus removing the possible impact of commercial bandit, long-line fishing, nets and trawls. The regulations even went so far as to prohibit the use of spear guns. This designation as a sanctuary was just the beginning. Since then it has definitely been and continues to be a work in progress. The research and conservation efforts are never ending. Concerns with oil spill impacts, water quality and coral health present constant challenges. The newest threats are from invasive species such as lion fish threatening the native fish populations. All of these issues offer unique challenges to not only the Advisory Council but also to the sanctuary managers, and especially in light of today’s economy and governmental budget cuts. With that in mind there are many opportunities for the casual recreational user, such as you and I, to get involved and help with the effort to preserve this precious one-of-a-kind marine resource. The Sanctuary offers volunteer opportunities for education and outreach through public school programs, community events, and trade shows. There are even opportunities for the more a hands-on approach through recreational diving experiences on the banks themselves. Each and every one of us that are users of our natural marine resources and especially those of us that are consumptive users (fishermen), owe it not only to ourselves but to generations to come to take a proactive approach at preserving places like the Flower Garden Banks. If these pristine natural coral banks mean half as much to you as they do to me, take a look at the Sanctuary website at www. flowergarden.noaa.gov and look into not only how you could help, but how this group of dedicated individuals are working for you.
Captain Mike Jennings is a professional charter captain with more than 25 years offshore experience. Mike is the owner/operator of Cowboy Charters in Freeport TX and is known locally for running further and fishing harder for his clients.
Telephone Email Website
979-864-9439 texassportfishing@gmail.com www.cowboycharters.com
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S C O T T S O M M E R L AT T E
F LY F I S H I N G
Fly Fishing and the Weather It is an undeniable fact that we, as fly fisherman, are fair-weather types that cannot even stand the sight of a single cloud in the sky. It can also be said that very few of us are realists in that we would like to see clear skies and light winds everyday of the year or, at the least on the days we choose to fish. Well folks, I am here to tell you, piss-poor weather is a fact of life. The question is- how do we make the most of a crappy hand dealt us by that evil witch Mother Nature? I have always had a love-hate relationship with Mother Nature. But of course nearly all Texas anglers do. One year we are begging for rain to end drought conditions and the next, well we are begging for a break from torrential floods. As a rule though, I do not care for inclement weather in the least, unfortunately I have had to learn to deal with it for a couple of reasons. For one, if I don't fish, I can't make a living. As for the other reason, well… sometimes you just have to go for it because you never know what will happen. Unfortunately, I have lost out on a lot of money over the years canceling trips in that I was scared to put bad days in the books knowing the weather was going to suck. And, it has taken me quite a few more years to learn that sometimes you have to take a gamble on the weather. Just a couple of weeks back I had a Sunday off and decided to join my friend David Yeates from Gruene Outfitters for a morning of beachfront fishing. The tide wasn’t going to be right until later in the morning so we decided to meet at Josie’s for breakfast. Upon arriving and exchanging a few pleasantries the bottom fell out of the sky and it proceeded to rain and rain for hours on end. Fortunately we were in good company as several of David’s friends had joined us. 68 | November 2013
Though the rain continued long after we had cleaned our plates, we had plenty to discuss as we bounced the conversation back and forth between boats and fishing. We debated calling it a day and all heading back to our dwellings of origin but, with high hopes of salvaging the day, someone always seemed to talk us out of it so- the conversations continued. Finally, about 10:30, the rain subsided and we all made a mad dash for the water. Upon arriving at the jetties, David and I found conditions way too rough to head out the channel
point on the horizon and we scooted out across the bay. Knowing fully well it was going to be a tough day I headed strait for one of what I like to call, my “in case of an emergency-break glass here” spots. Eleven upper-slot reds later, we were headed back across the bay reveling in the fact that we had just kicked Mother Nature’s butt when in all reality we both knew- she let us win. Sure, I can give you dozens upon dozens of examples when we should have stayed at the dock but as the years accumulate, I can give you more and more success stories that have come from the attitude of “let’s just go for it.” The crazy part is, those who just go for it, the rewards of a successful day are two-fold. For one, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is a very rewarding feeling. In addition, I can assure you with a great deal of certaintythose who are willing to sometimes just go for it, well they are the ones who become better anglers.
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onto the beachfront even in his panga. So, with a waning ebb tide and little to no visible activity of feeding fish, we decided to grind it out with fast sinking lines. An hour into the grind, my strip was interrupted abruptly and definitively. Cussing aloud as I thought I had snagged the bottom, yet again ruining another hook. However, salvation arrived when my fly line ever so slowly started moving towards the rocks. After a remarkably tough fight, a smaller bull red came to hand. Shortly after David took the bow, he took notice of the fact that the swells in the channel were beginning to subside and made the recommendation that we return to our original plan and hit the end of the rocks. What we found upon arriving was nothing short of an all out feeding frenzy of smaller jacks in the 5-10 pound range. Not big but, tough enough to wear us out after catching who knows how many. Come mid afternoon the tide had gone completely slack and we made a casually steady clip back to the dock with tired arms and smiles on our faces that you couldn’t knock off with a Wiffle ball bat. That night I found myself on the phone with my customer for the following day discussing the possibility of cancelling our trip for the day because of the rotten forecast. After a brief recount of the morning we decided to just go. Well the next morning arrived and we almost again pulled the plug on the day but decided to put the panga back on the trailer and launch the skiff instead. Looking at the cloud-filled sky and hoping we had not made a bad call on the weather, I pointed the skiff for a
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
TSFMAG.com | 69
MARCOS GARZA
YO U T H F I S H I N G
My First Trip of
the Fall Season
It’s time to get those waders back out and get ready for some fall fishing. This is my favorite time of year because it’s time to start going after those big, fat momma trout. The water is less crowded, the air is cooler and, to me, the fishing is better. This month I’m going to talk about my most memorable fall fishing trips with my dad. One cool morning, my dad and I went out for a quick morning wade before I had to go dove hunting in the afternoon. We left before sunrise to get to an area that my dad had been catching some good trout in. Using a spotlight, my dad navigated through the floats that marked trot lines set for drum in the dark so that they would not get caught in the prop. Once we made our way through, the sun had begun to rise and the sky lit up in a bright orange. We could see our path and headed straight for the spot my dad wanted to fish. The water was calm, the wind was still and the air was cool as it should be in the late fall. 70 | November 2013
With nothing but catch and release on our minds, we left the stringers on the boat. We jumped off the boat and into the water. The water was cool. My dad and I spread out to cover the area well. We fan casted to fish the area effectively. Mullet were jumping and there were trout slicks popping up ahead of us. We slowly waded on, making sure to cover as much water as possible. After about 10 to 15 minutes, we finally started to get blow ups on our topwaters. Of course my dad was the first to land a fish. It took me a while, but I finally got a trout to stay hooked long enough for me to land it. Our morning started off a little slow, but as the sun rose, the fishing got better. With the sun rising, we moved up shallower. We were fishing next to a spoil island so we started to shift in that direction along with the bait. My dad was up against the spoil and I was still quite a ways off from it so I was able to cast almost directly at him without hitting him.
I heard some bait busting up shallow so I casted to about the general area since I was casting into the sun. Trying to keep from staring at the glare on the water, I kept my eyes to the side and just listened for the blow ups. I had a few here and there, but nothing big enough to stay on the hook. That was the case until I had a huge blow up on my chrome Spook. I couldn’t see the trout that had taken my plug but my dad was behind it and saw everything. Immediately he told me to back off of my drag and to just let the fish fight. I had an adrenaline rush because this was the first time I had fought a trout over 24 inches. I was excited and I did exactly as my dad told me as to not lose what was to be my biggest trout yet. I finally get her up to me and, my dad had already walked all the way to me. He hands me his Boga Grip and it takes me a few
tries but I finally get her on. I hold her up and I start shaking. I know that this is my biggest trout and my dad knows as well. He gets the camera and we get a few pictures and a video of the release. My morning had been made and my dad was proud. We headed home soon after I released the trout. There wasn’t much more left to do but go home and dwell on my achievement. Its times like these that I will always cherish. It was just me and my dad out fishing for fun, and practicing conservation by catching and releasing. These are the memories that make fall and winter my favorite time of year to fish. To be around family and friends and to share these moments with them is priceless. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving holiday and good luck in catching that big one.
CADE SIMPSON
K AYA K F I S H I N G C H R O N I C L E S
My most memorable Last month, in a message from reader David Roberts, I was asked to share the tale of my biggest or most memorable fish. The first thought that comes to my mind is “Where do I start?” Therefore I will briefly share a few memorable fishing moments along with a recent adventure that definitely etched itself as a top contender in my outdoor accomplishments. Growing up in southern Louisiana, my mother would haul my two siblings and me to the beach a few times each summer. Even from an early age (starting at about 5 or 6) I would always bring a rod and reel and try my best to catch fish in the surf. I distinctly remember being in Waveland, MS when I was about 8, my dad’s old 5.5ft boat rod in hand. I thought that setup was pretty special because the reel had a clicker. Anyway, I was out chest deep, using squid for bait. I hooked up on a fish and reeled it up to me. As it showed itself, I found out it was a stingray. I let some line out and waded back to the beach to unhook it. From that point forward, every time I caught something 72 | November 2013
house after the bay trip and then meet up to make a run to the deer lease for some prep work. Our kayak trip wrapped up and I booked it northward to hop in with my uncle before he left his house. Since my rods were in my truck we decided after working at the lease for a bit, we would drive down the road to my bass lease and get in a little jonboat pond fishing. If you were a follower of my column last year, you may remember there is a pond at my deer camp. When I finished what I needed to do I cast a couple of times into the pond, my Saltwater Assassin still on my hook from the morning. Second cast yielded a decent bass. Check two. We did manage to get to the fishing lease an hour or so after that and both of us caught decent bass there. Check 3. The milestone is that I can’t say that I have ever caught a saltwater species and a freshwater species in the same day. Definitely not from venues as far-flung as the bay, deer lease, and fishing lease. Keep in mind, the coast is nearly 200 miles from my ponds, making it a fair feat for a day’s work in my mind. Well, there you have it, a few of my most memorable times on the water. I fish quite a bit, but have never caught anything of any unusually noteworthy or trophy size. I would love to catch a big trout like David’s and I am still searching for an 8lb+ bass. Until then, I will just keep making good memories.
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I would just go back to the beach before reeling it in. All I remember catching that day was stingrays. In the same era of my childhood I was already an avid pond fisherman. Behind our house were endless acres of an undeveloped/overgrown acreage that belonged to a country club. My friends and I had trails to all of the ponds and I lived in those woods catching critters and fishing. On one occasion I was fishing alone and landed a bass. I was using a jointed Rapala. So with treble hooks lodged in its mouth, I chose to “coke can” grip the fish around its midsection. While removing the hooks the fish thrashed and slipped from my grip. I soon had the fish pinned solidly to the palm of my hand, one hooked pierced all the way through and the point exiting. Every time the fish twitched or thrashed I was treated to extreme pain. Backing up a little, when I reeled the fish in I had wound the line almost up to the tip of the rod to lift the fish out of the water. In my predicament I couldn’t reach the reel to release line, nor could I break the line. I walked back home, for what seemed 100 miles, dragging my rod and reel, trying my best to keep what little slack was available in the line so that I wasn’t tugging on the embedded hook. I remember walking up to the back glass door on our house, sweating and feeling faint, yelling for my mom or someone to come save me. I still have a little scar on my right hand. This month I set another personal milestone, not with a huge fish, but with a slam of sorts. I woke up in the middle of the night to head to the coast, kayak in tow. Cliff and I hit the marshes for a morning of chasing redfish. After several missed attempts at reds crushing through the flooded grass, I finally hooked one. Check one. I had made tentative plans the previous day to go to my uncle’s
Telephone Email
936-776-7028 Cademan11@sbcglobal.net
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Greatly unexpected Spring Break tiger.
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
Eye of the Tiger There is little on this green earth more compelling to me than the majestic tiger shark. Capable of exceeding 12 feet and 1000 pounds, tigers are the reason I deploy large baits far beyond the breakers night after night. Their sheer size makes them a fearless apex predator and the ultimate gamefish in the shark category. While tigers can be present along Texas beaches much of the year, November has historically been the month for some of the largest. During late fall they roam the surf amid the feeding frenzies, picking off jack crevalle, oversized red drum, even other medium-sized sharks. How could one not be overwhelmed by the raw abilities of this incredible creature? As a child I was fascinated with the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier); as an adult I am obsessed. Every shark fisherman, beginner to salty old sharker, dreams daily of their first, or hopefully, next encounter. Sadly, tigers are not as abundant as they were in the 1960s and 70s. Faded photos document multiple landings per day, giants hanging dead as doornails from Gulf piers, slain wantonly for bragging rights and jaws. Decades of overfishing and illegal commercial finning greatly diminished their numbers; however, modern conservation enforcement and sport fishing ethic is contributing to a slow but steady rebound. 74 | November 2013
Recreational shark anglers hit the jackpot in 2012 with more landings and releases documented from Texas piers than the previous five years combined. My own personal encounters with these magnificent beasts is overpowering – the soul of the reason I do what I do. Nearly every shark trip I have conducted the past ten years has been based around the chance for a tiger. Beginners have no idea the countless man-hours and work I have invested, and when their time comes, I pray their appreciation for the species will become equal to mine. I am convinced tigers can cast a spell – like a devious and ghostly mermaid luring a drunken sailor into the depths. From my very first tiger that I fought for two and a half hours on medium tackle to the unexpected Spring Break specimen, all my tigers have a remarkable story. Perhaps none of my encounters stand so vividly and surreal as the massive Tiger teeth closefish I landed one lonesome up‌real close! night three years ago. I was down the Padre Island National Seashore strictly on a shark trip. The plan initially was to set up camp with a buddy but things fell through and I ended up solo. It started with a flat tire and even the weed on the beach had a destructive and ominous appearance. Back underway and continuing south my outlook became
Perhaps the greatest of all the author’s encounters – the solo 10-1/2 foot tiger.
fish, she didn’t even budge when I pulled. With a 71”girth and pushing 600lbs, I knew it was going to be a task. The large dark eye of the tiger seemed to follow me around while I thought for a minute. A trick learned from Chris Sessions, I used every ounce of strength, “rolling” the fish a few feet to the dropoff. Finally she was at the break of the surf, kicking and thrashing – a good sign. I dug down to my remaining strength reserve and walked her far enough to where she wouldn’t get beached, and ever so slowly she took off into the current. I wish I could have recorded the sight of that tiger heading over the second bar, but honestly, I doubt any amount of film or video could have burned it any deeper into the salty fibers of my brain. On that incredibly eerie night I managed to overcome the odds. Catching the fish wasn’t nearly as great an accomplishment as having to deal with the situation solo. Fortunately everything worked as it did for me and for the fish. That shark was tagged and it will be interesting to see where she might turn up next. Encounters like this cannot be defined by words; you need to be there in the flesh and pat that thick leather-like skin. Once you make physical contact, your soul will forever be changed. I am currently taking bookings for overnight charters, specifically targeting this mesmerizing species. They are not caught every trip, but there is a good chance I will be putting someone on a tiger this November. Prime tiger time lasts into early December and then the big sandbar sharks will be moving in after the first few major cold fronts. Sandbars are a total blast as well. I have a few good dates still available, contact me soon if interested in an exciting surfsharking trip. Visit www.oceanepics. com for more information. The Eye of the Tiger!
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more optimistic. I found a good location and the bite was on as I banged out some smaller blacktips. Come sunset I had several “rockstar” baits out and that eerie-lucky feeling seemed to hovering over me. And while most of my tigers have been late night-early morning fish, this one picked up a bait around 9:00PM. Slack in the line led me to think it was a bull at first but I could not have been more wrong. Studying the rod and the line slacking up, I hopped up on the platform and started to reel in. I caught up and it turned, headed offshore slowly. Hmmm... I let it go for a few seconds and then I hammered a powerful hookset. Yeah baby - game on! This shark had a ten pound head section of jackfish in its mouth and was dragging a Godzilla weight – I knew it had to be a good one. It took line at a slow pace and I had yet to get any back. I began to hear something other then the drag of my reel. Looking behind I noticed the grill and my entire chicken dinner engulfed in a fireball. Ironically this was not the first time it had happened. Being by myself, I chose to continue the battle as my beach chicken lit up the night sky. After a few minutes I strapped into the 50W reel that had been loaded with braid for greater capacity. It took some time but I eventually slowed the fish and it began a slight turn back toward the beach. She was swimming in, but doing so at her pace, not mine. Several minutes passed and she was over the third sandbar. Only then did the fact that I was by myself set in, and I could only ponder whether I would be able to land and release this fish alone. A few more minutes and the shark was just past the first sandbar. I fought her closer and she freaked out, tailkicking the surface. Good solid fish! I put the rod up and flew down off the truck. In a matter of seconds I was on the first bar. The tide was low and I could see the leader – and a tail – a BIG tail. Before I had even made positive identification I somehow instinctively knew. I grabbed the leader in the midst of the spotlights and my suspicions were confirmed – TIGER! A slight panic set in, having to deal with a fish of this size without help, but I remained calm and worked as fast as I could. The waves had pushed her up along the break just enough to where she was not going anywhere. I grabbed the bolt cutters and measuring tape, and then hurriedly set the camera on automatic. Amazingly the whole process happened in a short period. Preparing for the release of this 10-1/2’
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 TSFMAG.com | 75
Sargassum piles on Padre Island National Seashore. Photo by Bob Beatson.
STEPHANIE BOYD
F I S H Y FA C T S
SARGASSUM Many species of crabs, shrimp, and fish spend their entire lives in it. Locals know it as gulfweed, or simply seaweed. Tourists call it a nuisance. Birds call it a buffet. Sargassum originates in the Sargasso Sea, where it is bound by the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, the Canary Current, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. This system of currents forms the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (in oceanography, a gyre is created by a system of rotating ocean currents generated by large-scale wind movements). Sargassum is named for the small, gas-filled bladders that keep surface species afloat and anchored varieties upright. Portuguese sailors traveling across the Sargasso Sea on early voyages to the New World called the weed salgazo, after a small grape native to their homeland. Eventually, salgazo devolved into sargaco, and from that, scientists derived the genus name, Sargassum. Both biologists and laypeople use this term to refer to this type of brown algae, an example of 76 | November 2013
a situation where the scientific name for an organism is also its common name. The two floating species of Sargassum are Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans. There are two major characteristics for differentiating between the two. 1) The leaves of S. natans are long-stalked and narrow; the leaves on S. fluitans are short-stalked and broad. 2) The pods on S. natans are usually tipped with spikes or small leaves, while the pods on S. fluitans are usually not. Thanks to their “little grapes,” these species stay at, or pretty close, to the surface and are experts at photosynthesizing at the air-sea interface where solar radiation is quite intense. On the sunniest days, they can decrease light absorption, and on overcast days, they can increase it. Sargassum even has a naturally occurring sunscreen to protect it from UV rays. Because of the interlocking nature of the currents in the Sargasso Sea, only some portions of Sargassum ever exit their languid home. Huge swaths can be pushed out by storms or prevailing winds and may drift through the Caribbean basin or through the Yucatan Straits into the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf serves as Sargassum’s nursery. S. natans and S. fluitans reproduce asexually through fragmentation. Having been split into many pieces on
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its journey to the Gulf, each fragment grows into a brand new plant. In fact, every piece of the same species may come from a single ancestor. So much Sargassum is “born” in the Gulf that you can even see it from space! These football-field-sized clumps of Sargassum are beneficial for many offshore species. Aside from the fact that these weed lines seem to attract and hold just about every species of big game fish that anglers pursue, Sargassum has an important role to fill in the life cycles of hundreds of marine animals. Numerous tiny creatures, some perfectly camouflaged by their color and shape, spend part or all of their lives within the floating patches of weed. Seahorses and slender pipefish, for example, are practically indistinguishable from Sargassum’s branches, and the Sargassum crab and Sargassum fish mimic the colors and patterns of the seaweed so well they are practically invisible. Juvenile billfish, mahi mahi, swordfish, and even some species of snapper, grouper, and permit seek refuge in the protective stalks. The habitat is often likened to that of the inshore estuary – estuaries provide a nursery inshore, and Sargassum provides one offshore. This large presence of juvenile fish is what attracts the highly sought after predatory game fish. The structure of floating Sargassum mats functions like an upside down coral reef, the base of this reef being, not on the seafloor, but drifting along the sea surface. Just as on a coral reef, the smaller fish and marine life hide close to the base, with progressively larger predatory fish stacking up at increasingly greater distances below. While biologists and anglers generally hold Sargassum in high regard when it floats in the Gulf, opinions seem to sour as it closes in on land. Finding itself trapped in the currents of the Gulf Stream, Sargassum naturally meanders its way toward the beaches of Texas each summer. The large piles of Sargassum and trash that accumulate near the high tide line restrict access to the beach and water and can be hazardous to your health (the trash, not the Sargassum). The decomposing algae adds nutrients to the beach, but this decomposition is also responsible for the foul odor that has offended many a beach stroller. Many coastal cities have dealt with this annoyance by beach raking, which is still a controversial action, probably because the several studies that have been conducted don’t all reach the same conclusions. On one hand, Sargassum acts like a sponge, absorbing wave energy, which protects the sand from wave erosion. Also, the tangled, wet clumps of Sargassum trap sand from wind erosion, helping to build small embryonic dunes that stabilize the beach. Some studies indicate that beach raking increases the loss of sand from wave- and wind-induced erosion by removing the initial barrier that accumulates sand. Erosion of the beach causes loss of nesting area for sea turtles (plus, heavy equipment that scoops up the Sargassum sometimes creates ridges of sand that hinder sea turtles’ ability to crawl up the beach), and since erosion can cause destruction of houses on the coast, removal of Sargassum could have adverse economical impacts also. In addition, that’s some seagull’s lunch you’re shoving off! On the other hand, Sargassum can be a barrier to nesting sea turtles, as well. If they are incapable of climbing over the accumulated weed piles, they end up laying their eggs in the Sargassum instead. The eggs then might be washed out to sea before hatching. Also, at least one study thought about including the impact of beach raking on birds. During the single afternoon set aside for studying birds, 78 | November 2013
the researchers observed that, though a few birds did land on the older deposits of Sargassum at the high tide line, most mainly picked through the fresh Sargassum on the waterline. This indicates that the birds might depend more on fresh influxes of Sargassum than older piles at the high tide line, so birds may not be negatively affected by daily beach raking. As for erosion, some studies showed no difference in beach elevation over a two-year time period between raked and unraked beaches, so the sand that accumulates around Sargassum piles may not be making a significant difference in beach erosion. Where rotting Sargassum does have a positive effect is in the dunes. Sargassum is a natural source of fertilizer for dune plants which help stabilize the dune system from erosion. Research has shown that tannins from Sargassum increase the growth of seeds, and moving the Sargassum clumps from the high tide line to the dunes could beneficially increase growth of the more commonly used plants for dune stabilization. So there are pros and cons either way you look at it, but at least it’s only a seasonal concern. Eventually, the tides turn, and the visiting Sargassum, having doubled in abundance, takes its leave and drifts home to the Sargasso Sea where it continues to encourage rumors of dragging ships down to Davy Jones’ locker.
Where I learned about Sargassum, and you can, too! Sargassum Early Advisory System www.tamug.edu/SEAS/Index.html Sargassum & Beach Erosion: Potential Costs & Benefits for Coastal Managers blog.galveston.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/seaweed.pdf Sargassum: Erosion & Biodiversity on the Beach ssl.tamu.edu/media/1828/07_005_10_final_report.pdf Gulf Restoration Network healthygulf.org/20090709769/blog/healthy-waters-/-dead-zone/sargassumthe-gulf-aamp-texas-beaches-guest-post Passport to Texas passporttotexas.org/nature-whats-up-with-the-sargassum/ NOAA: Teacher at Sea teacheratsea.wordpress.com/tag/sargassum/ NOAA oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03edge/background/sargassum/ sargassum.html Defenders of Wildlife www.defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/wildlife_and_offshore_ drilling_sargassum.pdf Port Aransas South Jetty www.portasouthjetty.com/news/2011-05-05/Front_Page/Blessing_or_ curse.html Encyclopedia of Life http://eol.org/pages/893154/overview The Gulf Stream: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, & the Amazing Story of the Powerful River in the Atlantic By Stan Ulanski Columbus: The Four Voyages By Laurence Bergreen
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Falcon Unveils LowRider Salt Signature Series Falcon Rods has introduced an all-new American-made rod series -- LowRider Salt – featuring superior guide-to-blank sensitivity for positive hook-sets and guides that dampen line vibration for longer casts to spooky gamefish in clear inshore waters. With prices starting at only $160, the LowRider Salt rods share many of the features of its successful freshwater series counterpart – LowRider XG – but adds corrosion resistant guides, wider tip top guides to accommodate leader knots, and rod actions specific to lures, conditions and nearshore gamefish like tarpon, redfish, snook, speckled trout, flounder and striped bass. www.falconrods.com
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DICKIE COLBURN
DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene
Sabine
Dickie Colburn is a full time guide out of Orange, Texas. Dickie has 37 years experience guiding on Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes.
Telephone 409-883-0723 Website www.sabineconnection.com
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Nine inches of rain in one day was apparently all it took to wash away a long difficult summer and jump start fall fishing on Sabine. The mega-dose of fresh water initially resulted in a minor fish kill in the bayous but it has been “game on” ever since! The redfish were first to exit in significant numbers and they were eating everything in front of them as they paraded into the open lake. It takes a strong constitution to resist offering them anything but topwaters as they will blow up repeatedly until you finally connect. That action is now starting at first light on the shallow flats bordering the passes and islands on the north end. As the day progresses, they’re herding shad to the surface in huge schools or mixing with solid trout that are chasing shad and shrimp all over the lake. It is only a matter of time before the gulls alert fishermen to the best spots, but for now the best bet has been to locate your own action. Even while we are catching fish out of these schools, we are constantly watching for gulls that unexpectedly get up and
start working over more surface feeding fish. This run and gun fishing can be addicting but I hate that it usually draws a crowd and the birds are getting harder for me to see every year! Growing older is incurable but I recently remedied half the problem with a new pair of Salt Life polarized sunglasses. They have officially replaced a high-end pair I managed to wear without scratching or losing for twenty years.
The ultimate tournament redfish; 27 inches and 10.7 pounds!
The river has been as hot as the lake for reds and trout.
Both pairs have copper or amber/green lenses but I was forced to remove my old glasses to spot distant gulls. I’m no optics expert but I have heard only good things about Zeiss lenses and these glasses give the sharpest images I have ever experienced. They say rain doesn’t puddle on them as badly, but I don’t wear sunglasses in the rain. Even more important than the improved schooling activity has been a more consistent big trout bite as well. They disappeared across the summer, but we are once again catching a lot of four to six pound trout on tails, swim baits and topwaters. Most of them are coming off the shallow flats early and late, but we are also catching a few by
sticking with a She Dog or Skitter Walk when working schooling fish. I think most first-time clients assume that I am kidding when I talk about how much I fish everything from a VuDu shrimp to an Assassin Sea Shad or Flats Minnow under a popping cork until they fish with me, but it is especially hard to beat this time of the year. A lot of local folks opt to fish Gulp under the cork and it works well enough, but that combination is a magnet for gafftop and hardheads! A world of colors will work for you, but there are very few days when I can’t get by with Assassin’s glow chartreuse, stinky pink or chicken on a chain, which is the same color as east beast in the Flats Minnow. The same can be said for the Usual Suspect Swimbait as I seldom have a need for any color other than cock of the walk, space guppy or clear/black back in both the three and four inch sizes. If this flounder run is even remotely close to what took place last year it will lure at least half the fishermen off the lake this month. A large percentage of them will take advantage of the more liberal Louisiana limits and fish either the Louisiana side of the ship channel or the Cameron ferry area, but we caught a lot of great flounder on the Texas side of the ship channel as well. I know a lot of local anglers still prefer mud minnows, but I watched case after case of Gulp Swimming Mullets leave Daley’s Hunt N Fish before they could even unpack them last year so I would stock up on white, pink and chartreuse right now. The average size of the flounder was most impressive and it has been that way thus far this fall. Take the kids fishing and hopefully they will do the same for you some day!
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MICKEY EASTMAN
MICKEY On Galveston Sitting here to write this I am patiently waiting for the first good cold front of the year that is forecasted to arrive this weekend. Even though the fish are still biting really good and the patterns haven’t really Galveston changed much over the past several weeks, I know a good norther or two is needed to shake things up and set the stage for late-fall and early winter. For Mickey Eastman is a full-time fishing guide out of Baytown, TX. wade fishermen especially, that Mickey has over 30 years guiding first good front always mean experience on the Galveston heavy trout start moving up to area bays and is the founder the edges of the flats and the of Gulf Coast Troutmasters, morning and afternoon topwater the largest speckled trout action can be phenomenal when tournament series of all time. they’re running the mullet and shad to the surface. Telephone 281-383-2032 Flounder are starting to ease up on the flats near bayou mouths, points, and drains.
84 | November 2013
Redfish are generally shallow along sand bars, guts, and grassbeds in the upper end of Trinity Bay. Small trout are in the rivers, bayous, and back lakes waiting for the big dump of the shrimp crop as a good cold front approaches. The table is set for some great fall action, but we need fall to show up, and it’s about to. Our bigger fish patterns have remained about the same; schools of big trout are still deep in Trinity and East Bays as they’ve been all summer long. What’s about to happen is our patterns are about to flip as the smaller shallow fish will go deep with the fall shrimp crop and our larger mature fish will go shallow along shoreline flats, towheads, and reefs for the remainder of fall
and into the winter. This is what I live for; targeting the bigger fish along protected shorelines in three feet of water and less. This is when feeding preference changes and lure selection comes into play allowing the diehard angler that has waited all summer for a shot at the year’s best and heaviest trout. Whether you’re a topwater enthusiast, soft plastic expert, spoon roller, MirrOlure chunker, or into slow-moving suspending like the Maniac Mullet or Corkys, it’s all about to come into play if you love to wade fish. The weather gets so nice you just have to go whether the wind is up or not. Wade fishing allows you to fish more days and enables you a better shot at a fish of a lifetime in the Galveston complex as the better fish begin to inhabit protected and wade-able waters. You have numerous shorelines available on different winds, especially the prevailing fall and winter wind directions. In the fall, behind cold fronts, we pull a lot of northeast winds which are prime conditions for the upper ends of East Galveston and Trinity Bays. Northeast is also good for Tabbs Bay and Burnett Bay, and all the backwater areas up the San Jacinto River watershed. As water temperatures drop, fish movements begin, and you have a chance to use your locating skills to stay on them. Slicks often become less prevalent as we move into the fall season; that’s when paying attention and staying on the baitfish really come into play. Rafts of mullet along shorelines are a no-brainer along with pods of active shad and jumping shrimp. The more subtle subsurface clues – quick flashes and slight ripples around structure – are the ones that often pay the biggest dividends for bigger trout, though. Learning to detect and interpret these requires time on the water and a keen eye but the rewards can be substantial. Bird action out in the middle of the bays is a fall favorite and crowd pleaser and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of it soon, as it is without a doubt the easiest and quickest way to box a limit. Me – I’d just as soon pass on it, given the crowds and generally “just keeper” size of most of the fish. But, it’s all up to you to choose the way you want to spend your day on the water. Fall is in the air and I wish all great success. Please respect your fellow fisherman, practice catch and release when you have a nice mess for dinner, and enjoy the great outdoors.
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BINK GRIMES
THE VIEW FROM Matagorda
Matagorda
Bink Grimes is a full-time fishing and hunting guide, freelance writer and photographer, and owner of Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay.
Telephone 979-241-1705 Email binkgrimes@sbcglobal.net Website www.binkgrimesoutdoors.com
86 | November 2013
By the time you read this, hopefully, the first real cold front of the fall has arrived, bringing with it chilly air, loads of waterfowl and a breathtaking portrait of a clear, autumn sunrise. With fresh recruits of nippy air blowing from the north, water temperatures plunge, tides recede and marshes dump this year’s hatch of shrimp, shad and crabs. November could provide the best fishing opportunities of the year, and there is no better bay system in Texas than Matagorda’s East and West Bays. If you prefer staying in the boat and anchoring with live bait, the fall offers excellent redfish and black drum action. Shell Island, Twin Island, Mad Island Cut and any other piece of shell holds fish that are hungry and willing to take live shrimp under a popping cork. Watch for oyster boats dredging shell and remember or mark that spot on your GPS for another day. Speaking of oysters, Matagorda Bay reefs produce some of the fattest and saltiest oysters in the land. Shucked fresh daily at Buddy Treybig’s Arnold’s Seafood, you will never eat a better oyster. Pick up a quart or maybe even a gallon before you leave town. The mouths of bayous and marshes on a falling
tide are usually fall hotspots. Places like Oyster Lake, Crab Lake, Boggy Lake and Lake Austin are all excellent choices. Live shrimp under a popping cork, Berkley GULP, soft plastics or small topwaters worked across points are certain to draw strikes.
While you are there, don’t be surprised to see birds working in the lakes, especially on an ardent falling tide when the shrimp are moving. One cast it will be a red, the next a trout and every once in a while a flounder. Waders should work the same terrains, but more methodically. In East Matagorda Bay, Boiler Bayou, Kain Cove, Hog Island, Catch-All Basin and Brown Cedar Flats hold solid trout for anglers throwing
Super Spooks, She Pups, Skitter Walks and Bass Assassins. I really like the Bass Assassins Lit’l Tapper in chicken on a chain and pepper/ chartreuse. The baits are laced with Bang and smell like licorice, which I think makes the fish hang on a bit harder for a solid hookset. Sight-casting to redfish along the grasslines of West Matagorda Bay’s south shoreline has become popular on my boat. Watch for ripples, wakes and jumping shrimp near the grass and wait for the freight train to pass. Then toss a Bass Assassin under a cork in front of the school and loosen your drag. Sometimes you can hear reds crunching their jaws on small crabs. It is pretty cool to see 25-50 tails out of the water, coming right at you. It sometimes results in a case of “buck fever.” Birds consistently working over pods of shrimp is why many anglers can’t wait for November in Matagorda Bay. With recent rains and the amount of shrimp we saw in the bay in September and October, it should be a solid fall for working birds. The neat thing about East Matagorda Bay is one group of birds will be found over solid trout, then you move to another flock and its all big reds. Another bonus is the large Gulf trout that have been as long as 20 inches. With duck season opening November 2, I’ll be hunting most mornings and then fishing the afternoons. Morning or afternoon, it really doesn’t matter this time of year.
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CAPT. SHELLIE GRAY
MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays
Port O'Connor Seadrift
Captain Gary and Captain Shellie Gray fish year-round for trout and redfish in the Port O’Connor/ Seadrift area. Gary started his Bay Rat Guide Service 20 years ago. The Grays specialize in wade and drift fishing with artificial lures. Gary and Shellie also team up to fish many tournaments.
Telephone 361-785-6708 Email Gary@BayRat.com Website www.bayratguideservice.com
88 | November 2013
Ahh, the cool crisp mornings I have waited so long for have finally arrived. Fall is by far my favorite time of year to fish. What’s not to like? Shorter days and cooler air temperatures means cooler water temperatures and aggressively feeding fish. And while I will continue to frequent the San Antonio Bay mid-bay reefs and the surrounding marshes and back lakes often, Hynes Bay in the northwest corner of the system will get a lot of my attention in the coming weeks. If you are a Texas history buff you will find that Hynes Bay has some interesting facts associated with it, especially involving the Karankawa Indians. However, since this is supposed to be a fishing article, I will skip the history lesson and tell you why Hynes Bay is a hot spot in the fall. Hynes Bay is unique in that it is locally considered more a part of the Guadalupe Delta than an extension of San Antonio Bay proper. Local runoff plays a role but the largest
contributors of freshwater into the estuary are the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers that merge several miles upstream of the delta region. Hynes Bay itself is a shallow bay averaging about three to four feet in depth. Every fall after the passing of a few strong cold fronts, the shrimp larvae that have been living in the marshy delta waters will have grown to near adult size and start to migrate
Finally after trying to get a trip together for a long time, my sister Annie Carroll, got in on some solid redfish action.
Ben Ellis and his young (already skilled angler) daughter, Lilly, enjoyed a morning of catching and releasing many reds.
out into the open waters of Hynes, Mission, Guadalupe and San Antonio Bays. Hynes is always one of the first bays where this activity will be witnessed. Once the shrimp start to migrate out into the open bay, birds can be found hovering above schools of trout and sometimes reds, trying to get their fair share of munchies, and this pushes huge numbers of shrimp to the surface where the birds get their chance. Gulls resting on the water are also a good indication that there are fish feeding in the area, maybe just a bit more scattered. The feeding frenzy tends to be at its best during early morning and usually subsides by midday. I should also mention that a north wind is always better than south in Hynes. Light south wind won’t hinder you too much but if it’s blowing harder than about 10-12 mph from the south, Hynes get muddied up quick and not nearly as productive. When you find the birds working, it is best to motor upwind and stop about 100 feet from them and drift in so you don’t spook off your quarry. Or better yet, if you have a trolling motor, use it to get within casting distance. Wading is not a good option because of the muddy bottoms across most of Hynes Bay. Besides, you may find yourself hopping from one group of birds to another in a matter of minutes some days. My number one setup for fishing birds is an 18-inch 20-pound leader on a Mauler or popping cork with an 1/8 ounce Bass Assassin jighead. Soft plastics work about as well as live shrimp without the constant need for re-baiting. Lure color is usually not critical but to be safe I lean toward the natural patterns of Bass Assassins’ 5-inch Saltwater Shad. When you can see bait and fish busting the surface it doesn’t take but a couple pops of your cork before you are hooked up. Many species take advantage of these migrating shrimp so don’t be surprised when you catch a little bit of everything under the birds – gafftop, skipjacks and hardheads will be there too. You will likely hook quite a few smaller trout, and if they aren’t hooked too deeply, it’s always a good idea to use a de-hooking tool (looks like a candy cane with a handle on the straight end) so that you flip them off the hook and back into the water without even touching them. When the hook is lodged deeper you’ll probably have to use pliers but be as gentle as possible; these are next year’s keepers and maybe a trophy some day. Pick a pretty day and make fishing a priority in November; I promise you will not be disappointed. TSFMAG.com | 89
DAVID ROWSEY
HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey
Personally, November is a struggle for me. I mean it is really a grind of a month for a man that gets pulled in so many directions. As if figuring out and catching big trout is not enough work, now we have to contend Upper with quail and deer season, not to mention college football. There are just too many decisions and Laguna/ balancing so many passions really becomes a lot of Baffin work. If you think I am joking, I am. November may be the greatest month of the year to be a outdoorsman (or a college football fan). I love everything about it. For the big trout enthusiast, November has the David Rowsey has 20 years potential to be the first month of quality trophy trout experience in the Laguna/Baffin fishing. Everything will hinge on cold fronts, how region; trophy trout with artificial lures is his specialty. David has a long they stick around, and what they do to the water temperature. The water temperature plunging into great passion for conservation and encourages catch and the 60s and mid-50s is the key to get things really release of trophy fish. rolling. The last two winters have proven warmer than normal, which translated into November being more of Telephone a “transition” period. Long term forecasts are for us to 361-960-0340 have a cooler winter this year. I’m optimistic that it will Website www.DavidRowsey.com happen, and we can get a head start on the big trout. Email Because we have no crystal ball to look into david.rowsey@yahoo.com regarding cool fronts, there will have to be two
approaches to November fishing. If the water does cool down, trout are going to start moving onto the muddy flats that lace the Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay. They will be active and gorging themselves to put on winter weight for the leaner cold months that will have less and less baitfish for them to feed on. Chances are that you will catch some real pigs, and possibly a lot of them, if you can find the right flat with an adequate food source to sustain them. If November stays on the warm side, the fish will remain scattered out on all types of structure, mixed depths, etc. The one constant will be a food source. Find the food, and you have most of the battle taken care of. All of the traditional “hot spots” are going to get their normal pressure, and then some. If you want to stay away from other fishermen, a change of mindset will bring you some solitude and quality catching. Focusing on deep guts than run through spoil islands is a great start. Spoil Islands that have deep dropoffs versus tapered descents are also great focus areas. If you happen to locate the guts and drops that have grass growing on the floor, you are really doing yourself some good. One of the most underutilized
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90 | November 2013
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structures in the Upper Laguna for the trout grinders is the natural gut known as Emmord’s Hole. The broken, grassy edges of the this natural contour line will be jammed up with quality fishing in
November; however, some of it has to be done out of the boat, as it too deep to wade in most areas. On that same line of thought, the grassy dropoff known as Rocky Slough offers a very similar scenario, and should be a bigtime producer. Rocky Slough can be waded but it is a tricky wade considering the rocks that you have to contend with. The Power-Pole and Motor Guide is a great option here. For those of you who must wade (me included), I would consider areas like Big Grassy, the Badlands, the natural This big 10.25 pound gut in the Meadows, Compuerta Pass, potholes on the trout is what drives me King Ranch Shoreline, and the spoil islands in the Upper and my clients for the Laguna. Any and all of these areas have the potential to be next seven months. Contact me if you big-time producers in November, but they are not all going want to be a part of it. to be good every day. A huge part of being successful is taking the time to scout, using the appropriate lure for the conditions at hand, and having a food supply to keep the trout in the area. The versatile 5” Bass Assassin is always in my starting lineup to find the fish. MirrOlure surface plugs are right next to them when it comes to finding them in ideal conditions (active bait). MirrOlure’s Paul Brown Original (Corky) is the big closer when the water temperatures get down and stay there. I love and trust them all to be successful. If you want to be part of “Something Big”, contact me and lets save you a date. Remember the buffalo. -Capt David Rowsey
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CAPT. TRICIA
TRICIA’S Mansfield Report Happy to report all is still well in paradise. The first cool fronts of the season have passed through and all wildlife is sensing the brisker days ahead. November traditionally is a month of feasting, and there is a logical reason for being so. Gamefish, like all wildlife, instinctively sense that Ol’ Port Man Winter is on his way and they will take advantage Mansfield of the bountiful supply of crustaceans and small finfish the late fall season offers. Epic feeding frenzies will become common throughout the month of November, some lasting hours at a time. Capt. Tricia’s Skinny Water Over the past several weeks redfish have certainly Adventures operates out of been the stars of the Laguna. We have not yet, as of Port Mansfield, specializing in this writing, witnessed the large schools of the past wadefishing with artificial lures. but, have had plenty of opportunity on the flooded sand flats and shorelines where encounters with pods, pairs and scattered singles have kept things lively. Telephone 956-642-7298 Water levels are currently well above the Email summertime average and should remain fairly shell@granderiver.net consistent through the month, except when the cold Website www.SkinnyWaterAdventures.com fronts make their way to the coast and push water out of certain areas and pile it into others. The same goes with strong southerly winds preceding cool fronts; anglers will need to adjust accordingly.
92 | November 2013
We basically should see a repeat of last month’s patterns with a few more blows in the mix. The sand on the east side continues to be a lot of fun at first light and, while most of the reds have been just slot fish with only occasional bruisers, there is no denying the ferocity of topwater crashes these feisty critters have given us.
What’s equally exciting is that the big trout are still inhabiting the same water, and those that are willing to enjoy the redfish have been heavily rewarded. We typically see many fish in the extreme shallows in November and on low wind days they can be very spooky. Quiet wades and long casts will be needed. So, you folks coming down with half spools of line on your reels will have a hard time making the casts you need, especially when throwing lighter offerings. November should also give us even more sight casting opportunities for both trout and reds and, during blows, working birds and tailing fish should be abundant. Can’t tell you how many times in seasons past, in conditions most people would call unfishable, we went anyway. This is when heavily grassed backwater areas really pay off. All of the little baitfish and shrimp are being pushed and hanging on for dear life in every little grassbed, and the redfish and trout will be having a field day. Another focus later in the month will be trout beginning to stage close to winter lairs, and we will certainly look for areas that allow deep water access to shallow night-feeding zones. Little swales and guts that lead to flats can be highly productive, and bottoms will vary from hard and sandy to softer grassy areas. So be willing to explore, keep an eye on your bait, birds, wind, and temperatures — I know that’s what I will be doing.
I will be using a lot of soft plastics; Kelly Wigglers ball tail shads and paddle tails rigged on their awesome 2/0 size -1/8 ounce jigheads will continue to be in my arsenal. Colors will vary; Smoke and Mirrors and Sand in clearer water, Carolina Pumpkinseed, Electric Grape with chartreuse belly, and Midnight Flake in off-color stuff. Already, full size topwaters are working their magic and my favorite green/chrome and speckled trout pattern Skitter Walks should be getting a lot of abuse in the coming days. And of course a lure that needs no introduction, the MirrOlure PBO Fat Boy, will come into play. Another MirrOlure product that is fun as well as productive in early winter is the MirrOdine suspending twitchbait in pearl with either green or black back. During this time of “Thanks” I want to sincerely thank all of you for the continued bookings and support over the years! Tricia’s Tips 1. Tough days can be saved with 1/4 ounce weedless gold spoons. 2. Have your outboard serviced; winter is no time to be stranded. 3. Christmas is coming, time to give hints – like fishing trips! 4. If you are hunting rather than fishing this winter, have your reels serviced so you don’t show up in the spring with a piece of junk.
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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
I had the honor recently to sport some of the latest Simms sportswear and wading equipment. Simms sent photographer Brian Grossenbacher to join my son Aaron and me for an on-the-water photo shoot, capturing images and showcasing their products. It was a great experience and privilege to be invited to participate, and Brian was everything and more than his reputation. The weather cooperated and everything went well during the shoot. As a proud ambassador for Simms, I highly recommend their sportswear and other products made for serious fishermen. Like the slogan states, “When you step into Simms, you’re stepping into the best – period.” Thank you Simms for making our fishing more comfortable! September brought us much needed rain and it continued into early October. The tide was already seasonally high and the salinity level of the Laguna Madre fell with all the fresh inflow. As of this writing the tide is still noticeably higher, opening many more acres of water for fish to roam. I will say that, before all the rainfall, the normal water levels made fishing pretty predictable. The presently higher tides have definitely scattered the redfish, making them hard to pattern on a daily basis. Just when you think you
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have them figured out, you jump out of your boat expecting to find them eager and they’ve pulled a Houdini vanishing act. As soon as our water recedes the redfish will return to their usual places. Their nomadic patterns should remain but to a smaller scale as they go in and out of the shallows and into deeper water during the blue northerners that are but weeks away. Look for reds and trout to stage near deeper water during cold spells. Flats near the ICW, Mansfield East Cut and Brazos Santiago Pass can all be productive this
While targeting snook, Reeves Craig caught this tarpon on a Rat-L-Trap lure.
time of the year. Fish will frequently visit and be found in some of the numbers of bigger trout became more consistent as the water the deeper parts of our bays and then turn around and move into cooled into the mid to high 60s. Sandy potholes on thigh deep flats the shallows to feed as the weather warms up. The good news is will be hotspots until cold spells drive them to deeper water. Then the that these fish will feel the days getting shorter and temperatures pattern repeats as warmer temperatures return. dropping. Their instinctive behavior will cause them to feed more The key is to make long casts to the potholes and work the lure aggressively than normal, so there’s a good chance you will see a carefully along the edges to trout lying in ambush for easy prey. more aggressive bite this month. Spoil islands will once again be good producers of solid keepers In November I will once again start paying close attention to bird and trophy trout on colder days. Keep in mind when fishing around activity. Brown pelicans swimming or diving means bait is plentiful spoils, a moving tide definitely improves your chances. The big nearby. The keen-eyed osprey is another good indicator that bait trout will also take to roaming grassy eastside sand flats during is abundant, even when there are no signs on the surface. Seagulls prolonged warming periods. With the number of big trout that diving or resting on the water can be very helpful as well. showed up late summer and fall, your personal best could very well Currently, the afternoon/evening bite has been best for us. It be attainable in November. seems our stronger tides have been Lastly, I would like to report that occurring later in the day and that tarpon have showed in considerable could be one of the reasons. Topwater numbers recently around the action has been sporadic so we’ve been Brownsville Ship Channel, Arroyo relying on soft plastic baits. The Kelley Colorado, jetties and a few places in Wiggler ball-tail shad in pink Flo Mingo our bays. Reports of tarpon catches and the more natural Lagunaflauge have come from Port Mansfield all the with chartreuse tip have enticed many way to Port Isabel. This time of the year redfish and trout lately. the jetties can be a hot spot for many This month we should see trout species, and don’t be surprised if you feeding on a mostly mullet diet and happen to catch small barracuda while this increases their weight very quickly. fishing for redfish and trout. Come early winter we’ll see some of Happy Thanksgiving, and let’s get Simms photographer Brian Grossenbacher the best weights of the year. The past out there and make it happen! and Ernest take a break between shoots. couple of years around Thanksgiving,
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FISHING REPORTS
ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica
AND
Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 In November, salinities might be somewhat lower than the previous few years. High salinities are not as important during November as they are during the trout spawning season. You should find fish as far north in the estuary as the clear water extends. Lake Charles, Prien Lake, Moss Lake and the Calcasieu Ship Channel will hold fish in very low salinities. Don't let the coffee- colored clear water scare you. Soft plastic jigs like Lil' Johns and H&H Salty Grubs and Beetles in glow, opening night, chartreuse and avocado colors are all good at this time of the year. Slow sinking twitch baits such as Fat Boys and MirrOdines work well when targeting larger trout. Topwater lures will be the first choice on certain days. Redfish will be all over the estuary. If you are looking to fish the weirs on the south end of the lake, they will be closed for duck season, beginning on November 9th. Flounder will be making their run back to the Gulf this month. The best areas to fish for flounder lie along the channel in Cameron. Best baits are live, small fish. Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 According to James, fishing hasn't changed much since the middle of summer. “We're still slammin' 'em pretty good. Fishing most every day and catching limits almost all the time. Our best bite is out in the middle, around well pads, humps and reefs. We're keying on slicks to
find the fish. We are using soft plastics like Bass Assassin Sea Shads, but we've had a great topwater bite out of the boat too. The louder lures are working better, particularly the chrome/blue SheDogs. I've done okay on a white TopDog too, but the SheDog is the ticket lately. Once November rolls around, all these fish will move toward the shorelines and shallower water. We'll do a lot more wading then, and we'll throw Corkies and Catch 5s quite a bit more. Things are shaping up good for a strong fall run. The birds haven't really started working yet, but it's been wet enough for us to have a good shrimp crop, so the flocks should start showing us where the fish are on a regular basis once a few more cold fronts pass through.” Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Jim has been doing some dove hunting and some fishing lately. Come November, he'll be hunting the ducks instead of the doves. “Fishing has been okay, nothing spectacular. There are plenty of reds up in the shallow parts of the marsh. Once the weather cools down some more, we will probably find more trout in there with them. On the cooler days, with lower tides, the bayous and drains leading into the marshes usually fill up with fish. When the tide is dumping out, shoreline areas in the vicinity of the marsh drains can be outstanding in November. Lately, I've been fishing mostly out of the boat, throwing topwaters and tails in about four or five feet of water. I'll be looking to fish shallower as the fall season gets going a little stronger though. Usually, wading is great
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in November. We are just starting to see a few birds working, but by the time this report is printed, they should be working on a daily basis. When the gulls are picking, it's possible to catch easy limits by chasing them. Bigger trout are usually biting on the shorelines too.” West Galveston - bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate bays randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Randall reports good trout fishing lately in his area. “The fish are holding over a mostly mud bottom, so we are having to cover lots of water to find them, since they aren't really relating to any kind of structure. Best bite has been on chicken on a chain Norton Sand Eels, the big ones, rigged on three eighth ounce heads. The shrimp are just starting to move and the birds are working a little bit. That whole deal should be in full swing by November. Limits should become easier to get then. We'll also start fishing the deeper open areas, targeting places with scattered shell on the bottom next month, when the birds aren't working. Right now, these high tides have the redfish up in the cord grass. They are eating lots of little white snails; I've also pulled a toad and a rat from their bellies. Once some stronger fronts arrive, the tide will go out, and we'll have better luck catching the reds again. Prospects overall are good for both species. It's a great month to be out on the water!” Matagorda | Charlie paradoski bay Guide Service - 713.725.2401 Charlie says the slightly wetter conditions this year have led to the return of some familiar and productive patterns in the Matagorda area. “Since we have gotten some rain, the shrimp crop is much better than it has been in recent years. We are starting to see some shrimp jumping around in the middle of the bay, and there are already signs of birds working too. Haven't seen these things much over the last few years
with the persistent drought. Another encouraging thing is people are catching fish wading; there are fish on the shorelines. November is usually one of the best months to catch fish around here. We'll be throwing a lot of Bass Assassins and MirrOlures. Trying topwaters too; when they work, they work, when they don't they don't. If we get some stable weather, fishing will be great this month. We are catching limits of trout steadily right now, in fact. Today, we were finished by eight-thirty. I'll be anticipating more productive days in November. It looks like we are set up for a good run.” palacios | Capt. aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 Enormous tides and cooler water temperatures have made for some great fishing in the area. Back lakes have been loaded with mullet and shrimp, and the fish are right there with the bait. Redfishing has been nothing short of incredible. The size of the reds has been amazing; almost every trip we catch a red over thirty inches, with a few bruisers pushing the forty inch mark. We have been catching the reds on topwaters, Gulp! lures suspended under corks, and live shrimp. The big tides have the fish holding tight to the shorelines running bait, and limits have been coming pretty easy. We are still catching a few trout at the wrecks and rigs out in the bay freelining live-bait, but have also noted that the fish are starting to move over structures closer to the shorelines. November should be awesome with all the rains we've had. We have lots of bait in the bays right now, and these rains will do nothing but help the bays. As always in the cooler months, finding the bait is the key to finding the fish.
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port O’Connor | Lynn Smith back bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 Lynn expects to be chasing redfish along area shorelines in November. He also expects trout fishing to pick up. “The reds should be bunching up and moving along shallow shorelines this month. We've been having steady action on them lately. Trout bite has been kind of slow lately, but the action usually perks up after the transition time we're in right now. I'll be throwing the new Down South lures. The watermelon and the cotton candy colors have been producing well. We've also had a good bite on topwaters, mostly Super Spook Juniors in the clown color and the white with chartreuse head. We're fishing mostly around sand and grass, and that will be the preferred pattern until the weather cools down quite a bit more. We have tons of bait in the area right now, and I expect the trout bite to perk right up once we get a few more fronts. In the latter half of next month, I will probably be starting to fish more of a cold weather pattern, meaning I'll be preferring areas with a muddy bottom on flats with close access to deep water.” rockport | blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 Blake expects to start splitting time between the blinds and the flats this month. “Cast and blast season cranks up in November. I expect we'll have good duck hunting. We've had enough rain lately to fill some of the ponds in the marshes, and there's a decent amount of grass growing on the bottom, so the ducks will have food and water. I'll be running the air boat and hunting early once the season starts. Then, I'll fish my way out of the marshes when the shooting is over. Lately, with these high tides, we've been catching fish best on the reefs. The shoreline bite has just started to pick back up a little. Normally, when stronger fronts arrive and cool the water temperatures down some, they also drive the tide back out and the fishing gets better. Shorelines adjacent to the drains
leading into the marshes should be good. I'll key on areas with a grassy bottom and fish about crotch to waist-deep. I'll be throwing Super Spooks with chrome on them some, as long as the fish are blowing up. Mostly, I'll be throwing Gulp! lures and Sand Eels.” upper Laguna Madre - baffin bay - Land Cut robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 We have had some rainfall in the Upper Laguna Madre, but not enough. Much of the Laguna and Baffin Bay are still affected by brown tide, making water clarity poor. This has made it tough for local anglers to find and catch fish on some days. People planning a trip to Baffin Bay will need to fish with live shrimp or piggy perch under a float or something smelly, and/or noisy. Bass Assassins with BANG and Berkley Gulp! products are effective, smelly baits that can be fished on a jighead or under a float. I like the oval Bass Assassin Kwik Corks. MirrOlure Catch 5s in bright, flashy colors like CHBL are attractive, noisy lures that I will also be fishing with, in water depths of three to four feet. When fishing in water not tainted with brown algae, I’ll be fishing with eighth ounce, screw lock jigheads rigged with Assassin Die Dappers in colors like salt & pepper, silver phantom/chartreuse, sand trout and chartreuse dog. I’ll be fishing along the edges of deeper channels early and moving up into shallower water as the day progresses. Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.937.5961 Joe has been having fun chasing oversized reds on recent charters, and he expects the action to continue through the autumn months. “We are catching a bunch of big reds right now. The last couple of trips, all the customers have used their trophy tags. Mostly, we're catching them on spoons and soft plastics. The key is finding the schools by riding around, either seeing them as they make wakes if it's calm, or locating them by seeing the schools themselves if it's windy enough to see into the water. I'll probably be continuing to work this drill as the weather cools 2013 Catalog_Sampo 9/17/12 11:26 AM Page 1
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down some more, staying mostly in areas close around the JFK, where the water continues to be clear almost all of the time. We've got a big migration going on right now; there's lots of bait in the area from about Bird Island to the Causeway. We should have steady fishing on the flats for a while, at least until some strong cold fronts blow most of the water out of the bay. Once that happens,I'll probably start focusing my efforts more along the channel edges again.” Padre Island National Seashore Billy Sandifer - Padre Island Safaris - 361.937.8446 The two biggest tiger sharks we ever caught; 820 and 746 pounds, were both landed in early November. There is a tremendous amount of food chain activity in November; the trick is whether we get any days that allow us to take advantage. Generally speaking, northers and sargassum shut us out many days but, since it has shut us out all year maybe it will relent in November. Bottom fishermen will revel in ice chests full of pompano and whiting. Peeled-fresh shrimp and “Fishbites” for the pompano; whiting love live and cut finger mullet. A wide array of artificials will work for jack crevalle, tarpon, Spanish mackerel and Atlantic bluefish. Finger mullet migration will be in full swing. Pick out the areas of peak mullet abundance - the birds lead you to fish. It is imperative to pick days between cold frontal passages with the second day behind a front being the most user-friendly. Beware of tides. Northeast and north wind will push tides to the dune line and leave you no beach to travel on. Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 This past month we had north winds and rain from a Category 1 hurricane that hit northern Mexico. Before all of this appeared our fishing was on fire, good morning bite with limits of solid trout and
reds. We were fishing when the first rain cell hit and they went insane; every cast produced a trout or redfish. Just like someone throwing a switch, they shut off entirely when the front arrived. Since then, the bite has improved with lots of fish being caught, tons of juveniles with enough keeper trout is now the norm. The bone Baby Skitterwalk and gold spoons have been effective lures. I have noticed reds starting to run through the East Cut. So if you have a chance, make an attempt to fish the Cut and jetties. Reports say tarpon, bull reds, jack crevalle and Spanish mackerel are numerous in that area. November is a great month to fish, with cooler water and pleasant air temperatures, which make fishing all across our bay system comfortable and enjoyable. Tight lines and calm seas! Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty – www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 Our catches have been good, but the fish are pretty localized, making it difficult to stay on them for more than a drift or two. The west side of the LLM is holding the majority of the freshwater dumped by recent rains, so,conditions have been less than ideal. Freddy says, “When the water is brackish, you will have better luck by lengthening your leader, because trout prefer the heavier, saltier water near the bottom.” We’re limiting on slot reds most trips, and catching some very nice trophy trout, but the limits of keeper trout have slowed down considerably. The round Cajun Thunder corks are working best, with leaders anywhere from 12 inches to 20 inches, depending on water depth. We always use braided line, which is superior for popping corks, but can be rough on reels. Quarter ounce jigheads with Berkley Gulp! Three inch shrimp continue to be the most effective baits. We have seen the difference in water clarity and regrowth of essential bay grasses when we have even one winter without open bay dredge disposal in our immediate area.
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PAM JOHNSON
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This is a wonderful variation of surf & turf that incorporates fresh locally Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share? caught Texas seafood. Prep time is only about 30 minutes after the grill is hot. Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: Ingredients Preparation 361-785-2844 Béarnaise sauce – I used Christian Potier prepared sauce found at HEB in the gravy section. Knorr brand packaged sauce mix could be substituted. 1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper
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Place trimmed asparagus in large bowl, add olive oil, salt and pepper and toss. Place on grilling rack and cook 5 minutes at high temp, turn and cook 5 more minutes. Cover and set aside. Grill steaks over medium-high temperature coals approx 4 minutes per side for medium-rare (145⁰ internal temp), or longer if you prefer medium to well done steaks. Top with asparagus, crab mixture, and Béarnaise sauce. Yield: 4 servings.
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Tidal Corrections Location Calcasieu Pass, La. Sabine Bank Lighthouse Sabine Pass (jetty) Sabine Pass Mesquite Point Galveston Bay (S. jetty) Port Bolivar Texas City, Turning Basin Eagle Point Clear Lake Morgans Point Round Point, Trinity Bay Point Barrow, Trinity Bay Gilchrist, East Bay Jamaica Beach, Trinity Bay Christmas Point Galveston Pleasure Pier San Luis Pass Freeport Harbor
High -2:14 -1:46 -1:26 -1:00 -0:04 -0:39 +0:14 +0:33 +3:54 +6:05 +10:21 +10:39 +5:48 +3:16 +2:38 +2:39 +2:32 -0:09 -0:44
Low -1:24 -1:31 -1:31 -1:15 -0:25 -1:05 -0:06 +0:41 +4:15 +6:40 +5:19 +5:15 +4:43 +4:18 +3:31 +2:38 +2:33 +2:31 -0:09
For other locations, i.e. Port O’Connor, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and Port Isabel please refer to the charts displayed below.
Please note that the tides listed in this table are for the Galveston Channel. The Tidal Corrections can be applied to the areas affected by the Galveston tide.
Minor Feeding Periods are in green, coinciding 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 in orange, 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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