September 2011

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ContEntS SEPTMEBER 2011 Volume 21 No. 5

Everett Johnson Everett@tsfmag.com

FEatURES 08 Seek and Ye Shall Find…

14 To the Fringe and Beyond 20 Tarpon and a Whole Lot More 24 Less Can Lead to More 28 Locals only or local knowledge...

32 The Forgotten Lure 36 Mackerel Mania 40 Redfish Roundup

40 60

62

Mike McBride Kevin Cochran Billy Sandifer Martin Strarup Chuck Uzzle Joe Doggett Joe Richard Will Drost

Coastal Birding Let’s Ask The Pro Fly Fishing TPWD Field Notes Conservation Kayak Fishing According to Scott Youth Fishing Texas Nearshore and Offshore Fishy Facts

Billy Sandifer Jay Watkins Casey Smartt Luis Uballe, Jr. CCA Texas Scott Null Scott Sommerlatte Jake Haddock Mike Jennings Stephanie Boyd

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92

Dickie Colburn’s Sabine Scene Mickey on Galveston Capt. Bill’s Fish Talk Mid-Coast Bays with the Grays Hooked up with Rowsey Capt. Tricia’s Port Mansfield Report South Padre Fishing Scene

Dickie Colburn Mickey Eastman Bill Pustejovsky Shellie Gray David Rowsey Capt. Tricia Ernest Cisneros

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· ·SPANISH MACKEREL SPO ON S · BETT ER THAN EVER

aBoUt tHE CoVER A redfish that wanted to be a leopard!

Ricky Robards of Palmer TX was lucky to snag this rare beauty in the Lower Laguna Madre while fishing with Capt. Ernest Cisneros. Ricky’s prized red is currently at the taxidermist.

4 | September 2011

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EDITORIAL Disrespect is Getting Us

noWHERE In January of this year I attended a workshop at Harte Institute that was titled Challenges to Sharing and Conserving Our Bays.

Participation was by invitation and approximately 100 people from various user and interest groups attended the two day event. I truly believe there was some good accomplished. What I found most heartening was the number of participants that said they’d prefer to see education before regulation as a remedy to resolving “user conflict” which is a nice name for bay rage.

Sharing and Conserving our Bays became reality mostly through the efforts of a group called Texas Wade Paddle & Pole who bill themselves as “A Community of Responsible Coastal Anglers.”

Now – like ‘em or not – Wade Paddle & Pole have a strict set of views on how we should all use the coastal resources. While most anglers would take little exception with WPP’s basic position regarding the conservation of marine resources, a great majority would no doubt disagree with the methods they are encouraging we should all adopt to access shallow fishing areas, i.e. wade, paddle or pole – careful with the outboard motors as they disturb fish making them tough to catch.

WPP have not been bashful in requesting Texas Parks and Wildlife to consider the implementation of Low Impact Fishing Areas; see also No Motor Zones. I give them high marks for cleverness in the way they cloak No Motor Zones in a mantle of conservation.

WPP have been doing an outstanding job of influencing the right people that their way is best. In this case the “right people” would be those in positions to make regulations and laws. And while this is all going on through proper channels there is another angler group out there making their own powerful statements and influencing lots of opinion in their own way. I call these guys the Disrespectors. Spell Checker disapproves that name about the same as I disapprove their attitude and behavior on the water.

The Disrespectors do not discriminate, they disrespect everybody equally. Depending the type of boat they drive some Disrespectors are also known as Burners, meaning they burn up the flats looking for fish, barely stopping to fish, never with the first amount of concern for others fishing there. There are also Horners. As their name implies these guys are never bashful about horning in on the action. Any of these clowns will drive through your drift, cut your wade, run too close when you are fishing at anchor, and a bunch of other obnoxious things. They are also known to be rude at boat launches and vulgar in front of women and children.

Not only are Disrespectors horribly selfish on the water, they are not very clever. They haven’t the first clue how they are playing right into the hands of folks whose main agenda is to tell the rest of us how we should share the bays. Luckily, they are a tiny minority, and I’m hoping if we all pitch in we can soon educate them in the error of their ways.

6 | September 2011

STORY BY MIKE MCBRIDE

There are times when the “cool” factor really stands out and anytime your most recent experience was as good as your first it probably qualifies. I remember one particular first event like it was yesterday and it changed a lot of what I thought and did. A similar event actually happened again for me yesterday and, believe it or not, has happened more than a few times lately. When conditions are right, and with some vision and planning, a “cool” factor like this could be available for any who go a-looking.

Years ago during my old drive-up fishing days, long walks back to the truck were mostly uneventful after you had strung whatever you thought you were going to. This day was no different, but while glancing down to avoid stingrays something strange caught my eye.

I wasn’t sure what, but it stopped me dead in my tracks. I darn near froze in a stupor as the strange object morphed into a huge fish just laying there, not 10 feet away, where nothing was “supposed” to be. I actually got off two casts, and as the beast was sliding off, two more appeared out of nowhere. I had never caught a fish that big and never dreamed of seeing one so shallow much less three. Just seeing them was awesome, and no, they were not reds. Trout bigger than life itself, and my fishing world began to change. Although I haven’t tried 8 | September 2011

to stalk and sightcast trout much in the past few years, I am excited again and have been doing so whenever conditions and clients converge. I hate to overwork the word but it is truly awesome, and with realistic chances when we apply ourselves.

Mention sight-casting and the default image of a redfish tail pops up. Trout though can offer some big opportunities as well, and for many fishermen the experience can be far above most expectations.

Seeing a big trout close-up can make the hair on your neck stand permanently erect. And when we finally figure out that yes we can, and then we do, it’s akin to a spiritual awakening. It just depends on what we want out of this fishing life, to catch a bunch or to catch ‘em cool. With a little focus we can often do both. Let’s talk about what might be out there that many have yet to explore.

To begin with, why would trout hang so shallow in the first place?

The more we fish the more we should admit we don’t know. They do seem to thrive in areas we rarely consider though, and some of those areas might be right under our previously blind feet. Standard “hot water” trout philosophy councils us toward chest-deep water for coveted limits, but the truth says other trout exist which are often bigger. We don’t know much, yet, but here’s some of what we might

Places where the water is a foot or deeper right at the bank can be fish magnets. The presence of grassbeds just makes them even better.

guess about the why’s and how’s of fishing for them.

That long trout routinely use short water during a hot summer’s day both amazes and embarrasses me. (Why didn’t I look harder before?) Some of this shallow behavior could be feeding opportunity, but when you find them in these settings there is often not a stick of bait to be seen, unless it’s something we don’t know about or can’t see. Who really knows, but another explanation could be avoidance of predation. There won’t be any sharks or dolphins that skinny. But regardless of why they use the extreme shallows; there is probably an untapped fishery available.

Sight-casting for trout may not be as situational or regional as we have been trained to think. Despite the assumption that Texas coastal waters are too murky, I have personally had numerous opportunities in every bay I have fished, not to say that I ever really took consistent advantage. New frontiers await;

Anything will work so long as it is “ju st enough” and thi with water depth s varies and clarity. The ult imate rule of sightalways be – Do no fishing will t attack the fish wi th the lure!

TSFMAG.com | 9

both physically and mentally. Let’s be more specific about some of the what’s, where’s and how-to’s no matter where we might try.

The most commonly sight-fished water usually laps from lower thigh to high-ankle in depth. High percentage areas are shallow breaks near deep water, with standard examples being spoils next to the ICW, shorelines with deep drops, and exposed mid-bay reefs and bars. Other opportunities exist though, and through a hot September, we can also expect better fish high on the sand or tight to other hard shorelines. They can stay skinny well

A visual like this lasting a fraction of a second is often all we get.

into the day depending on weather. Some recent observations also suggest they go especially shallow when conditions are especially calm and clear. That might make sense when we go back to predator avoidance. One sure sign that we’re close is an abundance of stingrays, one time you’re happy to see them. If they are there in force some large trout probably are too.

Once we start stalking, the whole process becomes amazing. It’s truly an interactive endeavor with all sorts of busy critters to see, but learning to see the trout first is what it’s all about. Once you learn what to look for, apparitions previously overlooked can become as obvious as a liter bottle of Orange Crush. We do need some primary tools however, and this is where quality eyewear such as the Costa 580 series becomes invaluable.

Although we need to get in the zone and “be the heron” we don’t have to see the whole fish and often don’t. Like stalking whitetails where you might see only a horizontal line where one doesn’t belong or a quick ear flick, we’re looking for subtleties - shadowy movement, the contrast of a dark tail, a little silver flash, or perhaps a strip of grass that slowly turns sideways. Give every little deviation a chance to become your chance. Color and contrast play big, and no, not all trout sport black backs. Many blend with the bottom characteristics and many have little color at all. Some appear ochre-green in the sun very hard to see.

Surprising to me is that many big trout are seen sitting perfectly still, and most that are moving are just “snailing” along with their bellies rubbing bottom. Another surprise is the amazingly short 10 | September 2011

average distances at which they usually appear. You think you’ve scanned forever, take one tiny step, and one cruises away that you could have poked with a rod tip. Evidently they are not always as spooky as charged. Seeing them swim as pairs or small groups is common. If you see one there are probably more. Now that we better understand what to look for, let’s look at some of the mechanics of the game.

Basically, we are hunting This is one time rays are your buddy. wild pigs with a .22, so placement is everything.

With precision casting demanded, high quality tools are as well.

Putting a lure within three feet of the target just isn’t good enough.

Good rods and finely-tuned reels are important to be “tight” under these conditions.

So what might we have tied on? Soft plastics are excellent, but there’s plenty of room for other lures. Most lure decisions, however (in any scenario), should be based on what would be the most practical for the moment. Do we need more weight or better aerodynamics for casting distance, higher or lower contrast for conditions? Will a slowrolled paddletail get it done or can we finesse a straight tail across

Never think you can’t make it happen in the skinny-clear.

a clear bottom? Again, lots of room here, but as you might guess, the offering must be “just enough” and not overwhelming. We want them to respond, not flee.

As far as the actual presentation, there are few rules but very importantly, never “attack” the fish with a lure. It’s all about good angles, and the easiest case scenario is a fish sitting or moving at 90° or so to the line of your cast. Throw well in front. There is good noise and bad noise, so even the smallest abnormal entry splash can destroy the chance. Pull it slowly into the projected path, and if possible, letting it just sit until the fish gets close works well. A little take-away twitch or two at the right moment can make the fish react as though it spooked something up. I used to think most of these shallow, clear water fish were non-catchable, but many will actually jump all over a decent presentation. One excellent approach, skill based but not that hard to master, is working upwind - sun permitting. We can often sneak up closer, and yes, you can cast into a good wind. It just takes some tuned equipment and a tuned thumb.

September is a great month to try. With lower winds and late season spawners within wading range, sightcasting for trout is very realistic. Don’t think your home waters don’t offer opportunities. Confidence is what keeps us wading, so with a little vision and belief they are there, we just might walk ourselves right into a whole new passion.

Long trout and skinny water actually mix well together.

Note the water clarity and scattered potholes…perfect for sight-fishing.

Contact

Mike Mcbride

12 | September 2011

Mike McBride is a full time fishing guide based in Port Mansfield, TX, specializing in wadefishing with artificial lures.

Contact Skinny Water Adventures Telephone 956-746-6041

Email McTrout@Granderiver.net Website Skinnywateradventures.com/ Three_MudSkateers.wmv

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STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN Over the last few decades, anglers and tackle companies joined forces to identify and produce many effective lures for catching trout and redfish. Originally, most of these plugs were made for bass fishing, but several companies now offer lines specifically designed for use in saltwater. The majority of coastal anglers choose from four favored lure “families” i.e. spoons, soft plastics, twitch baits and topwaters.

A vast selection of sizes, styles and colors exist within those groups. Many time-tested plugs have a place in this arsenal, including the half-ounce silver spoon, the bone topwater, the gold broken back and the dark-red “tout”. Various brands of these wellknown offerings are favored by experts, novices and beginners.

While such famous lures need little promotion, other effective and productive plugs surely remain undiscovered by inshore experts. Certainly, some likely candidates for success have been largely ignored.

Take a recent trend in the soft plastic world as an example. For many years, saltwater tackle companies and coastal anglers saw little need for soft plastics in the “swim bait” sub-family. Regularly, I mused over the potential effectiveness of such lures and suspected they 14 | September 2011

were underutilized in the salt.

Now, numerous companies include swim baits in their saltwater soft plastic inventories. Savvy anglers can use these buoyant, pulsating plugs in a variety of depths, by controlling the speed of the retrieve and altering the sizes of the weights (if any) on the hooks to which they’re attached.

Many swim baits are made to closely resemble the prey species they imitate. When finicky predators are found in clear water, the natural appearance and subtly enticing movement patterns of lures like the DOA Bait Buster and Hogie Major Minnow sometimes elicit more strikes than other offerings. Once used almost exclusively by bass fishermen, these specialty soft plastics have become a “fringe” selection for many coastal lure chunkers and are in fact steadily moving toward a more prominent position near the core of some quivers.

Other potentially productive plugs still lie outside the orb of coastal anglers’ spotlights, though they could be effectively utilized if discovered and pulled from the shadows. Deep-diving crank baits come to mind as fitting this description.

I think of these plugs as lipped members of the twitch bait family,

Trout are attracted to the twin, rotating blades on the plump, floating MirrOProp, especially in windy conditions.

though many work best when reeled straight in without any rod tip action. Several lipped twitch baits have long held a place in coastal anglers’ tackle boxes, including the Bomber Long A, the Cordell Red Fin and Mann’s Baby One Minus.

Shallow-running, floating/diving plugs like these standbys have produced many trout and redfish. Recently, related new plugs have been developed. Some are constructed in multiple, jointed sections so their bodies slither convincingly when retrieved. Lures like those in the Flex series from Strike Pro are gaining popularity.

Deeper-diving crank baits, though, are virtually ignored by inshore lure chunkers. Personally, I can imagine many coastal scenarios for which deep-diving crank baits would be ideal. I’d be interested to see how experts like bass pro David Fritz would incorporate their cranking strategies into the salty scene.

A perfectly suited crank bait undoubtedly exists for many applications in the brine, including bumping shells on ship channel spoils, banging off granite jetties or serpulid rocks and making mud puffs on the silt-layered bottoms of deep holes in rivers, creeks and man-made channels. I know some redfish tournament contestants have already discovered this and regularly employ various wobbling

deep divers while competing in their events.

Still other lures with tremendous upsides have yet to be discovered and deployed by any significant number of people. For instance, topwaters carrying a spinning blade or blades, like the old Shaggy Dawg, are scantly used. I remember slinging them along the beach in summers past, among waves teeming with menhaden which regularly surfaced and created a “flitting” noise which the rotating props on the “slush baits” effectively mimicked.

Surf-running specks attacked the noisy plugs with satisfying violence as I ripped them through the suds, creating a swooshing, foamy splash with every sweep of my rod. Though I didn’t use prop baits for several years, MirrOlure recently sent me some of their new MirrOProps, plump little floating plugs with a spinner on both ends.

I’ve already used them to catch both trout and redfish, and find them particularly effective in windy conditions. On more than one occasion, the number of blow ups on the prop baits was noticeably more frequent than on conventional topwaters.

Utilizing a floating plug with props in conjunction with a soft plastic makes sense in some scenarios. Dangling a worm under a noise-making device is a well-known, deadly-effective method for TSFMAG.com | 15

catching trout and redfish, especially in murky water and/or windy conditions. In fact, a number of redfish tournament anglers have apparently decided to deploy the “cork and jig” almost exclusively.

Many favor Gulp! products suspended under a rattling, plastic cork.

“You either win with ’em or get beat by ‘em,” some say.

Trailing a soft plastic on a short leader behind a topwater plug makes even more sense to me some of the time, since the floating plug also serves as a legitimate second target for strikes. Prop baits (and chug baits with concave heads), made to be worked like popping corks, are great choices for the floating portion of the “dangler” system, as are other noisy, dog-walking plugs like He Dogs and Super Spooks.

Surely, suspending a DOA shrimp under a Shaggy Dawg is an unconventional way of utilizing the attractive attributes of two lures simultaneously and might be described as fishing “on the fringe”. Other potentially effective, unusual techniques come to mind, some of which I’ve tried briefly.

A MirrOProp is a great topwater for redfish, since it works well at a fast clip with lots of starts and stops

I remember reaching a point of desperation in a Matagorda Troutmasters tournament years ago, while fishing post-front conditions in the Diversion Channel. Having caught trout there a week earlier, we returned during the event to hide from strong northwest winds, but found the current too strong to allow us to maintain contact with the bottom while fishing soft plastics, though we tried using heavy jigheads, up to half an ounce.

I devised a potential solution to the problem and placed a Bass Assassin on a worm hook, Carolina-rigging it with a one-ounce egg sinker. Though the method didn’t work for me that day, Carolinarigging buoyant soft plastics would undoubtedly be effective at times, especially for probing deep structures like ship channel spoils and well pads.

I’ve even contemplated replacing the floating worm with a floating/ diving, shallow-running crank bait like a Bomber Long A. When targeting sluggish fish in deep holes, dragging such a combo slowly along the bottom, pulling the crank bait down to make a mud puff, then allowing it to rise, might be the ticket to drawing strikes from trout and redfish. A shallow-running floater/diver rigged behind a weight facilitates a slower overall presentation than a deep-diving crank bait, which requires a faster retrieve to keep it near the bottom.

16 | September 2011

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The MirrOProp creates an enticing splash when moved with short, sharp jerks of the rodtip.

Many strikes on this lure come while the lure is still, as the blades slowly spin and twinkle.

Retrieve speed can be a critical component in a presentation designed to target any fish, particularly when those fish are in a negative feeding mood. Most any lure, combination of lures, method or system known to produce bass and walleyes will work on trout and redfish some of the time. I predict coastal inshore fishing will eventually evolve to more closely resemble fishing for those and other freshwater species. Some of the tools and techniques now thought of as on the fringe will likely move into the mainstream.

I see a future populated by inventive anglers chunking scenttrailing topwaters, slender skim baits with replaceable tails made to mimic needle fish, even hollow piggy perch lookalikes carrying spring-loaded systems which make them shudder enticingly. Until these selections become available (if indeed they ever do), curious coastal anglers can move toward the fringe through experimentation with existing tools and technologies.

Innovative fringe techniques include all of the following: (1) Texas-rigging soft plastics, (2) rigging them weightless or on shank-weighted hooks like the H&H Flutter Jig and swimming them through the shallows, (3) slow-rolling spinner baits in front of schooling trout and reds and (4) steadily turning buzz baits over rocks and grass beds.

An even more daring approach might be to attach a saltwater fly to a short length of leader and trail it behind a suspending twitch bait like a Smithwick Rattlin’ Rogue. Seems like a dynamic outfit when glass minnows hatch in the spring!

The most enterprising might venture farther into the unknown and employ methods considered more useful in the Great Lakes than the Coastal Bend. Trolling spoons, inline spinners and crank baits behind the boat (perhaps beneath planer boards) might produce more trout and reds than most of us would ever imagine. Virginia resident Sheldon Arey tells me people in his home state troll the waters of Chesapeake Bay and catch plenty.

I recall a neighbor I had in Bayou Vista back in the 90s who regularly trolled the canals in his john boat, offering a silver spoon endowed with a blue stick-on dot. He contended the blue dot was the key, but I believe the system, not the lure, accounted for why he caught ample trout in the daytime where others couldn’t manage a bite. He even landed a nine pound specimen one day!

It makes me wonder what I might catch if I would spend some time trolling around deep rocks or under rafted bait out in the middle of Baffin. I know I‘ll have plenty of space to operate. At least at first, until others see the light and join in the newfound fun beyond the fringe.

DOA’s Bait Buster is a lifelike swim bait whose twin tails wiggle subtly and enticingly.

18 | September 2011

Contact

Kevin Cochran Kevin Cochran is a full-time fishing guide at Corpus Christi (Padre Island), TX. Kevin is a speckled trout fanatic and has authored two books on the subject. Kevin’s home waters stretch from Corpus Christi Bay to the Land Cut. Trout Tracker Guide Service Telephone 361-688-3714

Email KCochran@stx.rr.com Website www.FishBaffinBay.com

STORY BY BILLY SANDIFER

Eric “Oz” Ozolins landed a rare and beautiful dusky shark on the PINS beach recently. Note satellite tag Oz placed near the dorsal fin.

For decades June was my favorite surf fishing month as it produced the best fishing for big sharks and tarpon. Now our best surf fishing for the most species is September, October and November. I’ll keep my opinion on global warming to myself as it seems everyone wants to debate it and personally I find the debate tedious. But I will absolutely guarantee you that we live in a time of climatic change; whatever the reason.

The problem with these three months is that there are too many fish of too many species present at the same time. Huge shoals of ladyfish (skipjacks) and Spanish mackerel are terrible about cutting your lures off. Even when using wire these fish will cut you off as they aren’t actually hitting your lures but are running through the water chopping baitfish and your line gets hung in their mouths and they cut your line without ever knowing it. If you are catching skipjacks for fun cast to the edge of the school; never into the middle of it or you will immediately be cut off by other fish that have snagged your line in their mouth or become gilled in it.

The first tarpon I ever saw was in the summer of 1959 and in June of 1961 I successfully landed a 6 foot 3 inch specimen that weighed 108 pounds off Bob Hall Pier. We got home and I told my mama about the fish and she said to my papa, “Ollie, you have absolutely ruined this boy!” Without even looking up Papa replied, “Naw Hazel, this one never was going to amount to anything anyway. All he was ever 20 | September 2011

going to do is fish and one tarpon won’t make any difference.” Guess he was right.

Often the tarpon are intermingled in frenzies of other species of gamefish feeding on anchovies. The tarpon will eat a skipjack as quickly as they will an anchovy and sometimes the best bait is a small live skipjack or a large chunk of a dead one thrown right into the fray.

But I learned a trick along the way. You must use at least a 30 pound test Ultra Green Big Game mono top shot or the skipjacks constantly getting fouled in your line as you cast to tarpon will fray your line quickly and badly and then when you hook a tarpon or shark the line will part instantly. Lots of bull and blacktipped sharks are frequently present in large numbers in these killing frenzies so one must be on the lookout at all times and if you use mono or fluorocarbon most will bite your hooks off. Mono or fluorocarbon of at least 60 pound test is recommended for tarpon. Personally I’ve came to depend on Hard Mason mono leader material due to its abrasion resistance more than anything else. It’s not easy to get knots to hold with this stuff so crimps might be advisable.

The way this scenario comes together is the first northers signal massive numbers of finger mullet to migrate into the surf from the bays. With each successive norther more and more mullet move into the surf. The redfish will move into the surf in larger numbers following them. At the same time huge shoals of anchovies will

Headed back home…complete with satellite tracking device that will hopefully provide Harte Institute with data critical to better shark management.

migrate along our coast line headed south for the winter and anchovies getting hammered in the first gut by skipjacks and maybe migrating tarpon in varying number will follow them. Jack crevalle fifty adult tarpon. It was windy as hell and there was a deep and wide and numerous nearshore species; including kingfish, intuitively know wade gut, try as I might I could not get a lure to the tarpon. After that all these baitfish are in the surf zone and move in to fatten up about an hour of waiting for them to come into the wade gut I said prior to making their own annual migrations.

I can’t take it anymore and waded out in that deep gut. I was on my The water in the surf has been unusually cold all summer.

Ben Koehler (age seventeen of Marion TX) While the recorded water temperatures at Malaquite beach has with a nice topwater red in the PINS surf. typically been in the 80s, I have found surf temperatures down island to be running from 74 degrees to 76 degrees. It will be really interesting to see what the fall brings. Shark fishermen would be extremely well advised to use floats on all their leaders in this time frame. It’s also an excellent time for sightcasting as I have seen over forty sharks during the course of a single day cruising the water’s edge. Best bet is to find a large group of anchovies with fish working them and bait up a castable leader and just watch for a shark to show. It’s a sure thing as long as you don’t hit him on the head with the bait.

A couple of years ago I was sightcasting to a bull of about seven and a half feet that was just about as far away as I could cast. I reared back and threw and hit him dead center between the eyes. I think the customers got a bigger kick out of that than they would have had we caught the shark.

Years ago Buddy Gough and I drove up on two acres of dusky TSFMAG.com | 21

tip toes and a big blacktip kept making straight for Buddy who was ten yards north of me. Then I saw Buddy throw a spoon at him. I cussed him out and he said he thought it was a tarpon.

We had to swim a little and the waves on the first bar were big. Just as I got thigh deep on the shore side of the bar I saw a twelve foot tiger in knee deep water directly in front of Buddy, who was a little behind me. The fish was about thirty feet in front of me. I called Buddy to go back to shore and we never did get a cast at those tarpon. That tiger was laying up there hidden by the surf on the bar waiting for anything to come within reach. I can clearly see it laying there as I type this. Shortly afterwards an acquaintance drove up from the south and he was visibly very badly shaken. When I asked what was wrong he said that three miles to the south he had walked dead up on a

ten foot tiger. I told him, “That’s chump change. Go look out on this bar and you’ll go back where you came from and jack slap that ten footer.” These are cool stories but keep in mind they are also true and accurate and it was all in the middle of a bright sunny day.

Here’s young Ben the I have personally got to fish day after his PINS trip very little other than on trips with the author he nailed a seven pound five when we were targeting trout ounce speck to capture with lures for quite some the lead in the middle time and I really miss it. It is coast CCA STARTeens a genuine heartbreak when Division. Way to go Ben! as a fishing guide you have tarpon all around you but your customers want to catch redfish. Now that I’m heading into what you might call semiretirement from guiding, taking only selective charters, I’m definitely looking forward to “taking Billy fishing” a lot more than I have been.

Always remember the surf fishing gets the best the opening day of dove season. What a Hoot.

If we don’t leave any there won’t be any. -Capt. Billy L. Sandifer

Contact

Capt. Billy Sandifer Billy Sandifer operates Padre Island Safaris offering surf fishing for sharks to specks and nature tours of the Padre Island National Seashore. Billy also offers bay and near-shore fishing adventures in his 25 foot Panga for many big game and gamefish species.

Telephone 361-937-8446

The MOST

Website www.billysandifer.com

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sales@coveralls.biz 22 | September 2011

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Running and Fishing The unique aspect of this skiff is the air-entrapment hull. This design traps a cushion of air underneath the boat that makes it ride high. Because it rides so high, it never plows water, allowing the boat to get up on plane in the blink of an eye. When it’s time to turn and maneuver the skiff, sharp rails molded to the bottom of the hull grab the water and allow it to turn on a dime. The boat isn’t overly long compared with other flats skiffs, but the 8-foot beam is quite a bit wider than that of other boats in this class. The great thing about a supersize beam is that it provides a huge fishing area for multiple anglers and is also a very stable platform from which to fish.

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After two recent trips to paradise (Port Mansfield for those who don’t already know) I am still amazed at how much the trout fishery has improved over the past few years.

I remember when TPWD announced back in 2007 that a change was coming to the Lower Laguna Madre in the form of new regulations for speckled trout. And naturally, from some, the announcement elicited gasps of shock and prophecies of impending doom.

As for me and my fishing cronies; we simply shrugged and said that it was about time.

The new regulation would reduce the speckled trout daily bag limit in the Lower Laguna Madre (beginning at Marker 21 in the Land Cut and continuing south to include Brazos Santiago Pass) from ten fish to five fish per person per day. TPWD’s reasoning was based upon a ten year decline of spawning stock biomass and low recruitment of fingerlings into the fishery.

We all knew something was wrong when we fished down there.

Oh we still caught fish, but not like we had in the past. Things were changing and no one who fished that area and considered it the last bastion of hope from the crowded bays further north liked the changes they were seeing.

In a few weeks it will be four years since the five fish limit went into effect and what many seasoned anglers are now seeing is a completely different fishery. Don’t get me wrong - the fish aren’t exactly jumping into the boat or stringing themselves - you still have to put forth some effort to find them, and give them what they want when you do.

A good example would be our most recent trip. It took fully half of our first day to get on solid action, and when we did the fish preferred small topwaters to the exclusion of all other baits including soft plastics – go figure that one. But when we finally got in the groove we caught and released a number of twentyseven to twenty-eight inch trout and we had plenty of eighteen to twenty-fours to keep everybody’s attention riveted. And we also caught a bunch of dinks, and a bunch of seventeen inch fryers – my personal favorite size for dinner. For several hours there was a trout just about anywhere you threw.

24 | September 2011

Sterling with a near-28, in pouring rain.

I remember all the hoopla and arguments on the different internet fishing sites; who was for dropping the limit and who was against it. To be honest I was quite amazed reading some of the arguments and reasoning against cutting the bag limit. I mean here we are in the twenty-first century, mature and responsible sportsmen, yet statements such as “It’s my right (to keep ten trout per day)” were being spouted left and right. Another that amused me was, “I don’t see anything wrong with the fishery and I doubt reducing the limit would improve it if there was.”

Well, here’s what I have to say about that, “No it’s not your right and yes there was something wrong with the fishery.”

The fact of the matter is that we’re seeing a greatly improved fishery in the Lower Laguna. So what’s holding us back from reducing limits and improving the fishery in all the other bay systems?

Seriously folks it doesn’t take a marine biologist or a rocket scientist to see what’s coming at us if we do not become proactive in the management of our fisheries.

In terms of liberal bag limits and fishing opportunity it seems clear to me that more equals less – and if you give it a chance – less will add up to a lot more every time.

I hear people whining all the time about the crowded boat ramps, more people and more boats than ever. I hear the same people griping that they’re being crowded out of their favorite fishing areas, have given up fishing on Saturday on account of the crowds. Yet

Settin’ her loose to become a ten pounder.

TSFMAG.com | 25

My son Sterling with a nice 27.

Seriously, what we do with the fishery will impact what our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will inherit from us. I don’t mean to tell you that if the daily bag limit is ten that you should only keep five, that’s your choice and TPWD is supposed to stay on top of the biology. But what of the little things like releasing undersized fish?

How many times have you seen someone gill hook an undersized trout, redfish, flounder or whatever and simply rip the hook out, gills and all, and toss the dying fish back into the water? It only takes a second to push your hook through the gills, snip the line with a pair

26 | September 2011

of clippers, release the fish to grow up a bit, and then tie the lure back onto your line.

Think of other things that you, as a steward of our fishery, can do to improve what we have. If you see monofilament line floating in the water or lying on the beach do you pick it up and dispose of it properly later? If your leader gets too short and you cut it off to tie on a new one while wade fishing do you stow the excess and throw it away later when you get back to the docks? How do you dispose of your plastic baits; in the trash or trash the water? What about drifting too far into the shallows and then burning donuts to get back on plane. How’s that working for those grassbeds?

Remember that it’s not just “you” or “me” out there on the water, it is “us” and there are a lot of “us” out there nowadays. If we don’t all do our part, if we can’t show that we care enough to take care of what we have, make no mistake, someone will tell us how we are going to take care of it.

Be safe.

Contact

these same people will tell you there is no reason to lower the trout limit in their bay. Really? How can you expect to have it both ways?

I believe that every person who purchases a fishing license and saltwater stamp and sets out to catch fish in the bays of our great state should be stewards of the fishery that they are active in.

Martin Strarup Martin Strarup is a lifelong

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

Email - Trouthunter@swbell.net

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“Psst…hey buddy…I got what you need. I got the GPS coordinates to all the reefs. All the secret spots from the locals guaranteed to give you what you’re looking for…I got it all.” In typical wide-eyed frenzy, the angler hungry for information does exactly what has been suggested, he buys it all.

Anything for an edge and everything for a big fish.

The quest for big fish flat out drives fishermen crazy.

They’ll go to extreme measures, sometimes traveling great distances to get it done. And the primary key to their success is knowing the what, when, where, and how of each location.

Here in this wonderful information age, gathering “inside” fishing information has taken on a new face.

For years it was a difficult task to find out anything truly helpful on a new body of water without spending time out there feeling your way along. Still though, anglers went to great lengths to acquire much-coveted local knowledge.

Hiring local guides to gain a Cliffs Notes version of a particular area has always been a logical way to jumpstart the learning curve. For those a little more adventurous and with a few more bucks, there was the overhead method, taking a plane or helicopter for a ride with a camera and a map. B.A.S.S. guys employed the bird’s eye view for decades, availing themselves to the obvious shortcut of covering lots of water in a short amount of time.

Fast forward to today’s electronic wizardry and you 28 | September 2011

Guides exchanging information on the water is a common practice that helps everyone involved.

J and M Tackle in Orange Beach Alabama. Tackle shops are great places to obtain local fishing information.

can pretty safely make the claim that there are no secret spots left. Google Earth is as good as any plane ride ever hoped to be with entire continents revealed in striking detail – incredible satellite imagery available at the click of a mouse.

Another example is the mapping chip now offered by Navionics as a compliment to their GPS systems. These devices are ridiculously detailed and stupidly easy to program and install.

And that’s not all, they are “updateable” via any PC with new technology and information from the Navionics website as soon as it is available.

According to Navionics representative Art Wright, they are going even farther with new Smart Phone mobile apps that make it easier to access mapping data on the go. One such app is called Newsstand which geo-references articles from various

30 | September 2011

publications to provide detailed information on practically every major body of water in the U.S. For example you could enter Sabine Lake and access a list of articles that you could then read or download for reference later. It’s an amazing app that will help adventurous anglers do it on their own.

“fishiness” going on. I made a quick trip to the local tackle shop, J&M Tackle, and got all the info I needed to make my trip a success.

These folks were really nice and very willing to help an out-of-state angler. I have found it very rare when you cannot receive a good tip or useful information at the local tackle shop; it’s the first place to start asking around when you go to an unfamiliar body of water.

So – bring all your gadgets and stir in a big helping of local knowledge – I cannot imagine you not finding the fast track. And whatever you do, don’t forget to bring your own secret weapon.

Many times I have seen visiting anglers put a thrashing on the fish with lures and techniques the locals would never have dreamed of using. I guess that’s what makes this sport so interesting, the fact that there are no absolutes and anything can happen. Here’s hoping you find all you need on the information highway and each stop along the way.

Chuck Uzzle

Contact

Another handy app Navionics is promoting is their Nav Planner which allows the user to plan routes, store waypoints, and download it all to a chip compatible with many brands and models of GPS transceivers. This has been a big hit with tournament guys who are constantly plying new waters as venues change along the tourney trail. Some teams are enlisting the help of a local angler who can use the app to draw up a fishing game plan and travel route to share with them without even getting in their boat. Very useful and time saving to say the least.

Now with all this electronic help it’s awful easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. Several years ago I saw a boat on Sam Rayburn that had run aground and flipped over on what was supposedly a submerged hump. Two out-of-state anglers armed with a high-dollar GPS were involved in the crash. Yes they were on the right route. Yes they were following the coordinates. No they didn’t realize the lake was ten feet below normal pool, so they crashed. A GPS doesn’t make you invincible nor will it guarantee you that you will be fine if you follow the track. This is where good old fashioned common sense and basic navigation skill still come into play.

As seen in the example above, even with all the latest electronic wizardry, there is still a great need for “hands on” local knowledge.

If you are so fortunate to find someone willing to share some information they gathered the hard way, by all means respect their areas and do your best to reciprocate the exchange of information when you can. The exchange of information between fishermen can be the difference in struggling and success.

On a recent trip to Gulf Shores Alabama I couldn’t wait to hit the surf in front of our condo – it was alive with bait and all manner of

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

Phone Email Website

409-697-6111 cuzzle@gt.rr.com www.chucksguideservice.net

back country 18

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The shallow wader toting two rods is well-advised to have one rigged with a lightweight or weedless spoon.

If I were stranded on an island with a rod a reel and someone told me I could have only one lure with which to catch fish and feed myself, I would ask for a Johnson spoon.

Rudy Grigar; Plugger, Wade Fishing the Gulf Coast; 1997.

That’s a heavy endorsement from one of the saltiest lure chunkers the Texas coast has ever produced; frankly, Johnson Lures fumbled big-time by not promoting that unsolicited praise.

The late Rudy “The Plugger” Grigar’s fishing career spanned more than 60 years; he helped define the game of wading and casting artificial lures, and attained legendary status among A-Team anglers during the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Grigar seldom fished from a boat and he never (at least during the 25 years I knew him) used natural bait. He was headstrong and opinionated and had his detractors - but no one ever said the old man didn’t know to fish for speckled trout and redfish.

And his loyalty to the venerable spoon should be worth a closer look amid all the hype surrounding the latest “killer” soft-plastic tails and dog-walker topwaters. The simple metal concept is perhaps the oldest of saltwater artificials yet, despite its heritage, the spoon is the forgotten lure on today’s tackle shelves.

Grigar’s favorites were the Sprite and the Silver Minnow. Nothing 32 | September 2011

new there.

The Johnson Silver Minnow with its single upturned hook was introduced in 1920 (mainly as a freshwater bass lure), and the Sprite with its single treble hook affixed to a tail split ring premiered in 1950. The Sprite is an all-around choice for open water while the weedless Silver Minnow is a specialized lure, excelling over the shallow grass and shell favored by redfish.

Both models are standouts but all proven spoons suitable for light casting or spinning tackle (1/4- to 3/4-ounce range) deserve

Top, 1/4-ounce Johnson Sprite from factory; below, Sprite rigged with larger treble (lower point snipped) and nose split ring.

A-Team lineup of spoons for surf and bays: From left, Dixie Jet, Tony Accetta 5H, Luhr-Jensen Kastmaster, Stettner Triple Chance, Johnson Sprite and Johnson Silver Minnow.

top-shelf status for the serious plugger. Good examples are the Tony Accetta 5 (or heavier 5H), Acme Tackle Kastmaster, Luhr-Jensen Krocodile and Mr. Champ, and Anton Stettner’s original Triple Chance (three line-tie holes for different action).

A great but long-discontinued line of spoons was offered by Dixie (Schumacher Company) of Houston. The 3/4-ounce Jet and 5/8-ounce Siren especially were killers. You still can find them at tackle swaps and on the internet - trust me, they are worth obtaining.

But, day-in and tide-out, the Johnson Sprite is the gold standard (or silver or copper, depending on preference) along the Texas coast.

Regardless of make or model, the properly weighted and designed spoon for the available water has several major advantages: First, the spoon is the most versatile of all lures. This is a biggie, probably the main reason why old salts such as Grigar rated them

A properly rigged Johnson Sprite is a Gulf Coast classic for a South Texas limit of speckled trout. Note old Shakespeare Sportcast reel.

so highly.

You can fish a spoon fast or slow, high or low, to stay in the strike zone. A skilled angler using a longer rod and a fast-ratio reel can skip the concave face across the surface. This is most effective when blind casting over mixed grass and sand on a thigh- to waist-deep flat. You skitter and splash the spoon then pause, allowing it to flutter down into each white pothole.

At the opposite extreme, you can bump the spoon along clean bottom - excellent for flounder or when reds are holding deep in a gut or channel.

Another strong point - a flashing, wobbling spoon can be deadly in the sandy or sandy-green water all-too-common along the upper coast. A soft-plastic tail with minimal vibration and “show” sort of gets lost under a southwest wind (we all know what SW does to water clarity).

Here’s another big plus: The compact hard-metal spoon has superior ballistics.

When distance matters, the proper spoon backed by an “educated thumb” will outgun a soft plastic of similar weight every time. This especially is true when you’re forced to cast into a stiff breeze.

For this reason, a heavier spoon such as a Jet or Kastmaster is an excellent choice for the surf wader punching into the prevailing onshore wind.

Covering water is a real advantage when fishing a monotone stretch of beachfront or bayshore. Those extra backlash-free yards cast after cast can make a difference during the course of a long wade or drift. If you can’t reach ‘em, you won’t get ‘em.

Larger torpedo-shaped topwater plugs have superior ballistics, no question. Some might even challenge a comparable spoon - but what if fish aren’t TSFMAG.com | 33

Fingernail polish or spray paint will bring any tarnished spoon back to life. Use your imagination.

looking up? You can allow the spoon to drop deep, deep, deeper.

But extra yardage means little if you are showing a dud. The proper spoon looks good. It imitates a crippled baitfish and there’s not much out there on a green tide that won’t take a whack at one.

Even if trout or reds are chasing shrimp, the erratic flash and wobble of a spoon can be hard to resist.

If you really want to improve the odds under birds or in the surf, you can rig a lightweight streamer fly as a “trailer” on a two-foot mono leader. The trailer does not overly impede the action. Use 20- or 30-pound test leader to minimize tangling, and lob the cast to allow the trailer leader to open up during the arc.

The spoon is an excellent choice for the beginner. To repeat, it’s a A gold spoon with excellent casting ballistics is a traditional killer for redfish in coastal bays.

34 | September 2011

great payload, easy to cast, and there’s really no way to fish it wrong.

The rookie with a spinning outfit can simply chunk and wind and allow the concave face to work its magic. The spoon has more action and flash on a straight retrieve than any other lure. Case closed.

And the compact spoon with its single hook is relatively safe to work with when landing or unhooking fish. It’s certainly easier to monitor and control than an elongated mullet-imitation plug with two or three sets of dangling trebles.

The downside to the spoon is that a loosely hooked fish is apt to shake free; this is because the metal lure flaps and pulls against the hook as the fish thrashes. Head-shaking sow trout have a soul-deadening knack of tossing a spoon on a short line. So, most regrettably, do snook.

A good trout or snook hooked in the hinge of the jaw or down in the throat - no problem. You’ll put your hands on the fish unless you panic and break the line. But a hook through the thin lip membrane Uh-oh. Oh, no!

Well. Nothing’s perfect.

Back to the positives, spoons are durable. This is more than can be said for soft-plastic tails. You might have to replace a bent hook or split ring, but the integrity of the hard metal lure remains bulletproof.

Rugged construction may not be a significant issue when sightcasting to reds or big trout, but the spoon saves time and hassle (not to mention money) when “toothy” fish such as Spanish mackerel are slicing through the swells. Not to mention the plastic tails.

You can go through a pouch of plastics in a hurry in the surf or on the rocks. Chop, chop, chop - time to re-rig with a spoon. Chop, chop - Clank! Presto, you’ve got a nice two-pounder “Spanish” ready for the grill.

Spoons do tarnish - some more so than others. The Sprite especially is bad; for all its excellent fish-catching qualities, the lure is cheaply plated. The gleaming out-of-the-box finish seldom lasts long in any county with a coastal zip code. Fish one hard and forget to rinse it, and within a few weeks it will look like an encrusted bauble tossed aside by Cabeza de Vaca or Hernando de Soto.

But all spoons corrode and rust. Not to worry.

You can bring a tired old spoon back to life with a cleaning agent or, worst case, a total re-do with paint or nail polish. Back in the mid’70s, Grigar painted many of his worn spoons bright chartreuse - the first application of this hugely popular saltwater color that I recall.

You can even paint an old spoon black; frankly, color may not

be as important as action. On that note, adding a short, flashy skirt to the hook split ring increases the jive factor.

Re-issued spoons can work well but, eventually, a trip to the tackle store will be in order. More good news: Most spoons are about half the cost of most trout-type plugs.

But even NIB (“new in box”), proper rigging is important. I’m not through finger-pointing at the Sprite. The smaller (1/4- to 1/2-ounce models) have cheesy trebles. Change them out if you are serious about catching anything larger than schoolie “jug” trout.

Use a slightly oversized big-name treble or upturned single hook. The bigger hook will not booger the action. A good compromise for semi-weedless bay duty is to snip the lower treble point, leaving two points upturned.

Sadly, many spoons are not factory-rigged with nose split rings. Add a stainless ring of suitable size.

It’s a rookie mistake to tie 10- to 15-pound casting or spinning line directly to the hard edge of the metal punch-hole. The typical improved clinch snubbed tight hampers action and the knot can be stressed against the abrupt force of a powerful cast. The good news is, the spoon may sail an astonishing 100 yards across the shimmering green tide; the bad news is, it’s no longer attached to the line.

I don’t trust snaps. They are handy but don’t blame me if one pulls open on a big fish. Trust, instead, to the quality split ring. A small swivel (either added to the split ring or tied to the line/ leader connection) prevents line twist, but the split ring by itself does a fair job by allowing the lure to flutter and wobble without restraint.

Without a nose ring, you can tie a loop knot on a heavy (30-pound) mono shock leader.

Another option is to use a light wire leader. Loop-knot the wire to the spoon and add a swivel to the line-tie end. Use brown wire and a small black swivel for low profile, and rig the leader short enough (three or four inches) to keep the metal swivel outside the tip guide during the cast. This method was preferred by Grigar.

The properly rigged spoon is a classy no-nonsense statement. One look and you just know it will catch fish. I do not presume to be in Grigar’s class, but I believe you could tote nothing more than a small box of spoons and fish with success from Sabine Pass to South Padre Island.

The right spoon for the available water will keep you in the game.

TSFMAG.com | 35

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

A Spanish mackerel blitz is something many dedicated coastal anglers have yet to encounter, so focused are they on their favorite two fish. It’s quite the opposite of wading some quiet, sheltered flat for redfish and trout. Yet an hour of true mackerel frenzy can yield more action, more pulled drag and lost tackle than weeks of bay fishing. Slow weeks, but you get the picture.

I am not entirely a stranger to mackerel schools---over the years my fishing mates have always relished a fight with these toothy speedsters. Fast action and a full fish box, that was our goal. A spattered boat and a dozen lost lures was just part of the program.

There have been memorable days spent with this Gulf-wandering fish. A major benchmark came and went this June, when we loaded up the landing net (and then some) with my biggest mackerel ever.

Oddly, it attacked a floating topwater called a Chug Bug---slashing it repeatedly, even jumping over the lure like a small kingfish. When I “reared back” into him, my first reaction was chop back on the drag. The big fish plowed by the boat and the young angler with me reached hopefully toward it with his small landing net, but I cautioned him to hold up; this mackerel had yet to crank up the afterburner. Right on cue the reel sang and that mackerel bolted 35 36 | September 2011

yards. Somehow the 12-pound line and 20-pound mono leader held on. The fish wouldn’t quite fit in our landing net and one of the treble hooks broke off in the struggle. But it was dragged aboard and later, back at the marina, weighed six pounds even in front of a half-dozen gawkers. We carefully bagged those thick, yellow-spotted fillets and hours later they graced the table for a party of four, served with a magnum of chilled white wine to ease the day’s pain.

That fine mackerel was caught over a Florida grass flat, but Texas has even bigger mackerel, with the state record of 8.7 pounds caught at Sabine Pass in my old stomping grounds, probably at the jetties.

Texas mackerel follow summer’s green tides in the surf, but also in the back bays when salinity permits---even San Antonio Bay on occasion.

With the ongoing droughts, we may see more mackerel back there in the future. After all, the mackerel population is doing quite well.

Port O’Connor friends visiting Florida last November were amazed to see mackerel milling under the boat in six feet of clear water, where we’d staked out an autumn migratory spot with a chum lock, creating the action. It was the day’s highlight, with 17 fine mackerel hitting the deck. Another dozen lures were lost, with our motley collection of gold spoons taking a serious hit. Something grabbed my spoon and

During fast action with mackerel, plastic grub worms are shredded, but its better than losing expensive trout plugs.

streaked almost 40 yards in a few seconds, breaking the line, leaving only speculation. Very likely it was another mega-mackerel.

We’d intercepted a fall mackerel migration heading south on matters of importance; it seems all eastern Gulf mackerel winter way south in Florida Bay (between the Everglades and the Keys). That’s where they stack up by the millions in about 10 feet of water, a handy fact for Texans needing respite from the winter doldrums. In the Western Gulf including Texas, mackerel winter in sunny Mexico, which doesn’t sound like a bad idea except for the gillnets. One of my tagged mackerel in Port Isabel, released one October, was recaptured that winter off the Yucatan Peninsula’s north coast. In a net, of course.

More notes from observing mackerel schools: Like most fish, there are days they just “hit right” with solid hookups. Other days they play the devil with tackle, eating swivels and chomping through 40-pound mono leader like it was nothing. Unlike trout, mackerel don’t seem to mind thin but dark wire leader---at least we’ve caught them by the box load while doing so. If mackerel are leader- or lure-shy, you can at least see them following the lure and make adjustments. If they’re in a feeding frenzy, chopping up anchovies, then pull out the dregs from your tackle box---rusty jigheads, and adorn them with plastic

Lady angler waits for needlenose pliers, before unhooking mackerel.

TSFMAG.com | 37

Feisty mackerel thrashes alongside the boat, hooked on a gold spoon.

(Inset) The dusky anchovy is a favored forage species of Spanish mackerel. Sometimes numbering in the millions, a giant school of dusky anchovies can make the water appear pink or red. Feeding frenzies often occur as numbers of mackerel slice through the tightly schooled baitfish.

tails that somehow never catch fish in the bays. And by all means hide those killer trout baits from your boat crew. Why? During a mackerel melee, people are liable to tie on any lure within reach. Those are days when your favorite Corky plug won’t live 10 seconds out there.

Feeding mackerel schools are a harsh environment. That 12-pound line used for trophy trout is fragile as a spider web, surrounded by eager sharp-tooth mackerel. One can stay sporty in a blitz with 12 and suffer real losses, or get mean and fill the box with fish. That’s when a hard 20-pound line like Ande works for us. A foot of light brown piano wire and a tiny black swivel will certainly work here. However, this autumn I’ll be using 40-pound Malin Sevenstrand, a flexible cable that actually ties into a knot. Connect the cable straight to 20-pound line on the reel with a blood knot. Presto, no swivel for mackerel to munch on. It’s labor-intensive to build a replacement after a mackerel swimming with mouth agape runs into your line 20 feet from the lure, cutting off the entire rig for no reason. Best to keep a dozen pre-made short wires or cables in the tackle box. In any event, you want light steel leader when the action starts.

Heavy kingfish wire of 69 to 90 pounds is way too heavy, though it will likely catch a few Spanish during a feeding frenzy.

Mackerel have keen eyesight and prefer clean water; the best is olivegreen water during summer. Speed is the key: A plugger’s slow retrieve may only attract follows, critical stares and maybe a few bumps.

Speed and flash are required for solid hookups; call it “crank-and-yank.”

That’s why you want a fast-retrieve reel for this kind of work, and a seven-foot rod with a broad sweep.

A short rod and slow reel makes it hard on the angler. Except on rare days when these fish are groping in murky water for schools of baitfish.

One Labor Day we returned from offshore with few fish, to find glass minnows spraying at the end of the jetty in chocolate water during tide low tide. By creeping our gold spoons near the surface, Amy and I slammed those three38 | September 2011

ashy spoon You can’t beat a fl “wearing out” to s when it come mackerel. ish an Sp of l a schoo

Mackerel don’t mind feeding during the heat of the day.

pound mackerel for two hours, the boat spattered with blood and coughed-up mangled minnows. At the time there was no bag limit on these fish. Once again, our gold spoon reigned supreme.

Mackerel schools appear and vanish on a daily basis, but the most dependable action happens during years when massive schools of dusky anchovies appear in their countless millions, turning the water a patchy pink. They’re most commonly spotted off the beach or around the jetties, hanging out sometimes for weeks, almost a guarantee of another mackerel blitz. During such times, macks will even follow anchovies into the bay, where it’s a treat to plug away in sheltered waters, compared to the open Gulf. One year schools of mackerel camped in front of Port O’Connor’s Saluria Bayou, thousands of fish that wore us out. We’d plug away until noon, wash up for a leisurely lunch at Clark’s Restaurant only two miles away, then jump back in the boat for more. Oh, we had some fun with those mackerel.

Because mackerel populations today are considered healthy, and often not

Six-pound Spanish mackerel caught on a topwater Chug Bug.

targeted by the public, the daily bag limit in Texas remains at fifteen.

That’s a lot of fish, if you can find a ravenous school of 3-pounders. Just be sure each fish swung into the boat has a shiny black dorsal fin. If it’s green, that’s a juvenile kingfish and the bag limit is exactly two. Both species hang out together when their size difference isn’t great. You wouldn’t want to unload fifteen little kingfish back at the dock, because a sharp-eyed game warden can tell the difference. (Legal reasons aside, kingfish grow to 90 pounds, so why keep two-pounders).

Mackerel are lumped together with kingfish when it comes to mercury advisories, but I seriously doubt a three-pound mackerel that eats tiny glass minnows most of the time would build up much mercury. The lowest items on the food chain carry the least amount of mercury, and mackerel are especially hard on the little critters. They will however target those five-inch silver mullet migrating out of the bays around Labor Day, milling at the jetties, schooling on the surface, easily blasted from below.

For anglers who disdain or have never tried Spanish mackerel, baked or broiled fillets from a three-pound fish or bigger are a serious treat on the table, infinitely more so than fried seatrout. Mackerel also fillet easier than perhaps all other species, and have no scales. Simply lay the fillets (skin down) on a shallow baking tray, sprinkle Tony Chacere’s Original Creole Seasoning with a tad of Italian seasoning on the meat side, pour melted real butter over same, and bake at 350° until the meat just starts to flake. We prefer to broil during the last 3-5 minutes to add a little crisp. On the table, squeeze lemon juice over each slab of white meat. Holy mackerel, what a feast and what a fish.

TSFMAG.com | 39

Redfish. Red Drum. Rojos. Rats. Bulls. Arguably no other species with so many nicknames and so few spots has made more of an indelible mark on our runs down to the coast. Their presence is unmistakable; witnessing a school of bull reds blasting bait offshore is just as cool as watching a pair methodically plowing and pushing small grass shrimp to the surface in the marsh. We’ll sweat a bilge-full push-poling to a school in the back country, quickly drain trolling motor batteries chasing open-water schools and paddle a kayak miles seeking blue-tipped-tails. They’ll eat anything today and nothing tomorrow. Greedily they feed on crabs, shrimp, and finfish yet also possess a strange affinity for gold-colored metal - deer hair too. Redfish give themselves away with mud boils and slicks, yet magically disappear in only inches of water. Fly rod or conventional, clear salty or stained fresh - it makes little difference to them; they swim in either. They maniacally twist around Boga Grips, crush hard-to-find Corkys, and the anger they inflict on

topwater lures is Biblical. We admire their stamina and find pleasure in their power - even though we could have sworn we had a state record trout on the line. And yes, despite what all those trophy trout aficionados coolly say back at the dock, they’ll gladly take a crimson back when those yellow-mouths are uncooperative.

The history of the species is as varied as its color. They have seen it all. Between mother nature and man, probably more than their fair share. Purse seines filled to capacity, hundreds of miles of gill nets, historic liberal limits, Arctic freezes, and Cat-5 hurricanes.

If they could talk we’d all get an earful. Perhaps their frustration with our checkered past is why they make our drag washers and forearms always beg for mercy. Truth is - they have earned the right to torture our tackle.

Take for example the infamous “blackened” redfish craze. I’ve only had the Cajun concoction a few times - around the height of its popularity in the 80s. It was pretty good. Maybe I was expecting more. After all, this smoked-filled-room-recipe gets the credit for single-handedly pushing the species to collapse.

But the warning signs had begun well before Chef Prudhomme 40 | September 2011

hit the big time. Commercial fishermen in the 1960s began to harvest the large schools of redfish that roamed the shallows of Gulf coast estuaries - particularly those easily caught in backwater bays and marshes of Louisiana and Texas. Within just a few years a commercial over-harvest began to take its toll as gill nets arrived on the scene; pillaging these same waters. A species once “in the black” found itself “in the red.” But from the ashes came a voice - a wakeup call for conservation, as Walter Fondren and other like-minded-stewards recognized and fought for the protection of the species. They understood the economic and social importance of redfish in our coastal community’s future. The recreational sector caught on and began to tighten the belts of conservation from their side. Take my home state of Louisiana for example, prior to 1977 the recreational fishery for redfish was largely unregulated. That particular year, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries set a combined daily limit on redfish and speckled trout of 50, the same year Fondren began “Save our Redfish” in Texas. After several years of political wrangling, Texas soon passed the famous HB 1000 in 1981 providing gamefish status for the species. Louisiana followed suit 1991. Thankfully, their resilience is remarkable. Thrive they do - even despite recent tropical events; storms that have had dramatic effects on coastal, estuarine and terrestrial ecosystems along the gulf coast.

Hackberry Rod and Gun Club survived not one but two category five storms, both of which blasted their lodge and turned the Lake Calcasieu estuary into a giant washing machine. Taking aim at the upper Texas and Southwest Louisiana coasts, Rita and Ike were doublebarreled destruction. “Those two storms turned us upside down,” says Capt. Kirk Stansel, who has been guiding clients for redfish since the 70s. Shortly after getting the infrastructure rebuilt, Stansel focused on the fish. His concern about the storm’s effects on the trout and redfish were quickly erased as he witnessed an incredible run of the species.

“In all my guiding I have never seen the number of redfish that we have right now. Trout and flounder too, but especially redfish.” Stansel theorizes about the timing of the Hurricanes relative to the late summer spawn. “Shortly before each storm we were seeing the big bulls all over the passes and beaches, indicative of spawning behavior - It’s possible that the timing of both storms helped carry larvae and fry into all our surrounding marshes giving them a head start and protecting them from predation.” When Stansel is not fishing he is in the surrounding marshes hunting and has observed how storms and environmental

impacts have altered these vital nursery grounds over several decades. “The storms really killed a lot of vegetation and that decay created a bloom of organic matter - vastly growing the food source in the estuary,” he says. Still, despite the storms short term effects he has seen the resource continue to thrive in the long-term. “Coastal erosion is certainly an issue, but the coast is resilient. We lost some big areas of salt grasses but the marshes are healthy now. Oyster grass is now growing in areas that lost salt grasses. The area is holding good quantities of ducks and fish.”

Lance Robinson, Texas Parks and Wildlife Upper Coast Regional Director agrees, “While the storms certainly caused unfortunate infrastructure destruction, from a natural resources standpoint our marshes, have adapted over millennia to mother nature’s destructive forces.” Robinson suggests that after a storm inorganic material settles in the marshes, causing a buildup of natural bacteria. “The natural decay process consumes oxygen, breaking down the marshes, this break down is also the source of fuel - providing vast supplies of

nutrients that jump start productivity in all species.” Robinson suggests that anglers are certainly enjoying this pattern now, “Red drum numbers are through the roof, and on the upper coast, trout are doing great as well with some great recruitment numbers.”

Robinson points out however that the current drought situation may not be as conducive to fishery blooms. “Shrimp, a primary forage species for redfish, is a one-year crop. As the larvae move from the gulf and into the bays they look for marsh edges with optimum salinity zones. During a drought these areas may be farther up the river systems and therefore provide less habitat structure,” he says. Robinson points out that this can have an adverse impact on production of forage species favored by redfish. “A chain reaction occurs - as forage base drops - other species also have a drop in numbers.” But, says Robinson, “Redfish (and seatrout) are opportunistic feeders; they will move on to other prey that move through the systems.”

History has proven the species’ resiliency - and the future remains bright despite the past. Considering the present day round of severe drought, run-and-gun tournaments, text messaging, internet forums, cell phones, improved tackle, lures, and line, it’s a good thing our Creator built them like small red tanks. Only time will tell what the future holds for this invaluable species - it is up to us to pass them on as we found them. In the meantime, they seem content to continue heating our drag washers - especially if we insist on calling them “Rubber Lips”.

TSFMAG.com | 41

J AY WAT K I N S

ASK THE PRO

I was at a captains meeting for a recent redfish tournament and had the opportunity to speak with a few anglers that regularly read the articles in this magazine. One asked me to write something different once in awhile and try to include some specific spots, not just general patterns as I normally do. I had to laugh inside as I continued to listen, not at him by any means, but the concept that it is all about the spot.

As the conversation continued I explained that I am really not much a writer, more of a reporter of what I do. I would never compare myself to any of our feature staffers when it comes to the written word, especially McBride, he is the best. I write what I believe I know. My articles are based on seasonal patterns as are the game plans in which I plan most everyday that I spend on the water. Boring is my middle name I am told by those close to me – so why would my articles reflect anything to contrary?

Boring and non-spot specific as they might seem at times, they are founded from solid on-the-water experiences mixed with the knowledge learned from many of my fellow fishermen, as well as some of you the readers. So – in this month’s article I’ll talk about a specific area, walking you through the process that I go through 42 | September 2011

mentally when assessing an area before fishing it.

Let’s go to the Second Chain of Islands – the region between San Antonio and Ayres Bays. If you go to Google Earth one could quickly come to the reasoning behind why this area would consistently hold fish. The Chain, as we call it, is typically a very good area year round. Right there is your first tip.

The Chain is laced with hard shell crowns, scattered mud and shell, deeper drop-offs with access to deeper water, and moving water. In just a few words I have described exactly what you should be looking for in a spot no matter what the season. In September the key ingredients to daily success will be early arrivals, moving water, location of baitfish and your ability to follow the signs the fish create as they move from nighttime feeding areas to their chosen secondary structural retreat. The most important message in the previous sentence is your ability to follow the signs.

Typically the baitfish will be on the shallow shell humps and shallow guts along the southern faces of the fingers of hard shell that stretch out to the northeast. The shallow water and the islands that make up the southern portion of the Chain create a funneling effect which creates stronger

C o n tac t

water movement further up the Chain. Trout and redfish alike will stage and hold on the up-current sides of the scattered shell that tapers down from those fingers so a southerly approach is needed.

Even though we usually position ourselves where we can make downwind casts I strongly suggest some angle in your cast. This allows the lure to cross out in front of more fish on each presentation whereas a straight downwind cast addresses only a specific narrow range of opportunity.

The best feed is typically early due to daytime heating this time of year so making the most of the prime time is extremely important. Once fish are located, try to fish a line parallel to the line that you are receiving your bites along. Try making long casts to the discovered ambush point. Ambush points are chosen for the following factors: optimum water movement, availability of preferred forage, quick escape routes to secondary structure, and water temperatures.

Now these next few lines separate those who catch and those who do not understand why they do not catch. STOP! Please stop and make repeated casts, at forward angles along a line, parallel to the line along which you are receiving strikes. To trick here is to ALLOW the fish to come to you in their own way and on their time. I have been known to spend an entire morning standing in one area, catching a fish or two every five to ten minutes. Now do the math. In four hours, four guys catching a fish every five to ten minutes apiece is a lot of catching! Once this pattern is perfected and confidence is gained in the effectiveness, your going to be The Man at the dock more times than not.

I know this might sound boring (I warned you about that) but I’m going to repeat myself just to make sure it sinks in - “Ambush points are chosen for the following factors: optimum water movement, availability of preferred forage, quick escape routes to secondary structure, and water temperatures.”

If you pay close attention while wade fishing you can certainly feel the changes in water temperature. Shallow water cools slightly overnight and a few degrees of difference will feel more significant than our onboard water temperature gauge might indicate. This has certainly been true for me the past few weeks from San Antonio Bay all the way to Port Mansfield. Hey, I am going to move around looking for the spot that is holding the best trout and redfish I can find for my clients. Cooler, moving water attracts predator and prey alike.

OK, now there’s some spot specific information for you, along with some of my usual boring “I think I know” stuff thrown in for good measure. I hope it helps you in formulating your game plans to locate and catch a few more fish the next time you’re in the Rockport area.

If you will allow, I’d like to brag just a bit on my son Ryan and his partner Andrew Upshaw for a few lines. Ryan and Andrew, representing Stephen F. Austin State University, recently won the B.A.S.S. Masters National College Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas. If you are familiar with college bass fishing you know this sport has taken off like wildfire across the nation. To win any national title is big but the B.A.S.S. Masters National College Championship is the Super Bowl. B.A.S.S. Masters is the premier tournament tour and anyone that knows bass fishing knows what that represents. Emotions led to tears on both ends of the phone when I answered and heard Ryan’s voice trembling, trying to get the words out... “Dad, we did it. We won. We won the Bass Masters National College Championship!”

I want to congratulate the team of Ryan Watkins, Andrew Upshaw and Blaze Pratt on a remarkable college bass fishing career. You guys are awesome.

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.

Phone 361-729-9596 Email Jay@jaywatkins.com Website www.jaywatkins.com

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CASEY SMARTT

F LY F I S H I N G

THE WAY IT GOES I was kayak fishing with friends recently on a sultry morning near Corpus Christi. It was one of those days where the flats were hot, still, and silent. We had spent the better part of the day paddling and searching the shallows, with little to show. The lifeless flats and stifling temperatures had slowly whittled away our concentration.

As lunchtime approached we were wiping our brows and quietly acknowledging our angling adventure had been reduced to nothing more than a steaming hot kayak trip with a lot of miles left to go. But then we had a stroke of luck. Our path crossed a big school of redfish, writhing and cruising in the shallows near a small secondary channel.

“Finally” I thought, as I quietly slipped the anchor in.

I eased out of the boat and stripped off some line. It was a perfect set up. The school was quartering toward us slow and deliberate, like one giant target. I made a nice clean cast, dropping the fly a few feet in front of the leading fish. But my hopes fizzled as I watched the entire school split and deliberately swim past my fly as though it were a fencepost in the middle of the trail. In disbelief I shot another cast and again the school split, uninterested. The fish slid silently past us, but did not spook. Instead, they made a

video

slow steady circle and came by a second time… and then a third. Still, we could not catch them.

Over the next hour we cast nearly every fly we had at those goofy fish. Glaze-eyed and strong-willed, they just kept swimming in big circles like hypnotized salmon, barely flinching as flies rained down on them again and again.

It was as though their dial was stuck on “swim.” I finally managed to tag one with a chrome baitfish pattern, but could not repeat it. Eventually we had enough. Exhausted and defeated, we shook our heads and bailed on the zombie school of redfish. It was one of those experiences that rattle your confidence and makes you reconsider how much you think you know about catching fish.

Why did those redfish behave that way? Why would a mob of predators pass up an easy meal, over and over again? Were they full? Sick?

Perhaps the slack mid-day tides, or the tepid water, or maybe the full moon shut them down.

Or maybe it was none of those things. That evening we sat around a table full of fly tying materials and vises and tried to come up with the answer. The only thing we knew for sure was we had paddled a long way, found some fish, and couldn’t catch them. In retrospect, we

Check out Casey’s Fly Fishing Video Library at www.caseysmartt.com

44 | September 2011

probably needed a day like that to keep us honest, but it was a tough pill to swallow.

The following morning we headed out at daylight and paddled to an area near where we had seen the school of reds. We were joined by Corpus Christi angler Austin Orr. Austin is an expert distance caster and has remained unbeaten for many seasons in the Roy’s Bait and Tackle Fly Casting Contest. I keep telling Austin I’ll beat him, ”Next time.”

So far it hasn’t happened. Austin spends much of his time on foot, throwing shooting heads at pelagic species like kings and jacks from the jetties. If you have ever fly fished

Contact

from the jetties you know how rough it can be. Waves, barnacles, knee-gouging rocks… Fly fishing from the jetties is a tough gig but Austin’s good at it.

As we pushed slowly across the flats, there was an obvious lack of activity. No wind and no bait. It did not look very promising, but the tide was starting to flood and that at least was in our favor. We pulled around the front of a large slough and paddled toward a wide bottleneck where a scattered group of islands met the main shoreline. It was really a nice spot, with a hard sandy bottom and just enough low grass to hold shrimp and crabs. The water was only a few inches deep in places and I could hear my kayak hiss as it brushed over the sand and weeds. Austin stood up and poled his kayak over the shallow water to get a better vantage point and we all hoped things would start happening.

Up ahead I noticed a few surface wrinkles radiating from the bank… then a few more. It was a good sign. We paddled a bit closer and suddenly four redfish came into view. They were about 75 yards away and had their backs completely out of the water. We anchored our boats and quietly waded closer. I fired a small brown shrimp pattern up ahead of the first fish. The red turned and exploded on the fly. At first I thought I had spooked him but when line started ripping through my fingers I knew the fish was on. A few minutes later, Austin made an effortless long cast and landed his fly right on the mark of a second fish grinding through the sand. The fish surged forward and with a “chuck” sound, inhaled the fly. Austin’s reel zinged. It was a great sound.

I glanced up the shoreline and could see numerous tails and bodies starting to pop up in the placid water. Things were looking good. We had found the fish and this time they were hungry. As the cool currents surged through the bottleneck and around the tiny islands it made for a prime hunting ground, and we were right on it. The action continued for several hours, with each of us catching numerous reds as they aggressively dug through the sand and mud. What a difference a day had made.

But that’s the way it goes… and how it should be. We endure the tough days and they give us a better appreciation for the good ones. We learn what we can and marvel at the rest, always remembering how lucky we are to spend time with friends, doing what we enjoy, in a peaceful place.

Casey Smartt has been fly fishing and tying flies for 30 years. When he cannot make it to the coast he is happy chasing fish on Texas inland lakes and rivers.

Phone Email Website

830-237-6886 caseysmartt@att.net www.caseysmartt.com

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LUIS UBALLE, JR. | FISH & WILDLIFE TECHNICIAN A R A N S A S B AY E C O S Y S T E M T E A M | R O C K P O R T, T E X A S

FIELD NOTES

FISH & WILDLIFE TECHNICIAN There is many a time that someone asks me, “What do you do for a living?” If I were to mention that I’m a mechanic or carpenter, they would know what my occupation is without further explanation. When I respond that I am a Fish & Wildlife Technician for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - Coastal Fisheries Division; they usually react with a blank look and, “Oh, really?”

To explain my job in one brief sentence is almost impossible because I do many things. One

survey by skiff or make a trip on our 36-foot research vessel, the RV Copano Bay. Our monthly sampling schedule is divided into two halves with sampling and data collection kept separate in the first half of each month (1st-15th) and second half of the month (16th to end of month.) Every month we conduct twenty shrimp trawl and twenty oyster dredge samples with the RV throughout the Aransas/Copano bay

Oyster dredge pickup

Skiff trawl

day I can be a boat captain, a long-liner and an outboard motor mechanic, while on another day you might find me repairing gill nets, building oyster dredges, painting boats, or doing a boat ramp survey. I also am a data editor, mentor, teacher and someday maybe even a biologist.

The best part is I never know what the day will bring, and there are so many challenges and so much diversity that I can never be bored. Usually we start the week on Monday with a staff meeting to discuss the various upcoming activities.

As a group the technicians help plan out the work week. We might do a bag seine 46 | September 2011

Bag seine pull

system. Some sampling days take as much as 10 hours on the water. Twenty bag seines for monitoring smaller species and juveniles of other species are also collected on a monthly schedule. During a ten-week period each spring and fall we set and pick up forty-five gill nets for monitoring adult finfish.

These sampling gears provide us information on species diversity, size, and relative abundance. Each sample must be sorted by species, counted and

Gill net pickup

we interview boaters and fishermen returning to boat ramps at the end of their fishing trip. Some of the data we gather includes species caught, size, and fishing effort.

Along with the data from our other sampling gears, we can get ideas on fish population trends and better recommend management options.

Creel surveys are conducted from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and can be hazardous in the summer months. You can expect HOT days, slippery ramps, sharp spines, fish slime, getting in and out of a rolling boat, and sometimes dealing with impatient anglers. At sixty-two years of age, that can be quite challenging!

measured. Amazingly, we have never missed collecting any of our gear samples in all the months we have been at it.

Live fish from our sampling gears are returned to the water as quickly as possible. Dead fish from our trawls, bag seines and gill nets samples are saved as food for animals at the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (the ARK), an animal rescue center in Port Aransas. Fresh dead fish large enough for people to eat are donated to charity.

Another part of my duties are creel surveys. During creel surveys

Capt Luis Uballe behind the wheel

Battle monster marlin by day. Then enjoy the blissful luxury of epicurean cuisine, luxurious amenities & world-class service by night. Ah, this is the life.

Visit westcoastfishingclub.com/panama or call 1.888.432.6666 for details.

TSFMAG.com | 47

quantumfishing.com

© 2010 Quantum, a W.C. Bradley Co.

Reviewing data

Tougher aluminum alloy body and an added 7th layer of SaltGuard™ II corrosion protection

During the summer months we enjoy the privilege of working with summer interns, usually a college student studying marine biology.

Under our guidance, we teach these future biologists the fine art of fisheries management. It can be quite intense and hard work, but the experience gained will be valuable in their future careers.

Retooled, hard chrome plated clutch system for durability as rock solid as your hooksets

Unbreakable TiMag™ bail, ultra smooth multistack ceramic drag and a fistful of advanced PT components give you the edge

The new Cabo PT. Frankly, we’re running out of things to upgrade.

Repairing gillnets

Data entry is another aspect of my job duties. All the information collected from the field is recorded on data sheets and reviewed multiple times to insure the accuracy before it is entered into the computer database. We have been gathering this type of sampling information for over thirty-five years and our data are so useful that other agencies and universities use it for their own research.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Division is considered by many to be the best in the nation for sound management of natural resources, and in no small part due to the dedication of our employees. The Fish and Wildlife Technicians play a large part in that management picture.

Hopefully this small description will better explain who I am and my career with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries.

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

48 | September 2011

Chris Mapp’s

Boat Maintenance Tips The majority of flats boats are equipped with a hydraulic system to raise and lower the engine on the transom. Our phone starts ringing when it quits working, especially if you’re on the water when it happens.

There are four major brands of hydraulic lifts: Bob’s Machine Shop, CMC Marine, T-H Marine and Detwiler Industries. All brands work on the same premise with a few design variations.

Troubleshooting: Pump running but slide not moving. - - Reservoir low on fluid. (Bob’s and T-H Hydro-Jacker use 20w20 non-detergent oil. CMC, T-H Atlas and Detwiler systems use tilt/trim fluid.

Typically there are four wires in jack plate circuits. Red=positive.

Black=negative. Green=down. Blue=up.

Beginning at battery; connections should be clean, shiny, and tight - nothing greenish or dull gray. Pull on wires to verify connections are not comprised internally. First component in line is a 40 or 50 amp circuit breaker that has a reset button on the side. If the circuit breaker is corroded, try jumping from one terminal to the other as a test to verify power to the system. Relays should click at this point when switch is engaged with jumper in place.

From the circuit breaker, the wires split and run two directions, the larger (10 gauge red) go to the relay pack and smaller (14 gauge) go to the actuator switch. There must be 12v power at the red or (sometimes purple) wire at the switch. If an inline fuse has been included it will be near the circuit breaker, always the center wire. Jump the center pole to either the blue or green and the relays should “click” or the jack should start moving.

The relay pack has two red wires for constant power on each relay (come directly from the circuit breaker). The smaller wires come from the switch. The wires leaving the relay pack feed directly to the jack plate actuator/motor and are susceptible to corrosion and failure.

Bob’s jack plates have solenoids instead of relays but test the same way and have no splice between solenoid and jack plate motor assembly.

Remember - a clicking relay or solenoid is getting power but may not be transferring it. Jumping the large red wire from the battery to either the large green or blue wires at relays/solenoids should produce movement.

Always check for fuel odors before jumping circuits. Fuel vapors in confined spaces can explode violently on the tiniest spark.

Relays and/or solenoids for up and down must be installed for test to be accurate. A basic 12-volt test light will make quick work of these procedures. Always start at the battery, keep it basic, and never assume.

Coastal Bend Marine – Port O’Connor Texas 361.983.4841 – CoastalBendMarine.com

Science and the Sea

TM

Following the Light Bluefin tuna migrate thousands of miles, but exactly how they find their way through the vast blue is a mystery. One answer may lie with the tuna’s “third eye.”

Researchers discovered clues about tuna navigation while investigating the bluefin’s habit of making sharp descents and ascents at dawn and dusk, known as spike dives. The team gathered information from southern bluefin tuna off Australia’s southern coast. Fish in this study were equipped with electronic tags while they completed round trip migrations of 5,000 to 16,000 miles. Light and depth information recorded by the tags showed that tuna regularly made spike dives about 30 minutes before dawn and 30 minutes after sunset.

One explanation for the dives involves a structure in the brain called the pineal organ, sometimes referred to as the “third eye.” In tuna, the pineal organ is complex and has light-sensing cells similar to those found in the eyes. Tuna also have what is known as a “pineal window,” a translucent patch of skin on the surface of the head, between the eyes. A cartilaginous tube lets light pass through this window to the pineal organ, which is situated just on the top of the brain.

It’s unknown exactly what function the pineal organ has for tuna, but it’s thought to play a navigational role in other animals, including birds and amphibians. Therefore, the researchers suggest, spike dives might be a way for tuna to gather light information at dawn and dusk. Through these cues, the “third eye” may help guide them on their long-distance journeys.

The University of Texas

Marine Science Institute www.ScienceAndTheSea.org © The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

TSFMAG.com | 49

C O N S E R V AT I O N

MAJOR EXPANSION OF PORT MANSFIELD REEF UNDERWAY

CCA TEXAS JOINS EFFORT TO EXPAND FISHING OPPORTUNITIES AT EXISTING REEF Recreational fishermen in the nearshore waters off the coast of Port Mansfield will have almost five times the amount of habitat to fish within eight miles of the Port Mansfield Jetties after a major infusion of hard structure this week. CCA Texas’s habitat program, Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow (HTFT) teamed up with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Artificial Reef Program and Alamo Concrete Products to further enhance the existing Port Mansfield nearshore reef with more than 4,000 concrete culverts.

“This is a huge project for Texas anglers. It will take ten days of work around the clock to move 4,000 culverts so we are talking about creating a significant amount of new habitat out there that will be within easy reach of recreational anglers,” commented HTFT Committee chairman Jay Gardner. “You can’t just snap your fingers and pull together a habitat effort on a scale like this – it takes time, money and commitment. We can’t give enough credit to our partners at TPWD and Alamo Concrete Products. CCA Texas is proud to be able to do our part to bring this project to completion and we look forward to tackling many more.”

CCA Texas contributed $50,000 toward the total cost of about $537,000 to expand the existing reef, which already held an old tug boat and about 800 culverts. The expanded reef will provide additional habitat for many species of fish and marine life, including red snapper. The Port Mansfield reef is the second major reefing project undertaken by HTFT. In August 2010, more than 250 tons of concrete and granite splashed down on the Vancouver reef site off the coast of Freeport, and a new reefing project is planned for a third site off the coast between Matagorda and Sargent. To date, CCA Texas has committed

more than $200,000 to nearshore reefing in Texas waters.

“Port Mansfield is a popular destination for many Texas anglers and for our ‘winter Texans’ who come down every year to enjoy our warm weather. Our economy benefits a great deal from the quality fisheries that we have to offer, and projects like this help ensure that we will have them in the future,” said Matt Klostermann, president of the CCA Texas Rio Grande Valley Chapter. “Anglers are the driving force behind our efforts as a chapter to raise funds for these kinds of habitat projects that ultimately benefit conservation. We find tremendous satisfaction from being a proactive part of the solution.”

The state’s Artificial Reefing Program’s nearshore and public reefing portion has been in existence since 2006 and aims to establish a 160-acre site at each major port in Texas. Sites currently exist at Port Isabel, Port Mansfield, Packery Channel, Port Aransas (2), Matagorda and Freeport. These nearshore sites, located in Texas state waters, allow the general public to place reefing materials within those areas, as long as those efforts conform to the guidelines of the program and have prior approval from the state.

“This is the largest reefing effort TPWD has conducted at a nearshore reef. Our contractor, Cajun Maritime LLC from Louisiana, has done an outstanding job in moving over 4,000 concrete culverts to the reef site,” said Dale Shively, TPWD’s Artificial Reef Program Coordinator.

“This project represents another effort through the partnership of TPWD and CCA Texas to enhance marine habitat in the Gulf of Mexico, making better fishing opportunities available to all.”

To find the acres of new fishing opportunity, plug the following coordinates into your GPS: [WGS 84 format for GPS units] N 26o 31.535’ - W 97o 09.215’ *

*

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Special thanks from the staff at CCA Texas to Miller Bassler, Bassler Energy Services, for providing lodging to CCA staff while in Port Mansfield and to Jeff Dean, Dargel Boats, for providing staff a boat ride out to document the material deployment.

50 | September 2011

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TSFMAG.com | 51

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

K AYA K F I S H I N G

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GAIN

FROM YOUR TRIP? Alright, last month I sat down with a story in my head and then got sidetracked talking about my newest toy.

Hey, it happens. I’ll try hard to stay on track this month.

52 | September 2011

The original story idea came from many conversations I’ve had with potential customers. Quite often the person states something along the lines of, “I’ve been kayak fishing for a while now, but I can’t seem to catch very many fish.”

As the conversation continues it becomes clear that what they want is to learn something about fishing, not necessarily kayaking. It may be learning about new areas, how to read the water, how to pattern fish or even about lure selection and use. Bottom line is they know how to kayak, they need some fishing knowledge.

When confronted with this situation I explain to them that a poling skiff trip may be the better option for them. There is a growing number of poling skiff guides all along the Texas coast and with a little

investigation you should be able to find one in your preferred area. The way most skiff trips work, one or two customers take the bow and the guide gets on the poling platform. Your guide provides propulsion with his push pole as you prowl through the marshes and across the flats. The angler gets to concentrate completely on fishing and not worrying about paddling or positioning their kayak. The skiff can be poled slowly or quickly through an area depending on the situation. All the while it can easily be positioned so that the angler can cast to sighted

fish or likely looking ambush points. If you are just getting into fishing with artificials or possibly trying out fly fishing, the guide is right there to help you out with suggestions on the proper retrieve or casting technique.

For me the poling skiff is nothing more than a kayak propelled via push pole instead of a paddle. Basically my anglers get to see and fish the marsh the way I would do it if I were in my kayak.

I’m well into my fourth decade of fishing the Texas coast and a good deal of that time has been spent in the marshes of the upper and middle coast. These marsh areas are full of redfish and much of it looks the same. Many people simply head off into the labyrinth of ponds and

TSFMAG.com | 53

sloughs with the idea that there are going to be reds around every corner. Unfortunately that isn’t the case and anglers end up getting discouraged with trying to figure it all out. The fish generally won’t be evenly spread throughout the marsh. Wind, tides and the natural march of the seasons all play a role in where the best concentrations of fish will be. Entire portions of the marsh can be virtually void of fish at times and then overrun a week or two later.

I’m out there nearly every day and still get frustrated from time to time when they make an abrupt change in pattern. Recently a large marsh lake that was stacked with fish for a week was suddenly vacated overnight.

They weren’t in the lake, the nearby sloughs, or the marsh surrounding the lake. Conditions hadn’t changed and there was no immediately discernable reason for them to have evacuated the area. It was a head scratcher.

While it was disappointing to pole an angler into a barren lake, it actually turned into a great learning experience for him. After confirming that they weren’t anywhere in the immediate area we made a move

54 | September 2011

across the marsh and started ticking through areas with various habitats. I always try to explain why we’re fishing a particular area and the subtle difference between locations. We eventually found a conveyor belt of schooling reds working the shoreline of a large outer lake. Apparently a good many shrimp had decided it was time to migrate out of the marsh towards the bay and the reds had figured them out. This turned into a steady pattern lasting about a week before Tropical Storm Don shuffled the deck with a big tidal push.

Had we been in kayaks the day might not have ended quite the same. It’s tough to cover such a wide variety of habitat in a single morning with a paddle. This brings up another point. Many kayakers simply want to learn new areas they can access with their kayaks. I’ve run several trips recently where the customer was more interested in seeing new places than they were in how many fish they stuck. We still caught fish, but instead of camping out on a good bite we explored the area and then moved on. The main thing to discuss with any guide when booking your trip is

Contact

to explain what you hope to gain from it. Do you want to learn a new area, a new lure technique or do you just want to box some fish? There are guides out there to fit most every need. If the guy on the other end of the phone doesn’t sound like he’ll fit your plans, politely move on and find one that will. Most guides have certain methods they are comfortable with and they might not fish the way you want, but they probably can suggest someone who would be a better fit. If dropping a croaker onto a deep reef is your thing I’m probably not the right guide, but I have several numbers in my phone for guides who can help you out. Knowing in advance what you are looking for will also help your guide better plan for the trip.

The flip side to all of this is the call from a guy who has been fishing for years and is considering getting into kayak fishing. Most of these guys have either owned a boat or had a buddy with a boat and they’re looking to simplify. Others have been lifelong waders who have grown tired of slugging through the mud or they want to get away from the walk-in crowds. Obviously a kayak trip is what they need so that they can try before they buy. A guided kayak trip can shorten the learning curve and get them on track with proper paddling and safety techniques. It can also open their eyes to new possibilities for fishing in areas they couldn’t access from a bay boat or on foot.

The most important thing to remember is that no matter the method, we’re going fishing. It’s about being on the water, experiencing the wonders Mother Nature provides and most of all, relaxing.

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

Phone 281-450-2206 Website www.captainscottnull.com Email scott@tsfmag.com

TSFMAG.com | 55

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

ACCORDING TO SCOT T

FISHERMAN ON SAFARI So, about a month ago when I was turning in last month’s column to E.J., I informed him that my material for the next month was going to be later than usual.

He inquired as to why and I, with great enthusiasm, explained that I was going to Africa for almost the entire month and was not supposed to return until five or so days after the deadline.

He assured me that it would not kill him to receive the material a little late and wished me a good trip. I thanked him and then asked if he would mind if my next piece was about the trip and not so much about fishing. His reply was, “Well it is called According to Scott.” So here we go….

All I can say is WOW! For the first time in I do not know how long, I have found something that has truly inspired me.

Talking about the ultimate outdoor experience. Imagine 56 | September 2011

lying in a tent at night listening to a cacophony of new and strange sounds as a variety of animals move through and feed in and around the camp. Then there is a momentary silence that no words can describe.

Then the animals start ‘barking’ alarm to one another as what can only be described as low growl is heard. “Holy

crap! Was that a lion that I just heard?� Needless to say, I did not go outside to find out.

They say Africa is where all life began and it is easy to see why. For every species of animal that you might see while hunting here in Texas, you would, on most days, see five times that many different species while exploring the African bush. More over, I was surprised at how much the numerous areas that we hunted were like our Texas Hill Country and some even resembled the most westerly, more rocky parts of South Texas.

What surprised me most about the trip was how

different the terrain was compared to what you might see in some National Geographic special. It was nothing like that at all and very few of the animals would actually stick around for a photo op like you might see on television.

These critters were as wild and as easily alarmed as any I have ever seen.

Outside of the shear adventure of the hunt, which included the tracking and stalking of various animals, there were

TSFMAG.com | 57

and can still be seen well into spring turkey season if you are looking hard enough for it.

Coincidence? Probably, but interesting none the less‌ Anyway, I am going to cut this short so there will be more room for more images but, as I said, the trip inspired me and I suspect that my next couple of pieces will include some anecdotal comparisons between hunting in Africa and our fishing here at home.

Oh, and by the way- we did find lion tracks on the road leading into the camp the next morning. Did any of you ever see that movie Ghost and the Darkness? Sends shivers up my spine just thinking about it.

the nights when you could look to the sky and more stars that humanly imaginable. To me, one of the greatest experience of my life was looking to the sky and seeing the constellation known as the Southern Cross for the first time which can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. But what was even more surprising and quite pleasing, is that I was able to look to the sky every morning before the sun came and see Orion the Hunter, a constellation that can only be seen in Texas about six or seven months of the year which incidentally appears just before dove season starts

58 | September 2011

Contact

Be good and stuff like that‌.

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

Telephone 979-415-4379 Email vssommerlatte@hotmail.com Website www.scottsommerlatte.com

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TSFMAG.com | 59

Preventive maintenance to stay ahead of the gremlins.

JAKE HADDOCK

YO U T H F I S H I N G

FIX IT OR UPGRADE? We are getting ready to plunge into a great time of year to fish. The time of year when the waters are less crowded and fish can act like fish again. Many people would rather be getting ready for deer season but I will be fishing; if I can get my boats in working order. Last time I was fishing out of the Flats Cat there was an electrical issue with the jack plate. I had already fixed this issue this past winter (or so I thought), but I guess it wasn’t fixed good enough. This time I am letting the professionals take care of it. Actually,

Cousin Dylan with yet another topwater crushing redfish.

60 | September 2011

they are completely re-wiring it, with new gauges and all. So, this means the Cat will be out of commission for a while. There was discussion for a while about just getting a new boat and starting all over. This idea really appealed to me as you can imagine, but I don’t think that’s going to happen right now. I mean, it’s only an electrical issue. It can be fixed.

The jet drive is getting a little TLC too. I am currently working on it myself. This past weekend I put new floor boards in it, re-welded the cracks on every corner of both hatches, and replaced the fuel filter and spark plugs. As my uncle always reminds me, “Boats aren’t maintenance free.” He couldn’t be more right. They are far from it. In a perfect world, you might get a new boat every other year before these problems started arising. Unfortunately, for most of us this can’t happen.

Since we’re talking about taking care of your fishing stuff, one of the most helpful things to have is a functioning wading belt, as well as all of the things that go on that belt. I have been packing a FTU All Pro wading belt for about four years now, or at least that’s what it was called

when I bought it. I’m not quite sure if they have changed the name of the product by now. However, I did upgrade a few attachments on the belt, such as a down-sized tackle box for easier removal. Also, I upgraded the stringer to a brand that I came across in this magazine a while back called Fish Slick. I don’t know what kind of coating they put on those stringers, but it’s so much better than trying to force a fish off of a nylon stringer. The fish just slip right off. Your topwater hooks won’t get stuck in it either. If you don’t like the stringer you

have, you might want to give Fish Slick a try. Another thing of importance is to have a quality pair of stainless pliers on the wading belt. Some people like to carry the surgical forceps style of fishing pliers, but I have always liked my FTU brand stainless pliers. I always carry a lip gripping tool as well for handling fish. It’s good practice to take good care of all the attachments of your belt, especially the pliers and lip tool. You can do this by first rinsing it all off with fresh water. Then, spray a light coating of WD-40, or Corrosion-X on anything that will rust after every use in order for them to be kept working like new. This simple maintenance after every trip will save a lot of headaches for the next time you go fishing.

In years past, I tried to save all of this boat work and gear upgrades for the winter season. However, the past two years I have really developed a love for fishing in the cooler seasons. So now I find myself working in the heat to prepare for the cold.

Friend Cade with a big I don’t like it one bit, but if I don’t get everything red, the trip before the fixed soon I’m not going to be a happy camper electrical malfunction. when the first cold front gets here. It’s just part of it. Once again, this leads me to another one of my Uncle Mitchell’s favorite phrases to tell me, “It’s an action item.” In other words, it takes getting out of your seat and doing something to get things accomplished. Stuff breaks, especially when it’s around saltwater. That’s all there is to it. The only question is do you fix what you already have or upgrade and buy new?

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TSFMAG.com | 61

MIKE JENNINGS

TEXAS NEARSHORE & OFFSHORE

YOU HAVE THE

GREATEST JOB IN THE WORLD If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that I could probably afford to take a really nice vacation. It’s funny though, no matter what we do for a living it seems to always turn into a job. So when someone steps on my boat and makes that comment, I just flash them a big smile and jokingly reply, “Yep that’s what they tell me.”

Yet all the while I’m thinking about the last couple of weeks I’ve worked without a day off. How sore my back is from too many days in choppy seas.

My constant worry about a set of outboard engines with too many hours on them. Not to mention the constant barrage of other concerns and issues my customers cannot see and might not understand if they could, all part of the life of a fishing guide, all part of that greatest job in the world.

All joking aside, and if you could ever get a couple dozen fishing guides to give you a straight answer, all this fun in the sun is a good deal more stressful than anybody looking in from the outside would ever imagine.

One of the greatest sources of stress is 62 | September 2011

the simple act of climbing on a boat every morning with tunnel vision. A charter captain must not only provide a great time on the water but must also produce fish, and this will definitely wear on you over time. People don’t care about how many or how big you caught yesterday or what’s planned for tomorrow, their day is today and it’s time for you to show what you’re made of.

This added to a multitude of constant mechanical issues, finicky weather, late fish migrations, oil spills, short seasons and a down economy, will make even the best of them wonder if he had lost his mind when he chose this career.

I was recently thinking about these very issues and I am sure that if I sat here long enough, as with any profession, I could find even more to be cynical about. I think that each and every one of us can do the same in our profession.

As with most people

when a man catches his fish of a lifetime. The ability to just be a part of a young boy catching a fish that is longer than he is tall. The days that just simply put a smile on your face watching young kids have the time of their lives catching fish just as fast as they can reel them in. A large smile on the face of someone holding a fish in front of a camera , that was just a few hours ago fearful of even losing sight of land, will knock me back to reality and remind me of why I chose to work fourteen hour days. I think about how much it means to me personally

I think its easy to focus more on your trials than on your gifts, but with me it’s hard to think about what I do for a living without thinking of the people that I have come in contact with over the years. The very people, and the great days on the water, that appealed to me from the start. The lifelong friendships that have been sparked from a simple phone call and a fishing trip aboard my boat. The business relationships that have evolved between me and a couple of large corporations, that make this down economy a little easier to survive.

I think about the opportunity that I get to be there

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TSFMAG.com | 63

Contact

to realize that a family would choose to make me a part of their vacation year after year.

I can’t speak for every person who has made his living as a hunting or fishing guide, but for me it was the thought of being outdoors, doing what I loved most, that ultimately spurred me to quit a full time job and take the risk. Looking back now I begin to realize that I had no clue what I was getting into. It wasn’t the hunting and fishing that would keep me going and bring me to where I am today. It was the people that made it all worthwhile, and it is still the people today that make me want to be a better fisherman. If it weren’t for the men and women that patronize my business, I would be back to the old nine to

five to pay the bills.

This all takes me to a phone call I received recently from a gentleman wanting to book a fishing trip for himself and three young children. He was concerned about sea sickness and just making sure the kids caught fish and had a good time. On the day of the trip the seas were fairly cooperative so we decided to make a run just far enough to catch kingfish. To help my deckhand with the kids I tied to an oil rig , set out a couple drift lines, and began working the chum churn. Within moments the fish came to meet us. It looked like an aquarium under my boat – filled with trigger fish, chubs, spade fish and even the gray snapper in a massive ball feeding on the chum.

Moments later we hooked the first of many kings, and while my deckhand was helping one kid with the rod, I found myself on my knees resting my arms on the gunwale beside a seven year old young man who could barely see over the edge, telling him the name of the different fish that were feeding just out of arms reach. As I leaned there looking at the wonderment on his face I was listening to the laughter of the others fighting the kingfish. I realized they have been right all along. I have the greatest job in the world.

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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Comb Jelly Photo Credit/Copyright: www.freeimages.co.uk

STEPHANIE BOYD

F I S H Y FA C T S

JELLYFISH OF THE GULF Jellyfish are some of the oldest surviving members of the animal kingdom. They have existed in our oceans since before dinosaurs roamed the earth. There are over two thousand species of jellyfish that we know of, and more are discovered in almost every uncharted area of ocean we cover. They can live in all levels of water and can withstand a wide range of temperatures and salinities, from the surface of shallow coastal waters to the very depths of the marine world.1 Jellyfish belong to the phylum Cnidaria, a structurally simple marine group including, among others, sea whips, corals, and colonies of specialized animals living together, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.2 Their bodies are comprised of an outer layer that covers the body surface, an inner layer that lines the gut, and between the two, a thick, elastic gel-like substance. The digestive system is a single cavity that works as a gullet, stomach, and intestine all at once, and there is a single opening for the food that goes in and the waste that comes out. Prey captured by the tentacles is conveyed to the mouth by four to eight oral tentacles surrounding the single opening. Jellyfish have no brain; instead they have a nerve net capable of detecting light, smell, and other stimuli and reacting accordingly. They come in more colors and shapes than a science fiction novelist could dream up, though a majority are semi-transparent and bell-shaped.

Some are less than an inch in diameter while others can 66 | September 2011

grow to lengths of over one-hundred feet. Despite even those reaching that massive size, most jellies are quite delicate, often composed ninety-five percent or more of gelatinous organic matter (which is itself about 95% water).2 Jellyfish have a complex life cycle and pass through two different forms before reaching the medusa stage, which is the familiar adult form. During reproduction, males release sperm through their mouths into the water. The sperm is then swept into the waiting mouths of females where fertilization occurs. Development begins either inside the female or in pouches along the oral arms. When the larvae reach the first free-swimming stage, they abandon their mother and drift until they come across something on the sea floor they can attach themselves to (rocks, pipes, etc.). From there, they develop into flower-like polyps and become filter feeders. A polyp can multiply asexually, reproducing copies of itself, and when optimal conditions arise, each polyp transforms into what looks like a stack of buttons. Each button becomes a tiny, free-swimming jellyfish, which then grows into the final medusa stage, thus completing this unusual life cycle.2 Adults of most species only live a few months, and though they have some muscle control which allows them to move vertically through the water column, most spend a majority of their lives drifting with the currents and tides,

waiting for unwary and edible creatures to swim into their tentacles. This The jellyfish seen most commonly in Texas waters are the moon is a form of passive hunting called suspension feeding. A few species jellyfish, cannonball jellyfish, sea nettle, the comb jellyfish (which is not have a greater capacity for swimming and will actively pursue prey, actually a jellyfish), and the Portuguese man-of-war (which is also not though they must still ensnare the prey in their tentacles.1 For most a true jellyfish but, like the comb jelly, is often lumped into the same stinging jellies, each tentacle is equipped with hundreds or thousands category unknowingly). of specialized hypodermic harpoons, called nematocysts, which, when triggered, fire into prey and inject paralyzing venom. Usually, these Moon Jellyfish toxins only paralyze or kill small creatures, though some can be harmful Moon jellies are one of the most common species of jellyfish in the to humans.2 world. They inhabit the coastal waters of all zones, including brackish To many people, jellyfish may appear to have little waters that are up to 99% freshwater, value. However, they play some important roles in ocean and frequently occur in huge ecosystems. For one, they occupy a middle position in numbers. Their bodies are translucent, the food chain, so they simultaneously keep smaller finely patterned with stripes or spots. and more numerous species from overpopulating Four horseshoe-shaped organs are and they serve as a food source for larger predatory visible within and provide the most species, such as leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, distinctive characteristic of this swordfish, salmon, and tuna.1 Some jellyfish also eat species. They swim horizontally at the fish eggs, which can be detrimental to fish populations surface to allow their tentacles to be in an area saturated with jellies. Amazingly, some fish spread over the largest possible area. species are immune to jellyfish venom and actually Moon jelly tentacles are venomous Moon Jelly hide from predators in the jellies' stinging tentacles, and can cause a mild prickling and like the clownfish does in sea anemone tentacles. burning sensation to humans.4 Photo Credit/Copyright: Norman Boyd These are usually juvenile fish, though, that will leave Cannonball Jelly the tentacles' protection when they can defend themselves. Jellyfish Also known as the cabbagehead jelly and the jellyball, this species does also have a purifying role in ecosystems. Due to their unique method not have the characteristic long tentacles common to most jellyfish, but of locomotion (sucking in water and shooting it out), they filter huge instead, have short finger-like projections which are its oral tentacles. volumes of water through their bell. Some of the pollutants that pass Unlike the moon jelly, this jelly's sting is completely harmless to humans. through this filtering, such as agricultural runoff, gets digested, leaving The cannonball jelly's bell is typically white with a purple or brown band the water much cleaner than before.3

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at the rim and grows to about eight to ten inches in diameter.

This jelly has the most muscular, and therefore least delicate, body of jellyfish. It's commonly found trapped in fishing nets around the world, earning it a spot on the commercial fisherman's pest list.2

Cannonball Jelly

Pacific Sea Nettle Sea nettles, though sometimes semi-transparent and white, can be quite colorful. The bell reaches six to eight inches in diameter, and the tentacles extend down several feet. The powerful Photo Credit/Copyright: Dianne Faucette paralyzing sting accompanying these tentacles is used both for hunting and protection. In addition to the microscopic plankton and zooplankton that most jellyfish consume, sea nettles will go for slightly larger prey such as minnows, worms, and other jellyfish, which accounts for the powerful venom. Jellyfish tentacles are quite delicate, and they can't afford to be whipped around by thrashing prey. They would simply tear, so the paralyzing toxins must be 100% effective almost immediately. Sea nettles will also use this venom against predators, killing the smaller ones, paralyzing the larger ones long enough for an escape. To humans, their sting is comparable to the moon jelly's sting and will produce a painful rash.1

Pacific Sea Nettle

Photo Credit/Copyright: Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Sidney BC

Comb Jellyfish Comb jellyfish are not true jellyfish; they belong to the phylum Ctenophora, meaning "comb bearers" because their bodies sport eight rows of comb-like cilia that propel them through the water. They are usually colorless and transparent with spherical or oval bodies, though some species can be red, black, orange, or gold in color. They vary in length from a few centimeters to about a foot and a half. Comb jellies have no stinging tentacles like Cnidarians possess, but some have two sticky, retractable tentacles to catch prey. Despite their lack of stinging tentacles, comb jellies prey on fish nearly as large as themselves, along with the usual foods of plankton, fish eggs, and other tiny creatures.

Aside from stinging tentacles, another major difference between comb jellies and true jellies is in reproduction. While jellyfish have two sexes, comb jellies are hermaphrodites, possessing both egg and sperm in 68 | September 2011

their bodies; it only takes one to tango in this phylum.10 One particular comb jelly, the sea walnut, is by far the most common "jellyfish" in Texas waters, and it's not unusual to catch hundreds, or even thousands, in a single ten-minute trawl sample. Sea walnuts have an oval-shaped transparent body and grow 7-12 centimeters long.

Portuguese Man-of-War The name "man-of-war" is taken from a 16th century English armed sailing ship. The Portuguese man-of-war is not actually a jellyfish but a colonial organism made up of several separate organisms that each specialize in a particular task. These organisms are so highly specialized that they've lost the ability for independent survival. The stinging organisms cannot feed themselves, the eating organisms cannot move or defend themselves, etc.4 Measuring only about twelve inches long and five inches wide, the man-of-war's tentacles can reach 164 feet, though thirty feet is the average. This "jellyfish" has an air filled bladder that floats on top of the surface and is generally a purple-blue color, earning it the nicknames bluebottle and blue bubble. The bladder acts as a sail and can inflate or deflate, but the man-of-war has no other means of locomotion. For this reason, man-of-wars are often found in large groups as the wind, tides, currents, etc. have pushed them together. The sting, though excruciating and long-lasting compared to other jellies, is not usually fatal. Even dead man-of-wars can deliver a sting, so stay away when they wash up on land as well as when you're in the water. Of course, it's important to realize that jellyfish don't 'attack' humans. The sting is just a part of their natural survival.1 (Fun Fact: the tiny Nomeus gronovii fish lives in the tentacles of the man-of-war and is immune to its sting!)

The first order of business for a jellyfish or man-of-war sting is to get out of the water as severe stings can cause the victim to go into shock. Next, remove the stinging tentacles from the skin. Use a stick, towel, credit card, anything but your bare hands. Flush the area with sea water. If the sting is NOT from a man-of-war, there are a variety of substances you can apply (with varying degrees of success) to reduce the effects of the sting.

Meat tenderizer and papaya contain an enzyme that can inactivate the toxins. Applying vinegar or hydrocortisone cream/lotion may also bring relief. Although, these solutions will sometimes cause more stinging cells to fire. No form of alcohol should be used because it stimulates the stinging cells, as does human urine. Heat in the form of hot water or packs will help relieve the pain. If the sting IS from man-of-war, do not use fresh water or any of the aforementioned solutions for jellyfish stings. Since the man-of-war is not a jelly, the solutions which would neutralize jelly venom can worsen the sting of a man-of-war. Remove the tentacles and/or stingers, rinse with sea water, apply heat, and seek medical advice. Victims of any serious stings or with allergic reactions to stings should seek medical attention immediately.5 Recovery times can vary from several minutes to several weeks.

Jellyfish stings are nasty business to have to deal with, but we shall have our revenge! Yes, we shall create a NEW jellyfish, one that requires no vinegar when innocently brushed against! One that will confuse predators and take the jellyfish's place as the rightful prey of sea turtles, swordfish, salmon, and tuna! The plan is already in motion; the plastic bag, once the decoration of choice in cities, is fast becoming the oceans' new jellyfish! We shall usurp the jellyfish's place in the ecosystem!

....Strangely enough, this is actually happening. Sea turtles, such as the highly endangered leatherbacks and loggerheads, and other marine animals mistake plastic bags and other trash for their meal of choice: jellyfish. When swallowed, plastic can clog an animal's throat, esophagus, and intestines. If the animal doesn't choke to death and continues ingesting plastic, it will slowly starve to death.6 One autopsy performed on a dead sea turtle revealed 1,000 pieces of plastic in its stomach,7 and according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Americans use more Photo Credit/Copyright: Patty Michaud than 380 billion plastic bags While the man-of-war looks innocuous enough on land (above), this is what's lurking below the surface. (Notice the Nomeus gronovii fish tagging along.

Photo Credit/Copyright: Sean P. Nash, nashworld.edublogs.org

and wraps each year.8 How many of those, masquerading as jellyfish, end up in sea turtle stomachs? How many end up blocking the cooling intakes on boats or wrapping around propellers?9 Let's save ourselves and the ecosystems a lot trouble by reusing or disposing/recycling of trash properly.

Footnotes 1 "Common Jellyfish," Jellyfish Facts, 25 July 2011 <http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/ common-jellyfish.html>.

2 J. David Whitaker, Dr. Rachael King, David Knott, "Sea Science: Jellyfish," South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 25 July 2011 <http://www.dnr.sc.gov/ marine/pub/seascience/jellyfi.html>.

3 "Ecological Role of Jellyfish," Jellyfish Art, 25 July 2011 <http://www.jellyfishart. com/kb_results.asp?ID=36>.

4 "Aurelia aurita, Moon Jellyfish," MarineBio, 25 July 2011 <http://marinebio.org/ species.asp?id=231>.

5 "Diving Medicine FAQs: Jellyfish Stings," Divers Alert Network, 25 July 2011 <http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.aspx?faqid=96>.

6 "Leatherback Sea Turtle," Texas Parks & Wildlife, 25 July 2011 <http://www.tpwd. state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/endang/animals/reptiles_amphibians/lethback. phtml>.

7 "Our Ocean's Plastic Peril," Save Our Seas, 25 July 2011 <http://saveourseas.com/ articles/our_oceans_plastic_peril>.

8 "Ocean Plastic," SeeTurtles, 25 July 2011 <http://www.seeturtles.org/1128/oceanplastic.html>.

9 "Aquatic Litter & Debris - Impacts," Clean Virginia Waterways, 25 July 2011 <http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/litterimpacts.htm>.

10 "Ctenophores," The Jellies Zone, 31 July 2011 <http://jellieszone.com/ ctenophores.htm>.

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dICKIE CoLBUrn’s Sabine Scene One bad storm and we can go from Spook, we downsize to a She Pup or one of the new MirrOmullet XL’s. drought conditions to evacuations Bone or black patterns as well as the Geaux Trout color worked on a slow on Sabine this time of the year, but retrieve have been hard to beat we could not have ordered better As expected, with acres of shad littering the surface, the gulls don’t dICKIE CoLBUrn weather than we have experienced necessarily indicate the presence of feeding fish. On the other hand, since mid-July. It has rained nearly small geysers and shad exploding into the air are a sure bet that the Dickie Colburn is a full time guide every day in the immediate area, but redfish are doing their thing. This bite is at its best during the mid- day out of Orange, Texas. Dickie has because lake levels on T-Bend and hours or late afternoon.

37 years experience guiding on Rayburn are so low, excessive runoff Casting ability is far more important than choice of lures should Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes. has not been a problem. you stumble up on one of these schools. I would recommend using Despite most of the something with a single Telephone shrimp holding up in hook as treble hooks can be Steve Pullin 409-883-0723 with a nice red Website surrounding marshes, a major inconvenience once www.sabineconnection.com caught between the trout bite has still the fish is in the boat. Do not thunderstorms. improved significantly run off once they go down with the influx of fresh water. We have yet to find gulls riding as they will chase bait to the herd on school trout and reds in the open lake, but the more surface time and again if you methodical approaches are yielding very satisfactory catches stay off the big engine. of trout up to six pounds.

I don’t ever recall Any time decent tide changes and moon phases align; throwing a Corky as much early morning wades on the shallow flats have been very as we have this summer. productive. When they will attack, but not bury a She Dog or We have been following up

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saBInE missed strikes and extending the morning Assassin’s stinky pink and Kelly Ford with bite with the floating Fat Boy and more TTF’s bug juice are not far some nice recently with Tidal Surge’s new Maniac behind. While a specific color backwater fl ounder!

Mullet which behaves very much like a is generally the only reason for Corky Devil. fishing one quality tail versus another, While I can think of no good reason the Assassin Die Dapper has been an for ever ignoring a fresh slick, you can exception to that rule. Rigged on a 1/16 ounce head, it fishes absolutely make a day by targeting the oily very much like a suspending hard bait and effectively bridges spots, especially when they start popping that gap for folks that just don’t like fishing a Corky or MirrOlure. up in numbers. The keys to fully exploiting Keith Lake, Bessie Heights and the marshes on the east side this gift from Mother Nature are giving the of the lake have also been very good recently. While a number trout what they want and staying upwind. of local anglers fish these marsh areas as a backup plan when I cannot tell you how many times we the lake or the jetties are blown out, they have been worthy of have worn out a slick fishing a tail under a Plan A status. cork or swimming it on a light head with Redfish and flounder are usually the reason for probing no success only to catch two or three solid these backwater areas, but the trout have been there as well. trout on a topwater offering. It works that The lower salinity levels are preferred by the shrimp and the way in reverse as well and in some cases you only have to downsize trout have discovered this as well. The same lures and tactics you use in your bait. the open lake work well along with spinner baits and small crankbaits.

While fishing a tail will invariably generate more strikes, it also appeals Because these are shallow marshes, tide changes and submerged to gafftops. For that one reason most of the more successful slick chasers shell are a challenge for boats without a shallow draft. Bessie Heights also start with the larger topwaters. I believe the best option is to find out has more than its fair share of submerged pipe and well heads scattered what caused the slick before limiting your choices and a tail will usually throughout the back lakes. The marsh ponds on the east side of the lake do that best. are easier negotiated via the many bayous, but remember that the Game Opening night has been an exceptionally good color of late, but Reserve closes October 15th!

TSFMAG.com | 73

MICKEY On Galveston Capt. Mickey here, time to bring everybody up to date on the fishing action around the Galveston area bays and take a look at what September holds Mickey Eastman for us.

If you like it hot you ought to Mickey Eastman is a full-time fishing guide out of Baytown, be very happy, that’s all I can say.

TX. Mickey has 26 years guiding The summer pattern is in high experience on the Galveston gear and we have a lot going area bays and is the founder on. We are still fighting winds of Gulf Coast Troutmasters, but at least the Ship Channel the largest speckled trout area has started holding some tournament series of all time decent fish. It seems we have a bunch of trout congregated Contact Mickey Eastman’s there, maybe a late push of fish Guide Service through the jetties, and that has Telephone been keeping us going with all 281-383-2032 the southwest wind we have been receiving over the last ten to fifteen days.

Let me give you a run down on Trinity Bay. We still have some shallow water action in certain places for waders. Not exactly a bite to write home about but a few really good trout in the seven pound class have been caught recently. Topwaters mainly, the old tried and

74 | September 2011

true MirrOlure Top Dogs and the Spook Jr in just about any color you want to throw. That is what has been going on shallow. A lot a redfish have been getting way up shallow in the back end of the Trinity Bay complex. Spoons, topwaters, soft plastics… if you like ‘em – throw ‘em. We are getting into these big herds and you can stand in one place and catch ten to fifteen on just about anything you throw at them if you want to. Trout-wise, and I have mainly been chasing trout, they have been good early morning and evening. We have also been getting a pretty good midday bite when the wind will let us and we catch a good tide movement. If you miss your school in the morning, just hang on and work your slicks and open water in the afternoon and get your trout that way with soft plastics.

We are still throwing that MirrOlure scented soft bait called the Lil John and it is working good for whatever reason. It doesn’t look like anything anyone else is fishing with but it is working! The Big Nasty Voodoo and the Tidal Surge (the little twin tail on the end- the eel type bait) have been working good in plum, grape and black. To be honest pretty much everything in the soft plastic department is working well.

The wells are holding fish. It’s not really rock ‘em and sock ‘em but you can probably work your favorite wells on strong tides and come up with some decent numbers. I suggest soft plastics on 1/8 heads early in the day when the fish are up and later in the day go to 1/4 ounce heads to get closer to the bottom as the water gets hot. Tide

GaLvEston is critical right now. Best tide for Trinity Bay right now is the outgoing tide which is twice as good as the incoming. We see that a lot this time of year.

The Ship Channel action picked up a bunch in late July and seems to be holding steady. This is a good deal later than normal, we usually expect it in June. I believe all that green water coming through the jetties and rolling up the channel has a lot to do with it.

What I’m doing is working deep spoil banks with seven to ten feet of water over humps and old well pads just off the channel. Stay away from boat traffic if you can and key on the slicks and bait. A good tide line on occasion has also been a good signal of where you need to be.

Over in East Bay it’s been kind of a rollercoaster ride because of the southwest winds. It muddies up real easy and when you get an incoming tide with the SW winds it riles it up pretty quick and makes it hard to catch them with artificials over there. Some of the reefs on the south shoreline, like off Elm Grove Point and out from Fat Rat and all that area, have been holding some real good trout like in the four to five pound class. The croaker guys are the ones catching the most of those with the off-color water and all. You can go in there and plug out a few with soft plastics but on the bottom with croakers is definitely the ticket. Redfish are still holding in the middle all through East Bay; same pattern I reported last month.

They are still catching a few fish behind San Luis Pass wading early in the morning fishing guts between the pass and Bird Island.

Topwaters early and then switching to spoons and plastics; standard stuff.

Carancahua Lake and Green Lake have been loaded with redfish and a lot of the shallow water fishing guys that like sight-casting and fly rods are doing pretty good.

All in all we are in great shape. That abundance of shad I’ve been telling you about is finally beginning to dwindle but there are still a lot. On occasion we see a tarpon jumping over in Trinity Bay – running the shad schools. It is pretty cool to see when you are trout fishing and all of a sudden you hear that big explosion as a tarpon blows up. The beach front is loaded with trout whenever the surf guys can get there. Conditions have been largely unfavorable for the Dawn Patrol this summer but when the surf lays down its wide open.

All conditions are favorable. Not much bird action this summer because we don’t have many shrimp with this drought going on.

If all conditions hold, the fall season should be really good and I expect to see lots of bigger trout. Look for the deeper well pads to start coughing them up soon and then the shoreline wade fishing to really heat up later in the fall. Right now we are just paying our dues burning up in the boat, praying for rain and can’t seem to get any. Keep on picking your days and playing the wind right and I’m sure you can catch some fish. We have plenty right now all across the Galveston System.

TSFMAG.com | 75

CaPt. BILL’s Fish Talk Even though early September can be a lot like August, the latter weeks are typically the kickoff of our fall fishing CaPt. BILL PUstEJovsKY season along with several other Bill Pustejovsky is a full-time seasonal outdoor activities. guide at Matagorda, TX. The schools will reopen at the Bill fishes year-round for beginning of the month which trout and redfish in all the usually means a lot less boat Matagorda Bays. Wading and traffic on weekdays, teal season drifting for trophy trout and opens on the 10th and the reds are his specialty.

South Zone dove opener falls on the 23rd. Lots of fishermen Telephone 979-863-7353 will spend weekends at their Email deer leases to get things CaptBill@GoldTipGuideService.com squared away for the upcoming Website season and of course there www.goldtipguideservice.com will be Friday night football.

With all that is on the calendar Matagorda area anglers could very well find some open space on the water.

This extended drought we are in really has me concerned. As I’m

trying to write this article I’m running in and out moving sprinklers trying to keep all the trees I planted in my front pasture several years back from withering and dying. This has been my twice-a-week chore for the past several months. My rain gauge says Matagorda has received only 2.5 inches of rain since February and this is beginning to critically affect our bays and estuaries. Rain prayers have been going up for quite some time now so we have faith something will happen soon. With salinity levels as high as they are currently it could have a serious impact on our winter and spring Carol Brueggen fishing seasons. Only time - 27 1/2" will tell. Historically we redfish - East begin to receive better than Matagorda average rainfall in September Bay on Bass as tropical weather systems Assassin. come ashore. Karen and I will keep up our prayer vigil until it arrives.

In late July we entered a weather pattern marked by lots of west and southwest wind that is still with us – and

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76 | September 2011

MataGorda it has really clobbered our water Amanda Martin's catches. That’s alarming clarity – chocolate milk by midinformation; however, on a eleven spot red won top morning in some areas. Fishermen brighter note, we continue to prize at Texas throwing live bait have fared better see plenty of shad and mullet Oilman's Charity which will be our focus for the upcoming than lure chunkers. Bottom line is Invitational. that clear water, easier to find in the months. I previously mentioned bird activity early morning hours, has allowed us which should start up late September into October but not to catch trout on the mid-bay reefs sure how long that will last if the shrimp population did and spoil banks off the Intracoastal not fare so well in the drought.

Waterway but we had to work at I’ll be moving around a lot in September targeting it. I stuck it out in East Matagorda, reefs, spoil banks, north and south shorelines, and maybe never really ventured into West Bay at all. We retreated tight to the even drifting the deeper reefs in East Bay. I expect the keys will be south shoreline most of the month due to clarity problem. Redfish concentrations of mullet and shad. Most of my time will be spent in have been plentiful and the trout have been scattered but with East Bay as West Bay is a different animal; however fishing pressure dogged effort we tricked quite a few with our Bass Assassins and could force me west on certain days. There are a lot of reds on West MirrOlure She Dogs. Night fishing never panned for me like it has in Bay shorelines, Twin Island, Shell Island, Crab Lake, and Oyster Lake to years past due the wind being strong in the evenings and continuing name a few places for you to try. into the night.

Baits will include 5” Bass Assassins - roach, 10W40, Hot Chicken, Looking in my logbook September has given us really nice Chicken-on-a-Chain, Pumpkinseed, and Firetiger. Topwaters will trout, especially toward the end of the month. With tides typically be MirrOlure She Pups and She Dogs in CRCH, CRBL, CRCH, CRBN, a little stronger and winds starting to come out of the southeast, BLCHO, NSCH, and their new Okie color. If you plan to throw Corkys our water conditions should improve. Hopefully we will begin to later this fall and winter you need to start stocking up now. Long see some bird activity. I spoke with Brandy Hicks over at Russell’s about the middle of October they will definitely become one of my Bait & Tackle to get the latest update on bait shrimp. She told go-to baits. me that they have been down 50% from last year on their shrimp Until next time…God Bless. -Capt. Bill

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MId-Coast BaYs With the Grays It seems as though we anglers here on the mid-coast are never really happy with the weather.

Our winter here was blustery cold CaPt. sHELLIE GraY with so many bone chilling days Captain Gary and Captain Shellie that I couldn’t wait for the warm Gray fish year-round for trout and glorious days of summer to and redfish in the Port O’Connor/ return. Well here we are Seadrift area. Gary started his Bay in the midst of August’s Rat Guide Service 20 years ago.

The Grays specialize in wade and legendary dog days and drift fishing with artificial lures. let me tell you I can’t Gary and Shellie also team up to wait for those winter fish many tournaments. days to return - minus the bone chilling gusts Telephone of course. Speaking of 361-785-6708 wind, I cannot recall a Email spring and summer that Gary@BayRat.com could top what we’ve had Website www.bayratguideservice.com this year. Choppy and frothy conditions kept me away from my favorite mid-bay reefs in Espiritu Santo and San Antonio Bay on a regular basis through June, July and some of

78 | September 2011

August. Here lately we have been getting more good days on average and we have certainly taken advantage, but in general they have been too few.

It is no secret that fishing deeper water is imperative when it comes to catching numbers of trout in this heat. As I said in my last article, early morning starts are a must and is the best time to see good action on topwaters. I still prefer the smaller topwaters like the Super Spook Jr. in Okie Shad or a bone Skitter Walk.

If fishing shallow for reds I will still be casting the Spook Jr. Wayne Norrell with a and Skitter Walk but nice oversized redfish caught in less than 2 will have someone foot of water - released. throwing Mann’s Bait Waker in Holographic Croaker color. Once the temperature starts to rise so does the floating grass.

This is when I will go weedless. Of course

Port o’Connor / sEadrIFt this applies primarily to back lake and marsh areas, not open bay water.

With seasonally calmer winds in September I prefer to use the buddy Angie Preiss system when fishing the open bay proudly displays reefs. Instead of fishing only the her first trout windward side of the reefs I will spread caught on her customers out to both sides. This allows first wading trip. Way to go us to saturate the water on either side Angie! of the reef with many casts and can make finding a solid bite easier than only working one section. Bait and/or birds are still important when deciding which reef to hit. Subsurface bait is good but I really get excited when I see flipping and fleeing mullet.

No, I don’t mean mullet doing belly busters and acrobatic flips. I am talking about the ones that look like they are involved in a police chase running and skipping two, three and four times. This is about as good as it gets when looking for signs of feeding fish. You would be surprised how many anglers I get that don’t know to cast towards a fleeing mullet when they see one.

As of late, Bass Assassin’s 5” Die Dapper in the Houdini color has been working extremely well. This soft plastic is enhanced with Bass Assassin’s BANG fish attractant and their new liquid salt. I rig mine on an 1/8 ounce jighead tied to an eight inch leader. This lure casts easily and seems to

be a little more buoyant than other soft plastics so I tend to work my retrieve slower as well. During this hottest time of year enticing fish to hit an artificial lure can be more difficult so I am not too proud to say that you will find me using scented baits more often than usual to help make those hesitant fish a little more cooperative.

I am really concerned with the lack of rain that we have had this year. San Antonio Bay depends on freshwater inflow from the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers to help keep our estuary alive and productive. Our marshes which are nursery grounds for many species are highly dependent on freshwater from the rivers as well as local runoff to help keep the salinity levels normal. The Guadalupe River Delta region has historically been one of the richest estuaries on the Texas coast. The many forage species that thrive in the delta lands and marsh are very important to the future of our gamefish fisheries. And it’s not just about the shrimp and crabs and baitfish – it’s also about the various species of aquatic plants and seagrasses. Plant life too is dependent on inflow and runoff and plants play a huge role in the health of a marsh and bay system. So I can’t help but wonder what long term effect this current drought will have on the health and productivity of our beloved bays.

Pray for rain and cooler weather!

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HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey Tropical Storm Don just passed through and dumped some rain on the forever thirsty Upper Laguna and Baffin david rowsey Bay. Man, did we ever need a David Rowsey has 20 years flushing down here! This will, experience in the Laguna/Baffin ultimately, be huge for a bay region; trophy trout with artificial that was getting way too salty lures is his specialty. David has a and uncomfortable to the fish great passion for conservation and the equipment that I so and encourages catch and diligently try and take care release of trophy fish. of. Following the large rains Telephone of September a year ago, we 361-960-0340 Website had a fish kill in Baffin that was www.DavidRowsey.com blamed on depleted oxygen Email levels. It will be interesting to david.rowsey@yahoo.com see if the same happens this year as we are in another drought, similar to a year ago at the same time. I have a different theory of why those fish died, but who am I to contradict the scientists?

September is a fun month for me as I get to start doing some things I greatly enjoy - other than fishing for big trout. Any who know me or fish with me on a regular basis know that I love

80 | September 2011

shotguns and wing shooting about as much as I love fishing rods and trout. To say that I am looking forward to dove season would be a bit of an understatement. The thoughts of dogs, the smell of gunpowder, and a cold beer after the hunt with friends reminds me of when I was a kid waiting for Christmas.

September trout fishing will have some fat trout in the mix as the final spawns of the year will be at hand. Already we are catching trout of greater girth. It is most prevalent on the fish in the 20 to 25 inch range, but some of the longer fish are starting to catch up. Unless something crazy happens regarding weather patterns the days will still be hot and I will be focusing all efforts on the early morning for the most reliable big trout bite. As much as a I hate to beat a dead horse; areas that offer shallows for night feeding with deeper water nearby so they can slide down after daylight will be my first choices. Early morning on the King Ranch Shoreline, Meadows, Yarbrough, and south shoreline of Baffin will be high on the start list. Whichever area is holding the most bait will be my first choice.

September brings us lots of redfish. Schooling fish is the norm this time of year; however, shoreline wading will be awesome as the big reds point their noses to the south. We are already finding this to be the case watching catch rates shoot up as the height of redfish tournaments and the NASCAR burn-boat season comes to

UPPEr LaGUna/ BaFFIn an end (not soon enough).

On many wades we are bumping into schools of black drum anxious to eat our plastic lures. There are so many at times that you cannot get a lure through them without snagging one - but not to be discouraged - the trout and reds are cruising right along with them. This may sound crazy but this is a pattern I actually look forward to every August and September. I have to give credit to Capt. Mickey Eastman, as he planted the drum seed in my head about twelve years ago when my brain was younger and more impressionable. In August 2007 I won the Baffin TroutMasters using this pattern, and none other than Capt. Mickey was there to hand me a $10,000 check and keys to a new boat. So the next Mrs. Karen Brady with a personal best twenty-eight time you are wading along (CPR). Karen is an excellent and come upon a school angler with a knack for of drum, don’t cuss them, sightcasting and beating fish around them and in up on her guide. them, you just might be

surprised at what lurks beneath. If you happen to catch a few drum in the process, string them up and have a fresh fish dinner. They are far better than redfish in my opinion.

With lots of calm mornings this time of year I am using small topwater lures versus the big stuff that I normally throw. Favorites are the MirrOlure She Pup, and She Dog - bone/silver, chartreuse/ chrome, and Halloween (808 for you old timers). My favorite soft plastic is the 5” Bass Assassin in plum, alewife, bone diamond, and copper juice. With the tall grass I am using the tiny 1/16 oz. Bass Assassin Pro Elite Series jighead.

I continue to be impressed with this rig. Try it, and you will be too.

Whoever coined the phrase “A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work” never had their boat sink.

-Unknown “Set ‘em loose.” -Capt.

David Rowsey

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TRICIA’S Mansfield Report The official end of summer and beginning of fall comes on September 23 with the autumnal equinox but Capt. Tricia summer-like weather and summer fishing patterns will Capt. Tricia’s Skinny Water likely hold well into October Adventures operates out of down here in Deep South Port Mansfield, specializing in Texas. Our Laguna is in great wadefishing with artificial lures. shape and the fishing has remained very good since Telephone my last report. Barring 956-642-7298 nasty weather from the Email shell@granderiver.net tropics (nobody wants to Website hear the “h” word) I think www.SkinnyWaterAdventures.com we have an excellent fall season ahead.

Typical of late summer, low tides and floating grass have been throwing us some tough curves. Depending time of day and wind direction – even with single hooks – floating grass can totally clobber the topwater bite. Some days I get so frustrated that I find myself shaking my fist and calling it ugly names – but at the same time I know that seagrass is the foundation of our

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Laguna Madre ecosystem and without it we could never enjoy the clear water and healthy fisheries. So I bite my tongue and tie on a tail; the trout and reds seem just as happy even if am annoyed.

On the trout scene - the numbers bite has been steadiest over the deepest grass beds and deeper contour breaks while the best action for bigger fish has been during the early hours over very shallow grass, quite often right up next to the bright sand. Tossing just about any soft plastic amid concentrations of mullet will get you the most bites, both shallow and deep. Topwater action for trout has been very good when the grass doesn’t kill it and has given us some very memorable early morning wades.

Bone, white and chrome have all been good plug colors - as long as they also have some amount of chartreuse. Back to plastics - I have been doing well swimming the Hogie’s Major Minnow An early start targeting deeper grass beds will remain the key to in the shallows and getting in on the “numbers” bite then switching to the throughout September.

Kelly Wiggler Ball Tail

Port MansFIELd Shad when working out a little Without a doubt the best deeper. My favorite jighead and shot at a long trout right now is wading the shallow the one I rig with most often grass at first light. is the Hogie’s 1/8 ounce 3/0 “spring” head. Threading the bait onto that spring feature holds it very securely. Texas Tackle Factory’s Big Mino on the same jighead has also been a great producer whenever I feel my presentation will benefit from a “beefier” profile…as in murky water.

In case you have not noticed I have been missing my redfish predictions right and left over the past couple of months. I keep telling everybody the big schools will be showing on the flats any day yet scattered singles continue to dominate the pattern. It has me scratching my head whether they’re holding deep out in the middle of the bay or maybe they’ve moved further south than I have been fishing, who knows? This is not to say we are not catching reds as we are definitely raking up singles here and there on most wades. So rather than tell you the schools will show on the flats during September I will play it safe and say they are overdue and we will definitely celebrate their arrival.

As I have been reporting regularly, flounder are evidently

doing pretty well of late in the Laguna Madre. Not only are the numbers of flounder increasing but the weight is pushing right up there as well and four pounders are no longer rare. As a matter of fact, today, we had Reilly Lawrence of Houston take the lead in the CCA STAR STARTEEN Flounder category with a beautiful Lower Laguna flattie that weighed four pounds and one ounce. Reilly and dad Troy Lawrence were bouncing soft plastics along the edges of a channel when the prized flatfish nailed her lure.

Flounder catches have been exceptional all summer and it’s not even “flounder season” yet…come on November!

With everything we have going on down here in the Lower Laguna Madre, my prediction is that September is going to be a “gimme” fishing month. The Labor Day weekend, while hardly the end of summer, is the end of the summer fishing season for lots of folks. Boat traffic will be noticeably lighter after the second weekend and fewer disturbances from racing outboards almost always signals the arrival of better fishing. Let’s everybody keep our fingers crossed weather-wise; a tropical storm or two to deliver much-needed moisture would be great but nobody wants the damaging wind and storm surge that so often comes with a hurricane. Come on down and see us, and don’t forget you’ll probably need single hooks on your plugs to get the best of the topwater bite.

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SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m guessing by now everybody theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re biting but it is a good plan to avoid the floating dead grass is hoping September will bring that always seems to get worse as the day warms up. Being able to some relief from the August spot the wakes of fish moving across the flats is another good reason. heat. Traditionally September This opportunity fades quickly toward mid-morning as the wind picks Capt. Ernest cisneros is a rainy month and I too am up and the surface becomes choppy.

A Brownsville-area native, hoping for a few days of cloud Redfish continue to be very abundant for us and if September Capt. Ernest Cisneros fishes cover and showers. I have holds true to form it will be another great month for locating schools the Lower Laguna Madre from to say though, as hot as the prowling the main bay shores and all the backwater areas. Some Port Mansfield to Port Isabel. weather has been lately, the of my favorite waters this time of year are the flats and back bays Ernest specializes in wading catching has been right there up around the Arroyo Colorado. Even though these fish might and poled skiff adventures for with it. Like I said last month, be hungry and tightly schooled, you must still practice a stealthy snook, trout, and redfish. staying hydrated, using approach as an entire Cell good sun protection, school can spook just as Stacy Schaaf 956-266-6454 30.25 inches and wet wading will help easily as a wary single.

Website and weighed get you through the dog Small topwaters such as www.tightlinescharters.com 8.25 pounds. days and a good tug on the Spook Jr. can be very your line takes your mind off it. effective but for clear Even though we will be seeing higher tides on average shallow water it sometimes as September rolls along, the feeding patterns of our trout takes some trial and error and reds should remain about the same through the first two to figure out how they will weeks. I will continue to plan early starts for my fishing days want it, especially on calm to take advantage of the early morning feeding. Getting out mornings. Sometimes a there early not only puts you where you need to be when fast retrieve excites their

84 | September 2011

arroYo CoLorado to Port IsaBEL predator instinct to strike, but other Allen Godwin 30.50 inches times fast moving surface baits will weighed 8.5 pounds. spook them completely away. I tend to experiment with different retrieves to find out the desirable action and always ask my clients that are having more success as to how they are working their bait. If we are getting lots of blow-ups and no hook-ups, then it might be a good idea for someone to throw a plastic tail to see if thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what the fish want.

Our trout action continues to be very pothole oriented and when the water temperatures get as high as they have been you can bet they only eat when they are good and ready. Early mornings we have found them shallow (calf to thigh deep) on topwaters, and by mid-day our efforts then have turned to deeper water (waist to belly) throwing dark Kelley Wigglers on 1/8 oz jig heads. Do not be discouraged if the trout seem only to slap at your topwaters, at least you know they are there and you can adjust your presentation to make them bite. Late summer has never been known as prime time for big trout but as you see from the photos here we are still finding a few. I believe that September will bring us more of the same and limits of nice fryer size trout should remain very common.

Now Available in

Getting down to the nitty-gritty; plan for higher tides toward the end of the month and do not be surprised if a tropical depression or storm dumps a ton of rain. We may see some scattering of the trout and redfish we have been on if the tides push up abruptly to unusually high levels. Higher water levels will give us access to backwater areas we have not been fishing and quite often as the tide rolls in there it carries lots of bait and the redfish follow right along. The beginning of the new school year along with the coming of football season and dove season always means fewer boats on the water and this can have a very favorable impact on the quality of fishing. Shrimp migrations are often strong during September and this can put the trout and reds on feeding binges marked by flocks of gulls hovering over them looking to steal anything they can grab.

Just because the calendar says summer is over do not be fooled into thinking fishing is also over for the year. September can be a great month here on the Lower Laguna. Good fishing to you!

BLACK PEARL

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FISHING REPORTS

AND

from Big Lake to Boca Chica

Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 September is a really good month for us. We like it because the first few fronts bring shrimp into the lake and the fish really start biting. Look for trout from the north end of Calcasieu all the way to the jetties and offshore. Use shrimp imitations like Norton Sand Eels, MirrOlure Lil' Johns, H&H Stingray Grubs, and H&H Beetles. I would concentrate most of my efforts on the lake because there are a lot of options there. Birds will be picking, fish will be on reefs, and after a few fronts, fish will start to make their transition back to the flats. Don't necessarily look for them on the flats; focus instead just off the edges of the flats. Redfish have been very prolific all year long. We've had a few days this summer with over fifty reds in the 27 to 34 inch class. We are mostly sight fishing them in huge schools in the middle of the lake. These fish will eat whatever is presented to them.

Also, fishing behind the weirs at Grand and Lambert Bayous will really turn on in September. Beat the banks and points with spoons, spinnerbaits, and popping corks.

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - www.silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 Trout fishing has been outstanding for James and his crew in the heat wave. “We’re fishing all deep structures, mainly eleven to thirteen feet of water, using soft plastics, and catching limits pretty much every day. The wind is somewhat of an issue at times, especially a southwest wind, but as long as it’s calm, the bite has been hot. We’re fishing spots close to

86 | September 2011

FORECASTS

the ship channel and watching the tide movement real close. The bite is best when it first starts moving or when it begins to slow down. When it’s really rolling, it’s tougher. Either way, heavy jigheads like quarter and three eighths ounce work best. We’re catching on several different colors, including purple/chartreuse and pearl/chartreuse. Tarpon fishing is starting to improve. This past weekend, we jumped about a dozen.

The wind hasn’t been really calm, so it’s hard to spot fish, but we do have plenty of fish. September is usually our best month for the silver kings. As long as we don’t get a bunch of storms, it should be lock and load on both the trout and tarpon this month.”

Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Jim was busy making the fields ready for the upcoming dove season when we talked. “I’ve got stuff in both local zones for the dove season. We’re busy planting and ploughing in advance of that. Fishing has been good when the weather allows us to get at the fish. All the action is out in the middle. We are locating the reds by looking for mud boils and slicks and using the slicks to find the trout too. Mostly, the trout we’re catching are ’just fish’, not real big ones, but lots of solid keepers in the two to four pound class. On some days, the fish are hanging over the shell bottom; on other days, they seem to like the mud bottom better. When the wind isn’t blowing, there is already some bird activity, especially along the north shoreline of East Bay. That should pick up and become more common as we get into September. Unless we get some early season fronts, the fishing will be difficult when it’s windy, great when it’s not. What we really

need are some of those calm, balmy days, so the water stays clear and we can function out in the middle.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service - 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Randall reports a good run of fishing in the hot weather, mostly on live bait, but also on lures when the surf is right. “When the winds allow us to get in the surf, we’re catching lots of trout on top. Most days, we’ve got our limit by nine o’clock. Just the other day, we were getting lots of blow ups but not too many hook ups, so I switched over to a pink Fat Boy and the catching was better. We’ll keep hitting the surf as long as we can. It usually begins to slow down out there in September. When the wind muddies up the water a little more, we’re using bait. For the most part, the bite has been easy, and we’ve been able to get our limit and get off the water by eleven or so. Just about all of the fish have been coming from the deepest parts of the bay. They all seem to be looking for some way to cool down. The drill of fishing deep with bait will be the mainstay strategy through the end of this month at least. We’ll start fishing shallower and trying lures more as the weather cools down some in October.”

Matagorda | Charlie Paradoski Bay Guide Service -713.725.2401 Fishing has been good at times in the Matagorda area, though not as consistently as Charlie is accustomed to this time of year. He is predicting a change in that as fall approaches. “We’ve got plenty of fish. Most of us have been targeting the trout in deeper areas of the open bays, some using live shrimp, some using Gulp!s under a cork, others using soft plastics on jigheads and bottom bumping. All of that is working okay most of the time. When winds are lighter, we are doing better.

Unfortunately, we’ve had quite a bit of west and southwest winds, and that makes drifting the open water tougher. On the shorelines, the reds

do show up in small herds from time to time, but it hasn’t been easy to predict where, so it’s kind of a witch hunt every day. Normally, August and September are the best two months for finding the schools of reds on the bank in groups big enough so you can catch fifty or more. I’m hoping for that kind of action this month. I’m still hoping to hit a good late-season run in the surf too. I’ve still keeping an eye on that.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 Fishing has been consistent in our area. One really surprising thing is how hot the afternoon bite has been. I have been running trips from three until dark and catching fish much better than on our morning trips. I am not sure what has prompted the switch to the afternoon bite, but this past month our fish have been feeding well late in the day. Redfish have been our staple. We are finding easy pickings around the schools of shad in area bayous. Live shrimp, quarter ounce weedless gold spoons and small topwaters have accounted for numerous limits on the ledges of creeks.

The trout bite has been feast or famine. Lots of small fish have moved into the bay and it‘s easy to catch plenty around the right well or shell pad.

Freelined live shrimp has been the best bait around the wells. Tripletail numbers are still good in the bays, but the fish have gotten smaller, averaging around eight to ten pounds. September should bring some good fishing under birds around East and South Bays, with the mouths of area rivers in the mix as well.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith - Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 “The surf is just full of fish lately,” Lynn says. “We’re whackin’ ‘em out there every chance we get. It has been a bit windy, so we haven’t had that much opportunity, but we’re hoping that changes as we get on toward

TSFMAG.com | 87

the end of summer. If winds are stronger and we can’t fish in the surf, I’ll be staying in areas around the passes, where the deep water is close by. You just really need some deep, moving water around to keep the fish concentrated when it gets this hot. I’ll be targeting grass beds on flats adjacent to deep water, throwing topwaters early and sticking with them as long as I can. I will usually switch straight over to soft plastics once the blow ups become less and less frequent, or if the fish are kind of puffing at the topwaters without really taking them. Eventually, we’ll begin fishing some of the shallower backwater areas farther away from the cuts to the Gulf, but it probably won’t be this month. We need some cooler weather and water temperatures before those areas get much attention from me.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 - 361.441.3894 Fishing continues to be good for both trout and redfish in the Rockport area, Blake says, and the outlook for September is for more of the same.

“We’ve had a pretty good trout bite on most outings. Some of the time, we’re getting them on topwaters like chrome Super Spooks, or soft plastics like the Norton Sand Eels in purple and pumpkinseed/chartreuse, but live bait has been working best. This excessive heat makes the bait more and more necessary. We’ll probably be using bait a lot until late in September.

I’ll do whatever it takes to catch ’em! The reds have been starting to school up some on area shorelines, and that should become more common as we get to the end of summer and the start of autumn. I like to concentrate on flats in the vicinity of the passes this time of year when looking for reds.

They are often concentrated in these areas in advance of their migration to the Gulf. As always, we have an eye cast ahead to the hunting seasons.

Soon it will be time to get in the fields and blinds and start blasting!”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 The action continues in the Upper Laguna Madre, with plenty of trout

88 | September 2011

and reds being caught in the Baffin Bay area. Many of the trout we’re catching are between eighteen and twenty three inches, with a few getting very close to the thirty inch mark. The water temperature will be rising in September, so they’ll be in less than three feet of water early in the mornings and then moving to four or five feet of water in the later part of the mornings. The reds are still schooling, and I’m finding the schools in less than three feet of water early in the mornings. Most of the reds we’re catching are within the slot, and a few are oversized. I’m really excited about the Bass Assassin Die Dappers in the colors salt & pepper, phantom/ chartreuse and plum/chartreuse rigged on sixteenth ounce Spring Lock jigheads. The trout and reds love ‘em too! Live croakers will probably be too big to use for bait in September, but piggy perch should be just right.

Sightcasting for reds and black drum in less than eighteen inches will also be productive.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.937.5961 Area waters continue to be clear, and the fishing is still steady, according to Joe. “I’ve been having real good luck with the redfish. On the calmer days, it’s possible to see the schools pushing wakes up shallow early in the morning. It’s tougher to see them that way on the windier days, but once the sun gets higher in the sky, the wind makes it easier to see into the water. Then, it’s easier to find the schools out a little deeper. We should be able to catch limits of reds consistently through September,

which is a great month to hunt the herds in the Lagoon. Trout fishing has been decent too. I’ve been fishing areas down south along the Kenedy Shoreline and in the Land Cut. Fishing in the cut is better on days when it’s not too windy and there’s some east in the wind. Although a due south or southwest wind makes it easier to keep the boat off the west drop, it is harder to cast and control the lure properly. With some east in the wind, it’s easier to throw the lure up to the edge and bring in down the face of the slope with control.”

Padre Island National Seashore Billy Sandifer - Padre Island Safaris - 361.937.8446 Typically, sargassum is not a problem in September and as the water temperature has been unusually cool all summer I do not expect we will see red tide. The biggest threat this month is tropical storms. Any time a major low pressure system forms in the Gulf the tides will go to the dunes within twelve hours. Watch the forecast – reschedule your trip if there is a storm anywhere in the Gulf. If you are down island and the water begins to rise rapidly get off the beach ASAP. Once the migrations start there will be plenty of bird action and large shoals of anchovies visible. Stay where the food chain action is until you find the predators feeding actively. Bull whiting will be abundant. Sharks, jack crevalle, tarpon, kingfish, Spanish mackerel and Atlantic bluefish should all be present throughout the month. If you are getting cut off frequently go to piano wire and smallest swivel possible. Live-lining finger and pony mullet and a wide variety of artificials should produce well. The secret is to go when conditions are right.

Port Mansfield | Terry Neal www.terrynealcharters.com – 956.944.2559 HOT! HOT! HOT! Looks like 2011 will continue to set all kinds of weather records: 40 mph winds for days, then uncommon heat, followed by Tropical Storm Don that vanished in his own tailwinds. What could the

rest of the year possibly bring that might top these? One thing for sure, fishing will continue to be good here in the Lower Laguna. Reports are circulating of thirty to forty pound tarpon hanging around the outside of the jetties, free-jumping and rolling, smashing up bay tackle. The jetties should be red hot throughout the month of September with lots more tarpon action to come. As of this writing jumping six or seven and getting a couple to the boat is common. Calm mornings are the best time to visit the jetties. Occasional schools of reds are beginning to show up along the southern edge of the Saucer. Bull reds are beginning to show along the East Cut. Fishing should be really good through September and continue in October. Remember to keep what you will eat and release the rest.

Good Luck Fishing.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty – www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 Just when we’re beginning to get used to calm seas, the wind starts blowing again. When it’s windy, we’re catching reds drifting in muddy areas, throwing Berkley Gulp! three inch shrimp suspended under Cajun Thunder round corks, popping and dropping. Trout, preferring clear water, bite better when it’s calmer, and we can target sunken banks and deeper holes with the same set up. In the shallows, we’ll throw the Cajun Thunder cigar cork, working it quickly, like a topwater, then allowing it to sink periodically, pulling reds, flounder and trout out of the murkier, skinny spots. Glassy conditions make it easier to find herds, but they’re scarce this summer and flee to deeper water when boat traffic picks up.

Floating grass continues to be a problem, especially on the east side. Be sure to clear your motor often, by stopping when you see the flow stop, and backing up, to churn out strands wrapped around the lower unit.

Avoiding fishing on weekends; more anglers are turning to wading and kayaking, so keep a look out, especially early.

TSFMAG.com | 89

Tricia Allen Galveston N Jetty - 36” first bull red!

Desi Denofa Trinity Bay - 22” first redfish!

Jerry Padre Island - flounder

90 | September 2011

Faith Rosas Rockport - 27” redfish

Ella Kylberg Talley Island - 24” first redfish!

Joey Smolinski Portland Back Bay - 31.25” redfish

Jason Kieschnick Capano Bay - redfish

Elissa Rife Laguna Madre - 22” trout

Garrett Larson Calcasieu Lake - 27” redfish

Karen Smith Packery Channel - 32” redfish

Brent Jones Matagorda - 30” redfish

Reese Pyle Port O’Connor - 22.5” redfish

Johnny Kieschnick Capano Bay - redfish

Joey Ramirez S Padre Island - 40” king mackerel

Michele Smolinski Portland Back Bay - 23.25” flounder Carrie Kieschnick Capano Bay - 21” first keeper black drum!

Amanda Torres Galveston - first Texas redfish!

Cameron Trevino Cabo San Lucas - 9’ 170lb striped marlin

Gwenda Ludwig 42” redfish Jane Zapalac Matagorda - 34” 23lb red snapper

Capt. Sonny Sea Cavazos Corpus Christi - 28” red

Janie Ray Caney Creek - 20" redfish Cary Rouse Seabrook - 25” & 24” redfish

Robert Bartree E Galveston Bay - 31” redfish

Johnny Dunham East Bay - 25.5” red

Kelsey Beane East Bay - 29” trout

Dallas Griffin 36” 22.5lb - redfish

Jimmy Canales, Jr. Redfish Lake - 26.5” redfish

Doran Matagorda - 22” trout

Joey Holmes East Bay - 27.25” 7.2lb trout

Please do not write on the back of photos.

Email photos with a description of your Catch of the Month to: Photos@tsfmag.com Mail photos to: TSFMag P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 TSFMAG.com | 91

GULF Coast Kitchen

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

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

CREAMY GINGER

FRIED COCONUT

BAKED COCONUT

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 teaspoon fresh ginger root, minced 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 cup mayonnaise

1 egg 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 2/3 cup beer 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (additional) 2 cups flaked coconut 24 medium to large shrimp 3 cups oil for frying

1 pound large shrimp, uncooked 2 egg whites, beaten 1 teaspoon olive oil 1/2 cup Silk Pure Almond Original 1/2 cup panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs) 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) Salt and pepper, to taste

In medium bowl, combine egg, 1/2 cup flour, beer and baking powder. Place 1/4 cup flour and flaked coconut in separate bowls.

Preheat oven to 450° F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with canola oil.

SHRIMP

SOY SAUCE

In a small bowl, combine and thoroughly mix white wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, minced garlic, minced ginger root, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.

Gradually whisk in mayonnaise until completely blended.

Chill and serve.

Shrimp should be headed, peeled and deveined.

Hold shrimp by tail, and dredge in flour, shaking off excess flour. Dip in egg/beer batter; allow excess to drip off. Roll shrimp in coconut and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil to 350° F in preparation for frying.

Fry shrimp in batches: cook, turning once, for 2 to 3 minutes each side, or until golden brown. Using tongs, remove shrimp to paper towels to drain.

Serve warm with dipping sauce.

ORANGE MARMALADE

DIPPING SAUCE 1/2 cup orange marmalade 1/4 cup stone ground Dijon (country style) mustard 1/4 cup honey 3-4 dashes Louisiana hot sauce

92 | September 2011

Combine all ingredients in small bowl.

Chill at least one hour before serving.

SHRIMP

Remove heads, peel and devein, then "butterfly" each shrimp. Beat together egg whites, olive oil and Pure Almond in a shallow bowl.

Combine panko, coconut, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in another shallow bowl. Dip shrimp in almond milk/egg mixture, then into crumb mixture, pressing to coat and placing shrimp on the baking sheet. Lightly spray shrimp with Canola cooking spray and bake 10 minutes per side, or until lightly golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with dipping sauce.

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GALVESTON TIDES & SOLUNAR TABLE Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine SEPTEMBER 2011

The BEST Choice… Any Place, Anytime!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Minor Feeding Periods 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

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