Texas Fish & Game February 2017

VOICE OF THE TEXAS OUTDOOR NATION

The Texas

Catfish Files

FEBRUARY 2017 | $3.95

Coastal Flooding:

Freshwater Tides 10 Things

You Didn’t Know About Texas Salt

The

Nilgai:

Texas Blue Devils

Ocelots:

Tiny Leopards Return to Texas

Stock Exchange

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SUBSCRIPTIONS

Published by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC. TEXAS FISH & GAME is the largest independent, family-owned outdoor publication in America. Owned

by Ron & Stephanie Ward and Roy & Ardia Neves.

ROY NEVES PUBLISHER

CHESTER MOORE

1745 GREENS ROAD, HOUSTON, TX 77032 PHONE

(800) 725-1134 MYACCOUNT.FISHGAME.COM

ARDIA NEVES

TEXAS FISH & GAME (ISSN 0887-4174) is published monthly

by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC., 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. ©Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC. All rights reserved. Content is not to be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission. The publication assumes no responsibility for unsolicited photographs and manuscripts. Subscription rates: 1 year $24.95; 2 years $42.95; 3 years $58.95. Address all subscription inquiries to Texas Fish & Game, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for response. Give old and new address and enclose latest mailing address label when writing about your subscription. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032.

Address all subscription inquiries to TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032.

Email change of address to: subscriptions@fishgame.com.

Email new orders to: subscriptions@fishgame.com.

Email subscription questions to: subscriptions@fishgame.com.

EDITOR IN CHIEF

VICE PRESIDENT/ADVERTISING DIRECTOR DIRECT PHONE:

C O N T R I B U T O R S

EMAIL: ANEVES@FISHGAME.COM

JOE DOGGETT DOUG PIKE TED NUGENT LOU MARULLO MATT WILLIAMS CALIXTO GONZALES LENNY RUDOW STEVE LAMASCUS DUSTIN ELLERMANN KENDAL HEMPHILL WILL LESCHPER REAVIS WORTHAM TOM BEHRENS GREG BERLOCHER PAUL BRADSHAW CAPT. MIKE HOLMES DUSTIN WARNCKE STAN SKINNER LISA MOORE

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR EDITOR AT LARGE HUNTING EDITOR FRESHWATER EDITOR SALTWATER EDITOR BOATING EDITOR FIREARMS EDITOR SHOOTING EDITOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR CONSERVATION EDITOR HUMOR EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR

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EMAIL: DWARNCKE@FISHGAME.COM LARRY DALTON • ADVERTISING COORDINATOR 1745 GREENS ROAD HOUSTON, TX 77032 PHONE: (281) 227-3001 • FAX (281) 784-2962

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Paid Distribution of over 90,000 Verified by Independent Audit

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Table of

FEBRUARY 2017 Volume 33 • NO. 10

Contents FEATURES

FRESHWATER TIDES The Texas coast is prone to freshwater deluges every few years. This story looks at how coastal floods affect saltwater fishing— especially speckled trout fishing.

COVER STORY: The Florida-Texas Stock Exchange This is the story of how Florida strain largemouth were first introduced into Texas waters and how the explosive success of this stocking program turned the Lone Star State into the premier bass destination in the U.S.

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by Steve Shaffer TEXAS BLUE DEVILS The most mysterious of all Texas exotics, nilgai were first introduced into the Texas wilds in the 1930s, from their native lands of India and Pakistan.

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by Chester Moore

Story by Matt Williams Cover photo by John N. Felsher

FISH GAME DIGITAL

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10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW... ...about Texas saltwater fishing and the Gulf Coast, from off-schedule flounder migration to deadly jelly fish, and more.

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by Chester Moore

OCELOTS OF SOUTH TEXAS Mobile Editions: iPad u Android u Phones u

u

Kindle

FREE to Subscribers. See your Device’s App Store, or visit:

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists have confirmed discoveries of ocelot kittens in South Texas, establishing that these pint-sized leaopards are indeed returning to the Lone Star State after an absence of more than a hundred years.

by Chester Moore

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Inside FISH & GAME

Contents (continued) COLUMNS

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by ROY and ARDIA NEVES TF&G Owners

I

NCOME FROM SPONSORS HAS BEEN THE LIFEBLOOD OF the media business since the earliest newspapers. A penny a copy turned a tidy profit in the 1800s, but much greater riches were there to be mined once the news barons realized they could sell access to their huge masses of readers.

They promoted it as “salesmanship in print.” We call it advertising.

It was a perfectly acceptable business model for at least a couple of centuries.

Readers—and then radio and TV audiences—got cheap or free news and entertainment, and the marketing needs of an entire economy were served.

Then, paid search, social media, pay-per-click, and data mining came along and broke the model. Or, more accurately, beat the holy living crap out of it.

Advertising could now be tracked to an unprecedented level, pushing the limits of privacy beyond what even a Peeping Tom might consider too far. Before long, an unfortunate belief surfaced—that anything posted on the internet could “go viral,” and this belief quickly became gospel.

These ruptures in the conventional media landscape hit print the hardest. There are now fewer newspapers and magazines, and the survivors—like survivors of any disaster—look thinner. But traditional broadcast has also fallen into this cultural and economic sinkhole. The rise of DVR use, with the convenience of zipping through commercials, and Video Streaming, with the commercials conveniently missing altogether, sent aftershocks through the halls of broadcast and cable TV networks.

As print survivors, we may be a bit thinner, but we prefer to think of our condition as “leaner.” We could have slashed our content budgets when the number of ad pages we sold began to decline, but TF&G has not chosen that shortsighted strategy.

For example, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on postage each year to send subscriber copies through the mail. The US Postal Service provides a discount for subscription-based periodicals, if their advertising-to-editorial ratio stays below 70 percent. Without the discount, mailing each copy would cost more than our cover price. Despite this liberal allowance to pack nearly three quarters of each issue with ads and still receive the discount, we have rarely gone above 33 percent advertising.

Yes, our recent editions have had fewer pages. But, even as economic conditions for media companies like us have gotten leaner—and definitely meaner—you will still find artfully crafted writing from more than 15 monthly columnists, and you will also continue to find space devoted to six full length feature articles in every issue, plus a whole bag of regular sections and departments.

We have said all of that to say this: Thank God for those advertisers with the good sense to hang in and continue to use print, and especially TEXAS FISH & GAME to promote their brands. These companies have not only recognized the value of an engaged, passionate readership that is the prime market for their products, they have also supported our ongoing mission to bring you the best outdoors content possible.

Without sponsors providing support, our business would be radically different.

Just to break even, we would have to charge more than $10 for a single copy of FISH & GAME, and a one-year subscription would cost more than $100.

Please show these sponsors the appreciation due them. If you like what you read here, they are just as responsible for it as we are. Sure, you could skip over our ads quicker than on any DVR—that is the beauty of our centuries-old system.

But before you do, please remember how critical they are to this experience—as are most of the products they make for your use in enjoying it!

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DEPARTMENTS

Doggett at Large

8 LETTERS 82 INDUSTRY

by Joe Doggett

TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

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Pike on the Edge

by Doug Pike

87 Nugent in the Wild 88

by Ted Nugent 89 TF&G Editor At Large

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Commentary

by Kendal Hemphill

TF&G Political Commentator

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Texas Freshwater

by Matt Williams

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INSIDER FISH AND GAME GEAR TEXAS TESTED TEXAS TASTED OUTDOOR DIRECTORY PRO TIPS TF&G PHOTOS

NEW SECTION

TF&G Freshwater Editor

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Texas Saltwater

by Calixto Gonzales

TF&G Saltwater Editor

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Bare Bones Hunting

by Lou Marullo

TF&G Hunting Editor

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Texas Boating

by Lenny Rudow

TF&G Boating Editor

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Practical Angler

by Greg Berlocher

TF&G Contributing Editor

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Texas Guns

Bass University

48 TEXAS DEPT. OF

by Pete Robbins

Special Correspondent

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Open Season

by Reavis Wortham

TF&G Humor Editor

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HOT SHOTS

46 TEXAS DEPT.

TF&G Firearms Editor

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40 CATFISH FILES 44 TF&G REPORT 44 TEXAS

by Steve LaMascus

www.FishGame.com F I S H

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TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Email Roy and Ardia Neves at ContactUs@fishgame.com |

by Chester Moore

TF&G Editor in Chief

A Word for Our Sponsors

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Editor’s Notes

OF DEFENSE

CONSERVATION

52 TEXAS COASTAL FOCUS

60 TEXAS FISHING HOTSPOTS

70 PRIME TIMES

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LETTERS to the Editor ::

Share Your Comments

Love for ‘The Drive’

and made a couple of trips per year to South Texas to hunt with me. The last few years I spent more time quail hunting, but when he was around we’d sit in the blind watching deer. My “drive” was from New Braunfels to West Monroe on 12/1/2015, after he passed. I understand what you wrote about.

I was lucky enough to be with my Dad the week of Thanksgiving 2015, just prior to his passing. He was recovering from a surgery and missed our annual November trip to the Texas lease, but we had a trip planned for the second week of December.

While I was in Louisiana visiting, he had me “help” him get a huge sow out of one of his traps at his Louisiana lease, kill and clean her. He wanted some sausage made.

I returned to Texas the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and he took one of his grandsons to the Louisiana lease the next day, Sunday, and killed a nice buck to go with the sow for the sausage. On Monday 11/30/15 he took the sow and deer to the processor. Upon returning home in the afternoon he sat in his recliner, not feeling well, and never woke up.

We had a nice buck picked out for him to shoot in Webb County. He wanted a nice wide south Texas buck. On 12/13/15 I killed his buck with his gun. I know that is what he wanted me to do. The buck now hangs in my living room.

I did not renew the Webb county lease.

Hunting without him would not be the same.

I joined another lease this year, but have yet to sit and hunt. I’m planning to go on the second week of December and again will be hunting with Dad’s gun. Maybe he will guide a good deer my way once again.

I AM WRITING THIS IN RESPONSE to your page-9 article entitled “The Drive” in the December 2016 issue of TF&G. Your article resonated with me due a couple of factors. One is that I, too, recently lost my elderly father so I can relate to the roller-coaster of emotions that sort of event thrusts upon a son. And I am truly sorry for your loss. But the thing that really struck a chord with me in your article was losing a hunting buddy.

It was a few years back, and I lost my two best friends and hunting companions within a twelve-month span. One due to a heart attack and the other in an auto accident. It was devastating to me as not only were these two of my co-workers, but they were also best friends who I had shared campfires with over our years of deer hunting together. I felt lost and it scared me ... a lot ... because I soon lost the desire to hunt.

How could it ever be the same or how could I even begin to enjoy it again? But although I had lost the desire and admittedly it took me a while to realize this, I never lost the passion for it. Some time passed and eventually I dusted off my bow and eased back into woods and brush knowing that they were both there with me. I found myself talking to them quite often while immersed in the quiet solitude one experiences in the field.

They, like your dad, live on in our hearts and memories. Take him with you, and keep the fire burning. He wouldn’t want it any other way because dads want to see their children happy.

I had the privilege of meeting and chatting with you and your dad at a CCA meeting of The Woodlands chapter about a year ago. Now that interaction seems to carry a bit more value for me than just a simple handshake and “how do you do.” And for that I am thankful.

Jay Wagoner MANY OF THE SENTIMENTS YOU expressed in your article are ones I have experienced as well, and I wrote the following words to capture them. I shared them with family members as we gathered to say goodbye to my brother, Paul Batchelder (author of two TF&Gpublished books, “101 Kayak Launching Points” and “Where Can I Fish?”).

Richard Wendt THANKS FOR THE STORY. I read “The Drive” on December 1, 2016, one year to the day my father and hunting companion died from a heart attack in his sleep at home in West Monroe, LA. My Dad, too, loved hunting, especially deer, 8

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Editor@FishGame.com my best friend and mentor. He was the best man at my wedding. He was my big brother. He was a teacher and a leader. I am blessed to have known him and to have spent so many meaningful hours together.

“Whether we were playing tag in our backyard, flying kites, or fishing for perch and rock bass along the rocky shores of Lake Champlain, we always seemed to be doing it together. We had our share of fights but shared a room until high school and had to work out our differences by the end of each day. We worked together and confided to each other about all the things teenage boys care about – girls, cars, and what the future held for each of us. Paul’s college career didn’t last long but he encouraged me to finish even when I was ready to quit.

“Paul enjoyed fishing nearly as much as I do. He taught me how to tie a ‘fisherman’s knot’ and introduced me to all the latest lures. He taught me how to catch bass with the Big Green (senko) Worm, how to work a crankbait and when to throw a buzzbait.

“We fished in Lake Champlain, McNab Lake, Lake Estes, and Evans Lake. We fished in Mud Creek, Snake Creek, and Daniels Creek.

We fished many rivers like the Missisquoi, the Big Thompson, the Little Red, the Provo, the Green, the Texas Colorado, and the East Fork of the San Jacinto. We fished Turtle Bay, Palacios Bay, Galveston Bay, and Baffin Bay. We fished Aransas Pass, San Luis Pass and some passes I’m not supposed to disclose. I will miss our fishing trips together.”

I don’t know how well you got to know Paul, who passed away last August, but I wanted to share this with you and to let you know that I will be praying that our Heavenly Father will give you peace and comfort as you think about your dad.

John Batchelder EDITOR: Gentlemen, thank you so much for your kind words. John your note about Paul was very moving. Thank you all for the response to what was a very personal article that I felt others needed to hear.

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EDITOR’S Notes

by CHESTER MOORE :: TF&G Editor-in-Chief

Feeding the Need

again and stared at the photos. I imagined myself encountering king cobras, saltwater crocodiles and going down in a shark cage like ocean explorer extraordinaire, Jacques Cousteau.

During these years, you could take a class full of first graders and ask them what they wanted to be when they grew up. A least half would say marine biologist or ocean explorer. Cousteau, who had invented scuba technology, had frequent television specials viewed by millions.

Children around the world were captivated by his exploits, and that definitely included me.

Another major influence was a program that came on every Sunday evening called Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. It was hosted by an eloquent zoo manager named Marlin Perkins and his younger, more adventurous cohort Jim Fowler.

They traversed the world in search of wild creatures of all kinds and had amazing on-camera chemistry. Perkins would see the animal and talk about how incredible it was to be so close. Then he’d send the younger Fowler out to tangle with it.

I remember watching them getting super close to Cape buffaloes in Africa, and toying with alligators. It was a big deal when Perkins got in on the action as they both wrestled with a monstrous anaconda in the jungle of South America.

I used to love sitting in my Dad’s lap and putting together hunting and fishing scrapbooks from his hunting and fishing magazines. We eventually expanded into going to the local thrift shop and wiping out their supply. They sold for a nickel apiece so dumping out my piggy bank would yield several dozen at a time. They were like gold to me.

I would look at the photos and imagine myself pursuing the amazing creatures that were splashed across the pages. I lived vicariously through the hunters and anglers pictured within.

One of our early finds was a full-page photo of a man with a nice mule deer he took with a bow and arrow. I thought the muley was great, but I was convinced it was my uncle Jackie Moore in the photo. I still have this scrap book, and the guy is an absolute dead ringer for my late uncle.

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HAVE ALWAYS CRAVED ANY kind of connection to the outdoors.

Without hesitation as a little boy, I would ask my mom to take me in to Wingate’s Meat Market in Orange every single time we passed by. And about once a month, she would relent.

It had nothing to do with their meat, but because the owner Nick Wingate had an amazing taxidermy collection featuring mainly giant fish he had caught in the Gulf of Mexico. There was a hammerhead shark, tiger shark, grouper and a huge alligator fish along with a big buck that had been killed in Orange County where we lived. All of this blew my mind and allowed me to visualize things I wanted to do in the future.

There was also a furniture store located in West Orange that had a mountain lion in a full body mount. This cat was mounted on a pole in the center and was featured in a jumping position. I had never seen a full body cougar mount, and for a kid who was already into these great cats it became more fuel for my imagination.

Living in Orange we would go to nearby Port Arthur or Beaumont about once every two weeks. I remember visiting the K-Mart off Twin City in Port Arthur and seeing a full-body, standing brown bear and a polar bear in a car dealership across the street.

Being persistent, I begged my mom to take me in and was stunned at how big those bears were. I remember the gentlemen inside getting a kick out of a kid who wanted to come in just to see the bears.

When I was old enough to read (kindergarten) my parents started buying me wildlife books, two of which stand out.

One was from the classic Golden Books line and was simply called Reptiles & Amphibians.

The other we ordered from the Time Life series on television was called Dangerous Sea Creatures. I would read the text over and over

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Another favorite was a group of men loading a 15-foot-long black marlin onto a boat. Billfish were pretty fascinating, and I had never seen one so big. Since that time, the black marlin has been near the top of my fishing dreams.

Many of the photos were of wild, exotic animals and fish from Africa, South America and Asia. However, some of my favorites were animals I knew lived in our local woodlands.

Back in the early 80s, North American Hunter would have a centerfold of some game animal or bird in each issue. I cut out a stunning photo of a wood duck drake that haunted my imagination every time we would go out to my Aunt Ann’s property in southern Newton County.

There were lots of woodies in the creek bottom there, and the thought of shooting one of those beautiful birds inspired me. In fact, simply looking at the mounted wood duck drake I shot a few miles from her property brings me back to that photo. The scrap books helped define my interest in the outdoors.

My all-time favorite shot was another North American Hunter centerfold of a gigantic cougar slinking along some rocks in the Sierra Nevadas.

To this day I have things that feed my need for the great outdoors. When I need inspiration, I watch Austin Stevens Adventures episodes on Youtube, or grab one of my books about fish of the Gulf of Mexico.

If you have a child in your life who loves the great outdoors feed that need by buying them books. Give them your copies of Texas Fish and Game or give them their own subscription.

Perhaps you can turn them on to our digital edition so they can peruse it on their smart phone or tablet.

We can’t be outdoors every day or even most days, but we can find ways to feed the need.

The more chances we give young people to get excited about the great outdoors, the better off they will be.

Then, they can turn a curiosity into a fullblown passion as adults.

Email Chester Moore at cmoore@fishgame.com

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DOGGETT at Large

by JOE DOGGETT :: TF&G Contributing Editor

The Phases of Angling

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T’S BEEN SAID THAT A SERIOUS angler goes through four phases during a fishing career. As time passes, I’m inclined to support this evolutionary theory.

During the first stage, the young beginner just wants to catch a fish. Pretty much any fish will suffice, as the newcomer has no significant measuring stick of size or quality.

This is a point that the parent or mentor pointing a tentative child at the water should keep in mind.

A bluegill is as good as a bass. Indeed, it probably

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is better because the plentiful “perch” are readily accessible from banks and piers, easy to catch by using simple tackle and tactics.

Conversely, a coveted bass may prove to be a frustrating challenge for a kid with short attention and limited skills. This especially is true if “dear old dad” insists on using artificial lures and sophisticated tackle. Futile attempts backed by repeated barking from an impatient instructor might even discourage the beginner from the whole idea of fishing.

No, start easy and keep things relaxed. Fishing is supposed to be fun. Rig with a cane pole or a simple spincast rig and use a pinch of natural bait under a small cork. Watching the bobber dip and slant and making a big deal out a few shiny bluegills can go a long way in stoking fledgling fishing fever.

Along the coast, a light bottom rig and a small hook baited with dead shrimp serve the same pur-

pose. No matter if the tap-tap-tug comes from an eight-inch croaker or a 10-inch whiting—it’s a fish!

During the second stage, the budding angler wants lots of fish. Numbers become the measurement of success. Again, the fishing needs to be reasonably easy. There’s nothing wrong with this; indeed, we all go through the fast-action phase I must admit I still enjoy rapid-fire results on “schoolies.” Speckled trout under birds or under dock lights are a fine example. So are pre-spawn white bass massing in rivers and creeks.

Fresh or salt, a cast into the kill zone has a high probability of drawing a sharp strike. To repeat, most of the catch-and-release fish are small but the action is exciting. The bent rod becomes addictive and success feeds on itself. You increasingly feel like you know what you’re doing.

Larger fish sometimes shadow the frantic near-

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surface schools, and an offering allowed to drop near bottom might draw a hit from, say, a brag-sized redfish. This may be true, but I seldom have the patience to stick with the slow-drop program. The slam-bang schoolies are too much fun, maybe payback for the slow days when nothing seems to work.

Perhaps my hackles are showing. But when small “jug trout” are popping and swirling within easy range I have great difficulty not chunking into the melee—even when conditions suggest bigger fish might be available elsewhere. I’ve only been fishing 60 years so maybe I’ll grow out of the greedy Phase Two mentality. But I hope not too soon.

Phase Three, of course, emphasizes quality over quantity. The seasoned angler tends to target larger fish. Chasing schoolies might be an entertaining respite, but the real fishing is focused on the big pull.

The angler at this stage often blows past the small stuff and concentrates on locations and tactics that offer a higher probability of sticking something with shoulders.

The veteran typically uses lures or baits that appeal to big fish (opposed to a smaller catch-all rig). And he is committed to long hours of potentially empty grinding.

Many salty pluggers talk a good game, but this

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commitment to purpose demands uncommon resolve. I’ve already admitted that I tend to “crawfish” after several thankless hours, but at least I’m being honest.

Still, many hardcore anglers try to at least start with the Phase Three mindset. Worth note, even one big fish can justify a long session.

The final phase is “My Way.” In this, the determined angler uses a preferred tackle or technique even though conditions dictate that another approach might be more successful. The stalwart gains great satisfaction in addressing the water on his terms—and if the fish don’t cooperate, well, screw ‘em.

This narrow concept might defy logic in an already sketchy game where the natural elements are among the most fickle of players. Yet, many experienced anglers know exactly what I’m talking about. The means are more important than the end.

My Way explains why a bass fisherman might spend hours chunking a scorned chugger along the edges of shoreline cover when the nearest main-lake point might produce strike after strike on a Texasrigged plastic worm bumped along the bottom. The topwater purist enjoys making the accurate casts to defined targets and lusts for the big blowup.

My Way supports the bay wader easing along in knee- to thigh-deep water and flicking a gold spoon for redfish amid potholes and shadows. More fish almost certainly could be caught on cut mullet or live shrimp from a boat anchored along the nearest jetty, but the wader is driven by the one-on-one experience of stalking the shallow flats.

My Way also might enforce one technique over another, say, fly fishing over plug casting. This opinionated stance sometimes can get huffy and stuffy, but that’s just part of it. For example, trying to force a fly rod into conditions where it really doesn’t want to go probably isn’t too effective—but whatever satisfies the angler is the goal of the final phase. No one said it always makes practical sense.

None of this is absolute, and the stages of progression can overlap during a long career. But, now and then, all of them gloriously come together. And these are the “ice cream” days that keep us casting through the decades.

Email Joe Doggett at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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PIKE on the Edge

by DOUG PIKE :: TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Breaking the Bass (and Buck and Speck...) Ceiling

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EBRUARY, SINCE IT’S THE month of Valentine’s Day, seems an appropriate time to churn some fresh discussion of women in the outdoors.

Groundwork for this topic was laid a couple of decades ago. Women who decided to sample the outdoors then, weren’t the first, but they were first to take those steps into the woods en masse.

The industry wasn’t ready for them.

Hastily, and sometimes with little or no thought, manufacturers rolled out product lines for the outdoors-loving woman.

Some guessed that making their men’s products smaller and coloring them pink was enough to lure women to their brands. They guessed wrongly.

Makers who chose “small and pink” tended either to alienate or infuriate women—or worse, to do both.

Women wanted and deserved quality products offered in sizes and

designs suited specifically to them. Where pink was an option, some women chose it.

Some opted otherwise. Those are personal choices, same as men always have had.

Women who really want to be outdoors, choose their gear not because it’s pink, (if that were a selling point, shouldn’t most men be wearing and carrying blue?), but because it is dependable, high quality gear.

Being a woman in the outdoors is a little bit like being a left-handed golfer, which I am. Golf shops, all my adult life, have been disappointments for me. I’m different, and there aren’t enough other lefties in the game to justify equal numbers of choices at the retail level.

Not Funny, Dude

watch the recoil knock those inexperienced shooters backward.

Cut it out. There is no humor in inflicting pain. In fact, deliberately encouraging someone to do something you know could cause injury borders on criminal.

Instead, start with an appropriate firearm and cartridge. Insist that the shooter wear ear and eye protection, and teach

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To the credit of golf manufacturers, most offer all their clubs in right- and left-hand models. They’ve solved problems that once made it financially unfeasible to make everything from both sides of the ball. The game on the whole is better for that, or at least for me.

Women’s outdoor equipment and apparel isn’t quite there yet, but it’s better. It doesn’t cost so much now as it once did to add true lines of women’s waders or rifle stocks or boots. Where retailers stock those products, and where sales staffers know the products and can help women make good buying decisions, those products sell.

Being a woman in deer camp or fishing camp, to draw again from my other outdoor addiction, is somewhat like being a woman on the golf course. They’re as capable as anyone of enjoying what they’re doing, but some men simply would rather those women not be there.

If not there, then where. Women are different from men. Three cheers for that, but there’s no difference so great that it justifies

proper gun safety.

Check all those boxes, and at the least, you’ll probably wind up with someone who will take you hunting or fishing after you’re too old to drive yourself.

—Doug Pike

PHOTOS: LEFT, MANDY DONNAUD; CENTER, LARRY D. HODGE, TPWD; RIGHT, LESLIE LILES HOLAND

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Pike’s Lure Challenge Winner BACK IN NOVEMBER, I ISSUED A challenge to TEXAS FISH & GAME readers: Come up with a really good, new lure for fishing in our great state. The prize, about all I can spare while bringing up a nine-year-old boy, was $10.

Best entry I saw, hands down, came

from Jerry Adelman, who calls himself the Saltwater Fly Guy. His shrimp fly was one of the best I’ve seen in its size class.

He likes it for trout and reds, which I’m certain, works, but I’m going to feed it to some Texas tarpon come summertime.

Soon as I remember, I’m going to send Jerry $10. He earned it. Also hope he sells those flies. I might need a couple more before the end of summer.

exclusion from sharing our enjoyment of the outdoors.

I’m still puzzled by the number of men who aren’t fans of hunting, fishing or playing golf alongside women. They dismiss their chauvinism with a laugh, but it’s apparent they’re stuck in an increasingly distant past.

The more the merrier, I say. Most women I know who enjoy the outdoors are welcome additions. They’re perfectly willing to roll up their sleeves to help as needed. The older I get, the more help I accept.

And, acknowledging the occasional exception, having women in camp tends to raise the overall level of civility there.

When women are present, most men tend to become more conscious of personal hygiene and bodily noises.

Civility aside, there’s not much men can do that women cannot. They can fish and they can shoot. I’ve met plenty of women who can do both more skillfully than two thirds of the men I know.

I hunted ducks once with a woman who won Olympic gold in trapshooting. The

ducks didn’t stand a chance—and I’ve fished with women who held or hold world records.

Now that women have the right gear and have taken interest, it’s time we offered them the same welcome we’ve given men who want to learn about our passions.

Women are welcome anywhere I hunt or fish or play golf. Young men would be wise to adopt a similar position.

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—DP

Email Doug Pike at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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NUGENT in the Wild

by TED NUGENT :: TF&G Editor-at-Large

Ethics... When No One is Watching

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HE GLORIOUS MICHIGAN bowseason had been blazing along ferociously for just 20 days. Well, maybe not actually blazing everyday, and I guess not really all that ferocious most of the time either. But with maximum appreciation I take every day and every weather condition as it comes and do my best to improvise, adapt and overcome my deerhunting ambush strategies.

I’m certainly not the best bowhunter in the world, but there is no shortage of thrills, spills, kills, chills, emotional roller-coaster rides and hard earned sacred backstraps for this old Michigan born all American Texan bowhunter I assure you.

I hunt hard every day, and have a nice collection of precious venison, some handsome headbone and more than another season’s lifetime of precious memories and experiences to show for my never ending Herculean reasoning predator efforts. And I do mean never ending and Herculean when I say never ending and Herculean.

Shouldn’t I be very tired by now?

Mrs. Nugent and my family and friends don’t think I’m addicted to bowhunting, they know I’m addicted to bowhunting! The jury is not still out!

I gleefully plead guilty as charged, and rather proud of it!

Most of my arrows fly true. I attentively practice with my bow before every outing every day, and constantly hone my deadlyTedly shot sequence in order to kill cleanly.

As glorious as a good clean kill is, there are few things in life more depressing than making a bad shot on a critter. It hurts deeply and inspires us to maximize our human predator dedication to eliminate such pain and anguish. Not just the pain and anguish inflicted on a bad hit animal, but the tortu|

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ous pain and suffering we go through when things go wrong.

There are two inevitable conditions when and why things can go wrong. The first and ever challenging complication is that doggone human error thing. Murphy is not our friend! Human error is not totally inescapable, but with genuine effort, serious concentration and intelligent due diligence, the

best of us can reduce this goofy malady to a manageable level and enjoy some pretty gratifying long runs of sheer happiness and fulfillment.

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do go bad and ugly, we can still hold our head up high with pride knowing we didn’t drop the ball.

To the contrary, to my way of thinking, the other problem some hunters experience is inexcusable and downright criminal.

I’m sure you have noticed that in our otherwise wonderful human species, it is more than painfully apparent that some people simply don’t care, and when a hunter suffers this human soullessness, things will go bad.

You know the kind; they pick up their bow or gun just before the season and barely practice if at all. When such uncaring lack of preparation results in a bad hit or lost animal, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the foolhardy who failed to responsibly prepare for this most important job of killing cleanly.

Making a mistake after genuine effort and blowing it through carelessness are two very different things.

When we encounter one of these dufuses in our midst, it is up to those of us who know better to call them out and refuse to stand for such irresponsible behavior.

We may not be our brothers’ keepers, but we hunters do have to share the woods and campfires with all sorts of people, and we should all work very hard to rid our ranks of uncaring slobs. The battle cry for hunters everywhere should be; “Upgrade or get lost!”

This is it! Now is the time! As fall fades into winter and the huntseason rages on, this is indeed the most mystical magical time of the deerhunting year as the bucks continue to get all Wand Dang Sweet Doe Tang on us!

Hunt hard, hunt smart, hunt caringly and by all means, hunt FUN!

Email Ted Nugent at tnugent@fishgame.com

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TF&G COMMENTARY

by KENDAL HEMPHILL :: TF&G Political Editor

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ROWING UP IN A CENTRAL Texas family that ate meat at almost every meal, a large percentage of it wild, I was entirely unaware of vegetarians.

Until I left home for college I believed everyone ate meat, and plenty of it. I remember being almost as shocked at vegetarianism as I was when I found out there were people in the world who didn’t own and shoot guns.

At first I refused to accept either concept, on the grounds that no one would voluntarily forfeit happiness, at least as I defined it. Maybe I was just sheltered, or maybe we all tend to think everyone is just like we are, until we learn otherwise.

Not that I have anything against people who are not like me. I figure the vegetarians are making more steaks available for the rest of us, and people who don’t shoot are not to be blamed when I can’t find the ammo I need, especially .22 shells. Still, I think we all have a little trouble relating to those who do things differently than we do. Some of us have a lot more trouble in that area than others.

Those of us who shoot, for example, sometimes encourage non-shooters to give guns a chance, but we aren’t demanding. We are willing to instruct, but we don’t insist. Likewise, people who eat meat are not adamant that vegetarians should relent and accept our carnivorous lifestyles. We might offer to buy someone a hamburger, but we don’t force our culinary opinions onto them. As Yogi Berra once said, if folks don’t want to come out to the ball park, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em.

The reverse, however, does not always hold true. Some of those who don’t like guns often demand that the rest of us give up our firearms.

Their reasons are many, and varied, and universally wrong. And some vegetarians think no one should eat meat, ever, for reasons that

“ So the big difference between vegetarians and the rest of us seems to be tolerance.

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Café Ingratitude

For many years the Engelharts were vegetarians. They believed so strongly in their meat-free lifestyle that, in 2004, they began a chain of veggie restaurants in California called Café Gratitude, offering vegetable-only fare.

Celebrities and Hollywood types praised the Engelharts to the heavens, endorsements were plentiful, and during the past decade the Café Gratitude chain became a model of gustatory progression, according to the granola lovers.

None of this had any effect, it should be noted, on those who eat meat. If someone wandered into a Café Gratitude looking for a chicken fried steak, and found only garden truck, he or she likely just quietly slipped out and found a steak house. No harm, no foul.

No one protested. No one complained. No one cared.

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Until the Engelharts started a blog, and made the mistake of reporting in the blog that their observations of nature had swayed their culinary choices to include meat. It was discovered they raise livestock on their farm, and keep a freezer full of beef and other animal products for consumption. Not that they tried to push their views, of course, they were just being honest about what they ate, in their own home, behind closed doors.

The lid blew off. Protesters immediately began to gather outside Café Gratitude restaurants, brandishing signs, and shouting vicious threats and unrepeatable insults. The vegetarian crowd was positively incensed. The Engelharts even received death threats engendered by their heinous crime of eating meat.

And admitting it.

Now, it should be noted that the menu in the Café Gratitude restaurants did not change a whit. The same vegetables, no doubt artfully and tastefully prepared, were still offered in the same way. The prices didn’t even change. The only thing that happened was that the clientele learned of the Engelharts’ personal eating habits, which were diametrically opposed to their own.

The storm, as yet, doesn’t seem to be in danger of abatement. The Engelharts have become a pariah among the culinary elite, and business has suffered accordingly. They have sold some stores, and may have to sell the rest.

Diet is a personal choice, and that choice is made on a variety of beliefs and observations, but one thing should be clear to all of us. No one else should be required to make the same choices I make as to what I eat. If we all liked the same food, it would have disappeared from the earth long ago.

And tolerance is expressed, not in what we complain about, but in what we ignore.

don’t seem to make much sense. They claim to experience better health than meat-eaters, and they may be right, but that seems a poor reason not to enjoy what health we have, while we have it. Besides, if bacon were as horrible and life-shortening as some claim, I should have died in 1768.

So the big difference between vegetarians and the rest of us seems to be tolerance.

Carnivores typically tolerate vegetarians, but vegetarians are often most intolerant of carnivores. A good example is what is happening to Matthew and Terces Engelhart.

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Email Kendal Hemphill at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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’M NOT SURE WHEN I CAUGHT MY first Florida-strain largemouth bass, or one with traces of the fast-growing gene in its DNA. If I had to guess, it was probably way back in the early 1980s.

Interestingly, I didn’t have to visit the Sunshine State to catch it, either. I’m betting I caught my first Florida in eastern Texas, possibly at Lake Murvaul, Lake Nacogdoches, Kurth Lake or Lake Pinkston.

I was a regular on those impoundments back when I was supposed to be attending journalism classes at Stephen F. Austin State University, and all four were beneficiaries of some of the earliest Florida bass stockings ever carried out on Texas’ public waters.

There were lots of folks involved in getting those fish to Texas lakes, but the guy at the forefront of it all was the late Robert J. “Bob” Kemp.

Kemp was a visionary who headed up the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s fisheries division in the early 1970s. I never met the man. But to hear some his colleagues tell it, he had grit - the type of determination and spunk it took to follow his instincts and do what he thought was best, even if it meant going against the grain.

The way the story goes, Kemp had a hunch fast growing Florida-strain bass would do well in the Texas climate. With a wealth of new lakes being constructed around the state at the time, he saw a grand opportunity to take Texas bass fishing to the next level.

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After several failed attempts to convince the TPW Commission to buy some of the fish to experiment with, Kemp spent his own money and placed the order himself. The first Florida bass fingerlings were flown into Texas in 1971. The fish arrived in oxygenated bags placed snugly inside two insulated boxes.

According to TPWD reports, the fish were subsequently placed in growing ponds at the now defunct Tyler Fish Hatchery, grown to advanced size and then placed in a nearby private lake for follow-up studies to determine their compatibility with Texas waters as well as their growth rates.

When the studies showed positive results, the fish were eventually harvested and brought back to the Tyler facility. There, they helped jump start what has become one of the most successful inland fisheries hatchery programs in the country.

No one can deny that Kemp knocked a home run by bringing Florida bass to Texas at a time when the state was teeming with robust, new reservoirs. Interestingly, however, the Kemp bass may not have been the very first Floridas introduced to Texas waters. In fact, scientists discovered through genetics testing in the early 1990s that Florida bass may have arrived in Texas decades earlier.

The evidence surfaced after TPWD biologists obtained scale samples from the original skin mount of the former 13.50-pound state record bass that was caught from Lake Medina way back in 1943.

According to Todd Engeling, TPWD’s freshwater hatchery chief, the analysis showed that there was some level of Florida influence in the Medina fish and that the bass presumably found its way to in the 5,400acre Hill Country reservoir via an “undocumented” private stocking.

While that’s certainly interesting trivia to ponder, the bigger story is the one that began to unfold back when you could buy a gallon of gasoline for around 36 cents.

With limited stock to go around during the early years, TPWD opted to put it’s Floridas where they thought the fish would do best -- fertile, East Texas reservoirs, many of which were still relatively new at the time.

One of the most significant stockings (197,000 fish) occurred in 1973 at Lake Monticello, a 2,000-acre power plant lake that was only a year old at the time. Roughly seven years later, the lake produced Texas’ first state record in 37 years, a 14.09 pounder 20

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TPWD Inland Fisheries biologist Tim Bister, assisted by his son Travis, stocks ShareLunker fingerlings into Caddo Lake.

caught by Jimmy Kimbell.

Some other early recipients of Texasgrown Floridas included Pinkston (1976), Houston County (1974), Welsh (1975), Hawkins (1975), Kurth (1977) Fairfield (1975), Sam Rayburn (1975), Jacksonville, (1975), Nacogdoches (1977), and a host of others.

TPWD continued ramping up its Florida hatchery program and dozens of other lakes were salted with the fast-growing offspring during the years that followed. Alas, a big bass boom was born and the face of Texas bass fishing was forever changed.

Within five years of Kimball’s monumental catch from Monticello the state record was broken four more times by fish caught from three different lakes. The heaviest (and most famous) of those fish belonged to Lake Fork guide Mark Stevenson, who caught a 17.67 pounder in November 1986.

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pounds now bears the names of more than 60 different impoundments. In total, TPWD’s hatchery program has now stocked about 223 million Florida largemouth bass fingerlings into 421 different reservoirs.

To fully grasp the impact Florida bass have made on Texas bass fishing over the years, one needn’t look any farther than the state’s Top 50 list of largemouths. It’s an impressive list that has been revamped so many times since I graduated high school in 1979 that the former state record caught from Lake Medina doesn’t even make the grade anymore.

Amazingly, neither does Kimball’s 14.09-pound state record caught from Lake Monticello in Feb. 1980, or the 14.3-pound former state record that John Alexander caught from a private lake called Lake Echo in Jan. 1981. In fact, the only pre-1986 fish that still holds a spot among the Top 50 is the 15.5 pounder that Alexander hauled out of Echo less than a month after he topped Kimball’s mark.

That fish, also a former state record, currently ties as the No. 45 heaviest bass of all time. Interestingly, it also is the only current Top 50 fish other than Earl Crawford’s 16.9pound state record caught in 1986 from Lake Pinkston to be reported prior to the inception of the Toyota ShareLunker program.

Translation: Texas bass fishing wouldn’t be what it is today without Florida bass and the innovative fisheries management plans that have been implemented to protect them.

Nor would it be the fat cash cow that it has become for state and local economies. As TPWD inland fisheries chief Craig Bonds points out, the positive impacts the transplants have made on Texas bass fishing are many.

“Stocking Florida largemouth bass in Texas provides opportunities throughout the state for anglers to catch larger bass,” Bonds said. “Florida largemouth bass have the proven genetic potential to ultimately grow to larger sizes compared to largemouth bass native to Texas. Florida largemouth bass and their crosses with native bass have adapted well to a wide range of habitat conditions across Texas, providing anglers high-quality fishing experiences and supporting economically-important recreation and businesses.”

PHOTO: LARRY D. HODGE © TPWD

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Texas FRESHWATER

by MATT WILLIAMS :: TF&G Freshwater Editor

Reeling in Some Sense in a Fishing Report

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F YOU’RE AN AVID READER OF this magazine and others like it, chances are you’re a sponge for information that might provide some sort of edge next time you head to the woods or the water.

It’s the job of scribes like me to offer as much good advice as we can—or at least take a stab at it—ideally in a manner that meshes the fine line of being helpful and entertaining all at the same time.

As a kid growing up, I read all sorts of hook

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and bullet magazines. I also made a point to have my mom save the sports section from the local newspaper every Thursday, just so I could check out the Outdoor page ahead of the weekend. One of my favorite reads was the weekly fishing report on area lakes and rivers.

It’s funny how your past can come back and hook you.

More than 40 years down the road, here I sit, pecking keys and sharing insight on the very topics I relished reading about as kid. One

of those gigs involves compiling a weekly fishing report for a dozen or so weekly and daily newspapers across eastern Texas.

Tackling the task involves regular communication via e-mail or phone with fishing guides, bait shops and other reliable sources to keep up with what the fish are biting, how deep they are holding and what might be the best ways to go about catching a few from week to the next.

To get the most out of a fishing report it helps if you have a basic understanding of the sport and to be familiar with the lingo fishermen use when they talk fishing.

To wit: It’s essential to know the difference between a topwater plug and a jigging spoon. Sort of like it helps to understand the basic logic behind

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baiting holes for channel catfish, building brush piles for crappie or using live perch on trotline sets meant to catch monster flatheads.

Here are a few fishin’ scenarios that you might expect to see in an early spring fishing report followed by an explanation of the details contained within:

Bass THE REPORT: “Bass are good on bladed jigs and green/pumpkin Senkos worked around shallow pad stubble and outside grass edges. Carolina rigs and cranks work around the warm discharge area.

DEALING WITH IT: When “good” is used to describe the fishing, it means the bite is better than fair but not quite hot enough to rank as excellent. Good fishing means you’ve got a better than average chance of success provided you do things right.

Bladed jig describes lures similar to the Chatterbait—it looks like a traditional casting jig with a silicone skirt, except it has a flat blade mounted to the nose that catches water and creates flash and vibration as the bait moves though the water. It’s killer on big fish.

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Jim Tutt using a lipless crankbait.

A Senko is a popular soft plastic stick bait shaped similar to a Bic pen—fat in the middle and skinny at both ends. It can be rigged weightless, Texas or wacky style to get at fish

that are hanging around grass, bushes or open flats.

Pad stubble defines the dead stems left behind when lily pads go dormant during later fall and winter; outside grass edge describes the edge of a grass bed that typically forms where shallow water meets with deep.

“Crank” is short for crankbait, a hard body lure equipped with a plastic nose bill to make it dive. Carolina rig is a bottom fishing rig for plastics that allows the bait to float free from the weight on a two to three-foot leader.

Anytime you see “warm water discharge” in a fishing report you can bet the lake in question is flanked by a power plant used to generate electricity. The power plant uses lake water to cool its turbines before discharging it back into the lake at a much warmer temperature than when it went in. Bass and bait fish are prone to gather around warmer water during the winter months.

White Bass THE REPORT: “White bass are beginning to show up in big numbers around underwater sandbars and in the mouths

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PHOTOS: MATT WILLIAMS

of clear running creeks; lots of limits with some big females in the mix, mainly on Roadrunners.”

DEALING WITH IT: Anytime you see “big numbers” and “white bass” in the same sentence during early spring you can bet the spring spawning run is heating up on rivers and creeks that feed major reservoirs with reputable white bass populations. The fish migrate upstream from these impoundments each spring, usually in large schools, to create the next generation of white bass. Males are always the first to show up, followed by larger females.

They like to set-up camp in still water eddies on back sides of sandbars, out of the current, where they can often be caught on consecutive casts. The Blakemore Roadrunner (1/4 ounce) in red/chartreuse and red/white patterns is a staple in white bass fishing.

fishing occurs on main lake points located on the receiving end of wave action kicked up by strong winds. The theory is the waves push tiny zooplankton against the bank. This attracts minnows and other small forage, which in turn brings in larger predators like catfish.

Crappie

Wally Marshall with a jig-caught keeper.

Catfish THE REPORT: “Rod and reelers are picking up some solid blues on cut shad soaked on the bottom on wind-blown points and under the birds up north.”

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DEALING WITH IT: Big blue cats are frequently fooled in skinny water this time of year, using fresh shad caught with a cast net and diced into small pieces. Some of the best

THE REPORT: “Good numbers of keepers taking small shiners and jigs around bridge pilings in 25 feet of water, suspended 14 feet down.”

DEALING WITH IT: Crappie like to gather around bridge pilings and the concrete cross members that connect them this time of year. If the fish are suspended 14 feet below the surface in 25 feet of water, it is essential that the bait be suspended at that depth, or real close to it. Good electronics are essential for locating suspended crappies.

Email Matt Williams at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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PHOTO: CHESTER MOORE

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HE TEXAS COAST IS PRONE TO EXPERIENCING freshwater deluge every few years.

Last year represented some of the most epic flooding in the history of Texas with the Sabine, Neches and Trinity all pouring billions of gallons of freshwater into bay and

marsh systems. Hurricanes also hit the coast periodically bringing a different kind of flood and shakeup of the ecosystem.

How do these floods impact coastal fishing?

For starters they shift speckled trout populations.

Salinity can be a factor in locating trout especially the largest ones. Researchers with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have found that big trout tend to prefer water that is close in salinity to seawater to more brackish water.

Salinity is an important factor as the closer an area is to the Gulf, the higher the salinity, however there are some other factors that come into play with trout here. Big, incoming tides bring warmer Gulf waters onto trout friendly areas like shallow flats along channels and with them come baitfish.

When you have the combination of water that is more saline, a few degrees warmer than that in the upper reaches of the system on top of a high presence of mullet and other baitfish you have serious trophy trout potential about the time this issues hits readers. Looking at this research alone helps you eliminate hundreds of square miles of habitat and focus more intensely on the areas where the big trout you seek are more abundant.

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However, if you have major coastal flooding even trout concentrated in those areas could be pushed into deep waters of the channel south of the bay systems.

The saltiest water is at the bottom of the water column so savvy anglers know during a normal flood situation to search out deep reefs toward the south end of a bay for trout.

Often the trout will concentrate heavily in these areas and actually produce solid fishing for anglers tuned in to the phenomenon.

Locations such as Hannah’s Reef in Galveston and the big reef on the south end of Sabine Lake are key areas for spring flood fishing on the Upper Coast where freshwater influx is most prevalent.

Water clarity is an underappreciated factor that can limit fishing success and floods have a huge impact here.

“Having two major rivers flow into Sabine Lake, one of Texas’ smallest bay systems makes it one of the most dynamic in relation to water conditions and it has taught me a lot about various water conditions and their impact on fishing,” said TF&G Editor-InChief Chester Moore.

Moore said when the bay itself is murky, he often hits the channel just south of the causeway and looks for “current lines”.

“There are times you will find literally a thin strip of clear water along the main current flow that produces fish. Fishing along these lines where you find mullet or other baitfish can be extremely productive for trout and flounder. You can literally cast to the clear side of the current and catch fish and the murky side and miss action altogether.

The difference in clarity can be fairly subtle so you need to wear good polarized shades and move slowly when looking for places to fish,” he added.

“This is for times when you have maybe Toledo Bend releasing a bit of water or some heavy rains hit, not necessarily when we have a major flood. That changes everything.”

On a much larger scale floods that come from hurricanes can alter things in perpetuity.

According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, freshwater flooding from rain or saline storm surge (hurricane) may trap fish in an inappropriate salinity. If this happens rapidly and the fish have no escape, species that are intolerant to changes in salinity may die. In addition, rising water may flood areas that normally do not contain water. After water levels recede, 26

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A satellite photo of the Galveston area shows the impact of flooding on the clarity of the bay and Gulf.

fish can become trapped if they are cut off from the connection to the main body of water. When the small ponds the fish have been trapped in dry up, the fish die.

According to a 1987 Texas A&M study entitled “The role of hurricanes in determining year-class strength of red drum”, the result of these storms is not all bad.

“The hurricane season in Texas coincides with the red drum spawning period.

Hurricanes may impact year-class strength by increasing the numbers and/or survival of juvenile red drum recruited into the bays.

Bag seine collections during the period 19621975 in the Laguna Madre and Galveston Bay systems are used to examine recruitments after Hurricanes Beulah (1967) and Fern (1971). Trammel net collections during the same period in the lower Laguna Madre are used to examine year-class strength through age three. Both hurricanes reduced bays salinities and the number of juvenile red drum in the Laguna Madre increased.

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intermediate salinities.”

In the long run, bay systems need the constant struggle between fresh and saltwater.

In a natural setting things work out for the best but of course mankind tinkers with the environment.

The impact of the creation of dams and the sudden release of huge amounts of water as well as water control structures that allow saltwater to be trapped in areas for long periods of time after storm surge heightens any impact.

Flooding is something totally out of the control of anglers and in a normal spring it will only be a slight inconvenience or perhaps for those anglers willing to study their favorite bay systems it can be an advantage.

Dredging a deep reef with a Gulp! shrimp or soft plastic sand eel imitation might not be the funnest way to fish but it can yield huge catches even when the water is fresh enough to bass fish on the surface.

Our bays are dynamic and learning to work around freshwater flow is crucial.

PHOTO: NOAA

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Texas SALTWATER

by CALIXTO GONZALES :: TF&G Saltwater Editor

A Chance to Heal

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Y WIFE THOUGHT I WAS nuts.

“You’re going fishing? NOW?” “Yes,” I said as I grabbed a rod and stuffed lures into a bag (I didn’t bother looking at what they were). “I need to go.”

“It’s 45 degrees outside!” Sandie said. “Are you serious?”

“I need to go.”

It had been a harrowing two weeks. At dialysis, the old woman in the chair next to me had coded. They spent 20 minutes trying to bring her back. The techs were heroic; they performed CPR, and even used the portable defibrillator they had on hand to revive her… and they failed.

Meanwhile, I was hooked up to my dialyser, and I was unable to move. I couldn’t help, I couldn’t run. I could just sit there and watch as they set up panels around her to hide her away the rest of us and hear the defib recite operating instructions in an electronic monotone. When the EMT’s finally showed up, I watched as they wheeled her out, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. I couldn’t shake that image.

Two weeks later, my oldest friend’s mother, a woman who would’ve adopted me if she had the chance, died suddenly. I had seen her just the week before, and she was very happy. She and her husband of 49 years were looking forward to Christmastime and having their entire family around them. It was going to be a good time for all.

Then, she was just gone.

“You can’t go on a day like this,” Sandie told me. “The weather is horrible. What do I tell your parents. You know they’re going to worry.”

“I’m going.”

“You’re not going to catch anything.”

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Then, your mind slips into its own groove and a tempo that helps you sort your thoughts and through the bits and pieces of emotional grit that have been grinding at you.

The philosopher Carlos Castaneda once wrote that you can either make yourself miserable, or you can make yourself stronger, the work is about the same. That realization struck about the same time a fish hit my bait.

The fish lunged forward with power and a visceral brutality. Line peeled off my reel, and the fish stayed down. I put my thumb on the spool and snubbed the fish short of a barnacleencrusted piling. I kept steady pressure on the fish and finally turned him. He came up in the shallows, and I finally saw my adversary.

The big gafftop flopped and croaked in the sole-deep water. His slate-gray body glistened in the coming gloom of early evening, and he croaked angrily and desperately as I stood over him. Gafttops are pretty good eating, and this one weighed about five pounds.

“This is your lucky day, fish,” I said. “I’m not looking to box any fish.”

I took the cat and somehow got the hook out of him sans pliers. I dropped back in the shallows, and the catfish disappeared with a swirl.

I reeled the hook up to my rod tip and turned to the truck to head home. I looked down and noticed in a footprint I had left earlier, pressed into the sand, was a sand dollar, no bigger than a quarter. I picked up the shell and examined it. It was undamaged, flawless. There was beauty in its simplicity. I dropped into my shirt breast pocket and headed towards my truck. It had been close to three hours since I’d parked.

I still think about those two women and what happened to them, but now I can think clearly. That sand dollar grounds me. The fishing trip saved me. But it wasn’t about fishing…

It was about healing.

smell the salt in the air. I wanted to hear water on rocks and wood. I needed the routine of casting, retrieving, repeating. I need to pull myself back together.

I don’t remember the long drive to Port Isabel. That hour-and-a-half long drive doesn’t exist to me. There is something about a drive that allows you to split your attention between the task at hand—driving—and the thoughts that swirl around in your head. Images of the last fortnight reeled past my mind’s eye, questions were asked, answered, and created still more questions, and 75 minutes disappeared in a blink.

My first recorded thought was looking at the shoreline of the Laguna Madre along SH 100 and thinking, “No way I fish in that chocolate milk.”

Still, I sallied forth. This wasn’t about fishing. It was about healing.I found some calm, relatively clean water, in the finger channels in Port Isabel. I found a vacant lot between two houses. I parked, and got out of the truck.

The north wind stung my cheek and watered my eyes. Bits of sand, round shell, and other detritus picked up by the wind pelted my left cheek and pattered against my clothes and coat, but I only noticed it enough to know it was there. The sting felt good in a way, because I knew that I was feeling more than those two women felt, or would ever feel again. I pulled my jacket collar up, snugged the zipper as possible, and started rummaging through my tackle bag for a tail.

That’s when I discovered I hadn’t packed any saltwater baits. I have a variety of Kelly Wigglers, Down South Lures, Buggs, and Gulp! Baits, but they were all at home. What I had packed were a handful of plastic worms for bass.

I could have easily driven over to a tackle shop and gotten more appropriate baits, but this wasn’t about fishing. It was about healing.

I pinched a Berkley Powerworm in half, and threaded the rear three-inch section onto a ¼ ounce jighead and started casting.

There is a comfort in repetition. You can escape into the mundanity and rhythm of routine. Minutes blend into an hour, then two.

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E

L DIABLO!” “El Diablo!”

A man came screaming through a South Texas work camp at night frantic and pointing toward the brush.

One of the workers grabbed a big Q-Beam flashlight and shined toward the brush to reveal a huge male nilgai antelope. As it turned out the man who was working in South Texas for the first time came face to face with the nilgai and when he saw the devil-like horns, long neck and otherwise mysterious looking creature he thought something from the netherworld had surfaced.

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THE LONE STAR STATE’S MYSTERIOUS EXOTIC

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“Cow” nilgai do not have the blue coloration of the males and sport a more tawny brown pattern.

about 1930.

“The King Ranch pioneered the release of nilgai in Texas. Between about 1930 and 1941 the ranch made several acquisitions of nilgai zoo stock and released them in Kenedy County. With limited hunting and predation, protection, and favorable habitat, nilgai adapted well. Their primary range now includes the area from Baffin Bay south to near Harlingen,” they reported.

“They have been distributed to numerous counties by landowners releasing brood stock. Approximately 15,000 nilgai are now on Texas rangelands. They will probably not become widespread. They suffer in extreme cold, and even in temperate South Texas they may die during unusually cold winters when food is scarce.”

The nilgai is hunted chiefly on large private ranches including the King and Kenedy with the bulk of hunting done by driving safari style trucks through the brush to put hunters is position to get a shot. The animals are extremely wary and will often retreat at the least provocation. Occasionally bowhunters will take a nilgai but the killing of free-ranging nilgai with archery equipment is a relative rarity.

A study entitled “Food Habits of Nilgai Antelope in Texas” by William Sheffield sheds somes interesting light on how these huge antelope impact cattle and deer.

I was told this story while turkey hunting on the King Ranch in 1996 after reporting that I saw a huge nilgai that walked about 50 yards behind our decoy.

Several ranch workers chimed in with how numerous people were shocked after their first nilgai encounter.

According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Nilgai are Native to Pakistan and India and they are truly unique animals.

“The male nilgai stands between 48-60 inches high at the shoulder and weighs between 480-540 pounds. The males (often called blue bull) average about one-fifth larger and heavier than the females. The hair on the body is short and wiry. Although in both sexes the neck is ornamented with a mane, only bulls develop a tuft of hair on the throat.”

“The upper parts of males are generally iron gray, but the lower surface of the tail, stripes inside the ears, rings on the fetlocks, and underparts are white. The head and limbs are tawny, and the throat tuft and the tip of the tail are black. The females are more lightly colored. On both sexes, the forelegs are longer than the hind ones, and the head is long and pointed. The horns are short and carried only by males.”

According to the Texas State Historical Association, nilgai brought to the United States from India as zoo animals before the mid-1920s and were released in South Texas 30

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Rumen analyses of 79 nilgai and 40 deer, collected on various feeding sites, and bite studies on the same sites using two captive nilgai and a trained steer showed no significant difference forage classes taken between the two methods.

“Nilgai preferred to feed on large open areas interspersed with cover and ponded water. They were grazers, their average diet consisting of 60 percent grasses, 25 percent forbs, and 15 percent browse. They augumented the nutritive level of their basic diet by selecting nutritious plant parts and changing their selections as the parts appeared, waned, and fluctuated in quality with the seasons.”

“When food was scarce, nilgai ate more browse, dead vegetation, and dry dung of large herbivores. The quality and quantity of their forage was within the levels published for cattle and North American big game.

They maintained a feeding role intermediate between cattle, which used mainly grass, and deer, which used forbs heavily. When food supply and variety was low, nilgai competed strongly with cattle for grass and deer for forbs. The three species seem compatible where there is good variety of browse and herbage, and control of their respective numbers.”

While nilgai are not considered a worry for deer in terms of outright competition for PHOTOS: ABOVE, CHESTER MOORE; OPPOSITE, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

1/9/17 3:29 PM

food, there is concern about ticks. More specifically the cattle fever tick. Once considered eradicated in the United States it has found its way back with a large portion of nilgai on the Laguna Atascosca National Wildlife Refuge infected.

This has caused wildlife officials to conduct aerial shooting to trim the numbers and hopefully stop the spread of the potentially deadly (to cattle) tick. Deer also carry the tick and there is no wholesale culling of them so some local residents decry the helicopter harvest and most hunters do not mind the nilgai. In fact, most hunters don’t mind them at all.

This is especially true for those hunters who have eaten them. Nilgai has one of the finest of all wild meats and a large bull can yield a freezer full.

Each month we are profiling a different huntable species and trying to unlock the mysteries behind them. Most media mentions of nilgai are simply that a hunter killed one. Rarely are their attributes discussed and certainly not their environmental impact.

As we go down the road of learning about what we call the “Texas Safari� we will learn

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Early painting of a nilgai from its native India.

about many wild creatures of Texas and hopefully appreciate them a little more.

The nilgai is one of the most unique animals in Texas and the fact they can be hunted on free-range makes their pursuit truly

unique in a world of exotics mainly hunted behind game proof fences.

1/13/17 1:32 PM

LOUNDER ARE MOVing into bays along the Gulf Coast right now.

In a super slow fashion, they are coming through the jetties and filtering into the inland ecosystems after spawning in the Gulf of Mexico. I know this is a controversial statement because the “spring” run is not supposed to begin until March but for the last decade I have found evidence of flounder moving in now.

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or even during the peak of the spring migration but there are fish to be caught and they tend to be quite big.

Besides fish migrating in, I believe the fish that stayed during the winter start to feed more aggressively as we get the kind of warming trends that happened here last week.

On incoming tides, focus on mud flats adjacent to deep water and areas with mixed shell. The deepwater access will help find fish that are migrating in and moving shallow to feed and enjoy warmer waters particularly on sunny afternoons.

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ing zone.

There are people in high positions in the federal government who openly espouse the desire to create many of these “marine protected areas”. They are doing it because they believe it is the best management principle but at the end of the day, you and I are locked out of access. It started when President Clinton created an executive order to create millions of acres of them and continued with Bush who did the same thing.

By the time this issue hits subscribers there is good chance outgoing President Obama will have enacted more “no fishing zones”.

Texas anglers have tens of thousands of acres of quality fishing access due to our federal lands but this could serve as a double-edge sword if someone in a position of power were to decide to make it happen.

Many anglers are not aware of the early flounder migration and other seldom discussed but unique facts about saltwater fishing in Texas.

Here are nine more to give you a clearer picture of the Texas saltwater scene.

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Black Tiger Prawns

jellyfish jeopardy THE BOX JELLYFISH is a dangerous sea creature and it is present in Texas waters.

“Our gulf sampling crew caught a four-handed box jellyfish (in 2014), Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, a member of the class Cubozoa, in 3 separate trawl samples about 2 miles off McFaddin NWR beach,” said Jerry Mambretti Sabine Lake Ecosystem Leader for TPWD. “Box jellyfish are known for the extremely potent venom produced by some species, including this species, which is normally found in the west Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. Their sting is very venomous and dangerous to humans, especially children.”

If you see any of these creatures in the surf be extremely careful. They can deliver a sting much worse than the common species we find in local waters.

‘Protected’ Waters

FLORIDA ANGLERS had a huge surprise to learn thousands of square miles of waters controlled by the federal government was off limits to fishing.

Interestingly, one of those locations has been under consideration to be labeled as a “marine protected area” which is a no fish-

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THE BLACK TIGER prawn (Penaeus monodon) or tiger shrimp is an aggressive mollusc that can grow to a foot in length and weigh a pound according to Texas Invasive Species Institute.

“In addition to it’s unusually large size, it can be identified by black stripes across the dorsal side of the tail. It can also be black in body color with orange stripes on it’s back, resembling a tiger.”

They are present in the Gulf of Mexico and have been verified in Aransas Bay and Sabine Lake.

“The tiger prawn was accidentally released from a research facility near South Carolina in 1988, allowing the shrimp to spread as far south as Florida by 1990. As a popular shrimp raised in farms in the Caribbean, authorities were surprised when captures ceased following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. However, tiger prawns were captured again in 2006 and have been consistently captured to the present,” according to Texas Invasive Species Institute officials.

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WHILE “JAWS” is on the minds of beachgoers in Texas (our variety-bulls, lemons, blacktips) “Teeth” is soaking up some of the same salty waters too. “Teeth” as in alligator garfish.

Angler Marcus Heflin caught a sizable alligator garfish while fishing the surf at Sea Rim State Park at Sabine Pass along the Texas-Louisiana border.

This was the first gar I have heard of on the beach anywhere along the Gulf Coast although I have long suspected they are there. Since I first mentioned this online I have had several other anglers report catching them in the surf.

As a child I had a collection of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazines and one of them had a profile of Sea Rim State Park-where Heflin caught the gar pictured above.

It had fishing hotspots and there were several marked for garfish in the surf.

Garfish are considered a freshwater species but do well along the Gulf Coast. I grew up fishing for them in Sabine Lake and surrounding waters, a bay that at its southern end is only seven miles from the surf.

Mobile Bay in Alabama is a hotbed of alligator garfish activity and they are present in numerous salt marshes along the Louisiana coast.

Still, you can find almost no references to garfish in the surf.

The question is just how common they are in Gulf waters and how far out do they go?

These are very mysterious fish with little known about their life cycles or habits in comparison to America fish for comparable size.

So, if you’re ever at the beach and see something that looks kind of like a mutated alligator swim beside you don’t worry.

Pink Snapper

LAST DECEMBER a caller to my radio program asked what kind of snapper was pinkish colored and had a black dot halfway PHOTOS: CHESTER MOORE; U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE; CANSTOCK

1/12/17 4:02 PM

between pectoral and dorsal fins.

The answer was a lane snapper.

These are a fairly common reef fish found around oil rigs, wrecks and of course natural reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.

He caught several of them over the span of a couple of weeks from the bank in Sabine Pass.

This was the first time I have heard of lane snapper caught anywhere other than in the Gulf itself. I have caught one at the nearshore oil rigs but this was definitely unique.

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Red drum rising ACCORDING TO the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, a series of extreme winters combined with commercial and recreational over-harvest had decimated red drum populations.

“In 1982 TPWD responded by constructing its first marine fish hatchery in Corpus Christi , and the first stocking of red drum into Texas bays occurred in the spring of 1983. In 1985, The Dow Chemical Company, the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), and TPWD helped by the Sport Fish Restoration Act combined their resources. The team conceived a plan to construct a red drum hatchery and education center in Lake Jackson, Texas with the help of the Sport Fish Restoration Act.” “Today, red drum and spotted seatrout populations are stable in response to TPWD’s coastal management plan. Along with TPWD’s other two marine hatcheries, Sea Center Texas produces quality sportfish species for stocking Texas bays to counterbalance the effects of habitat degradation, natural catastrophe’s and fishing pressure on the species.”

Lone star snook THE LEGENDARY SNOOK maintains a certain mystique in Texas due mainly to a history of abundance (prior to the 1940s) and its more recent unavailability to most anglers except those fishing bays, estuaries and nearshore Gulf of Mexico waters in South Texas according to TPWD biologist Randy Blankinship.

“Even to most South Texas anglers, the snook remains a rare catch albeit an exciting one. It is also intriguing because of the size it attains: the current state record is 57.2 lbs. caught in 1937 on the Gulf beach off Padre Island.”

What is interesting about this particular catch besides its epic size is that it is four pounds larger than the world record recognized by the International Game Fish Association, a 53 pound, 10-ounce catch landed in Costa Rica.

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10 Texas Tarpon

MOST TEXAS ANGLERS do not realize just how good tarpon fishing can be in areas like Port O’Connor, Port Mansfield and between High Island and Galveston Island.

Officials with the state’s Tarpon Observation Network (TON) note that anglers annually target Texas tarpon nearshore with some degree of success.

“While current populations are not what they once were, a major effort to conserve the species has led to more opportunities for Texas anglers. Each year, typically in the late summer and early fall, anglers target tarpon with some degree of success.”

That means now is the time tarpon start schooling in areas like the stretch between High Island and Galveston, and around Port O’Connor and Port Mansfield.

Tarpon are often hooked incidentally while fishing for other species, however the tarpon’s habit of supplementing oxygen intake by gulping air (often referred to as “rolling”) can alert anglers to their presence.

“Tarpon are opportunistic carnivores, feeding on a variety of prey. Anglers typically use dead or live fish for bait, such as menhaden or mullet, but live crab, live shrimp and artificial baits (including flies) that resemble baitfish or shrimp can tempt a hungry tarpon as well.”

“Hard bony plates in the mouth make tarpon difficult to hook, but circle hooks have been found to provide the best hookup ratios. Due to the presence of sharp gill plates, anglers typically use long 80# test or heavier leaders as insurance against cut offs.

Nevertheless, hooking a tarpon and bringing it to the hand is easier said than done, with most hookups resulting in the tarpon winning the battle.”

Shark Spin

IF YOU WERE to ask anglers if these species were dangerous, most would answer with a resounding “No” since they are not in the lexicon of deadly sharks.

In fact, the Discovery Channel produced a highly rated program about the top 10 most dangerous sharks and neither made the list, while both the oceanic whitetip and shortfin mako did. Those species rank far below both the blacktip and spinner in terms of unprovoked attacks on humans according to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

ISAF data show blacktips are responsible for 28 unprovoked attacks and 13 provoked attacks (think feeding, harassing, etc.).

Spinners have been responsible for 15 unprovoked attacks, and one on the provoked side.

For comparison, the oceanic whitetip committed five unprovoked and three provoked attacks, while the shortfin mako dished out 8 unprovoked attacks and 15 provoked.

In the network’s defense, its list featured numerous factors, including fatalities, size, and likelihood to encounter humans, which would obviously put species like the great

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white above many other known attackers, but in terms of raw attack data, blacktips and spinners deserve our respect. They are also species humans are likely to encounter in shallow water along beaches, where anglers tote stringers of speckled trout and other sport fishes, not to mention the scores of swimmers.

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ILDLIFE BIOLOGISTS in December trapped an ocelot kitten at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, just east of Rio Hondo according to offi-

cials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service).

“The kitten was first discovered in early March in

trail camera photos taken in mid-February. At the time, biologists could not be certain of the kitten’s gender, but trapping it allowed them to check the gender and re- evaluate its age. Ocelot biologist, Hilary Swarts, can now confirm that the kitten is approximately 10-12 months old, and is a healthy female. She was fitted with a small radio collar and her movements will be tracked as part of the ongoing monitoring of ocelots in and around the refuge. So far, monitoring indicates that she has remained in the general area where she was photographed and trapped.”

Service officials reported of the twelve identified ocelots at the refuge, the discovery of this kitten brings the number of females to five.

“The other four females are of breeding age. Therefore, biologists are hopeful the population will continue to increase over the next several years. Planning is underway to bring an adult female ocelot from Mexico to the refuge within the next year. Wildlife biologists are also continuing to increase habitat for ocelots by planting native thornscrub seedlings on land formerly cleared for agriculture. In the event that ocelots leave the refuge in search of habitat or mates, FM106 is soon to undergo major construction which will include 8 wildlife crossings. These crossings, or underpasses, will allow ocelots and other wildlife to safely cross under roads and prevent deaths from vehicles, as well as protect the safety of drivers.”

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Ocelots have an interesting history in Texas as does another close cousin of theirs.

Let’s take a look a profile of the ocelot and the margay to broaden our understanding of these unique species.

SPECIES: Ocelot (Leopardus paradalis) SIZE: Adults range from 20-40 pounds with females being 10-20 percent smaller than males.

DESCRIPTION: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) officials who are intimately involved in all ocelot studies in Texas note the ocelot has a graceful body that may be up to four feet long, including the tail. Varying in color from pale to dark tawny hues, the ocelot’s coat has brown spots with black borders that are elongated, like chain links, and follow downward sweeping lines. A black line above each eye extends to the back of the head.

STATUS: Endangered in Texas.

Common in other parts of their range.

RANGE: Ocelots range from southern Texas into the interior of the South America rainforest.

NOTES: Service officials claim fewer than 100 ocelots exists in south Texas at Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, both near Alamo; Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Brownsville; and on a private ranch several miles away.

The species has also been known to occur in Arizona. Listed in 1982 as endangered, the ocelot is protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Ocelot

Margay

and tail features a black tip and numerous black or dark brown bands.

STATUS: No verified sightings in Texas in more than 100 years.

RANGE: According to officials with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, it is

known from Texas only on the basis of one specimen taken at Eagle Pass by Col. S. Cooper over 100 years ago. Remains of this species were found in Pleistocene deposits along the Sabine River in Orange County, indicating the Margay ranged over a considerable portion of South Texas a few thousand years ago.

NOTES: Unlike the similar ocelot the margay is very adept at climbing and hunting in trees. A primary nocturnal predator they have been observed hunting during daylight hours. They have also been observed using some very unusual hunting methods.

Margays were recently found mimicking the sounds of small monkey species to lure them in.

Most likely the margay no longer exists in South Texas but occasionally people mistake ocelots of bobcats. That can get hunters in trouble and about a decade ago we ran a news story of a bowhunter who shot an ocelot thinking it was a bobcat.

Hunters should note that ocelots have longer tails and a different spot pattern than bobcats. Bobcats can however have longer tails than some might expect. The best rule is you absolutely can’t tell if it is a bobcat or an ocelot pass on shooting it, especially if you hunt in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and anywhere near the aforementioned refuges.

They are federally endangered species and shooting one comes with a high price. Plus, we need to make sure and conserve this magnificent species that makes the wild lands of Texas much more exciting and certainly more beautiful.

The illegal trade in ocelot hide still impacts the species throughout the Americas.

Ocelots were once valued for their coats and this brought the demise of hundreds of thousands of them. They were also once favored as a pet in fact there were clubs dedicated to their captive rearing including the Long Island Ocelot Club which still exists today and now focuses on other species such as servals.

SPECIES: Margay (Leopardus Leopardus weidii) OTHER COMMON NAMES: Tree ocelot

SIZE: Margays average 6 to 8 pound with a typical body length of 20 to 30 inches. With tail the length averages 36 to 50 inches.

DESCRIPTION: Margays have light to medium brown fur marked with numerous rows of black or dark brown rosettes and streaks. The belly is a pale brown 38

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Bare Bones HUNTING

by LOU MARULLO :: TF&G Hunting Editor

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T WAS OPENING DAY OF BOW season and dawn found me perched in my tree stand as I waited for another beautiful sunrise. It was unusual to have the wind come from the south, but the warm breeze on my face was a welcome surprise.

I had made all the necessary preparations that I could think of to help me achieve success.

The anticipation was almost too much for me.

I showered with Scent Killer Gold and had my camo tucked away in an airtight bin in the back of the truck. I had been practicing for months and felt confident. All I needed was a nice buck to cooperate with my plan of attack and my hunting season would be complete!

Well… that was just not to be, at least not this morning.

I always allow myself plenty of time to go through my tree stand ritual and let the woods calm down for a while. It is not uncommon for me to be sitting perfectly still in the pre-dawn darkness for at least a half hour before it even thinks about getting light.

After I harnessed myself to the tree, I took a Realtree Easy Hanger and secured that to the tree as well. Then I screwed in a smaller hanger to put my backpack on. Once I was secured and safe in my stand, using a haul line, I pulled my bow up. Quietly I placed my bow on the easy hanger and nocked an arrow. I sat down and waited for sunrise. Have I given you a good picture of opening morning so far?

Hunting over a food plot that my cousin Tim and I put in, I could see the entire field.

I had the big woods to my left and a small hedgerow about 25 yards to my right. My cousin decided to hunt in the thicket of the big woods. Pre-season, I had set up my Wildgame Innovations trail camera near where Tim was hunting. We had a picture of a pretty nice eight-point in the area.

Hours passed and boredom set in. Nothing

“ There he was, 20 yards in front of me!

A ‘gimme’ shot and my bow was still hanging on the hook.

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Memories of a Hunt

getting caught in the act. The big buck decided to go in the big woods and as he walked across the food plot, I stood up and grabbed my bow in one motion. I bleated, grunted and might have even shouted for him to wait a minute (well… maybe I did not shout, but I wanted to). The ghost disappeared in the big woods just as fast he appeared. It was all over in an instant.

I grabbed my phone and texted Tim to warn him about the big buck headed his way.

He did not believe me at all and never saw him.

The following morning, I decided to go to the same stand. I was determined to get that buck and knew he was not spooked the day before. Oh… I did everything. Brought my Flambeau decoy and sprayed it down with Scent Killer, placed some scent bombs out, and T E X A S

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quietly climbed in the stand. It was 6:15 and I was ready with my bow in my hand. 12 hours later I climbed down and headed for the truck.

Never saw a hair all day long! Believe me when I say that it was a very hard thing for me to do.

There were times when I thought I’d have to take a walk and stretch my legs, but I was sure that if I climbed down, he would show up right at that moment.

I could not hunt the next day. I had to go to a wedding and reception that evening. While the meal was being served, I received a call from my cousin telling me that he just shot a beautiful buck and asked if I could help him load it in the truck. Then he sent me a picture and my heart sank. It was the same buck that I had in front of me a few days before.

Oh well, that’s hunting. I was sincerely happy for my cousin. I had to tell him that I was at a wedding and could not help him drag and load the big buck. I was sincerely happy about that, too.

Early the following morning Tim stopped by the house with the deer. He was on his way to the taxidermist and wanted to make sure it was the same one that I saw earlier. Yes, it was!

I had Tim take a picture of me with the buck and I sent it to Chester. Chester congratulated me over and over. It took me a few more days before I finally confessed to him that it was not mine.

I did not go home with a deer that night, but I did go home with some great memories and that will last a lot longer than venison in the freezer. As a matter of fact, I know that every time I choose to hunt that stand, I will be thinking about the “one that got away”! As I write this, I still have three weeks to try to score on a nice whitetail. And I still have three weeks to make more memories to tell my grandkids about.

Have fun and hunt safe.

was moving. Tim only had a few small does behind him. He texted me and asked if I had any action. I answered with a capital NOTHING! And as soon as I put the phone back in my pocket, it happened! Out of the small hedgerow came a beautiful 10-point buck. A nice majestic heavy rack that made my heart race a bit. (I love that).

There he was, 20 yards in front of me! A “gimme” shot and my bow was still hanging on the hook. I tried moving slowly to take my bow, but he was on alert and already knew that something was up. I could not move without

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ECENTLY THE TEXAS PARKS &

state and also salute their groundbreaking work on conserving

Wildlife Department (TPWD) has taken a

catfish populations.

renewed interest in catfish.

Channel CatďŹ sh

A big part of their strategy for growing

REGIONAL NAMES: Willow Cat, Forked-tail Cat, Fiddler,

fishing interest in urban and suburban areas is the stocking of the highly popular chan-

Spotted Cat, Lady Cat DESCRIPTION: Channel catfish are easily distinguished

nel catfish and also managing catfish populations throughout the

from all others, except blue catfish, by their deeply forked tail fin.

state for maximum potential.

We have taken the official TPWD catfish species profiles and

Unlike flathead catfish, the upper jaw projects beyond the lower

added some commentary to show the diversity of catfish in the

jaw. Coloration is olive-brown to slate-blue on the back and sides,

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PHOTO: CHESTER MOORE

1/9/17 3:02 PM

REPORT: NEWS 44 u TF&G OF THE NATION Reported by TF&G Staff

HOT 44 u TEXAS SHOTS

TF&G STAFF REPORT

Trophy Photos from TF&G Readers

DEPT. OF 46 u TEXAS DEFENSE

by Stan Skinner and Dustin Ellermann

48 u TEXAS DEPT. OF CONSERVATION

by Will Leschper

52 u TEXAS COASTAL FORECAST

by Eddie Hernandez, Mike Holmes, Mike Price, Chris Martin, Mac Gable and Cal Gonzales

60 u TEXAS FISHING HOTSPOTS

by Tom Behrens, Dustin Warncke and Dean Heffner

70 u SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK Tides and SoLunar Data

shading to silvery-white on the belly. Typically, numerous small, black spots are present, but may be obscured in large adults. The anal fin has 24-29 soft rays, in contrast to the blue catfish which always has 30 or more rays in the anal fin.

TFG COMMENTARY: Channel cats are likely to be encountered in bar ditches, gullies and small canals. Anglers fishing after a rain in particular catch many channels in unlikely locations. They are the catfish most likely to be caught by Texas anglers.

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The channel catfish is the most widely distributed catfish in Texas and is the most popular with anglers.

fish are not sexually mature until they reach about 24 inches in length. Like channel catfish, the blue catfish pursues a varied diet, but it tends to eat fish earlier in life. Blue catfish commonly attain weights of 20 to 40 pounds, and may reach weights well in excess of 100 pounds. It is reported that fish exceeding 350 pounds were landed from the Mississippi River during the late 1800’s.

TFG COMMENTARY: Texas harbors one of if not the best trophy blue catfish fishery in America. Only South Carlina with Santee Cooper Reservoir (which cranks out monsters) rivals the overall quality. More restrictive harvest of blues will conserve these fisheries and help turn lakes like Livingston, Lewisville and Texoma into trophy blue cat havens.

Flathead Catfish

The blue catfish is the largest catfish in North America.

Blue Catfish

BIOLOGY: Channel catfish spawn in late spring or early summer when water temperatures reach 75°F. Males select nest sites which are normally dark secluded areas such as cavities in drift piles, logs, undercut banks, rocks, cans, etc. Adults are largely omnivorous, feeding on insects, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and even some plant material. Sexual maturity is reached in two or three years in captivity, whereas data from natural populations indicates channel catfish in Texas reach sexual maturity in 3-6 years.

Most are mature by the time they reach 12 inches in length.

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REGIONAL NAMES: Channel Cat, Hump-back Blue DESCRIPTION: Blue catfish have a forked tail, and are sometimes very similar to channel catfish. However, only the Rio Grande population has dark spots on the back and sides. The number of rays in the anal fin is typically 30-35, and coloration is usually slate blue on the back, shading to white on the belly.

BIOLOGY: The spawning behavior of blue catfish appears to be similar to that of channel catfish. However, most blue cat|

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REGIONAL NAMES: Yellow Cat, Opelousa Cat, Op, Pied Cat, Mississippi Cat, Mud Cat, Shovelhead Cat DESCRIPTION: As the common name suggests, this catfish has a flat head, but other than that, it looks like any other catfish: it has smooth, scaleless skin, whisker-like barbels around the mouth, and long spines on the dorsal (back) fin and one on each side of the pectoral (shoulder) fin. Flathead catfish reach a length of 3 to 4 feet and their weight can exceed 100 pounds. Flathead catfish are typically pale yellow (hence the name “yellow cat”) to light brown on the back and sides, and highly mottled with black and/ or brown. The belly is usually pale yellow or cream colored. The head is broadly flattened, with a projecting lower jaw. The tail fin is only slightly notched, not deeply forked as is the case with blue and channel catfish.

Young fish may be very dark, almost black in appearance.

BIOLOGY: Unlike other catfish which are scavengers, flatheads prey only on live fish. Young flathead catfish feed mostly on invertebrates such as worms, insects and crayfish. When 10 inches or larger, their diet consists entirely of fish: shad, carp, suckers, sunfish, largemouth bass and other catfish (including their own kind).

PHOTOS: U.S FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE

1/9/17 3:03 PM

The flathead is the second largest species in North America and is a straight up predator that feeds mostly at night.

TFG COMMENTARY: This species has received huge national press since shows like “Hillbilly Handfishing” hit a few years ago.

“Noodling” of flatheads has become popular but most large specimens are caught on trotlines. There are likely massive flatheads in small canals, oxbows and rivers that are never caught due to a lack of angling pressure. Rod and reel anglers would do well to hit their local waterways at night when flatheads are most active and seek out these giants.

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Bullhead (Black and Yellow both live in Texas) REGIONAL NAMES: Mudcat, Polliwog, Chucklehead Cat DESCRIPTION: Yellow bullheads are typically light yellow to olive-green on the back, often somewhat mottled. The belly is yellowish to white. The tail is not notched, and may be slightly rounded. Chin barbels are white. The anal fin has 23-27 rays. Black

bullheads are typically black to greenishblack on the back, ranging to gray or white on the belly. However, in muddy water the back may be yellowish-brown. Chin barbels are dark or black, never white. The anal fin has 17-21 rays.

BIOLOGY: During late spring or early summer, yellow bullheads excavate nests in mud bottoms and spawn. Both parents guard the nest, which may contain 2,000 to 12,000 eggs. Bullheads are omnivorous, feeding on a variety of plant and animal material, both live and dead. Immature aquatic insects and crustaceans often comprise a considerable proportion of the diet.

TFG COMMENTARY: Most bullheads utilized in Texas are put on a hook on noodle or trotline to lure in flatheads. They are without question the best bait but this species is not bad to eat. If you can catch those 2-3 pounders there is actually enough meat for a nice meal and its not bad especially if caught in clean water.

1/9/17 3:03 PM

The NATIONAL

Mulefoots and Other Strange Hogs of Texas

News of TEXAS

are not native as whitetails and even black bears are. They are imports.

“Russian boars” are the original sus scrofa and thus the genetic roadmap for all hogs.

There are very few true “Russians” in the United States with the only pedigreed specimens living on small high-fenced ranches.

There are however a good number of hogs particularly in areas of Central and SouthCentral Texas that have a lot of characteristics of Russians with some looking almost as if they were captured in the Black Forest of Germany.

According to officials with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, “This hog usually has longer legs, a larger head and a longer, flatter snout. Eurasian piglets are reddish brown with black longitudinal stripes. As the animals mature, the stripes disappear and

FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES the hogs we hunt are sus scrofa but there are a number of regional variations that some people are adamant are a different species entirely.

Take the “pineywood rooter,” which is simply the genetic variation of feral hog most common in East Texas. The snouts are typically long, thin snouts and they are typically black in color.

These as with all hogs in the United States are not native to this country but there are many hunters who say the rooter is the “original wild hog” and they are native to the region.

They might have been here for hundreds of years but they

their color changes to gray grizzled or black.

Eurasian hogs generally have longer guard hair and a more distinct mane of guard hair running from the neck to the base of the tail than the domestic hog.”

The appearance of hogs in different regions has much to do with the kinds of domestic hogs allowed to roam freely in the region years ago and also the sources still entering the woods.

Near Deweyville about 15 years ago, people were dumping off potbelly pigs along one particular road for a year. For a number of years people thought they were excellent pets but when they realized the animals got much bigger than expected they would release them into the woods.

Well, this particular road which led to a county dump became the place to release potbellies. I had to take this road to one of the hunting clubs I was on and would frequently see a new

WHITETAIL

WHITETAIL

San Saba

Glasscock County

Brooke Durham shot this 148-7/8 buck on her 25th birthday. She was hunting her family’s land in San Saba County, and this trophy was the largest deer taken off the property since the family acquired it in 1996.

Six-year-old Aizlee Tarr shot her first deer last November while hunting in Garden City with her Dad. She made a perfect shot with her Ruger American compact .223 on this beautiful 10-point buck. Her buck will be going on the wall.

Visit FishGame.com to upload your own TEXAS HOT SHOTS and Vote for our next Winners 44

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NEWS PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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hogs” and were fed to great weights before slaughter.”

The Hereford is a medium size hog breed that is unique to the United States. It was developed in Iowa and Nebraska during the 1920s from Duroc, Chester White, and Poland China bloodlines. Additional breeding and selection led to the identification of 100 animals as foundation stock in 1934, and the National Hereford Hog Record was formed the same year to promote the new breed.

Within the first decade of its history, the association attracted 450 members. Most of the interest in the Hereford breed was found in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

Another variation that occasionally comes up in conversation is what some hunters call “warty hogs”.

According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) these are likely descendants of the domestic “Red Wattle Hog”.

“The Red Wattle is a large, red hog with a fleshy wattle attached to each side of the neck.

The wattles have no known function. They are a single gene characteristic and usually pass to crossbred offspring. The Red Wattle comes in a variety of shades of red, some with black specks or patches, and red and black hair. Some individuals are nearly black. The head and jowl are clean and lean, the nose is slim, and ears are upright with drooping tips. The body is short coupled and the back slightly arched. Mature animals weigh 600800 pounds, but may weigh as much as 1200 pounds and measure up to four feet high and eight feet long.

“Interestingly, they said it was derived from the large, red, wattled hogs found in a wooded area of eastern Texas in the early 1970s by Mr. H.C. Wengler.

“He reported breeding two red wattled sows with a Duroc boar, then breeding the wattled offspring back to the original sow.

Over several generations he developed what became known as the “Wengler Red Waddle Hog.” Despite all of these potential variations the animals are legally known as “feral hogs” and therefore are considered varmints under law which means hunters in Texas can take them any time of year with no bag limit and by virtually any means whether are red and wattle or black with a low-swinging pot belly.

Eurasian wild piglet.

batch of potbellies. Well, it did not take long for these animals to breed with the ferals there and create some interesting looking pigs with a fat face and the classic pot belly. I will never forget seeing a 200-pound sow that walked in front of my game camera have the snout of a

HYBRID Lake LBJ Nichole Batista Nunes caught this hybrid while fishing from a canoe with her husband at Cottonwood Shores on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. She caught the hybrid on an orange topwater. At the same time, her husband brought in a seven-pound striper.

“pineywoods rooter” and the belly and coloration of a potbelly.

Some hunters particularly in East Texas report killing “mule-footed hogs” which have one big hoof instead of being split like a typical pig. These animals have reached legendary status in the hog hunting community and are considered trophies. What they are killing are feral descendants of a super rare domestic breed.

According to researchers with Oklahoma State University, “The most distinctive feature of the American Mulefoot hog is the solid hoof which resembles that of a mule. Pigs with solid hooves (also called syndactylism) have attracted the interest of many writers over the centuries, including Aristotle and Darwin.

Yet of all the mule footed hogs described, the American Mulefoot is the only documented population with a breed standard and a long history of agricultural use. This breed is unique to the United States and is critically rare. Recent events, however, have led to more optimism regarding its survival.”

“Coburn describes Mulefoot hogs as mainly black, with occasional animals having white points; medium flop ears; and a soft hair coat. The hogs were of fairly gentle disposition, fattened quite easily, and weighed from 400-600 pounds at two years of age. They were considered the highest quality “ham T E X A S

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TEXAS Dept. of

:: Self Defense :: Tactical :: Training Tips

by DUSTIN ELLERMANN and STAN SKINNER

:: Gear

More on Night Vision

A quick tally of current night vision technology can be divided into light amplification, infrared, and thermal sights. The first relies on amplifying whatever visible light is available.

Infrared uses the lower frequency light spectrum just below the range visible to the

N

EW NIGHT VISION PRODucts are being introduced at an ever-faster pace, which is good news. Even better news is that prices are steadily easing downward.

A good example is the new Echo1 thermal reflex sight by SIG SAUER, with an MSRP of $2,999.99. Of course, $3,000 is still a lot of money, but as recently as two years ago, the cheapest (and poorly designed, I might add) thermal weapon sight cost about $4,500.

Better ones cost even more, with military grade units upwards of $20,000.

For decades, this Swiss company has been known for its fine handguns, but in 2015, SIG SAUER expanded its product line to include silencers, optics, ammo and air guns. All of these products share SIG SAUER’s reputation for high quality. SIG SAUER’s Echo1 thermal sight is no exception.

SIG Echo1

human eye. A thermal sight does not use light either in or outside the visible range.

Instead, a thermal sight detects temperature differences of objects in the field of view and processes them into a visible color display. Warm-blooded animals such as hogs,

Backup Irons in the Firefight

decade in firing several thousand rounds and have personally experienced or witnessed the failure of nearly every major brand of high quality electronic or dual illuminated optics that boast of price points near a thousand dollars. From now on all my defensive and hunting rifles will sport a back up aiming system

I STAND CORRECTED. ONCE UPON a time I told another shooter that if he had a high quality optic that he wouldn’t need back up iron sights (BUIS).

However I learned a lot in the past half

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deer and (of course) humans are significantly warmer (normally) than their surroundings and stand out conspicuously in black and white modes or in vivid color modes.

Neither fog, smoke, most foliage—or the darkest night—can prevent a good thermal sight from zeroing in on your (warm-blooded) target.

Incidentally, it works just as well in broad daylight.

Remember, it doesn’t use ambient light at all. It uses the heat radiating from all objects around us, some colder or hotter than others. Even in daylight warm-blooded animals are a who’ bunch hotter than almost anything else, so a thermal sight works just fine.

SIG SAUER invested a great deal of design effort into the Echo1, making it an excellent and cost-effective choice for mating with a silencer-equipped AR-type rifle chambered for a subsonic cartridge such as 300 Blackout/300 Whisper.

First, it is a compact, 1X-2X variable reflex sighting device. Most night-time varmint/ hog hunting is done at fairly short range, up to

of some sort.

There are several options and considerations when choosing BUIS. The first is to ensure compatibility with your primary optic. Red dot optics should always be mounted forward on the rifle to give the shooter the widest field of view but not moving onto the handguard section of the rail. This will keep optics mounted on the solid upper receiver section giving plenty of space in the rear for a BUIS. Also, optic mounts are available in different heights. 1/3 co-witness mounts will place the reticle just above the AR sight plane that would give you a better

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200 yards or so. Usually, the shot opportunities occur at much closer range, say, 50 to 100 yards. At 1X, you can easily shoot with both eyes open—without one of your eyes receiving a confusing high-power image. A tweak of the ECHO1’s four-way toggle gives you a 2X image for better precision aiming.

Eight image options include black and white “white hot” and “black hot” modes plus six color modes to accommodate differing shooting conditions. Also, you can choose from five pre-loaded reticles or upload your own. Another toggle tweak gives you a choice between a green reticle or a red one.

As a bonus, the Echo1 has a camera setting which allows you to capture a single target image or in one-per-second bursts of 5, 15 or 30 seconds.

My Echo1 will soon be mounted on my silencer-equipped AR-15 chambered for .300 Whisper. A short time later, my hunting partner and I will give it a field test on a night-time Texas hog hunt. I will let you know how it performs.

A Kinder, Gentler Man-Stopper CHOOSING A HOME DEFENSE FIREarm is a complicated problem that involves several competing concerns. First, it needs to be a good-quality firearm and simple enough that all (read: sufficiently mature) members of your household can load, unload and shoot it effectively—even if they’re groggy

(only a break-action double is simpler than a pump gun). Second, this particular 500E has a rear pistol grip instead of a buttstock and a matching pistol grip on the forend slide. This provides a firm two-hand grip to keep the gun away from an assailant. It is equipped with a sling swivel attachment so you can attach a tactical sling for additional security. Also, the 500E’s 18 1/2-inch barrel (including a permanently attached three-inch muzzle brake) does not require trained marksmanship skills to aim it effectively.

Third, a .410 rifled slug offers surprising stopping power. To show why let’s compare its ballistics to a 9mm Luger. A Federal 115 grain 9mm bullet leaves the muzzle at 1,180 feet per second (fps) with 356 foot pounds (ft lb) of energy at the muzzle.

By comparison, a Federal 109 grain .410 rifled slug has a muzzle velocity of 1,775 fps, giving it 765 ft lb of energy at the muzzle.

That’s worth reading again.

Not only is the .410 slug greater in diameter than the 9mm, which is approximately .356 inches, it’s nearly 600 fps faster and has more than double the muzzle energy. If you prefer buckshot, a three-inch .410 shell holds five OOO pellets launched at 1,135 fps.

Yet, most folks consider the diminutive .410 bore to be a mild-recoil lightweight— even a kid’s gun. However, in a good quality, reliable platform such as the Mossberg 500E, the .410 is truly a kinder, gentler man-stopper.

At least it is gentler than a 12-gauge, and it is perfect for home defense.

from being freshly awakened by a loud noise at 3 a.m.

Second, it needs to be easy to point for accurate shooting and easy to hold onto if an intruder tries to take it away.

Third, if you have to shoot, it must be capable of stopping an intruder from whatever he is trying to do. However, it shouldn’t be so powerful that the household member using it is intimidated by recoil. Neither should it be so powerful that it will penetrate an outside wall and endanger an innocent neighbor.

Handgun cartridges, such as the .357 and .44 magnums, and rifle cartridges such as .223 Remington/5.56 NATO and .308 Winchester can easily penetrate both the interior and exterior walls with plenty of energy left to wound a neighbor or worse.

A 12-gauge shotgun might or might not penetrate walls, and it is a legendary manstopper at close range. However, the carnage it can inflict is gruesome to contemplate— especially in your living room.

There is a good alternative that at first seems laughable, but on reflection, it readily addresses all the above concerns. This alternative is a .410 bore shotgun, such as the Mossberg M500E pump-action shotgun I found recently at a local gun show.

Mossberg makes the M500E in several different configurations, but this one is especially well-suited to be a home defense firearm.

First, the Mossberg M500 series are some of the most reliable pump-action shotguns on the market. It is also simple to operate

—by Stan Skinner

Several different models of BUIS on a few AR15s. Bottom: Griffin Armament’s Fail Safe 45 degree mounts in tandem with a magnified Trijicon scope. Center: Magpul’s BUS with a cheaper Bushnell dot.

Top: XS Sights with the Aimpoint H1.

field of view while just using an unmagnified optic. But absolute co-witness would put your reticle exactly in line with your iron sights. Some shooters run with absolute co-witness that is pretty much supplementing iron sights with a red dot CONTINUED ON PAGE

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WMA Whitetail Research

One of the crown jewels is the Kerr WMA, home to the Donnie E. Harmel Whitetailed Deer Research Facility. The 16-acre facility consists of breeding and rearing pens, and a series of alleys and chutes to facilitate care in the handling of research animals.

No additional deer have been added after the fall of 1974 when the facility was constructed, and the herd has been maintained as a closed, pedigreed herd ever since. Research includes numerous studies of nutrition and genetics, as well as heritable characteristics tied to antler development. The pens have also been used to facilitate many pilot projects, breeding experiments, dem-

D

EER HUNTING OPERATIONS making use of the Managed Lands Deer Permit system will be able to continue hunting through February, while most average deer hunters have already stowed their gear weeks ago.

Although you may know that the MLDP program is a key research tool in the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s arsenal each fall and winter, did you know that there are deer research efforts going on year-round?

In fact, the state’s Wildlife Management Area framework ranks right up there among TPWD’s habitat conservation and restoration efforts.

More Habitat for Birds WATERFOWL AND WHOOPING cranes will find improved habitat this winter on the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Anahuac. Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently completed a wetland restoration and enhancement project on the 300-acre Middleton Unit. Axalta Coating Systems was the lead corporate sponsor for the project.

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Axalta Coating Systems, a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, and Ducks Unlimited, the world leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation, announced a five-year partnership in 2015. This project is one of the many cooperative ventures across North America that Axalta supports.

Ducks Unlimited’s Rescue Our Wetlands campaign is a continental, seven-year, $2 billion effort aimed at changing the face of conservation in North America. Rescue Our Wetlands is the largest wetlands and waterfowl conservation campaign in history. It focuses on the habitat most important to waterfowl, including the coastal prairies and marshes of Texas and Louisiana.

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wildlife research under very controlled conditions. A major part of that research is focused on habitat management, which ties back into why we have a research and development site in each ecological region of the state.”

onstration efforts and as a focal point for landowner field days.

Donnie Frels, area manager for the Kerr WMA, said Wildlife Management Areas are valuable to conservation efforts for numerous reasons.

“The Wildlife Management Area system was initially set up within the Wildlife Division at Texas Parks & Wildlife to provide an opportunity for research in every ecological region of the state,” he told TF&G. “The whole system was established as a way to meet research and development needs of the best management practices for each distinct ecoregion (South Texas, Central Texas, etc. That way you would then be able to take the best management practices for each region and make them applicable to landowners and land managers.

Because each region has distinct habitats, you wouldn’t want to take a practice that you would use in East Texas and try to apply it to the South Texas region.

“The first WMAs were purchased in the 1940s and 1950s, including Kerr WMA, which is our 6,500-acre research and management site for the Edwards Plateau region,” Frels said. “The area as a whole provides an experiment station for TPWD biologists and others from resource agencies and colleges and universities to conduct

“

The first WMAs were purchased in the 1940s and 1950s.

“

Frels noted that high fences, which have become the norm across Texas, first materialized at the Kerr WMA, but not for the reasons they’re built today.

“Although research is a big part of what we do at the Kerr WMA,” Frels said, “we also have to control animal numbers, whether you’re talking about deer or exotics. In Central Texas, deer and exotics have

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reticle. While you lose a little field of view in this setup it’s advantage is a seamless transition if the electronic sight fails.

The most popular and simple BUIS for AR15s are folding sights. These can be as affordable as the polymer Magpuls for under $100 a set or as fancy as the tritium filled XS Sights that retail around $300.

Another advantage of running irons in tandem with electronic sights is that you can confirm your zero just by checking the irons, or vice-versa. You can also swap our your electronic sight and rezero the new one to match the irons and be pretty much close to perfect.

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Some shooters even have BUIS on scoped rifles. While this isn’t as necessary as electronic sights, I have seen scopes fail and lose zero or even have the adjustment turrets break. The difficulty here is that a magnified optic doesn’t usually leave clearance for an iron sight under the rear objective. This is the perfect scenario for the use of a 45-degree offset. I recently setup my AR-15 that had a Trijicon Accupoint scope with the Griffin Armament Fail Safe sights. With this setup if you had an optic failure with a quick twist of a rifle you can utilize |

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a major impact on the ecological landscape.

We have some of the highest deer densities in the world in this part of the state, which is one prime reason why the Kerr WMA was the first to use high fences as a management tool in the 1960s.

“Biologists discovered that trying to control deer numbers by only using public hunts was nearly impossible with such a large population of deer. Those high fences weren’t put up to keep deer in, but rather to keep deer out and maintain controls on research.”

The Kerr WMA also is at the forefront of habitat alteration research, focusing on practices that include rotational grazing, prescribed burning and cedar control.

“We find that those habitat management practices are applicable across the landscape regardless whether you’re talking about big deer, endangered species response or calf weaning weights,” Frels said.

In addition to all that research, selective harvest remains a tried and true wildlife management practice, and the Kerr WMA does feature a number of hunts that are open through drawings as part of the public hunting system.

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Email Will Leschper at WillLeschperOutdoors@gmail.com

your iron sights, have a second zero for close range or subsonic ammo (think 300BLK), or just use the iron sights for quicker acquisitions instead of dialing down the scope’s magnification. If you don’t go with the 45 degree offset setup yet are able to mount BUIS on your scoped rifle, make sure that you can still deploy them. If you can’t remove your scope without tools you won’t be able to use the irons in the field anyway.

The moral of the story is: Don’t trust your life to electronics. No matter how robust and dependable they might be, Murphy visits us all.

——by Dustin Ellerman

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Coastal Focus: SABINE :: by Capt.

EDDIE HERNANDEZ

Fish Deeper, Warmer Water in February advantage of.

Actually, the number of fish caught on Sabine in February would probably surprise a lot of people given the right conditions. Your chances of scoring depend greatly on knowing where to be and not wasting time fishing areas that won’t hold fish in chilly water.

One thing is for sure. You’ll definitely want to fish the warmest water possible. The difference between catching and casting can be decided by less than nine degrees of water temperature, so fishing deeper water will definitely work to your advantage.

Drop offs, ledges, and deep holes are what you should key on if you want to put fish on the stringer. Keep an eye on your sonar as you cruise through, and you’ll notice that the bottom contour and depth are constantly

“ These are the kinds of days you need to take advantage of.

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EBRUARY HAS FOUND US and there are lots of folks who are waiting as patiently as possible for the consistent warm temperatures that will begin to prevail in the not too distant future.

I don’t blame them one bit. Even though we fish in just about anything Mother Nature offers us, if I had my choice, I’d much rather be out there in tolerable conditions. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of coastal anglers feel the same way.

The cold hard fact is that it’s February, and we’ve got to make the most of the conditions if we want to catch fish. There will be a few days this month with mild conditions and winds not approaching gale force speeds.

These are the kinds of days you need to take

changing as you make your way over the giant oyster reef that blankets the south end of the lake just north of the causeway bridge.

Late winter trout and bait fish will use this to their advantage as they seek protection and warmer water. The big winner in this is, of course, you.

Baits such as live shrimp, mullet and fresh dead shrimp work well as do long, dark-colored soft plastics. Eight to ten-inch plastic worms in tomato or black are excellent choices when rigged on 1/4-ounce lead heads. Fish them slow, be patient enough to work the area over real good, and you should have good results. Trout and reds will readily accept these offerings, but don’t be surprised if you also box a few black drum, whiting and croaker.

THE BANK BITE LOCATION: Mesquite Point (South end of Sabine Lake) SPECIES: Whiting, Black Drum, Croaker BAITS/LURES: Live Shrimp, Fresh Dead Shrimp, Mud Minnows BEST TIMES: Early and late with tidal movement

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Coastal Focus: GALVESTON :: by Capt.

MIKE HOLMES

February Is A Month To Pause And Consider

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VERY INDICATION AS I WRITE this is that 2017 will begin a “brave new world” for citizens of the United States of America – in one way or another. Because of this, it seems appropriate to look at some legislative matters that will be having an effect on the lives and activities of a number of fishermen.

To start with sort of good news, commercial vessel operators – down to, but not including, “six pack” charter fishing operations - have known for some time of the pending requirement for a VHF DSC Digital Selective Calling - marine radio on board. This is a new system being initiated for safety, which will “automatically” broadcast the location of a vessel making a distress call, so the caller doesn’t have to accurately determine his location. Good move, don’t we think? The problem with this arises when we see there are two types of DSC radio – the Class D designed for recreational vessels and the much more expensive Class A intended for large commercial vessels and shipping.

The Coast Guard has been issuing individual exemptions allowing smaller vessels to use the Class D radio, because it basically does the same job as the more expensive Class A as long as the unit either contains an integral GPS or is connected to a GPS. Thanks to a lot of lobbying pressure, including an effort by the National Charterboat Operators Association which had been going on since I was still on their Board of Directors, the FCC has agreed with the Coast Guard on an across-the-board exemption to allow Class D units to be used on passenger ships and small passenger vessels carrying 6 or more passengers for hire. This appears to be a rare instance of sensible government regulation that provides increased safety for the industry without imposing an undue financial bur-

den on smaller businesses.

The next subject to examine is one of great importance – the scheduling – or not – or the next Gray Triggerfish stock assessment.

The Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council passed a resolution in June of 2016 to hold a triggerfish stock assessment in 2017, and that it should be a “benchmarktrack” assessment. It seems that what to actually call the assessment, benchmark or otherwise, was heavily debated at the time.

Apparently “gaps” in knowledge that were identified in the last triggerfish assessment are still an issue, with little data available to resolve them. New data on circle hook use and other information should be available for a new assessment, should one be scheduled.

Also, an updated assessment could be com-

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pleted in time to allow new “projections’ to be produced by the end of the 2017 – 2019 projection period.

The Gulf Council voted 21 to 3, with one abstention, to recommend that an updated triggerfish assessment be conducted at the earliest opportunity – which would appear to be in the early fall of 2018. Personally, I was hoping the triggerfish data would be available before the 2016 Presidential Election, as this could be the issue that sways the results most dramatically.

Seriously, I have always been a champion of under-utilized fish species, and I have also been seen cleaning triggerfish at the dock.

They are actually very good eating, although the work involved versus the amount of meat obtained from each fish is a bit of a bad trade off. They are also a bit ugly (and that is being kind). On the other hand, they fight hard, used to be easy to find and catch before the endangered red snapper began eating all the immature triggers, and many anglers probably don’t even know there is a limit

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Coastal Focus: MATAGORDA :: by Contributing Editor MIKE PRICE

Conditions for a Good Day in Three Locations

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T WAS MID-FEBRUARY AND THE water temperature was 59°F. Jeff Wiley and I waited until late afternoon to launch our kayaks in the Old Colorado River to give the sun time to warm the water, and then we paddled across the river to Parker’s Cut. If it is mostly sunny, water temperatures will increase by around 5°F as the day progresses. A boat was anchored where we pulled our kayaks out of the water.

Parker’s Cut used to be an opening between the river and West Matagorda Bay. Now there is about 200 yards of land between the river and the bay. Jeff and I speculated that the people in the boat walked over to the bay to go wade fishing. We carried our kayaks to the bay and re-launched.

Parker’s Cut is a good winter fishing spot because five bayous converge and the water, in places, is three to five feet deep. In the winter, fish tend to be in, or close to deep water because the water temperature on the bottom is slightly warmer.

I started dropping my realistic looking Egret Baits five-inch Wedgetail Mullet into the deep water and worked it very slowly. The reason I chose that lure is that it is realistic looking.

In the colder months, algae drops out of the water, making it very clear. Fish are more likely to strike a bait that looks like their normal food.

I worked the lure slowly, because fish are cold-blooded and as such when the water is cold, their metabolism slows down. Their bite becomes faint, like a small child tugging on your shirt sleeve.

I felt that light tug and waited until I could feel the lure move, then set the hook. It helps to use braided line in cold water because the feel of the bite transfers to your hand more distinctly than it does using monofilament line. |

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“ Normally, tides are on the low side in February.

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I caught four trout, but only one at 16-inches was over the legal keeper size. Jeff was fishing where the water depth changed near the shoreline, and he laid into a real rod-bender. He thought it was a redfish until he saw the black and white specks breaking the surface. The handsome trout had a large girth, measured 24-inches, and weighed five pounds.

We saw three guys wade fishing. They were

from the boat anchored on the river side of the land bridge. When they waded across the bayous going out, they didn’t have any problem with the depth of the water, but the tide had come in while they fished. As they made their way across the now deeper bayous, we heard loud complaints as the cold water flowed into their waders.

Normally, tides are on the low side in February. If you add a north wind to an already low tide, you can get water that is too low to run a boat in. Or, you can anchor, the tide goes out, and your boat is stuck. So check the tide tables and consider the wind before venturing out on your fishing trip. |

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On another day last February, I was fishing with Mike Miller in West Matagorda Bay. He was catching trout while I wasn’t. I think the reason Mike hooked up and I didn’t, was that he was wade fishing, and I was drifting in my kayak. The bite was really faint. Because he was stationary and I was moving, he could feel it and I couldn’t. His line was taut, while mine had slack in it at times.

One day last February my wife and I went to Phillips Bayou on the south shore of West Matagorda Bay. We had a strong outgoing tide, 55°F water temperature, a cloudy day with a high air temperature of 68°F, light south wind, and a barometric pressure of 29.8.

The redfish were turned on and we enjoyed a good day. On the same day, Eddie Vacek was fishing Greens Bayou on the west end of West Matagorda Bay. “I got a hit or a hook up on every cast,” he told me.

Also on the same day, four guys who were kayak fishing at Keller Bay told me they caught 100 trout and kept 20.

NOAA weather predicts that we will have a warmer and dryer winter than normal. Normal for February is 2.5 inches of rain.

If this amount of rain is spaced over several days, it will not affect the water visibility or salinity very much. However, if we get a lot of rain over consecutive days, fresh water will pour into the rivers and creeks that drain into the bays and make fishing more challenging.

To see how much the Colorado and Tres Palacios Rivers are rising, go to www.weather. gov/hgx/. Then go to the bottom of the page and click on “Local Rivers, Lakes, and Bayous.”

Then click on Colorado and Tres Palacios Rivers.

When cold water makes its way to the beach, red snapper follow. Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, and consequently you will sometimes find red snappers in Texas waters.

Less than nine miles offshore, it’s legal to take four snappers that are at least 15 inches in Texas waters. You can fish rigs and bottom structure. We should have at least part

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of the new offshore reef in February. This reef is about 7 miles off Matagorda Beach.

Chris Ledford from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Artificial Reef Program told me that “Reefing started in October, 2016.”

The coordinates for the reef, BA-439 – Matagorda – are: 28 31’ 01.100” N and 095 46’ 53.190” W.

THE BANK BITE NIGHT FISHING AT PALACIOS PIER: In Palacios, the main pier at South Bay Boulevard and 5th Street is lit up at night and a great place to fish. The lights attract bait fish which in turn bring in trout and other predators. The pier is wheelchair accessible, and has restrooms at the beach end.

Email Mike Price at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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on them (in the “reef fish aggregate limit).

Personally, I’d rather catch a non-edible jack or bonito, for sport – and when the people who have so badly mismanaged the harvest of red snapper feel the need to “protect” triggerfish, our marine fisheries are in a bad way.

For those who fish in February, it is sort of a crap-shoot. I have seen bull reds caught in February, and also seen tarpon in the Galveston surf, but more common catches would be black drum at the end of the month, and various pan fish. Big black drum are also protected by size and bag limits, and aren’t much good to eat, anyway. Neither will most anglers want a “trophy” black drum mounted on the wall of their den. Still, they pull hard just by virtue of their size and weight, and if you just HAVE to fish, grab a long rod and a reel

loaded with maybe 50# class line, find some blue crabs to quarter for bait, and enjoy!

THE BANK BITE LOCATION: Texas City Dike, Galveston Jetties, Sea Wolf Park.

SPECIES: Black drum will be most common, especially later in the month, but croaker are a possibility.

BAIT: For big drum, quartered blue crabs are best, but they have been caught on shrimp and cut bait.

BEST TIME: Tidal movement is key, incoming or outgoing.

Email Mike Holmes at ContactUs@fishgame.com

1/12/17 1:40 PM

Coastal Focus: MID COAST :: by Capt.

CHRIS MARTIN have never caught more than a few (if any) trout that are larger than that. Some may say the reason behind this is that a lot of anglers, even some of the more seasoned veterans, simply don’t fish where the big trout tend to locate themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, some of the places a lot of us might consider to be good trout water are not always good places to spend your time when you’re looking for your career-best trout. This includes some of the more typical grass flats that are between three and six feet deep Of course, you could be fortunate enough to stumble upon a big sow moving from one hangout to the next. However, that level of odds probably isn’t worth staking your fishing reputation on. For better results with the larger, trophy-size trout, you must first realize that these larger trout act and react like a completely different family of fish compared to the smaller and less-mature trout.

Make it a point to head for some of the more shallow flats this month. Why? Because once a trout grows to a length of about 22 inches, or longer, it generally prefers very shallow, healthy grass flats for much of the year.

The shallows are attractive to the trout for a few reasons. First, shallow water means protection for the trout. That’s right, natural predators like the dolphin and the shark are unable to get to the trout in the skinny water.

Plus, because of their size, larger trout don’t have to fear “death from above.” They are now too big to be scooped up by predator birds such as the pelican and the osprey.

A second reason trout are attracted to the shallows is the water temperature. During colder months of the year, shallow water tends to warm during the day. Consequently, this warming effect invites fish to be drawn out of the depths of darkness and cold.

During the warmer months of the year, the shallow flats cool down at night much more rapidly than neighboring deep water. This also attracts the fish into the shallow water. They will often stay until the heat of the day starts to heat the water until it becomes too hot for them.

February’s Trophy Trout

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LOT OF COASTAL ANGLERS who are fortunate enough to be able to fish on a regular basis often manage impressive catches of trout that measure anywhere between 15, and 22 to 23 inches in length.

Yet most of these same anglers probably

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A third reason shallow water tends to attract large trout is simply because baitfish are also attracted to the shallows. Common food sources (such as huge mullet) that trophy trout feed upon year-round are attracted to the exact same shallow water areas for the exact same reasons as the trout.

So, next time you’re scouting for your next wading spot of the day and happen to see big, jumping mullet atop a shallow flat, this should be an immediate indicator to you that this location should probably prove to be a great fishing spot. One thing to keep in mind while discovering flats areas that may produce your next record trout is that whenever you begin to think that you are in water that’s too shallow, you probably aren’t shallow enough! The ideal big trout terrain has often proven to be less than one foot in depth. I’ve even heard tales of folks witnessing small birds resting on the exposed backs of big trout and reds sitting in water so skinny that the fish weren’t even fully covered with water.

These big fish can be extremely spooky, and running your boat motor anywhere near them will often send them heading for the nearest hiding place and can quickly scare them to the point to where they may not feed for quite some time. The secret here is to be as sly as you can possibly be – stealth is the key to success. Creep-up slowly on big trout with a good trolling motor or push-pole, whichever one is your choice. Personally, I like wading, but that’s simply my own preference. Just remember, the farther you can keep away from the trout, the better your chances will be. And as one last item, always try to remember the criticality of you being able to lead your cast far in front of the fish so the fish doesn’t hear the splash of your lure – you’re trying to be undetected. Obviously, catching large trout in February can be a challenge, but with some practice and a little understanding, producing “trophy” catches this month can be well within your reach.

Contact Capt. Chris Martin at bayflatslodge@gmail.com or visit bayflatslodge.com

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Coastal Focus: ROCKPORT :: by Capt.

MAC GABLE

Cold Meanderings

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OW DO YOU GET UP AND motivate yourself to fish in the cold?” I was asked one VERY cold February morning?

I have to admit that the friend who asked me had his body pretty much wrapped around a marvelously smelling cup of San Antonio Blend coffee. He was sitting in a warm truck, stereo playing one of my favorites, Tony Joe White.

I had to wonder myself what bent sort of angler would be out in this runny-nose, finger-numbing cold? The answer pretty much resembled me.

The day before I had told myself it probably wouldn’t hurt me to do some work around the house, which always needs work.

Everything here on the coast rusts. I’ve even theorized glass itself will rust if given enough time down here.

So instead I pulled out my boat and went through my winter checklist (don’t flip the page and go to another article, you know you need to do this as well). After running the motor and checking all the gauges, lights etc. I decided doing a once over on the trailer was in order.

The only way to truly check a boat trailer is without the boat on it. However if the boat goes in the water, the boat motor and trailer then need to be washed down. So for the sake of efficiency, and not wanting to waste my energy, multi-tasking was in order.

I thought, I can get up in the morning, do a little fishing, and come back early and do the trailer check and clean-up—a twofer.

Besides, I convinced myself, running a boat in the water is much better than just muffing the motor. As I pulled away from the house the next morning my wife said “whatcha doing?”

“Maintenance.” I hollered back.

Back at the boat ramp my friend continued his evil ways. So I flatly stated I was in fact checking my boat out, something he might want to do being he hadn’t done it in close to a decade.

“You’re doing maintenance on you rod and reel as well?” he chuckled as he nodded toward my Falcon rod sticking up out of my boat.

Busted again! Feeling like the back end of bad luck, I quipped “You want to think something? Why don’t you think your way back underneath the rock you crawled out from under this morning?”

“It’s warm and I have coffee,” he laughed as he turned the stereo up in his warm truck.

“Call me if you break down,” he hollered as he drove away.

When hell freezes over, I thought. This felt like a distinct possibility as I stood on the

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cold dock, wind whistling up the legs of my coveralls. I was glad I was finally by myself and left alone to conjure up my own reasons for being out this blustery day.

I looked up and saw in the distance a lone truck pulling a boat heading toward the boat ramp. I noticed Minnesota plates right away and thought to myself, Now here is someone who knows about fishing in the cold – a brother in arms.

The Lund aluminum boat was enough of a giveaway as only northerners use that type of boat down in these waters. There were only us two as no one else was crazy enough to be out. He asked whether I was a guide, then asked whether I thought he would run aground in his deep-V boat.

“You might” I said, and gave him some navigation advice.

“What are you fishing for?” he asked.

“Just doing maintenance mostly.”

“You’re crazy. It’s cold down here today.”

“I wouldn’t think this cold would bother you being from up north.”

“It won’t,” he said, “but only fishing can

“Good luck fishing,” she said, smiling.

Busted! I grumbled to myself. Couldn’t cheat a rabbit out of a single carrot if I had a bushel full.

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Forecast: ROCKPORT forbidding days? It’s a bond that’s shared across this country, and through my travels I’d say across the globe. It’s love of fishing— a healthy addiction that I, for one, am glad I succumb to.

The average water temperature for February for Rockport according to instrumentation readings is about 60 degrees, but in shallower waters it varies to as low as 42 to 53 degrees. This is important to know because fish in this area become more active this time of year as the water temperature increases day to day.

The rule of thumb is find a warmer spot of water, such as over dark mud (dark shallow bottoms absorb and hold heat). Fish it slowly and very deliberately.

The color that seems to deliver time and time again is chartreuse. Any subtle color like grey or off-white tipped with Chartreuse is best. On warmer days new penny/chartreuse is a good choice.

get me out here on a day like today, besides I couldn’t stay in the travel trailer one more minute.”

“It’s gonna blow cold all day and get colder tonight,” I said.

“Well, I will only be out until my buddy runs out of fuel.”

“Buddy?” I asked. I didn’t see anyone else and there was no dog around.

He reached down underneath his port side console and lifted a small device that looked akin to a portable radio. “You don’t have one of these?” he asked.

“No sir I don’t.”

“You are gonna freeze” he said matterof-factly.

“Electric?” I asked.

“No way, it has a portable one-pound propane bottle, or it can be hooked to a larger bottle if need be. Electric ones just don’t have the BTU output one needs up north and can very quickly run down a battery. When the bottle runs out so does my fishing time” he mused.

This device deserved some attention I decided, so I asked him if I could take a closer look.

“Tell me where to fish and I’ll do you one better; you can come aboard and warm your hands” he chuckled.

On this day that seemed like a fair trade.

“It’s called a Heater Buddy; and up north, I don’t fish without it.”

“I guess you have to keep it away from your gas tank and or gas vent?”

“Well, yeah” he said. “You guys down here are known for fishing in the heat, and I guess we are known for fishing in the cold. Warm hands and fingers are a must on a really cold fishing day, but I guess I’d fish anyway, one way or the other.”

“I think that’s called fishing Karma” I said.

He laughed with me. “It’s more like a fishing addiction and if you’re out here without a heater I’d say we’re both candidates for FFA (Fishing Fanatics Anonymous).”

I’d like to say I caught some ’gator trout that day, but the truth was I didn’t get a bite.

The old man with the heater was still out when I got back to the dock and I envisioned him fishing toasty warm in his aluminum boat.

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••• COPANO BAY: On warmer days, Lap Reef Bank is a good spot for trout, using soft plastics. New penny and morning glory colors work well here. The northwest shoreline adjacent to the Turtle Pen area is a good wade for trout, reds and a few flounders using Berkley Gulp shrimp under a silent cork.

ARANSAS BAY: Some black drums can be found off of Deadman Island using peeled shrimp on a light Carolina rig. Jaybird Reef has some keeper trout with live shrimp freelined being the best bait/rig. Wade down the shoreline of Blackjack Point for keeper reds using Jerk shad in new penny and root beer glitter gold.

CARLOS BAY: On colder days the deep water in Carlos Dugout is still the best bet.

Cut mullet or mud minnows on a medium to heavy Carolina rig works well here. Spalding Reef is a good spot for trout using mud minnows or live shrimp. Free line is best or a slow action popping cork.

under a silent cork work well here (This is mega duck hunting area, so beware.). Move slowly and be patient letting the scent of the bait draw the reds to you. The west shoreline is good on warmer days for black drum using free-lined peeled shrimp.

AYERS BAY: Rattle Snake Island is still a good spot for black drum and sheepshead using peeled shrimp and/or squid cut in small pieces.

This time of year free-line is best if the wind allows; a light Carolina rig will work as well. The deep water of Ayers Dugout is a good spot on colder days to drift a cork in the currents that frequent this area. Be aware this is a major egress for boats so be accommodating by moving your line when boats come through.

Here’s Wishing You Tight Lines Bent Poles and Plenty of Bait.

THE BANK BITE SKI THE KEY: This time of year reds will frequent the ski basin area just off Key Allegro. I seldom recommend this area for it has a lot of boat traffic during the warmer months. Get a cup of coffee, set up on the west shoreline and bottom fish using cut mullet or mud minnows or finger mullet on a very light Carolina rig. It’s an easy area to fish, and it produces some nice fish when conditions are right. Note: if the water is gin clear, don’t waste your time; if it’s off color the fishing is best.

Contact Capt. Mac Gable at Mac Attack Guide Service, 512-809-2681, 361-790-9601 captmac@macattackguideservice.com

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Coastal Focus: LOWER COAST :: by Saltwater Editor CALIXTO GONZALES

Depth Charges

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NE OF MY FAVORITE WAYS to antagonize my Michigan in-laws is to send a picture of me and Sandie fishing in the middle of winter with a caption that says, “Enjoying a balmy day in South Texas! Wish you were here!” Yeah…they hate that.

Sometimes, though, a serious cold snap turns weather colder than the usual winter fare, and water temperatures will dip down below 60 degrees (an Early December 2016 cold front that finally finished of the red tide bloom down here, for example, pushed LLM water temperatures down to 58 degrees for three or four days).

When that happens, cold-blooded trout will abandon their shallow water haunts and seek the warmer, more comfortable environment of deeper water.

Fishermen being fishermen, most of us are willing to brave 50, 40, even high-30 degree weather to wet a line, especially if we’ve had a trip to the coast planned for quite some time.

Our wives will stay buried under the blankets and mumble that we’re crazy, and our dogs won’t even get up and follow us to the kitchen, but we’ll grab rods and tackle box, hitch up the Dargel, and make the run to the coast. The only thing that will keep us in bed is a howling north wind. No one will buck that.

If you are among the happy few that will brave drizzle, even rain, and cold temperatures to have a shot at some trout, there are plenty of deep water spots to turn your attention to, and some of them are not very far from most Port Isabel and South Padre Island boat ramps.

One spot that anglers who don’t want to venture too far from port should consider, is the Port Isabel Turning Basin. The deep water of the turning basin is a major fish magnet after a serious cold snap, and can offer some excellent fishing.

Speckled trout will hold along the drop-off near the shoreline. A depth finder can be very

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up to forage. If you choose to work the shallows on a mild day, a gold spoon, Topwater in Bone or Pearl, or a swimbait such as a Kelly Wiggler Balltail Shad, or Yum Money Minnow are tough to beat.

One last thing, this is structure-oriented fishing. Do not be surprised if you run into a variety of structure-loving species during your outing. It is not uncommon to find sheepshead, mangrove snapper, black drum, or even a flounder keeping company with the trout in your cooler.

All these fish gravitate to deep water structure at one point or another during foul weather.

On one trip, my fishing partner Jim Brewster and I were only catching dink trout after dink trout. On speculation, I eased my boat farther away from the drop-off and located a school of keeper-sized drum cruising along the bottom of the depth-break.

Still, the trout were there, and they will be there pretty much all winter when the weather goes in the toilet.

useful here, because it will pinpoint the depth break. Some anglers prefer anchoring in the shallows and casting out towards the drop-off, but I’ve been more successful dogging-up in deeper water and casting up to the edge, then easing the bait or lure into the drop-off.

Tackle and techniques are relatively simple.

A live shrimp on a #1/0 Octopus 14 inches below a #3 split shot will present a very natural offering that a trout won’t pass up. Let the bait fall along the edge on a semi-slack line. When you feel a bump or see the line jump, ease the rod up until the line comes tight, and you’re hooked up. Faux shrimp, such as the ¼ ounce Live Target Shrimp are good choices too. Fish them the same way as you would a live bait.

Another good cold water trout spot is the Y, which is the confluence of the Port Isabel Boat Channel and the Brownsville Ship Channel.

The drop-offs along the inner channel edges and the points have structure that trout aggregate around in cooler weather.

The mangroves on the channel and center island shorelines are also keen trout and redfish spots when the weather is warmer and fish move

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FISHING HOTSPOTS Saltwater: n Upper Coast n Mid Coast n Lower Coast Freshwater: n Piney Woods

Freshwater: n Prairies & Lakes n Panhandle n Big Bend n Hill Country n South Texas

UPPER COAST

GPS COORDINATES are provided in two formats: “Decimal Degrees” (degrees.degrees) and “Degrees and Minutes” sometimes called “GPS Format” (degrees minutes.minutes).

Examples (for Downtown Austin): Decimal Degrees: N30.2777, W97.7379; Degrees and Minutes: N30 16.6662, W97 44.2739. Consult your manual for information specific to your GPS device.

Go Wild for East Galveston Trout

by TOM BEHRENS

HOTSPOT: Brown Cedar Flats GPS: N 28 24.0798, W 95 42.088 (28.4013, 95.7015) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Glenn Ging 979-479-1460 glennging@gmail.com www.glennsguideservice.com TIPS: After a front: “You have to think about where those fish are going to go when the tide falls real hard.

It will stack the fish up in some deeper areas.” Capt.

Ging

LOCATION: Galveston East Bay HOTSPOT: Anahuac Wildlife Refuge GPS: N 29 33.573, W 94 32.266 (29.5596, 94.5378) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys or MirrOdine CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “Those six days offer a tremendous amount of tidal flow.” Capt. Marcaccio

LOCATION: Colorado River HOTSPOT: Selkirk Island GPS: N 28 45.3324, W 95 59.3808 (28.7555, 95.9897) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics with a 3/8 ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “The colder the water temperature, more fish move into the river because its deeper and will be warmer, a lot of 18-20 depths.” Capt. Countz

LOCATION: Campbell’s Bayou HOTSPOT: Jumble Cove GPS: N 29 11.764, W 95 0.163 (29.1961, 95.0027) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “The retrieve, whether wading or drifting, is more important than lure color LOCATION: Campbell’s Bayou HOTSPOT: Mud Flats GPS: N 29 8.412, W 95 9.2269 (29.1402, 95.1538) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: Basic lure color choice: Clear water-light colors; dark or off color water, use darker colors.

LOCATION: Colorado River HOTSPOT: Chinquapin Reef GPS: N 28 44.562, W 95 46.773 (28.7427, 95.7796) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics with a 3/8 ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “Sometimes the fish will be just off the sandbars along the edges of the river. If it gets really cold, the most productive fishing method is to drift the river with the current in the deep water with soft plastic

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay

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paddle tail/3/8 ounce jig head.” Capt. Countz LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Big Boggy Cut GPS: N 28 44.1198, W 95 49.5979 (28.7353, 95.8266) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Glenn Ging 979-479-1460 glennging@gmail.com www.glennsguideservice.com TIPS: A lot of times the fish will fall out into the Intracoastal, the diversion channel and the river.

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Three Mile GPS: N 28 37.206, W 95 56.9909 (28.6201, 95.9499) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Glenn Ging 979-479-1460 glennging@gmail.com www.glennsguideservice.com TIPS: Capt. Ging likes to use She Dogs, Super Spooks and Corkys at this time of they year.

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Oyster Farm Drain GPS: N 28 42.1219, W 95 46.7609 (28.7020, 95.7794) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Glenn Ging 979-479-1460 glennging@gmail.com www.glennsguideservice.com TIPS: “If you want to stay in the boat you can catch trout drifting deep shell. We throw a popping cork with a Gulp under it, or a soft plastic with a heavier jig head, quarter ounce to three-eighths ounce.” Capt. Ging LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Raymond Shoal GPS: N 28 40.449, W 95 53.898 (28.6742, 95.8983) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure 51 or 52 CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037

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FISHING HOTSPOTS tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “When the water gets cold it will be crystal clear. What I look for are streaks of off color water, where the fish are going to be located.” Capt. Countz

captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “If you’re drift fishing, you want to fish over eight to ten feet of water in the middle of Trinity Bay.” Capt. Marcaccio

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Half Moon Shoal GPS: N 28 43.345, W 95 46.392 (28.7224, 95.7732) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure 51 or 52 CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: Streaking water: “A lot of time the bait fish in that area are stirring up the bottom and make the murky water.” Capt. Countz

LOCATION: Galveston Trinity Bay HOTSPOT: Willie’s Head Island GPS: N 29 32.1499, W 94 48.5369 (29.5358, 94.8090) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “The Lil John by MirrOlure has been a good bait,” said Marcaccio. His favorite colors are purple with a chartreuse tail. “A paddle tail bait is very important in February, give you a little action that you won’t get with a straight tailed soft plastic.”

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Bird Island GPS: N 28 43.86, W 95 45.6169 (28.7310, 95.7603) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure 51 or 52 CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “Cast and work it back until you mark the fish, and then make another drift through the same area.”

Capt. Countz

LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: East Pass GPS: N 29 53.9039, W 93 49.219 (29.8984, 93.8203) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics CONTACT: Capt. Bill Watkins 409-673-9211 4097862018@sbcglobal.net TIPS: Capt. Watkins’ favorite bait of choice are MirrOlure Lil John. Preferred colors are white/glow chartreuse, red and gold flake/chartreuse tail, and chartreuse gold. If the water real clear, he likes to throw Ice or Chartreuse Ice.

MIDDLE COAST

LOCATION: Galveston West Bay HOTSPOT: Starvation Cove GPS: N 29 14.221, W 94 56.409 (29.2370, 94.9402) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys or MirrOdine CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “The other five or six days, you need to focus on a falling tide.” Capt. Marcaccio

LOCATION: Galveston East Bay HOTSPOT: Anna’s Reef GPS: N 29 28.783, W 94 43.7839 (29.4797, 94.7297) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys or MirrOdine CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: Wade fishing: “You will have eight or ten days in the month that are favorable for catching quality trout in excess of 25 inches…three days preceding the new moon and three days preceding the full moon.” Capt.

Marcaccio

LOCATION: Galveston West Bay HOTSPOT: North Deer Island Flats GPS: N 29 16.2109, W 94 51.96 (29.2702, 94.8660) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys or MirrOdine CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041 captpaul@gofishgalveston.com www.gofishgalveston.com TIPS: “You don’t need to start your fishing day until about 9 - 10 a.m. to allow the sun to warm the water.

The surface water temperature should be in the 50s.”

Capt. Marcaccio

LOCATION: Galveston Trinity Bay HOTSPOT: Smith Point Flats GPS: N 29 31.258, W 94 45.0949 (29.5210, 94.7516) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics or Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio 281-788-4041

LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: Black Bayou GPS: N 29 59.866, W 95 45.1819 (29.9978, 95.7530) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Soft Plastics CONTACT: Capt. Bill Watkins 409-673-9211

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4097862018@sbcglobal.net TIPS: At this time of the year start checking the sloughs, bayous and other areas that drain into the lake.

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Reds & Specks Shell Shocked

by TOM BEHRENS LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Shell Banks GPS: N 27 55.3099, W 97 4.42 (27.9218, 97.0737) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: Favorite baits in February: paddle tail soft plastics or live shrimp if you can find it.

LOCATION: Corpus Christi Bay HOTSPOT: Shamrock Cove GPS: N 27 45.369, W 97 9.733 (27.7562, 97.1622) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “If it’s blowing, fish the flats behind an island.

Redfish should be there.” Capt. McPartland

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FISHING HOTSPOTS LOCATION: Corpus Christi Bay HOTSPOT: Demit Island GPS: N 27 41.5335, W 97 14.8159 (27.6922, 97.2469) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com treblejcharters@yahoo.com TIPS: “Flounder gigging action should be picking back up. The spawn run will be pretty much over and they should beginning to migrate back inshore.” Capt.

McPartland

GPS: N 27 54.468, W 97 3.5159 (27.9078, 97.0586) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “The fish will be real lethargic, especially on the flats until the sun gets up and warms everything up.” Capt. McPartland LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Hog Island GPS: N 27 53.751, W 97 6.679 (27.8959, 97.1113) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “Redfish…the same thing. When it warms up you can throw spoons or plastics in the same colors that you use for trout.” Capt. McPartland

LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Mud Island GPS: N 27 56.635, W 97 1.266 (27.9439, 97.0211) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “January and February are almost identical as far as spots and baits. A big difference is there is no reason to be on the water at the crack of dawn. The fish are cold too. I do a lot of starts about 10 a.m.” Capt.

McPartland

LOCATION: Redfish Bay HOTSPOT: Dagger Island GPS: N 27 50.1019, W 97 10.2659 (27.8350, 97.1711) SPECIES: Speckled Trout and Redfish BEST BAITS: Soft Plastic Paddle Tails or live shrimp CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland

LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Quarantine Shoreline

361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com treblejcharters@yahoo.com TIPS: “Cut bait on the pot holes…it will all be good when the water warms up.” Capt. McPartland LOCATION: Upper Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: King Ranch Shoreline GPS: N 27 29.134, W 97 21.1079 (27.4856, 97.3518) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure soft plastics with either a 1/8 or 1/16-ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “One of the keys to catching fish: bait action… a mullet here, a mullet there.” Capt. Counts LOCATION: Upper Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Kennedy Shoreline GPS: N 27 15.598, W 97 27.6509 (27.2600, 97.4609) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure soft plastics with either a 1/8 or 1/16-ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: Wade fishing only working grass beds and/or sand bars.

LOWER COAST

Rub a Dubbs for Mansfield Trout

by CALIXTO GONZALES and TOM BEHRENS LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Dubbs Island GPS: N 26 43.2409, W 97 25.6 (26.7207, 97.4267) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: Capt. Romero says wading is the only way to go if you are trying for that bite of a lifetime.

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FISHING HOTSPOTS LOCATION: Baffin Bay HOTSPOT: Kennedy Rocks GPS: N 27 16.255, W 97 26.7329 (27.2709, 97.4456) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure soft plastics with either a 1/8 or 1/16-ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “When the water is clear I like to throw the Morning Glory color. I use the MirrOlure soft plastics because they are already scented. I think that enhances your chances of attracting fish.” Capt. Countz LOCATION: Baffin Bay HOTSPOT: Badlands GPS: N 27 18.447, W 97 26.293 (27.3075, 97.4382) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure soft plastics with either a 1/8 or 1/16-ounce jig head CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037

tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “If you any sunshine and there are rocks around, the rocks heat up pretty quick. They’re kind like fish magnets.” Capt. Countz LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Butchers Island GPS: N 26 38.1019, W 97 23.149 (26.6350, 97.3858) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: Beginning in February it’s time again to be looking for that trophy trout.

LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Horse Island GPS: N 26 20.3539, W 97 20.2489 (26.3392, 97.3375) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: Muddy bottom is crucial. The mud retains heat better than a hard bottom. The trout like to lie in the warm mud.

LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Green’s Island GPS: N 26 23.5379, W 97 19.465 (26.3923, 97.3244) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero

LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Marker 45 Sand Bar GPS: N 26 46.1219, W 97 26.8249 (26.7687, 97.4471) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero

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FISHING HOTSPOTS 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: Starting later in the day allows the water to heat up, and the fish to be more active.

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: His favorite Corky color to be Hot Pink.

LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Mouth of the Land Cut GPS: N 26 48.6139, W 97 28.1399 (26.8102, 97.4690)

LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: The Saucer GPS: N 26 27.694, W 97 21.685 (26.4616, 97.3614) SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkys CONTACT: Capt. Rudy Romero 956-226-3561 Wheelsonfire.sk8@gmail.com TIPS: Slow down the retrieve and give a sluggish fish to pick up the bait.

PINEY WOODS

Conroe Cats Get Fat in February

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Lake Conroe HOTSPOT: Main Lake Points GPS: N 30 27.2879, W 95 36.0779 (30.4548, 95.6013) SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Stink bait, chicken liver and shrimp CONTACT: Richard Tatsch 936-291-1277 admin@fishdudetx.com www.fishdudetx.com TIPS: Catfish this time of year are pretty big! Fish the main lake points between the creeks in anywhere from 10 to 20 feet of water. I normally bait an area using cattle cubes and the 1 1/2 to 5 pound channels will show up and occasionally you’ll have a big blue cat make the rounds. I’ve been catching a lot of them between 20 and 60 pounds.

LOCATION: Caddo Lake HOTSPOT: Bird Island and Buzzard Bay GPS: N 32 40.1519, W 94 2.3339 (32.6692, 94.0389) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass and White Bass BEST BAITS: 1/2 oz. V&M Lightening Blade( black/ blue), V&M 3/4 oz. Pacemaker Jig, lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits and bladed jigs CONTACT: Caddo Lake Guide Service/Paul Keith

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318-455-3437 caddoguide1@att.net www.caddolakefishing.com TIPS: The bass usually start moving up onto the shallow wood cover this month. Watch for water temperatures get into the mid 50’s and they will begin the move towards the spawn. Once the water hits 60 degrees the spawn is on. Throw jigs and bladed jigs to the base of the cypress trees in 2-4 ft. of water. If the bass have not moved onto the wood cover yet stay out in 4-6 ft. of water fishing lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs over the grass that sit just out from the spawning shallows.

LOCATION: Lake Fork HOTSPOT: Main Lake Creeks and Coves GPS: N 32 53.8439, W 95 37.2659 (32.8974, 95.6211) SPECIES: Crappie BEST BAITS: 3/4 oz. Rat-L-Trap in red, suspending jerk baits in gold or one with an orange belly, 3/4 oz. white spinnerbaits and square bill crankbaits in shad color CONTACT: Doug Shampine 940-902-3855 doug@lakeforktrophybass.com www.lakeforktrophybass.com TIPS: February is the month to hunt for the BIG bass starting to move around on Lake Fork. The big females are starting to feel spring in the air moving from the deeper winter hangouts to shallower water. This time of year shallow means the 10-15 foot range and will do a lot of suspending as the water warms. If we have a few days of warm weather in a row and you can catch these big females starting to feed on the deeper flats close to their final spawning areas. Areas of the lake to check will be Burch creek, Duck Call cove, White Oak and Little Caney. These are all early spawning areas on Lake Fork.

LOCATION: Lake Fork HOTSPOT: Creek Channels GPS: N 32 57.8279, W 95 37.5605 (32.9638, 95.6260) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Grandbass rattlesnake in black and blue or green pumpkin CONTACT: Lance Vick 903-312-0609 lance@lakeforkbass.com www.guideonlakefork.com TIPS: “February is the start of big bass season on Lake Fork. Big ones are shallow. I rarely fish deeper than 5 foot this time of year. My number one technique is a weightless 6.5-inch Grandbass rattlesnake black and blue or green pumpkin rigged with 17 lb. fluorocarbon 5/0 hook.

Fish slow around spawning areas such as stumps,

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FISHING HOTSPOTS grass, and shallow creek channels.

When the wind is blowing and you need to cover water a spinner bait, or vibrating jig will get you the bites you need “ LOCATION: Lake Livingston HOTSPOT: White Rock Creek GPS: N 30 58.1159, W 95 20.07 (30.9686, 95.3345) SPECIES: White Bass BEST BAITS: Road Runners, Bear Paws Ribbed Shad, 1/8 or ¼ oz. Rat-L-Traps, Bluefox, Sassy Shad CONTACT: David S. Cox, Palmetto Guide Service 936-291-9602 dave@palmettoguideservice.com www.palmettoguideservice.com TIPS: Best time to fish this time of year is following a warming trend after a 1 -2 inch local rain with the water temperature getting up over 60 degrees. Go all the way up the creek until the water begins to clear and fish the sandbars and points where they drop off into deeper holes. Fish slowly downstream until you find the fish. Bank Access: White Rock City or Hwy 94 Public Ramp

PRAIRIES & LAKES

Bass Cry Wolf on Ray Roberts

by DUSTIN WARNCKE and DEAN HEFFNER LOCATION: Lake Ray Roberts HOTSPOT: Wolf Creek GPS: N 33 27.031, W 97 0.302 (33.4505, 97.0050) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Spinnerbaits, chatter baits, lipless crankbaits CONTACT: Jim Walling 940-391-5534 jimwwalling@icloud.com TIPS: We normally get some very nice water warming days in February. Although, it can be the third or last week of the month. Regardless of when this happens,

you can bet that after a few warm days the bass will move to shallow water. They will be most aggressive on a sunny day and in the afternoon when the water is at its warmest. Fish spinnersbaits, Chatterbaits and lipless crankbaits around shallow water cover. Creeks on the north side of the lake will be the first areas to warm due to the angle of the sun. They are also protected from the cold north winds. If you fish these areas this month in the prime part of the day there is a good chance you will catch a trophy Largemouth Bass.

LOCATION: Bachman Lake HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 32 51.1859, W 96 52.014 (32.8531, 96.8669) SPECIES: Crappie and Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Crappie: jigs and minnows / Bass: 10” red and black worms Carolina rigged CONTACT: Carey Thorn 469-528-0210 thorn_alex@yahoo.com TexasOklahomaFishingGuide.com TIPS: Bass and crappie prospects are good early and late in the day. Bass are in 1 to 5 feet of water and are gorging in the shallows in the evening and morning. At

LOCATION: Toledo Bend North HOTSPOT: Sabine River (Grand Cane Bayou) GPS: N 31 56.0939, W 93 58.8 (31.9349, 93.9800) SPECIES: White Bass BEST BAITS: Rat-L-Traps, Road Runners, crankbaits, slab spoons and live crawfish CONTACT: Greg Crafts, Toledo Bend Guide Service and Lake Cottages 936-368-7151 gregcrafts@yahoo.com www.toledobendguide.com TIPS: In February I’ll be spending the majority of my time on the Sabine River loading up the boat with White Bass. The Whites will be making their annual river run up the river to spawn. Locating the Whites is contingent on a number of factors: river level, current and clarity. If the river is out of its bank, work the flooded sloughs and find some clear water. If the river is at normal or below normal stages, you can usually find the Whites on the inside bend sandbars. If the river has a lot of current, look for still water where the fish can get out of the current. Look for the eddies formed on the down side of the inside bends of the river. When you locate the fish, they will be bunched up and feeding heavy. Be extremely careful running the river. A lot of under water hazards, mainly submerged logs and debris, can show up at any time or place.

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FISHING HOTSPOTS the time of this report, we pulled 8 crappie out of this lake in a couple of hours.

BEST BAITS: Shad and CJ’s punch bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: Spring comes early in hot water lakes. Shad will be active in hot water discharge area. Fish the right side of the discharge where water starts to get shallow.

LOCATION: Cedar Creek Lake HOTSPOT: Main Lake Points GPS: N 32 16.554, W 96 8.0339 (32.2759, 96.1339) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Jigs with plastic trailers in 1/4 to 3/8oz in various colors, spinnerbaits, Rat-L-Traps CONTACT: Jason Barber 903-603-2047 kingscreekadventures@yahoo.com www.kingscreekadventures.com TIPS: Fish all of the docks inside spawning coves from the main lake points to the back. Jigs with plastic trailers in 1/4 to 3/8oz in various colors will work skipped under the docks. Mix in spinners and Rat-LTraps in 2’ to 8’ as well.

LOCATION: Granger Lake HOTSPOT: Up River/Creek Area GPS: N 30 39.852, W 97 23.916 (30.6642, 97.3986) SPECIES: White Bass and Crappie BEST BAITS: Marabou jigs, Rooster tails and Twister tail jigs CONTACT: Tommy Tidwell 512-365-7761 crappie1@hotmail.com www.gotcrappie.com TIPS: “Now is the time the white bass and crappie start to move up the river and creek for their pre-spawn.

The white bass will move up at any unexpected time and if you are there, you can limit out in a very short time. The pattern will not last long and may not happen for several more days. You just have to fish when you can and hope to hit the jackpot.

For crappie it is kind of the same situation. The crappie will move shallow after three warm days and nights. If that happens in February, you need to be in the backs of coves or creeks off the river. Use a jig pole and slip bobber set at about 2 feet. A marabou jig or bass assassin jig will work just fine. Good luck and good fishing.”

LOCATION: Eagle Mountain Lake HOTSPOT: Baptist Point GPS: N 32 52.79, W 97 28.64 (32.8798, 97.4773) SPECIES: White Bass BEST BAITS: 3/4 oz. Jig head and a 4-inch fluke CONTACT: Johnny Stevens 817-597-6598 johnnystevens@1scom.net johnnysguideservice.com TIPS: This area is good this time of the year due to the north wind pushing shad into this point. The sand Bass generally follow. Try finding fish on your depth finder drop your jig head and fluke just above them.

Use the dead sticking method. Which is to hold the fluke and jig head very still giving a twitch every 30 seconds or so.

LOCATION: Lake Granbury HOTSPOT: Channel Bends GPS: N 32 32.869, W 97 48.95 (32.5478, 97.8158) SPECIES: White bass BEST BAITS: White/chartreuse jigs and roadrunners worked near spawning grounds.

CONTACT: Michael W. Acosta, Unfair Advantage Charters 817-578-0023 TIPS: Bouncing Jigs off the bottom where fish are located. Trolling spinner baits or RatLTraps can be used to locate active fish.

LOCATION: Fayette County HOTSPOT: Main Point GPS: N 29 56.316, W 96 44.2199 (29.9386, 96.7370) SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: CJ’s punch Bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: Lake is full and here you have a point and stumps. Keep in mind that stumps are under water in this area. Use electronics to find stumps, then anchor and chum straight down. Fish tight lines.

LOCATION: Lake Lavon HOTSPOT: Dam Area Ledges GPS: N 33 1.9379, W 96 28.7639 (33.0323, 96.4794) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Creature baits Texas rigged or Carolina rigged and DD 22s crankbaits CONTACT: Carey Thorn

LOCATION: Gibbons Creek HOTSPOT: Hotwater discharge GPS: N 30 38.3519, W 96 3.2819 (30.6392, 96.0547) SPECIES: Catfish

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469-528-0210 thorn_alex@yahoo.com TexasOklahomaFishingGuide.com TIPS: Is February going to be cold warm or hot? I think it’s going to be freezing. In February I would probably be bass fishing the dam using DD 22’s and creature baits along the ledges that run parallel along the dam. These fish could be 3 foot deep or they could be 25 foot. You just have to find their pattern. It could be freezing cold outside and they could be tucked up in some boulders in 4 foot of water. You just never know.

LOCATION: Lake Palestine HOTSPOT: Back of Kickapoo Creek GPS: N 32 16.7039, W 95 29.9399 (32.2784, 95.4990) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Texas Spinner Bait in chartreuse/white tandem silver leaf blades, Shimmy Shakers in rust color and Big Eye Jig in black/blue color CONTACT: Ricky Vandergriff 903-561-7299 or 903-530-2201 ricky@rickysguideservice.com www.rickysguideservice.com TIPS: “The back of Kickapoo Creek and the old folk playground area are good this time of year. Fish the shallow ditches with Texas Spinner Bait, Shimmy Shakers and Big Eye Jig. Fish the jig in brush in old folks playground area.

Best depth will be 2-5 foot.”

LOCATION: Lake Somerville HOTSPOT: Pelican Island GPS: N 30 18.126, W 96 34.428 (30.3021, 96.5738) SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Shad, cut bait and CJ’s punch bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: Fish the drop off on the northwest corner of the buoys. Water is deep here and right now larger cats are roaming deeper water looking for shad, Cut bait is a good choice here.

LOCATION: Lake Texoma HOTSPOT: Slickem Slough GPS: N 33 51.3539, W 96 52.686 (33.8559, 96.8781) SPECIES: Striped Bass BEST BAITS: Road Runner jigs and White Glo Sassy Shad jigs CONTACT: Bill Carey 903-786-4477 bigfish@striperexpress.com www.striperexpress.com

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FISHING HOTSPOTS TIPS: Winter fishing on Lake Texoma is legendary.

Chances of landing trophy stripers in February are in your favor. Road Runner ½- 1-ounce white Buck tail jigs with a 7-inch soft plastic worm are deadly on the big fish holding on structure. Always keep your eyes on the seagulls. Cast your 1-ounce White Glo Sassy Shad jigs under the birds where large schools of stripers can be feeding. Multiple hook-ups are common with lots of action in the open water.

BANK ACCESS: The Oil Wells and Texas Flats (Using the same baits mentioned but shad will work best on the banks. Tie on jigs if the seagulls are working near you.)

LOCATION: Lake Whitney HOTSPOT: Big Rocky Creek GPS: N 31 52.794, W 97 23.682 (31.8799, 97.3947) SPECIES: White Bass and Striped Bass BEST BAITS: Stripaholic 3/4 Lead Heads and 4” chartreuse swim baits and jerk baits from www.

RSRLures.com CONTACT: Randy Routh 817-822-5539 teamredneck01@hotmail.com www.teamredneck.net TIPS: Using the Lead Head and swim baits, we are making long casts behind the boat and, using the motor on slow speed, slowly dragging the baits through the fish. When marking a big or tight school of fish, I am stopping the boat and switching to a Lead Head with a Bass Assassin type bait and dropping the bait down just over the striper’s heads and doing nothing but waiting (Dead Sticking) for the small tap and then setting the hook quick and hanging on! The same tactics are working in other main creeks on the lake as well. Remember that the water is cold and when you think you are fishing slow enough, fish slower. On mornings when the bite slows down I am moving out to the open water and using my binoculars to glass the lake and locate the seagulls diving on baitfish. Using the same swim baits, we are making long casts and counting down to about 5 and making a medium to slow retrieve.

can often have an early spring in Texas and the fishing will bust loose! If we have an early spring, not too much fresh water and warm temperatures, the White Bass, Hybrid Stripers and Crappie may all be on a nice bite. However, Adam and I like what can be an almost “”sure thing”” and we stick with the Catfish. Both Blue and Channel Cats will be on a good bite regardless of the weather or anything else that normally slows the other fish from biting! The best location will be up the Richland Creek Arm of the Lake in the heavy timber near Crab Creek. Fish the 20’-25’ depths with Danny King’s Blood Punch Bait on a # 4 Treble Hook and you’ll go home with lots of fillets. Just look for where the Cormorants are roosting and there you will find the Catfish!“

SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Carolina-rigged worms, jigs, deepdiving crankbaits CONTACT: Stan Gerzsenyl 830-768-3648 stan@amistadbass.com amistadbass.com TIPS: Fish the under-water ledges and end of the narrow point with a deep-diving crankbait early, slowly working the lure across the end of the point for feeding fish. After the sun rises, work the under-water brush and stumps with Carolina-rigged worms.

PANHANDLE

Proctor Bass and Crappie

BIG BEND

Stay Sharp for Pencil Bass

by DUSTIN WARNCKE and DEAN HEFFNER

by DUSTIN WARNCKE

LOCATION: Proctor Lake HOTSPOT: Promontory Pier GPS: N 31 58.7268, W 98 29.3465 (31.9788, 98.4891) SPECIES: Crappie and Bass BEST BAITS: Jigs for crappie; dropshots, Carolina rigs for bass CONTACT: Michael D. Homer Jr.

LOCATION: Amistad HOTSPOT: Pencil Point GPS: N 29 36.35118, W 100 58.4484 (29.605853, -100.974140)

LOCATION: Richland Chambers Lake HOTSPOT: Crab Creek Area GPS: N 31 58.6212, W 96 18.39 (31.9770, 96.3065) SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Danny King’s punch bait CONTACT: Royce Simmons 903-389-4117 simmonsroyce@hotmail.com www.gonefishin.biz TIPS: “February is a month where you see few fishermen on the Lake and, for many, it’s a month to prepare for the spring! This is a mistake many make as you

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FISHING HOTSPOTS 325-692-0921 michael.homer@tpwd.texas.gov TIPS: Catch deep-water crappie and largemouth bass off of some submersed brush piles and artificial fish habitat structures. Curly-tail and tube jigs will work well to target crappie. Drop-shots and Carolina rigs may produce a bass bite. Also, February 18th, we are co-hosting a youth trout derby at Grover Nelson Park in Abilene from 10AM-1PM. The event is free. Please see the flyer for more details

in a frenzy! Live baits best but this is still jigging and slabbing time. Now you can start catching fish by simply trolling cranks and rattletraps also. Don`t be afraid to troll those big bombers for big stripers either just go slower! Watch your electronics and pay attention to depths, drop offs treelines and anything abnormal where you catch a fish, then key in on those features for better success.

HILL COUNTRY

LOCATION: Lake Alan Henry HOTSPOT: Major Creeks GPS: N 33 1.7159, W 101 6.5459 (33.0286, 101.1091) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Drop shots, deep diving crankbaits, spoons, Road Runners and shaky head jigs CONTACT: Norman Clayton’s Guide Services 806-792-9220 nclayton42@sbcglobal.net www.lakealanhenry.com/norman_clayton.htm TIPS: “In February, the bass will relate to the steeper banks for shallow water fishing. Most bass will be caught in the deeper water around the channels of Big Grape, Little Grape, Rocky, Gobbler, and Ince Creeks.

In early February, the mouths of these creeks will produce the most bass on drop shots, deep diving crank baits, spoons, and Road Runners. Use your electronics to locate the bass before fishing. You can also troll a deep diving crank bait to locate the schools of bass. In the latter part of February, the bass will start moving to the backs of the creeks where I will be using mostly crankbaits and shaky head jigs. Look for the warmest water to find the bass. The backs of the creeks mentioned above will warm up first. Fish FunFish Safe,”

Austin Bass Bed Down in Inlets

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Guadalupe River Area GPS: N 29 54.384, W 98 19.752 (29.9064, 98.3292) SPECIES: Crappie & largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Drop-shots and jigs CONTACT: Barry Dodd - Teach ‘Em to Fish Guide Service 210-771-0123 barrydodd.tetf@gmail.com www.teachemtofish.net TIPS: “Water temperature is in the 50’s but the bass and crappie are looking to begin their search for spawning grounds. Most fish are still deeper during the cold nights and days but will move into shallower water as the sun heats it up. Generally, the best fishing is in the afternoons on north banks protected from the north winds and areas, which receive lots of sunshine.

This spot on the Guadalupe River is somewhat protection from the north wind and receives lots of sunshine to warm the water. There is lots of brush along the drop-offs and in the main river channel. Because this area has rock, brush and shallower water, it’s a good area for bass and crappie.“

LOCATION: Possum Kingdom Reservoir HOTSPOT: Goat Island West GPS: N 32 54.777, W 98 27.939 (32.9130, 98.4657) SPECIES: Striped/White Bass BEST BAITS: Live bait, jigs, slabs, crankbaits CONTACT: Dean Heffner 940-329-0036 fav7734@aceweb.com TIPS: Winter is still here but winding down and the fish are stacking up waiting for flood and warmer waters. Don`t give up on the birds either—they will still steer you to active fish. And not only stripers and white bass, but hybrids blacks and catfish. A lot of times everyone works too fast thru the active fish and miss the crappie and catfish and black bass that stick around to eat everything the schoolers spit up. So drop back fish way slower and close to bottom to see what’s eating the spit up baits. That’s the tip of the month and works well all year while fish are feeding

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LOCATION: Lake Austin HOTSPOT: Creek Inlets and Bedding Areas GPS: N 30 17.826, W 97 47.2739 (30.2971, 97.7879) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Cyclone and Picasso spinnerbaits, River2Sea S-Waver swim baits and crankbaits, T-rig or weightless rig with a V&M Wild Thang 8.5 worm or Chopstick CONTACT: Brian Parker - Lake Austin Fishing 817-808-2227 lakeaustinfishing@yahoo.com

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www.LakeAustinFishing.com TIPS: Find flats that are close to deeper/thick grass as this is the typical pattern for ambushing shad and smaller fish. Be prepared to throw multiple baits at the same area. I will usually throw Cyclone and Picasso spinnerbaits along the edges and River2Sea S-Waver swim baits and cranks as well. If the moving baits aren’t pulling the bigger fish out, I’ll tie on a T-rig or weightless rig and use a V&M Wild Thang 8.5 worm or Chopstick to work just off the grass. Work from shallow to deeper water.

LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Jacob’s Creek Area GPS: N 29 53.778, W 98 13.3739 (29.8963, -98.2229) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Hard plastic jerk baits, soft plastic jerk baits, slow rolling spinnerbaits, lipless and square bill crankbaits CONTACT: Teach ‘Em to Fish Guide Service-Barry Dodd 210-771-0123 barry@teachemtofish.net www.teachemtofish.net TIPS: This area offers protection from the north wind and receives lots of sunshine to warm the water. There is no vegetation but there are stick-ups and this area has deep water not far away. Because this area has a lot of shallower water, it’s a good area to throw the suggested baits above.

LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Guadalupe River Area GPS: N 29 54.348, W 98 18.858 (29.9058, -98.3143) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Minnows and jigs CONTACT: Teach ‘Em to Fish Guide Service-Barry Dodd 210-771-0123 barry@teachemtofish.net www.teachemtofish.net TIPS: This area is protected from the wind and has lots of trees, drop-offs and ledges. Fish about 6’ to 10’ deep in the deeper water above and around the trees.

LOCATION: Lake Buchanan HOTSPOT: Main Lake River Channel GPS: N 30 49.368, W 98 22.6499 (30.8228, 98.3775) SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Cut shad or chicken gizzards CONTACT: Clancy Terrill 512-633-6742 centraltexasfishing@gmail.com www.centraltexasfishing.com TIPS: “Fish in the river channel of the lake. Use rod

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FISHING HOTSPOTS and reel or jug lines baited with cut shad or other cut bait or chicken gizzards. Concentrate on fishing in 15 to 30 feet of water.“ LOCATION: Lake Buchanan HOTSPOT: Paradise Point and Garrett and Shaw Islands GPS: N 30 48.912, W 98 24.924 (30.8152, 98.4154) SPECIES: White Bass and Striped Bass BEST BAITS: 1 oz. slabs in chrome, gold and chartreuse and live shad CONTACT: Ken Milam 325-379-2051 kmilam@verizon.net www.striperfever.com.com TIPS: The stripers and hybrids will be in the creeks and on the main lake around Garret and Shaw Islands.

There are maybe some top water and seagull action at this time! White bass will be in and around the river channel between Garret Island and Paradise Point and Silver Creek. They should be staging in front of Tow. Remember, Lake Buchanan is a totally different lake than we have ever seen due to all the cover but this will make it great in the long run.

SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: “War eagle spinnerbaits — Screaming Eagle in Gold Shiner color.

CONTACT: Jim Behnken 210-414-8048 jimbehnken@hotmail.com www.fishlakefalcon.com TIPS: Place your boat in the creek channel and vary your casts from the center of the channel up onto the

edges of the creek channel. Slowroll the spinner bait making as much contact with underwater bushes and trees as possible. Occasionally flutter the bait to attract bites.

SOUTH TEXAS

February is Cool for Coleto Bass

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Coleto Creek Lake HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 28 43.806, W 97 10.2959 (28.7301, 97.1716) SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: White pearl color Zoom flukes and other lures in this color, watermelon red brush hogs CONTACT: Rocky’s Guide Service 361-960-0566 TIPS: February is probably the coldest month for us here in the south. A lot like January fishing. Deep water for big bass. Stay with fishing the grass as that’s where the fry will be. A patient bite will always pay off. Move your bait slow and tease the fish. Good fishing and may GOD continue to bless us all!

LOCATION: Lake Falcon HOTSPOT: Little Tiger Creek GPS: N 26 53.112, W 99 15.5099 (26.8852, -99.2585)

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Sportsman’s DAYBOOK FEBRUARY 2017

Tides and Prime Times

USING THE PRIME TIMES CALENDAR

The following pages contain TIDE and SOLUNAR predictions for Galveston Channel (29.3166° N, 94.88° W).

T12

T4

T11

T10 T9

TIDE PREDICTIONS are located in the upper white boxes on the Calendar Pages. Use the Correction Table below, which is keyed to 23 other tide stations, to adjust low and high tide times.

T8 T17

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY is shown in the lower color boxes of the Calendar pages. Use the SOLUNAR ADJUSTMENT SCALE below to adjust times for points East and West of Galveston Channel.

T15 T16

TIDE PREDICTIONS are shown in graph form, with High and Low tide predictions in text immediately below.

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY data is provided to indicate major and minor feeding periods for each day, as the daily phases of the moon have varying degrees of influence on many wildlife species.

T13 T6

T7

T3 T2 T1

T5

T14

AM & PM MINOR phases occur when the moon rises and sets. These phases last 1 to 2 hours.

T18

AM & PM MAJOR phases occur when the moon reaches its highest point overhead as well as when it is “underfoot” or at its highest point on the exact opposite side of the earth from your positoin (or literally under your feet). Most days have two Major Feeding Phases, each lasting about 2 hours.

T19

T20

PEAK DAYS: The closer the moon is to your location, the stronger the influence. FULL or NEW MOONS provide the strongest influnce of the month.

PEAK TIMES: When a Solunar Period falls within 30 minutes to an hour of sunrise or sunset, anticipate increased action. A moon rise or moon set during one of these periods will cause even greater action. If a FULL or NEW MOON occurs during a Solunar Period, expect the best action of the season.

T21

TIDE CORRECTION TABLE

Add or subtract the time shown at the rightof the Tide Stations on this table (and map) to determine the adjustment from the time shown for GALVESTON CHANNEL in the calendars.

KEY T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

PLACE Sabine Bank Lighthouse Sabine Pass Jetty Sabine Pass Mesquite Pt, Sab. Pass Galveston Bay, S. Jetty Port Bolivar

HIGH -1:46 -1:26 -1:00 -0:04 -0:39 +0:14

LOW -1:31 -1:31 -1:15 -0:25 -1:05 -0:06

KEY PLACE HIGH Galveston Channel/Bays T7 Texas City Turning Basin +0:33 +3:54 T8 Eagle Point +6:05 T9 Clear Lake +10:21 T10 Morgans Point T11 Round Pt, Trinity Bay +10:39

LOW +0:41 +4:15 +6:40 +5:19 +5:15

KEY T12 T13 T14 T15 T16 T17

PLACE Pt Barrow, Trinity Bay Gilchrist, East Bay Jamaica Beach, W. Bay Alligator Point, W. Bay Christmas Pt Galveston Pleasure Pier

HIGH +5:48 +3:16 +2:38 +2:39 +2:32 -1:06

LOW +4:43 +4:18 +3:31 +2:33 +2:31 -1:06

KEY T18 T19 T20 T21 T22 T23

PLACE HIGH San Luis Pass -0.09 Freeport Harbor -0:44 Pass Cavallo 0:00 Aransas Pass -0:03 Padre Island (So. End) -0:24 Port Isabel +1:02

LOW -0.09 -1:02 -1:20 -1:31 -1:45 -0:42

SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK IS SPONSORED BY:

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION T22 T23

= FALLING TIDE = RISING TIDE = DAYLIGHT HOURS = NIGHTTIME HOURS

READING THE GRAPH

Moon l Moon Overhead l Underfoot

Fishing Score Graph

Day’s Best Day’s 2nd Score Best Score

n

Best Day Overall

MOON PHASES

l = New Moon l = Full Moon = First Quarter º » = Last Quarter «= Good Day by Moon Phase 70

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Tides and Prime Times MONDAY

TUESDAY

Jan 31

30 «

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

High Tide: 4:04AM 0.82 ft.

Low Tide: 11:22AM -0.45 ft.

High Tide: 7:01PM 0.92 ft.

FEET

12:04AM 5:10AM 12:01PM 7:26PM

0.47 ft.

0.75 ft.

-0.29 ft.

0.87 ft.

WEDNESDAY

Feb 1 Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

12:54AM 6:32AM 12:42PM 7:49PM

0.31 ft.

0.67 ft.

-0.07 ft.

0.82 ft.

THURSDAY

2

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

1:51AM 8:13AM 1:27PM 8:11PM

0.12 ft.

0.62 ft.

0.17 ft.

0.79 ft.

FRIDAY

3º Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

2:54AM 10:07AM 2:18PM 8:31PM

-0.09 ft.

0.63 ft.

0.42 ft.

0.79 ft.

SATURDAY

4

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

4:01AM 12:02PM 3:25PM 8:54PM

SUNDAY

-0.30 ft.

0.74 ft.

0.64 ft.

0.81 ft.

5

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

5:07AM 1:40PM 5:30PM 9:28PM

-0.50 ft.

0.88 ft.

0.80 ft.

0.85 ft.

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0 0

0

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

2:00 — 4:00 PM

2:30 — 4:30 PM

3:30 — 5:30 PM

4:00 — 6:00 PM

5:00 — 7:00 PM

6:00 — 8:00 PM

7:00 — 9:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:08a Set: 5:54p Moonrise: 8:54a Set: 8:47p AM Minor: 7:00a AM Major: 12:48a PM Minor: 7:25p PM Major: 1:13p Moon Overhead: 2:48p Moon Underfoot: 2:23a

Sunrise: 7:08a Set: 5:55p Moonrise: 9:33a Set: 9:47p AM Minor: 7:56a AM Major: 1:43a PM Minor: 8:20p PM Major: 2:08p Moon Overhead: 3:38p Moon Underfoot: 3:13a

Sunrise: 7:07a Set: 5:56p Moonrise: 10:13a Set: 10:48p AM Minor: 8:51a AM Major: 2:39a PM Minor: 9:16p PM Major: 3:04p Moon Overhead: 4:28p Moon Underfoot: 4:03a

Sunrise: 7:07a Set: 5:57p Moonrise: 10:53a Set: 11:50p AM Minor: 9:47a AM Major: 3:34a PM Minor: 10:12p PM Major: 3:59p Moon Overhead: 5:18p Moon Underfoot: 4:53a

Sunrise: 7:06a Set: 5:58p Moonrise: 11:35a Set: None AM Minor: 10:42a AM Major: 4:28a PM Minor: 11:08p PM Major: 4:55p Moon Overhead: 6:11p Moon Underfoot: 5:45a

Sunrise: 7:05a Set: 5:59p Moonrise: 12:19p Set: 12:53a AM Minor: 11:36a AM Major: 5:22a PM Minor: ----PM Major: 5:49p Moon Overhead: 7:06p Moon Underfoot: 6:38a

Sunrise: 7:05a Set: 5:59p Moonrise: 1:08p Set: 1:56a AM Minor: 12:01a AM Major: 6:15a PM Minor: 12:29p PM Major: 6:43p Moon Overhead: 8:02p Moon Underfoot: 7:34a

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Sportsman’s DAYBOOK MONDAY

6 FEET

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

6:11AM 2:47PM 7:49PM 10:28PM

TUESDAY

7

-0.67 ft.

0.99 ft.

0.86 ft.

0.89 ft.

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

7:09AM 3:34PM 8:37PM 11:43PM

-0.79 ft.

1.05 ft.

0.85 ft.

0.92 ft.

WEDNESDAY

8

Low Tide: 8:04AM High Tide: 4:13PM Low Tide: 9:08PM

THURSDAY

9«

-0.85 ft.

1.06 ft.

0.81 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

12:53AM 8:54AM 4:47PM 9:39PM

FRIDAY

10 «

0.95 ft.

-0.84 ft.

1.03 ft.

0.73 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

1:59AM 9:41AM 5:18PM 10:12PM

SATURDAY

11 ¡

0.96 ft.

-0.77 ft.

0.98 ft.

0.62 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

3:00AM 10:24AM 5:47PM 10:48PM

SUNDAY

12 «

0.95 ft.

-0.64 ft.

0.92 ft.

0.50 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

4:00AM 11:06AM 6:13PM 11:27PM

0.91 ft.

-0.46 ft.

0.86 ft.

0.38 ft. FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0 0

0

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

8:00 — 10:00 PM

9:00 — 11:00 PM

10:00P — 12:00A

11:30A — 1:30P

11:00P — 12:00A

12:00 — 2:00 AM

12:30 — 2:30 AM

Sunrise: 7:04a Set: 6:00p Moonrise: 2:01p Set: 2:59a AM Minor: 12:53a AM Major: 7:07a PM Minor: 1:22p PM Major: 7:36p Moon Overhead: 9:00p Moon Underfoot: 8:31a

Sunrise: 7:03a Set: 6:01p Moonrise: 2:59p Set: 4:00a AM Minor: 1:45a AM Major: 7:59a PM Minor: 2:14p PM Major: 8:29p Moon Overhead: 9:59p Moon Underfoot: 9:29a

Sunrise: 7:03a Set: 6:02p Moonrise: 3:59p Set: 4:58a AM Minor: 2:37a AM Major: 8:51a PM Minor: 3:06p PM Major: 9:20p Moon Overhead: 10:56p Moon Underfoot: 10:28a

Sunrise: 7:02a Set: 6:03p Moonrise: 5:01p Set: 5:51a AM Minor: 3:29a AM Major: 9:44a PM Minor: 3:58p PM Major: 10:12p Moon Overhead: 11:52p Moon Underfoot: 11:25a

Sunrise: 7:01a Set: 6:04p Moonrise: 6:03p Set: 6:40a AM Minor: 4:23a AM Major: 10:36a PM Minor: 4:50p PM Major: 11:03p Moon Overhead: None Moon Underfoot: 12:19p

Sunrise: 7:00a Set: 6:04p Moonrise: 7:03p Set: 7:24a AM Minor: 5:16a AM Major: 11:29a PM Minor: 5:41p PM Major: 11:59p Moon Overhead: 12:46a Moon Underfoot: 1:11p

Sunrise: 7:00a Set: 6:05p Moonrise: 8:01p Set: 8:05a AM Minor: 6:09a AM Major: ----PM Minor: 6:33p PM Major: 12:21p Moon Overhead: 1:36a Moon Underfoot: 2:01p

= FALLING TIDE = RISING TIDE = DAYLIGHT HOURS = NIGHTTIME HOURS Fishing Score Moon l Overhead l Moon Graph Underfoot

READING THE GRAPH

MONDAY

TUESDAY

14

13 «

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

High Tide: 5:00AM 0.85 ft.

Low Tide: 11:44AM -0.24 ft.

High Tide: 6:39PM 0.81 ft.

FEET

12:09AM 6:04AM 12:20PM 7:04PM

0.27 ft.

0.77 ft.

-0.02 ft.

0.77 ft.

MOON PHASES

Day’s Best Score

WEDNESDAY

15

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

12:56AM 7:14AM 12:53PM 7:27PM

0.17 ft.

0.71 ft.

0.20 ft.

0.74 ft.

Day’s 2nd Best Score

THURSDAY

16

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

n

1:46AM 8:37AM 1:22PM 7:47PM

0.09 ft.

0.66 ft.

0.40 ft.

0.73 ft.

l = New Moon l = Full Moon = First Quarter º » = Last Quarter « = Good Day by Moon Phase

Best Day Overall

FRIDAY

17

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

2:44AM 10:16AM 1:48PM 8:04PM

0.03 ft.

0.66 ft.

0.57 ft.

0.74 ft.

SATURDAY

18 » Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

3:49AM 12:17PM 2:07PM 8:09PM

-0.04 ft.

0.72 ft.

0.71 ft.

0.76 ft.

SUNDAY

19

Low Tide: 4:54AM High Tide: 4:29PM

-0.10 ft.

0.82 ft.

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0 0

0

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

1:30 — 3:30 AM

2:00 — 4:00 AM

3:00 — 5:00 AM

3:30 — 5:30 AM

4:30 — 6:30 AM

11:00P — 1:00A

8:30 — 10:30 AM

Sunrise: 6:59a Set: 6:06p Moonrise: 8:57p Set: 8:42a AM Minor: 7:01a AM Major: 12:50a PM Minor: 7:25p PM Major: 1:13p Moon Overhead: 2:24a Moon Underfoot: 2:48p

Sunrise: 6:58a Set: 6:07p Moonrise: 9:52p Set: 9:18a AM Minor: 7:53a AM Major: 1:41a PM Minor: 8:15p PM Major: 2:04p Moon Overhead: 3:10a Moon Underfoot: 3:33p

Sunrise: 6:57a Set: 6:08p Moonrise: 10:45p Set: 9:53a AM Minor: 8:43a AM Major: 2:32a PM Minor: 9:05p PM Major: 2:54p Moon Overhead: 3:55a Moon Underfoot: 4:17p

Sunrise: 6:56a Set: 6:08p Moonrise: 11:37p Set: 10:28a AM Minor: 9:32a AM Major: 3:21a PM Minor: 9:54p PM Major: 3:43p Moon Overhead: 4:39a Moon Underfoot: 5:01p

Sunrise: 6:55a Set: 6:09p Moonrise: None Set: 11:04a AM Minor: 10:19a AM Major: 4:08a PM Minor: 10:41p PM Major: 4:30p Moon Overhead: 5:23a Moon Underfoot: 5:45p

Sunrise: 6:54a Set: 6:10p Moonrise: 12:29a Set: 11:42a AM Minor: 11:05a AM Major: 4:54a PM Minor: 11:28p PM Major: 5:16p Moon Overhead: 6:07a Moon Underfoot: 6:30p

Sunrise: 6:54a Set: 6:11p Moonrise: 1:21a Set: 12:22p AM Minor: 11:50a AM Major: 5:39a PM Minor: ----PM Major: 6:02p Moon Overhead: 6:53a Moon Underfoot: 7:16p

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Sportsman’s DAYBOOK MONDAY

20

Low Tide: 5:52AM High Tide: 2:58PM

TUESDAY

21

-0.17 ft.

0.89 ft.

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

FEET

6:41AM 3:14PM 9:04PM 10:53PM

-0.23 ft.

0.95 ft.

0.85 ft.

0.86 ft.

WEDNESDAY

22

Low Tide: 7:22AM High Tide: 3:34PM Low Tide: 8:40PM

-0.30 ft.

0.99 ft.

0.85 ft.

THURSDAY

23

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

12:01AM 8:00AM 3:56PM 8:39PM

FRIDAY

24 «

0.91 ft.

-0.35 ft.

1.02 ft.

0.82 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

12:58AM 8:37AM 4:19PM 8:59PM

SATURDAY

25 «

0.96 ft.

-0.38 ft.

1.04 ft.

0.76 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

1:52AM 9:13AM 4:43PM 9:29PM

SUNDAY

26 l

1.00 ft.

-0.37 ft.

1.04 ft.

0.67 ft.

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

2:46AM 9:50AM 5:07PM 10:04PM

1.03 ft.

-0.32 ft.

1.03 ft.

0.54 ft. FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0 0

0

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

6a

PRIME TIME

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

12:30 — 2:30 AM

1:30 — 3:30 AM

2:00 — 4:00 AM

3:00 — 5:00 AM

4:00 — 6:00 AM

5:00 — 7:00 AM

12:00 — 2:00 PM

Sunrise: 6:53a Set: 6:11p Moonrise: 2:12a Set: 1:06p AM Minor: 12:11a AM Major: 6:23a PM Minor: 12:35p PM Major: 6:47p Moon Overhead: 7:40a Moon Underfoot: 8:04p

Sunrise: 6:52a Set: 6:12p Moonrise: 3:02a Set: 1:54p AM Minor: 12:55a AM Major: 7:07a PM Minor: 1:19p PM Major: 7:31p Moon Overhead: 8:28a Moon Underfoot: 8:53p

Sunrise: 6:51a Set: 6:13p Moonrise: 3:51a Set: 2:45p AM Minor: 1:39a AM Major: 7:51a PM Minor: 2:04p PM Major: 8:16p Moon Overhead: 9:18a Moon Underfoot: 9:43p

Sunrise: 6:50a Set: 6:14p Moonrise: 4:39a Set: 3:39p AM Minor: 2:23a AM Major: 8:36a PM Minor: 2:49p PM Major: 9:01p Moon Overhead: 10:08a Moon Underfoot: 10:33p

Sunrise: 6:49a Set: 6:14p Moonrise: 5:24a Set: 4:37p AM Minor: 3:09a AM Major: 9:22a PM Minor: 3:35p PM Major: 9:47p Moon Overhead: 10:59a Moon Underfoot: 11:25p

Sunrise: 6:48a Set: 6:15p Moonrise: 6:08a Set: 5:36p AM Minor: 3:56a AM Major: 10:09a PM Minor: 4:22p PM Major: 10:35p Moon Overhead: 11:50a Moon Underfoot: None

Sunrise: 6:47a Set: 6:16p Moonrise: 6:50a Set: 6:37p AM Minor: 4:46a AM Major: 10:59a PM Minor: 5:11p PM Major: 11:24p Moon Overhead: 12:41p Moon Underfoot: 12:16a

= FALLING TIDE = RISING TIDE = DAYLIGHT HOURS = NIGHTTIME HOURS Fishing Score Moon l Overhead l Moon Graph Underfoot

READING THE GRAPH

MONDAY

27 «

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: FEET

3:43AM 10:28AM 5:31PM 10:44PM

TUESDAY High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

4:44AM 11:09AM 5:53PM 11:28PM

1.03 ft.

-0.05 ft.

0.96 ft.

0.23 ft.

Day’s Best Score

WEDNESDAY

Feb 28 « Mar 1

1.04 ft.

-0.21 ft.

1.00 ft.

0.39 ft.

MOON PHASES

High Tide: 5:53AM 1.01 ft.

Low Tide: 11:51AM 0.16 ft.

High Tide: 6:14PM 0.94 ft.

Day’s 2nd Best Score

THURSDAY

2

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

n

12:17AM 7:12AM 12:35PM 6:34PM

0.06 ft.

0.98 ft.

0.40 ft.

0.92 ft.

l = New Moon l = Full Moon = First Quarter º » = Last Quarter « = Good Day by Moon Phase

Best Day Overall

FRIDAY

3

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

1:12AM 8:43AM 1:24PM 6:51PM

-0.09 ft.

0.96 ft.

0.64 ft.

0.93 ft.

SATURDAY

4

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

2:16AM 10:26AM 2:25PM 7:05PM

-0.21 ft.

1.00 ft.

0.84 ft.

0.96 ft.

SUNDAY

5º Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

3:27AM 12:11PM 5:25PM 6:47PM

-0.31 ft.

1.07 ft.

0.98 ft.

0.98 ft. FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0 0

0

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

PRIME TIME

12a

6a

12p

6p

12a

PRIME TIME

12:30 — 2:30 PM

1:30 — 3:30 PM

2:00 — 4:00 PM

3:00 — 5:00 PM

4:00 — 6:00 PM

4:30 — 6:30 AM

12:30 — 2:30 PM

Sunrise: 6:46a Set: 6:16p Moonrise: 7:31a Set: 7:38p AM Minor: 5:38a AM Major: 11:21a PM Minor: 6:03p PM Major: ----Moon Overhead: 1:32p Moon Underfoot: 1:07a

Sunrise: 6:45a Set: 6:17p Moonrise: 8:12a Set: 8:40p AM Minor: 6:32a AM Major: 12:19a PM Minor: 6:57p PM Major: 12:45p Moon Overhead: 2:23p Moon Underfoot: 1:57a

Sunrise: 6:44a Set: 6:18p Moonrise: 8:52a Set: 9:42p AM Minor: 7:28a AM Major: 1:16a PM Minor: 7:54p PM Major: 1:41p Moon Overhead: 3:14p Moon Underfoot: 2:49a

Sunrise: 6:43a Set: 6:19p Moonrise: 9:34a Set: 10:46p AM Minor: 8:27a AM Major: 2:14a PM Minor: 8:53p PM Major: 2:40p Moon Overhead: 4:07p Moon Underfoot: 3:41a

Sunrise: 6:41a Set: 6:19p Moonrise: 10:18a Set: 11:49p AM Minor: 9:26a AM Major: 3:12a PM Minor: 9:53p PM Major: 3:40p Moon Overhead: 5:01p Moon Underfoot: 4:34a

Sunrise: 6:40a Set: 6:20p Moonrise: 11:05a Set: None AM Minor: 10:25a AM Major: 4:11a PM Minor: 10:53p PM Major: 4:39p Moon Overhead: 5:57p Moon Underfoot: 5:29a

Sunrise: 6:39a Set: 6:20p Moonrise: 11:57a Set: 12:53a AM Minor: 11:23a AM Major: 5:09a PM Minor: 11:52p PM Major: 5:37p Moon Overhead: 6:54p Moon Underfoot: 6:26a

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Texas BOATING

by LENNY RUDOW :: TF&G Boating Editor

Rigged for the Hunt

S

OME OF US HAVE A DEDIcated boat (or boats) both for fishing and hunting, but not everyone is fortunate enough to own multiple

boats.

Many of us have only one boat, and we need it to function well for both endeavors. When it comes to rigging a boat for fishing, things are pretty straightforward. You need basic items such as rodholders, livewells, and electronics.

Rigging a boat for hunting, however, is a very

1702-Boating.indd 76

different matter. That’s doubly true when you’re rigging a dual-purpose boat, that’s used for both fishing and hunting.

BLINDS are the biggest factor that often lead to disaster. Those of us who have dedicated hunting boats may be able to buy a blind designed specifically for that type of boat, but often in the case of dual-use boats (or merely when trying to save money) people build their own blind. The first mistake? Building a blind framed with timber. Wood is heavy, and a boat blind built from two-by-fours is going to add some serious weight to your boat. Then add in a couple of hunters, decoys, shotguns, and the dog, and it becomes very easy to reach an overload.

Instead of wood, consider constructing with

light aluminum tent poles or two-inch PVC. Both are strong enough to get the job done, and at a fraction of the weight. When you brush the blind, again, keep weight considerations in mind. Remember that if you wrap the frame with burlap before brushing it, you can go a lot lighter on the branches and brush and in the long run, may be able to save some more weight.

Another factor that can lead to real problems is how the blind sits on your boat. The frame itself should always sit on top of (not hang over) the gunwales and/or decking. The problem here is water. Although the blind may provide better cover extending below the gunwales, it can also catch spray as it flies off the hull and funnel it into the boat itself. Many years ago I was a guest on a boat with a home-built blind that extended below the gunwales. It was a rather rough day.

1/9/17 3:09 PM

Texas BOATING The bow was throwing off a ton of water from wave after wave, and we didn’t even notice it was being channeled into the boat until it was sloshing ankle-deep around our boots.

If you feel you need to cover the hullsides, a much better method is to leave a few extra feet of burlap or grass panels rolled up along the bottom of the blind and held in place with small bungee cords. Then remove the bungees and unroll the hullside cover when you get where you’re going.

Speaking of bungee cords, they’re the next issue. Many blinds, be they store bought or home built, incorporate cords to one degree or another in order to allow adjustments in the field. In most cases, this is necessary. But they also pose a danger to anyone hunting with a dog, or more specifically, to the dog itself.

More than once, I’ve seen an excited pup get a leg tangled in a cord as it tried to exit the boat to make a retrieve. To solve this problem, keep extra cord tightly wrapped or coiled and secured with a tie-wrap or a Velcro strap. After deploying the blind, be sure to check for loose cords, before beginning the hunt.

OUTBOARDS are the next item in question. The first issue is camouflage; not everyone wants to paint that nice, pretty cowl. And throwing grass mats over an outboard also isn’t a good idea, if you care about the finish.

As it shifts in wind and waves, those grasses will eventually scratch and dull the engine’s finish.

Burlap isn’t a whole lot better, because it always seems to gather abrasive sand, sticks, and leaves. The best solution is to purchase an aftermarket camo cover, which you can put over the motor before you hunt. Or use a regular canvas cover, and throw some brush on top of that.

Another outboard issue hunters often encounter is propeller deterioration, from grinding through muck and mud. First off, whenever you go through the muck be sure to give your engine an extra-long freshwater flush at the end of the day, and get all the residual grime out of the water pump. That said, your propeller is likely to become worn down by mud through long-term use.

There’s really no way to prevent this short of replacing the prop, but if this is a perpetual issue with the areas you hunt, consider rigging your boat with a four-blade prop. Yes, you will lose a couple MPH at top-end, but the extra blade

Email Lenny Rudow at ContactUs@fishgame.com

GUN BOXES are another important item on a hunting boat, but on a boat used for fishing they’re probably just going to get in the way. A great solution is to get an extra-large marine cooler.

The exact dimensions you need will vary with brand, but yes, you will need one of those giant models, and they are a bit pricy. The beauty of using an extra-large marine cooler instead mounting add-on boxes, however, is that during fishing season your boat will have a giant fish hold.

They’re water-tight, do double-duty as bench seating, and can be secured to the deck of most boats with a $15 set of corner braces. One caveat: you have to remember that unlike the gun boxes on many dedicated hunting boats, a cooler can’t be locked. If you stop for lunch on the way home from your hunt, you need to remember to pull the guns out of the boat and secure them under lock and key in your vehicle.

DECOY RACKS may or may not be desired, but I can’t help mentioning a really impressive rig I saw a few years back. The boat owner had built a removable egg-crate-like structure out of lauan with slots for all his decoys.

It fit into the central section of his boat between two bench seats. It was painted with fiberglass resin so it wouldn’t rot, and he had a piece of plywood cut to size. The plywood sat on top of the grid-like structure and functioned as a raised deck.

When he got to his hunting spot he removed the plywood, tossed it onto the shore, and all his decoys were well-organized and exposed for setting the spread.

After the dekes were deployed he put the plywood deck back over the grid, set up his blind, and was ready for the hunt.

Most of us—myself included—aren’t quite so picky about how we stow our decoys, but the system worked like a charm and eliminated the usual hassle of un-tangling bagged or piled T E X A S

1702-Boating.indd 77

decoys. In the spring, he simply removed the whole structure, put it in his shed, and his boat was once again a fishing boat. Nifty.

area will help make up for the surface area lost over time.

In the long run, you’ll find you need to replace your propeller about half as soon as you would with a three-blade. If you often hunt with a big crew, you’ll also gain the benefit of easier planning with a heavy load. Come fishing season, there won’t be any additional downsides.

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The Practical ANGLER

by GREG BERLOCHER | TF&G Contributing Editor

Speed Perch

few days and are then carried downstream to the main lake by the moving water.

Locate an area where white bass are staging prior to spawning, and it is possible to catch a 25-fish per person limit in 25 casts.

When you fish a creek, look for things that constrict the flowing water. White bass will seek out eddies, where they can loiter and take respite from the flowing water. Sandbars, creek bends, and fallen trees all cause breaks in the current, providing the fish with areas to rest and then dart out to grab a meal.

Sand and gravel bars are prevalent in creeks,

I

T HAS BEEN SAID THAT CAESAR Augustus disliked the month of February so much that he shortened it to 28 days, just so that it would be over sooner.

Although scholars might take issue with the details of this account, most anglers share the emperor’s distaste for the second month. The wet and cold weather of winter puts a damper on the shirtsleeve fishing we all enjoy. But hark!

Valentines Day is the traditional kickoff date for the white bass spawn, giving anglers a good reason to shake off the winter doldrums.

Morone chrysops is a schooling fish, found predominantly in the open water of large reservoirs. Known also as sand bass, sandies, and speed perch, white bass require moving water to spawn.

They migrate from the main body of a lake into creeks and tributaries. Depending on the lake and its location, migration may begin as early as December or as late as April. Males move into prime spawning areas about a month before females do.

White bass continue moving upstream, stopping when they reach a restriction that halts their migration. This may be a shallow sandbar in the headwaters of a creek or a dam on a major river. White bass stack up in these choke points, with large numbers of males and males contending for a finite amount of food.

Competition is great, and a well-placed jig or spoon will draw quick strikes.

White bass do not build nests, but are free spawners. When the time is right, females release their eggs and males release milt.

Fertilized eggs cling to bottom structure for a 78

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White bass

and there is usually a pool of deeper, slower water just below most bars. White bass stack up in the pools, hiding from the current and conserving their energy for the spawn.

White bass aren’t picky about what they eat, and I have caught them on a wide assortment of lures. In college, while fishing Yegua Creek above Lake Sommerville, I was bound and determined to catch a white bass on a Jitterbug. I finally did but realized that my fishing buddies had strung almost 20 fish on jigs while I was slinging a topwater bait.

Crappie jigs, spoons, and Roadrunners are good choices for spawning whites. Lure color doesn’t seem to be as important as the minnow-like silhouette of the lure; however, I have had days when the fish would only hit one par|

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ticular color. White and yellow are my standard go-to colors in clean water, with chartreuse and hot pink in dirty water. I will often start the day with a double jig rig, knotting on two different color jigs to see if the fish have a preference. If I catch a handful, all on one color, it is a good clue that this color is important that day.

Since these payloads are small, a spinning reel loaded with light line is a superior choice over a baitcasting outfit. If you have more than one rod in the quiver, opt for the outfit that can cast the lightest lure with ease.

To increase your chances of success, cast your lure upstream of a sandbar and “swim” the bait along with the current. As the jig clears the sandbar, allow it to fall into the deeper pool while keeping a tight line. More often than not,

your efforts will draw a viscous strike from a hungry white bass.

White bass are pretty good table fare if they are fileted and the strip of red meat removed. The fillets freeze well and are a great option when the family wants to have a fish fry.

White bass are prolific spawners, with young females laying almost a million eggs per year. As such, TPWD sets very generous bag limits of 25 fish per day. White bass must be 10-inches minimum length to be kept.

If the shortest month of the year has you in a blue funk, be encouraged. Spawning white bass are a harbinger that short sleeve fishing is just around the corner.

Email Greg Berlocher at ContactUs@fishgame.com

ILLUSTRATION: WIDIMEDIA COMMONS

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Texas GUNS

by STEVE LAMASCUS | TF&G Shooting Editor

The Ruger Hawkeye in 6.5 Creedmoor

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RECENTLY WROTE AN ARTICLE on the 6.5 caliber cartridges. In it I mentioned the 6.5 Creedmoor. I have since had an opportunity to use it more and I think it’s time to cover it more completely.

As I said previously, it was originally designed as a target cartridge. However, many of the folks who shoot targets also hunt, and many hunters are wise in the ways of ballistics. Consequently, the 6.5 Creedmoor is fast becoming a well-used and loved hunting

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cartridge.

My 6.5 is a stainless-steel Ruger M77 Hawkeye, with a 24-inch barrel and a laminated stock. It has had no accuracy work done on it, because it doesn’t need any. Tacked to the wall of my shop is a target with three different 3-shot groups. They measure .820 inches, .960 inches, and .700 inches. The two larger groups were shot with 120-grain Barnes TSX bullets, and the smallest was shot with 130-grain Nosler AccuBonds.

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All were fired using IMR 4350 powder in Hornady cases with CCI 200 primers. Because I bought the gun to hunt with, this level of accuracy is more than sufficient. Since then I have shot a lot more groups with the little gun and it will average about 3/4 of an inch for three shots.

It loves the 130-grain AccuBond, likes the 120-grain TSX, but for some odd reason does not seem to like the Hornady GMX bullets that were, I suppose, designed for the cartridge. Go figure.

I recently took the 6.5 to a Hill Country ranch that is being overrun with wild hogs and aoudads. The rancher is a close friend and

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invited me and another friend to shoot some of the too plentiful aoudads and hogs and take an axis deer for meat, if we saw one. I was anxious to try the little 6.5 on game before I made any claims as to its ability in

the field.

The first afternoon in the blind a herd of about 15 aoudads showed up. I picked out a medium sized ram and shot it on the point of the shoulder as it faced me. I wanted to recover the 120-grain TSX bullet, to see how it performed on meat and thought that angle should give enough animal to stop the bullet.

At the shot the aoudad just folded up and hit the ground with a thud. Strangely, the rest of the herd just ran a few yards and stopped to stare at the one lying on the ground. It almost seemed like one of the “stands” I have read about in the old buffalo hunters’ journals.

Since I had not asked the rancher what to do if I had a chance to shoot more than one aoudad, I pulled out my cell phone and texted him.

“I shot one small ram and the herd is still here. What do you want me to do? “ Shoot a female,” he replied.

I looked the herd over with my binocular and noticed one small female that had a badly crippled hind leg. I put the crosshairs on her ribs and carefully squeezed the trigger. She ran about 20 yards and crumpled in a pile of prickly pears.

The first shot had been at about a hundred yards, the second at about 75.

When it was time to leave the blind, I went over to the aoudad to check on bullet performance. Both were complete penetration shots. The ram was hit on the point of the left shoulder, and the bullet exited toward the rear of his ribs on the right side. The female was hit center chest on the left side; the bullet exited about the same place on the right side.

Obviously, I had no TSX bullets to examine, but performance was plain to see in the dead animals sprawled on the ground. Equally obviously, the 6.5 Creedmoor is plenty of cartridge for aoudad.

The 6.5 Creedmoor was designed by shooters, for shooters. It has all the attributes that a shooter and reloader wants in a cartridge. The

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bullets can be seated out to whatever length the shooter wants and still fit in the magazine. This is because the 6.5 Creedmoor was designed from the git-go as a short-action cartridge. The case necks are, also, sufficiently long to hold the bullet friction tight.

With the bullet seated far out to be the correct distance from the lands and grooves, the total powder capacity of the case is available to the handloader because the bullet does not intrude into the powder chamber, something you will not find in most commercially avail-

able cartridges. Last, but not least, the recoil is amazingly mild.

For a pleasant change, I find the 6.5 Creedmoor to be all it is cracked up to be. I recommend it without reservations. It may be one of the best rounds ever offered for ladies, kids, and other recoil-conscious hunters.

Email Steve LaMascus at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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Industry INSIDER Fisherman’s Lodge on the White River TEXAS ANGLERS WANTING TO TRY their luck at catching rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout need only to make a short trip into Arkansas and fish on the famous White River to realize their dream.

David Capps, a full time guide with 38 years experience invites Texas anglers to stay at Fishermans Lodge located 12 miles downstream on the White River below Bull Shoals Reservoir dam. The two story lodge offers a fresh, comfortable, modern place to stay with home-cooked meals at a surprisingly affordable price for up to 21 people.

Besides the accommodations, Fishermans Lodge can provide fishing license, meals, tackle and White River Guides.

Capps and many of the other guides fish from boats built for the White River. The 20 foot, 7 inches, 48 inches wide, equipped crafts are equipped with comfortable chairs, and can fish three people per boat.”

And, Fishermans Lodge in Cotter, Arkansas also features a 75 seat conference center that is perfect for meetings, corporate retreats, large-group trout fishing trips, weddings, parties and family reunions Ninety miles of fishing excitement: “From Bull Shoals down you can catch trout on 90 miles of river,” says Capps. “It’s world renowned for numbers of rainbows and super huge browns.” The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission annually stocks over a million trout into 90 miles of the White River.

“You have your stocked fish, and then you have your hold over’s from last year’s stocking and they continue to grow. You also have natural spawn fish, both the browns and the rainbows primarily in the late fall and early winter. There is always a good population of fish in the river.”

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The Fisherman’s Lodge

all the time. Some get exceptionally large, like the 19-pound, 1-ounce rainbow or the 33-pound, 8-ounce brown trout caught in 1977.

Missouri angler Tony Salamon landed a 30-pound, 8-ounce brown trout in 1986 that set a new world line-class record for 6-pound-test line. Very few browns grow that large, of course. But 5-10 pounders are common, and anglers have a good chance of landing an 11-20 pound trophy.

As an added bonus, White River anglers can also find cutthroat and brook trout.

Cutthroats were first stocked in 1983, but the river has already produced 9-poundplus fish. Brook trout are a rare catch, but they have reached up to four pounds in the North Fork of the White.

“Realistically you have a good oppor-

Rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout are caught year-round.

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tunity to catch 20 inch plus browns on the White river. It’s just a tremendous fishery.

It’s a year-round fishery. There are a couple of closed stretches, catch and release areas, heavy spawning areas, which are closed for three months during the wintertime, but the rest of the river is open for fishing.”

The White’s upper reaches can produce trophy trout every month of the year.

December and January offer great fishing opportunities for pre-spawn brown trout.

Rainbow trout are also very busy looking for eggs that wash out of the brown trout spawning beds with catches of 50 plus fish plus per day as normal.

If you want to have a chance to catch a trophy, one of Capps favorite times is February-March after the big fish have spawned.

April and May offer great fishing along with moderate daily temperatures.

Even in the summer months of June through August, the water temperature in the river maintains an average of 60 degrees providing good fishing. Come September and October the fishing continues good and Mother Nature puts on a great show with the trees changing colors.

“We do both bait fishing and fly fishing,” says Capps. “In April it’s a really good chance of catching a big fish on a fly rod because of the Cadis Fly hatch. As it warms up more with discharges from the Bull Shoal you will get a lot of worms that are washed PHOTOS: THE FISHERMAN’S LODGE

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into the river, the trout will go on a worm bite. You can fish plastic worms, natural worms, or yarn worms on a flyrod…it keeps changing. Whole crawdads become a top producer of the larger trophy fish during the months of June through September.

“We catch lots of fish all year long, every month of the year,” says Capps. “On a normal day on the White River, say if you have two anglers per boat, Capps says they are going to catch 25-35 trout each. “They will have a realistically good chance to catch a brown trout between 20-24 inches. You can do that every month of the year.”

For more information visit their website, thefishermanslodge.com or call toll free 800268-3474.

—by TOM BEHRENS

••• San Antonio Boat & Travel Trailer Show Returns To The Alamodome THE SAN ANTONIO BOAT & TRAVEL Trailer Show will return to the Alamodome February 9th-12th, 2017. This familyfriendly event is expected to attract 10,000 outdoor enthusiasts to explore boats and travel trailers of all kinds.

New for 2017, a children’s activity area featuring kid-fishing by the Texas Junior Anglers will provide a boat-load of fun for the little ones. Kids will also love the bouncy slides and inflatable bubble runners. For boating enthusiasts, there will be unbeatable deals on wakeboard boats, cruisers, pontoons and fishing boats, among other watercraft. For those who prefer to keep their travel on the ground, vehicles such as fifth wheels and toy haulers will be on display for an up close look. This is the perfect opportunity for consumers to get an up-close look at a vast array of inventory all under one roof!

Boating accessories and related services will be also be showcased including boat lifts, deck builders, fishing rods and reels, push poles and campgrounds.

Participating dealers include Boat Town, Lake LBJ Marineland, Kent Power Sports, Master Marine, Premier Yamaha Boating PHOTOS: TOP, SAN ANTONIO BOAT & TRAVEL TRAILER SHOW; BOTTOM, XPRESS BOATS

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The choice to run an Xpress was an easy decision for Skylar, as Xpress Boats has more than 50 years of experience innovating and perfecting the manufacturing process including its Hyper-Lift Pad Hull. The Hyper-Lift hull design is capable of performing flawlessly in all conditions—shallow, rough—while providing the angler with a smooth, safe, dry ride. Xpress is the only aluminum manufacturer capable of running the large 4 stroke engines such as the Yamaha 250SHO with performance in most cases superior to comparable glass boats. Coupled with best in class components, performance and fishability, this is a win / win not only for Skylar but other competitive fisherman wanting the best of all worlds at a fraction of the cost.

Skylar stated that this is the beginning of an “Epic” paradigm shift for the elite series and competitive angling. I am ecstatic to be part of the Xpress Boats family and the future of high performance aluminum bass boats at this level.

The Alamodome

Centers, NewWater Boatworks, Sail & Ski Center, South Austin Marine, Austin Boats & Motors, Woods Cycle Country, Outdoor Living RV and more!

“This event is timed perfectly for the start of the vacation-planning season, as families begin making their recreational and travel schedule for the coming year” says Jennifer McKinney, Marketing Manager for the event.

Whether your passion is in the water or on land, experience all the Texas outdoor lifestyle has to offer by attending the San Antonio Boat & Travel Trailer Show.

Hours of Operation are: • Thursday, Feb. 9: 4:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

• Friday, Feb. 10: 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

• Sat, Feb. 11: 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

• Sunday, Feb. 12: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase on-site: Adults $10, Children 7-12 and Seniors 60+ $6, Children under 7: Free Visit SanAntonioBoatShow.com.

••• Skylar Hamilton Chooses Xpress Boats

Skylar Hamilton

Xpress Boats is family owned and operated by the Herndon family since 1966.

Nearly 50 years ago in an old schoolhouse in Friendship, AR Kermit Bryant’s dream was to develop the original “all-welded” aluminum boat. Today Xpress operates out of a state of the art manufacturing facility in Hot Springs, AR producing top of the line hunting and fishing boats for just about any application.

Visit www.xpressboats.com for more information.

XPRESS BOATS, THE ORIGINAL ALLWelded Aluminum Boat Manufacturer has been chosen by Skylar Hamilton, 2016 Bassmaster Arkansas River Open Winner and Elite Series qualifier as his boat of choice for the 2017 Bassmasters Classic.

Rory Herndon, President of Xpress Boats said that he is most excited about having Skylar on board running their top of the line Xclusive Series X21 high performance aluminum bass boat in this year’s Classic and Elite Series.

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Fish and Game GEAR End-to-End Storytelling with Cloud-Connected HERO5 Cameras

HERO5 line of cameras can auto-upload photos and videos to GoPro Plus, a cloudbased subscription service that makes it easy to access, edit and share GoPro content anytime, anywhere using a phone or computer.

HERO5 Black is the most powerful, easy-to-use GoPro, ever. Exciting features include: • 2-inch Touch Display + Simplified Controls • Video Resolutions up to 4K at 30 Frames per Second • Professional Quality 12MP Photos • Auto-Upload of Photos and Video to Cloud when Camera is Charging* • Voice Control with Support for 7 Languages (additional languages coming) • Simple 1-Button Control • Waterproof Without a Housing to 33 Feet (10m) • Compatible with Existing GoPro Mounts, Including Karma • Stereo Audio Recording and Advanced Wind Noise Reduction • Professional-Grade Electronic Video Stabilization • Distortion-Free Wide Angle Video and Photos with New Linear-View Setting • RAW and WDR Photo Modes • GPS HERO5 Black cameras are available now for an MSRP of $399.99. Learn more HERE.

GOPRO, INC. UNVEILED NEW PRODucts and services that dramatically simplify the process of capturing, editing and sharing engaging content, establishing GoPro as an end-to-end storytelling solution.

In addition to significant gains in performance and convenience, GoPro’s all-new

Top: GoPro 5 Black; Bottom: GoPro 5 Session.

HERO5 Session shares the same small design and brilliant convenience of the original HERO Session camera, but benefits from significant 84

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performance upgrades: • Video Resolutions up to 4K at 30 Frames per Second • Professional Quality 10MP Photos • Auto-Upload of Photos and Video to Cloud when Camera is Charging* • Voice Control with Support for 7 Languages (additional languages coming) • Simple 1-Button Control • Waterproof Without a Housing to 33 Feet (10m) • Compatible with Existing GoPro, Mounts Including Karma • Professional-Grade Electronic Video Stabilization • Distortion-Free Wide Angle Video and Photos with new Linear-View Setting HERO5 Session cameras are available now for an MSRP of $299.99.

Learn more at ShopGoPro.com.

Penn Slammer Back by Popular Demand PROFESSIONAL ANGLERS AND charter captains trust the name PENN. One of those trusted reels is the Slammer III featuring the new IPX6 Sealed System to keep water out of the gear box and drag system in heavy spray and sea conditions.

The Slammer III also incorporates the PENN proprietary sealed Dura-Drag system with washers that

Penn brings back the Slammer.

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eliminate hesitation even under extreme drag settings. With the computer-controlled CNC gear technology system, the precision brass main, pinion and oscillation gears are individually machined for exact tolerances to provide the smoothest operation.

Gear ratios range from 6.2:1 with 37 inches of line retrieve on the smaller reels to 4.2:1 with 43 inches of line retrieve on the largest. Maximum drags start at 30 pounds in the smaller models to 60 pounds on the largest.

Eight models of the Slammer III are

ATI Blows the Stock Market Away

hunting. Weighing 5.2 pounds, the Micro 355 is 25 inches wide uncocked, 33.5 inches in length and has a 10-inch power stroke.

Additional Excalibur technologies featured on the Micro 355 include the Gen II CRT limb system, compact limbs 60 percent stronger than the most durable limbs on the market today; the Quad-Loc riser, which contains each limb on all four sides for added consistency and accuracy; the Guardian Anti-Dry-Fire System, which

ATI’S NEW T3 12-GAUGE SHOTGUN Stock is an update to the widely successful T2 Shotgun Stock line that was introduced by the Wisconsin company in 2013. The new T3 Stock features an updated recoil reducing pistol grip, a TactLite six-position stock, and adapters for multiple 12-gauge shotgun platforms included in one package.

ATI’s new T3 12-gauge shotgun stock.

offered to cover a wide range of inshore, near shore and offshore angling opportunities from the pier, beach or boat. The 3500 Slammer III is the smallest of the family weighing 13.9 ounces while the 10500 weighs 43.1 ounces. Slammer III prices start at $249.95 MSRP.

Excalibur’s Power Packed Micro 355 BUILT ON THE INCREDIBLY POPUlar Micro 335 platform, the new Micro 355 packs incredible speed and power into an ultra-compact design. Imagine the Micro 335 loaded with more power, and that’s what to expect from Excalibur’s flagship crossbow.

Reliability, maneuverability, incredible performance and ease of use are all a part of the Micro 355 package, but we threw in bone-crushing speed and power for the hunter who means business in the field.

The Micro 355 features the new, stylish and comfortable Feather-Lite Skeletonized stock with rubber grip inserts for unmatched control and feel, and it comes with an ambidextrous cheek piece and oversized finger guards for coldweather

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Excalibur Micro 355 crossbow.

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“For the third generation of a ATI’s premier shotgun stock line we wanted to refine both the grip and mounting system based on extensive field use and testing of the platform,” said Amanda Mapes, National Sales Manager. “We added more Scorpion Recoil Material to a slimmed version of our ergonomic pistol grip and worked to simplify the mounting system. The mounting system is now easier for the consumer to install and also makes the stock available to more shotgun brands.”

The shotgun brands and models supported by the T3 Stock are the, Remington 870 & 887, Mossberg 500/535/590/835, Winchester SXP, FN P-12, TriStar Raptor & Tec-12, and the Stevens 320.

Other features of the new ATI stock are the adjustable cheek rest and X2 Scorpion Recoil Pad for added comfort while shooting. The stock, like all of ATI’s USA Made products, is also covered by a limited lifetime warranty.

catches the string if the trigger is pulled without an arrow in place; and the Recoil Energy Dissipation System (R.E.D.S.), which suppresses the strings when fired to reduce shock, vibration and noise.

With a compact size and blazing speeds, the Micro 355 is the perfect crossbow for situations where space is tight but power is necessary. We didn’t compromise on the durability and reliability consumers expect from an Excalibur crossbow. The Micro 355 will withstand the most difficult conditions and the test of time.

The Micro 355 is pure power in a small package, and comes decked out with a Realtree Xtra® finish and the most reliable accessories on the market today including a Tact-Zone illuminated scope, four-arrow quiver, four Quill arrows and a rope-cocking aid. Suggested retail price on the Micro 355 is $1,199.

Visit www.excaliburcrossbow.com.

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Fish and Game GEAR t CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

For further details or purchasing information about the ATI T3 Shotgun Stock, visit www.atigunstocks.com. The stock will also be finding its way to store shelves soon, as dealers and distributors now have full ordering access.

Casting a New Path to One-Piece Performance FLY AFICIONADOS OPENLY DIScuss how a one-piece fly rod feels in hand.

They extoll the virtues on how it loads, the control the design provides and more. Blindfold these same anglers…place a SOLE

Quality design requires components that accentuate the performance. A Fuji® TVS reel seat matched with a Kigan titanium frame stripper guide(s) and hook-keeper along with REC® Recoil® snake guides provide years of lightweight, corrosion-proof performance. Super-grade cork handles and two coats of Flex Coat slow-cure finish provide the final touches these rods require.

Each SOLE rod is equipped with a deluxe mesh sack with two tip section pouches for lightweight protection.

Designed and handcrafted in Park Falls, Wisconsin, SOLE rods retail for $340-$360.

Each of the cutting edge SOLE rods include a 15-year transferrable warranty backed by St. Croix Superstar Service.

St. Croix Rod is a family-owned and managed manufacturer of high-performance fishing rods headquartered in Park Falls,

St. Croix SOLE

bamboo fishing poles for a Minneapolis hardware store chain, St. Croix has grown to become the largest manufacturer of fishing rods in North America.

A New Magazine Hits the Rack THE NEW DANIEL Defense Magazine is the only magazine worthy of the Daniel Defense name. Built with the same legendary quality and exacting specifications as our rifles, this lightweight magazine holds up to 32 5.56mm rounds and is molded from a durable carbon-fiberreinforced polymer.

An improved feed-lip design and an enhanced anti-tilt follower provide smooth, reliable feeding, while an impact-absorbing The new Daniel Defense Magazine.

fly rod in their hands…and they would all tell you…it IS a one-piece rod. One-piece performance; Two-piece mobility. Offered in 4wt. to 12 wt.; fresh and saltwater anglers alike will add SOLE to their rod assortment.

The heart of the nine SOLE rods is in the proprietary IPC® tooled blank that is supported by St. Croix’s ART™ system. SCIV graphite combined with our unique FRS process provides unparalleled strength and durability. Engineering artistry is illustrated in the “slim-profile” ferrule which provides true one-piece performance. Weight coded alignment marks illustrate a complete and thoughtful process. Intelligent design is further illustrated with the provision of a second tip that matches perfectly to the rod.

While you may never need the extra tip…it provides that extra layer of insurance when on that “trip of a lifetime”.

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Wisconsin with a 68-year heritage of USA manufacturing. Utilizing proprietary technologies, St. Croix controls every step of the rod-making process, from conception and design to manufacturing and inspection, in two company-owned facilities. The company offers a complete line of premium, American-made fly, spinning and casting rods under their Legend Elite,® Legend® Xtreme, Legend Tournament,® Avid Series,® Premier,® Wild River,® Tidemaster,® Imperial® and other trademarks through a global distribution network of full-service fishing tackle dealers. The company’s mid-priced Triumph,® Mojo Bass/Musky/Inshore/ Surf, Eyecon® and Rio Santo series rods are designed and engineered in Park Falls, Wisconsin and built in a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Fresnillo, Mexico.

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baseplate design adds to the magazine’s overall durability. A non-snag design and textured surfaces for an enhanced grip make inserting and removing this magazine nearly effortless, and dissembling it for maintenance is nearly as easy.

For reliability, durability, ease of maintenance, and legendary Daniel Defense quality in a magazine for your 5.56mm rifle, go with the name you can trust. Go with Daniel Defense.

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Texas TESTED Go Deeper with Sonar I AM A BANK FISHERMAN. I spent years fishing out of a boat but began from the bank and after getting rid of my boat to reduce expenses around the household, I came full circle and became a bank fisherman again.

One of the largest disadvantages to being land bound has been the inability to scan cover and structure and to utilize modern fish finding electronics to pinpoint fish. That problem has been solved.

Enter Deeper, a bobber-shaped sonar unit about the size of something I would soak a hunk of chicken liver under to catch channel catfish. But it is much more than a bobber.

The Deeper Smart FishFinder 3.0 like all Deeper units is a sonar you can cast and that connects with smart devices. This unit is compatible with Android and iOS. Simply cast into the water and via Bluetooth connection it sends back the structure of the bottom, vegetation readouts, depth, temperature and if they are present-fish location.

The Deeper Pro and Pro Plus are both compatible with smartphones and tablets running iOS 8.0 or later, and Android 4.0 or later. The downloadable app also gives the angler features such as a Solunar Forecast calendar, a Weather Forecast, Fish Notes, and more. These units operate on an independent WiFi connection so you can use them anywhere as long as the unit and device are in working order. They actually allow you to use them in areas you cannot get cell service because Deeper emits its own WiFi field.

I have had a couple of opportunities to tinker with Deeper units and I am the perfect person to test because I am not the best at technical devices. If I can use it, pretty

The Deeper Smart FishFinder 3.0 is a castable sonar able to cover 130 feet of water, both down and across.

where most fishing is done from the bank. I have had the privilege of fishing with some of the best bank fishermen on the planet in Spain’s Segra River for huge Wels catfish. If this product had been available when I fished there in 2005, I wonder how many more fish we might have caught.

The Europeans are innovators when it comes to bank fishing and they have come up with a product that will not only have a great impact on the land bound but those in kayaks here in Texas.

If you get the top of the line, the Deeper Smart Sonar Pro Plus you scan out to 260 feet and have the ability to send 330 feet out and stay connected with your smart device.

That takes the edge off bank and kayak fishing and opens up many fishing possibilities.

Visit buydeeper.com.

Savvy surf anglers like to get in some of the deep bowls in the surf and make sure to get either into or past certain “guts” in the surf. A deeper unit can make that happen easily.

For land bound bay fishermen it can help pinpoint hidden baitfish under the current.

Locating sub-surface schools of shad and other fish can allow the angler to make casts where the predators are most likely to be.

I fish a huge public pond that is more aptly described as a lake that has a decent crappie population. Deeper is now allowing me to scan some of the logs and brush that are at the edge of my casting distance to seek out the schools of crappie that tend to move around frequently. There is no using casting to cover with no fish.

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get a readout instead of paddling in some of those spooky redfish might end up in the boat instead of eluding us. There is also a kayak mount that can be purchased separately that allows using it in a more standard fish finder way.

Those are just a few ways that I came up to use this truly interesting product.

The manufacturer is based out of Europe

much anyone can and the units are very easy to use. Once the unit and smart device are in sync, turn on, cast and start scanning your fishing area.

The things that popped into my mind while playing with the device were ways it can benefit several different kinds of fishing situations right here in Texas.

One great option is for surf fishermen.

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—by CHESTER MOORE

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Texas TASTED

by BRYAN SLAVEN :: The Texas Gourmet

Boudin Chops

Boudin-stuffed and brined bone-in chops.

THIS RECIPE IS GREAT FOR ENTERtaining and tastes just as great as it appears on the plate, I use Venison Boudin, but regular Boudin will work just fine 4—At least 1 inch thick pork chops, brined for 2 to 4 hours.**

For the Brine:

Grill over charcoal and apple or cherry wood cooking indirectly for approx. 16 to 18 minutes per side at approx. 300ºF. Carefully turn but try to hold in the stuffing when turning.

Remove from the grill and rest under a piece of foil on a hot platter for 5 minutes and brush with Lemon Rosemary grilling sauce before transferring to the plates for serving.

Why Brining Keeps Turkey and Other Meats So Moist A food scientist explains how a soak in a salt solution makes lean meat, like turkey, juicier and more flavorful Roasted turkey breast, sautéed pork chops, and stir-fried shrimp all tend to suffer a common fate when they’re cooked even a few minutes longer than necessary: they get dry and tough.

Actually, any kind of meat or fish will taste like shoe leather if it’s severely overcooked, but turkey, pork, and shrimp are particularly vulnerable because they’re so lean. Luckily, there’s a simple solution (literally) for this problem. Soaking these types of leaner meats in a brine—a solution of salt and water—will help ensure moister, juicier results.

Thick cut pork chops ( 4 ) 2 to 4 hours with ½ cup of kosher salt to 1 quart of cold water, add a few peppercorns, 2 crushed garlic cloves ,1 juiced orange and 2 tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon of freshly chopped rosemary leaves 2 Cups Boudin, remove from the casings transfer to a bowl and add 1/3 cup freshly sliced green onion (you can add 6 to 8 fresh oysters to the stuffing if you like) 1 Beaten Egg Texas Gourmet’s Sidewinder Searing Spice Texas Gourmet’s Lemon, Rosemary Habanero Grilling Sauce Preheat an oven to 350ºF. Mix the Boudin well with the egg. Cut a pocket into the side of each brined chop, coming about 1/2 an inch from going through the other side. Season inside the pocket with Texas Gourmet’s Sidewinder Searing Spice.

Stuff about 1/2 cup of the Boudin mixture into each chop, or as much as you can fit in without over stuffing it. Season the outside of the chops lightly with Texas Gourmet’s Sidewinder Searing Spice to taste.

Heat a cast iron skillet until good and hot.

Brush the chops with Texas Gourmet’s Lemon Rosemary Habanero Grilling Sauce and sear on both sides until nicely browned. Finish in the oven until just cooked through and the Boudin is hot. Brush with the glaze and serve with your favorite sides.

They can also be prepared on a grill smoker.

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How a Brine Works Moisture loss is inevitable when you cook any type of muscle fiber. Heat causes raw individual coiled proteins in the fibers to unwind—the technical term is denature—and then join together with one another, resulting in some shrinkage and moisture loss. (By |

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the way, acids, salt, and even air can have the same denaturing effect on proteins as heat.)

Normally, meat loses about 30 percent of its weight during cooking. But if you soak the meat in a brine first, you can reduce this moisture loss during cooking to as little as 15 percent, according to Dr. Estes Reynolds, a brining expert at the University of Georgia.

Of all the processes at work during brining, the most significant is salt’s ability to denature proteins. The dissolved salt causes some of the proteins in muscle fibers to unwind and swell. As they unwind, the bonds that had held the protein unit together as a bundle break.

Water from the brine binds directly to these proteins, but even more important, water gets trapped between these proteins when the meat cooks and the proteins bind together. Some of this would happen anyway just during cooking, but the brine unwinds more proteins and exposes more bonding sites. As long as you don’t overcook the meat, which would cause protein bonds to tighten and squeeze out a lot of the trapped liquid, these natural juices will be retained.

Email Bryan Slaven at bryan@thetexasgourmet.com **Thick cut pork chops ( 4 )—2 to 4 hours with ½ cup of kosher salt to 1 quart of cold water, add a few peppercorns, 2 crushed garlic cloves ,1 juiced orange and 2 tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon of freshly chopped rosemary leaves PHOTO: BRYAN SLAVEN

1/9/17 3:00 PM

Outdoor DIRECTORY Guides & Outfitters

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TIPS from the PROs PROs Gear Suggestions

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Electronics

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The BASS University

by PETE ROBBINS :: for TF&G and Bass University

Pitching for Bass in February

around, and that’s when Klein’s at his best.

“As an angler, I’m very efficient at that time,” he said. “I’m using a long rod, which gives me leverage. I’m usually using heavier line, either braid or fluorocarbon. Most importantly, I’m using a bait with a single hook.”

Although that could connote either a jig or a Texas Rig, in February Klein tends to lean most heavily on the jig. He’s not fishing for numbers, but rather for big bites, and that’s what the jig tends to produce.

Regardless of what part of the lake he’s fishing on, he’ll often start by keying in on bushes just off a creek channel. They’re usually on the steeper banks as opposed to the flat banks, so his boat may be sitting in 15 feet of water as opposed to in four feet.

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RESH OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL, Gary Klein moved from California to Texas to begin his bass fishing career, largely because the Lone Star State is blessed with so many great manmade reservoirs.

“There are no bad ones,” he said. “But some are better than others.” He’s fished many of them at their peaks, from Rayburn to Toledo Bend to Falcon to Amistad, and while they all have their differences, no matter where he goes one of his favorite ways to attack their bass in February is with a pitching or flipping stick in the thickest cover he can find.

“One of the best jig bites I ever had in Texas was in February,” he recalled. “I was filming with Jerry McKinnis at Lake Fork, and it was such an obvious pattern as soon as I got the first bite. The fish were suspended in the tops of really thick cedar trees that were in 15 to 20 feet of water. The jig wouldn’t sink a foot before you’d feel them hit it. The key was that they were all set up on points. Any thick cedar on a point in a bay had a fish, or multiple fish.”

He’s constantly watching weather changes at this time of year, both leading up to his fishing trips and during the course of the day. The water temperatures are most often in the upper 40s or low 50s, and on sunny afternoons “the big females set up and get in shallow water to soak in the rays. I know they’re coming out of a winter mode. They’re moving up from behind me, and I’m looking where they want to go.”

In addition to wanting to move toward the bank, they’re also looking to immerse themselves in heavy cover. They want to be, Klein said, “where they don’t have to worry about anyone taking up their real estate.” That often, but not always means the thickest cover 92

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Gary Klein

Klein said that the most important part of his presentation is to figure out whether the bass are “sight feeders” or “lateral line feeders.”

On a lake like Sam Rayburn, there may be two distinct populations, sight feeders in the lower lake where it’s clearer, and lateral line feeders above the bridges where the water is more off-colored.

With both groups, he’s looking for calmer water, protected from heavy winds, but once he finds them his approach may differ. “With sight feeders you don’t have to be as persistent,” he explained. “They’ll travel to get the jig.

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es or flips to get them to bite.”

He prefers to hand-tie his own Boss jigs, which are made with heavy hooks, but the color, the noisemakers and the trailers vary depending on location. For lateral line feeders, he prefers a Berkley Chigger Craw as his trailer, because “the movement is phenomenal.” He loads up both the jig and the craw with rattles, and might pitch “five, six, seven or even eight times to one target….shake, jiggle, jiggle.”

On the lower end of the lake, where he’ll often find two to three feet of visibility, his presentation will be slightly altered. First, he’ll pitch much more than he’ll flip, to keep the boat at an ample distance from the more skittish fish. Second, he’ll typically only make one or two good pitches to a target and have confidence that if they’re there, they’ll bite.

He’ll also use a different trailer, often a Pit Boss, which still has bulk, but not the same aggressive movement as the Chigger Craw.

Klein warned that modern technology—for example, improved electronics, more powerful trolling motors and fuel efficient outboards— may make it easier to cover water, but they also make it easier to fail to adjust. It’s now easy to fish both the upper and lower end of a lake like Rayburn in the same day, and thereby pursue two different populations of fish.

“The chances are I’ll fish a different jig, a heavier jig, when I go shallower,” he said. “The rate of fall triggers fish to bite.”

Klein reminded anglers that these lessons and tidbits of advice are just a starting point, based on his experiences, and that each angler needs to develop his own ability to understand “more than a small fraction of the big puzzle.”

But if you’re going to start somewhere, it pays to listen to the advice of one of the all time greats, someone who has made a living with the long rod for over three decades.

If you want to learn more of Gary Klein’s winning secrets, check out his full seminar video by subscribing to www.bassu.tv.

Email Pete Robbins at ContactUs@fishgame.com PHOTO: THE BASS UNIVERSITY

1/9/17 3:07 PM

Open SEASON

by REAVIS Z. WORTHAM :: TF&G Humor Editor

Candles

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ELBERT P. AXELROD, BETter known as Stinkfoot, came struggling through the doors of Doreen’s 24 HR Eat Gas Now Cafe with his arms around a large cardboard box. None of the Hunting Club members moved a muscle from our large corner table.

For the first in a long time, the cafe was empty except for us. It may have been the wind, or the blowing rain, or the hour. Ten in the morning is usually busy, but the cafe seemed strange and even dark on the other side, even though the lights were on as usual.

“Thanks for your help.” Delbert dropped the heavy box on the table, jolting our coffee cups. A clatter of glass sounded like something inside broke.

“You’re welcome.” Doc plucked a napkin from the holder and soaked up spilled coffee.

“There better not be anything alive in that box!” Doreen called from behind the counter.

It was a good thing there weren’t many customers, because the coffee maker was on the fritz. It overheated after one or two cups and shut off. Then she had to stand there and push the on button over and over again until it came back on. Her frustration level was about to exceed her medication dosage.

“Don’t worry.” Delbert reached inside and drew out a squatty jar. “These are candles.”

I peered into the box. “You doing a fundraiser?”

“Nope. I was on vacation down in Fredericksburg a couple of weeks ago and went into this candle shop.”

Wrong Willie had a valid question. “How many did you break?”

“Only three, but they shouldn’t have stacked them where they were. Anyway, I was sniffing their candles and…”

Jerry Wayne snorted. “I get this picture of you sticking your nose in places it shouldn’t be.”

“That’s what gave me the idea. I was sniffing a candle called Country Morning

Email Reavis Wortham at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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It really did smell like an autumn leaf fire, except the sides of the jar were already hot.

“I need to work on that one,” he said. “I have others. I think these will appeal to men more than women. How about this one?”

Doc took a careful sniff and smiled.

“Scotch.”

“Yep, twelve-year-old Glenlivit. It’s from the bottle you left in the camper a couple of weeks ago.”

“Hey, it was almost full.”

“Not anymore. There’s some left.”

Doc wept.

“Try this one.”

“What is it?” Jerry Wayne asked.

“Grandma’s Sewing Room.”

“It smells like old clothes, and old cloth.”

“That’s what her sewing room smelled like.”

“What did you put in here?”

“You don’t want to know.”

I took another jar out of the box. “What’s this?”

“Gymnasium.”

I put it back, unopened.

Delbert found another. “This one’s my favorite.”

“Name?” I was learning.

“Hunting Trip.”

The wax was dark, and a label covered the contents. Delbert placed the candle on the table and lit the wooden wick. We were immediately engulfed in a scent that relaxed us all. It filled the air with a blend of mesquite smoke, grass, dogs, gun oil, animal musk, and somehow, clean air.

Doreen came back with the coffee pot.

“Y’all smell like you’ve been out all day.

Delbert, get those nasty candles out of here. I’m not buying any of them.”

She didn’t, but we all went home with his Hunting Trip candle.

I figure he’ll make a million on that one alone.

and it didn’t smell anything like a country morning.” He reached into the box, checked a couple of labels, and came out with a jar.

“That’s when I decided to start my own line of candles. This is what a country morning smells like.”

Doc took the jar, pulled off the top and took a big sniff. He recoiled as if someone stuck a hot coal up his nose. “Jeeze! This smells like…”

I took the jar and gave it a careful sniff. “A feedlot, or a barn. Did you put cow flop in here?”

“A little, but it was dried. See, that’s what a country morning smells like. The people that invent these candles make up names without knowing the truth. My new line will be called Truth Candles.”

Doreen came by with the coffee pot. “One of you guys needs to go outside and scrape your foot. You stepped in cow mess, and I don’t want any customers to have to smell your stinkin’ feet.” She went back to aggravate the coffee pot some more.

“Try this one.” Delbert selected a jar that was suspiciously dark. “This one is called Autumn.”

It was my turn to sniff something. “I don’t get anything.”

“You have to burn that one for the effect.”

He dug a lighter out of his pocket and lit the wick. It burned fitfully for a second, and then the entire interior of the jar burst into flame. That’s when I realized he’d mixed twigs and leaves in with the wax. I quickly slapped the lid on top to choke it down as a billow of smoke filled the room.

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WHITETAIL Foard County Eight-year-old Caden MacDonald of Ovilla shot his first buck on Thanksgiving Day in Foard County. This was Caden’s first hunt and one he’ll never forget.

SPECKLED TROUT East Galveston Bay Seven-year-old Mason Howard caught his career best 21-inch speckled trout while fishing with Capt. Bill Darnell on East Galveston Bay.

TURKEY Coleman County Lindsey Young shot this turkey with a crossbow on her first hunt, in Coleman County with her dad and husband.

SPECKLED TROUT Chocolate Bayou Four-year-old Hadlee Blankenburg caught her biggest speckled trout to date on soft plastic.

Uncle Caleb Dickens has been teaching Hadlee to cast, retrieve and catch by herself with proud “Pops” (Grandpa Marshall Dickens) enjoying their success.

REDFISH Galveston Bay Kevin Walbrick caught and released this redfish he caught on Hanna’s Reef in Galveston Bay. The red was 40 inches long and weighed 24 pounds. Note the calm water in the middle of the bay. This was Kevin’s personal best red.

REDFISH Galveston T.C. Nash of San Leon caught this redfish while fishing at Galveston.

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EMAIL TO: photos@FishGame.com For best results, send MED to HIGH quality JPEG digital files only, please.

No guarantee can be made as to when, or if, a submitted photo will be published.

CATFISH Lake Lavon Twelve-year-old Christian Pivarnik from McKinney caught his first blue catfish on Lake Lavon near Farmersville. The cat weighed 6 pounds. His dad and brother Joey helped him land it.

WHITETAIL Lampasas County Nine-year-old Kandice Morua shot her first buck with a crossbow at 20-yards in Lampasas County. She is hooked and ready for the next hunt. She told her Daddy she wants a hog next!

HYBRID-STRIPED BASS SPECKLED TROUT

Ballinger Lake This photo was taken a few years back, after David Lassetter, left, and Buck Buchanan caught these hybrid stripers fishing in the “new” Ballinger Lake.

Lake Charles Six-year-old Lincoln Pittman caught this speck on a popping cork and live shrimp while fishing with his father and grandfather in Lake Charles.

BASS

RED SNAPPER

Wood County

OffshoreCorpus Christi

Finn Dowell, with his dad, Will Dowell, caught a 14-inch bass on the family’s Golden D Farm in Wood County. He caught it on his own small rod & reel. He cast the line into the water by himself, hooked the bass by himself and reeled it all the way to the bank by himself… and then Dad helped him pull it out of the water.

Dexter Polk caught this big red snapper while fishing on the Fish & Fun II out of Corpus Christi. He was using cut bait in 80-foot water off the Four Leaf Clover Reef.

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