Texas Fish & Game January 2018

January 2018 | $3.95

Texas Oyster Wars Kayak Tech Takes Off

The Pros & Cons of Importing Bass from the Sunshine State

Brackish Winter Blue Cats Decoys for Hogs: Pig Puppets

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Inside FISH & GAME www.FishGame.com 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.

by ROY and ARDIA NEVES TF&G Owners

ROY NEVES

Paper or Plastic?

PUBLISHER

CHESTER MOORE EDITOR IN CHIEF

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UR SUBSCRIBERS HAVE MORE CHOICES THAN EVER IN HOW THEY READ OR otherwise consume the information that TEXAS FISH & GAME produces.

MOST POPULAR is the magazine in its original form, printed on paper, folded, glue-bound (not stapled) and trimmed, then either delivered directly to your mailbox or shipped to wholesale distributors who stock individual copies in newsstands where you can find them throughout the state.

Print is a great way to enjoy our information, and a great deal of care and work goes into the crafting of every issue, from the planning and writing of each feature article and column, to the selection of supporting photos and design of the article layouts. In the convenience of home or office (or wherever sitting, standing or reclining and reading is possible) print has been delivering the goods for a long, long... long ...long time—since around the time Columbus was in high school.

GROWING IN POPULARITY is the magazine in its digital form, delivered via either the internet or our free app on a variety of electronic devices—computers, mobile tablets and phones. The versatility of this form is multi-faceted. Versatile in the portability and availability of the issues anywhere internet access is available; and versatile in the additional content that this form allows us to include, such as videos, resource links, more photos and audio.

A lot of magazines publish digital versions. Most of these are simply replicas of the printed issues that allow you to flip through the pages on a screen. Nice, but not practical on anything smaller than a desktop or large tablet screen. But in our case, we have developed an entirely mobile version that makes it easy to read any article on any phone. Navigating between stories is simple: just swipe from story to story or pull down the Contents Table and jump directly to the story you want.

The text is formatted to be easily readable and scrolls vertically through entire stories, making it easy to navigate our articles and entire issues with one hand— which makes it possible to read TEXAS FISH & GAME even while you’re standing in a line somewhere.

The real power of these mobile versions is our ability to pack in additional content, and especially interactive features. One of these is our Hotspots section, where each month fishing guides all over the state give us prime fishing locations for that month, along with how to fish the spot and its actual GPS coordinates. It’s a great, very popular department in every print edition, but in the digital edition, we Digital edition Hotspot are able to fit a few more reports in, and also add interactive maps, that let you see maps are interactive. the spot and even jump out to a Google Map view of the spot. This actually allows you to navigate to a spot with your phone, on the water..

ALSO STARTING TO GROW in popularity is our e-mail newsletter. Three times each week, we send out newsletters to all subscribers who have given us their e-mail addresses. Anyone who does not wish to receive the e-mails can “unsubscribe.” But most of our subscribers enjoy these almost daily briefings. They allow us to stay on top of the latest topics of interest to our audience in ways that even the digital editions of the monthly magazine are not designed to accommodate.

THEN, THERE IS OUR WEBSITE, fishgame.com. Our site has been in existence almost as long as the World Wide Web has been in existence (we obtained the domain name in 1996).

This online old-timer has been a digital work horse, providing access to current articles to our subscribers and archived content to all visitors. It has also become home to a dream team of bloggers delivering great content that can’t, or won’t, wait for the monthly TF&G issue train to roll.

We love the look and tactile experience of our layouts on glossy, coated paper. But we also love the exciting possibilities that our digital products open up for our audience. And come to think of it, from a conservation perspective, this might be a case where the “Paper or Plastic” question actually falls in favor of plastic, the basic construction material of most mobile devices. The more people opt for digital versions of magazines, the fewer trees are needed to be pulped into paper.

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C O N T R I B U T O R S 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 RAZOR DOBBS 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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TEXAS FISH & GAME (ISSN 0887-4174) is published monthly by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC., 247 Airtex Dr. Houston, TX 77090. ©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, 247 Airtex Dr. Houston, TX 77090. 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, 247 Airtex Dr. Houston, TX 77090.

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Contents January 2018 | Vol. 33 No. 9

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COVER STORY GREETINGS FROM FLORIDA

FEATURE ARTICLES OYSTER WAR Major changes hit the Texas oyster fishery at the beginning of the current harvest season.

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by Chester Moore

TEXAS COUGARS A cougar sighting in his youth left a lifelong impression on this writer.

by Chester Moore

The pros and cons of importing largemouth bass from the Sunshine State.

story by Matt Williams

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

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BRACKISH WINTER BLUES In the cold, try brackish waters when fishing for blue catfish.

KAYAK TECH Modern kayak design and innovation has turned these primitive vessels into fishing machines.

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PIG PUPPETS Decoys can be used effectively to hunt feral hogs .

by TF&G Staff

by TF&G Staff

story by Chester Moore

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COLUMNS Editor’s Notes

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by CHESTER MOORE

Doggett at Large

TEXAS OUTDOOR NATION THE LATE RUT & CRAPPIE RUNS What’s really going on?

from Chester Moore

by JOE DOGGETT

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Nugent in the Wild

by Ted Nugent

News of the Nation + Texas HotShots

Texas Whitetails

by LARRY WEISHUHN

6 62 75

Texas Saltwater

by CALIXTO GONZALES

Texas Guns

by STEVE LAMASCUS

Texas Freshwater

by MATT WILLIAMS

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Letters

by TFG Readers

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Coastal Focus Columns Texas Hotspots Sportsman’s Daybook Tides & Prime Fishing Times

DEPARTMENTS Industry Insider

State of the Nation Special Section

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Fish & Game Photos

by TFG Readers

Outdoor Directory F I S H

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LETTERS to the Editor For Doug Pike MR. PIKE, TWO RECENT ARTICLES of yours have really brought back Memories.

I fished San Luis from the 60s to the late 70s. I can still feel the sand moving. Only had one scare, but it was on the backside of the pass where the current was not strong.

Late evening, and I was almost chest deep trying to catch a trout. Not six feet from me a six-foot-long alligator gar surfaced. I quickly called it a day.

Your article in Saltwater Sportsman was very similar to what happened to my brother, and my three cousins in August of 1977.

We were fishing off Jamaica Beach. We only had a very stiff trolling rod so we used an air mattress float to take the bait out. We talked our middle cousin into wrapping the leader around his toes and paddling out.

He dropped the mullet and started back in. He hadn’t paddled more than 20 feet when my cousin holding the rod said, “I’ve got a bite. He yanked, and a five-foot spinner shark cleared the water. All of us on shore involuntary yelled wow!

Our cousin in the water yelled “What?”

We all said “Oh nothing.” We later convinced him to take another bait out before we told him the truth.

I HAVE NEVER READ A COLUMN quite like yours in the October issue. For a writer at your position with your large fan base to say he chooses to hit the field more with camera to promote conservation than enjoying himself hunting and fishing is just awesome.

Your work with kids is becoming widely known, and I am glad people get to see the conservation work you are doing. I remember probably 20 years ago when you were so involved in trying to get the Gulf Coast Roundup to Sabine Lake because you thought the area deserved attention. And you helped make it happen.

I know people who know you, and they tell me the things you publish that you do for conservation are not half the story. You do much more.

I love what you have done with Texas Fish & Game since you have been editor in chief and appreciate the focus on conservation.

Ed Winterman

John Powell Editor: Your words are too kind. Thank you.

White Deer

Bob Matthews

Chester’s October Column

CHESTER, I ENJOY VERY MUCH your newsletters & just read your article online at fishgame.com about white deer.

In a book I am writing re: our family’s history, I am including the following that was told to me by my uncle who was a Baptist preacher in SE Arkansas.

It was called a MAD STONE, and it came from the belly of a white deer that was killed in SE Arkansas about 1909/1910.

I asked my uncle if the white deer was an albino, and he said that he didn’t think so.

Further, he said that white deer, although not common, did show up every now and then.

It was said that the stone had healing powers for rabies, snake, spider bites, etc.

CHESTER, YOUR OCTOBER COLumn was very moving and inspiring. I appreciate the fact you are honest about the business you work in and don’t mind sharing your real heart for things. No one else would say something like, “In the outdoor industry the higher you move up, the less you fish and hunt” but you did. That’s admirable and shows integrity.

Your conservation mission is great, but your mission to help kids is at another level.

Incredible work. Thank you for being you.

Leslie Aikman 6

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The stone was porous and about the size of an ordinary doorknob. It was placed in a bowl of warm (sweet) milk for a few minutes and then placed on the bite. It would stick to the skin & draw out the poison.

When it had absorbed all of the poison that it could, the stone would slide off the bite.

Then, it would be placed into another bowl of warm milk and the poison would run out. That poison would produce a green color. Then another bowl of warm milk and reapplication of the stone until it quit sticking.

My uncle told me that he witnessed folks being healed from a cottonmouth water moccasin bite and a spider bite. He heard stories about it also curing rabies. There’s more to the story, but that’s the condensed version.

There was even a lawsuit over that stone between the guy who shot the deer and the guy who found the gut pile, cut open the stomach and retrieved the stone. The guy who retrieved the stone won the suit.

Anyway, Chester, keep up the good work & have a good and safe week.

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Editor: Great stuff. Very interesting.

« Send Your Comments to: Texas Fish & Game 247 Airtex Dr. Houston TX 77090 editor@fishgame.com

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EDITOR’S Notes

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

Reality Check: Bear Attacks

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N TWO DAYS, TWO PEOPLE WERE killed by separate black bear attacks in Alaska.

Erin Johnson, 27, was killed while doing contract work with Ellen Trainor, 38, who was also attacked but survived with relatively minor injuries.

That came a day after 16-year-old Patrick Cooper was killed while running a race in the wilds of his home state. These attacks received huge news coverage around the world.

Bear attacks are rare.

Black bear attacks are even more rare.

Only six attacks attributed to black bears had been documented previously in Alaska in more than 100 years.

Currently there are around 100,000 black bears inhabiting Alaska alongside 700,000 people. That means there is one bear for every seven people which is a pretty high ratio even factoring in the amount of habitat in the state.

This story has wildlife apologists throughout the blogosphere and broadcast media making statements like “most fatal black bear attacks are examples of the animals defending their territory” and “the majority of attacks are by mothers defending their cubs.”

Not true. Not even close.

A study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management documents 63 people killed in 59 incidents by non-captive black bears between 1900 and 2009.

Here is the standout quote from the study.

“We judged that the bear involved acted as a predator in 88 percent (49 of 56) of fatal incidents. Adult or sub adult male bears were involved in 92 percent of fatal predatory incidents, reflecting biological and behavioral differences between male and female bears. That

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wrong bears.

But the response to whitewash black bear predation must stop. Education is always the beginning of conservation and the public in bear country needs to be educated about the fact black bears do sometimes kill and eat people.

More important, there is a profile so to speak of the most potentially dangerous animals, which are males, especially older ones.

That way if a bear comes strolling through someone’s back yard a few times they can make an informed decision. They might just want to tighten up trash pickup and avoid grilling outside for a bit— or they might decide to call their fish and game department about relocation.

People also need to know that bears are a vital part of the ecosystem. They can and do live with very little incident through North America. Fear does no good for anyone. Truth, however, goes a long way in helping bears and people.

Bear management is complex. However, education and forward-thinking conservation plans can decrease the already small number of attacks—if cool heads and common sense prevail.

Although it’s easy to belittle the number of fatalities, it offers no comfort to the families of those killed by bears. The best way to honor them and be good stewards of black bears is to move forward with the truth at the forefront and science-based management solutions that have both bears and humans in mind.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans, hunt, fish and hike in areas heavily populated with bears. Plus, more and more black bears are moving into Texas via Mexico as well as from states to the east.

It’s important we have a reality check on bears and bear management as well as give Texans who may have never encountered a bear, an honest look at a species worthy of respect.

most fatal black bear attacks were predatory and were carried out by one bear shows that females with young are not the most dangerous black bears.”

That a majority of black bear attacks are predatory is something recognized by the bulk of fish and game departments throughout the United States. Even my home state of Texas, which has a small (but growing) black bear population, distributes information stating that if anyone is attacked by a black bear they should fight back.

Advice to play dead is often given regarding bear attacks, but that is for grizzlies which often attack to protect territory or perhaps because they didn’t like the way the person looked that day. (Hey, they’re grizzlies. They can do what they want!)

But it is known that black bear attacks, albeit rare, are often predatory as this study shows.

Another interesting note came in regard to proportion of bear to human population.

Fatal black bear attacks occurred in Canada and Alaska and in the lower 48 states. There were 3.5 times as many fatal attacks in Canada and Alaska but only 1.75 times as many black bears, and much less human contact for black bears in Canada and Alaska. There was a weak positive correlation between the estimated size of a bear population within a given jurisdiction and the number of fatal black bear attacks.

Some jurisdictions had no fatal black bear attacks, but had large estimated black bear populations.

In a state where bears are not hunted and have little reason to fear people, it could be argued that is a factor. But Alaska has plenty of bear hunting, and in fact there are around 3,000 black bears killed by permitted hunters there annually.

The vast majority of black bears are not out to get people. If they were highly dangerous animals, states such as California, which has 30,000 bears and 30 million people, would have attacks frequently.

That’s not the case.

Chances are these two attacks simply happened. These very unfortunate people were in the wrong place at the wrong time and met the F I S H

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DOGGETT at Large

by JOE DOGGETT :: TF&G Contributing Editor

The Duke!

distant target was an on-going challenge.

To hit offhand anywhere near a bull’s-eye at 100 yards was exceptional. I was better at about 50 or 60 yards. And that was back when I boasted 20/10 vision. The real carbines somehow didn’t perform as well as the Hollywood versions.

But I truly enjoyed the look and feel of the clean, mean lever gun. Toting it into the brush made me feel I was part of a special tradition.

You make allowances for the shortcomings, same as with a bow or a muzzleloader or a handgun.

The first time I went hunting with the lever gun was about five years later on a scrabbly deer lease in the Texas Hill Country. The lowfenced property was plagued by feral goats, and the word was out to shoot any goat that stepped out.

That policy probably was initiated because the automated corn-dispensing machines are called “deer feeders” not “goat feeders.” The daily sprays of kernels were being dominated by the shaggy non-residents.

About an hour into my first afternoon session a large black goat with flowing mane and spiraling horns pushed into view. The unruly beast paced straight to the feeder and commenced munching. It stood broadside at about 80 yards.

With a nod to the rank and file of Western heroes, I raised the carbine and took a deep breath over a stable rest—and missed the entire animal. The goat looked up and trotted into the screening cedars.

I suspect I made the rookie mistake of failing to notch the front bead well down into the “V” of the rear sight. You might be justifiably suspect of heeding the counsel of a confessed goat-misser, but I do believe that failing to plant the bead is a major cause for iron-sight misses. —that, and maybe not being able to properly see the target.

At 100 yards, the typical whitetail virtually is blotted out by the notch and the bead post. The best shot I made with the lever gun was while “still hunting” several years later.

I slipped through the scrub oaks and spied a young buck at 90 steps. I positioned a pair of

D

URING THE SUMMER OF 1970 I was on active duty in the U.S. Navy. I was attached to Carrier Division 9 and stationed on Coronado Island in San Diego.

My roommate, Ensign Gilbert, and I were driving west in my MGB convertible on Orange Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Coronado. The traffic light turned, red and I braked to a stop in the far right lane. A black limousine pulled alongside.

An old man in the front passenger seat glanced over; he was dressed in a tuxedo but not riding in the rear, as you might expect. He had thinning hair, large ears and a weathered face. I had seen that image many times.

“Gilbert! Look over here! It’s LBJ!” Gilbert turned and his eyes went wide.

“Doggett, you moron, that’s not LBJ—it’s John Wayne!”

He was right. The passenger was not a president—he was the Duke. Wayne glanced over with a crinkly grin and squinty eyes. He was fresh from his triumph in “True Grit” and heading for a black-tie gala at the Hotel del Coronado.

I was stoked. I raised my arms and made the cocking motion of U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn working a lever-action carbine.

Wayne nodded and the limo pulled away.

Later that summer I purchased a Winchester Model 94 carbine from the exchange at the North Island Air Station.

With the military discount, the lever rifle cost approximately $60. Being saturated as a kid during the ‘50s and early ‘60s by TV and big screen westerns, I always wanted one, and the brief encounter on Orange Avenue pretty much closed the deal.

The little .30-30 Winchester had a straight walnut stock, a 20-inch barrel and weighed approximately 6 1/2 pounds. I kept it for about 25 years and must admit I was lousy with the “open sights.” The process of juggling and aligning the front bead, the rear notch and a 8

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shooting sticks and let fly through a corridor in the brush.

The eight pointer dropped in its tracks, neck-shot. Of course, I was aiming for what I hoped was the center of the shoulder.

The Model 94 accounted for several small deer, several hogs, and, of all things, a fine Rio Grande turkey. The big gobbler weighed 16 pounds—probably closer to 17 before the 170-grain Core-Lokt bullet hit it.

The serious shooter might consider an aftermarket peep sight with an open aperture (for quick field shooting, opposed to deliberate target shooting). The eye focuses on the bead and instinctively centers it in the peep circle. I just never got around to doing it.

A small scope is even more accurate beyond 100 yards but, to me, a scoped lever-action carbine or rifle just looks too tricked. Tradition counts for something. Again, this is only my opinion. No question, a proper scope can greatly improve accuracy, especially for the squinting shooter fumbling into the geezer division.

A pair of drugstore “readers” might help the old timer with an out-of-the-box lever gun by crisply focusing both front and rear sights.

Of course, the critical third element—the target—remains a bit fuzzy but, as they say, two out of three ain’t bad.

As with all ethical hunting, you need to respect the game and accept the practical limits of your equipment and ability. For most of us this side of John Wayne, that probably means staying inside 100 honest yards with open sights.

But for the hunter who has known nothing but scope-sighted bolt rifles, the classic American lever gun is an entertaining and exciting option—at least when a career buck isn’t at stake.

« Email Joe Doggett at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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NUGENT in the Wild

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

Hunt To The Hunt

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HE CONDITIONS WERE JUST right for our bowhunting dreams. It was a wonderful, dark, dreary, overcast, cold, breezy, grey cloud October afternoon, and inspired by the hunter friendly weather, I headed into the wind for my favorite west woods treestand a couple hours earlier than usual.

Not really expecting to encounter deer on the way in, typically I would just casually stroll through the ½ mile of enchanting deerwoods at a leisurely somewhat alert pace to my stand.

I didn’t exactly walk along with my radar turned off like a city kid, but I also didn’t sneak in perfect deadly stealth mode either.

This day felt different, you know, a bowhunter’s sixth sense kind of thing, and with a better tuned in, more focused situational ‘bowhunter’ awareness, I did my very best Fred Bear predator approach and took my time, more like outright stalking than just still hunting.

Staying in the shadows, I only took a few ultra-slow, cautious steps at a time, and never stepped on anything I could step over.

I moved with my eyes 10 times more than with my feet and forced myself to stand still and probe the forest with the utmost of attentiveness. Like Fred and other master bowhunters taught us, I looked for horizontal lines and parts of a deer instead of the whole animal.

I reminded myself to look for a flicker of white or a quiver of an ear or head more than a deer’s body.

Not surprisingly the rewards were instantaneous with nonstop increased sightings of birds, squirrels and always titillating flora a fauna.

More than ounce I was inspired to increase my pace and get the walk to my stand over with, excited to get settled in for what had become over many years my standard operating treestand ambush procedure.

But I resisted the urge and kept my move-

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clean through her in a Nano-second right where the good doctor backstrap ordered!

Lord have mercy! It was phenomenal to say the least. I just stood there grinning like a toothy Cheshire cat, simply amazed at such an amazing bowhunting moment.

The whole world stopped. I literally just hung my head and pursed my lips with a slight snicker.

It was just me, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, White Cloud, Crazy Horse, Ishi, Fred, Howard, Ben, Roy, The Great Spirit and dad.

I’ve bowkilled more than a thousand big game animals in my life, and every one of them was special and powerfully seared into my memory bank. But this kill took on a life of its own as all the possibilities of a dream bowhunt unfolded like a chapter out of time.

Her deathrun was short and noisy, the blood trail incredible and the recovery magic. She died at the edge of the beautiful earthtone colored marsh just below my big timber treestand, so I was able to gut her and turn her over and prop her up to drain in the cool shadows, still make it to my tree, and two hours later arrow another fat slick head she-strapper for a bowhunting night to remember.

There was no happier bowhunter on earth that day!

Do not fail to hunt all the way to your hunt.

Once we leave the pavement, the house, the cabin, the tent or camp with bow in hand is when the actual hunt begins. You just never know if, when, how or where these tricky, unpredictable deer will be encountered so we should remain in full-on kill mode at all times. I promise you that it is worth it to start out early whenever we can to seriously hunt as we head to our stand.

It is a low percentage reality but I have learned over time that even when no deer is encountered, much less killed, the tuned-in stalking lessons go a longway in preparing us to be better predators no matter the chosen methodology.

ment slow and easy.

And then it happened! As I was about to take another careful step from the cover of a giant oak blowdown tangle, my eyes zeroed in on the slightest of miniscule movement as the edge of an ear turned into a doe’s head. She was only sixty or seventy yards out and cautiously browsing along the edge of the cattail marsh-grass, nibbling here and there and reaching down into the fern strewn forest floor for the occasional acorn.

With no thought at all and without taking my eyes off the distant deer, my right hand slowly withdrew an arrow from my bow quiver and silently snapped it onto my bowstring.

Whenever her head went down I took a very small step towards an intersecting course with her apparent travel.

I have killed a few deer while still hunting over the past 60 years, but the excitement of getting away with any movement whatsoever hoping to get in bowrange of this old, wise swamp donkey was the essence of bowhunting challenge and stealth, and so far so good!

I was pretty much expecting her to nail me at any given moment, but I was closing the distance slowly but surely and beginning to tremble with excitement a little bit more with each tiny step.

There were a few times that her head jerked up and she scanned her surroundings like mature deer so often do for no apparent reason, and I was sure the jig was up!

But as luck would have it, she would eventually settle back down and resume her woodland feeding.

After about an hour of this nerve wracking ordeal, only 35 yards of thick woods separated us and as her chest entered a window between two trees, my bow came up unto itself and my eyes and entire being owned the path to her pump station.

The entire universe consisted of deer, opening, anchor, pin, peep, hand, fingers spirit. In an instant my arrow was gone.

With the increased visibility of my black and white Nugent Gold Tip zebra arrows the mystical flight was easy to follow, effervescent, and as if in slow motion it lasered across the woodland gap from my eyeballs to her ribcage and flashed F I S H

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12/6/17 8:02 PM

T’S NO SECRET THAT TEXAS IS HOME TO A PASSEL of blue ribbon largemouth bass fisheries—more, perhaps, than any other state in the country.

Texas’s Top 50 heaviest bass of all-time range in weight from 15.38 pounds to 18.18 pounds. Those fish are divided among 16 different impoundments, including 14 public reservoirs that represent nearly a half dozen geographic regions. Only two states have produced bigger bass than Texas—California and Georgia.

Furthermore, bass weighing upwards of 13 pounds have been documented on more than 60 different Texas lakes, and dozens of other reservoirs across the Lone Star state have produced lake records of 10 pounds or more.

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Catch an eight pounder in Texas these days, and it won’t even raise eyebrows. In fact, most anglers will just call it a “good fish.”

Tournament weights are another reliable gauge of the quality of Texas bass fishing on certain lakes. Five fish sacks cracking the 20- to 25-pound marks are brought to derby weigh-ins pretty frequently around here. This is especially true on tournament workhorses like Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend, Falcon and Amistad at the height of a really good year.

2008 was one of those pinnacle years on Falcon. That’s when Mississippi Elite Series pro Paul Elias set a BASS four-day weight record of 132 1/2 pounds on 20 bass. That record still stands today.

Amazingly, 11 other anglers busted the 100-pound mark in the same tournament, including Florida’s Terry Scroggins who finished second on the heels of a mammoth final round limit of 44 pounds, 4 ounces that may be the heaviest five-fish limit ever recorded by one angler in a Texas bass tournament.

You don’t hear about stuff like that happening in a lot of other states. You might not have heard about it happening in Texas had the late-Bob Kemp not took it upon himself to bring the first Florida-strain bass into the state more than 40 years ago.

Kemp was chief of fisheries with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in the early 1970s. The Texas landscape was bustling with new reservoir construction at the time. The biologist had a strong hunch that the fast-growing strain of bass native to Florida lakes might do well in Texas’s fertile waters and bring a few goodies to the table that the northern largemouths native our river systems don’t.

Kemp reportedly approached his TPWD bosses with the concept. When no one seemed interested in funding the idea, Kemp took the reins and used his own money to do it himself. TPWD’s Florida bass hatchery program was born.

In hindsight, Kemp’s hunch that Florida’s would do well in Texas was right on target.

Some of the earliest Florida bass stockings occurred at small lakes around eastern Texas.

Lake Murvaul was the first in 1972, followed by lakes Monticello, Houston County, Kurth, Nacogdoches, Houston County, Welsh, Hawkins, Fairfield and several others.

Just a few years down the road, evidence of the early stockings began showing up in a very big way. Monticello produced the first 12

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Terry Scroggins is one of a dozen tournament anglers who have topped the 100-pound mark in a Texas event.

Texas state record (a 14.09 pounder) in 37 years. Soon, other lake records began falling like dominos, some of them multiple times in relatively short order.

Between 1980 to 86, the state record was broken four more times by fish caught from three different lakes. The biggest was a 17.67 pounder caught in 1986 at Lake Fork by fishing guide Mark Stevenson.

Stevenson’s bass stood as the state record until Barry St. Clair reeled in the current 18.18-pound record while crappie fishing at Fork in January 1992. The bass also jumped started the TPWD’s popular Toyota ShareLunker program, which has since taken in 570 entries weighing upward of 13 pounds for spawning and genetics research.

In the midst of all of this, Texas garnered a reputation as a premier big bass destination that still lives on today with anglers around the globe. Moreover, communities located in close proximity to the lakes known for producing outsize bass discovered a lucrative cash cow that pumped big bucks into local economies.

A 1996 economic survey conducted at Lake Fork showed the lake generated more than $27 million annually for the three counties around it. The survey revealed that Lake |

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Fork attracted as many as 325,000 bass fishing visitors each year. A different survey on Sam Rayburn showed that fishery to be worth upwards of $47 million annually, the majority generated by bass tournaments and recreational bass fishing.

Realizing the obvious benefits that Florida bass brought to the table in the form of accelerated growth rates and overall size, TPWD gradually began expanding its Florida bass program and stocking criteria to include more and more lakes.

Today, the department produces an average of 8 million Florida bass fingerlings annually for stocking in 40 to 50 water bodies statewide. This is largely from the addition of new hatcheries in Athens and Jasper combined with updates performed on existing ones.

State hatcheries also produce 100,000 to 200,000 northern largemouths for stocking in reservoirs in far North Texas as well as small community fishing lakes where producing big bass is not a priority, according to Dave Terre, TPWD Chief of Inland Fisheries Management and Research.

Interestingly, TPWD hopes to completely revamp its self-sustaining Florida bass brood stock within the next few years using Toyota PHOTO: MATT WILLIAMS

12/8/17 2:22 PM

ShareLunker offspring. Terre says TPWD research has shown that ShareLunker offspring grow faster and larger than current hatchery brood stock as well as fish spawned in the wild.

Floridas Are Here To Stay Given the spectacular performance record of Florida bass in Texas thus far, it is hard to imagine why anybody wouldn’t want them here. I know I can’t.

There has been some speculation that Floridas are inherently more sensitive to weather changes—particularly cold fronts— and can become more difficult to catch than native northern largemouths. But according to Terre, there is no scientific research available to support such a theory.

“We are not aware of studies that support this claim or make this comparison,” Terre said. “I’ve spent a lot of time fishing for northern largemouth bass in Wisconsin, and I can tell you that bass are very tough to catch there after a cold front. They don’t have Florida bass in Wisconsin. Other species of

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fish seem to be affected by cold fronts, too, in both parts of the country.”

Veteran Texas pro Tommy Martin of Hemphill offered up a different theory based on nearly 50 years of chasing bass on lakes all over North America.

“Florida bass are harder to catch, whether after a front, or not,” Martin said. “They just aren’t as aggressive as the northern strain largemouths, and they can be particularly difficult to catch after a cold front. It’s that way on any lake you go to. Personally, I don’t see that as a negative, though. It just makes them a little more of a challenge to catch.

“In my book Floridas are all around great fish. They get bigger than northern bass, grow quicker, and they fight really hard.

Sometimes you just need to slow down and change your tactics to get them to bite, especially after a cold front.”

Terre says he agrees with the idea that northern strain largemouths are generally more aggressive and easier to catch than Floridas. However, catchability can vary from one lake to the next.

“Controlled studies have been done in Texas that show northern largemouth bass

will take lures more readily than Florida Bass, and this trait is heritable,” Terre said. “These studies have been conducted in hatchery ponds or in a single reservoir.

“In reality, most Texas bass populations are a blend of northern bass, Florida bass, and intergrades. Conditions such as habitat, water quality, lake levels, etc. vary widely, which could affect many things, including the fishing. In other words, we think this would be a very difficult thing to measure or manage and could vary from reservoir to reservoir, season to season, or year to year.”

Terre pointed to Fayette County Reservoir as one Texas lake where Florida bass break the conventional mold of being difficult to catch. “Fayette is a power plant lake with near 100 percent Florida bass influence and 60 fish days are very common,” he said. “If Florida bass are tough to catch on lures, you would never know it on Fayette.”

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12/6/17 8:26 PM

MAJOR CHANGES HIT THE

THIS YEAR’S OYSTER SEASON opened with new rules adopted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) Commission last August. The new rules affect both the recreational and commercial harvest of oysters.

New rules reduce the commercial pos-

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session limit of oysters from 40 sacks to 30 sacks per day, reduce the allowable amount of undersized oyster take from 15 percent to 5 percent and close Saturday to the commercial harvest of oysters.

“The goals of these rule changes are to

Texas’s bay systems, promote efficiency in utilizing oyster resources and provide a more stable price structure for commercially-harvested oysters,” says Lance Robinson, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisheries Deputy

aid in the recovery of oyster resources in

Division Director.

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TEXAS OYSTER FISHERY

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A Texas commercial oyster boat.

Galveston Bay system measuring approximately 5,700 acres at mean high tide.

The Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Texas has been working with state officials for some time now to develop additional protections for our public oyster reefs.

They included the establishment of oyster sanctuaries.

“This simple idea has several key benefits.

First, a sanctuary will offer protection for oyster broodstock,” Bonnot said. ”The larvae produced by broodstock within these sanctuaries will be carried by currents and tides to surrounding areas, seeding nearby public waters and serving as a source for sustainable oyster harvests in the future. Because these reefs would be off limits from commercial harvest, they would be able to grow in their complexity.”

One of the main arguments against oyster sanctuaries is, “If you don’t work oyster bottoms with rakes, sleds, tongs and dredges, they quickly will be silted over by sedimentation.”

This is a misleading statement according to Bonnot. “It is true that our landscape has changed dramatically over the past century, and we do have more sediment washing downstream into our bays and estuaries. The real problem, however, is that we continually work our existing reefs down to the bay bottom, which results in little to no vertical relief. If we would simply allow our reefs to build and increase their 3-D structures, complexity and height, there would be little concern about them becoming covered in silt.

“Take the Sabine Lake reef complex for example,” Bonnot said. “Measuring nearly four square miles (~2,500 acres), the oyster reef complex within Sabine Lake is potentially the largest natural reef in the United

TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division continues to assess the impact on oysters in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

“The full impact of Hurricane Harvey on Texas oyster populations will depend,” Robinson said, “on factors such as how long salinity levels remained low, the quantity and quality of the remaining oyster habitat and the ability of the surviving oysters to spawn before water temperatures drop.

“For example, sampling in October 2017 found mortalities of 51 to 100 percent in East Galveston Bay and 32 to 42 percent in the middle and lower sections of Galveston Bay. Mortalities are similar in other bay systems, but vary widely within the system, depending on their proximity to fresh water.”

According to CCA Advocacy Director Shane Bonnot during the 2016-2017 oyster season, there was an observable shift in harvest tactics utilized by the commercial oyster industry.

“Appalling measures were taken to harvest oysters with little regard for the impact on our fisheries, sensitive habitat, personal property and public resources,” he said.

Some tactics employed include walking the dredge up to the shoreline to harvest shallow water reefs, dredging under (and hitting) docks and piers, knocking down channel markers, dredging and cutting channels to venture further back into bay systems (St. Charles Bay), hand-picking oysters from shorelines, operating four-wheelers in sensitive areas (Spartina marsh and bird rookery islands) to retrieve harvest sacks and harvesting oysters from closed waters (e.g. Swan Lake, Drum Bay and Bastrop Bay).

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States, simply because we have not allowed harvest for over the past seven decades. In a bay system that receives substantial runoff and sedimentation, this is a remarkable occurrence.

“Another claim against this process is that if oysters are not harvested, they will die from predation (crabs, oyster drills, black drum) or become covered in mussels. No successful predator or disease will kill all of its prey; and again, we need to look no further than Sabine Lake to refute this argument.”

Another idea is to protect shoreline reefs.

According to Bonnot, numerous scientific studies prove that oyster reefs on and adjacent to our coastal shorelines serve a unique function for our bays’ ecology.

Researchers in Florida have found that oyster reef habitat supported nearly 4.5 times the aquatic biomass found in seagrass beds and roughly 11.5 times the aquatic biomass found in marsh edge habitat.

Dr. Greg Stunz, Director of the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi, and his team of marine biologists have made similar discoveries here in our coastal ecosystems and are worried about the fate of our oysters.

“We specifically have become concerned with the recent intensive harvest of very shallow reefs (less than three feet) that have, up until recently, been generally released from commercial harvest,” said Stunz.

Plenty has changed with oyster harvest in Texas, and there is room for plenty more changes with policy based on science and hopefully the goal of bettering our coastal ecosystems.

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12/6/17 7:33 PM

Modern Kayak Design and Technology has Turned These Primitive Craft into Fishing Machines story by TF&G STAFF

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AYAK FISHING IS ON THE RISE. Interest in these relatively affordable craft has increased dramatically over the last decade and seeing kayaks on any Texas bay, river, lake or even in the Gulf is common.

And while kayaks are a primitive mode of travel (and fishing) modern kayaks are anything but primitive. Let’s start with navigation.

Hobie’s MirageDrive propulsion system for kayaks nearly make paddles obsolete.

Weighing in at under eight pounds, the MirageDrive 180 produces full power in both directions. Users can pull one of two shift cables to pivot the fins 180 degrees, almost instantly from forward to reverse and back again. The dual fins provide shallow water access and easy shore landings by simply pushing one pedal forward.

Possibilities include backing fish out of cover; safely fishing closer to obstructions; or fishing downstream while holding in current. Hands-free propulsion in any direction means better control: to cast, to present baits, and to concentrate on landing bigger fish.

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Motors are also available for kayaks including the Torqeedo 402 electric motor from Hobie. It can operate for several hours on two knots but also allow anglers to move into bursts of speed.

Kayaks can also be fitted with small

Modern Kayaks can be rigged with an almost unlimited array of fishing accessories.

outboard and standard trolling motors with price and efficiency varying greatly.

Sonar is now easily accessible and tailor made for kayak owners.

Take the Humminbird Fishin Buddy Max Sonar.

A multidirectional mount allows it to be clipped virtually anywhere with no rigging or wiring required, and no transducer to mount.

Depth capability to 600 feet allows you to identify cover and structure.

They additionally offer the 385cI Combo Kayak featuring a brilliant color 3.5-inch display with LED backlight, advanced DualBeam sonar with 2400 Watts PTP power output, and GPS Chart plotting with built-in UniMap.

Even shifting in and out of gear can spoil the stealth.

“This causes a loud “thunk” underwater, which will alert the fish to your presence,” Rudow said.

TF&G contributor Greg Berlocher has written extensively on kayaks and suggests anglers combine common sense with technology.

“Prep your gear Spend enough time getting everything ready beforehand so getting on the water is quick and stress free,” said Berlocher.

“A recent trip to the coast serves as a good example of what not to do. A late business meeting delayed our arrival in Rockport Friday night. The days prior to the trip were consumed attending a trade show. In short, there was no time for preparation. By the time we were settled-in Friday night, it was midnight. When the alarm went off four hours later, I couldn’t find the gear I needed when it counted most-a rookie mistake.”

According to Berlocher kayaks and fishing tackle are not maintenance free.

“Straps and buckles break. Metal cables and hinges rust and corrode. Electronics go on the fritz. A freshwater rinse is needed after every fishing trip. Create a maintenance clipboard for your kayak and fishing tackle. After every trip, note anything that requires attention. Date all entries and periodically review your maintenance record. Set up a schedule to regularly lubricate all mechanical linkages. Do you remember the last time you changed the line on your reel?”

And while modern kayaks provide ample storage space, keeping things organized will make kayak fishing expeditions far more successful according to Berlocher.

TF&G Boating Editor Lenny Rudow says that kayak technology is great but you have to keep some things in mind if you want to keep the stealth part of kayak fishing effective.

“If you have a two-stroke outboard, shut it down before shifting out of gear. These engines make a lot more underwater noise in neutral, than they do in gear,” he said.

“Don’t think electric motors are 100-percent silent – they create just as much prop noise as any other motor will. Prop noise is directly related to engine speed, so even when going electric, approach hotspots or finning fish slowly.”

In a fishgame.com blog on kayak technology he said if your fish boxes, stowage compartments, and hatches aren’t lined with rubber gaskets, add them.

“You can pick up a rubber gasket at any marine supply store for chump change, and it’ll eliminate those slams and bangs that will spook the fish.”

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“I organize my tackle boxes at least once a year and they stay that way for a month or two. At the end o f every trip, lures and tackle get dumped on the work bench. I am a piler, not a filer.”

“However, I am getting better. I transfer the lures or terminal tackle I will use on a trip (think game plan) from my main tackle box to several kayak-friendly clear plastic boxes.

I also organize the contents of my milk crate before and after every trip so everything is easy to extract when needed.”

Kayaks can be as simple or complex as you choose. Of course, complex costs so maybe the basic kayak setup is for you.

If you do decide to go the technological route then realize you need to learn the gear by training with it and being prepared before you make your flats, surf or lake fishing debut.

Technology has brought kayak fishing into the modern era but it’s no replacement for good angling skills and common-sense boating safety and maintenance.

« has published two kayak books: Greg Berlocher’s “Kayak Texas” and Paul Batchelder’s “101 Freshwater Kayak Launch Points.” Both books are available at FishGame.com.

TEXAS FISH & GAME

PHOTO: HOBIE; BOOKS, TF&G

12/8/17 2:28 PM

Texas SALTWATER

by CALIXTO GONZALES :: TF&G Saltwater Editor

Parental Guidance

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REMEMBER BACK WHEN MY good friend, Jimmy Brewster, bore witness to the birth of his second son. He was glowing when I talked to him the first time after the big event.

“He’s absolutely gorgeous,” Jim said. “I can’t wait until he’s old enough that he and Jordan can go fishing with us. We’re going to have a blast.”

Back then, I was certain we would (and we did). I knew that I loved fishing with Calito, and our adventures have been the grist for many a column. The memories were thick and colorful, especially when we embellished them a bit.

Don’t look at me like that. When you’re a parent, and your kid fishes, you learn to do certain things, like let him fish his way, even if it means catching a trout on a Cheeto (my boy did that once; much to the chagrin of many a trout aficionado who thinks that trout are too worthy to be insulted that way). You also learn that, sometimes, it’s necessary to lie.

I remember something I saw when I was nineteen. By then, I had a car and my parents begrudgingly gave me permission to make the hour-long drive to South Padre Island to surf fish. I spent several Saturdays in June, July and August of that summer fishing the beaches up and down the Island. If I caught any fish, I’d drive over Jim’s Pier to clean them before I drove home.

Jim’s Pier has a fish cleaning area that is four tables surrounding and opening in the dock that led out to the bay. You clean your catch and drop the remains through the opening, where everything is promptly eaten by some of the biggest hardhead catfish you’ve ever seen.

Some those gnarly buggers were easily over two feet long. Throw a handful of guts down there, and the catfish would converge on them and thrash, and roll, and lunge while fighting

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with a bare forearm.

“Really?” he asked “Sure!”

Then Pop looked at me and asked, “Right?”

Now, I had a choice to make, the first meant that Kevin would know the truth, but probably be so traumatized that he’d never fish again, put a bolt through his nose, date a bald girl, and join PETA. I could see the man was very close to drowning, so I chose the second option and threw him a line.

“Oh, yeah, yeah!” I nodded, confirming to the boy that his croaker was going to recover to lead a productive life of spiritual fulfillment.

The man sent the now smiling boy to the waiting arms of Mommy, who had just shown up.

“Mommy!” Kevin blurted as he saw his mother. “I caught a fish! And a catfish is taking him to the fish hospital so he can get better! My fish is going to grow up to be a big fish, and I’m going to catch him again!

Mommy just nodded and smiled, and let her son babble on about the croaker that was on its way to a long recovery.

The dad brought me a soda and clapped me on the back.

“Man,” he said, “thank you for backing me up. The last thing I need is for that kid to be traumatized about fishing because of those damn catfish.

I shook my head. “Lying to a little kid. What is this world coming to?”

“Hey,” he said, “If you’re going to have kids that want to fish with you, you’re going to lie.

And if you don’t lie, you’re a damn fool or a heartless s.o.b. Either way, your kid ain’t gonna fish very long.

Kevin is somewhere in his mid-20s now.

I hope he’s still fishing with his dad. If I’ve let the cat out of the bag well…Kevin, your dad did it for you!

over the stuff. It was actually a little scary to watch the show. What would happen if someone’s pet chihuahua fell in there?

This one time, I was cleaning a few flounders I’d caught when Captain Roman Stockton’s boat pulled into one of the boat slips. Roman, his two clients, and one client’s five-year-old son hopped onto the dock. They had a good day, or at least the kid thought so. He’d caught his first fish: a six-inch croaker.

He was very proud of his catch, and was running around showing the now very dead and very stiff fish to everyone. It didn’t matter to this little boy that the grownups had caught a cooler full of speckled trout. He had his fish, and there was no other fish on the planet.

Except the catfish.

They were swimming around underneath the dock, waiting. About this time, the boy decided to let his croaker go—right into the opening the catfish used as a buffet. The croaker floated for a couple of seconds. Then, a catfish as long as the boy came up, took the croaker sideways in his mouth, and swam off.

I’d swear you could have heard the scream five miles offshore.

The boy’s father came running, a look of terror on his face. He found his son stomping his feet in place, face bright red, and tears pouring, pointing at the hole in the dock.

“Oh my God, boy! Did you fall in?” he asked the screaming child, looking him over for missing body parts or exposed bones.

When he was satisfied that his boy was intact, he cupped the kid’s face in his hands and asked, “What happened, Kevin, what happened?”

Kevin pointed to the hole in the dock. “I put my fish in there so he could swim and a big fish got him.

Now the father’s face began to alternate between relief and amusement. “A big fish did what?” he asked.

“A BIG FISH ATE MY FISH,” Kevin bawled.

“Oh, no, no! Kevin,” Pop said. “He just took your fish to the fish hospital so he could get better.”

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A Big Cat Sighting in Youth Has Stayed with This Writer for a Lifetime

story by chester moore

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N 1987, I WAS IN SEVENTH GRADE. DURING the winter, my after-school hobby was to go rabbit hunting on the railroad tracks behind our house.

Despite being surrounded by woods and rice fields, we were in the city limits so I had to carry a pellet gun.

It was a .20 caliber Sheridan that was as powerful as a .22 at short distances, so it made a perfect rabbit gun in an environment where stealth was the key.

My only problem was the last house in the neighborhood on the edge of the tracks had a Doberman pinscher that loved to chase people. So, you had to sneak past it to get to the good hunting grounds on the edge of the rice fields. One day I slipped past the house with no dog chase or sighting and made it to the edge of a Chinese tallow tree thicket and an abandoned rice field. I was going to cross through this field and look for rabbits along the edge of the trees, but then I heard something.

There was no wind, so anything that moved made sounds in the dry leaves and dying

grass. I thought I heard faint footsteps in the brush. I took a position beside a tallow tree, raised my gun and clicked off the safety. I worried it might be my Doberman nemesis at first, but whatever it was sounded as if it were gliding through the brush.

My heart pounded as a large cougar walked slowly out of the brush and into the field. It had a medium-brown coat, a long tail as big around as my fist and a muscular, chiseled frame. I was more fascinated than scared as the cat turned around and looked me directly in the eye.

It was a look of complete confidence, almost as if it was saying that I was going to need something bigger than this Sheridan pellet gun to do it in. The cat then turned and slowly made its way over a levee.

Once I knew it was gone, I ran. Running from predators is never a good idea because it excites them. So I waited until it was out of my line of vision and took off.

I flung our door open and shouted, “Cougar!”

Mom and Dad believed me right away because I was already an expert at wildlife identification, but they suggested I call our neighbors down the road who had a cougar named Sandy for a pet. This cat was bigger than Sandy, but I called anyway.

“Hey Cher, did Sandy get loose?”

“Hold on Chester, let me check.”

“Nope, she’s on the runner in the back yard.

Why?” “I just saw a cougar back on the railroad tracks.

It was bigger than Sandy, but I wanted to check anyway.”

“Oh that must be the male. She went into heat last month, and a male was calling out to her at night from back there.”

Amazing!

If you have had an exciting cougar sighting in Texas or have a photo or video of a cougar, email it to cmoore@fishgame.com. We want to share them in a future feature on this extremely popular topic.

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TEXAS WHITETAILS

by LARRY WEISHUHN :: TF&G Contributing Editor

Late Season

ly adjusted my rested Ruger Super Blackhawk way off walking my way; about 45 minutes Hunter, 44 Mag so it was lined up directly with into my mid-day sit. Then off to my left behind the bobcat. I cocked the single-action’s ham- a screen of oak brush I spotted a second buck. mer, peered through the scope. The crosshairs This one was bigger than the first, a long-tined, settled solidly on the “little spotted lion’s” ten point with massive bases.

This was a buck I had not seen before. He shoulder. I squeezed the trigger.

The Hornady 240-grain XTP bullet struck strode into field and started feeding. I was exactly where I had aimed. A few moments glassing him when I looked to my right, a third later at the bobcat’s side I admired the old buck fed into the field. This one was a young tom’s rosette and spotted hide. I carried the cat ten point with great promise. A few minutes to the ATV then drove to another area, a creek later, three does walked into the field and started feeding on the lush forage. bottom between two food plots.

Before heading back Some mature whitetails tend to feed during the middle to camp that night, I had part of the day. Activity charts indicated deer would be seen three young bucks feeding between 1 and 2:30 pm and that was the time and an older buck missing this buck appeared. his right antler. I wanted to discern whether the missing antler had been broken off at the base, or, if he simply failed to develop an antler on the right side.

If it was broken, I intended to pass him.

If there was no sign of a pedicel, I intended to take him. Unfortunately, before I could determine which it was, he disappeared.

I had to head home that night. But, I intended to return to the property in three days. I hoped if it had indeed been the bobcat I wondered how others in camp were faring. that spooked deer off of my food plot, with the I suspected they were sitting around the lunch predator gone, the deer would return.

Three days later I was back. Before leav- table talking about the morning’s hunt or posing home I had checked the “activity chart” sibly watching someone else hunt on television I have come to place great faith in. With the rather than experiencing it first hand.

To my extreme left I spotted a huge rack moon nearly full and shining most of the night, the activity chart suggested the peak feeding appearing from behind the trunk of an ancient period in our area should be between 1 p.m. oak. Cautiously, I pointed my Ruger .44 Mag and 2:30 p.m. I planned on being in my ground in that direction, cocked the revolver’s hammer and… blind near the food plot by high noon.

Walking in I saw many deer tracks, one set of coyote tracks, and no bobcat tracks. Based on the renewed number of tracks, the deer were back.

Email Larry Weishuhn at I spotted my first deer, a nice buck, a long ContactUs@fishgame.com

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HE DOE, ONLY DEER I HAD seen all afternoon, stared intently into the whitebrush. Her ears were fully attentive and erect. The hairs on her tail appeared to bristle reminding me of someone with a “bad hair day.”

I doubted it was another deer, possibly wild hogs, coyotes or a bobcat. I had seen tracks of all three, especially those of a big bobcat, walking the trail to my hiding place on the edge of my Tecomate food plot. Of particular interest had been the bobcat tracks.

Earlier in the season there had been a tremendous acorn crop, but most were now (mid-January) gone. Serendipitous rains during late fall had contributed greatly to food plot growth and provided deer on the property with highly palatable and nutritious forage.

For the past couple of days I had not seen nearly the number of deer I expected. Something was keeping the deer away.

Normally the food plot attracted many deer, including some mature, large-antlered bucks during the late season when other food sources were scarce.

I wondered whether the reason for the scarcity of deer could be the bobcat.

The doe snorted twice then ran across the field, passing within fewer than ten steps. I glassed the opposite brushy edge. Not an animal could I see. I waited five minutes then reached into the pocket of my Drake NonTypical vest and pulled out the Convergent Hunting Solutions mouth-blown predator call I carry with me whenever I am in the field.

Well over an hour remained before the sun would start sinking into the west when I started blowing the call. Less than ten seconds into my dying rabbit squeals, a big bobcat walked out of the brush near where the doe had been.

He stopped about 75 yards out and turned broadside. With my right hand, I ever so slight-

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12/6/17 6:54 PM

Texas GUNS

by STEVE LAMASCUS | TF&G Shooting Editor

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LTHOUGH IT’S CONSIDered a modern cartridge, the .357 Magnum, was actually introduced in 1935. At that time it was a giant step up from the preceding .38 caliber cartridges such as the .38 S&W, and .38 Special.

To add glitz to the cartridge’s introduction, Major Doug Wesson took it all across North America, using it on almost every large game animal he could find. Deer, elk, grizzly bears, and many others bit the dirt courtesy of the new magnum.

Not only was the cartridge more powerful than any that preceded it, the gun was a magnificent example of the art of firearms manufacturing. In the beginning all of them were practically handmade, fitted and finished.

This was the era of the Model .357 Magnum, before it became the Model 27.

Since that day, there have been many different models and brands of .357 Magnums, even some semi-autos and not a few carbines. Even at this date, 84 years after its introduction, the .357 Magnum is one of the most effective selfdefense rounds on the market.

When the .357 was introduced, it was loaded a lot hotter than it is today. In the beginning, if we are to believe the literature, the load that initiated the wave of wonder was a 158-grain bullet at better than 1,500 feet per second.

Today we can only approach that level of performance by handloading for a very strong, long-barreled handgun, using the most modern, slow-burning powders and the best brass.

Even then, you have to load it to the top of the charts, or even over the top—something that’s

“ I have used the .357 Magnum to take a number of deer, javelina, coyotes, raccoons, and such.

“

The Magnificent .357 Magnum

have never killed a whitetail in its tracks with a .357, and I have never misplaced a shot. Most of the time some trailing was involved.

That’s in spite of the fact that every shot I have ever fired at a deer was a complete pass-through shot. The reason is that the First Magnum is a bit light in the pockets for animals over about 70 pounds. It produces less than 1,000 ft-lbs of impact energy, even with the stiffest loads I am aware of, and most won’t reach 750.

On the other hand, strange as it sounds, for personal protection the .357 is one of the best.

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With lighter bullets designed to expand rapidly, it gives good one-shot stopping potential, is not badly inclined to over-penetrate, and is still easy to shoot well.

Even in this era of the semi-auto, I still occasionally carry a very well-preserved old 2 1/2-inch Model 19. With six 125-grain hollow points in the gun and a speed loader in my pocket, I feel quite well armed for almost any situation. Besides, any situation I can’t handle with the wheel gun, I probably couldn’t handle with any other handgun.

It took some little time after its introduction to displace the .38 Special, but eventually the .357 became the sine qua non of law enforcement handguns. The first handgun I was issued as a police officer was a Model 19 S&W. When I joined the Border Patrol I was issued a Colt Border Patrol Model in .357.

I didn’t like the trigger pull of the Colt, so I eventually bought a Smith & Wesson Model 686 (L-frame) .357, which I carried until the Border Patrol began to allow its officers to carry semi-autos.

During the era of the revolver the Texas Highway Patrol issued the S&W Model 28 Highway Patrol to its troopers. The Model 28 is simply a less fancy Model 27, which is the large .44-frame (N-frame) gun in .357. It is heavier than the Model 19, but much more robust.

The Model 19, based on the smaller K-38 (K-frame), but much strengthened, was preferred by most officers because of its lighter weight, even though it would not stand up to as many heavy magnum loads. Also popular was the Colt Python, a beautiful handgun renowned for its accuracy.

The .357 is still popular, and is still a solid choice for self-defense. If you like revolvers, and many still do, there are few cartridges out there with the abilities of the .357 Magnum.

Most handgun manufacturers offer several different models to fit almost any scenario and every need.

never recommended.

The loads generally seen on dealers’ shelves in that bullet weight are more likely to produce velocities of around 1,250 feet per second. My hunting load generates about 1350 fps from a 6-inch Model 27 S&W-- and it is absolutely maximum in that very strong gun. To achieve the 1500 fps we read about it is usually necessary to reduce bullet weight, and even then it isn’t easy. For instance, my current Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading shows only one load with 158-grain bullets that exceeds 1250 fps, and it does not reach 1,500.

I have used the .357 Magnum to take a number of deer, javelina, coyotes, raccoons, and such. For the smaller animals it was great, but the deer sometimes needed extra killing. I

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12/6/17 6:59 PM

Decoys Can Aid Hog Hunters

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story by tf&g staff

F THERE IS ONE THING serious hog hunters know, it is that they have a lot stacked against them.

Sure, you can ride in a helicopter and shoot a bunch if you have the money or maybe go out into an agricultural field at night with thermal imaging scopes and shoot a bunch.

But for most hunters taking hogs, particularly trophy-sized boars is a challenge. Combating a hog’s nose, which is far more sensitive than ours, is problem enough, much less hunting pressure, general human awkwardness and little time to spend in the field.

Using hog decoys is one way to work around this problem. I was first introduced to serious deer (not hog) decoying while hunting with TF&G Bowhunting Editor Lou Marullo some 15 years ago.

He is a master at using decoys to score on

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deer and got me to considering employing them in my own hunting ventures, including with hogs.

Hog decoys tend to work best in areas with a large concentration of hogs where they can spark the sexual and territorial instincts of boars. Boars will come out and fight a hog decoy. For hunters, that means you have the hog distracted and can make your move without it noticing.

The proper use of a decoy begins with scent elimination. Use gloves when you are carrying and setting up the decoy and spray it with a good cover scent or sexual attractant. The nose is a hog’s first line of defense so you have to get past that to get into the visual realm.

Decoys are best employed in high use areas such as food plots, fields nearby woods, scrapes and travel funnels. Make sure not to set up the decoy in a direct path to you. You do not want to give them a chance to see or smell you if they

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cross your line of scent. Set it up off to the side of your stand positioned to focus their attention on the decoys, not on you.

Elevation is also important as it definitely keeps you out of the line of sight if you’re up above 15 feet or so, and it is a safety factor as well. If someone creeps up and shoots your decoys for a real hog, your chances of getting shot decrease the farther up you get.

Also, try a bit of grunting or a recorded hog feeding sound to make the setting more realistic.

I recommend having decoys covered in blaze orange when transporting by foot or four-wheeler for safety.

If you exercise proper caution, decoys can open up a lot of opportunity for you and perhaps get that super boar to drop its guard and check out your decoy long enough to get a shot.

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12/6/17 7:49 PM

When the Waters Get Frigid, Blue Catfish Get Salty STORY BY CHESTER MOORE

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IOLOGISTS with the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge have found through tagging efforts that blue catfish have a high tolerance for salinity.

This validates what Upper Coast redfish fans have known for years. You can catch “blues” where you find redfish in the fall and winter months.

My cousin, Frank Moore, is an avid winter angler who pursues these big, brackish blues every year.

“My favorite spot to get them are the deep, wide bends in some of the bayous,” he said. “There tends to be a lot of mussel shell in

some of these spots, which blues feed on and there are quite a few crabs, which the blues and redfish feed on as well. If we find blues in these areas, the reds are always close by.”

Moore fishes small chunks of cut mullet on a Carolina (Fish Finder) rig and targets outgoing tides. “These fish will move up tight to the shorelines to feed on high tides and when it starts to trickle out you can really get on a good bite. It is very common to catch fish up to 15 pounds, but most of them are in the five to eight-pound range.”

Another spot he targets is along the edge of drop-

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offs in the Intracoastal.

“There are lots of big blues and reds in the ship channel during the winter. On warm afternoons when you have a high tide, the dark mud heats up and the fish move onto the edge. Any time from an hour or so before peak high tide until an hour or so after it starts falling is a good time,” Moore said.

During late fall cold fronts, large bayous on the edge of marshes can be excellent places to intercept reds and blue catfish.

Look for the fish to feed heavily on the eddies that form in these spots. Blue catfish, although primarily a scavenger, will feed on live prey. These eddies where

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the smaller baitfish are often stacked up, provide an easy location to feed.

Reds of course can be thick in these areas and usually dominate early in the fall, but as winter gets closer, blue catfish start filtering in.

“Use a good, widegapped or circle hook because there can be a lot of small reds in there, and you don’t want to deep hook any,” Moore said.

“In addition, those kinds of hooks actually help you catch more fish because they take the guesswork out. When you get a strike, do not set the hook. Just pick up the rod, lift sternly and start reeling in.”

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12/11/17 2:15 PM

RE THE CRAPPIE RUNNING UP ON TOLEDO Bend?”

“Have the bull redfish started running at the Port O’Connor Jetties?”

People often use the term “run” in fishing to mean that the fish are biting. When someone says the “bass are running” they mean they are biting, or there has been a solid period of fishing action.

The actual meaning of “run” however, is a period of migration in relation to a spawn.

Salmon “run” upstream to spawn and then die. White bass annually move into certain areas of the river to spawn. The bull redfish right now have moved onto the beachfront to spawn and the fall flounder “run” is an event tied to their migration in the Gulf.

These migrations tied to breeding periods congregate many fish in an area. Since there is intense activity, the fish in question tend to feed aggressively.

So when someone tells you the speckled trout are “running” on Sabine Lake, there really is no run. They do not make a mass migration to mate. They simply mean they are biting, and the fish certainly will not be as concentrated as the white bass that really do “run” north of Toledo Bend.

The rut in whitetail deer has some equally confusing terminology associated with it.

There is a lot of talk about second and even third ruts, but what does it mean?

To answer questions about missing the rut, etc. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) has some practical data that can help hunters.

According to TPWD a doe may be attractive to bucks for about five days, but may be willing to breed for a period of only 24 hours. If the doe is not bred during her first cycle, she will generally come into heat again about 28 days later.”

“In areas where there are few bucks, a doe may not encounter a buck when she is first receptive and may not be bred until one of her later cycles. A hunter, landowner or biologist who sees the late breeding activity may be convinced that there was a late rut.

REPORT: NEWS 34u TF&G OF THE NATION Reported by Andi Cooper

HOT 34u TEXAS SHOTS Trophy Photos from TF&G Readers

36u TEXAS COASTAL FORECAST

by Eddie Hernandez, Mike Holmes, Mike Price, Chris Martin, Mac Gable, Tom Behrens, Sally Black and Calixto Gonzales

46u TEXAS FISHING HOTSPOTS

by Tom Behrens, Dustin Warncke and Dean Heffner

56u SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK Tides and SoLunar Data

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE u

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There is talk of a second or even a third rut. But what does that mean?

TPWD biologists found most breeding activity happened from October 21 to January 5. “Peak breeding dates were November 22 in the northern portion and November 12 in the southern part of the Pineywoods,” the biologists said. “Does showed a 96 percent pregnancy rate and averaged 1.7 fawns each.

The majority (90 percent) of the fawns are born by June 29 in the northern area and by June 19 in the southern area.”

For the Edwards Plateau (Hill Country), conception dates ranged from as early as October 9 to a late date of January 30. The Edwards Plateau, Texas’s highest deer production region was divided into three areas for the study.

The eastern part had a peak breeding date of November 7. Peak breeding for the central

On the other hand, those who see does attended by bucks in the early part of the season believe there was an early rut. This helps explain the wide variety of opinions on the timing of the rut during a particular year.”

In other words, does will keep going into estrus every 28 days until they are bred. On top of that, buck/doe ratio can be a factor.

If there are say—eight does to one buck, chances are not all of the does in the area will be bred, and the chances of another estrus cycle for does comes into play. There are, however, peak rut times.

My constant point of reference is The Rut in Whitetail Deer put out by TPWD, which we detailed in the November 2017 issue.

This publication deals heavily with this issue.

(Check it out in the e-edition.)

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portion was November 24, and the western area had a peak date of December 5 according to TPWD “South Texas had the latest rut in the state. Breeding dates ranged from November 9 to February 1 during the three years. In the eastern part of the area the peak breeding date was December 16, while in the west it was December 24.”

I hope this helps you understand these phenomena a little better. The great outdoors is a fascinating place as there are so many factors that go into making something like a rut or a “run” happen.

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12/11/17 2:15 PM

The NATIONAL

Texas Playa Conservation Initiative

News of TEXAS

for irrigating crops and watering livestock.

Many of these pits and ditches have been abandoned and can be easily restored. The spoil pile from the original excavation is often still present and can be used to refill the pit.

Once a pit is filled, rainwater and runoff can again reach the entire playa basin, which is essential for aquifer recharge to occur.

The shallow water that spreads across the playa also allows plants and insects to flourish, which in turn provides important food and habitat for migrating birds and other wildlife.

Partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV), and Ducks Unlimited have established the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative to restore

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ONSERVATION PARTNERS are focusing on playa restoration in the Texas Panhandle.

Playas are the most important ecological feature in the southern Great Plains. These ephemeral, or temporary, wetlands are typically circular in shape and range from 10 to more than 100 acres in size. Playas are numerous across the region.

Approximately 80,000 have been mapped, the majority of which occur in the Texas Panhandle.

In the past, some playas were altered by digging holes or ditches to collect and concentrate water

RED SNAPPER

BASS

Port Aransas

Lake Falcon

Seventeen-year-old Matthew Grant of Corpus Christi caught this 24-pound red snapper during last summer’s snapper season.

Fishing out of Port Aransas with Hot Spot Fishing Charters, the King High School football player scored the heaviest snapper of the season to be weighed at Woody’s Sports Center.

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playa basins impacted by the construction of pits or drainage ditches.

TPWD lead Don Kahl explained, “Currently, we are concentrating our efforts on filling in pits in playas on private lands to restore the natural function of the playa. By doing so, we create shallow water habitat for waterfowl when the playa floods. Also, an intact clay layer on a repaired playa allows for proper filtration of water as it makes its way to the aquifer through the playa floor.

The clay particles help to pull out nitrates and other potential contaminants.”

The program covers all costs for restoration and pays the landowner a one-time, $80-per-playa-acre incentive payment upon completion of the playa restoration.

“Our goal is to provide wetland habitat for wildlife and improve the quality and quantity of groundwater recharge through playas for the ranchers, farmers, and local residents who live here,” Kahl said.

Bobby Clark caught this bass last summer while fishing on Lake Falcon in a kayak. He used a 13 Fishing Envy Black rod to catch the nice bass.

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Playas are shallow, ephemeral wetlands that, when flooded by rainfall, can provide vital habitat for an array of migrating and wintering waterfowl in the Texas High Plains.

Partners include TPWD, PLJV, Ducks Unlimited, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USFWS, Texas Agricultural Land Trust, Texas Grazing Lands Coalition, Texas Tech

which will result in approximately 400 acres of restored playas. Funding for the pit filling activities comes from the USFWS, TPWD, and Ducks Unlimited.

Ducks Unlimited secured a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ConocoPhillips SPIRIT of Conservation and Innovation

University, The Nature Conservancy, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and Ogallala Commons.

“We make playa restoration easy for the landowner,” Kahl said. “We’ll take care of all the arrangements and do all of the work.

There is no cost to the landowner and no

Lubbock County Playa restoration, under construction.

WHITETAIL Fredericksburg Mandy Donnaud shot this 12-point buck while hunting near Fredericksburg. The trophy buck was scored at 157 inches.

NEWS PHOTOS: DUCKS UNLIMITED

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grant to support the playa restoration effort.

TPWD is delivering the program, and the Playa Lakes Joint Venture is providing administrative support.

Interested landowners can contact Don Kahl at (806) 475-1308 or don.kahl@tpwd. texas.gov.

—by Andi Cooper

labor required. We aren’t trying to modify or control the future management of the property, only fill in a hole that no longer serves a purpose,” Kahl said.

As the Playa Conservation Initiative grows, the partners plan to do more than pit filling for playa restoration. Other restoration practices may include the planting of grass buffers around farmed playas and sediment removal from basins.

As of last October, the partners had negotiated 11 contracts with landowners, T E X A S

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Coastal Focus: SABINE :: by Capt.

EDDIE HERNANDEZ

Patience Is Key In January

These are trout that you are not going to catch if you don’t have patience—lots of it.

When fishing Sabine in January, you have to be disciplined enough to grind it out for several hours in less than desirable conditions, hoping for one or two big bites.

Hit the flats and look for bait. Mullet and mud are two of the key components when hunting wintertime trophy trout. Set up in areas that you know have a nice hard mud bottom and make long drifts parallel with the shoreline.

Match the hatch by using mullet imitation plugs and try to keep the depth between three and six feet. Work these areas thoroughly and try to cover as much water as possible.

Wading is never a bad idea when the water temperature drops as “Old Man Winter” is breathing down your neck. These fish are lethargic and it’s important to take your time when presenting your lure to them. They are not feeding as often as they will in the warmer months, but they still need to eat.

They want it big and they want it slow.

One of the biggest mistakes some people

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OU HAVE TO HAVE patience when fishing. If I had a nickel for every time I heard my dad utter these words when I was a kid, I would be a wealthy man.

Patience really is a key ingredient to successful angling. Mixed with confidence, knowledge, skill, and luck, a little patience can definitely go a long way.

This is never more true than in the month of January. Here on Sabine Lake, a lot of our biggest trout of the year are taken during this month. I’m talking about “gator” trout 26 inches or better that would make an excellent addition to anyone’s trophy room.

make in cold water is working their bait too fast. I like to tell my clients that if they think they are working it too slow, slow it down some more.

A trout’s metabolism is down, and they are not feeding aggressively. They are just looking for a meal, and the easier the better. Big, slow-sinking plugs like MirrOLure, Catch V, Catch 2000, and Corky are very effective.

Let the bait do its job and sink slowly.

Give it a couple of very light twitches, then give it time to make another slow descent. I know some fishermen who don’t twitch it all.

They simply give the reel ¼ of a turn, let it sink, and then do it again.

Natural colors work well, as do lighter colors like Bone and chrome/chartreuse. You never know which one they want, but I think it depends on which one crosses their faces first. Make sure everyone is throwing something a little different so you can figure it out.

Keep in mind it’s January, so be patient, and you might just get that new addition to your trophy room.

THE BANK BITE LOCATION: Intracoastal Canal, Hwy 87 (Sabine Pass) SPECIES: Redfish, croaker, black drum Bait: Fresh dead shrimp, cut bait Best Times: Any tidal movement

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Coastal Focus: GALVESTON :: by Capt.

MIKE HOLMES

Beginning Another New Year

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E COULD BEGIN 2018 BY glancing back over 2017—so we shall.

The “big” news in Gulf of Mexico Fisheries is that Federal regulations governing many offshore species are still confused, muddled, and a bit ridiculous. Red snappers are so numerous that they are literally eating some other species—such as triggerfish—into unnaturally low population levels.

Those charter boat captains who remain in business report that it has become difficult to fish for species such as king mackerel in many spots because the baits are taken instead by red snappers. Of course, this would not be a bad thing, except that snapper limits are very much less than generous, and the season in which keeping them is allowed is more often closed than open.

Compounding this problem is that snappers do not function well as a “catch-andrelease” sport species. This means that when keeping snappers is prohibited, releasing them to die when they are caught as by product of seeking other species, is NOT an effective method of fishery management.

Federal regulations may be building towards addressing this problem, however.

The original three-day red snapper “season” in waters of the Gulf under federal control was a step toward not having undersized snapper that were unlikely to survive being released.

I have been in this game long enough to remember the summer that federal fisheries gurus decided an 18-minimum length for snappers would reduce the recreational catch.

It did that fairly well, as an 18-inch snapper is a pretty good fish, and smaller snappers are much more likely to be caught. However,

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time in recorded history.

Some credit for this has to be given to the extreme regulations. However, recreational fishermen should share some of the credit for suffering through those regulations, and for the most part obeying them.

I have no way of knowing whether high ranking employees of NOAA Fisheries/ NMFS have seen their annual compensation increase due to the “success” of the red snapper management program. I do know that recreational fishermen have not been rewarded for their part in that success.

The fisheries programs of the various Gulf States have been much more realistic and successful than those of the federal government.

I completely support the move to turn all red snapper management over to the states, instead of blackmailing them by reducing Federal quotas to “punish” state waters fishermen for obeying the laws set by their states for red snappers in state waters. Snappers are not a highly migratory species, and what lives in state water, normally stays in state waters.

that was also the summer the surface of the Gulf was littered with dead snappers under 18 inches that had been released by fishermen.

It seems there is no real way to only target snappers of a certain size—or above a certain size. Dead snappers are removed from the fishery just as completely whether they go home with a fisherman to feed his family or get eaten by “flipper” after they are released.

The only way to completely protect red snappers is to prohibit ANY fishing in waters where they might be found. (Yes, they will even hit a trolled lure at times!) NOAA fisheries seems to be working on this, by enacting ever tighter seasons and bag limits on other species, which in practice, removes the incentive to fish offshore at all.

Yeah, that should do it.

In my humble opinion, at the heart of the problem is that NOAA Fisheries/NMFS still has no real catch data on recreational red snapper catches. Dockside “intercepts” are expensive and of limited actual value, and telephone surveys are next to useless.

Instead, they cling to “estimates”, which are barely more than guesses. Somehow, these estimates always show that recreational fishermen vastly over-catch their quota, year after year.

We in the fishing community fought this same battle with king mackerel several years ago. When the quota for a species is “estimated” to have been reached, the fishery might be closed early More commonly, since the data is never presented until after the fact, the recreational quota for the following year will be reduced to “pay back” the excess fish deemed to have been caught.

They have also been prone to play games with the size of fish taken, claiming that the average snapper caught has greatly increased in size and weight, thus filling the quota— which is measured in pounds, not numbers of fish—sooner.

What the facts, as taken from observations of fishermen on the water and verified by some of the most respected fisheries “experts,” actually show is that there may well be more red snappers in the Gulf right now than at any F I S H

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THE BANK BITE LOCATION: Deep water spots will hold more fish in winter. This includes channels in bays and between bays and the Gulf, coastal rivers, and the channel side of jetties, as well as deeper water reached by beachfront piers and rock groins SPECIES: Trout, reds, flounder and various pan fish can all be taken in the right spot, at the right time.

BAIT: Both live and dead bait can be effective, also lures. Work lures slowly, and be patient with natural baits. Fish all of them slowly.

BEST TIME: Tides and currents are general “weaker”, but perhaps even more important to success than in warmer months.

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Coastal Focus: MATAGORDA :: by Contributing Editor MIKE PRICE

Enthusiastic Fisherman

enthusiastic fisherman who loves to be on the water in search of that special catch.

I took him to a five-foot-deep hole near the shoreline of the Diversion Channel.

There are deep holes in several places, both in the Diversion Channel and in the adjacent lakes and bayous before the Diversion Channel meets West Matagorda Bay. When the water is cool (it was 57°F on the day we went) fish find slightly warmer water in a gut or hole, like the one Darryl fished, which was surrounded by two-to-three-foot deep water. We also had moving water flowing over the hole. This enabled predators to stage in the hole, waiting to attack baitfish that were swimming with the current.

Darryl positioned himself about 15 yards from a log, which was next to the hole, and expertly dropped his morning glory/lime,

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FRIEND OF MINE OWNED A Volkswagen Beetle, and when I asked him how he liked his car he said, “I really like it, my car has enthusiasm!”

People who love to fish are like my friend’s car, enthusiastic about their fishing, and that makes them fun to fish with. Darryl Fenner is a fishing guide on Lake Superior in Wisconsin. Last January he was visiting a mutual friend in Matagorda and, of course, we went fishing. I found out that he is an

four-inch Shad Bass Assassin soft plastic into the deeper spot. He caught three redfish and a flounder before going in search another promising spot, and his enthusiasm was evident when I took his photo with a keeper red.

On another January day, the fish were enthusiastic. We had a light wind out of the southeast and clear 54°F water on the south side of West Matagorda Bay. The water was so low that we had to anchor a half-mile away from the cove we wanted to fish, then paddle our kayaks into the cove.

Jeff Wiley and I had arrived in the afternoon, just as an extra-strong, full-moon-driven, outgoing tide changed to an extra-strong incoming tide. We were fishing a gut at a point where the water dropped off from one to three feet. Soon after we started throwing soft plastics, we both hooked up with

An enthusiastic Darryl Fenner.

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hard-hitting and hard-fighting, keeper-sized redfish.

Then Jeff found trout, lots of trout. Every time the pumpkinseed/chartreuse or red and white Bass Assassin soft plastics dropped they were hit. Most of these trout were small, but they were feisty and fun to catch and release. We managed to catch and keep nine trout that were between 15 and 20 inches.

In addition to redfish and trout, we caught flounders and black drum. All things considered, it was a great winter fishing afternoon.

Timing your fishing so you are at your spot when the tide changes can be difficult. For example, when you go to West Matagorda Bay, you check the high and low tide times and the speed of the current generated by the tidal movement at Port O’Connor, www.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov.

However, you are not fishing at Port O’Connor. So the best thing to do is to know that if it is high tide at Port O’Connor at, say 2 p.m., it will be high tide at your special spot at 2:30 p.m. In other words, you should pay attention to the tidal predictions and to the actual tidal situation at your fishing spot and keep records of it.

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my lure and fought like a 28-inch red, but I finally landed it. The rest of the afternoon delighted us with more redfish action.

In January look for a deep area surrounded by flats. On cold days concentrate on the deep spot, but on warm days try the flats, and bring along an enthusiastic fishing partner.

Another way to find actively feeding redfish in January is to go fishing on a warm day following cold weather. Fish will leave deeper water in search of baitfish on the flats as the day and water warm up.

It was the afternoon of January 22 when Jeff and I went to Oyster Lake. The previous several days had been very cold and rainy, but on this day the wind was light out of the south, and it was partly sunny with air temperatures from 50°F to 68°F. There was a new moon, so the tide was moving, and the water temperatures were from 52°F to 57°F. I paddled my kayak in one to three feet deep water and saw a mud boil, the tell-tail sign that a redfish on the bottom was disturbed, then I saw another redfish take off. I watched the wake of the redfish and lobbed my lure 20 yards to where I figured the fish had moved and worked it back. It must have hit the side of the fish, because the fish fled in a hurry.

Then I started fan-casting by sending the lure to one side of a half circle and making a cast every 10 feet. I covered the half circle, thinking that fish was in there somewhere.

On the fourth cast, a 25-inch redfish took

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THE BANK BITE INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY AT MATAGORDA CR 259 goes east at the Matagorda Cemetery in the village of Matagorda.

You can fish the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in several places along this road, but you may want to try the west side of Little Boggy, a creek that drains a couple of lakes north of the road into the ICW. At this spot there is an oyster reef in the Intracoastal Waterway that you can cast to while standing on the bank, and sometimes it holds redfish on an outgoing tide. Kayakers can launch near the bridge on high water and paddle into the lakes north of the road in search of redfish.

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Coastal Focus: MID COAST :: by Capt.

CHRIS MARTIN

January’s Approach to Wintertime Trout

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HERE ARE MANY, MANY DIFferent species of saltwater fish that are enjoyed year-round by people all along our Texas coastline, with one of the more desirable and sought-after inshore ones being the speckled trout.

When hunting for these fish, coastal anglers often utilize any of a number of different styles and techniques of fishing.

However, one of the preferred methods remains wade fishing, even when tempera-

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tures drop as low as they do in January.

Regardless of the choices, anglers should probably always vote for wading a shoreline versus drifting it in a boat. Boats present various and uncontrollable noises, such as hull slap for instance. This lends nothing to your attempt at being stealthy as you try to sneakup on fish in shallow water.

Granted, anglers can cover a lot of real estate much more quickly when drifting instead of wading, but that’s not always the most important factor when you chase large trout in wintertime. If it’s prime, trophy-class specimens you’re after this month, the ability to be stealthy will become one of your best allies, and there’s no better way than by wading.

Because it’s January, and because it’s generally cold this month, wading anglers should make it a point to locate shorelines and flats that primarily consist of mud and grass, or mud and shell. That is where some of the largest cold-water fish will be found at this time of year.

As air temperature drops, so does water temperature, and the fish tend to get cold (just like people do). This is when wintertime trout anglers need to search for some level of thick mud as part of the bottom structure.

The mud is darker in color, and therefore allows it to soak up and retain the heat from the sun much better than sand.

There’s mud everywhere, or so it can seem at times. Some really high-producing areas can be flats close to deeper water that still have grass even though the water has already turned really cold.

Prime examples of such flats are directly adjacent to and alongside the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Matagorda, all the way down to where the ICW opens into San Antonio Bay nearer to the town |

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of Seadrift. Good grassy, muddy flats can also often be found along the bayside shorelines of Matagorda Island where some of the entrances to some of the area’s back lakes actually open into Espiritu Santo Bay and San Antonio Bay. An even bigger wintertime factor is the wind. Successful wintertime anglers will almost always desire some level of wind over having no wind at all. Why? Some say it’s because the wind provides higher oxygen levels. Therefore, the fish tend to be more lively and active due to the increase in oxygen just like providing pure oxygen to live bait wells to keep the bait lively and active.

Another point about the wind this month is you should remember to set up as many wading sessions as possible along windward shorelines. This is because the wind blows the baitfish into the shallows along the windward bank.

More often than not, wherever there is bait, trout will not be long to follow, especially when they’re lethargic due to the cold conditions. They’re often extremely hungry.

That one meal might have to hold them over for another day, or maybe even longer.

January’s cold weather can also sometimes mean several days of low tides. So, when looking for trout in such conditions, you should focus on working your bait in an extremely slow fashion.

Top water baits are periodically big producers at this time in the year, so give them a try if you’re up for the challenge. Remember, however, to always offer bright colors during periods of brilliant sunlight and clean water.

Use darker colors when the sky is overcast or while fishing in dirty water.

Until next time, Happy New Year to you, and tight lines to all!

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

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Coastal Focus: ROCKPORT :: by Capt.

MAC GABLE

The Eye Of Tears Part Two, continued from the December, 2018 issue.

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UR REFUGE WOULD BE Spicewood, Texas; it’s our old home place and we had been trying to sell it for a while. Now I completely understood why I had turned down offers from potential buyers. It would be a refuge for us in the coming days.

The storm’s tracking speed had been predicted to be slow, but as Lisa and I packed up that early morning it accelerated. We hurriedly packed what we needed, but not at all what we had planned. There was just no time.

Several days before, we—or rather I— had decided to ride Harvey out. A CAT 1 in my mind was very doable. We get Northers almost that strong, but this storm, having been fed by the warm eddies of the Gulf, was just revving up like a dragster on nitromethane.

As we drove out of town I recall holding my wife’s hand for what seemed like the entire trip to our old homestead—a reminder what really mattered was in the truck with me.

As the day progressed, the predictions were anything but good. Harvey was speeding up. Its winds were in excess of 85mph and getting stronger. The prediction would prove to be anything but accurate, which held true for the aftermath reports as well.

This storm was not playing by the rules, terms like “rare” and “worrisome” were used prolifically to describe its impending landfall. Upper level trade winds that normally steer these storms were collapsing and had a wide window of reintensification.

The best minds in the business such as the NHC and even European model scientists were arguing as to its track, its intensity, and its route over the next 72 hours. The truth is they didn’t have a clue what this monster was going to do.

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was a satellite image of the storm, now with the eye directly over the LBJ causeway. Our home, Lamar and Holiday Beach were now on the northeast side in the eye wall, the worst side of a hurricane to be in. In the center of the image in the middle of the eye the number 4 appeared to signify Harvey was now a CAT4.

I simply laid my head down and wept, wishing I had done more to warn our neighbors. I felt the arms of my wife Lisa hug me, and she said “Honey, I think it’s all gone.”

I knew in my heart she was right. Nothing on this earth could withstand the storm surge predicted for the area—7 to 12 feet.

Horrifying tornadoes were already being reported. In the end, it was calculated that more than 120 had touched down in the Rockport area.

All reports during the height of the storm were hearsay. Still, it was all we had. I called the County Commissioner, a good friend of ours, to see if she was okay and to get any information.

She sought refuge in McAllen, but had no other news since communication out of Rockport was nonexistent.

In the span of 45 minutes an eight-level deep emergency plan for Rockport had been wiped off the map. Cell phones were useless. Those individuals who stayed were simply trying to find a way to survive. One satellite phone was working, and the report was that everything was gone, nothing was left.

Harvey, now north of Rockport, wasn’t done.

It now unleashed its fury on Refugio and Victoria and anyone in the way. Victoria, where some dear friends live and own a business, was hammered with 90 plus mph winds for more than eight hours. Far from finished, Harvey now moved southeasterly as if it were seeking its energy source in the Gulf of Mexico.

Landfall had weakened Harvey’s winds, but it was saving its sucker punch for Houston.

Harvey steamed back into the Gulf, picked up winds 45 to 50 mph, and sucked up moisture from a warm Gulf of Mexico. Now downgraded to a tropical storm, Harvey turned northeast where it would stage its final cruel dance on Houston, depositing more than 50 inches of rain.

Their devastation is another whole story in itself.

Patience is not my best quality, in fact I have

Predictions varied: HWRF, LGEM, COAMPS-TC, HMON, and DSHIPS—oscillated between category 1, 3 or 4 for Harvey’s landfall. The HMON model was the most aggressive, predicting Harvey would max out at Category 4 strength with a 924 mb central pressure.

However, the HMON had Harvey with a 966 mb pressure at 2 pm EDT Thursday, although the actual pressure was 979 mb. So, the HMON forecast was probably overdone.

The HWRF model was the most conservative, predicting Harvey would max out as a Category 1. The lack of clear direction gave the people living in Harvey’s path the feeling we were on our own, trusting our own judgment or instincts. To say it was extremely confusing is a gross understatement.

The time frame from August 25 through the night of August 26 were the longest hours of my life. Harvey slowed down just off the coast line, picked up some warmly charged deep water.

Then it exploded into a CAT4 in the late evening of August 25.

During the early evening, its course had a 70 percent prediction of hitting Rockport. At this point it was too little, too late. Whatever purpose Harvey would have was now to be served.

Harvey’s hell would take residence in and around Rockport. My family and friends were petrified, for the last word they got from me was we were staying, having no clue we were safe in Spicewood.

I was focused on Harvey, its track, its intensity, so was not answering my phone or text messages.

This was a mistake that caused undue worry for my loved ones and friends. Ardia and Roy Neves, the owners of Texas Fish & Game magazine, called to check on me, and I could hear the worry in their voices. They will never know how much that meant to me.

Lisa and I spent the night of August 25 and the day of August 26 with our hearts breaking as Harvey seemed to stall over our town. My thoughts were with my neighbors who chose to sta,y and I was wishing I had hog tied them and made them leave. We truly thought they would perish in the wake of this monster.

At 3:45 a.m., the morning of August 26, an image appeared on my NHC/NOAA screen. It F I S H

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Forecast: ROCKPORT never would be. We climbed over trees and fourwheeled through mud. It got worse the closer we got to the coast. Cattle and wildlife seeking refuge from the storm surge either drowned or were pummeled to death by debris in the 150plus mph winds.

There was no National Guard. Maybe they were coming, or maybe it was said in hope of keeping people out. Snakes were everywhere, seeking high ground from the water. On Hwy 35 coming from the north, we made it into the Holiday Beach area.

It looked like a bomb went off—miles of debris in every direction. All the main roads were sealed off by debris, but we knew of a back way into our area of Lamar.

After moving some debris, we made it to the Lamar Volunteer Fire Department. They were trying to restore power through the diesel generators they had. They told us they had not seen Lamar Beach Road, it was simply too hard to get to.

Thousands of downed oak trees, power poles, dead animals, parts of houses/buildings were everywhere. As we drove we both had tears flowing down our cheeks; they would not stop over the weeks to come. We saw few people. Those we did see had tears of their own. All looked to be in shock, not knowing what to do.

Driving toward the water we saw a corner of the backside of a blue home. It seemed out of place. It couldn’t be our home because all the normal landmarks were missing.

We realized Harvey had changed the landscape. It was our home, and it was standing like a beacon in the midst of the devastation. I can’t say I have ever had a soulful cry, but I did that day. Our home had been spared, and instantly we both knew why. Immediately we checked on our neighbors and after much investigation, we found them alive. Shaken, but alive!

We looked to their needs, then entered our home. Around our home and cottage, we had very little storm surge. I can’t explain why at this point. Based on the science we should have gotten a major influx of water, but miraculously we were spared.

It’s hard to know how to feel about it because most of our neighbors lost everything—their homes, their belongings, and their way of life. I immediately hit my knees and said, “Lord tell me how I can help.”

“You know how to help, now get off your

very little. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way is pretty much how I rock. Statements were issued for residents NOT to return to Rockport for at least a week and maybe more.

Our concern was for our neighbors—were they okay? We called everyone we know, using all resources—including every official— to no avail.

There simply was no open communication going either direction. It was agonizing. I had officials outside the area calling me asking what I knew.

That Saturday, after lengthy calls and texts with neighbors who had fled the area we’d had enough. I said to Lisa “What do we have to lose?

Let’s go see if we can help or at least get word out to those concerned.”

We would do a turnaround drive on Sunday, down and back, in an attempt to find our friends and assess the situation. We coordinated with the son of our next-door neighbor. He and his wife met us outside of Austin, and we caravanned southward in our 4WD trucks.

We were told the National Guard had the area closed off and no one was being allowed to enter, I didn’t care, It was better than sitting and worrying. At the very least we could report “you can’t get in the area.” At best, we’d find our friends and see whether our neighborhood was still standing.

We packed water, chainsaws, tools and gas cans full of gas.

The whole drive we were on pins and needles.

Our route was predetermined, but as we made our way closer most roads were closed with barriers and more probably should have been.

We combined the drivetexas.org website and an old-fashioned paper map of Texas to find open roads. We took some back roads and got within 30 miles, but all roads were posted closed.

Luckily, a fellow guide I know showed up pulling his boat, He said he had heard there was a way in, but it was rough going with a lot of debris and live power lines across roads. He said it might be doable. (I must say that should you be faced with such a disaster, it is best to wait until roads are opened and the area made safe—unless it’s a life or death situation or you’re seeking loved ones.)

We took a deep breath and consulted with the couple driving with us, then proceeded to drive over and around debris and power lines to slowly make our way closer to the area.

I have seen devastation before. This is not my first experience, but this was on a much larger scale. From Cuero onward it defied description.

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knees and get busy!” came the reply.

Luckily, I learned the building trade from my dad, so I know electrical; I know plumbing; I have used generators; I have worked on water wells I guess I am jack of all trades and master of none. I came to realize this is what was needed.

My brother was an electrical line designer and foreman for an electrical co-op. I hadI learned a lot from him about power lines and the power grids. This would save my life and others in the weeks to come.

Lisa’s gifts are multifaceted as well. She is a coordination machine and can see things that I don’t. This served us well over the hard weeks ahead.

Our priorities had changed literally overnight.

What was needed was running water, food, and some form of electrical power.

The area was beyond dangerous, ruptured 500-gallon-plus propane tanks were leaking, power lines still dancing, spewing sparks.

Most homes in the immediate area were on water wells, but the only thing remaining was the wire sticking up out of the hole. Septic tanks are the norm, but most didn’t work because the ground was saturated—so no flushing, and even if you could flush there was no water.

Lisa and I quickly put a plan in place. There would be little to no help for at least a week in our area. Rockport across the causeway was the center of focus and on the national news, but little or no relief would be coming to Lamar or Holiday Beach.

One radio announcer even said the eye of Harvey went over an unpopulated area so most of the devastation was of little impact to people.

After a phone call, he was quickly set straight!

Our job was to meet basic needs and to put Lamar and Holiday Beach on the radar screen.

Generators were needed badly, and the skills to properly hook them up. An improperly connected generator can back feed through power lines and transformers, electrocuting linemen trying to repair electrical services.

Over the next month, through help of our families and friends, organizations were formed such as Lamar Strong, Rockport Strong, Holiday Beach Strong etc.

My daughters started relief drives using their homes in Johnson City as collection points.

Then they drove tons of relief supplies to Lamar, Holiday Beach and Rockport themselves.

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12/11/17 2:16 PM

Coastal Focus: ARANSAS/CORPUS :: by Contributing Editor TOM BEHRENS

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ANUARY IS BIG TROUT TIME along the Texas coast, no matter where you may wet a line, and wading is generally the way most of the trophies are caught.

Capt. Nick Mosely says it’s going to require wading either shell or really, really tough mud, emphasis on tough, the kind that you sink down in. “That mud will hold temperature. I believe that the trout bury their bellies in that mud to try to warm up.”

A slow stealthy approach is a must. Mosely drops his trolling motor and eases in trying to make as little noise as possible in the area he is going to fish. If you have a spot you can wade in from shore, take your time walking into the water. Fan cast the area as you move.

“To be successful, you need to have two people or less, in my honest opinion,” added Mosely. “If you get three, four, five people wade fishing, those fish know you’re there.

With only two people you can be a little more stealthy, and you don’t disturb the water.”

Look for a shell/soft mud mix in “nooks and crannies,” as Mosely describes it. Any bayou dumping shrimp or bait into the bay after a strong weather passage is like a cafeteria serving line to trout and other fish—so much to choose from.

Generally, it takes all day to get a big trout to bite, but it’s going to be a good one. His biggest trout caught in January is right at eight pounds. “We’ll catch a lot of sixes and sevens,” Mosely said.

When you fish the cold fronts, pre-frontal is usually when you get your best fish feeding activity. After the front the big fish kind of come randomly.

“Last winter was a little bit different” Mosely said. “We never got the cold weather, so the fish never got in their winter pattern. I

“ In January the majority of the fish are on a baitfish diet.

Mullet and pinfish are pretty much the only thing in the bait system.

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Big Trout Time

THE BANK BITE HOTSPOT: Shamrock Cove

ing shorelines, coves, and stuff like that, it’s generally going to be between my thigh and shin deep.”

“I’ll usually try to throw stuff that mimics the mullet that’s in the bay, such as size,” Mosely said. “If the bait is a little bit bigger sometimes I’ll throw a broken back Corky, or a Norton Sand Shad. If the bait is a little bit smaller, I’ll throw a Sand Shad Junior or Soft Dine, smaller profile. I love the Super Spook and throw them sometimes right at T E X A S

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daylight. It really depends on the scenario and the situation.”

In January the majority of the fish are on a baitfish diet. Mullet and pinfish are pretty much the only thing in the bait system.

“If I have customers who aren’t comfortable throwing a Corky, many times I will put on a Norton Sand Shad with a 1/16 oz. jig head. It’s a little bit bigger bait profile. I fish that paddle tail bait a little bit slower. The fish are little more lethargic. They do just as good on those as I do on a Corky sometimes. “(Soft plastics) color choices depend on the water and the clouds, sky and stuff like that.” He starts his day with Chicken-on-aChain soft plastic color. “If the water is a little bit dirtier I will go with a darker bait. I love a Black Magic!

“For the Corkies, Texas Chicken is powerful. I throw a lot of pink colored baits. I don’t know if a trout can see pink. I don’t know if it’s the shade, not really sure. Sometimes it’s just bait presentation. I don’t know if the color really matters.

“My dad would say the only color you need is white and black, something white, something black. He would throw a lot of pearl stuff. Some of the colors are there to catch fishermen.”

“You learn by being on the water. You have to be out there to have a feel for what those fish are wanting.”

feel like the fish make a big circle around the bay in my area.”

Of course the best way to pattern fish movement during the winter months is button up and get in the water, or at least listen and watch the fishing reports. If you haven’t started yet, begin keeping log entries of your trips. The accumulated information will start telling interesting stories.

“If you’re wading the reefs,” continues Mosely, “the fish will usually be off the reef in maybe three feet of water. If I’m wad-

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SPECIES: Speckled trout, redfish, flounder TIPS: Wade the flats, but be wary of the stingrays that frequent these shallows.

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Coastal Focus: BAFFIN BAY :: by Capt.

SALLY BLACK

A Magical Time on Baffin Bay

about water temperatures. Pick a few good places to scout. In the colder weather, find a few protected areas and always look for bait.

In the winter, that’s the requirement.

When the water temperatures start to drop, Mother Nature is sending the signal to the predators that cold weather is coming. When big fish get that notice, they start to eat. During warming trends, they eat a lot. When it’s colder, they move really slow, trying to retaining all of the energy they can.

To match that activity, an angler must present the lure slowly. This is where Corky’s, Catch 2000, and other slow sinkers work well. Also, larger paddle tails like Saltwater Assassin’s Die Dapper on the famous Black’s Magic 1/32oz jig heads will work low and slow. This super light jig head lets that big bodied Die Dapper paddle tail work like a suspending lure and a lot like a natural bait, which is the key to the presentation of all artificial lures.

When it’s colder, everything moves slower. Anglers move lures slower and lower to match the activity of the big predator being sought. Low and slow is the motto when waters are cold.

Do not take the top water lure off of the table. Warming trends will create massive top water strikes, so, throw them when the time is right, or when top water feeding action is seen in packs of mullet or along a shoreline.

Bigger top waters, like the Skitterwalk, OneKnocker Spook or the Super Spook can sometimes bring really big trout to the top with vengeance! On calm days, bring it down a bit with a smaller top water lure like the one-knocker Yozuri 3DB, the Super Spook, Jr and the smaller baby Skitterwalk.

Duck hunting through the end of January will be epic on Baffin Bay! At Baffin Bay Rod and Gun (BBR&G), duck hunting is done on the “X”, that place where the ducks really want to be. Scouting out those places is easy, just by driving around the bay and observing duck habits and where they are rafted up.

Calling the ducks into the spread is fun, and they become easy shots when they are cupped up, slowing down to land right in

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HE MOST INCREDIBLE resource on the Texas Coast, Baffin Bay, has continued on its path to a tremendous transformation this year and just when you think it can’t get any better, it does! Baffin Bay has that sweet combination of great sea grass beds (deep and shallow), as well as clear water and lots of bait. This combination will create a primetime scenario for some of the most epic fishing and hunting in many years.

Of course, the “rocks” (mostly serpulid worm casings that are more like a coral reef than a rock), are always present in Baffin Bay and, like all coral reefs, attract all kinds of algae, grass and other organisms. Around these “rocks” will be little and big bait fish of all sorts, shrimp, crabs, and most importantly, all of the big predators that eat all of the above. Baffin Bay is ripe for one of the best Trophy Trout seasons on record as well as a truly stand-out duck hunting season, which will end on January 28, 2018.

Include the great expanses of grass beds appearing in all of the systems of Baffin Bay (Cayo de Grullo, Laguna Salada, Alazan and the Tide Gauge Bar) and it creates an overabundance of places for bait to hide. When this happens, the big predators have so many more easy opportunities to eat, procreate and grow! For anglers seeking that big trophy trout, Baffin Bay is completely set up this year to provide that opportunity in abundance!

Most big, giant Baffin Bay trout are found in relatively shallow water, all year-round.

Structure is something that attracts them, like grass beds, potholes, shorelines, sand bars, drop-offs and rocks to name a few. Study the maps, Google Earth aerials and then think 44

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front of the blind! Rely on the guide to call the shots, identify the species and rely on the guide’s good dog to go and get the ducks that are shot. Add to that experience an awesome boat ride in the dark, the excitement of the hunt and some breakfast tacos with hot coffee as well, while sitting on the banks of the King and Kenedy Ranches!

Winter is a magical time on Baffin Bay and anyone seeking out the beauty and solitude of an early morning duck hunt or the optimum morning wade for a trophy trout can find it here along with brand new lodge accommodations and some fantastic food served up South Texas Style by Chef Adam!

Look no further than Baffin Bay Rod and Gun, commonly referred to as “The Last Best Place on the Texas Coast!”

Baffin Bay Rod and Gun is a full-service lodge that is comfortable, not stuffy, and big enough to stretch out and enjoy a huge main lodge, an unbelievable covered outdoor kitchen with a bar and a TV, a warm and enjoyable fire ring where most of the stories are told along with great friends and camaraderie you can only find here. Baffin Bay Rod and Gun is now endorsed by the Orvis Company for wingshooting and flyfishing. This is great news and will give BBR&G the edge with a partner like Orvis, which has around 150 years of experience in wild adventures!

See you soon to experience the awesome opportunities available to fishermen and hunters alike at Baffin Bay Rod and Gun!

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Contact Capt. Sally Black at 361-205-0624 Email: Sally@CaptainSally.com Web: www.BaffinBayRodandGun.com Facebook: Baffin Bay Rod and Gun Twitter: @CaptainSally Instagram: baffin_bay_rod_and_gun

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

Freedom of Choice

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INTER FISHING HAS A special place in my heart. The misconception is that the typical weekend angler doesn’t have the time, ambition, or resources to be successful in January. Only the truly hardcore grinders would venture out on the Laguna Madre on a January day.

Granted, fishing gets iffy during January.

Some weekends—when the vast majority of us do our fishing (yes, even me)—are completely shot. The weekends of mild weather are absolutely golden, and Lower Laguna Madre anglers are not without a myriad of options.

The big caveat is trying to decide WHAT to fish for. Here are a few options to mull over while sitting at breakfast at White Sands Marina in Port Isabel or Sweet Gregory P’s in Mansfield • Sheepshead Galore: The great part of the winter sheepshead run is the easy-access nature of the fishery. On days when the weather permits, all a fisherman needs to do is head to the Brazos Santiago Jetties. With some live or fresh shrimp and a reasonably stout spinning or conventional outfit with 15 pound line you can catch a quick limit of five sheepies over 15 inches long.

The easiest rig involves a #2 Long-shank hook three feet under a popping cork, with a #3 split-shot sinker six inches above the hook to hold everything down. Toss the rig up against the rocks and wait. The float holds the bait above the rocks and also indicates when a sheep is grazing on your bait.

Boaters also have an easy time of it when they search for sheep. The Queen Isabella Causeway is loaded with them. Anchor up underneath the causeway and allow your boat to drift within 10 feet of the pilings. Free-lining a live shrimp up against the pilings is all it takes.

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fish are in a neutral mood due to the weather change, and the longer you can keep a lure in their faces, the better your chances at drawing a strike.

• Winter Drums: It isn’t difficult to find an area that produces good numbers of black drum. Just a little north and west of the Causeway is a broad flat (N26 04.58, W97 12.08) near the current Pirate’s Fishing Pier.

A long cast from the pier can easily reach the area.

The best times to fish the area are the calm days after a cold front, and at night during the full moon. Large shrimp on a Carolina rig work well for these bruisers.

Most of the fish will be over the maximum 30-inch slot, but the best bait for large black drum is crab chunks with the carapace removed. Pass a 5/0 circle hook through a leg socket and out the top of the crab, chunk the whole rig out, and set the rod in a holder to wait.

Another good area to prospect for black drum is the mouth of the Arroyo Colorado.

These blacks move up and down the dropoff of the Arroyo in tight schools all the way through March. In fact, many fishermen pull up to fish for these noisy buggers when the wind roughs up the bay too much. The same live shrimp/popping cork rig that you use for trout and redfish will work just fine for drum.

Fishing Lower Laguna Madre in winter isn’t the same as fishing the same waters in summer, but they aren’t dead waters. Fish are out there in the same variety as in warmer seasons. Just bundle up, keep warm, and have at it.

Again, you will want to use stout tackle for this application, because there are some big fish down there, and you want to force them away from the pilings and into open water as soon as you can.

A free-shrimping setup is different in design to the rig you use around jetties. A 1/0 shortshanked hook such as the Lazer Sharp 7226 Red Octopus hook replaces the long-shanked hook, and a split shot is the only other terminal tackle you’ll need on your leader. Keep a finger on your line, because these guys are hellacious bait thieves.

• Long Bar Trout: Another excellent choice for fishermen looking for chillin’ trout is Long Bar. Though it is generally considered a springtime/early summer fishing spot, Long Bar is also a good wintertime trout spot.

After a series of mild days, speckled trout will take advantage of a high tide and come up on the bar to both forage and absorb some of the warmth from the winter sun. Topwaters such as Normark’s Skitterwalk or the Pradco Super Spook are good now.

Contrary to the super-slow retrieves that are recommended for wintertime topwaters, try a faster retrieve that causes a great deal of commotion. As cold-blooded trout warm up, they become more active, and a fast retrieve is ideal to draw reaction strikes from the revived fish.

A ¼ ounce gold spoon, an underrated trout lure, fluttered along is another good choice; moreover, the lure might prove effective if trout are short-striking the topwaters.

Should a north wind drive a cold front down from Canada, trout will back off of Long Bar and into the deeper water that embraces it.

In that case, you can fish the edge of the dropoff with a Mansfield Mauler/jig combo.

Gulp! Shrimp in New Penny or Ivory are the go-to baits for post-frontal trout. The Mauler allows you to slow down your retrieve, and keeps the lure in one spot for a longer time. The klick-klack of the Mauler provides the sound factor that trout find so attractive, and the length of the leader between it and the lure keeps the latter in the strike zone. These F I S H

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THE BANK BITE HOTSPOT: Pirates Landing Fishing Pier SPECIES: Speckled Trout, Sheepshead, Panfish TIPS: Night fish under the lights with live shrimp for best results.

« Email Cal Gonzales at ContactUs@fishgame.com |

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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

Channel Specks on Bastrop Bay

by TOM BEHRENS

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LOCATION: Bastrop Bay HOTSPOT: Bastrop Channel GPS: N 29 5.425, W 95 10.689 (29.0904, -95.1782)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Texas Tackle Factory soft plastics with either 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jig heads CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: Capt. Dykes recommends checking out the oyster reef in the middle of the bay. “There is a good shell reef that comes off the deep water reef, 4-5 feet of water.”

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkies or soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: Capt. Dykes favorite colors are plum/chartreuse.

In stained water, he will go to darker colors.

LOCATION: Bastrop Bay HOTSPOT: Bastrop Bay Shell GPS: N 29 6.033, W 95 10.271 (29.1006, -95.1712)

LOCATION: Christmas Bay HOTSPOT: North Shoreline GPS: N 29 4.009, W 95 11.625 (29.0668, -95.1938)

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkies or soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: “If the water’s like 60 degrees and over I’ll fish the Fat Boy; it 60 degrees and under for two or three days, I’ll start throwing the Corky original. It has a slower sink rate.” Capt. Dykes

LOCATION: Chocolate Bay HOTSPOT: Chocolate Bay Shoreline GPS: N 29 10.392, W 95 9.005 (29.1732, -95.1501)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkies or soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: On soft plastics, his favorite colors are Morning Glory and plum/chartreuse. Use a big bait.

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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.

LOCATION: Christmas Bay HOTSPOT: Mouth of Churchill Bay GPS: N 29 3.402, W 95 9.71 (29.0567, -95.1618) |

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Corkies or soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: “If you work the Corky original too fast it’ll rise right up like a topwater bait. It will definitely let you know you’re working it too fast.” Capt. Dykes LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Intracoastal GPS: N 28 44.669, W 95 42.303 (28.7445, -95.7051)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: “I generally wade a lot of the shell reefs during January,” said Capt. Mosely, “but if you can’t get to them along the shoreline, you can drift along the west end of the bay, bouncing a heavier lead head off the bottom.”

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Boggy Cut GPS: N 28 44.043, W 95 49.658 (28.7341, -95.8276)

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Focus: ROCKPORT BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: “January is our big trout time of the year. I have a lot of nooks and crannies that I like to fish that generally hold the bigger fish, not so much numbers at this time of the year.” Capt. Mosely LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Brown Cedar Flats GPS: N 28 44.406, W 95 42.09 (28.7401, -95.7015)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: “If we are targeting numbers we generally stay in the boat and drift around the west end of the bay.”

Capt. Mosely LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Brown Cedar Flats GPS: N 28 44.145, W 95 42.444 (28.7358, -95.7074)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: Capt. Mosely, if wading for big trout, is looking for either a shell bottom, or “really, really tough mud.

That mud will hold temperature. I believe that the fish bury their bellies in the mud to try to stay warm.”

LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Old River Reefs GPS: N 28 38.498, W 96 0.954 (28.6416, -96.0159)

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They ran a distribution center out of our cottage where people could come by and get water, food, flash lights, bug spray etc. as they needed it. They got the word out, and we had people offering help from as far away as Alaska.

A family from Wichita Falls pulled a travel trailer down. It was outfitted with cookers, and they served hot meals three times a day. My clients were offering any form of help we needed.

One guy said, “Captain Mac, tell me how much you need.”

I mostly was on the ground, hooking generators up and piecing water wells back together so people could take a bath from time to time and not have to live in the dark. Gas was in short supply, and people would show up with gas cans full of fuel for chainsaws, vehicles, generators. One client sent me a text “take that deposit I gave you for a fishing trip and please donate it to a good cause”!

Let me apologize for the length of this article.

I could write ten more pages on the outpouring of support we received. The drives my daughters and friends put together with churches and organizations literally had U-Haul truckloads of relief items showing up at our door step.

For the first 10 days and every day after, it was Texans helping Texans. There is a special bond here in this state I’ve never found anywhere else.

I hope saying this doesn’t take away from the generosity and caring we received from the rest of our great nation, for it was truly miraculous. However, when the chips are down and the enemy has you surrounded, Texans will be there.

There were heroic acts that saved people. Individuals who—not giving from their excess—gave from their own needs to help a neighbor.

We were thirsty, hungry, no place to bathe.

It was hot with no way to cool off. The stench of death and rotting perishables was in the air. You couldn’t escape the smell, and the bugs; snakes and mosquitos were feeding on us.

We knew the people of this nation would come to help, but a week in those conditions was like a year. Yet, when it got the darkest and the hardest, a neighbor was there to hold a light, offer a bottle of water or share their food with you. Even those folks who didn’t much care for each other were there for one another.

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It is true—Rockport and the surrounding area may never be the same, but maybe that’s a good thing. Harvey may have been spawned from the depths of hell, but amidst the destruction and devastation something miraculous has arisen—a special closeness between neighbors and a rebirth of faith in mankind.

It was something this writer really needed. I am proud to be an American where I’ve rediscovered that in the deepest parts of their hearts our people still care greatly for one another.

A high note of praise: The linemen from across this state and across the nation are our heroes. These guys and gals worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We were told it would take months to restore power to our area because all the major substations were crushed/mangled. Yet, because of their efforts we had power restored in 17 days. I will think of them every time I turn on a light switch.

A special shout out to County Commissioner Betty Stiles for her tireless work during our storm, to Steve for helping so many get water, to Shauna for finding so many volunteers, to Keely for the gasoline and the generator, to Lynn for coming back again, again, and again to cut trees, to Wendy for gathering list upon list of those in need, to Ronny and Tracy for feeding so many, to Ed and Cheryl for sharpening chainsaw chains free of charge, to Mark and crew for the delicious burgers, to Pat for her help with the LVFD, to Anna for staffing the Holiday Beach donation center, to Chhay and Christian for their free tarp work, to Dana for the chicken, and to the countless individuals who came to our aid. While I cannot call you all by name, I am forever grateful for your kindness and compassion. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families who lost loved ones here in the area trying to help us.

I would like to say a special thank you to my family and especially my wife Lisa who, through the hardest parts of this ordeal, was there for me through the hardest parts of this ordeal. It’s easy to be strong when you are loved by such special people. I wish all a disaster-free New Year!

I realize this is an unconventional article, but for us it’s an unconventional time. Harvey, I have a few words for you. We may be down and hurting, but we still smile, and we will be back on our feet again so help us God! As I write this it’s November 1. I mention the time frame so anglers know as accurately as

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FISHING HOTSPOTS nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: When wading, to be successful, you need two people or less. “If you get three, four or five people wading fishing, the fish know you are there.” Capt.

Mosely

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LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Tripod GPS: N 28 40.147, W 95 54.813 (28.6691, -95.9136)

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: Approaching a fishing spot: “Take your time, drop the trolling motor and ease in, trying to make as little noise as possible.” Capt. Mosely LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Live Oak Bay Cut GPS: N 28 44.766, W 95 44.985 (28.7461, -95.7498)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497 nmosley79@gmail.com www.saltwateraddictionguideservice.com TIPS: Favorite lure colors: Chicken-on-the-Chain for the Norton Sand Eels; Texas Chicken or natural colors for the Corkies

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SPECIES: Sight casting for redfish BEST BAITS: Corkies or Catch 2000 CONTACT: Capt. Jared Esley 210-508-6470 esley_jared@yahoo.com TIPS: Capt. Esley is a kayak fisherman. “In January the water gets a lot clearer and lower. I generally do a lot of sight fishing with the majority for redfish.”

LOCATION: Galveston East Bay HOTSPOT: Moody’s Reef GPS: N 29 32.554, W 94 40.135 (29.5426, -94.6689)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: She Pup or Catch 2000 topwater baits CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: “From Lake Surprise going west towards Smith Point there are a couple of oyster reefs that are in about two feet of water…small reefs, not a lot of people fish them.” Capt. Dykes

LOCATION: Freeport HOTSPOT: Swan Lake GPS: N 28 58.098, W 95 16.446 (28.9683, -95.2741)

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Norton Sand Shad or Corkies CONTACT: Capt. Nick Mosley 979-943-7497

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LOCATION: Galveston West Bay HOTSPOT: Confederate Reef GPS: N 29 15.755, W 94 55.177 (29.2626, -94.9196)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Texas Tackle Factory soft plastics with either 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jig heads CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: “Fishing from the boat you will catch a lot of the smaller fish around Confederate Reef in West Bay, right in front of the Causeway, just drifting.” Capt.

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FISHING HOTSPOTS LOCATION: Galveston West Bay HOTSPOT: Jones Bay Shoreline GPS: N 29 18.684, W 94 55.555 (29.3114, -94.9259)

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SPECIES: Redfish

BEST BAITS: Live or cut bait CONTACT: Capt. Frankie Eicholz 361-701-7711 captfrankie@just1moreoutfitter.net www.just1moreoutfitter.com TIPS: “At this time of the year I like to use live shrimp. You don’t want to use anything too big. Usually the water is cold and the fish are not feeding aggressively.” Capt. Eicholz

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Texas Tackle Factory soft plastics with either 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jig heads CONTACT: Capt. Nick Dykes 409-599-6804 TIPS: “If we get northwest winds the water will wash out of the marshes, pulling the bait with it. The birds will start working. Use soft plastics and you can just mop up on the trout.” Capt. Dykes LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: Bridge Bayou GPS: N 29 54.199, W 93 46.408 (29.9033, -93.7735)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: MirrOlure Provoker CONTACT: Capt. Bill Watkins 409-673-9211 4097862018@sbcglobal.net www.fishsabinelake.com TIPS: “In January I might be fishing the bigger bayous for trout, flounder and redfish,” said Capt. Watkins. He pairs the Provoker with a 1/4 oz. jig head.

MIDDLE COAST

Aransas Reds Play in the Mud

by TOM BEHRENS LOCATION: Aransas Bay HOTSPOT: Mud Island GPS: N 27 56.635, W 97 1.266 (27.9439, -97.0211)

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FISHING HOTSPOTS LOCATION: Aransas Bay HOTSPOT: Brown & Root Flats GPS: N 27 51.236, W 97 6.172 (27.8539, -97.1029)

BEST BAITS: Live or cut bait CONTACT: Capt. Frankie Eicholz 361-701-7711 captfrankie@just1moreoutfitter.net www.just1moreoutfitter.com TIPS: Live or cut bait, Carolina rigged or free-lined.

“Leader material doesn’t matter,” says Capt. Eicholz. “I use monofilament because it’s cheaper to buy. Make the leader long. If it breaks, tie a new hook on another hook.”

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LOCATION: Corpus Christi Bay HOTSPOT: Laguna Madre Intracoastal GPS: N 27 40.853, W 97 13.672 (27.6809, -97.2279)

SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live or cut bait CONTACT: Capt. Frankie Eicholz 361-701-7711 captfrankie@just1moreoutfitter.net www.just1moreoutfitter.com TIPS: In January Capt. Eicholz would be fishing the deeper channels off the flats.

LOCATION: Aransas Bay HOTSPOT: Super Flats GPS: N 27 54.814, W 97 2.045 (27.9136, -97.0341)

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SPECIES: Black Drum BEST BAITS: Cut bait or crab CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: If the north winds are blowing hard the Intracoastal is good place to fish. Fish deep with crab or cut baits.

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LOCATION: Port Aransas

SPECIES: Redfish

HOTSPOT: Super Flats GPS: N 27 54.669, W 97 2.196 (27.9112, -97.0366)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Live bait, East Beast soft plastics or Down South soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “Be sure to check on bait stands being open in the Rockport area as some may still be closed.” Capt.

McPartland LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Upper Estes Flats GPS: N 27 57.058, W 97 5.331 (27.9510, -97.0889)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live bait, East Beast soft plastics or Down South soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “Because of the drop off in fishing activity, catching has been pretty good…lot less props running all over the place.” Capt. McPartland LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Inside Dagger Island GPS: N 27 50.217, W 97 9.967 (27.8370, -97.1661)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Live bait, East Beast soft plastics or Down South soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland

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FISHING HOTSPOTS 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “In January fish the flats or drop offs near by.

Any of the skinny water flats between Corpus and San Antonio Bay should be holding fish.” Capt. McPartland LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: Estes Flats GPS: N 27 56.541, W 97 5.944 (27.9424, -97.0991)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Live bait, East Beast soft plastics or Down South soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: In case live bait is scarce, Capt. McPartland likes the East Beast from Texas Tackle Factory or Down South soft plastics in Pumpkin Seed/chartreuse.

LOCATION: Port Aransas HOTSPOT: East Flounder Shoreline GPS: N 27 51.11, W 97 3.28 (27.8518, -97.0547)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Marsh Minnow and Soft Shad soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: “Look for bait activity, maybe a couple of loons working. They will tell you where bait is.” Capt. Countz LOCATION: Upper Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: JFK Shoreline GPS: N 27 39.611, W 97 16.007 (27.6602, -97.2668)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Marsh Minnow and Soft Shad soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: Capt. Countz likes the MirrOlure soft plastics because they are scented. “They make two of the paddle tails, the Marsh Minnow with a little bigger tail, and the Soft Shad with a smaller paddle tail.” Capt. Countz

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SPECIES: Flounder BEST BAITS: Live bait, East Beast soft plastics or Down South soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Jack McPartland 361-290-6302 treblejcharters@yahoo.com www.treble-j-charters.com TIPS: “Since the storm this past year, there are many new cuts and areas that didn’t exist before. Take your time when running as there is still lots of debris still in the water.” Capt. McPartland LOCATION: Upper Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: King Ranch Shoreline GPS: N 27 29.268, W 97 21.108 (27.4878, -97.3518)

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LOWER COAST

Specks, Snook and Redfish

by CALIXTO GONZALES and TOM BEHRENS LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Brownsville Ship Channel GPS: N 26 0.405, W 97 16.465 (26.0068, -97.2744)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: “South Bay and all its estuaries are good for redfish and trout.” Capt. Garcia LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: South Bay Pass GPS: N 26 3.005, W 97 10.998 (26.0501, -97.1833)

SPECIES: Speckled Trout, Snook, & Redfish BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: “Work the edges for trout, snook, and redfish.”

Capt. Garcia LOCATION: Baffin Bay HOTSPOT: Badlands GPS: N 27 18.447, W 97 26.293 (27.3075, -97.4382)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: Capt. Garcia either free lines live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp. Gulp works best under a popping cork.

LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Intracoastal Waterway GPS: N 26 24.854, W 97 20.94 (26.4142, -97.3490)

SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Marsh Minnow and Soft Shad soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz 281-450-4037 tcountz@sbcglobal.net www.matagordafishing.com TIPS: Capt. Countz uses either the 1/8 oz., sometimes 1/16 oz. jig head. “If the water is clear, he likes the Morning Glory color.”

LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: South Bay GPS: N 26 1.771, W 97 11.048 (26.0295, -97.1841)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: “Redfish like to stay in that constant temperature water along the bottom of the ICW. You can also catch a low of sheepshead.” Capt. Garcia

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FISHING HOTSPOTS LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: South Bay Channels GPS: N 26 2.435, W 97 11.011 (26.0406, -97.1835)

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SPECIES: Redfish BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: Free lining rig: barrel swivel, split shot, line and treble hook. “I’m working the edges where I see the mullet working. There are usually a big amount of fish moving into the area.” Capt. Garcia

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LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: NE Corner South Bay GPS: N 26 1.503, W 97 10.174 (26.0251, -97.1696)

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SPECIES: Black Drum BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: Fishing frontal passages: “Before the front I fish the flats. After front passage I move out to deeper water.” Capt. Garcia

LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: North Point GPS: N 26 21.408, W 97 20.921 (26.3568, -97.3487)

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SPECIES: Speckled Trout BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet or Berkley Gulp CONTACT: Capt. Carlos Garcia 956-433-6094 texasredfish20@gmail.com TIPS: “Sometimes when a front comes through, big bunches of trout will get trapped in the shallow water.

It’s kind of easy picking, get your limit real quick.”

Capt. Garcia

12/11/17 2:16 PM

FISHING HOTSPOTS drop they will be in the 30 to 40 foot depths. Live shad will be the bait of choice in deeper water but the swim shad will work as long as you can control your retrieve to keep the bait in the depth the fish are going to be in.

The depths will vary from one day to the next. Today they may be in 20 foot of water and tomorrow they may be in 40 foot. It all depends on the schools of shad.

Good luck and good fishing! Bank Access: Stowaway Marina

PINEY WOODS

Conroe Hybrids Back in School

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Lake Conroe HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 30 22.32, W 95 33.348 (30.3720, -95.5558)

LOCATION: Caddo Lake HOTSPOT: Ames Spring Basin GPS: N 32 42.6839, W 94 5.454 (32.7114, -94.0909)

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Umbrella rigs, chatterbaits, crankbaits, topwaters CONTACT: Caddo Lake Guide Service/Paul Keith 318-455-3437 caddoguide1@att.net www.caddolakefishing.com TIPS: Fish the cypress trees and hydrilla flats in 3-5 feet of water with these lures. Stick with shad or light colors. Pay particular attention to any slough or creek dropoffs. This time of the year a steady slow retrieve is best.

SPECIES: Hybrid Stripers BEST BAITS: Live shad, Storm Swim shad CONTACT: Richard Tatsch 936-661-7920 admin@fishdudetx.com www.fishdudetx.com TIPS: The hybrid stripers are schooling around ledges along the river channel. Find the schools of shad and you will find the hybrids. This time of year they will run shad up on these ridges during the day they will move deeper around the area. Find the depth the bait are in and you will find the fish. As the water temperatures

LOCATION: Lake Fork HOTSPOT: Little Caney Creek GPS: N 32 49.674, W 95 33.4619 (32.8279, -95.5577)

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SPECIES: Crappie BEST BAITS: Minnows, Electric Chicken (pink/green or chartreuse) colored jigs CONTACT: Doug Shampine 940-902-3855 doug@lakeforktrophybass.com www.lakeforktrophybass.com TIPS: “January is normally a month where the weather plays a big role in what we catch on Lake Fork and where we can fish. The crappie limit is still 25 per person but there is no minimum length on what you catch.

The crappie have gone deep for the winter and the best place to look for crappie will be on the deeper flats in front of Little Caney and in front of the dam. When the wind is light you can fish these places and all you need to do is look for the boats. But is it is windy its very hard to fish these areas. Fish from the 25-45 foot range. My best color jig will be pink and green or chartreuse. You will need good electronics to find the schools as they will normally be in a tight bunch.”

LOCATION: Lake Fork HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 32 51.876, W 95 33.3299 (32.8646, -95.5555)

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Lipless rattlebaits, spinnerbaits, Finch Nasty Thumpers, GrandeBass Air Pro, Texas rigged 6.5 Mag Rattlesnake CONTACT: Lance Vick (903) 312-0609 lance@lakeforkbass.com www.guideonlakefork.com TIPS: “Happy New Year! On Lake Fork the bass are moving into pre-spawn stage. Rattlebaits, spinnerbaits and Finch Nasty Thumpers work well on the windy days. On sunny days weightless soft plastics like the new GrandeBass Air Pro, a salt heavy stick bait with the airtail chamber so you can put scent or rattles in it or a light Texas rig with a 6.5 Mag Rattlesnake. Work

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FISHING HOTSPOTS secondary points and creek channel swings on flats.

Lay-down logs and any vegetation are great cover this time of year. Its big fish season!”

LOCATION: Lake Livingston HOTSPOT: River Bend on Lake Livingston GPS: N 30 53.418, W 95 19.17 (30.8903, -95.3195)

LOCATION: Toledo Bend HOTSPOT: Brown’s Bend GPS: N 31 42.324, W 93 47.8199 (31.7054, -93.7970)

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rain and have a strong river current, you will start seeing some action in the river proper. Otherwise, work the main lake sandbars with slab spoons, Rat-L- Traps and tail spinners. Use your electronics to locate the baitfish and you’ll locate the whites. Your daily limit is 25 fish per person.

PRAIRIES & LAKES

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SPECIES: Catfish, Blues and Flatheads BEST BAITS: Fresh shad, carp, buffalo or tilapia filleted and scaled CONTACT: David S. Cox, Palmetto Guide Service 936-291-9602 dave@palmettoguideservice.com www.palmettoguideservice.com TIPS: “Carolina rig with a ½ - 1 oz. egg sinker. Drift baits on bottom from 12 feet of water to where the old river channel drops off to 45 feet. BANK ACCESS:

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Penwaugh Marina.”

SPECIES: White Bass BEST BAITS: Slab spoons, Rat-L-Traps, tail spinners CONTACT: Greg Crafts, Toledo Bend Guide Service and Lake Cottages 936-368-7151 gregcrafts@yahoo.com www.toledobendguide.com TIPS: In January, the White Bass will be feeding heavy, bulking up before making their annual run up the river to spawn. The whites will be holding on the north end river channel sandbars. If we receive a lot of

Big Month for Texoma Stripers

by DUSTIN WARNCKE and DEAN HEFFNER LOCATION: Lake Texoma HOTSPOT: Paw Paw Creek and Wills Bridge GPS: N 33 53.9879, W 96 53.796 (33.8998, -96.8966)

12/11/17 2:16 PM

FISHING HOTSPOTS u TAP FOR ONLINE MAP

SPECIES: Striped Bass BEST BAITS: 4- to 6-in. Sassy Shad on 1 oz. jig heads, Road Runner 1 oz. white jigs with a 7-in. worm, live shad CONTACT: Bill Carey 903-786-4477 bigfish@striperexpress.com www.striperexpress.com TIPS: “January is a big month at Lake Texoma. The cool water winter fishing is legendary. Large stripers up to 20 pounds will hold on structure. A 7-foot medium heavy fishing rod with 20-pound test is recommended.

The 1-ounce Road Runner jigs with a white 9-inch worm will produce fish located on the main lake points, the mouths of creeks and humps with deep water nearby. The cooler the weather the better the fishing holds true for these hard fighting fish. Bait fishing with

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live shad is also an excellent way to catch stripers. Pay attention to the weather forecast and be sure to dress warm. Our charters depart at 10:30 a.m. in the winter.

The fish will bite all day and the solar heat can help keep you warm. Keep your eyes on the seagulls as they can be your best fish locator. Bank Access: The oil wells and Texas Flats )Using the same baits mentioned.

Shad will work best on the banks. Tie on jigs if the seagulls are working near you).”

LOCATION: Bachman Lake HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 32 51.1859, W 96 52.014 (32.8531, -96.8669)

469-528-0210 thorn_alex@yahoo.com TexasOklahomaFishingGuide.com TIPS: For bass, throw spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps along the weed lines. Bass fishing is especially good at the dam, by the banks and near the timber under the bridge. Crappie are under the bridge at night this time of year. Minnows and jigs are your best bet right now.

LOCATION: Cedar Creek Lake HOTSPOT: Mid to South Main Lake GPS: N 32 17.07, W 96 9.4919 (32.2845, -96.1582)

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass and Crappie BEST BAITS: Bass: spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps | Crappie: minnows and jigs CONTACT: Carey Thorn

SPECIES: Hybrid Stripers and White Bass BEST BAITS: Soft plastics on jigheads CONTACT: Jason Barber (903) 603-2047 kingscreekadventures@yahoo.com

12/11/17 2:16 PM

FISHING HOTSPOTS www.kingscreekadventures.com TIPS: This is the time of year for deadsticking. Fish random deep-water areas in the mid to south regions of the lake. Mark bait and fish in water 30 plus feet deep and fish vertical for suspended fish.

LOCATION: Eagle Mountain Res. HOTSPOT: South of Pelican Island GPS: N 32 54.304, W 97 30.237 (32.9051, -97.5040)

(30.6332, -96.0583)

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SPECIES: Blue catfish BEST BAITS: Whole or cut shad CONTACT: Johnny Stevens 817-597-6598 johnnystevens@1scom.net johnnysguideservice.com TIPS: two channels surround this area, Walnut Creek on the west and the Trinity River on the east. This area is 4 feet to 10 feet deep. The water warms up during the day. The shad go to the warm, shallow water and the blue cats follow them. I like to anchor the front and back of the boat to eliminate sway. I use a Carolina rig with circle hooks. If you don’t get a bite in a few minutes move until you find them. In this area they tend to stack up in one area.

LOCATION: Fayette County HOTSPOT: Dead Fish Cove GPS: N 29 56.520, W 96 43.494 (29.9420, -96.7249)

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LOCATION: Lake Lavon HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 33 2.2319, W 96 29.37 (33.0372, -96.4895)

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LOCATION: Lake Granbury HOTSPOT: Lower End Deep-water Ledge GPS: N 32 23.014, W 97 42.55 (32.3836, -97.7092)

LOCATION: Gibbons Creek HOTSPOT: Hog Island GPS: N 30 37.9919, W 96 3.498

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LOCATION: Granger Lake HOTSPOT: Open Lake Flats GPS: N 30 42.0959, W 97 21.018 (30.7016, -97.3503)

SPECIES: Blue Catfish BEST BAITS: Shad, cut bait, Zote soap CONTACT: Tommy Tidwell (512) 365-7761 crappie1@hotmail.com www.gotcrappie.com TIPS: This is a good time for jug lining for catfish.

The cold fronts seem to turn on the blue catfish. Find wind blown banks or points and put your jug lines in these places. Leaving the lines out over night will produce larger fish. However, daytime fishing can be good for large numbers of smaller eaters. I like stationary lines with two hooks. Those being Mustad 11/0 tuna circle hooks. The circle hooks will produce better hook ups and few fish will escape. Good luck and good fishing.

SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: CJ’s punch bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: This cove is partially blocked from the north winds this time of year and it a good spot for fishing for catfish. Water is 8-10 feet deep here. Use tight line here while fishing straight down by the boat.

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SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Cut Shad CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: The water is 18-20 feet deep here. Great spot for blue cats this time of year. Cast out away from the bank with several rods using Carolina rigs.

BEST BAITS: 3/4- to 1-oz. jig heads with 5-inch swimbaits/jerkbaits in blue/chartreuse CONTACT: Michael W. Acosta, Unfair Advantage Charters 817-578-0023 TIPS: Work over structure slowly and work deeper until you locate the best depth. Very little movement is required to get bit. Winter patterns are in full force with an early spring just around the corner. Stripers are active and are moving back and forth from the river to deeper water on the main lake. The warmest water on the really cold days is near the bottom of the channel.

Find the bait, find the fish. Wintering Birds are in place and are pointing anglers to active feeding fish from the dam to the river above Granbury. Passing cool fronts continue to dominate the weather pattern. White bass and stripers are hovering around deep baitfish.

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SPECIES: White Bass & Crappie BEST BAITS: Coho Minnows and crappie jigs CONTACT: Carey Thorn 469-528-0210 thorn_alex@yahoo.com TexasOklahomaFishingGuide.com TIPS: “White bass action has been good fishing in 1-10 feet of water. We have been seeing most of the action mainly in 1-3 feet on banks throwing cohos.

Crappie have been found in 6-15 feet of water using jigs.”

LOCATION: Lake Palestine HOTSPOT: Up River and Cades Lake Area GPS: N 32 16.926, W 95 27.9006 (32.2821, -95.4650)

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Texas Spinnerbait Company spinnerbaits in chartreuse and white, the famous Shimmy Shakers in Skeeter color, Big Eye Jig 3/8 oz. in black/ blue CONTACT: Ricky Vandergriff

SPECIES: Striped bass

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FISHING HOTSPOTS 903-561-7299 or 903-530-2201 ricky@rickysguideservice.com www.rickysguideservice.com TIPS: Fish the river itself and in the Cades Lake area up near Indian Creek. Fish in 3-5 feet, concentrating on river and creek channels. Fish slow and cover your water very good coming back and working the same places over again.

LOCATION: Lake Ray Roberts HOTSPOT: Johnson Branch GPS: N 33 23.753, W 97 0.801 (33.3959, -97.0134)

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SPECIES: Crappie, white bass BEST BAITS: Minnows, 3/4- to 1-oz. slabs CONTACT: Justin Wilson 214-538-2780 TIPS: The start of the year is here along with cold

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temperatures but the fishing is still great. White bass bite has been consistent. Look for big schools of fish stacking up on points and humps close to creek channels in 20-30 foot of water. Slabs off the bottom have been the best with bucktail teasers tied on as well.

Light boat traffic has made it easier to stay on fish once you find them. Keep an eye out for diving gulls making easy meals off bait fish being pushed up from schooling fish. The crappie bite has been good. Crappie have been on brush piles in 20-30 feet of water. Jigs are working well but the quality of fish seem to be better on minnows.

LOCATION: Lake Somerville HOTSPOT: Big Creek Tire Bank GPS: N 30 19.3439, W 96 34.344 (30.3224, -96.5724)

SPECIES: Catfish

BEST BAITS: CJ’s punch bait-Crawdad CONTACT: Weldon Kirk 979-229-3103 weldon_edna@hotmail.com www.fishtales-guideservice.com TIPS: Water 18-20 feet deep here. Use Carolina rig with CJ’s or cut shad. This is a great area for both blue cats and hybrids.

LOCATION: Lake Whitney HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 31 53.52, W 97 22.794 (31.8920, -97.3799)

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SPECIES: Striped Bass & White Bass BEST BAITS: 1/2 oz. Stripaholic jigs from www. rsrlures.com with chartreuse Bass Assassins or Sassy Shad CONTACT: Randy Routh

12/11/17 2:16 PM

FISHING HOTSPOTS 817-822-5539 teamredneck01@hotmail.com www.teamredneck.net TIPS: We have really slowed our presentation down on the baits with the colder water temperatures, sometimes even dead sticking bass assassins at times.

Position your boat over the school of fish and count the bait down to, or just above the school of stripers and do nothing. Let the current give the bait its action.

When you feel that light tap be quick on the hook set!

Other days when the fish are on the move actively feeding we are strolling the baits using the 1/2 oz. or 3/4 oz. jigs from RSR LURES with sassy shad depending on how deep the fish are. Make long cast and slowly drag the baits behind the boat using the trolling motor.

Remember, when you think you’re fishing slow enough, SLOW DOWN! Another bait I started using is an A-Rig, I am rigging them with 3 1/2 oz. Stripaholic lead heads from rsrlures and the 7” Lemon Lime Snake Trailer from Stripersniper.com, these fish are tearing up the snake trailers.

LOCATION: Richland Chambers Lake HOTSPOT: Richland Creek Arm GPS: N 31 57.2819, W 96 18.8159 (31.9547, -96.3136)

PANHANDLE

Kirby a Gem for West Texas Cats

by DUSTIN WARNCKE and DEAN HEFFNER LOCATION: Kirby Reservoir HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 32 22.272, W 99 43.65 (32.3712, -99.7275)

SPECIES: Catfish BEST BAITS: Danny Kings Punch Bait CONTACT: Royce Simmons 903-389-4117 simmonsroyce@hotmail.com www.gonefishin.biz TIPS: “It’s catfish time! In January it is a lock to catch catfish on Richland Chambers. make your way up the Richland Creek Arm of the Lake and fish the heavy timber . The fish can be easily caught on Danny Kings Punch Bait on a # 4 Treble Hook. Fish will be in depths of 20’-30’ and near the bottom. To increase your chances of filling the ice chest with “”eater size”” fish, chum the area with a little bit of sour maize or range cubes. Always take the net because your chances of catching a BIG BLUE are very good!”

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LOCATION: Possum Kingdom HOTSPOT: Pickwick Bridge GPS: N 32 54.777, W 98 27.939 (32.9130, -98.4657)

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SPECIES: Blue catfish BEST BAITS: Cut bait, live minnows CONTACT: Michael D. Homer, Jr. 325-692-0921 michael.homer@tpwd.texas.gov TIPS: Kirby Reservoir has been a gem in West Texas by providing a unique quality blue catfish fishery year round. Wintertime fishing has yielded some excellent catches for anglers, particularly when fishing the southern end of the reservoir in the shallows. Baits such as cut shad and carp are optimal when fishing for blue catfish, though live minnows may also work well.

Punch baits, dip baits, chicken livers, and gizzards may work well to catch the occasional channel catfish.

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time your trip to hit the lake just before a new front is coming and you have had a few days of warming sunshine. If you don’t catch bass on one steep bank, move to another until you get a hit. To search for the schooling shad, look at the mouths of the creeks. Drive around until you see the balls of shad on your electronics and then drop a spoon, little George, or crank bait into the ball of shad. Any creek on the lake can hold schooling fish in January. Fish fun-fish safe!”

LOCATION: Lake Alan Henry HOTSPOT: Main Lake Creeks GPS: N 33 2.7, W 101 4.758 (33.0450, -101.0793)

SPECIES: Largemouth, striped bass BEST BAITS: Live bait, crankbaits, slabs, and jigs CONTACT: Dean Heffner 940-329-0036 fav774@aceweb.com TIPS: This is the old sunken Pickwick Bridge over the original river channel, so a lot of fish move back and forth here waiting for the floodwaters to come for spring. Live bait is always best but this time of year we use slabs and jigs. the jigs are rigged with Mister Twister curly tails for best action. Watch the birds, as they tell you a lot this time of year. Trolling crankbaits is also productive this time of year. We prefer RatLTraps and cranks that run 8- to 12-feet deep.

Experiment with colors but the murkier the water, the more you want the bright colors such as chartreuse neon, green, and orange.

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Shaky head jigs, jerk baits, crankbaits.

CONTACT: Norman Clayton’s Guide Services 806-792-9220 nclayton42@sbcglobal.net www.lakealanhenry.com/norman_clayton.htm TIPS: “In January, look for bass on the steep banks or use your electronics to find the deep schools of shad.

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FISHING HOTSPOTS (210) 573-1230 capt.steve@sanantoniofishingguides.com www.sanantoniofishingguides.com TIPS: Look for the striped bass to be shallow (20-40 feet). They will be suspending over the river channel and feeding on the point in this area. Fishing the Super Shad close to the bottom produces fish in this area.

Tight lines and fish on!

BIG BEND

White Bass on the Pecos

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Lake Amistad HOTSPOT: Pecos River GPS: N29 42.039, W101 22.3422 (29.700650, -101.372370)

LOCATION: Lake Buchanan HOTSPOT: Black Rock Park to Garrett Island GPS: N 30 46.8659, W 98 27.072 u TAP FOR (30.7811, -98.4512)

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SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: Rat-L-Traps, shallow-diving crankbaits CONTACT: Larry Scruggs, Amistad Lodge and Adventures, fisherofmenlrs@hotmail.com, 210-7891645 TIPS: White bass stage in this area before making their annual spawning run toward the upper portions of the Pecos River. Another good place to find them is at the mouth of the Devil’s River.

HILL COUNTRY

Power Point for Canyon Stripers

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Canyon Park Point GPS: N 29 53.2559, W 98 13.638 (29.8876, -98.2273)

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SPECIES: Striped Bass BEST BAITS: Hogies 4-in. Super Shad pearl/black back CONTACT: Capt. Steve Nixon, Fishhooks Adventures

SOUTH TEXAS

Ring in the New Year on Coleto

SPECIES: Striped Bass and White Bass BEST BAITS: Striper: Live shad | White Bass: small Rat-L-Traps, Little Georges, white or chartreuse slabs CONTACT: Clancy Terrill 512-633-6742 centraltexasfishing@gmail.com www.centraltexasfishing.com TIPS: “The lake has dropped 2 feet since spring.

Striper action has been good and best areas to fish will be Black Rock Park to Garrett Island, focusing on early morning and late in the day. Drifting or anchored with 4-6 inch live shad in 30-40 feet near ridges and humps seems to produce the best results. White Bass can be found from Shaw Island to Paradise Point.

Trolling small Rat-L-Traps and Little Georges or jigging white or chartreuse slabs in 18-30 feet of water has been producing fish. Side note: I watch people unloading and loading boats at the boat ramp nearly every day and it’s obvious that a large percentage have no experience with owning a boat. It’s worth the money to have a professional provide instructions from picking a boat that meets your needs, operation (safety/etiquette) and maintenance. Until then the divorce lawyers and paramedics will continue to have job security.”

LOCATION: Lake Buchanan HOTSPOT: Mid-Lake Area GPS: N 30 49.194, W 98 24.9299 (30.8199, -98.4155)

by DUSTIN WARNCKE LOCATION: Coleto Creek Lake HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N 28 43.86, W 97 10.23 (28.7310, -97.1705)

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SPECIES: Largemouth Bass BEST BAITS: Zoom pearl white or watermelon fluke using a 4/0 worm hook rigged weedless CONTACT: Rocky’s Guide Service 361-960-0566 TIPS: “January fishing-bringing in the New Year. I usually take a little extra clothing this time of year as I hate getting chilled on the water. Rule of thumb is to figure on it being 20 degrees cooler. I like retrieving a little slower this time of year, along with using bigger bulk baits. Most bigger bass will be deeper this time of year. If the sun is out and warming a little, you might find some shallow. Usually shallower bass will be a little more aggressive. Coleto is a warm water reservoir so most bass are fairly active anyway. Nothing like starting the year out with a five-pound plus fish! Good fishing this year and may GOD bless us all.”

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SPECIES: Striped bass, hybrids, white bass BEST BAITS: Live shad, top water plugs, jigs, and T E X A S

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slabs CONTACT: Ken Milam 325-379-2051 kmilam@verizon.net www.striperfever.com.com TIPS: Stripers and hybrids will be in mid-lake area.

Watch for feeding seagulls for schools of top water fish. Be sure to watch for length as 18 inches is legal for stripers and hybrids. Five for each fisherman is the limit but not five stripers and five hybrids. It’s 5 period.

Whether it’s 2 hybrids and 3 stripers or whatever. Just trying to help you save some money by not paying fines! White bass will be around Garret Island, Paradise Point, and the Silver Creek area.

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Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

MONDAY

Jan 1 « High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

12:38 AM 9:04 AM 5:25 PM 10:04 PM

PRIME TIME 1.11 ft.

-0.98 ft.

1.33 ft.

1.04 ft.

TUESDAY

Sunrise: 7:12a Moonrise: 5:27p AM Minor: 3:59a PM Minor: 4:31p

4:30 — 6:30 AM

Set: 5:30p Set: 6:32a AM Major: 10:15a PM Major: 10:46p

Moon Overhead: None Moon Underfoot: 12:00p

FEET

2l

PRIME TIME

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

1:28 AM 9:55 AM 6:14 PM 10:55 PM

1.13 ft.

-1.04 ft.

1.31 ft.

1.01 ft.

5:00 — 7:00 AM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 6:33p AM Minor: 5:02a PM Minor: 5:33p

Set: 5:31p Set: 7:35a AM Major: 11:17a PM Major: 11:49p

Moon Overhead: 12:32a Moon Underfoot: 1:03p

FEET

5

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

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

WEDNESDAY

3«

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 7:40p AM Minor: 6:07a PM Minor: 6:38p

PRIME TIME

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

2:26 AM 10:46 AM 7:01 PM 11:49 PM

1.11 ft.

-1.00 ft.

1.25 ft.

0.93 ft.

5:30 — 7:30 AM

Set: 5:32p Set: 8:33a AM Major: ----PM Major: 12:22p

Moon Overhead: 1:35a Moon Underfoot: 2:05p

FEET

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

THURSDAY

4«

PRIME TIME

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

3:28 AM 11:38 AM 7:44 PM

1.04 ft.

-0.86 ft.

1.16 ft.

1:30 — 3:30 AM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 8:47p AM Minor: 7:13a PM Minor: 7:42p

Set: 5:32p Set: 9:25a AM Major: 12:58a PM Major: 1:27p

Moon Overhead: 2:35a Moon Underfoot: 3:04p

FEET

7

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

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

D62|

6a

9a J A N U A R Y

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 62

12p 2 0 1 8

3p

6p

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9p

T E X A S

12a 12a

F I S H

3a

&

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

G A M E ®

12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

FRIDAY

1p 5a : 11:17a : 11:49p

5

PRIME TIME

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

12:52 AM 4:40 AM 12:29 PM 8:23 PM

0.80 ft.

0.92 ft.

-0.65 ft.

1.06 ft.

2:30 — 4:30 AM

SATURDAY

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 9:52p AM Minor: 8:16a PM Minor: 8:44p

Set: 5:33p Set: 10:12a AM Major: 2:03a PM Major: 2:30p

6

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

Moon Overhead: 3:32a Moon Underfoot: 3:59p

FEET

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

2:04 AM 6:06 AM 1:21 PM 8:59 PM

0.62 ft.

0.77 ft.

-0.39 ft.

0.97 ft.

3:30 — 4:30 AM

9p

12a 12a

3a

Set: 5:34p Set: 10:54a AM Major: 3:03a PM Major: 3:28p

Moon Overhead: 4:26a Moon Underfoot: 4:51p

FEET

+3.0

12a 12a

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 10:53p AM Minor: 9:16a PM Minor: 9:41p

PRIME TIME

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a

SUNDAY

2p 5a : 12:58a : 1:27p

7

PRIME TIME

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

3:18 AM 7:48 AM 2:14 PM 9:32 PM

0.42 ft.

0.63 ft.

-0.10 ft.

0.89 ft.

4:00 — 6:00 AM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 11:51p AM Minor: 10:10a PM Minor: 10:34p

Set: 5:35p Set: 11:32a AM Major: 3:58a PM Major: 4:22p

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

READING THE GRAPH

Moon Overhead: 5:15a Moon Underfoot: 5:39p

FEET

Moon Overhead

+3.0

Moon Underfoot

+2.0

Day’s Best Score

Fishing Score Graph

+1.0

Day’s 2nd Best Score

Best Days Overall

MOON PHASES

l = New Moon

0

º

= First Quarter

l = Full Moon » = Last Quarter

«= Good Day by Moon Phase 12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

T E X A S

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 63

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12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

MONDAY

8

PRIME TIME

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

4:24 AM 9:41 AM 3:13 PM 10:01 PM

0.20 ft.

0.56 ft.

0.18 ft.

0.83 ft.

TUESDAY

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: None AM Minor: 11:00a PM Minor: 11:23p

5:00 — 7:00 AM

Set: 5:35p Set: 12:08p AM Major: 4:48a PM Major: 5:11p

Moon Overhead: 6:02a Moon Underfoot: 6:25p

FEET

9»

PRIME TIME

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

5:20 AM 11:39 AM 4:28 PM 10:28 PM

-0.01 ft.

0.60 ft.

0.42 ft.

0.80 ft.

6:00 — 8:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 12:48a AM Minor: 11:45a PM Minor: -----

Set: 5:36p Set: 12:43p AM Major: 5:34a PM Major: 5:56p

12

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

Moon Overhead: 6:48a Moon Underfoot: 7:10p

FEET

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

12a 12a

9p

3a

6a

9a

WEDNESDAY

10

Sunrise: 7:14a Moonrise: 1:42a AM Minor: 12:05a PM Minor: 12:27p

PRIME TIME

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

6:07 AM 1:30 PM 6:14 PM 10:52 PM

-0.20 ft.

0.71 ft.

0.60 ft.

0.78 ft.

9:30 — 11:30 AM

Set: 5:37p Set: 1:18p AM Major: 6:16a PM Major: 6:39p

Moon Overhead: 7:32a Moon Underfoot: 7:55p

FEET

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

THURSDAY

11

PRIME TIME

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

6:50 AM 2:54 PM 7:53 PM 11:16 PM

-0.35 ft.

0.82 ft.

0.71 ft.

0.79 ft.

10:30A — 12:30P

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 2:36a AM Minor: 12:46a PM Minor: 1:08p

Set: 5:38p Set: 1:54p AM Major: 6:57a PM Major: 7:19p

14

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

Moon Overhead: 8:17a Moon Underfoot: 8:40p

FEET

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

D64|

6a

9a J A N U A R Y

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 64

12p 2 0 1 8

3p

6p

|

9p

T E X A S

12a 12a

F I S H

3a

&

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

G A M E ®

12/11/17 2:17 PM

6p 43p : 5:34a : 5:56p

8p 4p : 6:57a : 7:19p

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

FRIDAY

12

PRIME TIME

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

7:28 AM 3:50 PM 9:03 PM 11:41 PM

-0.46 ft.

0.91 ft.

0.77 ft.

0.81 ft.

11:00A — 1:00P

SATURDAY

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 3:29a AM Minor: 1:26a PM Minor: 1:49p

Set: 5:39p Set: 2:33p AM Major: 7:37a PM Major: 8:00p

13

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

Moon Overhead: 9:02a Moon Underfoot: 9:25p

FEET

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

8:03 AM 4:29 PM 9:47 PM

-0.53 ft.

0.96 ft.

0.82 ft.

11:30A — 1:30P

9p

12a 12a

Set: 5:39p Set: 3:14p AM Major: 8:18a PM Major: 8:41p

Moon Overhead: 9:49a Moon Underfoot: 10:12p

FEET

+3.0

12a 12a

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 4:21a AM Minor: 2:06a PM Minor: 2:30p

PRIME TIME

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a

SUNDAY

14

PRIME TIME

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

12:10 AM 8:37 AM 4:59 PM 10:05 PM

0.84 ft.

-0.58 ft.

0.97 ft.

0.84 ft.

12:00 — 2:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 5:12a AM Minor: 2:48a PM Minor: 3:12p

Set: 5:40p Set: 3:59p AM Major: 9:00a PM Major: 9:24p

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

READING THE GRAPH

Moon Overhead: 10:36a Moon Underfoot: 11:00p

FEET

Moon Overhead

+3.0

Moon Underfoot

+2.0

Day’s Best Score

Fishing Score Graph

+1.0

Day’s 2nd Best Score

Best Days Overall

MOON PHASES

l = New Moon

0

º

= First Quarter

l = Full Moon » = Last Quarter

«= Good Day by Moon Phase 12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

T E X A S

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12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

MONDAY

15 «

PRIME TIME

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

12:45 AM 9:09 AM 5:27 PM 10:07 PM

0.87 ft.

-0.60 ft.

0.98 ft.

0.84 ft.

TUESDAY

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 6:01a AM Minor: 3:32a PM Minor: 3:56p

4:30 — 6:30 AM

Set: 5:41p Set: 4:47p AM Major: 9:44a PM Major: 10:08p

Moon Overhead: 11:24a Moon Underfoot: 11:48p

FEET

16 l High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

PRIME TIME 1:22 AM 9:41 AM 5:54 PM 10:14 PM

0.89 ft.

-0.61 ft.

0.97 ft.

0.82 ft.

5:00 — 7:00 AM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 6:48a AM Minor: 4:18a PM Minor: 4:42p

Set: 5:42p Set: 5:37p AM Major: 10:30a PM Major: 10:54p

Moon Overhead: 12:12p Moon Underfoot: None

FEET

19 « High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide: FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

WEDNESDAY

17 «

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 7:33a AM Minor: 5:06a PM Minor: 5:30p

PRIME TIME

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

1:59 AM 10:12 AM 6:22 PM 10:39 PM

0.89 ft.

-0.59 ft.

0.97 ft.

0.79 ft.

5:30 — 7:30 AM

Set: 5:43p Set: 6:29p AM Major: 10:50a PM Major: -----

Moon Overhead: 1:00p Moon Underfoot: 12:36a

FEET

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

THURSDAY

18 « High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

PRIME TIME 2:34 AM 10:43 AM 6:51 PM 11:14 PM

0.87 ft.

-0.55 ft.

0.95 ft.

0.74 ft.

6:00 — 8:00 AM

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 8:15a AM Minor: 5:56a PM Minor: 6:19p

Set: 5:44p Set: 7:23p AM Major: 11:40a PM Major: 12:07p

Moon Overhead: 1:47p Moon Underfoot: 1:24a

FEET

21

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

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

D66|

6a

9a J A N U A R Y

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 66

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3p

6p

|

9p

T E X A S

12a 12a

F I S H

3a

&

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

G A M E ®

12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

FRIDAY

2p 7p : 10:30a : 10:54p

19 « High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

PRIME TIME 3:10 AM 11:14 AM 7:20 PM 11:55 PM

0.83 ft.

-0.48 ft.

0.93 ft.

0.68 ft.

6:30 — 8:30 AM

SATURDAY

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 8:54a AM Minor: 6:46a PM Minor: 7:09p

Set: 5:44p Set: 8:17p AM Major: 12:34a PM Major: 12:58p

Moon Overhead: 2:34p Moon Underfoot: 2:11a

FEET

20

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide:

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

3:51 AM 11:46 AM 7:48 PM

0.77 ft.

-0.38 ft.

0.90 ft.

2:30 — 4:30 PM

9p

12a 12a

Set: 5:45p Set: 9:11p AM Major: 1:25a PM Major: 1:48p

Moon Overhead: 3:19p Moon Underfoot: 2:56a

FEET

+3.0

12a 12a

Sunrise: 7:12a Moonrise: 9:31a AM Minor: 7:37a PM Minor: 8:00p

PRIME TIME

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a

SUNDAY

4p 3p : 11:40a : 12:07p

21

PRIME TIME

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

12:41 AM 4:47 AM 12:20 PM 8:12 PM

0.59 ft.

0.68 ft.

-0.24 ft.

0.85 ft.

3:00 — 5:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:12a Moonrise: 10:07a AM Minor: 8:28a PM Minor: 8:50p

Set: 5:46p Set: 10:06p AM Major: 2:16a PM Major: 2:39p

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

READING THE GRAPH

Moon Overhead: 4:04p Moon Underfoot: 3:42a

FEET

Moon Overhead

+3.0

Moon Underfoot

+2.0

Day’s Best Score

Fishing Score Graph

+1.0

Day’s 2nd Best Score

Best Days Overall

MOON PHASES

l = New Moon

0

º

= First Quarter

l = Full Moon » = Last Quarter

«= Good Day by Moon Phase 12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

T E X A S

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12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

MONDAY

22

PRIME TIME

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

1:32 AM 6:14 AM 12:56 PM 8:33 PM

0.46 ft.

0.59 ft.

-0.07 ft.

0.80 ft.

TUESDAY

Sunrise: 7:12a Moonrise: 10:42a AM Minor: 9:18a PM Minor: 9:41p

4:00 — 6:00 PM

Set: 5:47p Set: 11:02p AM Major: 3:07a PM Major: 3:29p

Moon Overhead: 4:49p Moon Underfoot: 4:27a

FEET

23

PRIME TIME

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

2:26 AM 8:13 AM 1:37 PM 8:48 PM

0.29 ft.

0.52 ft.

0.14 ft.

0.77 ft.

4:30 — 6:30 PM

Sunrise: 7:11a Moonrise: 11:18a AM Minor: 10:08a PM Minor: 10:31p

Set: 5:48p Set: None AM Major: 3:56a PM Major: 4:19p

26

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

Moon Overhead: 5:36p Moon Underfoot: 5:12a

FEET

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

12a 12a

9p

3a

6a

9a

WEDNESDAY

24 º

Sunrise: 7:11a Moonrise: 11:55a AM Minor: 10:58a PM Minor: 11:22p

PRIME TIME

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

3:22 AM 10:19 AM 2:26 PM 9:00 PM

0.08 ft.

0.55 ft.

0.36 ft.

0.76 ft.

5:30 — 7:30 PM

Set: 5:49p Set: None AM Major: 4:45a PM Major: 5:10p

Moon Overhead: 6:24p Moon Underfoot: 6:00a

FEET

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

THURSDAY

25

PRIME TIME

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

4:20 AM 12:14 PM 3:31 PM 9:11 PM

-0.16 ft.

0.68 ft.

0.59 ft.

0.79 ft.

6:00 — 8:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:11a Moonrise: 12:35p AM Minor: 11:47a PM Minor: -----

Set: 5:50p Set: 1:00a AM Major: 5:35a PM Major: 6:00p

28

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

Moon Overhead: 7:16p Moon Underfoot: 6:50a

FEET

FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

D68|

6a

9a J A N U A R Y

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 68

12p 2 0 1 8

3p

6p

|

9p

T E X A S

12a 12a

F I S H

3a

&

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

G A M E ®

12/11/17 2:17 PM

8p e : 3:56a : 4:19p

0p 0a : 5:35a : 6:00p

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

FRIDAY

26

PRIME TIME

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

5:17 AM 1:45 PM 5:06 PM 9:30 PM

-0.41 ft.

0.85 ft.

0.77 ft.

0.85 ft.

12:30 — 1:30 AM

SATURDAY

Sunrise: 7:10a Moonrise: 1:20p AM Minor: 12:10a PM Minor: 12:38p

Set: 5:51p Set: 2:02a AM Major: 6:24a PM Major: 6:52p

27

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

Moon Overhead: 8:11p Moon Underfoot: 7:43a

FEET

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

6:14 AM 2:51 PM 7:06 PM 10:12 PM

-0.65 ft.

1.00 ft.

0.88 ft.

0.91 ft.

8:00 — 10:00 PM

9p

12a 12a

3a

Set: 5:51p Set: 3:07a AM Major: 7:15a PM Major: 7:44p

Moon Overhead: 9:10p Moon Underfoot: 8:40a

FEET

+3.0

12a 12a

Sunrise: 7:10a Moonrise: 2:11p AM Minor: 1:01a PM Minor: 1:30p

PRIME TIME

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a

SUNDAY

28

PRIME TIME

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

7:10 AM 3:43 PM 8:21 PM 11:22 PM

-0.85 ft.

1.10 ft.

0.92 ft.

0.96 ft.

9:00 — 11:00 PM

Sunrise: 7:09a Moonrise: 3:07p AM Minor: 1:53a PM Minor: 2:23p

Set: 5:52p Set: 4:12a AM Major: 8:08a PM Major: 8:39p

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

READING THE GRAPH

Moon Overhead: 10:11p Moon Underfoot: 9:40a

FEET

Moon Overhead

+3.0

Moon Underfoot

+2.0

Day’s Best Score

Fishing Score Graph

+1.0

Day’s 2nd Best Score

Best Days Overall

MOON PHASES

l = New Moon

0

º

= First Quarter

l = Full Moon » = Last Quarter

«= Good Day by Moon Phase 12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

T E X A S

TexasOutdoorNation-1801DIG.indd 69

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12a

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12/11/17 2:17 PM

Sportsman’s DAYBOOK

MONDAY

29

PRIME TIME

Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

8:04 AM 4:27 PM 9:04 PM

-0.99 ft.

1.14 ft.

0.91 ft.

TUESDAY

Sunrise: 7:09a Moonrise: 4:10p AM Minor: 2:48a PM Minor: 3:19p

10:00P — 12:00A

Set: 5:53p Set: 5:15a AM Major: 9:04a PM Major: 9:35p

30 « High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

Moon Overhead: 11:14p Moon Underfoot: 10:42a

FEET

PRIME TIME 12:36 AM 8:57 AM 5:07 PM 9:43 PM

1.00 ft.

-1.05 ft.

1.13 ft.

0.84 ft.

5:00 — 7:00 AM

Sunrise: 7:08a Moonrise: 5:16p AM Minor: 3:46a PM Minor: 4:17p

Set: 5:54p Set: 6:16a AM Major: 10:01a PM Major: 10:32p

Moon Overhead: None Moon Underfoot: 11:45a

FEET

2«

High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: FEET

+3.0

+3.0

+3.0

+2.0

+2.0

+2.0

+1.0

+1.0

+1.0

0

0

0

12a

3a

6a

9a

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

3a

6a

9a

WEDNESDAY

31 «

Sunrise: 7:08a Moonrise: 6:24p AM Minor: 4:45a PM Minor: 5:16p

PRIME TIME

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

1:47 AM 9:48 AM 5:44 PM 10:25 PM

1.02 ft.

-1.02 ft.

1.08 ft.

0.73 ft.

11:00P — 1:00A

Set: 5:55p Set: 7:11a AM Major: 11:00a PM Major: 11:31p

Moon Overhead: 12:16a Moon Underfoot: 12:46p

FEET

12p

3p

6p

9p

12a 12a

THURSDAY

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

2:56 AM 10:38 AM 6:18 PM 11:11 PM

PRIME TIME 0.99 ft.

-0.89 ft.

1.00 ft.

0.58 ft.

12:30 — 2:30 AM

Sunrise: 7:07a Moonrise: 7:31p AM Minor: 5:46a PM Minor: 6:15p

Set: 5:56p Set: 8:01a AM Major: ----PM Major: 12:00p

Moon Overhead: 1:15a Moon Underfoot: 1:44p

FEET

4

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Sunrise: 7:07a Moonrise: 8:36p AM Minor: 6:46a PM Minor: 7:13p

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ELCOME TO THE TEXAS Outdoor Nation.

It’s a place with as many ecosystems as some countries and more wild game than most. Whether it’s hunting or fish-

ing, Texas is tops.

It almost goes without saying that whitetail hunting in Texas is stellar. With nearly three million deer statewide,

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hunting is rock solid in every region of the state.

The 2016-17 estimated harvest was 720,645 deer. You can compare those statistics to the 2010 season, one of Texas’s better seasons. Total deer harvest in 2010 was estimated at 647,975 deer.

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Special SECTION Deer hunting is on the upswing after prolonged drought put a hit on overall numbers.

Feral hogs are the second most popular game in Texas and for good reason. With nearly three million of them roaming from border to border there are massive hunting opportunities. There is no season or bag limit, and they can be hunted at night and even out of helicopter.

Texas is bringing in tens of thousands of out of state hunters annually who watch reality TV programs based on these potentially vicious Texas residents.

Texans are now killing more than 750,000 hogs a year according to Texas Agrilife. There are more hogs killed in Texas than the entire population of hogs in any other state other than Florida.

Texas has several species of doves, all of which are similar in appearance and habits, but that each has its own unique attributes.

Mourning doves are the most common, and they prefer a mix of wild and agricultural settings. In most of the state, their preferred foods are milo, wheat and corn, and they feed heavily on wild plants such as dove weed (croton) and ragweed.

Whitewings are more of a city- loving species. Although they were once relegated to the southern half of the state, their numbers have increased dramatically, and the range now includes parts of East Texas. Hunters also take Eurasiancollared doves in fair numbers in certain areas.

The dove population in Texas is the largest in the nation, and hunters can always expect more doves than any other state offers—even in a bad year.

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Texas has the longest deer season in the U.S.

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bers are strong and Texas still winters the bulk of the ducks in the Central Flyway.

Long Deer Season

Something else in Texas is on the rise—the popularity of crossbow hunting.

As a lifelong bowhunter, I believe we will see a major crossbow boom in Texas over the next decade. There are several key reasons why.

Texas has the longest deer season in the nation. With a full month of archeryonly hunting, this will inspire many hunters to buy a crossbow, learn how to shoot it in the field and hit with it.

Additionally, there are numerous key public-hunting areas in the Texas Parks

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& Wildlife Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers systems that are “Bow Only” throughout the nearly four-month deer season. Since many of these areas are located within a short drive of key metropolitan areas savvy hunters will proably get with the program.

Off Season Options Texas never really has an “off” season as there are legal hunting opportunities 365 days a year with the nation’s largest population of feral hogs and exotic animals to be found anywhere. Many hunters who pursue these creatures enjoy something a bit more challenging than rifle hunting so crossbows are a perfect alternative. In fact, there are many archery-only

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exotic ranches and hog hunting operations in the state that have already opened their gates to crossbow hunters.

A hunter in Texas does not have to use a crossbow only during bow season, as in many other states. We have an entire calendar year of opportunities, and they are increasing all the time.

Some metropolitan areas are legalizing archery equipment within the city limits to help decrease feral hogs, which are causing major problems. Most states are cutting out hunter opportunities while Texas is increasing hunting opportunities in many areas.

Graying Population According to the Texas Department

Texans kill more than 750,000 feral hogs a year... more hogs than deer!

on Aging, baby boomers number 5.6 million in Texas or 28 percent of the popula-

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lots of older hunters but most of them use guns. By giving these older hunters, (which often have plenty of disposable income) a chance to take a more challenging hunting route, the crossbow industry could fare very well.

Another growth area is the popularity of public hunting. Much of that has to do with the actions of TPWD. They are doing something that allows families not only to continue time-honored hunting traditions, but also, to engage a multitude of access points at a very affordable rate.

For $48, hunters can purchase an Annual Public Hunting Permit (APH) and have an opportunity to pursue their outdoor passions on more than 900,000 acres of land. tion. Many older hunters have expressed an interest in crossbow hunting instead of

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traditional bowhunting because of physical limitations. Surveys show Texas has

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Special SECTION The Fishing in Texas is Tops Let’s start with bass fishing where the state is host to professional and regional tournament events, and the number of truly giant fish is second to none.

The Toyota Sharelunker Program since 1986 has given anglers a replica of their catch if they bring in a live bass weighing 13 pounds or more.

At the time of this writing, 570 of these monster fish have been weighed-in, and over the years the program has accomplished much, putting Texas as the leader in the bass fishing world.

According to TPWD the program has: 1. Improved knowledge of proper handling and care of big fish 2. Developed and communicated to anglers recommendations for handling fish in ways that improve their survival 3. Established weigh and holding sta-

tions at major reservoirs around the state to improve the survival of big fish by pro-

viding the proper environment for them until pickup by trained TPWD personnel 4. Generated nationwide interest in Texas bass fishing and increased tourism, as evidenced by 82 ShareLunkers having been caught by residents of 22 states other than Texas Coastal fishing in Texas is stronger than it has ever been, and the fishery is more widely researched and understood than any in North America.

Let’s take speckled trout for example.

A study by the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC) report shows that one researcher tagged more than 2,600 trout and received 50 returns.

Of these, 20 came from the release point. Similar findings were reported by researcher Rogillio with 98 percent of the

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system,” she wrote. “To further explore spotted seatrout movement patterns laboratory tagging trials and acoustic tracking technology was employed to investigate movement patterns on a large-scale.”

In the study a total of 81 spotted seatrout were captured via hook and line between December 2009 and October 2010 and implanted with acoustic tags: 31

within bay waters, 30 fish from surf zones, and 20 live-release tournament fish.

“We found an overall minimal survival rate of 70 percent between angler recaptures and receiver detections,” Payne wrote. “Many long distance travels were recorded and movement patterns varied greatly. Seventy-five percent of fish tagged in surf waters were detected on our receiv-

David Roulston of Frisco caught Toyota ShareLunker 558 on Lake Fork.

returns coming within 1.5 kilometers of the release point.

Their report details that of 20,912 tagged trout released in Texas marine waters, 1,367 were recaptured. About 84 percent were caught in the same bay where released; eight percent were caught in another bay; and five were recaptured in the Gulf. Of 588 spotted seatrout tagged in the Gulf surf, 14 were recaptured, 12 in the Gulf and two in Texas bays.

Researcher Laura Payne wrote a thesis on trout migration within the Laguna Madre system.

“Anecdotal information suggests that spotted seatrout migrate from near-shore waters into bays to spawn and that these migratory fish may sustain populations of spotted seatrout within the Laguna Madre T E X A S

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Special SECTION ers in tidal inlets, and two fish from the Upper Laguna Madre were detected leaving the Laguna into CC Bay.” “These data suggest Gulf-bay and inter-bay mixing of spotted seatrout popu-

lations. The high percentage of angler recaptures validates previous studies that determined catch-and-release practices are viable to help maintain healthy fish stocks.” Texas is not only leading the way

Speckled trout migration on the Texas coast has been thoroughly researched.

in trout fishing but in trout conservation.

Redfish populations have skyrocketed in recent decades, and we are learning much about them.

The species is fast growing, reaching approximately 11 inches and 1 pound in its first year; 17 to 22 inches and 3-1/2 Texas red drum populations have skyrocketed in recent decades.

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passes.

On the Texas coast spawning occurs generally from mid-August through midOctober. Eggs hatch within 24 hours and are carried into the bays by tidal current.

The larval red drum seeks quiet, shallow water with grassy or muddy bottoms, according to TPWD. For the first three years, redfish live in the bays or in the surf zone near passes and jetties. Evidence from TPWD’s tag returns show that they remain in the same area and generally move less than three miles from where fisheries officials tag them. I know this firsthand.

In June 1999, while fishing the Texas

pounds in two years; and 22 to 24 inches and six to eight pounds in three years.

The world record red drum weighed 96 pounds and hailed from North Carolina.

The current Texas record is 55 pounds.

A red drum reaches sexual maturity between their third and fourth years when

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side of the Sabine jetties with Bill Killian of Orange, I caught a redfish that I had tagged more than three weeks ago at the cluster of rigs located just east of the jetties. I was hoping other anglers would

they are about 30 inches long. They spawn in the Gulf, possibly near the mouths of

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Special SECTION catch some of the fish I had tagged, but never thought I would.

Nasty green algae covered the tag, but it was easy to read after I wiped it off.

The tag’s number was 31. The big red was

caught and released like all others that day. Perhaps it would be caught again by another angler. The chances of catching one’s own tagged fish has to be miniscule, but it proved these fish do not always

move much.

TPWD notes that as they mature, they move from the bays to the Gulf of Mexico where they remain the rest of their lives, except for infrequent visits to the bays.

Although there is little evidence of seasonal migrations, anglers find concentrations of red drums in rivers and tidal creeks during the winter.

Another phenomenon is “tailing,” which involves the reds tails sticking out of the water as they feed in the shallows.

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ment and Fisheries, the oldest recorded specimen was 62 years old, caught in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Texas coast is also home to a strong population of southern flounder, black drum and sheepshead along the bay systems along with snook in the southern reaches of the state.

Offshore anglers can connect with red snapper, king mackerel, ling, shark, dolphin (dorado, mahi mahi) and a host of other fish.

When it comes to the great outdoors there really is no state like Texas.

Nothing even comes close.

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Among the many inshore species available to Texas anglers are sheepshead, southern flounder and snook.

a 45-degree angle. Either way, it is awesome.

TPWD has successfully stocked them in several freshwater reservoirs including Fairfield, Braunig, and Calaveras. They cannot spawn in these lakes, but they grow to immense size and take to the habitat like, well, a fish takes to water. Instead of feeding on crab, they eat crawfish and terrorize the perch, shad, bass, and other wimpy freshwater species.

Redfish are highly adaptable, and this allows them to survive in many habitats and live to great age. According to the North Carolina Department of EnvironT E X A S

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Texas FRESHWATER

by MATT WILLIAMS :: TF&G Freshwater Editor

Bass Derby Skills

for being the youngest. Adams won the 2005 Big Bass Splash at the age of 11 and grabbed an even bigger payday. He took home a brand new H2 Hummer and fully-rigged Triton bass boat which carried a combined value at the time of $102,000. Adams also won $1,000 for catching the big bass of the hour, capping what is likely the richest payday ever for a youth angler in the history of competitive fishing.

Sumrall may not hold any records for being the winningest youngster in bass fishing, but he can certainly consider himself among the luckiest.

The big bass Sumrall caught from roughly 12 feet of water on that memorable Saturday morning came as a total surprise. In fact, the youth angler claims he didn’t even know the

O

NE OF THE REALLY COOL things about amateur league big bass derbies is you don’t need a degree in bassology or have VanDam-like skills on your side to win big.

All it takes is a cast, a bite, and, at times, a whole lot of luck, to put you in the hunt for a really healthy payday. Just ask Jacob Sumrall of Kirbyville.

Sumrall is admittedly no bass pro. Far from it.

Heck, he’s only 12 years old.

He says he does the majority of his bass fishing in stock ponds near his home in rural southeast Texas. He’s competed in a few big bass events over the years, but always in the junior division against other youngsters close to the same age.

Last October, Sumrall stepped up his game when he anted up the $210 entry fee to compete in the adult division of the Sealy Outdoors Fall Shootout big bass derby held on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

It turned out to pretty lucrative gamble, too.

Sumrall topped the field of nearly 800 anglers to take all the marbles with plenty of room to spare. He did it with a 9.60-pounder he caught shortly after daylight during the tournament’s opening round. The big fish earned Sumrall an equally plump payday, including a fully-rigged Triton bass boat and $5,000 cash.

He also banked a $1,000 bonus for weighing in the biggest bass of the hour.

There’s a good story behind Sumrall’s surprising win. For starters, he was competing against hundreds of grown men, many of them with much more fishing experience under their belts. Winning the deal at age 12 makes him the second youngest angler to ever win a Sealy big bass event during the organization’s 30-plusyear history of holding big bass tournaments.

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It turned out to pretty lucrative gamble, too.

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fish had gobbled his smoke-colored Senko until it jumped behind the boat. He was fishing with his godfather, Chad Porto of Donaldsville, Louisiana.

“We were fishing about five minutes from the pavilion and there was a bunch of hydrilla around the boat,” Sumrall said. “It was round 7 a.m., and we hadn’t caught anything. Then I felt something tugging on my line. At first I thought I was hung up in the grass. That’s when the fish jumped behind the boat.”

Sumrall said he set the hook on the big bass at that point, marking the beginning of a lengthy battle that neither angler will soon forget. To hear the youngster tell it, it was a nail |

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biter until the very end.

“I worked the fish up beside the boat, and my godfather missed it he went to scoop it with the net,” Sumrall said. “The fish went straight down, and we couldn’t find it or tell where it went. That’s when we heard another splash behind us.”

Turns out the big bass had darted beneath the boat and broke the surface a second time on the opposite side.

“She came up probably 10 to 15 feet from the boat and started sort of tail-walking right toward us,” Sumrall said. “As soon as she got close enough my godfather scooped her up in the net.”

That’s when something bizarre happened.

“She jumped right back out of the net and took off again,” Sumrall said.

Amazingly, Sumrall managed to work the fish near the boat a third time and finally closed the deal.

“It was nerve racking,” he said. “I’m pretty sure my heart skipped a beat during all of that.”

Once the bass was secured in livewell Sumrall made a quick phone call to his mother, Debra Porto, before racing to the weigh-in.

“It was 7:14 when I got that phone call,” she said. “I thought ‘oh Lord, either something really good or something really bad has happened. They were whoopin’ and hollerin’, and I couldn’t make out a word they were saying until they told me Jacob had a caught a big fish that was close to 10 pounds. I listened to the radio all day after that wondering if somebody was going to catch something bigger.”

But no one did. Sumrall’s lead stood for the duration, earning him a shiny red bass boat that sits outside his window in rural southeast Texas.

Sumrall says he hopes to eventually flip the boat for cash, but early on he spent hours doing what any angler with such a cool prize sitting their driveway would have done.

“I go out and sit in it at least three times a day,” he said.

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Outdoor DIRECTORY Guides & Outfitters

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Lodging

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TEXAS SALTWATER UPPER TEXAS COAST

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Industry INSIDER Visionary Innovation by the Power Pole People WHEN OUTDOOR PURSUITS ARE made easier by the innovations of technology, everyone wins. This is certainly the case with my experience fishing with the folks from JL Marine Systems, the manufacturers of Power-Pole shallow water anchors. I recently had the opportunity to get out on the water with John Oliverio, the founder and inventor of the Power-Pole anchor, and Robert Shamblin, the Vice President for the company. We fished together the first day of the Buras Marsh Media Bash which was hosted at Cajun Fishing Adventures in Buras, Louisiana.

The Power-Pole anchor truly changes the way you fish and, as their slogan says, they are “Swift, Silent, Secure” and they deploy with a touch of a button. We got into the largemouth bass and redfish bite on our day fishing together and would deploy the Power-Pole anchors when we hooked up

on fish to keep us in areas where the fishing was hot. Whether you have a large bay boat like the Skeeter SX240 we were fishing in or you’re fishing from a personal watercraft like a kayak, there’s a Power-Pole anchor product on the market for you.

The C-Monster Control System is about the most innovative control center I have seen for a boat that can be controlled from something most boat owners already own - a smartphone running iOS or Android operating systems. The C-Monster 2.0 app is legendary in performance as all new PowerPole anchor products come with wireless capability to be controlled by C-Monster.

You can literally fine tune your boat to your own style of angling with this control system.

The Vision system is one of the most revolutionary tools from the technology realm for your boat that I have ever experi-

The Vision System, by JL Marine

enced. It serves as a digital control system for your entire boat. Integrating with the above mentioned C-Monster system, this Android-based dash mounted system gives you a whole host of options for boating and fishing recreation. Based on a smart tablet with a built-in camera, you can do just about anything you can normally do on tablet and then some. Download any of your favorite apps and customize the way you fish. Set up your smartphone as a hotspot and give the Vision unit internet access. Download maps, post your fishing photos in social media, you name it! It is all at your fingertips. This is a perfect tool for hardcore anglers that love to use technology to help them catch fish. With a super bright screen you can see everything you need to even with your sunglasses on a bright sunny day.

Add to these technological advancements the new Power-Pole Charge system which is a battery management system for your boat. When connected to the Vision control system, you get real-time stats on your battery power levels and power distribution. This is a very smart system as this unit’s goal is to manage and shift around your battery power the most effective and efficient way to get you through your day on the water. I know I have had to cut several fishing trips in the past due to one or more dead marine batteries. This is by far the most innovative power management system I have ever experienced.

The neatest thing with all of these systems is that they all work together on your boat. If you make an investment into one or more of these systems, you will reap the rewards of increased efficiency many times over. One can stand in awe that technologies like these are a reality now and they are here to stay for the long haul which can serve as a great benefit to boaters and anglers everywhere.

—by DUSTIN WARNCKE

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Texas TASTED

by BRYAN SLAVEN :: The Texas Gourmet

Redfish on the Half Shell

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S WINTER WANES AND fresh southeast winds pump warming currents into our coastal bays, schools of bronzed back redfish follow the warming tides up and into the shallows.

This is where they become easy targets for the coastal angler. Redfish are sought by anglers not only for their explosive strikes and determined fight, but also for their unique flavor as well.

Here is a time-honored recipe with a spicy kick!

Texas Gourmet’s Lemon Rosemary Habanero Grilling Sauce Fresh lemon, rosemary, olive oil and roasted peppers combine to create this zesty grilling sauce and marinade. You won’t be able to get enough.

It’s great on grilled or baked salmon, shrimp, redfish on the half shell, or grilled vegetables. It also makes a great vinaigrette for pasta salad.

Preparation and Grilling Starting with a fresh redfish, remove the filets leaving the skin and scales intact. Rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Place the filet on a plate, pat it dry with a paper towel, then brush the meat of the filet with the Lemon Rosemary Habanero Grilling sauce.

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a mesquite charcoal fire for flavor and heat, but a gas grill will work as well).

Cook for 7 to 8 minutes at about 400 degrees, removing the cover only once to baste again with the grilling sauce. When the fish is done, carefully transfer fish and vegetables in the foil boat to a platter and drape another piece of foil loosely over the top for 7 to 8 minutes. This allows the fish to “rest” for absorption of juices.

Remove the foil top and serve with the grilled vegetables and your favorite rice dish.

Enjoy!

For additional recipes and locations for the Texas Gourmet products go to www. thetexasgourmet.com.

Now you can place the filet onto a preheated and seasoned grill at about 375 degrees, meat side down. Cook for approx.

1 minute to create grill marks. Then carefully remove the filet from the fire, and place the filet skin side down in a foil boat large enough to hold a filet with 1 inch of space around it turning the edges up slightly to avoid leaking. Then place quartered roma tomatoes, sliced green onions, zucchini and mushrooms (or your favorite grilling vegetables cut into bite size pieces).

Finely dice 2 to 3 garlic cloves and spread over the filets, then brush the fish and vegetables with the Texas Gourmet’s Lemon Rosemary Habanero grilling sauce.

Place on a hot grill at 400 degrees with indirect heat and close the cover. You may substitute a lemon butter mixture if grilling sauce is not available. (I highly recommend T E X A S

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CATFISH Thorndale

BASS

Ten-year-old Haleigh Moehling caught this yellow cat in Brushy Creek in Thorndale.

Lake Sam Rayburn Chase Web (right) caught his personal best bass while fishing with guide Justin Rackley on Lake Sam Rayburn.

FERAL HOG Llano County Ty Rangnow had never shot anything bigger than a .22 and this was his time. He watched his dad, Kyle, shoot the largest 8 point of his life the day before. Ty was ready and loved every second.

Another young hunter is hooked.

HARDHEAD Galveston Four-year-old Madison Grube caught her first fish, a hardhead, while fishing with her family at Galveston.

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SEND YOUR PHOTOS TO photos@FishGame.com For best results, send MED to HIGH quality JPEG digital files only, please.

Also Enter our PHOTO CONTEST: FishGame.com/texas-hotsots-upload No guarantee can be made as to when, or if, a submitted photo will be published.

FLOUNDER Sabine Pass Jill Carlin caught this 6-pound, 14-oz., 25-inch flounder on an artificial lure while fishing at Sabine Pass. It was a personal best for her.

BASS Lake Sam Rayburn Brylan Townley caught this six-pound, three-ounce bass while fishing with his family on Sam Rayburn.

He told everyone he had a fish on, but they just kept fishing. When the bass came out of the water, they dropped everything and grabbed a net.

REDFISH Kemah Beverly Conger caught this 27.5inch redfish after “the fight of my life” while fishing at Kemah.

SPECKLED TROUT Port O’Connor Terry Sims caught this huge trout on her first guided fishing trip, at Port O’Connor.

SPECKLED TROUT Austin Bayou Hayden Bush is pictured fishing for speckled trout on Austin Bayou with his “Pops,” Keith Khoury. Keith was teaching his grandson about glow-in-the-dark cocahoe minnows.

REDFISH Port O’Connor Christian Terry caught and released this 38-inch redfish in the Matagorda Channel at Port O’Connor.

T E X A S

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