Letters

Hyenas

IS IT TRUE THERE HAVE BEEN hyena sightings in East Texas and Louisiana?

Richard Cowart

Editor: ere have been reports of hyenatype animals but there are very few hyenas in zoos and even fewer in private facilities in Texas and Louisiana, so it is doubtful there are escapees.

I believe the animals people are referring to as “hyenas” are the same things ge ing labeled as “chupacabras.” ey are coyotes with severe mange, which gives the animals a hyena-like appearance although they are much, much smaller than a hyena. I got to interact with hyenas a few years back, and they dwarf coyotes.

Deer Hunting Blues

DO YOU THINK THE PRICE OF DEER hunting will ever go down?

Chris Gill

Editor: No, and in fact it will continue to rise. I foresee a time when the average person will not be able to a ord it at all. It is sad, but true. ere will of course be exceptions, but for the most part deer hunting access is decreasing due to nances. at is compounded by how much habitat we are losing. Less huntable land and high demand will equal sky-high prices.

Another Rogue Wave Story (Or Two)

Editor: We didn’t have space to put this in the main story on page 16 of this issue, but had to share this account om Roy Edwards who sent this in a er reading my May/June column.

I HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE TO SURvive two rogue waves. e rst was in Trinity Bay. I was alone

A mangy coyote like this might be mistaken for a hyena.

in a 14-foot StarCra Mariner and I had anchored on the eastern edge of Tin Can Reef. I had a Danforth anchor with six feet of chain and 50 feet of rope out that put me about 10 feet from the edge of the reef. Free shrimping, I was boxing a ve- to sevenpound trout about every 15 minutes.

Scanning the horizon, I noticed a tanker headed to Port Houston. e bulbous bow nose was completely out of the water, and the stern looked like it only had a couple of feet of freeboard.

About 15 minutes later, my boat gently made a 180 o the anchor. en I saw a wake (wave) coming fast. It appeared to be about eight feet tall and was gaining height. As it passed under my boat, and the boat turned bow into the wave, it had reached 12 to 14 feet. en it hit the shallow edge of the reef, about 10 feet behind my prop. e wave instantly grew to 15 plus feet, then broke. If I had been 20 feet back over the reef, the breaking wave would have sunk my boat and rolled me across the oyster reef. e second incident was at Port O’Connor. Dale and I le Houston Friday morning and we launched about noon. A er shing Friday evening and all-day Saturday, we were tying up the boat when another of Dale’s shing buddies came over and told us that trout were holding in the pocket between the south je y and the surf line, about 50 yards from the beach.

Next morning, we headed to the pocket. e wind was almost dead calm, and the wavelets were about six inches tall. We anchored in the pocket and were catching trout on almost every cast.

Suddenly, Dale ran from the stern to the helm of the walk-through windshield of the 15-foot M.F.G. and yelled, “Cut the rope.”

“What?” I asked. He yelled back, “Cut the blankety-blank anchor rope NOW!”

I ran to the bow and cut the rope, then looked out to sea. An in-coming wave was breaking over the top of the je y rocks on our le and on our right, crossing the surf line and into the dunes.

Dale started the motor, yelled. “Hang on!” and gunned the motor. When we got to within 40 feet of the wave, he shut down to an idle and headed straight into the wave. We went through the wave. I was hanging on to the le windshield supports. Completely under water, I looked over at Dale. He had a two-handed death grip on the wheel and was stretched out parallel to the deck, above the seat back. en we came out on the other side of the wave. e Evinrude never missed a beat. e boat was selfbailing and slowly started rising. We lost no gear, just got soaking wet.

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