September 2011 by Texas Fish & Game

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Texas Fish & Game ★ SEPTEMBER 2011 • VOL. XXVII NO.5 $3.95US

74470 74695

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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.

ROY NEVES PUBLISHER

DON ZAIDLE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CHESTER MOORE EXECUTIVE EDITOR

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

JOE DOGGETT DOUG PIKE TED NUGENT BOB HOOD MATT WILLIAMS CALIXTO GONZALES LENNY RUDOW STEVE LAMASCUS LOU MARULLO KENDAL HEMPHILL REAVIS WORTHAM GREG BERLOCHER PAUL BRADSHAW CAPT. MIKE HOLMES LISA MOORE JOHN GISEL

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR EDITOR AT LARGE HUNTING EDITOR FRESHWATER EDITOR SALTWATER EDITOR BOATING EDITOR FIREARMS EDITOR BOWHUNTING EDITOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR HUMOR EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR WEBSITE CONTENT MANAGER

A D V E R T I S I N G

ARDIA NEVES VICE PRESIDENT/ADVERTISING DIRECTOR SHEILA NELSON • MARKETING MANAGER VIGA HALL • MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE 1745 GREENS ROAD, HOUSTON, TX 77032 PHONE 281/227-3001 • FAX 281/227-3002

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DENNISE CHAVEZ ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR TEXAS FISH & GAME (ISSN 0887-4174) is published monthly by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC., 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. ©Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC. All rights reserved. Contents july not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission. The publication assumes no responsibility for unsolicited photographs and manuscripts. Subscription rates: 1 year $19.00: 2 years $34.75; 3 years $48.50. Address all subscription inquiries to Texas Fish & Game, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for response. Give old and new address and enclose latest mailing address label when writing about your subscription. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032. Address all subscription inquiries to TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032. Email change of address to: dhruzek@fishgame.com Email new orders to: dhruzek@fishgame.com Email subscription questions to: dhruzek@fishgame.com. Periodical postage paid at Houston, TX 77267-9946 and at additional mailing offices.

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SEPTEMBER 2011 • Volume XXVII • NO. 5

FOOLING MOTHER NATURE, NOT JUST DEER You’ve hidden yourself well and masked your scent, but unless you also conceal yourself from wildlife bystanders like birds, they may signal your presence to the big game that you are hunting.

by Chester Moore

TF&G GAME LAWS QUIZ

Are you savvy on Texas’ hunting and fishing regulations? It certainly pays to be that way if you want to stay legal and promote conservation. This quiz will test how up to speed you are on the game laws.

TER MOORE PHOTO: CHES

FEATURES

ON THE COVERS:

Bass Tactics for Redfish

As lakes get more crowded and redfish populations rise, many Texans head to the coast. They change venues, but they don’t need to change lures or tactics. STORY:

by John N. Felsher

CHANNEL CAT AUTUMN

Fall is a great time to locate piles of channel catfish on the many rivers and reservoirs throughout the Lone Star State.

by Matt Williams

One-armed shooters prove they are anything but handicapped at the annual One-Armed Dove Hunt in the small North Texas community of Olney.

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Vanishing Whitetail

Bowhunting is tough when deer get spooked and their instincts for vanishing kick in. Tough, yes. But not impossible. STORY:

by Lou Marullo

SHOOTOUT IN OLNEY

ALSO IN SEPTEMBER:

Texas Hog Roundup

53 STORY:

by Bob Hood

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E MACQUEEN PHOTO: BRUC

, BIGSTOCK

by Bob Hood

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The American Hog Hunting Assoc. is putting on a huge hunt.

by Terri Shelow

www.FishGame.com

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COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS SEPTEMBER 2011 • Volume XXVII • NO. 5

COLUMNS 10 Editor’s Notes

23 Texas Bow Hunting

Hysteria & Gun Powder

A Heart of Steel

by DON ZAIDLE TF&G Editor-in-Chief

Chester’s Notes 10 Wildlife Encounters

by CHESTER MOORE TF&G Executive Editor

16 Doggett at Large Cast Like a Girl

by LOU MARULLO TF&G Bow Hunting Editor

by JOE DOGGETT TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Pike On the Edge Seasoned Memories

by DOUG PIKE TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

19 TexasWild SpiritWild

by BOB HOOD TF&G Hunting Editor

44 Texas Saltwater Random Rumblings

by CALIXTO GONZALES TF&G Saltwater Editor

45 Texas Freshwater

12 BIG BAGS & CATCHES

34 NEW! TEXAS

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

42 TRUE GREEN

56 Open Season

Throwing the Good Book at PETA

Backyard Fly Fishing

by KENDAL HEMPHILL TF&G Politcal Commentator 2 0 1 1

12 TF&G REPORT

by MATT WILLIAMS TF&G Freshwater Editor

22 Commentary

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Predator Progress

8 LETTERS

Highs Always Follow the Lows

by TED NUGENT TF&G Editor At Large

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Hunt Texas

DEPARTMENTS

by REAVIS WORTHAM TF&G Humor Editor |

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www.FishGame.com

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Letters to the Editor who doesn’t want to be bothered with politics.

Kendal Readers I AM INCENSED AT THE LETTER FROM GENE Brake. Mr. Brake joins our organization and subscribes to your excellent publication then writes to complain about an article in it by Kendal Hemphill. The truth of the matter is Mr. Hemphill is but one of many writers for your magazine and his section clearly is defined for politics. The bottom line is, when liberals do not like something, they try to take that away from the rest of us. I say to Mr. Bake— don’t like it, don’t look.

Les Pickett Via Email

IN RESPONSE TO GENE BRAKE’S LETTER IN July 2011, “Letters to the Editor:” Gene, read what you want to and don’t read what you do not like. I thoroughly enjoy Mr. Hemphill’s columns. You do not speak for me, either! What I would like to say—Stop your whining! What I will say—The contents of this magazine are generally well written and cover the topics of hunting, fishing, and …sometimes not. Great magazine—I have enjoyed it for many years!!

Keith Glasgow Via Email

GENE BRAKE’S COMPLAINT IN THE JULY issue is 100% off target. It is precisely TF&G’s awareness of the impact of political issues on fishing and hunting that makes this magazine the ONE all of us MUST read and pass along to our friends! It is the politicians listening to the misguided emotional pleas to “protect” the fish and game from “bad people” that we need to read about. There are plenty of other magazines that don’t understand the real threat to our sports, and they won’t upset anyone 8 |

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Don Hahn Via Email YOU HAVE A GREAT MAGAZINE. I LOOK FOR Kendal Hemphill articles first as they are humorous and useful to realize that we are not a free country. Refer to “Regulated to Death” (June 2010 and the August 2011 article on “Crying Over Spilt Milk.” It goes to show that we have a government without representation. Just ask your elected officials if they voted for or against the laws prohibiting outhouses or the drinking of raw milk, or the required extra PFD, extra paddle and patch kit when floating on the Rio Grand. Do you get the idea that somewhere it has to stop before we are all in jail? Guess I need to go check in since I carry a pair of wire cutters in my pocket when working on the fence and I will take the mayor with me because the city does not have spittoons every 50 feet on main street.

John Wright Via Email PS: Thanks for putting his article beside Ted Nugent’s, they are both a great voice for freedom.

I WOULD BET MONEY THAT THE “TEXAN” who wrote in response to your editorial supporting guns at school and spoke about the “myth of violence” has never had the crap beat out of him by a drunken bully, been mugged or car-jacked at gun point, worked in an after hours convenience store, had a wife or girlfriend raped or had a home invasion. Where has this person been all their life? Under a rock?.....or maybe just in the library. Thanks.

Ed Coe Firefighter—Paramedic, Ret. Via Email T E X A S

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Grow Up Just read Mr. David Snider’s letter about Mr. Zaidle’s May issue column “Grow Up.” Glad to know someone else is upset that the sportsman tax money was stolen, and has been stolen for many years now. Remember the fish hatchery for fish stamp lie? Mr. Zaidle wants you to believe that we don’t need this tax money to go were it was intended, we won’t miss it. I found out recently that we do, as I loaded my smaller boat to go crappie fishing on a small creek on Lake Ray Roberts only to find out that the public road leading to both sides of the creek had been blocked off by property owners. So I called the game warden, who told me it was done because they did not have enough money to maintain the roads. You know I remember all my hunting and fishing buddies were very angry at Ann Richards when she raised fees, but I don’t know one that is angry about having our fee money stolen, so I have a question for Mr. Zaidle, ask him if he would feel the same way if a Democrat had took the funds. Lonnie Crowder Via Email

The Scrap Book I JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR THIS article. I very much enjoyed it! The “red-ass baboon” part made me laugh out loud! Keep up the good work.

Robin Harrison Via Email

Send Comments and Letters to: Editor, Texas Fish & Game 1745 Greens RD Houston, Texas 77032 Email us at Editor@fishgame.com

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Editor’s Notes by Don Zaidle | TF&G Editor-in-Chief

Hysteria & Gun Powder OUTS OF HYSTERIA ARE ENDEMIC TO the human condition. Outbreaks of new flu virus strains with scarysounding names spark everything from school and business closures to people walking around wearing surgical masks. During the "swine flu" non-event a few years back, local emergency medicine protocols mandated masks for first responders. Ostensibly enacted as prophylactic measures against the disease, the true reasons amounted to nothing more than media hype-induced hysteria. The number of deaths worldwide stood at 108 at the end of May 2009—108 deaths among a world population of 6 billion. Do the math. “Closing schools is not effective” in stemming spread of the virus, said Dr. Richard E. Besser at the time, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “So far, the severity of illness we’re seeing in this country is similar to what we’re seeing with seasonal flu.” In other words, swine flu was no bigger deal than any other flu strain; the tiny number of deaths attributable to individuals weakened by pre-existing health conditions. Media-induced hysteria is not new. Orson Wells’ 1938 radio broadcast of an adapted version of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds prompted credulous listeners to panicked actions that included shooting an innocent water tower mistaken for an invading alien spacecraft. The most pervasive and sustained modern hysteria involves firearms and appurtenances thereto. Media hype, misinformation, and outright lies have convinced many that guns are not only evil incarnate, but capable of autonomous mayhem. Ammunition is the newest object of gunphobic hysteria and related propaganda,

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inciting panic over everything from lead poisoning to possible injury from exposure to loose ammunition. The case of one George Fath of Steuben County, Indiana, well illustrates the extremes of ammo hysteria. While cleaning his yard, Fath found a .22 rimfire cartridge, the detritus of a previous tenant. Fearing for the safety of his children, Fath decided to destroy the evil object—by smashing it with a hammer. Now, the ignorance factor alone is sufficient to make the event remarkable, but Fath’s recollection of events juxtaposed with the facts pushes this into Twilight Zone territory. Predictably, the tiny cartridge exploded when Fath struck it with his mighty hammer. According to news reports, Fath stated: “It went off and went into my belly and knocked me on my butt.” His wife called 911 and the police came, but responding officers reported that the “bullet” didn’t actually hit Fath. “Fath was not bleeding, and it did not appear that Fath was struck with the bullet. Fath suffered a minor abrasion to the area of his stomach,” according to the official police report. Nonetheless, Fath told a local TV news crew the bullet did go in his stomach, and doctors removed it at the hospital: “I smacked by the bullet and fell down and blood came pouring out. I was hitting it to smash it. I didn’t expect it to go bang. (sic)” Fath vowed to never again hit a bullet with a hammer; Steuben County Sheriff Rick Lewis said no one should ever hit a bullet with anything. Okay, sound advice, perhaps, but then Lewis pulled a real boner. After first demonstrating a severe lack of understanding of simple physics (more on that shortly) by stating, “The round can go anywhere. It could hit the person striking it with a hammer, a neighbor, a child in the yard. There’s just no controlling where the bullet will go,” Lewis compounded the absurdity of the situation and struck a blow in the name of hype and hysteria by stating that, if someone finds a “bullet,” don’t throw it in the trash but, “Call local law enforcement and we can take care of it.” Let’s think about that last statement. As most Texas Fish & Game readers know, findT E X A S

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ing a “bullet” is equivalent to finding a stone. A bullet is just a chunk of cuprous lead, harmless unless you throw it forcefully at somebody. I suspect the sheriff meant “cartridge,” the complete system of case, primer, powder, and bullet that comprises bona fide ammunition. Ammo ignorance notwithstanding, of all of the insipid hysteria attached to this incident, one aspect eclipses all others from a law enforcement standpoint—the sheriff ’s suggestion to “Call local law enforcement [if you find a cartridge] and we can take care of it.” Imagine, if you will, the potential mayhem unleashed by a single individual with a mischievous streak and armed with a single 500round “brick” of .22 rimfire ammo, seeding streets and neighborhood lawns with “bullets” for the citizenry to discover: ensuing panic, 911 system jammed with calls, and the entire police force tied up with “ammo recovery duty.” If caught, what charges might the perpetrator garner: terrorism? inciting panic? littering? Absurdity is hysteria’s stepchild, evidenced by incidents like the preceding and nonsensical governmental actions such as California’s lead bullet ban; attempts to mandate that ammo manufacturers inscribe cases and bullets with serial numbers; suspending students on “weapons charges” for making slingshots out of pencils, rubber bands, and paper clips; banning venison donations to charity food banks due to hysteria over “lead contamination.” Pertaining to the danger of loose ammunition: When an unconfined cartridge explodes, the bullet might move a few inches at most. The much lighter case can travel a few tens of feet at a far from lethal velocity. The worst danger is should the case strike someone in the eye. An unconfined cartridge explodes with but a tiny fraction of the power released when confined in a firearm chamber. But, it is a component of a gun, for God’s sake! Won’t someone please think of the children!

E-mail Don Zaidle at DZaidle@fishgame.com.

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Charges Filed Over Trinity River Gator WORD TRAVELED QUICKLY LAST WEEK when Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens filed charges and issued arrest warrants for three East Texas men and a Dallas attorney for allegedly killing a 13plus-foot American alligator illegally on private property in Leon County. TPWD’s communications staff raced to put out a press release on July 20 naming Levi McCathern of Dallas as the trigger man. Additionally, the release named Steve Barclay, Sam Lovell and Ryan Burton as the outfitters who guided the hunter to the huge ‘gator along a remote stretch of the Trinity River. Barclay and Lovell have for several years run a successful guide business on the Trinity targeting trophy alligator gar and

Four men were charged with illegally killing this 13-plus-foot gator on a remote stretch of the Trinity River.

American alligators during the legal season. They call themselves “The Gar Guys.” According TPWD Capt. game warden Gary Dugan of Athens, charges were filed against the men following a multi-week

investigation after a Leon County landowner reported that the big alligator was killed on his property without his permission on June 11. The landowner also said a smaller alligator was taken on the property on June 10. Both ‘gators have been tagged as evidence by wardens as part of the investigation. Interestingly, Barclay and Lovell were named by TPWD in another alleged illegal alligator hunting incident on the Trinity in 2007. However, following months of legal wrangling, the charges were suddenly dismissed by Leon County Attorney Jim Witt

B IG B AGS&CATCHES

AMBERJACK

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Trinity River

Matagorda

Michael Tant, Jr. caught this paddlefish in the Trinity River just below the Livingston Dam. He was catfishing with cut bait when the unusual fish tangled its bill in the line. It took him 25 minutes to get it into the boat.

Isaac Lozano caught this nice amberjack while fishing on the Fish & Fun II charter out of Port Aransas, some 85 miles offshore. He caught the beauty on live bait.

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Alfred Sabrsula of Corpus Christi caught this 41-1/2-inch, 26-pound redfish in the Intracoastal Waterway at Matagorda Bay. It was Alfred’s biggest redfish catch. His son, Craig, proudly submitted the photo.

PHOTO: COURTESY LEVI MCCATHERN

The TF&G Report

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after he decided TPWD’s evidence was too weak to prosecute the case. Lovell claims he has been out of state working on an oil spill in Michigan since early April, and that he can prove it. “I’ve been in Michigan since April 1 and I have not left,” Lovell said. “I’ve got the pay checks to prove it, too.” If that’s the case, then how could Lovell have been on the Trinity River, more than 1,000 miles away, helping guide McCathern to his trophy alligator on June 11? I asked Dugan that question. The warden pointed out that TPWD’s investigation tells a different story. “You don’t know the whole story,” Dugan said. “I know what Lovell is saying, but it’s not the same. We investigated the

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case. We’ve got photos. We’ve got the alligators and we’ve got enough evidence to prove he (Sam Lovell) was there. His own people said he was there. Some of the witnesses said he was there. “They are telling all kinds of stories,” Dugan added. “They are also saying they had permission to hunt on the property, which they did not. This is not the first run in we have had with the Gar Guys. There has been a lot of issues down there, but this is a case where we have enough evidence to go forward and prosecute.” Barclay pointed out he did have permission to hunt on the property. The guide said and Lovell has been taking clients there for about three years. “We had verbal permission to hunt there,” he said. “We have taken clients in there about 10 times and killed hogs before. We’ve also hunted ‘gators there, but these were the first two that have been taken off this particular place.”

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Barclay said he adamant about fighting the charges. “We haven’t done anything wrong,” Barclay said. “I honestly believe that TPWD knows we had permission to hunt on that property. I believe they knew it before they filed the charges. This whole deal is an injustice and I’ll fight it to the end.” Burton was unavailable for comment and McCathern was out-of-state and could not be reached by phone.

Taking wildlife on private property without landowner consent is Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, the men could face fines up to $4,000, up to one year in jail or both, and more than $5,000 restitution fees for the two alligators. —by Matt Williams

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Chester’s Notes by Chester Moore | TF&G Executive Editor

10 Wildlife Encounters N MY LIFE AND CAREER I HAVE BEEN blessed to have encountered much of the amazing wildlife I dreamed about as a kid. The truth is I am constantly envisioning new wildlife sightings and experiences and working to realize them. As much as I love to fish and hunt, many of the best experiences in the field have involved getting a glimpse of one of nature’s many amazing creatures. Here are my top 10 sightings as of summer 2011, in no particular order.

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GREAT WHITE SHARK: Without a doubt my ultimate wild creature encounter was seeing four great white sharks in one day off the Farallon Islands just out of San Francisco in 2002. Most kids saw “Jaws” and wanted to stay out of the water and I wanted to get in. I was blown away by these apex predators. Intense. Powerful. Profound. LEATHERBACK TURTLE: A few years back my friend Bill Killian and I watched an eight footplus leatherback turtle around an oil rig out of Sabine Pass only three miles from shore. Leatherbacks are rare in our part of the world and from what I have been told, specimens of this size are rare anywhere. It was the only leatherback I have ever seen and it was incredible. TOUCAN: I’m a sucker for beauty and getting to see a wild toucan up close and personal in

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Venezuela in 1999 was super cool. They are far more beautiful in person than I can describe. The one we saw was wild but had been fed a lot around the lodge we were fishing out of, so it flew onto a perch above our breakfast table on the gazebo outside and ate the fruit we fed it. COUGAR: The cougar I saw when I was 14years-old still stuns me. I remember locking eyes with the amazing animal at less than 30 yards and feeling awful puny holding only a pellet gun. This was a pivotal point in my life as a wildlife fanatic and since the sighting was very close to my home it hooked me into studying closely what dwelled in our backyards. (GIANT) SOFTSHELL TURTLE: While fishing near Adams Bayou with my cousin Frank Moore last July, I caught a softshell turtle that had a shell over 30 inches in length and

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weighed in the neighborhood of 40 pounds. Softshells are my favorite turtles as they are super fast and have a neck so long and flexible they can almost bite someone holding them on the back of the shell. These turtles are usually far more aggressive than snappers, but this specimen was fairly docile with its business end although it did claw my arms pretty good while holding it. The beast was released to grow to larger proportions. RED WOLVES: I’ve had a number of run-ins with wolves over the years and each one has fueled my love for these majestic creatures. I will never forget walking up on one, scaring it halfway to death and then having it follow me up a hill. You can’t get that kind of experience from a video game. Scientists have claimed these majestic animals are extinct in the wild because of their breeding with coyotes but recent research shows Texas may actually have animals far closer to red wolves than was previously thought. I know this for a fact. MEGA RATTLER: Back in 2008 I hunted Robert Scherer’s ranch near Freer and came across a seven-foot-long western diamondback while trailing a deer my Dad shot. I ended up

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right on top of the snake in the middle of the night and greeted it with my Glock 23. It earned me a bunch of tasty snake meat and the absolute coolest taxidermy item in my house, its massive outstretched hide. WHITE ELK: I never actually saw the animal with my own eyes but my game camera back in 2000 captured a bunch of shots of a beautiful white bull elk eating at my deer feeder in Newton County. It had escaped from a nearby exotic ranch and caused quite a stir on our lease. Some reported seeing a huge white animal in the distance and others hear strange whistling in the area where I hunted. The animal hung around for about a week and then disappeared, but I got some photos. PINK DOLPHIN: Back in 2010, my friend Mark Davis of the Outdoors Channel’s “Big Water Adventures” and I were fishing Lake Calcasieu with Hackberry Rod and Gun. While catching schooling reds on the lake’s south end we came across an incredible albino pink dolphin. I heard stories of this animal that had been sighted in the area but until this moment never got a look for myself. Mark and I abandoned fishing for a bit and stopped to

take photos of this incredibly rare and beautiful marine mammal. RINGTAIL: I don’t know why this sighting sticks out so much but in the fall of 1991 my family and I were hunting in Menard County on a 1,000-acre deer lease. While sitting on my stand opening afternoon, a beautiful ringtail climbed out of a hole in a small oak tree and sat on it for probably 10 minutes in broad daylight. All of the other ringtails I had seen were at night but this one was basking in the sun and allowed me to see how beautiful these creatures really. I have definitely seen much more glamorous animals, even one monster whitetail on that lease but this one sighting has stuck with me since I was 17-years-old and probably will forever. That is the beauty of seeing wildlife. The actual encounter may be brief but the encounter will last a lifetime.

E-mail Chester Moore at CMoore@fishgame.com.

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Doggett at Large by Joe Doggett | TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Cast Like a Girl AME JULIANA BERNERS WAS PROBAbly the first but far from the last. We are talking, of course, about women who seriously focus on fishing. The Abbess of Sopwell is credited with writing A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle in 1496—more than 150 years before Izaak Walton penned The Compleat Angler. Her work is regarded as the first essay in the English language on sport fishing. Women continue to make an impact in virtually all aspects of modern angling. For example, Joan Salvato Wulff has been for decades a top casting instructor, a champion tournament caster, and the author of many articles on fishing. On the Texas coast, licensed captain Sally Moffett of Rockport is acknowledged as one of the top redfish and speckled trout guides. On cable television, the popular show Breaking the Surface features the spin/fly team of Diana Rudolph and Kim BainMoore. In the world of professional bass tournaments, Judy Wong was recently inducted into the “Legends of the Outdoors” National Hall of Fame. True, most of the main players with rods and reels are men, but the list of women in fishing is extensive. And the torch continues to be passed to younger generations. A fine example is Meredith McCord, an excellent fly “fisherman” with a go-for-it attitude few anglers with whiskers can match. McCord, of Houston, is 30-something and single, the owner of the successful Mad Potter chain of do-it-yourself ceramic painting studios. She has the time and resource to travel and fish. A lot. “I grew up with spinning and casting tackle,” she said. “My family has a farm with a bass pond near Navasota and a sum-

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Meredith McCord shows winning smile and trophy bonefish.

mer home on Lake of the Woods in Canada, and from about age three I just loved going fishing.” McCord made the transition to fly fishing while attending Vanderbilt University. “I T E X A S

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was a freshman in 1992 when the movie, A River Runs Through It, came out. The scenes of fly fishing were so beautiful. I knew immediately that’s what I wanted to do.” McCord carried through in no-nonsense fashion. Following graduation from Vanderbilt in May 1996, she moved solo to PHOTO: JOE DOGGETT

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Vanderbilt in May 1996, she moved solo to Jackson Hole, WY, with one goal, “to learn and perfect fly fishing.” She was 23 and an aspiring “Trout Bum” armed with a 6weight two-piece rod and a long summer to make it happen. “I never had any formal casting instruction, which might have been a mistake, but once the locals realized I was really dedicated, they took me in and provided lots of support. You just learn as you go.” A big boost to Meredith’s angling career occurred in 1998 when her father, Rick McCord, purchased a house on Ambergris Cay, Belize. Hello, bonefish. Gimme that eight-weight rod. But what’s a double haul? The double-haul cast, which increases line speed and distance, is seldom required on small trout streams but it’s SOP on the saltwater flats. You’re doomed to mediocrity without a blazing double haul. “I was lucky to have a great teacher in Belize,” she said. “Guide George Bradley really helped me. He would bark when I did it wrong, but once you get the timing down

it’s not that difficult. Dad started fly fishing about the same time, so we had a great father/daughter connection. We’d make six or seven trips a year to Belize and pretty much learned together.”

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Rick and his brother Charles McCord are two of my fly fishing friends. Both are fine anglers but, no disrespects, guys, you need to bring your best game to keep pace with Meredith. She is an excellent caster and a major hard-charger with great “fish sense.” And she can wade all day—not surprising considering that she trains for triathlons

between fishing forays. She now has world-travelled fishing experience, preferring saltwater over freshwater, and especially likes sight casting for redfish along the Texas coast. But “any water holding fish is worth a shot.” That’s a positive attitude and one that should carry a long way. “I’d really like to make a career out of fly fishing,” Meredith said. “It’s such a great lifetime experience and it’s something that women easily can do. “I’d like to be sponsored by some top products and have a television fishing show; I think I’d be good at it.” I know she would be good at it. She would nail it. Cable fishing shows already have too many graybeard guys flailing the water and hawking tackle. Sage? Orvis? Hatch? Tibor? Anybody out there listening?

E-mail Joe Doggett at JDoggett@fishgame.com

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Pike on the Edge by Doug Pike | TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Seasoned Memories T ALWAYS SEEMS LONGER THAN SEVEN months between hunting seasons and shorter than five months that we get to pursue this state’s wild, native game. Anticipation of a coming season inspires us to fill feeders and string barbed wire on 100-degree days, to blow duck calls in traffic on the way to work and convince ourselves that this time, the big one won’t get away. The excitement of a current season can drag us from between warm sheets on wintery mornings. It can make biscuits and gravy taste like steak and lobster and make bad coffee …well, there is no mistaking bad coffee, but it does prop the eyelids. And when one season finally reaches its conclusion, the memories of those months – carefully catalogued as specific mornings and afternoons, burn like so many pilot lights until time to re-fire the full flame. Most of us who read these pages are what everyone else calls outdoors nuts. We breathe real passion into our pursuit of wild game and embrace our addictions to the activity. And it isn’t the killing that defines a true hunter so much as the rituals and routines. No matter his or her age, and with less weight on experience than some might realize or recognize, a mature hunter appreciates the whole book and not just its last page. And the bigger the animal, it seems, the less important it becomes to actually drop one of the beasts on every hunt. Some of the most dedicated and passionate deer hunters I know haven’t let the air out of a buck in years. They see plenty; they choose not to shoot. That doesn’t make them less than other hunters. It just makes them different, in ways that are as individual as fingerprints. Often, veteran deer hunters set goals that reach beyond the relative simplicity in game-

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Bird hunters are a different breed. They evolve as sportsmen, but never to the point where ‘no shots fired’ hunts scratch the itch.

rich Texas of putting venison or antlers on the ground. A wide rack. A tall rack. A tall, wide rack. With good mass. And drop tines. On an old buck. Put enough restrictions on yourself, and you can talk yourself out of any but the most exceptional whitetails on the continent. Another grand gesture among comfortable, confident hunters is their willingness to pass a good buck in hopes that a friend or relative nearby might get the shot. Example: I’ve done a fair amount of deer hunting with Joe Doggett, thanks in great part to the generosity of our friend Bill Carter, who owns Carter’s Country. As T E X A S

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much as I wanted to shoot a better buck than Joe on each of those hunts, I was (almost) as thrilled to see him roll back into camp with a fine rack lashed to the bumper. Bird hunters are a slightly different breed. They evolve, as sportsmen, but never quite to the point where “no shots fired” hunts scratch the itch. Every time they slosh through the mud or chase pointers across open pastures or shiver against the drip of icy rain down a bare neck, they want to see feathers and get off a few shots. That’s been the case nearly since invention of the shotgun. First, you hope just to get a shot at a bird. And all the better if it’s swimming (or perched on an exposed limb, if it’s a dove) rather than in flight. Then you work to drop your first bird on the wing – and realize it’s harder than it looks. Then you start caring what kind of duck or goose it is, how close you can call the birds to your decoys, and how many shells you’re emptying per dead bird in hand. Limits are not fair measures of success for bird hunters. In the right place, on the right day, a 6-year-old with a kazoo and tin whistle could call ducks and geese within range. In the right sunflower field, you could disguise yourself as Barney the purple dinosaur and still get point-blank shots at doves. When birds “want” to be somewhere, it’s hard to keep them out. Conversely, the best decoy setup on the prettiest water in the world is of no use if there are no ducks or geese or doves or quail. Or chachalacas, whatever those are. That happens, too, more often that most wingshooters’ memories will recall. In the end, it’s selective memory, a common trait among all hunters, that keeps us coming back. We forget the heat, the bugs, the cuts and scrapes, thunderstorms, stuck trucks, missed sleep and missteps. Every unfortunate event from every past hunting trip is forgotten and forgiven…on opening day.

E-mail Doug Pike at DPike@fishgame.com PHOTO: GUY SAGI, BIGSTOCK

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Ted’s TexasWild by Ted Nugent | TF&G Editor at Large

SpiritWild TOTALLY LOST RESPECT FOR THE BEATLES when they went all dopey, sappy peace and love and guru on me. I am the first person to embrace and celebrate the mysticism of spirituality, but not when a false spirit is fantasized upon based on the results of mind altering chemical abuse. I believe only when we dedicate our cleanest, purest self to an intellectual thought process can anything real, honest or beneficial occur. If you get drunk and have sex, then get married, that ain’t love and you’re looking for trouble. Okay then, we got that out of the way. Dedicated followers of my written and spoken word are not deterred by these flights of fancy and adventurous exercises in creative and poetic license. The rest of you fellow meat and potatoes guys and gals would do well to stick with me here as I delve deeply into the world of ultimate self-control beyond the flesh for improved shooting and hunting techniques. The Beatles. Gurus. Substance abuse? Where is this crazy old guitar jamming bowhunting fool headed this time? Hang in there my friends. Hang in there. Aim small, miss small, think big. We all hate to miss. Errant arrows, bullets and various projectiles are not only a pain in the arse, but for many of us, a blown shot is literally heartbreakingly painful and emotionally debilitating. After all, we live the hunt all year, scout all we can, practice diligently, rise extra early day after day all season long, putting our heart and soul into the love of the hunt. So when that moment of truth finally arrives, and human error smacks us upside the noggin, it is as ugly as ugly gets. Especially in those instances where we know we should have made the shot. I bet I have hung my head in agonizing despair more times than any hunter anywhere, anytime. I was a slow learner, so I am just a bit more gung-ho to rid my otherwise joyous life of any more painful misses ever again. That’s right; my goal is to never miss again. Lofty for sure, but as a mindset, the only route

to go as far as I’m concerned. My journals show an improvement in shooting successes over many years to the glory of my 2010 hunting season. Mind you, my hunting season spans the entire year, averaging more than 250 days of actual hunting, many years substantially more than that. So as a model, my hunting life is as intense as it gets. For 2010, I fired 21 shots from my .270 for 21 kills; 18 shots from my .223 for 18 kills; 5 rounds from my 10mm handgun brought 4 kills; 6 bolts from my Excalibur crossbow were also 100% deadly. Bowhunting brought me the highest of highs with 191 arrows for 188 kills. (Just for kicks and giggles I will include my machine gun tally of 159 hogs and 9 coyotes from a helicopter in a single day, but I think I went through approximately 500 rounds just because full auto is such insane fun. I was doing God’s work saving the environment, saving Texan’s tax dollars, saving farmers crops, saving wildlife and feeding hundreds of hungry Texans. Plus having so much fun I figured the more shooting the better. It wasn’t hunting really, but strictly a win-win-win day of machine gun enjoyment in Northern Texas. And since this is legal commercially now, be sure to contact Sunrize Safaris, (517-7509060, paul@tednugent.com) to book your own helicopter hog/coyote hunt right away so you too can giggle and glow like I do.) A few years ago, I found myself inextricably immersed in a spirit world more compelling and powerful than ever before. Being blessed and humbled for many years to be invited into the lives of families living the heartbreak and saying good-bye to terminally ill children, I did everything in my power to be strong as I shared sacred, last campfires with little boys and girls that would never see their 7th, 8th or 10th birthday. What touched me most was their courage and phenomenal mind over matter strength during excruciatingly painful medical procedures and deteriorating health at such a very young age. These kids just wanted to shoot bows and arrows and guns with Uncle Ted, do some hunting before they died, and share a campfire with an uppity Wildman guitar player of the T E X A S

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SpiritWild kind. Go figure. As I nurtured their introduction to archery and marksmanship, I was moved, completely blown away at their youthful sense of focus. I am here to tell you, that as they drew their bows and squeezed the trigger of their rifle or pistol, I could tell, and their parents rejoiced, in how the ravages of chemo therapy and radiation virtually disappeared as they fired off their arrows and rounds. Where moments ago you could read the pain and unhappy confusion on their little faces, for a while, a toothy smile exuded their momentary cleansing, all due to the moment of truth as they touched off their projectiles. For me it was an epiphany, immediately understanding that a much deeper spiritual mindset was available to all of us, if we choose to venture deeper into this realm. These kids became the path of their arrow and bullet, for they knew these would be the last shots of their short lives. Think about it. If we can put our brains and spirit down that path of complete consciousness, to the point of sub-consciousness, we too can be one with our projectiles. As you venture to the range, the 3D course and your hunting stands this season, stop a moment, take a deep breath, look to the heavens, shed the baggage of everyday normalcy, and plunge deeper than ever before into the spirit world. Push yourself to the highest level of awareness you can possibly find. Push your incredible human brain to new heights of knowing and being. Be your bow and rifle. Be the arrow and the bullet. Be your spirit. Conservation is the “wise use” of our resources. We all know that mankind generally utilizes but a fraction of our brain and spirit. Go for broke. Find it all and use it all. Say a prayer. Be that trigger. Make the universe and the heavens settle into your sacred temple and take over your soul. It can be done. Obliterate your limited paradigm. Soar on the wings of an eagle, and find what these dying children found. Don’t wait. Live it every time.

E-mail Ted Nugent at TNugent@fishgame.com. |

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Commentary by Kendal Hemphill | TF&G Political Commentator didn’t find it particularly relevant. But the guy who called recently was livid. He said Jesus cared for all the creatures. He said Jesus was compassionate. He said Jesus could not have eaten meat, since He cared and was compassionate. At least I think that was what he said. I had to hold the phone away from my head, to keep his vehemence from damaging my eardrums. So I tried to talk to the guy about the incident in Acts 10, where Peter was shown a vision from heaven, including animals that Jews were not allowed to eat, and he was told to kill and eat them. That didn’t work, either. The guy said that was just an example to let Peter know it was OK to offer the gospel to the Gentiles. Which is true. But God was using something Peter would understand to illustrate His point, and Peter understood killing and eating.

Throwing the Good Book at PETA

PETA MEMBER CAME ACROSS ONE OF my old columns recently, got his socks in a wad, and decided to set me straight. He called me and let me know what a Horrible Person I am because I said Jesus wasn’t a vegetarian. I think he got so much spittle in his phone, he will have to replace it. This episode started because PETA has a section on their website that claims Jesus was a vegetarian. When I saw that I began emailing the PETA people, asking them to explain. They would not, but they referred me back to their site, where they had a lot of ‘evidence’ they had collected from people like rabbis and ‘religious scholars’ who claimed that when God said, in Genesis 9, that He was giving man the animals to use for PETA’s www.jesusveg.com food, He did not intend for that to be permanent. The reasoning was vague, but that was the gist of it. The guy on the phone didn’t agree. He So, I wrote a column about how there is said that was just a vision, not actual killing no evidence to back up their claims, and how and eating, so it didn’t count. So I decided Jesus was a Jew who perfectly followed the to try one more time, before the FCC got Law of Moses all His life, and to do that He wind of this guy’s language and cut our conhad to eat meat at some of the Jewish feasts, nection. including the Passover. Which is all true, but I asked the guy if he had read I Timothy PETA never responded. One person wrote Chapter 4 recently. He had not. So I pointto tell me that Jesus did not eat any of the ed out that at the beginning of that chapter, fish He miraculously provided for thousands Paul warned Timothy about PETA. The of people on at least two occasions. That guy didn’t like that, not one little bit. It was may be true, but since I didn’t bring it up, I a good five minutes before he quieted down

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enough for me to go on. Paul didn’t mention PETA specifically, but he did warn about people “speaking lies in hypocrisy,” and “commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.” Well, that went over like a lead balloon, too. I guess people just don’t appreciate it when you prove to them their opinions are 100 percent wrong. The guy claimed I was trying to twist the Bible around and make it say something it doesn’t. I’m still unclear on what he meant, but there you go. This column is not a religious platform, but when people try to use God to advance their attacks on hunting and fishing, they need to be corrected. It needs to be done calmly and nicely, but it needs to be done. And we all need to know exactly where to find the proof that will refute the false claims of the antis. Whether we believe in God is our own business, but those who try to use our beliefs against us have an obligation to tell the truth. The PETA agenda is ludicrous in its entirety, but using false religious claims to defraud the public is reprehensible. That kind of propaganda is inexcusable. The folks at PETA don’t really believe Jesus was a vegetarian, or that God doesn’t want us to eat meat. They just lie about it, to try to control the rest of us. They are The Bad Guys, not because there’s anything wrong with vegetarianism - there isn’t. What’s wrong is spreading false information to force people into an erroneous conclusion. The truth (John 8:32) will set you free. But it won’t set you free from getting angry calls from people who don’t know the truth. E-mail Kendal Hemphill at KHemphill@fishgame.com. IMAGE: WWW.JESUSVEG.COM

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Texas Bowhunting by Lou Marullo | TF&G Bowhunting Editor with no arms, I definitely was born with a will. A will to succeed. I just learned to do everything that everyone else can do, without arms. LM: My first question for you, Matt: How long have you been shooting a bow? MS: My Dad helped me buy my first T IS NOT OFTEN THAT LIFE’S JOURNEY bow when I was 16. Unfortunately, I only brings you face to face with wonder and had it for about 1-½ years before someone fascination, but recently, I had the priv- came and stole it. LM: Oh, that’s bad. ilege and honor to interview a man that MS: Well… I was upset at the time, but filled me with that exact experience. I was asked if I wanted to interview a bowhunter I didn’t have that strong of an interest back for this magazine. Not just any bowhunter, then. I have been taking it more seriously but one that shoots extremely well, can now for about the last 2 years. LM: What made you decide astonish many with his you wanted to take up the bow? trick shots and groups MS: Well, I have a love for arrows consistently hunting and just wanted the chalfrom any distance. lenge that a bow demands. I also There are many good hunt with a gun but I prefer the shots out there…what bow. (check out how well he makes this man so shoots a pistol) interesting? LM: Have you gotten any Matt Stutzman , or game other than deer with your as he is better known, bow? “The Inspirational MS: Oh, yeah, so far I have Archer,” hails from taken whitetail deer, turkey, rabIowa and was born bits, pheasant and a coyote. with no arms. LM: Wow, impressive! I According to the Matt Stutzman, the have yet to even attempt a pheasbiography on his webInspirational Archer. ant with my bow. Tell me, Matt, site, Matt was given up for adoption by his birth parents at 4 after watching some of your videos, I was months and the Stutzmans took this boy in wondering if you ever do any trick archery and raised him. Matt was introduced to a lot shots? MS: Yeah, I have a few things I have of different activities and he simply found a way to participate in them all. Spending done. I shoot out flames on candles. That’s time with his siblings and Dad at their fish- a good one. I also have this trick where I ing holes was just one of the activities that he shoot a balloon at 150 yards! As a matter of enjoyed. After talking with Matt and read- fact, on September 17th, I will be in ing about his life story, he truly is an inspira- Nebraska at the Missouri River Outdoor Expo. I plan on attempting to shoot a baltion. He is the Inspirational Archer. I scheduled an interview with Matt who loon at 250 yards! LM: Really? graciously gave up some of his busy day to MS: Well… I can tell you that I have talk with me and answer a few questions. already done that on my own so there Lou Marullo: So, the Inspirational shouldn’t be any problem with it. LM: I see on your website that you shoot Archer, great title. Matt Stutzman: Thanks. I just want for some kids, ever show your talents in a people to know that although I was born school setting?

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MS: Oh, all the time. Every chance I get. If someone wants me to help promote this sport, then I am happy to do it. I think it also shows the kids that you can do anything you want if you set your mind to it. LM: Do you always hunt with a partner or are you more of a lone hunter out there? MS: I have some friends I like to hunt with, but I hunt alone as well. If I am successful in a morning hunt, I just wait for one of my buddies to get home from work and then he gladly comes and drags the deer out for me. LM: Do your children hunt and do they show the same passion in the sport as you do? MS: My kids are a little young to be hunting, but they love it when Daddy comes back after a successful day. I try to do as many father/son things as I can. I want my kids to grow up with that Outdoor Life mentality. Just the other day, my 5 year old saw a squirrel in the yard and ran to tell me all about it. Do you think he loves the outdoors? He was so excited and every time an animal wanders through our property, he makes it a point to let Daddy know. LM: I understand you are trying to qualify for the Paralympics? MS: Yes that’s right! I already am a member of the United States National Para Archery team. My hope is that I make the Paralympics and represent our country in London in 2012. LM: Is there any message you would like to tell our readers? MS: Yes. Tell them to never take no for an answer. You can do anything at all if you set your mind to it. Life is just too short so go out as much as you can, enjoy the outdoors and don’t forget to bring your kids along and introduce them to the outdoors too. Learn more about Matt Stutzman at his website, www.inspiratioalarcher.com

E-mail Lou Marullo at Lmarullo@fishgame.com |

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Bowhunting is tough when deer get spooked and crank up their instincts for vanishing. Tough, yes. But not impossible. BY LOU MARULLO 24 |

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ASK ANYONE WHO BRINGS a bow in the woods and he will tell you that success with a bow takes patience. It takes skill, knowledge of the habits of a whitetail and last but not least, a lot of luck! Now combine that with a deer that has been spooked into another county and it is surprising that we can ever harvest one of these critters at all. Well, you can. It just takes a lot more patience and much more of that luck! Texas deer have an uncanny ability to

hide from the many hunters who are roaming the woods all year long. Where do those deer go? More importantly, why do they

seem to disappear? Remember, deer season is just a short time of the year and here in Texas we can hunt something year-round. The other hunters who are after doves, hogs or whatever, are not too concerned about leaving a human scent trail in the same woods where you are trying to hunt deer. In my column last month, I wrote about how important scent control is to the whitetail hunter (check it out, “You Stink,” on page 20 of that issue, or in the online archives at www.fishgame.com.) When discussing this article with a friend, he quickly told me he had the answer for hunting pressured deer. He suggested hunting them after hours! “They’ll come out as soon as the hunters leave the woods.” That may bring a smile to your face, but please do not listen to him. I think he was only kidding anyway. There are other ways to hunt those pressured deer and ways that are legal. If there has been a string of hot weather with a drought like we have recently experienced, you might want to consider setting up near a water hole. If you set up a portable blind early enough and just leave it there, the deer may just get used to it and offer you a nice shot. Whitetails have to drink. They will be very cautious so you will have to be aware of every little thing around you that will either spook the deer or make him come into range. Consider using a feeding doe decoy and position her head to simulate her enjoying a nice cool sip of water. What deer could resist that temptation? One of the best ways to score on pressured deer is to push them. I know what you are thinking. Push a whitetail like you would during gun season? How can that work? Let me explain. Push may not be the right term. It is more like a bump. If you are hunting with one or two friends, then one should position himself or herself at a known escape route. An escape route is a path the deer usually take when spooked. They bolt out of the woods using this route and always find a safe haven elsewhere. The difference here is that as you quietly walk through the woods,

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you are trying to annoy the deer more than spook it. The deer might be bedded and feel like it has to get up and move because a human predator is walking his way. If the walker takes his time and zigzags through the woodlot, the whitetail will eventually and slowly walk past the watcher using that safe escape route. Not so safe today though! It is a good idea to occasionally stop during your “bump” drive. By stopping and just waiting a few minutes, you will drive any deer crazy and he will have to get up and move because he thinks he is already detected. Believe me, this works and works well especially later in the season or mid-day when the action slows down a bit. I have also tried my luck at stalking deer with my bow. It is certainly not the easiest

“ One of the best ways to score on pressured deer is to push them.

“ thing to do, but if successful, it is most rewarding. One time I followed a fresh deer track while constantly looking ahead for any movement. As I slowly made my way through the woods, I was very aware of everything around me. It was mid-day and quite warm. The only thing moving in those woods in that heat was a hard headed bow hunter with a tag to fill! I was getting more and more frustrated with every step and getting ready to just call it a day. Suddenly I looked to the side of the path I was on and there, not 15 yards from where I was standing, was a nice 8 point buck laying down and waiting for me to pass. I never made eye contact with the whitetail, but just continued to walk right past him. Then I slowly turned and backtracked the exact same path I was just on. The buck was intently watching me the entire time and I am sure he thought that as long as he did not move, all would be safe. I stopped, drew my bow and then faced him for the first time. Immediately he had the

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“surprise” eyes and I was the last thing he saw. Sometimes, simply leaving your lease alone for a while would be enough to put a whitetail at ease. I realize that hunting time is precious and not all of us have a lot of time to hunt, but by trying different spots, you will leave your human scent in other areas. After things have calmed down a bit, sneak back in your hunting area and climb up in your best stand. It might be all the surprise you will need to be successful.

Bow hunting pressured whitetails is difficult and challenging and does not guarantee success. However, if you use your head and take your time, you might just be spending the last few minutes of the day field dressing your trophy. More importantly, think about your friends who have already given up on bow hunting these animals. Make sure you email them some pics of that nice buck hanging in your garage!

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Counter-Espionage in the Wild BY CHESTER MOORE

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I HATE CROWS. Well, I don’t really hate them but the dislike is powerful since they have caused me to lose shots at a couple of times. And I did everything right. I wore camo, set up my stand with the prevailing wind to my advantage and used scent killing sprays by Hunter Specialties. My tripod was even extremely well hidden from the deer with no real way they could spot me, however in hindsight there was one weakness. While the cover below the stand was great, I was exposed above it and while no deer would be available to view me, I was in the wide open for the crows. You see, it is not just important to fool whitetails, feral hogs, elk or whatever big game you are hunting. You must fool all wild creatures. Wild animals understand the distress signals of others and will flee or approach an area extremely cautiously when an alarm is sounded. For hunters who believe they can enter the field wearing cologne, using no sort of camouflage and certainly not paying attention to scent maskers, here are some things to consider.

Even though you might play the wind, you cannot be certain your deer for example will come from the direction you wish. And even if it does, a hog might come up the trail just about the time you are about to squeeze the trigger, let out a grunt as it smells you and your opportunity has passed by. For those who go the extra mile in using pattern-breaking camouflage and are experts

A box blind that is not hidden by natural camouflage can leave you open to being busted by birds.

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at scent control, there are things to consider as well. How well are you hidden from above? As shown in the earlier example, birds like crows can and will bust you and announce your discovery to everything in the woods. Hiding from them requires some using camouflage draping or natural vegetation to block you and your movements. Hunters using box blinds may want to consider attaching sticks and limbs from the legs on up to the top to break the “boxy” look and create something that looks more like a tree. An area I have always believed Texas hunters—myself included—have really dropped the ball in fooling wildlife involves repetition. We hunt the same stands, day after day, season after season and wildlife, particularly deer and hogs, have this figured out. “If you hunt the same stand three days in a row or more, the deer have you patterned. We have proven this in our research and it is a big stumbling block to some hunter’s success,” said renowned deer biologist Dr. James Kroll. Feeders are a huge part of this equation as they are the primary way hunters score on big game in Texas, however game camera technology lets us know that the largest and wisest deer, hogs and even exotics will visit feeders when the hunters are not there. While I believe corn feeders can give hunters an advantage, they can also weigh them down because their use is so commonplace. What if there was something deer needed as much or more than food that could be dis-

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pensed similarly? Enter the Oasis Wildlife Water System. At first appearing like a standard fluid storage barrel, it utilizes a provisionally patented vacuum system to automatically replenish water to the tray as the animals drink from it. “Our water system has been field tested effectively in East, Central, South, and Southwest Texas with great results,” said Beaumont-based Jack McElroy. “As you consider improvements in wildlife management on your land or lease, remember: Water is a key ingredient to your success. Just having available water may not be the complete answer. Being able to provide water to your wildlife where and when you choose, aids you in growing healthier

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We hunt the same stands, day after day, season after season, and deer have this figured out

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animals as well as holding them closer to your target areas.” And it is something animals do not expect. Travel West and hunters routinely hunt over water sources but they are rarely used in Texas. In a drought year like they one we are experiencing, waters sources whether they are artificial like the Oasis system or natural ones will draw in game in a significant way. With antler restrictions in place in much of the state and more hunters attempting to score on large bucks, the game is increasingly turning from harvesting a deer to harvesting a wise, mature deer and those are two entirely different things. I remember the first time I hunted with my good friend, TF&G Editor-At-Large Ted Nugent, we were on a piece of property that was inundated with hogs. Most hunters targeted feeders but Nugent preferred backing away from them and using pruning shears to make shooting lanes. “You find all of these trails coming into

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feeders and by studying the travel patterns and habits of the game in your area, you can clip out some shooting lanes in the thick areas and along the edge of them and score on the smarter animals,” he said. “Texas hunters are spoiled because of the incredible game populations we have here but, it is easy to get complacent and not pay attention to the little details. If you can pattern an animal, it can pattern you, so we must outthink them.” Very few of us have much disposable time

these days to invest in our hunting. That means the little time we spend afield must be more productive than ever and that requires fooling all of the wild, not just deer. After all it does not matter if a spooked rabbit clears the area or a wise old buck sniffs you out, the opportunity passes. By using a few creative ideas, hunters can make sure those opportunities abound, instead of flee.

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Texas Department of Defense The World Really is a Nasty Place AVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY SO many people dislike guns? I find it almost inconceivable that anyone, any reasoning human, would blame a tool for the acts of a user. You see, the real problem in America, and the world for that matter, is a people problem, not a gun problem. I have carried a gun on my person almost every waking hour for the last 32 years. During those years I have had to actually fire my gun only 2 times. Now the question is, why do I carry a weapon all the time, when I needed it so seldom? Couldn’t I just leave the thing at home unless I thought I was going to need it?

How to Carry a Concealed Weapon ONE OF THE THINGS I SEE A LOT OF IN THE various magazines is discussion on the best holsters and the best location (appendix carry, spleen carry, crotch carry, strong-side, weak-side, etc.) to carry a concealed handgun. I have been looking for the perfect method of concealed carry for the last 30-odd years and am still looking. If you ask any old cop, he will tell you that he has a drawer 34 |

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The answer is obvious to any person with the brains of a gnat. I carry it all the time because I am not a prophet, I cannot see the future; and because there really are people out there who are dangerous, violent, unpredictable, and just plain nasty. That is the truth. Another overlooked fact that you need to understand is that the bad guys of the world are out there right now, planning their next crime. It may or may not involve you. If it does somehow involve you, you will not know anything about it until it happens, so you too have to make contingency plans. You need to plan, in advance, what you are going to do when confronted by a violent felon bent on committing a crime and/or doing you grievous bodily harm. Your options are limited. They include begging for mercy, screaming for help at the top of your lungs, falling on the ground and assuming a fetal position, calling the cops on your cell phone and praying that they will arrive in time to prevent you being killed (they won’t, but you should pray anyway), or protecting yourself

with a handgun that you are carrying concealed, are trained to use, and are willing to use to protect your life or that of a loved one. You make your own choice; I have already made mine. Many years ago my family and I were in Del Rio. I can’t remember if I was in law enforcement yet or not, probably not, since I did not have a gun that day. We pulled up in front of a pizza place, which was next door to a drug store. As we were beginning to get out of the car a man ran out of the drug store, turned to look at us, paused for a second, and then ran in the opposite direction. He had just robbed the drug store at gunpoint. It was only by the grace of God that he did not try to take my car, kidnap my family, or something else. If he had I would have been powerless to prevent it. Another time in Laredo, I was coming out of a McDonald’s with my eldest daughter, who was 6 or 7 at the time. A car behind us was in a hurry. I was waiting to turn right and then turn right again at the stoplight at

somewhere that is full of holsters that he tried and found lacking. I too have been down that road, and in the process have developed some pretty solid ideas. However, I still buy a holster occasionally that seems to have some difference that I think may make it more comfortable or faster to use. First let’s discuss where exactly, on your person, to carry your handgun. I have found that the strong-side hip holster is best for me, and I firmly believe it is best for most people. I have tried cross-draw holsters, shoulder holsters, small-of-the-back (SOB) holsters, ankle holsters, and some others, and have found that for 90% of all applications, whether it is a belt holster or inside-the-

waistband (IWB), the standard strongside holster is the best. I dislike shoulder holsters. They are hot, uncomfortable, chafe, and require that the wearer never take off his coat. In Texas not being able to take off your coat, even in the winter, can make you miserable, and in the summer is just not an option. I want a holster that I can wear under a tee shirt or conceal by just wearing my shirttail outside my pants. There are even holsters out there that are made to wear with the shirt tucked in, and these have some real-life things going for them. For instance, a crook with any experience will almost instantly

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the corner. The car behind was honking and making gestures. I said something, I don’t remember what, and the passenger in the car behind saw my lips move in the side mirror. He was apparently looking for a fight. I made the right turn onto the street and stopped at the red light. The car that had been honking turned right, pulled up beside me, and the passenger jumped out and began ranting and raving in the middle of the street. Luckily he had no weapon. I did; I had a little pocket auto in my right hand, concealed by my right leg. Since he had no weapon I just turned right and went home. If he had been armed I would have shot him, even though the .25 ACP I had in my hand was probably not up to the task. My daughter was not going to be hurt by some moron in a bad mood.

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That was, by the way, the last time I carried the little pocket auto. You see, I realized that it was not big The world is filled with violent criminals who would kill you for a quart of milk or package of Oreos.

enough to get the job done, and my daughter’s welfare was and is more important to me than the convenience of carrying a .25 auto in my pocket. To this day I carry a gun that is powerful enough to stop a nut with a weapon. It is less convenient than sticking a little gun in my hip pocket, but it is much, much more effective if I have to use it. If you are not going to carry a gun with enough power to get the job done, don’t carry one at all.

When I lived in Uvalde, back in the 1970s, I thought it was a quiet, peaceful, law-abiding little town. Then, in 1979, I joined the police department in Uvalde. The first night I was on duty, before I was issued a gun and uniform, I was involved in the very physical arrest of a violent, convicted felon. He was later shot by another officer, after he was released from jail and committed some other crime. I learned in a couple of hours that first night that Uvalde was not the peaceful, law-abiding town I thought it was. Underneath that calm and law-abiding facade, there was and is a seething, raw, violent core that should scare you silly. Shortly after I became a police officer I was at the office during my off duty hours when an emergency call came in. The Chief, Vance Chisum, was the only officer available, so he told me to come with him. I informed Chief Chisum that I did not have a gun with me. Big mistake. That was the worst tail chewing I ever got in over 20 years of law enforcement. I was informed that I was to have a gun, everywhere, all the time, no exceptions. I have lived by that rule pret-

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Texas Department of Defense ty much until today. Another time I had gone to the office to check the schedule when the detective on duty got a call that a known bad guy had just pulled a gun on a man at a laundromat. Since there was no other backup available, I was it, again. I followed the detective, and we found the crook walking down the sidewalk. We both pulled in front of the crook. As the detective tried to get out of his car the crook ran up and slammed the door on the officer’s legs. I came around the back of the car with my off duty handgun (See, I learned the first time), a Colt Commander .45ACP, in my hand. The crook backed up one step, looked at me, and reached inside his coat. At that I snicked off the safety and started pressing

the trigger. Just before the gun went off, the crook lifted his empty hands into the air. I was about one microsecond from dropping the hammer. The crook, a fairly well known boxer with a record of violence and mayhem, had reached inside his coat when he saw me because he knew he was about to be thrown up on the hood of the detective’s car and searched. He had a package of Oreo’s in his coat and didn’t want them to be crushed. I was weak-kneed for an hour. We did not find a gun on the guy, but he had a knife big enough to filet a buffalo. If I had not been there with my .45, the detective might have been killed or injured. Point: You are not as safe as you think you are.

Point: The world is filled with violent criminals that will kill you for a quart of milk or a package of Oreos. Point: The police cannot protect you. They can only investigate after the crime has been committed. Point: If you want protection you or someone else with you is going to have to provide it. If you are not a bigwig politico, or a filthy rich, hypocritical, left-wing celebrity, you cannot afford to hire an armed bodyguard, so the only option is to do it yourself, and that means going armed. Point: If you don’t wish to carry a gun, nobody is going to make you, but for God’s sake, don’t try to prevent the rest of us from doing so.

How to Carry

I was a federal agent I did not really care if someone in the mall saw my gun. I carried the gun in a pancake-type belt holster and clipped my badge on my belt next to my holster. Now retired, however, I am obliged to obey the laws of the State of Texas regarding carrying a concealed weapon, so I am more cognizant of how well the gun is concealed. I generally carry an IWB holster just behind the point of my right hip. This allows for a quick draw, but does not open the gun to observation if my jacket or shirt blows open in the front. From this position I can draw and put two shots on the target in less than 2 seconds. Since the weight of the gun tends to pull the pants and belt down on that side, I will often wear a tee shirt, tucked in, then put on a pair of suspenders that attach to my belt with plastic hooks, to help carry the weight of the gun, over which I wear my regular shirt. It is a very comfortable and concealable rig. By and large a holster that is secured inside the waistband is more easily concealed. A holster worn on the belt outside the waistband is concealed pretty easily by a shirt or jacket, but the barrel of the weapon hangs down below the belt, so the simple act of raising your arms can uncover part of the gun or hol-

ster. If the barrel is inside your pants that is not the case. I would like to tell you definitively the best holster and the best carry method, but each individual must find this out for himself or herself. There is one thing I will make a firm comment about. That is carrying your gun in some kind of bag that is not firmly anchored to your body. I am very much against such devices. It is simply too easy to lose control of the bag. Ladies’ purses with built in holsters are just an invitation to having you gun snatched right along with your purse. I have used a fanny pack holster and it is a viable method of carry, but it is firmly fastened around the waist. A purse or other bag must be carried, not worn, and I have never seen a woman who would not set her bag down somewhere during the day and turn her back on it. A gun is only safe and instantly available if it is worn on the body. Stay away from such purses, bags, and pouches, if possible. At some point in the future we will do a piece dedicated entirely to holsters. Until then, tengas quidado y dispara derecho. —Steve LaMascus

Continued from page 34 spot the person walking around the mall or through the parking lot with a longtailed shirt that is not tucked in, especially if he has a short haircut. So will a cop, if he knows his job. I don’t worry about the cops, but I don’t want the crooks singling me out as a danger, so I wear a lot of Hawaiian shirts and overly large tee shirts; not a great commentary on my fashion sense, especially because they are often combined with a large cowboy hat, but very capable of concealing a fairly large handgun. Now one extremely important thing to remember is this: once you have decided where you are going to wear your holster, wear it there every single time; don’t wear a shoulder holster one day and a strong-side belt holster the next day. When you have practiced a lot with a holster on your strong side, or wherever, then are confronted with a sudden violent situation, your reaction is to reach for the holster where you use it the most. I know because it has happened to me more than once. When you choose your holster you will need to decide which is more important, concealment or accessibility. When 36 |

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Hunt Texas by Bob Hood | TF&G Hunting Editor

Predator Progress

ever used was a Weems portable record player that produced the distress cries of rabbits and other wildlife on a 45 rpm record. Later, Johnny Stewart came out with a cassette caller that soon climbed to the top of the electronic call market. I thought that was about the best ever that would be made, just as I did the inventions of the motorized push lawn mower, greenish plastic sheets that made black and white televisions appear to have color, the electric typewriter, the cordless home telephone, and the fax machine. However, just like many of those items, today’s electronic game calls just keep getting better. Good examples of that are the electronic calls made by Flextone, Cass Creek and several others. Unlike many earlier electronic calls, most now incorporate numerous sounds into one unit. Some like Flextone’s Mimic HD hand-held call have as many as 40 sounds of animals and birds

IKE MANY OF US WHO LIVE IN WEST Texas, it has been an unusually hot summer of wildfires, drought-stricken pastures and numerous days with 100degree plus temperatures. While that may sound discouraging to many hunters, it has turned the odds in the favor of predator callers. After all, predators must eat to survive, too, and the blackened and drought-stricken pastures and hills near my home between Graham and Graford as well to the south and west of me has made predator calling in what I call the fringe areas better than usual. I used to do a lot of predator calling at night, and that’s still a good way to beat the heat as well as be successful. However, because I love to photograph critters, I now do most of my calling during the day, especially mornings and evenings. This year’s wildfires around Possum Kingdom Lake were huge, destroying Dry conditions and advancements almost 150,000 acres, and in technology are improving the the wildfires south of there odds for predator callers. between Strawn and Breckenridge were even larger. I began noticing more tracks and scat than usual in the roads on a in them, making them like having three ranch I hunt near Breckenridge in early June dozen calls in your pocket. when some of the fires still were smoldering. One morning this summer after the wildSeeing those signs told me the coyotes, bob- fires had subsided, I went to the ranch near cats and raccoons were having to travel more Breckenridge to see what I could call up. and search harder for whatever they could The temperature at daybreak already was find to eat—rodents, rabbits, squirrels, near 80 and would climb to 106 by afterbirds, insects, etc. noon. I set up by standing in the fork of a I have used mouth-blown calls ever since mesquite tree in a narrow draw between two I began predator calling in the 1960s, large fields bordered on one side by thick including those manufactured and some I woods and a high ridge. have made myself, but you just can’t beat When setting up to call a predator, it is modern technology. The first electronic call I imperative to have everything in order to

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avoid making any unnecessary movement. My camera with a 200 mm zoom lens hung from my neck, the Flextone HD call was strapped to my belt. Charlie Ricci of Cass Creek had told me that putting Velcro on his tiny 2 ½-inch long Mini Coyote call and attaching it to a firearm would make it accessible and handy. I used Ricci’s advice and attached the Mini call with Velcro to the back of my camera. The Mini Coyote squealer is designed mainly for a close-in call after an animal has been seen, Ricci said, and that’s why I had both calls. Years ago, I used the single reed from a mouth-blown call as a close-in enticer to bring in animals that hang up after answering a louder call. To me, there are few things more thrilling than watching a coyote race within a few yards of you while you are calling, and that’s what happened within minutes after I began calling. I used the rabbit distress call on the louder Flextone call in three series for about one minute and then switched to the very vocal but lighter sounds of the rat distress call on the Cass Creek call. The high-pitched rat distress call is one of the best sounds I have found for coyotes and bobcats, probably because that is one of their most available food sources. But adding combinations of calls such as rabbit, rodent, and bird often will get even the most cautious animals in close and personal. This is the of the year when many hunters are repairing blinds, feeders and hunting camps but those who aren’t spending a few mornings or evenings by themselves, with family members or friends predator calling are missing out on some great off-season experiences. E-mail Bob Hood at BHood@fishgame.com. |

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Putting Bass Fishing Tools and Techniques to Work in Salty Water

BY JOHN N. FELSHER

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AS RESERVOIRS BECOME MORE CROWDED and redfish populations rise, many Texans head to the coast. While they change venues, they don’t necessarily need to change lures or tactics. Anglers once believed redfish wouldn’t hit lures so they tempted the spot-tailed beasts with shrimp, menhaden or cut mullet. Then, bass anglers fishing coastal areas began catching redfish. Sometimes called “channel bass,” reds in brackish systems often feed on the same forage as largemouth bass. In fact, coastal anglers frequently catch bass and reds in the same place on the same lures. “Fishing for redfish is a lot like fishing for bass,” said Lonnie Stanley, a five-time Bassmaster Classic veteran and legendary lure designer with Stanley Jigs in Huntington, Texas. “I’ve never seen anything in my bass tackle box that a redfish wouldn’t hit. If a bass will hit it, a redfish will hit it. The strikes are so violent that it’s really fun to catch reds on artificials.” No fishing experience compares to a big redfish erupting on a topwater bait in 40 |

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extremely shallow water, frequently less than 18 inches deep. Like bass, reds habitually ambush prey from thick shoreline cover. Since redfish relish mullets, many anglers slowly glide along shorelines throwing “walk-the-dog” topwaters that mimic surface-feeding baitfish. Reds also hit jerkbaits, chuggers, prop baits and poppers. When heavy cover makes throwing conventional topwaters impractical, insert a hook into soft plastic. Frogs, flukes or stick baits combine the heart-throbbing excitement, of topwater baits, the fish-finding attributes of buzzbaits and the weedlessness of Texas-rigged plastics. Drag these baits over thick grass or drop them next to cover. With dangling “feet” disrupting the surface, buzzing frogs can provoke even the most lethargic redfish. Run a frog across its nose a few times and watch tempers flare! When not sight casting to specific fish, T E X A S

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retrieve frogs steadily. In thick cover, use the “hop and stop” method. Let it sit a few moments and then pop it vigorously. Occasionally, let the frog sink a foot or two before retrieving again. “Redfish are not supposed to hit frogs because they seldom see them, but buzzing frogs make a lot of noise going across the water; redfish react to that,” Stanley advised. “When I fished the Trinity River delta, we got back into some shallow reeds and started throwing frogs. We got a ton of bites, but missed too many fish. Often, redfish couldn’t get the frogs in their mouths on the surface, so we let the bait fall to the bottom. The redfish would circle and come back to slurp it off the bottom.” For finicky redfish, dangle soft-plastic flukes or stick baits next to reeds or other cover. Rigged Texas style with no weight, insert the hook point into the plastic and toss

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it next to stumps, pilings or grass clumps. Let the bait sink slowly to mimic a dying minnow or menhaden. Occasionally, flick it back toward the surface and let it sink again. Highly versatile spinnerbaits make great search baits and can provoke vicious reaction strikes. Anglers can buzz spinnerbaits over weed tops or wake them just under the surface. In deeper or cooler water, “slow-roll” spinners just over oyster reefs or bottom contours. Barely turn the blades. Let the metal plink against the shells. “If we get in deeper structure or off-color water, we throw spinnerbaits because they give off good vibrations that attract fish,” said Keith Hartsell, a professional redfish angler from Perryland, Texas. “We use spinnerbaits when fishing along shorelines that drop off more than two feet.” Like spinnerbaits, swim jigs also entice fish from top to bottom. Swim jigs, also called chattering baits, look like weedless bass jigs, but with inverted shaking blades that give off tremendous vibration and flash. Anglers can wake them just beneath the surface. Pausing the retrieve makes it flutter down, mimicking dying baitfish. Anglers can

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also slow roll it through grass, woody or rocky cover. “A swim jig is a great redfish bait,” said Mark Davis, a professional angler and host of Big Water Adventures television show. “That shaking metal blade going through the water looks just like a crab swimming and a redfish likes nothing better than to eat a crab.” When redfish go deep, most people throw simple jigheads tipped with swimbait trailers that resemble shrimp or minnows. However, a typical weedless bass jig sweetened with a craw worm also imitates a crab. Flip such jigs into heavy cover or drop them next to pilings, weed lines or other vertical cover. At the bottom, jig it up and down a few times before targeting other cover. For deep or finicky fish, consider a Carolina rig. To fashion a Carolina rig, attach a slip weight above a barrel swivel to keep the sinker from sliding down to the hook. Many people add multicolored beads between the sinker and swivel to produce more sound and vibration. On the swivel, attach about 12 to 36 inches of fluorocarbon leader. Tip the hook with a plastic minnow, T E X A S

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shrimp, craw worm or similar temptation and drag it along the bottom. “Down at Rockport, we caught a lot of fish on small Carolina rigs,” Stanley said. “We used a 3/8-ounce worm weight and tipped the 2/0 hook with small soft plastic minnows. That’s a pretty effective way to fish for redfish when they get a little skittish because the sinker is away from the bait.” The weight dragging bottom creates a mud trail, simulating a crab crawling along the bottom. Redfish see the trail or hear the sinker scraping across sand or oyster shells and investigate. Right behind comes a tempting minnow or similar bait drifting past its nose. Often, a slight jerk on the rod kicks a bait six to eight inches off the bottom, adding more enticing movement. Reds may gobble crankbaits, spoons, worms and just about anything else that resembles food. Bass anglers don’t need to restock their tackle boxes or change tactics as they get closer to the Gulf of Mexico. They just need to hang on when something hits!

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GREEN Rapid Venom Evolution Explained RESEARCH PUBLISHED RECENTLY DELIVERS NEW INSIGHT ABOUT RAPID TOXIN EVOLUTION IN VENOMOUS SNAKES: PITVIPERS SUCH AS RATTLESNAKES MAY BE ENGAGED IN AN ARMS RACE WITH OPOSSUMS, A GROUP OF SNAKEEATING AMERICAN MARSUPIALS.

years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question on everyone’s mind has always been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association. Dr. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia. “There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals,” says Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University.

Man Retains Neanderthal Gene SOME OF THE HUMAN X CHROMOSOME ORIGINATES FROM NEANDERTHALS AND IS FOUND EXCLUSIVELY IN PEOPLE OUTSIDE AFRICA, ACCORDING TO AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF RESEARCHERS LED BY DAMIAN LABUDA OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTREAL AND THE CHU SAINTE-JUSTINE RESEARCH CENTER. “This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred,” says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East. Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 42 |

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—Staff Report TG

Snake venom is usually seen as a feeding, or trophic, adaptation. But new molecular research on snakeeating opossums by researchers affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History suggests that snake predators factor into the rapid evolution of snake venom. “Snake venom toxins evolve incredibly rapidly,” says Robert Voss, curator in the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History. “Most herpetologists interpret this as evidence that venom in snakes evolves because of interactions with their prey, but if that were true you would see equally rapid evolution in toxin-targeted molecules of prey species, which has not yet been seen. What we’ve found is that a venom-targeted protein is evolving rapidly in mammals that eat snakes. That suggests that venom has a defensive as well as a trophic role.” Several groups of mammals are known for their ability to eat venomous snakes, including hedgehogs, mongooses, and some opossums. —Staff Report TG

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of conserving habitat on the breeding grounds that produce waterfowl for the Lone Star State as well as on the wintering grounds closer to home. In fact, their dedication to the ducks has made Texas the top fundraising state and made the Houston Ducks Unlimited Chapter the top fundraising chapter in the nation! The Houston Chapter raised more than $290,000 in 2010. Since its inception in 1978, the chapter has hosted several events each year with a committee of more than 30 volunteers. Area co-chairmen Scott Lucy and Ken Hoffman currently lead this energetic committee and say the keys to success include outstanding support from old and new sponsors, a dedicated committee that builds on the success of previous events and makes big changes to help set the table for the future, and the fact that other DU chapters in the Houston area pitch in to help. If you would like to join the fun and support wetlands conservation, this year’s banquet is at Houston’s beautiful and historic River Oaks Country Club on October 27th. For More Information please contact the Houston Chapter at DUHouston2011@gmail.com or Ken Hoffman at 281.795.8832. As always, fall weather and habitat conditions along migration routes will have a big impact on migration chronology and local hunting success, but so far all indications point to a terrific fall flight.

Impressive Gains in Duck Habitat and Populations THE BREEDING GROUNDS OF THE PRAIRIE POTHOLE REGION IN CANADA AND THE U.S. PRODUCE MOST OF THE WATERFOWL HARVESTED IN TEXAS EACH YEAR. Stretching from southern Alberta across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, south through Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota, the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) serves as the “duck factory” for waterfowl harvested across much of the U.S. That’s why Ducks Unlimited has always held our work on the breeding grounds as a top priority. Looking forward to the 2011 fall flight, wetland conditions across the Canadian and U.S. breeding grounds are largely good to excellent for waterfowl production this year. A good waterfowl breeding effort was already being observed across much of the PPR in late May. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s preliminary report on breeding ducks and habitats – based on surveys conducted in May and early June – total duck populations were estimated at 45.6 million breeding ducks on the surveyed area, only the fifth time in the survey’s history that the total duck population exceeded 40 million! This estimate represents an 11 percent increase over last year’s estimate of 40.9 million birds and is 35 percent above the 1955-2010 long-term average. Of the 10 species traditionally reported, eight were similar to or increased in number from 2010, and two species (scaup and American wigeon) remained below their long-term average. Northern shovelers, blue-winged teal and northern pintails were bright spots on this year’s survey. Northern shovelers and bluewings reached record highs (4.6 and 8.9 million, respectively), and northern pintail numbers surpassed 4 million for the first time since 1980. Scaup numbers were similar to 2010 and remain below their long-term averages. Only three species—scaup, northern pintail and

American wigeon—remain below North American Waterfowl Management Plan population goals. Water availability on the breeding grounds is a strong indicator for breeding success, but available grassland nesting cover is equally important. Unfortunately, nesting cover across the PPR continues to decline, particularly on the U.S. side of the border. During the survey, observers noted many large tracts of former Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands that had been converted to cropland since last year or were in the process of being plowed. North Dakota alone has lost 22 percent of its CRP acres since 2007, and experts project that another 387,000 acres will be lost in 2010-2011 and more than 1 million acres will be lost in 2012-13. The continued loss of critical nesting cover will negatively impact the future of breeding ducks. That’s why Ducks Unlimited supporters across the continent contribute to conservation of important habitats on the breeding grounds. Texas Ducks Unlimited volunteers and members understand fully the importance

—by Andi Cooper TG

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%Change from 2010

%Change From Long-term Avg.

May Ponds (US & Can) Total Ducks Mallard Gadwall American widgeon Green-winged teal Blue-winged teal Northern shoveler Northern pintail Redhead Canvasback Scaup

8.132 45.554 9.183 3.257 2.084 2.900 8.948 4.641 4.429 1.356 0.692 4.319

6.665 40.895 8.430 2.977 2.425 3.476 6.329 4.057 3.509 1.064 0.585 4.244

+22 +11 +9 +9 -14 -17 +41 +14 +26 +27 +18 +2

+62 +35 +22 +80 -20 +47 +98 +98 +10 +106 +21 -15

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Texas Saltwater by Calixto Gonzales | TF&G Saltwater Editor

Random Rumblings ONGTIME READERS KNOW THAT I SOMEtimes go on a jag of completely unrelated thoughts that would otherwise never see print. Sometimes it’s because there is nothing on television except another controversial episode of “Top Model,” or some such twattle. Other times, I’m suffering a pernicious case of writer’s block, and I just begin to jot down the notes that I jot down while trying to break the drought. Sometimes, like now, I have a bunch of stuff I want to shoot off about. So, if you, my kind readers, will allow me a bon temps, here we go…

• There has been a marked jump in the numbers of southern flounder landings in the Lower Laguna Madre. Anglers from the Land Cut to South Bay have seen more of the tasty flatties ending up in their coolers, with a few really, really nice ones mixed in. Some are claiming that the new bag and size limits and closed seasons are helping. Others claim that the flood waters from the tropical cyclones of the summer of 2010 improved water conditions for resident flatties. Still others claim the cold winter deserves credit. I believe that it may be a combination of these factors, with a generous dose of the tireless work of the fisheries biologists at Texas Parks and Wildlife. Time will tell if the upward trend in LLM flounder will continue. Even so, it has been a great year… • A tip of the hat for the overall improvement for the Texas Coast’s flounder fishery should also go to our Executive Editor, Chester Moore. The work that the Acadian Dream has put into raising public awareness about flounder is unprecedented. He is someone who truly cares about the fauna of Lone Star saltwater. His biggest desire is to leave behind a resource in better shape than it currently is for his daughter and her children. If 44 |

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that is all I knew about him, it would be enough to recommend him. I know that he is a helluva man, too, and someone good to ride the river with. Chester works hard to improve not just the state of flounder stocks, but Texas saltwater fisheries in general. All the while, he still likes to take fish home for the table. Some who believe that various fish bag limits should be reduced to a bare minimum should take that as a caution… • While I’m on the subject of our editors, I would love to someday see our Editor at Large, Ted Nugent, go after a nilgai. If there is anyone on this earth who could stalk, locate, and take one of those big beasties with a bow, it’s the Lone Star Madman. A white arrow in a blue bull? Now that would be grand… • I know that I shouldn’t bang on PETA as much as I do, but they make it so, so easy. The bunny kissers have now begun proposing that Texas, rather than trying to control the rampant feral hog problem through “cruel, inhumane, and traumatic” hunting, we should dedicate time and (non-existent) resources in rounding up all the wild porkers and corralling them in wildlife refuges. Then we can put up nice high fences and keep the pigs there to live out natural lifespans in contemplative repose and spiritual fulfillment. I can’t make this up, guys. • I’m down to my very last Cotton Cordell jointed Redfin in Texas Chicken. The company doesn’t produce that pattern anymore, and I’ve winnowed my stock down over the years. I don’t think that last one is ever going to leave my tackle box. Too bad, because that was my #1 confidence bait. • The new line of Lew’s Speed Spools do the name proud, but I can’t help but miss the classic profile of the original BB series. Hey, they still have that classic paddletail handle, though… • I really believe that e-Bay was invented for anglers.

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• You know how good a lure is not by the game fish it catches, but by the trash fish it catches. I was using a Logic Tandem in Tequila Gold on day recently. In back to back casts I caught a 26-inch trout and a 15-inch Oystertoad. Now, I’ve caught skipjack, jackfish, even hardheads on lures, but an oystertoad? Not bad… • I have been a longtime critic of the Gulf Council’s management of the fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico, and I will probably continue to be one, but you will never hear or read any personal attacks towards Council Head Roy Crabtree or any of his people. Anyone who does that is a rank coward, and to hide behind the cloak of institution to do so is doubly cowardly, and embarrassing to your organization. It is one thing to question the legitimacy of a policy and its application; it is another thing entirely to insult the people charged with applying those policies. • Pig roundups. Just think about that for a second…pig roundups. • I was on the Brazos Santiago jetties one calm July morning when I saw two fly anglers walking up and down the granite trying to catch some snook and trout. They caught skipjack after skipjack. Meanwhile, there was a 12 year old boy bottom fishing with cut squid on a Zebco 33. He caught a limit of trout and two redfish. I love it when something like that happens… • Speaking of skipjack: that nasty, bloody, slimy critter makes the finest cut bait for redfish I have ever seen. That is, behind ballyhoo, of course… • The one good thing I can say about the idea of putting all the feral hogs into wildlife refuges is that I’ll know where to go the next time I need pork for tamales.

E-mail Calixto Gonzales at CGonzales@fishgame.com.

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Texas Freshwater by Matt Williams | TF&G Freshwater Editor

Highs Always Follow the Lows F YOU KEEP TABS OF WATER LEVELS ON freshwater reservoirs across this state like I do, then you already know a passel of Texas lakes are in a world of hurt. As of August 1, an epic drought had caused water levels on many impoundments to drop well below capacity levels. The U.S. Drought Monitor placed 99 percent of the state on one level of drought or another by the last week of July. More than 90 percent of Texas was in an “extreme drought, and 75 percent in an “exceptional” drought, thanks to record high temperatures and little to no measurable rainfall in many areas. Just about every reservoir in the state has been impacted by the lingering dry spell; some have been harder hit than others. Lake O.C. Fisher near had dried up completely. Here is a random list of other Texas lakes showing some serious strain as of early August:

Sam Rayburn: 153.95 = 10.45 feet low Toledo Bend: 162.26 = 9.74 feet low Nacogdoches: 269.80 = 9.2 feet low Cooper: 432.02 = 7.98 feet low Fork: 397.82 - 5.18 feet low O.H. Ivie: 1551.50 = 34.38 feet low Medina: 1042 = 22 feet low Proctor: 1162.0 - 9.05 feet low Choke Canyon: 220.50 - 9.29 feet low Keep in mind, the aforementioned water levels were recorded a month ago. Unless heavy rains have fallen in the meantime, PHOTO ARPAD NAGY-BAGOLY, BIGSTOCK

chances are the numbers will be even lower by the time this issue of TF&G hits the streets. Anyone who has paid a visit to a lake or reservoir pulled low by drought, consumer water demands and day-to-day evaporation is well aware of the circumstances. For those who have not, the picture is far from pretty. To wit: Fields of stumps, rocks or other remnants sit high and dry as a testament of landscape’s past, while others hide precariously beneath the surface, just waiting to take out a lower unit or deliver a crushing blow to a boat hull. Depending on the lake, there may be underwater humps, sandbars, long points,

old bridge crossings and other junk down that could do a nasty number on fishing rig. Or worse. In early August, low water levels at Lake Nacogdoches exposed a fuel cell from the Space Shuttle Columbia that exploded over East Texas as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere in 2003. Just getting around, or even launching a boat, in extremely low water can be a hassle at times. So much that it may deter weekend and holiday traffic, thus creating financial strains on mom and pop tackle shops, gas stations, restaurants, hotels and fishing guides. Grim as all this may sound, there is a silver lining to it all. It is called the “new lake effect” that occurs when a lake fills back to T E X A S

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capacity after a lengthy period of low water. To illustrate, consider what happened after Choke Canyon Reservoir suffered through a decade-long drought in the 1990s before a finally refilling in July 2002. When the lake was low, vast flats and miles of shoreline that hadn’t seen sunlight in years sprouted thick with mesquite and other native terrestrial vegetation. The big rise flooded the new plant growth, which in turn displaced a wealth of rich nutrients into water and sparked a resurgence of native and non-native aquatic vegetation. Bass and forage fish populations thrived amid the wealth of new habitat, creating much improved fishing prospects during the years that followed. Similar boom and bust cycles have taken place on lakes Falcon, Amistad and host of Mexico impoundments, many of which are heavily relied upon for irrigation purposes. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department inland fisheries biologist Todd Driscoll of Jasper said he witnessed a similar rebound in habitat on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, when it refilled after reaching a record low of 150.76 (13.60 feet) in 1996. The biologist says shoreline willows and buck brush provide bass with plenty of cover when water levels at or near normal, but lush hydrilla beds are the mainstay in many main lake areas. “In 2000 the grass (hydrilla) was walled up in 12 feet of water and in the best shape I have seen it since I started with the department in 1999,” Driscoll said. “That was four years after the lake reached its lowest point. There are no guarantees with Mother Nature, but it is very likely we’ll see something very similar happen when our lakes refill after this drought. These low water phases can make things difficult in terms of access and hurting the economy, but the positive boom phase (with the fishery) that typically results 2-3 years after a lake refills following a lengthy drought is certainly worth it. It’s a give and take.”

E-mail Matt Williams at MWilliams@fishgame.com. |

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The 53rd Graduating Class of TPWD Game Warden Cadets.

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BY TF&G HUNTING EDITOR

Bob Hood T E X A S

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11. ANSWER: A) A hunting license is required to hunt bullfrogs anywhere statewide.

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12. ANSWER: B) It is against the law to leave any edible game fish or bait fish taken from public waters to die without the intent to retain the fish for consumption or for bait.

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13. ANSWER: B) The four quarters and two backstraps are the only parts of a deer required by law to be kept in edible condition.

these game animals and birds are from one half hour before sunrise until one half hour after sunset. Hunters should check sunrise and sunset tables for the areas they plan to hunt. 16. ANSWER: B) Juglines may be set in freshwater lakes only. However, there are certain freshwaters where they are not allowed, including community fishing lakes, river sections and lakes within state parks, and 11 public reservoirs.

17. ANSWER: B) Eastern turkeys are allowed to be taken only during the spring (April) season by shotguns only. Eastern turkeys may not be taken during the fall hunting seasons. All legal firearms are allowed for taking Rio Grande turkeys during the spring and general fall seasons.

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14. ANSWER: C) A legal trotline may not have a mainline exceeding a length of 600 feet. It is defined as a line with five or more hooks spaced less than three feet apart and placed beneath the surface.

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15. ANSWER: C) Legal shooting hours for

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18. ANSWER: C) While it is illegal to place any game fish into public waters, other than the body of water where the fish was caught, fish can be transferred from one body of water to another providing you have obtained a valid permit to do so from Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. 19. ANSWER: A) A hunting license is required, regardless of age, to hunt feral hogs and any other game or non-game animal, bird, frog or turtle other than fur-bearers if the hunter has a trapper’s license or is allowed by the department to take nuisance fur-bearing animal. 20. ANSWER: C) For all saltwaters along the Texas coast, any waters beyond nine nautical miles extending from the shoreline seaward is federal waters and often is subject to different fishing and boating regulations.

C) Never. C) Tooth patches on their tongues.

B) If you are a non-resident.

B) Color.

A) Always.

6. White bass and hybrid striped bass can be identified from one another by:

C) Five

B) In arts and crafts displays at city, county or state festivals. A) For personal use.

A) Their size. 3.You are required to provide your Social Security number when you purchase a hunting and fishing license:

C) A hardened antler of any length that protrudes through the skin.

B) Two.

9. It is legal to use the feathers of hawks, owls and egrets as ornaments, in crafts and arts : D) 16 feet in diameter. C) 14 feet in diameter.

B) One inch

A) One.

B) 10 feet in diameter.

A) Two inches. 2. It is unlawful to use more than the following numbers of trotlines at one time in saltwaters: C) Cut the antlers off, if it is a buck. B) Notify a law enforcement official of its location, if it still is alive. A) Take it to your home or to a commercial facility to be processed, if it is dead. 1. If you hit a deer with your motor vehicle or find one that recently has been struck by a motor vehicle you should:

A) 8 feet in diameter. 5. The minimum length of a legal point on the antlers of a deer is: C) Measure with mouth closed and tail fins squeezed together. B) Fan its tail as if in a swimming position. A) Stretch its mouth open to make it longer. 4. When measuring a fish to determine whether it meets legal length limits, you may:

8. The maximum size of a legal cast net is: D) Mountain Lion C) Rabbit. B) Javelina. A) Gray or cat squirrel. 7. Which one or more of these species is considered a non-game animal: D) Placement of their dorsal fins.

ARE YOU SAVVY ON TEXAS’ hunting and fishing regulations? It certainly pays to be that way because we all should want to stay above the law, enjoy our days on the waters and in the fields and help promote good conservation and good times. Here’s a quiz for you to help keep you better aware of some regulations you may have missed or overlooked: Fea5-RegsQuiz.qxd:Layout 1

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C) Grindle D) Grass Carp 11. A hunting license is required for taking bullfrogs: A) Yes. B) No. C) Only on waters with certain license restrictions. 12. If you have live shad, minnows or other baitfish left over that you have caught from the public lake you have been fishing, you should deposit them in a dumpster, trash container or on the ground away from parks, possible runoff areas or residences. A) Yes. B) No 13. What parts of a deer are required to be kept in edible condition: A) Backstraps, neck, hind quarters.

B) No. C) Yes under certain conditions.

C) 600 feet. 15. The legal shooting hours for all game animals and non-migratory game birds are: A) From daylight until dark.

19. Is a hunting license required to hunt feral hogs and other non-game animals in this state? A) Yes

B) From one-half hour before sunrise until sunset. C) From one half hour before sunrise until one half hour after sunset. 16. Are juglines allowed to be set in both freshwaters and saltwaters? A) Yes. B) No.

B) No. C) Only on public lands. D) During the general hunting seasons only. 20. Where is the boundary between state and federal fishing regulations from the Texas coast seaward?

C) They are allowed in specified waters statewide.

A. 20 nautical miles. B) 12 nautical miles.

17. Some turkeys may be hunted with shotguns, rifles including .22 caliber, pistols, muzzleloaders and archery equipment. What turkeys may only be hunted only with shotguns?

C) 9 nautical miles. D) 5 nautical miles.

Flip the Page for the Correct Answers

A) Rio Grande species. B) Eastern species. C) Both Rio Grande and Eastern

ber when attempting to purchase a license you will be refused the license. The federal law is required for aid in child support collection enforcement.

B) Talapia.

18. Is it legal to transport fish from one public lake, river or other waters to another public body of water in this state? A) Yes.

B) 500 feet.

4. ANSWER: C) Place the fish on its side with jaw closed, squeeze the tail together or turn it in a way to obtain its maximum overall length. Measure in a straight line from the snout to the tip of the tail fin.

A) Gar.

14. The maximum length of a legal trotline may not exceed: A) 300 feet.

species.

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1. ANSWER: B) It is unlawful to possess a deer or any part of a deer that has been hit by a motor vehicle. You are not required by law to call anyone but providing the location to law enforcement is recommended if the animal still is alive or is in a roadway.

10. It is required by law to immediately remove the intestines of which of these freshwater species when caught in public waters:

C) Backstraps, all four quarters, rib meat, leg meat

5. ANSWER: B) A point is a projection that extends at least one inch from the edge of a main beam or another tine. The tip of the main beam also is a point.

D) Never.

B) All four quarters and backstraps.

2. ANSWER: A) No more than one trotline may be used per fisherman in saltwaters. Freshwater trotliners are not restricted to the numbers of lines they may set.

C) In school displays.

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6. ANSWER: C) White bass have one tough patch near the middle towards the back of their tongue. Hybrid striped bass have two patches in that area.

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3. ANSWER: A) Social Security numbers regardless of age when purchasing hunting or fishing licenses, stamp endorsements and permits are required by the federal government. If you refuse to provide your Social Security num-

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10. ANSWER: B) AND D) It is a violation to fail to immediately remove the intestines from tilapia, grass carp or any other fish listed as harmful or potentially harmful except on those waters were a valid Triploid Grass Carp Permit is 9. ANSWER: D) These birds as well as other birds and songbirds are protected by state and federal laws and may not be killed, taken from the nest, picked up or possessed for any reason and their feathers may not be possessed or sold. 8. ANSWER: C) A legal cast net may not be greater than 14 feet in diameter and may be used for taking non-game fish and shrimp only. 7. ANSWER: C) AND D) Rabbits and mountain lions are listed as non-game animals in Texas.

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WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONS channel catfish, I sometimes reflect on that sultry September morning when Joe T. Rogers and I dumped my flatbottom rig into the Angelina River at the State Highway 21 crossing west of Nacogdoches. The river was moving along at a snail’s pace thanks to a long, dry summer, and the surface temp was a steamy 88 degrees. Rogers is a salty East Texas native who cut his catfishin’ teeth on the Angelina. So, I listened closely to his strategy as we bumped and banged our way downstream.

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Madison Simmons enjoys a fruitful autumn outing for channel catfish. T E X A S

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“The channel cat really pile up in the river bends this time of year, especially when the water levels are low,” he said. “That’s where the deepest, coolest water will be. There won’t be much size to ‘em, but it is a whole lot of fun. “ Rogers’ call was dead on. By noon we were settled in beneath the shade on a sandy shoreline enjoying a tasty shore lunch. The main course was fried “fiddler” cats — small channel catfish that barely exceeded the statewide 12 inch minimum length limit. We caught about two dozen channels that morning, all on live night crawlers fished on bottom using a small bell weight and No. 2 hook. The trick was to secure the boat just ahead of a bend, make a short cast and allow the slow moving current to tumble the bait downstream. Most of the fish were holed up around the undercut banks, log jams and snags that had collected in the sharpest, outside bends through years washing. Naturally, our lines hung up numerous times dabbling in all the muck, but that just comes with the territory. If you are fishing where the channel cats are, you are going to leave some hooks and weights behind. As promising as river fishing prospects can be in Texas this time of year, the bite can be even better on major reservoirs known to support abundant populations of channel cat. That’s the word from Cedar Creek fishing guide Jason Barber (903-887-7896). Barber, 36, has been chasing catfish on Cedar Creek since he was just a kid. If there is one thing he has learned about channels that sets them aside from other fish, it is that their behavior patterns pretty much remain the same from one month to the next. “There is not a whole lot that changes them, except for when they are spawning around the rocks in late spring, or unless a lake gets a sudden big rise that makes them follow the current up creeks,” Barber said. “Channel cat are so plentiful and widespread across the state that you can catch them shallow or deep wherever you go. I’ve had days during fall when I could catch them just as good out of five feet of water as I could in 25.” When Barber targets channel cat, he almost always fishes in relation to baited holes doctored with soured maize or milo. Channels detect the smell of the fermented grain from a considerable distance and will flog the spot, usually within minutes. 52 |

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The author’s dad, Bill Williams, with a keeper channel cat.

The guide said an important ingredient he always takes into consideration when baiting a hole is available cover. “The more brush, stumps and old logjams there are, the better,” he said. “Contour changes don’t seem to be that big a deal with channel cat, but cover is. They love it.” When baiting a hole near shore or on a stump flat, he looks for water about five feet deep. He baits the spot by broadcasting a 46 cups of soured grain 15-20 feet from the boat. His bait of choice is punch bait. He fishes it on a No. 6 treble with a float, about three feet below the surface. “The main thing to be remember when fishing shallow is to stay quiet — don’t bang around in the boat,” Barber said. “Channels spook pretty easy.” Barber employs a similar plan of attack when he is fishing in deeper water over standing timber. However, he doesn’t broadcast his chum, nor does he use a float to suspend his bait. “I secure both ends of the boat and scatter the grain right down the side,” Barber said. “Then I’ll fish straight up and down using a slip sinker to get the bait down. Sometimes I’ll fish right off the bottom, others times I’ll fish several cranks off bottom, depending on how the fish are positioned.” Lake Fork fishing guide Gary Paris (903-763-2801) says the same tactics will work on just about any lake with an abundant catfish population. Another one that is exclusive to fall and winter is fishing beneath cormorant roosts. Double crested cormorants are migrants that begin showing up in big numbers at Fork and other Texas lakes sometime in October. The birds disperse to open water T E X A S

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to forage on bait fish, then return to the leafless roost trees to loaf and relieve themselves. Paris says Fork channel cat have learned to equate the “splat” of cormorant poop hitting the water to an easy meal. “I’ve seen them swirl on it (the poop) the second it hits the surface,” he said. “They know where the birds roost and they’ll hang around those places all winter long.” Paris fishes the roost trees in much the same manner bass fishermen pitch around stumps and timber with plastics or jigs. He uses a heavy-action rod, 20 pound fluorocarbon line and a 5/0 hook. His bait of choice is a whole chicken gizzard. Paris says the gizzard is tough as boot leather and it does a good job of simulating the splat sound when it hits the water. “The main key is to stay as far back away from the tree as you can and still make an accurate cast,” Paris said. “These fish are big and they are extremely spooky. Even the waves slapping on the bottom of the boat will spook them.” A similar scenario often begins playing out nearby Richland Chambers during late August and early-September when thousands of large, yellow grasshoppers can be found clinging to stumps and standing timber over water as deep as 40 feet. The grasshoppers occasionally fall into the water, where they are easily picked off the surface by channels weighing upwards of five pounds. “They show up out there by the thousands just about every year,” Winters said. “When its happening, you can float a grasshopper about six inches below a cork and wear them out.” Barber and Paris say the thing happens on occasion at Lake Tawakoni, which is considered the Catfishing Capitol of Texas. “One time I talked to a couple of bass fishermen at Tawakoni who had their livewells stuffed full of big ol’ channel cat,” Barber said. “They saw them busting the grasshoppers, so they dug around in the boat and found a yellow Tiny Torpedo. They took turns casting it until they got tired of catching them.” Topwaters and fall channel cat: It just doesn’t get any better than that!

PHOTO: MATT WILLIAMS

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HERE ARE MORE THAN 3 MILLION feral hogs in Texas alone, with millions more of them spread across 40 other states. These beasts were first brought to North America by Spanish explorers in the mid1500’s. A female feral hog can potentially have two litters a year, with as many as 13 in a litter. A population can literally double in as little as four months under the right conditions. Considering how long they have been here, and how fast they reproduce, the magintude of their invasive impact is staggering. Feral hogs cause serious damage to the land, to personal property and to habitats of livestock and wildlife. Conservative damage estimates are upwards of $400 million a year. Feral hogs prey on young wildlife and domestic animals and the eggs of ground nesting birds. They eat feed intended for native wildlife. Their adverse impact on the environment, economy, and landowners is reaching crisis proportions in many areas. A Solution Hunting is an effective way to help control the population. Feral hog hunting leases and guided hunts are helping reduce feral hog numbers while providing landowners a way to recoup some of the money lost to the damage they inflict. THE AMERICAN HOG HUNTING ASSOCIATION announces a new series of feral hog hunting tournaments called the Texas Feral Hog Roundup. Hunters can win prizes such as

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rifles, bows, hunting blinds, ATV’s, and a lot more. There will even be a truck given away at the end of each tournament. Fighting Hunger in America Not only will the Texas Feral Hog Roundup reward Texas hunters with prizes for their help in reducing the threat from out-of-control feral hogs, but will also help Feed America’s Hungry. One of the most important features of this effort is the option for participating hunters to donate their meat to the hungry. To learn more about this aspect of the Roundup, visit www.americanhoghunting.com. The realities of American hunger are alarming: • 3.5% of households experience being hungry, skipping meals and some days going without food. • At least 9.6 million (some say as many as 49 million) including 3 million (some say as many as 17 million) children experience hunger every year. Government can’t provide adequate relief to these hungry households, so they must rely on volunteer programs like WalMart’s Fighting Hunger Together, and Feeding America food banks (with 18 partner food banks in Texas). The Battle Has Begun Leading businesses have already joined this battle and are committed to helping solve the crisis with feral hogs, while also helping Americans in need. Dillon Manufacturing, for instance, is a family owned and operated fiberglass business in Athens, Texas.

They produce a top quality line of rugged fiberglass deer blinds, shooting houses, ice fishing houses, feeders, steel towers, hog traps, automotive parts, trailer end caps and numerous custom parts. Being hunters themselves, they understand the products hunters are looking for. They also understand what is happening with the feral hog population and the severe damage they are causing. Winchester Ammunition, makers of rifle, shotgun, handgun and other shells is very well aware of the need for such a program and has thrown their support behind the tournaments. Other companies affiliated with the tournaments are Texas Fish & Game magazine, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Cinnamon Creek Ranch, Syracuse Custom Meats, Wildgame Innovations, Barnett Crossbows, Synergy Outdoors, Wulf Outdoor Sports, Flextone Game Calls, All Star Archery, Ray’s Sporting Goods, Bargain Hunter Outdoors and the list keeps growing. The American Hog Hunting Association is dedicated to a program that aids Texas and all states that are afflicted with a feral hog problem. Feral hogs beware: the hunters are going to win! —by Terri Shelow

HUNT

DONATE

WIN

Feral Hogs across Texas

Food for the Hungry

Hundreds of Prizes Awarded

TO JOIN THE TEXAS FERAL HOG ROUNDUP: Visit www.AmericanHogHunting.com T E X A S

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One-Armed Shooters Prove They are Anything but Handicapped at the Annual One-Armed Dove Hunt in Olney BY BOB HOOD

The occasion, or celebration, will be the 41st annual Olney One-Arm Dove Hunt. Created by two former Olney politicians who each have only one arm—Jack Bishop and Jack Northrup—the event has grown into a community-involved feast, shooting clays tournament, bingo, pool tournament, dove hunt, story-telling and shared experiences from people across the country who have had a hand or arm amputated or otherwise lost by other circumstances. The city of Olney and its immediate surroundings may be extremely rural but they have been in historical limelight many

times. Olney still holds the record for having the most Boy Scout Eagle Scouts at one time (22). Its movie theater was a location site for filming of “The Last Picture Show” featuring Cybil Shepherd and Jeff Bridges, and just five miles out of town is the world’s largest horizontal satellite antenna, the U.S. Navy Navstar, whose site is half-way between the east and west boundaries of Young country. A local church also has featured the Gatlin Brothers, who sang there on several occasions while visiting their grandmother. It is the One-Arm Dove Hunt, however, that most town folks say is Olney’s claim to fame. “We were in a café here at Olney one day and just started joking around about having one arm and doing what we can do,” said Northrup about the day in 1972 when he and Bishop came up with the idea of getting others together who had either one arm or lost a hand for a dove hunt. “We had six men here for the first hunt,” Northrup said. “Most had lost arms in oil field accidents but there were a few others, too. It wasn’t all about shooting doves; it was about just getting together and having a good time.” Having a good time is exactly what the One-Arm Dove Hunt has been ever since its inaugural event. In 2006, about 80 men and women participated in the event. The numbers have staggered since then but what is evident is that no longer do just local people participant. It has attracted people from around the country and even overseas who share the same or similar physical conditions. Last year’s event was the type of social gathering Northrup and Bishop have tailored. Doves were few and far apart but that didn’t matter to those who came to Olney and gathered prior to

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IT STARTED WITH TWO SELFproclaimed “One-Armed Jacks” almost 41 years ago in a small West Texas town as a joke but the laughter you will hear at the beginning of next September’s dove hunting season at Olney in northern Young County will be pure good ol’ Texas community fun among a bunch of hunters who all share something in common.

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the dove hunting event in a small building not far off the main drag. “If you come here for the dove hunting, you have come here for the wrong reason,” one attendee said as food was being served inside a community building which served as headquarters for the event. Prior to the dove hunt, the attendees spend time visiting with one another, sharing experiences, gaining support and tips about how to live and flourish with everyday life and swapping good ol’ fashioned and well-meant lies to bring laughter among their audiences. “We are here just to have a good time,” Northrup said. “That’s how it started and that’s how it is.” As Northrup spoke, I heard Bishop holler at me from across the room. I was busy buying a T-Shirt with Olney One-Armed Dove Hunt stamped on the back when I heard Bishop encouraging me to get in line and grab a bite to eat. And that’s what this occasion is all about getting everyone involved in the fellowship, good food and story sharing. Later in the day, hunting prospects seemed dim. Drought conditions had taken a toll on the year’s nesting success not only of native mourning doves but also for the large number of whitewinged doves that have moved into the city’s immediate area within recent years. The white-winged doves prefer large trees such as those found within the city limits to nest in but occasionally fly out to surrounding fields and pastures to feed before returning to within the city limits. Nevertheless, dry conditions have reduced the numbers of both mourning doves and whitewinged doves in the last two years, but that didn’t put a damper on the One-Armed Dove Hunt. To provide lots of shooting and good sportsmanship, T E X A S

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Northrup and Bishop had established a sporting clays event on the west side of town. And it wasn’t the first time to shoot at clay pigeons for several of the contestants. Kim Stephens of Caddo, Oklahoma, (left and center photos, above) won the trap shoot in 2009 and competed for the third year in a row last September. “It is not about dove hunting at all,” Stephens said. “Last year, it rained all weekend long but that didn’t matter. We come here to have a good time and that’s what we do.” Charlie Oman of Gainesville (right photo, above) proved to be one of the better shots during last year’s trap shoot but that wasn’t a surprise to most folks. Oman competes regularly in such events and was on his way to Las Vegas to compete in a Paralyzed Veterans Association shooting event along with his girlfriend who also shoots with him in trap shoots. “We have a lot of fun and that’s what it should be about,” Oman said. As I walked away from last year’s Olney One-Arm Dove Hunt, I looked back with admiration. This, I said to myself, is what hunting, camaraderie and all that goes with it is about. It definitely is not The Last Picture Show for any of them, or me.

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Open Season by Reavis Wortham | TF&G Humor Editor

HAD ORDERS FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT to finish getting the backyard ready for an outdoor party. This always involves cutting the banana trees back, trimming the Texas sage and several hundred yards of Indian hawthorn lining the entire perimeter of the yard. In addition, I needed to trim the crepe myrtles, the tulip tree and all the palms we’d planted near the pool. Instead I rigged up my four-weight flyrod and cast a Yellow Humpy toward a floating ring at the other end of the pool. I’m not afraid of her. She’s not the Boss of Me. A door slammed inside and I lay the rod against the fence. When the War Department stepped outside she found me considering the redbud tree. “Think I should raise this up?” I asked. “I always hate limbs to hit my hat.” She looked the yard over. “I would. You have a lot to do back here,” she said. “I’m going to the grocery store, and I’ll be back in a little while. Don’t get sidetracked.” “Don’t worry, it’s too cold to swim, ha, ha, ha.” She looked at me with suspicion and left. I picked up the rod, made one false cast and hung my backcast on the Carolina jessamine growing on the fence near the pump. It was an unruly clump of vines, so I picked up the clippers and trimmed it so that it wouldn’t catch my flyline. Rod again in hand, I made a backcast over the freshly trimmed fence and placed the fly about a foot short of the ring. I was out of practice. With the water loading the rod, I quickly raised the tip and caught the line in the redbud. “Dang it!” I almost shouted. Buster Bad Dog stared at me long and hard, wondering if he was in trouble again. I ignored him and trimmed off the lower limbs of the

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I’m not afraid of her. She’s not the boss of me.

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Backyard Fly Fishing

little tree. Finished, I stepped back to see if anything else needed to be lopped off when I felt something squish under my foot. I said a related word. Buster Bad Dog immediately left. I used a shovel to clean up the small grassy area he uses for a bathroom. That done, I again flicked the flyline across the pool and watched it settle just a little to the side of my target. “That’s better,” I said to myself. I lifted the rod tip and attempted a tower cast. A slight breeze tangled the seven-foot leader in the top of the tulip tree.

Frustrated, I attacked the tree with the clippers and soon it was no longer an obstacle. Limbs and leaves littered the low understory growth. “I’ll get that later.” After several well-placed casts, I was pleased with my progress. Most of the time the Humpy landed in the ring. Knowing we will be fishing in Oklahoma soon, and knowing the small water I intended to work, I made a side cast. The Humpy dangled from the Youpon holly. The kids weren’t home, so I referred to the tree’s heritage while giving the line a few yanks. The leader snapped and the flyline fell in a tangle on the three-foot-high sage plant beside the pool. The clippers got a workout that time. I hacked at the sage and the Youpon in a rage. The pool’s surface was littered with shredded leaves. The Youpon bent to my will. I even raised it up from underneath so I wouldn’t tangle the rod tip the next time. My next side cast was perfect. I practiced that way for a while and then in my confidence, overshot the pool entirely and wound T E X A S

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up hanging the fly in an overhanging banana leaf. It held the fly like it was cemented there. I walked around the deck and removed the fly. While I was there I used my pocketknife to trim the banana tree. That one looked so good I trimmed the other four growing nearby. When I turned, the largest banana near the War Department’s lounge chair looked unkempt. I trimmed it and returned to the flyrod. For the next few minutes everything was perfect. Then I started working on harder casts. I moved to the deck between the pool and the garage. Dead and dying Morning Glories growing on the garage wall captured the fly and leader. Enraged beyond sensibility, I grabbed great handfuls of the vines and yanked them off the trellis. They fell in ropy heaps until nothing was left but the lattice attached to the bricks. I guess I was tired. The next four casts tangled in the potted peach tree, the palm, the potted crepe myrtle and a nearby Indian hawthorn. Each tangle resulted in a vicious attack with my clippers until nothing protruded to catch my line or fly. Exhausted, I sat on the swing to rest. Returning from the grocery store, the War Department walked back outside and stared at me, seated amid the shorn limbs, leaves and vines. “Well, you’ve been busy,” she observed. “I didn’t think you’d really do yard work today as pretty as it is. I’m sorry, but I doubted that you’d really work while I was gone. I thought you’d just fool around and clean out your tackle box or something.” She came across the patio and gave me a big hug. “You’re a pretty good guy, you know that?” I smiled, hugged her back and shoved the flyrod under a large trimmed banana leaf with my toe. She’s right. I am a pretty good guy.

E-mail Reavis Wortham at RWortham@fishgame.com.

Kayaking for Birds

The Advantages of Using a Kayak to Fish the Birds BY MIKE PRICE

PHOTO: MIKE PRICE

IN THE FALL, WHITE SHRIMP migrating to the Gulf can trigger the feeding activity well known to bay fishermen as “fishing the birds.” Fishing from a kayak allows you to launch in the dark or fog, get to the birds quickly, move when they move, and not disturb the shrimp, fish, or birds. An approaching front and strong ebb tide made me hope that white shrimp would be on the move, with trout chasing them and birds picking up the leftovers. I launched my kayak as the eastern sky was beginning to show first light, anchored and started working a bone topwater. After several casts and only one blow-up it was time to try a different approach, so I reached for a soft plastic lure. As I was tying on my pumpkinseed/chartreuse Bass Assassin I looked out into East Matagorda Bay and saw squawking gulls and terns excitedly diving. My adrenalin kicked in, and I paddled furiously to C O A S T A L

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within casting distance, and the fun began. Almost every cast was a hookup. All the trout measured over fifteen inches and some were over twenty inches. When the birds moved, I moved. I stayed within an easy cast of birds dive- bombing the white shrimp, while trout attacked from below. After stringing five trout, I changed to catch-andrelease. The only negative of that one hour of fishing was that while I was enthusiastically tossing lures to big hungry trout, a mosquito flew into my mouth and I inhaled it into my windpipe. So, while I was casting, I was coughing – but I didn’t let &

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Digital Almanac Table of Contents GEARING UP SECTION

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COVER STORY for Birds | BY MIKE PRICE

• Kayaking

HOW-TO SECTION

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TEXAS BOATING • Do It Yourself Decisions | BY LENNY RUDOW

TEXAS KAYAKING • Live Bait Options | BY GREG BERLOCHER

PAUL’S TIPS • Dove at First Sight | BY PAUL BRADSHAW

TEXAS GUNS & GEAR • Shooting Lead in Modern Firearms | BY STEVE LAMASCUS

the coughing interfere with the casting – and after a while the mosquito was gone. Selecting a location where an outgoing tide is draining a marsh area, and paddling a short distance into the bay, puts a kayaker in an excellent position to find fish feeding on white shrimp under birds. Kayakers can launch well before daylight and be in posi-

PHOTO: MIKE PRICE

A laughing gull with a shrimp.

tion to fish as first light appears. Most boaters need daylight to navigate, so the kayaker can get there first. Maneuvering a boat in very shallow water in an effort to stay with birds over fish 58 |

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TEXAS TESTED • Sebile, Delorme | BY TF&G STAFF

INDUSTRY INSIDER • Tow Vehicles, Greystone Castle | BY TF&G STAFF

FISH AND GAME GEAR • Hot New Outdoor Gear | BY TF&G STAFF

FISHING FORECAST SECTION

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HOTSPOTS FOCUS: UPPER COAST • September Excitement | BY CAPT. EDDIE HERNANDEZ

HOTSPOTS FOCUS: GALVESTON • The Best is Yet to Come | BY CAPT. MIKE HOLMES HOTSPOTS FOCUS: MATAGORDA • Bloated Tides are a Sign of September | BY BINK GRIMES

TEXAS HOTSPOTS • Texas’ Hottest Fishing Spots | BY TOM BEHRENS, CALIXTO GONZALES, & BOB HOOD

SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK • Tides & Prime Times | BY TF&G STAFF

OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE SECTION

TEXAS TASTED • Pineapple Chipotle Pulled Pork, Spicy Pork Stew | BY BRYAN SLAVEN

CLASSIFIED 100 OUTDOOR DIRECTORY • Guides, Gear and More | TF&G

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TF&G PHOTOS • Your Action Photos | BY TF&G READERS

HOTSPOTS FOCUS: ROCKPORT

• The Wind Factor | BY CAPT. MAC GABLE

HOTSPOTS FOCUS: LOWER COAST • Take This Month for Granite | BY CALIXTO GONZALES

is very difficult if not impossible. In midNovember I put two kayaks in my boat and went to the east end of West Matagorda Bay with my fishing friend, Jeff Wiley. The conditions were just right for bird action over fish with 63° water, a strong outgoing tide, and a very light NE wind allowing the water to be clear. We could see several groups of birds working in a large cove. I anchored the boat ¾ of a mile away from the promising cove because the tide was very low, and I need 2 and ½ feet of water to get my boat up on plane. We launched the kayaks and paddled into the cove. Two fishermen were anchored off a nearby point. They were in a boat that performs well in shallow water, but not well enough to follow the schools of redfish making wakes in 6 to 18 inches of water, while terns and gulls patrolled the air. While the boat fishermen waited for the fish and birds to come to them, we paddled at will tossing lures to the multiple moving circuses of fish, shrimp, and birds. The dorsal fins and dark bodies of the redfish broke T E X A S

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www.FishGame.com the surface often and the clear calm water allowed the terns and gulls to see and follow the shrimp and fish. In the open bay, knowledgeable boat fishermen approach bird action from the upwind side and cut their engines long before reaching the birds so they do not scatter the fish. Conversely, kayak fishermen can approach from any direction and get within casting distance without disturbing the feeding activity. Birds hovering over fish can be frustrating for a wade fisherman. Before Jeff started kayaking, he and I went to the south shore of East Matagorda Bay. I launched my kayak and he started wading; about a half mile away from where we were fishing, we saw birds working at the mouth of a bayou. Of course I paddled straight to the action, but by the time Jeff waded over there, the fish and birds had dispersed. White shrimp spawn in the Gulf of Mexico between April and September. Within twelve hours the eggs hatch and become free-feeding larvae. It takes about two to three weeks for the larvae, at the size of around a quarter of an inch (7mm), to float with the tide into the estuaries. The post larCONTINUED ON PAGE 60

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Do It Yourself Decisions

HY IN HECK WOULD YOU PAY someone else to do a job you can do yourself? You wouldn’t—unless you’re worried about chipping your finely trimmed and buffed nails, getting a little grease on your Stetson, or creasing your lushly-oiled Red Wings. And if these are things that you worry about, we suggest you get rid of your boat and get a hobby more suited to your lifestyle, like flower-pressing or crochet. Still, even those of us who aren’t worried about busting a knuckle now and again have to realize that there are some boating jobs which seem like DIY projects, but in reality, are best left to the boatyard pros. Conversely, there are some mission-impossible jobs that turn out to be a piece of cake for any handy guy. So, what’s it going to be: you, or the yard?

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 58 val shrimp eventually settle in the upper estuaries where they find food and protection from predators. After around a month and a half in the estuaries, the shrimp are approximately two inches. At this point they leave the upper marshes for open bays, where they feed for around six weeks, reaching a size of about five and a half inches. In the fall, when the water temperature decreases by about 10°F, the shrimp begin to move towards the Gulf on ebbing tides. White shrimp spend the winter and spring 60 |

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YOU can pull an old outboard off of your boat. Though it seems like a daunting task, his job is actually pretty straightforward. First, disconnect the steering, throttle, and power cables, and drain all of the engine fluids. Remove the cowl, and you should be able to spot a lifting ring attached to the block. In some cases, there will be a threaded hole, and you’ll have to purchase an eyebolt which spins in. Next, you’ll have to build a gantry which can support the weight of the outboard. Or, back the engine under a stout tree branch— this is an easy option, which works great. Once the gantry is in place, use a webbed strap of sufficient weight capacity to attach a come-along to the branch, and winch it until there’s minimal tension on the strap. Now you’re ready to remove the nuts which secure the bolts going through the motor mount and transom. Once loose, however, you’ll discover that you often can’t get them out. You’ll need to pull the boat forward SL-O-W-L-Y, as someone holds the motor and gently rocks the lower unit back and forth, to jiggle the bolts free without damaging the mounting holes. Nice job – you just saved yourself a few hundred bucks by getting the job done yourself.

COVER STORY growing offshore and then the spawning cycle begins again. Since cooling water motivates shrimp to move, I looked at my fishing log to see what the water temperatures in the bays were on days when fishing under the birds was good. The highest temperature was 77°F and the lowest was 53°F. The earliest date that I found feeding fish under birds was October 17, and the latest date was December 7. When water cools in the bays and Gulf of Mexico, conditions are right for dense fog. Most prudent boaters will not venture out in the fog, but kayakers can safely launch from T E X A S

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THE YARD is a better bet for mounting the new outboard. Truth be told, with the transom now bare, you should have little trouble drilling new bolt holes and securing it in place. Do so, however, and in many cases you’ll void the manufacturer’s warranty. Smart boaters will bite the bullet, and pay the dealer for mounting (which can range from $350 to $1,500, depending on the nature of the job). THE YARD should also be employed when it’s time to scrape away layers of old bottom paint. Though this job can be accomplished through simple grunt work with a scraper, there are several problems you might not think of ahead of time: Use a scraper tough enough to get up the paint, and it may score the fiberglass underneath; paint chips and dust may be inhaled and will certainly fall into your hair and eyes; and modern environmental laws dictate that all of the paint scraps are collected and disposed of properly. And if you have an aluminum boat, just think for a moment about trying to scrape over and around all of the rivets and/or welds. On top of these issues, it’ll take you many hours or days (depending on the size of your boat) to get the bottom scraped and prepped for a new coat of paint. The yard,

shore and look and listen for birds and fish chasing shrimp. Seeing gulls and terns hovering over the water diving for shrimp, and hearing the excitement of their loud screeching calls will motivate any fisherman to get within casting distance. However, a wade fisherman will rarely get there before the birds, shrimp, and fish move on. Boat fishermen can get there, sometimes, but kayak fishermen have the advantage of getting there quickly and quietly almost every time.

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on the other hand, will simply wheel out a soda blaster, and do the job in a matter of minutes. Cost will range widely, but as a rule of thumb, multiply your boat’s length in feet by itself, to get a general idea. Texas Factoid: Soda blasting, now used in marinas and boatyards across the nation, was invented in Houston. YOU, on the other hand, can put the new paint on in short order, without any major difficulties. As long as the bottom is cleaned and prepped properly there’s no real secret to this job (though it should be noted that thorough mixing of the anti-fouling paint is imperative). So get out the masking tape, rollers, and paint, and get to work. You’ll save between $10 and $20 per foot of boat (excluding the cost of the paint), which most yards would charge. THE YARD should also be trusted when it comes to removing and replacing a permanently-installed fuel tank. Again, this is a job that seems straight-forward, but has some hidden difficulties. Often, tanks are sealed below decks and you’ll have to cut a hole in the deck with a sabre saw to remove it. No huge deal, but since you can’t get an eyeball on the area you’re cutting into, it’s

also common to accidentally cut through wires, waterlines, bulkheads, and stringers when you do so. Oops! The yard, on the other hand, knows how to figure out where that stuff is, and avoid chopping through it. Some tanks are also foamed in place, which makes the removal extremely difficult. You’ll probably have to chop out some foam along with the tank itself, and replacing it is risky—that stuff is poured in a liquid form, and it expands with some serious pressure as it hardens. Use too little, and you leave voids that can become filled with water and encourage future tank corrosion. Use too much, and the pressure it creates while expanding can crack structural members, and deform or crush the new fuel tank. Don’t risk it. Leave this one to the pros. YOU are the right man for the job, however, when you’ll be mounting new electronics at the helm. Yes, cutting holes in fiberglass is a scary thing. But it’s not nearly as scary once you’ve done it a few times, and you realize that a saber saw goes through fiberglass quite easily. There are, of course, a few key items to keep in mind. First off, look behind the helm and make sure—100 percent sure—you won’t be cutting through any wires or steering cables

where you plan to mount the unit. Also make sure there’s plenty of clearance behind the dash, for the unit in that location. Second, use the manufacturer’s template to mark your lines and make your cuts. Never try to take measurements or just “eyeball” it, or you’ll end up spending more to repair the holes you create than you’d save if you paid for the installation, in the first place. And third, always cut fiberglass with the drill (for your pilot holes) and/or saw running at full speed. A slowly-moving bit is more apt to grab the gel coat, which leads to splinters and chips. Fiberglass cheater trick. If you do have an accident and make an extra hole or gash, use polyboard to fabricate trim strips of whatever size necessary, then mount them around the unit and hide the oopsie. YOU are also surely competent, when it comes to adding flush-mount vertical rod racks, clamp-on rodholders, or transommounted rodholders. But if you want to add flush gunwale-mounted rodholders, you should most definability leave this job to… THE YARD. Remember, the tube of the rod holder is attached to the rim at an angle. To get those caps to sit flush on the gunwale, the hole—which could be oval or could be round depending on the type of tube you need to accommodate—has to be cut to that angle exactly. Just to make things more confusing, different manufacturers use different angles, and some manufacturers make different models with different angles. You figure it’s not that big a deal, if you make an attempt and cut it wrong? Guess again, because most gunwales have molded nonskid surfaces, and patching or repairing molded nonskid is far more difficult than patching or repairing a flat fiberglass surface. So when it comes to this job, even competent DIY-ers are best served by opening up the wallet and paying the yard’s hourly rate.

E-mail Lenny Rudow at boating@fishgame.com 62 |

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COURTESY HOBIE

Live Bait Options

S THE OLD YARN GOES: THAT’S WHY they call it fishing and not catching. To increase one’s odds of catching, seasoned anglers know that live bait cures lockjaw better than any artificial lure – especially in late summer when water temperatures are often described as “bathtub water.” Toting a suitable quantity of bait along on a kayak trip has always been a challenge but several new options make the task significantly easier. The ubiquitous 5-gallon bucket is the baseline against which all other bait storage options must be measured. Cheap and readily available, 5-gallon buckets can carry gear or bait. They are so popular with kayakers, many hull manufacturers mold square and

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Hobie’s Live Well is the granddaddy of kayak bait systems.

circular recesses into stern wells, the later to accommodate plastic buckets. A partially

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filled bucket will keep perch and minnows alive for several hours but the water must eventually be changed out or supplemental oxygen must be added with a bubbler of some sort. If your favorite bait is acrobatic, such as finger mullet, Elvis is more likely to leave the building than to hang around for a prolonger period of time, leaving you redfaced and empty handed. A net can be draped over the bucket’s mouth to deter jumping bait but a finely woven net attracts dangling hooks like a water hazard attracts golf balls. A trolling-style minnow bucket is another option. They can be towed behind a kayak and can be tethered so they float an arm’s length away from your seat. Although cost effective, with most costing less than $10.00, they create drag while paddling. You can always hoist them aboard while travelling from Point A to B but the dissolved oxygen in a small bucket quickly becomes in the heat. Stopping to replenish the water supply in a bait bucket stowed onboard while you are paddling into a A l m a n a c

strong a headwind is definitely a nuisance. Several new bait storage solutions have come to the market, which kayakers will enjoy. LongerLife (www.baitkits.com) is a Florida-based company, which manufactures a range of products to keep bait alive and frisky. The first is a collapsible mesh cage which is used in lieu of a traditional bait bucket. About the diameter of a large coffee can, the cylindrical cage is a mesh tube with plastic stiffening rings on either end. The mesh design offers minimal water resistance, virtually eliminating the drag normally associated with towing a bait bucket. The only drawback is that you must leave it in the water. If you prefer to keep your bait on board, the LongerLife Bait Cooler is a clever and affordable design. This soft-sided cooler holds up to 3.5 gallons of water and has a zippered top and an integrated air system. A pocket on the side houses the battery powered air pump. When you are finished fishing, the soft sides pack down making storage a snap. A bit smaller than a 5-gallon bucket, the LongerLife Bait Cooler fits easily between your legs while paddling, making it easy to scoop out a bait without having to reach for something behind you. Creep back the zipper a few inches and you can sneak your hand through the opening, completely eliminating the chance of bait making a jail break. A word of warning about zippers and saltwater, regardless of the materials the zipper is built out of, take extra care to wash and dry them after every use or they will seize up after just a few outings in the salt. The LongerLife Bait Cooler is great at multitasking. It is just at home in a center console or bed of a pickup truck as it is in a kayak. When you arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fishing, add some ice and cold drinks and you are ready to do some tailgating. The granddaddy of all kayak bait systems is the Hobie Live Well featuring a molded plastic tank, which is strapped into the stern well of any kayak. The Live Well holds 8-gallons of water and a self-priming pump pulls in water through a tube which is snaked through a scupper hole. The sealed 6-volt battery is easy to access in a compartment on the rear of the tank. Two adjustable straps snap onto pad eyes to keep the Live Well in place. A hinged, circular hatch is closed by turning a T-handle. Three vertical C O A S T A L

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rod holders on the back provide extra utility. Hobieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Live Well is large enough to accommodate good quantity of big baits, such as jumbo pin perch, pogies, or shad. Catch and release kayak tournaments are growing in popularity and the Live Well is large enough to keep a few fish alive for several hours. Until the first strong cold fronts of the year arrive and drop water temperatures sig-

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nificantly, live bait will help you do more catching on your fishing trips.

Greg Berlocher can be reached for question or comment at kayak@fishgame.com.

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’D BE WILLING TO BET THAT ON SEPtember 1st, right around 30 minutes before sunrise, there are a few tons of lead in the air all across the North and Central hunting zones in Texas. I’d also be willing to bet that most of this lead isn’t anywhere close to hitting a dove. The national average for shots taken to kill a single dove is somewhere between five and seven shots. As a group, we hunters are lousy shots when it comes to doves. So this month we’re going to look at shooting tips to help take more birds with fewer shots. Yes, I know that you’re much better than the average shooter so this article isn’t for you, but read it anyway and then tell your buddy (who can’t hit squat) what to do because he’s really bringing down our average. The number one thing you can do to increase your bird shooting accuracy is preseason shooting practice, but it’s too late for that. So let’s review a few tips that can help your accuracy right now. These won’t make you an Olympic caliber trap shooter but should make you drop a few more birds.

ILLISTRATION BY PAUL BRADSHAW

Dove at First Sight

You are going to think I’m crazy for saying this (but I’m used to it), the number one thing you can do to improve your shooting is to take that third shell out of your gun. Really. Think about it, how many times have you shot that third shell and come up empty? I’d be willing to bet that the miss ratio on the third shot is somewhere around 90%. Most hunters use that third shot to vent frustration at a bird well out of range after missing the first two shots. Removing this option will remove a lot of your misses. If you’re worried about not having that third shell in there just think about it this way. There are plenty of hunters that take limits every year using over-unders and side-by-sides so don’t feel as is you are handicapping yourself. My son shoots a pump but I only let him load one shell at a time. Last year he took 12 doves on opening day, including a double. With just one shell he has learned to concentrate on a single bird, make his shots count, and reload quickly. One of the biggest problems with your average dove hunter who picks up their shotgun once a year is estimating how much to lead the birds. Every year in the dove field I hear, “I’ve shot right at them, led them by six

inches, led them by six feet, and led them by six yards and I still can’t hit them,” usually followed by a string of expletives about the cheap shells and ill fitting shotgun being used. If you’ve found yourself uttering those words in the past one quick way to determine how much to lead a bird just remember the four B’s of swing through shooting. Behind, Belly, Beak, Boom. Start out with the bead of your shotgun behind the bird and begin your swing through the dove. You’ll progress through belly, then to the beak, and when you get out in front of the bird pull the trigger (giving you the fourth B). If you use this method you don’t have to guess the lead. The faster the bird is flying the faster you’ll have to swing through it as you progress through the B’s, meaning you automatically adjust your lead to the speed of every bird. This isn’t some magic elixir to make the birds rain down from the sky but it will make your buddies wonder if you’ve been practicing The last tip for shooting more doves is to give them the finger. No, not that one. Rather, take the pointer finger on your left hand, if you’re a right handed shooter (right hand if a left handed shooter), and run it down the side of the fore-end pointing it towards the front of the barrel. The fore-end should rest in the slot between your pointer and middle finger. This leaves your hand in a more natural position allowing you a more fluid swing and follow through. Point your finger at the bird and you’ll stay on target better. And keep your head down. Lifting your cheek off the stock to see if you hit the bird means you’ll miss it every time. E-mail Paul Bradshaw at freshrigs@fishgame.com

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Shooting Lead in Modern Firearms

FIRST STARTED CASTING LEAD BULLETS in the 1970s. I was shooting in handgun matches at my local gun club in Uvalde and couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford to buy bullets, so I

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started casting .38-caliber wadcutters. I used wheel weights for the lead, melted it on an old electric hotplate, and poured into the mold with a rusty iron ladle. Strangely enough, the bullets thus produced were sufficiently accurate that I was competitive, winning a few trophies and medals. Over the years, I continued casting my own handgun bullets, expanding the number of bullet styles and calibers until I ended up with a large collection of molds. I also graduated from the hotplate to electric lead furnaces. These days, I use two bottom-pour furnaces, one for soft lead, and one for wheel weights. At first, I used cast bullets for practice; eventually I found them sufficiently accurate

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for competition. Even then, I considered cast bullets inferior for hunting; later, I discovered I was wrong about that, too. Cast-lead handgun bullets of correct hardness and design are just as deadly and efficient as the best jacketed bullets, and in many instances, superior. A jacketed hunting bullet must expand to do its job, while a cast bullet such as the renowned Keith is designed to work properly without expansion. Rifle bullets are a different story. Handguns, at least normal handguns, fire bullets at velocities lead alloys can handle quite well-below about 1600 fps. High-powered rifles fire bullets at velocities no lead bullet, no matter how hard, can handle. That is why near the end of the Nineteenth Century shooters started to see metal jackets of copper, nickel silver (copper and nickel alloy), or gilding metal (copper and zinc alloy) wrapped around the lead cores of bullets. With the introduction of progressive-burning smokeless powders, velocities above 2000 fps became commonplace. At any velocity above that, lead is too soft to hold the rifling and the bullets are stripped, causing leading and loss of accuracy as well as poor performance on game. To maintain best accuracy in modern rifle cartridges firing lead bullets, it is necessary to reduce velocity to something equivalent to that produced by magnum handguns. Cast very hard and used with copper gas checks, bullets can be pushed faster than that--some a lot faster--but in my experience and that of other experienced shooters, accuracy is usually relatively poor, and performance on game is not as good as a softer bullet at lower velocity. Most of my guns perform best at velocities below 1500 fps, and really shine at 1200 to 1400. Shooting softer bullets around Brinell hardness number (BHN) 10 to 12 at velocities of 1200-1400 fps, accuracy is astounding. I often get 1-inch, three-shot groups at 100 yards. In addition, performance on game is quite good because the bullets deform on impact, mushrooming and causing a wide A l m a n a c

wound channel. This is not to say modern jacketed bullets at velocities of 2700-3000 fps and higher are not superior for hunting big game. They are admittedly better or we would never have invented jacketed bullets. Home-cast lead bullets, however, are much, much less expensive. Some bullets today cost in excess of a dollar each--and that is just the bullet, not a cartridge. I can load an entire box of cartridges using cast lead bullets for less than $3 (primers 60 cents, powder $1.20, gas checks 51 cents, reused brass $0--total $2.31). With the cost of factory ammunition climbing like a homesick angel, a three-dollar box of .308 cartridges sounds pretty good to me. I have tried casting and shooting cast sharp pointed or “spitzer” bullets in my rifles. While the spitzers look great, they do not seem to shoot as well as round- or flat-nosed bullets. My Thompson-Center Icon absolutely loves 160-grain cast gas-check bullets intended for the .30-30 Winchester. I load them to about 1250 fps and the Icon regularly puts them into groups averaging an inch. That is about as good as that gun will shoot with my pet load of 150-grain Sierra Game Kings. My custom-built Hill Country Rifles .35 Whelen shoots well with both 250- and 290-grain round-nosed bullets, and when one of those massive lead slugs slams into something, the sound alone is impressive. There is some loading data for cast bullets available on the internet, and Lyman publishes a reloading manual for cast bullets, but otherwise, information is severely lacking. Therefore, much of it I have had to figure out by guess and by gosh. One thing to remember is that it is never wise to reduce charges of slow powders like H4831, IMR7828, and others of that general burn rate. Sometimes, mystery detonations have resulted from trying to shoot reduced charges of slow burning powders, especially Hodgdon 4831, causing a destroyed gun and injury to the shooter. Instead, shoot powders intended for reduced loads. I shoot Unique, Accurate 5744, Blue Dot, and other similar powders. If forced to choose only two powders for reduced rifle loads, I would pick Unique and 5744 without a second’s thought. Both powders can be loaded in a wide range of cartridges and at many power levels. In addition, 5744 is great for smokeless powder loads in huge black powder cartridges, such as the .5090 Sharps. The massive herds of American bison and C O A S T A L

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most of the plains game of the Americas were reduced to remnants by subsistence and market hunters using cast lead slugs at modest velocities. To this day, myths abound about the skill of buffalo hunters who could regularly kill buffalo at 1000 yards and hostile Indians even farther, and they cast their bullets from lead melted over a campfire and loaded them with simple hand tools. There is no doubt that those men were marvelous marksmen, and that their old technology was suffi-

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cient for the purpose. So, why not save a wad of money, have some fun, and return to those “Golden Days of Yesteryear.” Try cast bullets in your modern firearms. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

E-mail Steve LaMascus at SLamascus@fishgame.com

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WHAT MAKES A HARD PLASTIC SWIMbait awesome, instead of merely sufficient? It’s got to have a life-like swimming action. And a flashy finish that looks real. And some method of creating vibrations and noise. Now, add on top-notch hardware and hooks, and you’ve got a winner. Sébile’s new Magic Swimmer Evidence series has all of these attributes, and when I tried out their 110 FSK 4.5-inch, threequarter ounce fast-sink model during a recent fishing trip to Jackson Lake, I discovered they turn fish on like a light switch. These swimbaits—which were ranked

MSRP’s at nearly $20. The lure is jointed in three sections, which produces an enticing wiggle as it moves through the water. Don’t just take my word for it, though. Sebile has a video posted on their web site, at http://www.sebileusa.com/in-action.html, which shows the lure moving through the water next to an average swimbait. You can see the improved action, and after using one, there’s no doubt in my mind that what the video shows is accurate. The baits’ design also helps it avoid the wind as it sails through the air (thanks to the narrow profile and weight distribution), and even though it was blustery when we tried these lures they cast surprisingly well. Parts are fused via ultrasonic welds, doubled stainless-steel wire runs through the body, and strong split rings make your connection secure Meanwhile, internal rattle chambers provide fish-attracting vibrations. So, do they really out-fish other lures? Four of us fished for several hours, and the Magic Swimmer Evidence took five fish. An angler using tube jigs caught four fish, one using a spoon caught two, and one using a lipped crankbait took home the skunk. Draw your own conclusions, and check out www.sebileusa.com to see the different sizes and color patterns.

Keeping in Touch —Lenny Rudow

Sébile Magic Swimmer.

the number one new lure of 2011 by Field and Stream this past April—are lipless, with a split ring over an eye on the bait’s down-curved nose. Gills, eyes, and a mouth are molded into the body for incredible realism, backed up by a flashy finish that includes a lateral line, spots, and even a scale pattern. But all of that molding and finish work carries a steep price; this model 70 |

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DELORME IS KNOWN FOR BUILDING handheld GPS units that are useful for cross-over purposes, like both boating and hiking, but now this company has entered a new phase with the introduction of its inReach. This is a two-way satellite messenger, which can act either as a standalone unit, and also works with expanded capabilities in tandem with the DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w GPS or an Android smartphone. The inReach “talks” with satellites to send SOS messages (with embedded GPS T E X A S

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coordinates) to emergency services, beam tracking locations to friends and family, and text up to three pre-programmed messages you prepare ahead of time. When working with the Earthmate or your Android, however, its capabilities become much broader. Using the keypads on the additional unit you can type and send email or SMS text messages—anywhere, any time. It also lets you beam your messages directly to Facebook and Twitter, if you so desire. When you have the app up on your Android, it’ll also enable you to look at aerial imagery, topo maps, and NOAA nautical charts, even when you’re beyond DeLorme inReach cell range. messenger. The unit costs around $250 and there are monthly subscription fees (at the Safety, Recreational, and Pro levels), which start at around $10. There’s also a limit to the unit’s abilities, in that you can only send up to 160 characters at a time. The messages are shipped around in space via Iridium satellites, which provide 100-percent coverage from pole to pole; if you’re standing on the face of Planet Earth, you can get your messages through. And unlike some other satellite messengers, with the DeLorme you can receive, as well as transmit. That means emergency personnel can let you know your SOS has been received—or your significant other can let you know when it’s long past time to head for home. More info can be found at www.delorme.com. —LR A l m a n a c

PHOTOS: SEBILE USA; DELORME

Sébile Magic Swimmer

Put the Cart Before the Horse When Considering Tow Vehicles WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THE MOST out of your towing vehicle, the most important consideration is choosing wisely in the first place, and truck manufacturers agree that tow capacity is only one consideration. Buying right can help to avoid mismatches and disasters, save money, and make the towing experience less strenuous than it otherwise might be. After all, you never hear anyone talk about how much they love towing – it’s the experiences after you get there that make an outdoorsman’s memories. Even when sizing up a used vehicle to meet towing needs, the same rules apply.

Do Your Homework

I know that you were not planning on a math lesson as part of the truck buying process, but this one can save you a lot of grief. First rule: published tow capacity alone does not determine which vehicle to purchase. You really need to know the gross combination weight of the vehicle and everything that goes with it, says Brian Rathsburg of Ford. This is how it works: Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) = base curb weight + cargo weight + passenger weight. Curb Weight – the weight of the vehicle, ready to go, including all fuel and fluids, but excluding passengers or cargo. You can get this from the truck makers published specs available on the manufacturers website. Cargo Weight – this is everything that will be added to the curb weight of the vehicle. That includes equipment, gear, food and supplies, ATVs,and everything else you can pile on. Passenger Weight – estimate the most people with the heaviest weight and you can C O A S T A L

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never go wrong. Remember that everything that you add on as an option adds to the curb weight, and it is not part of the published vehicle weight. Don’t forget to add in aftermarket products when you make the calculation. If you added the hitch, for example, make its weight part of the calculation. Next, you need to know the tongue load – a major factor if you don’t want to in creating trailer sway if you haven’t considered it when spec-ing your vehicle. Tongue load should be no more than 10 to 15% of the gross combined weight (GCW) of your load, and lower is better for control, says Jim Mikulec of General Motors. “A critical piece of this is loading, also. You’ll know right away when the trailer is loaded properly so that it is ‘flat’ with the frame parallel to the ground.” Add the GVW and the tongue load to a ballpark estimate of the weight of the loaded trailer (don’t be conservative!) and you have GCW. This is the number that you should be using when you evaluate the tow capacity of a vehicle. By calculating the GCW, you have probably eliminated many of the trucks or SUVs that you might have considered. The gross combined weight of the entire package should never be exceeded so this is a good starting place for vehicle shopping. Buy for the largest load and towing capacity that you will realistically be towing since repairs can be expensive if you underestimate, and no manufacturer is responsible if you under buy. Torque is part of the equation, too. Now that you know what you are going to be pulling, recognize that the horsepower of the engine is important, but the torque rating is what will affect you moist when you are pulling a trailer on steep hills. You need the combination of both – horsepower for forward motion and cruise ability under normal conditions and a high torque rating to help you move from a dead stop and for pulling, says Jim Mikulec of GM. Now that you know how to do that for T E X A S

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today’s trucks, isn’t it nice to know that Ford, Chrysler, GM, Toyota and Honda have teamed up with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to take the voodoo out of part of this by developing a towing standard – J-2807 – which will help truck buyers compare apples and apples. As of the 2013 model year, these manufacturers will use the same tests for calculating both the gross combination weight ratings and trailer weight ratings. You will still have to run the numbers for your specific situation, of course, but this is a great improvement over the current system.

Manual or Automatic

Unless you are an experienced shifter, most experts say stick with an automatic transmission. Kevin Met, of Chrysler’s Ram Truck Engineering says it is still a matter of owner preference. “Some drivers prefer the additional level of control that they have with a six-speed manual, although both serve a similar function – maintaining gear ranges under load and maximizing the effectiveness of engine compression braking and diesel exhaust brake on a full size truck. He also suggests that a factory-equipped brake controller can provide an engineered and warranteed enhancement of braking performance. Many trucks today offer easy access to trailer brake controls and other tow mode features from the cockpit of the vehicle; and don’t forget to a truck that comes standard with a transmission oil cooler which is critical for performance under heavy load conditions.

Towing is All About Stopping

A late friend of mine who has a topnotch truck garage reminded me regularly that towing is as much about stopping as it is about pulling a trailer or boat. “You are pulling something much longer and heavier than the truck that you might ordinarily CONTINUED ON PAGE 73 S E P T E M B E R

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Night Hawk EV is a Silent Blast

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New Tool Rescues Catch & Release

THE “ANGLERS ALL-N-ONE HOOKOUT” IS the perfect tool for easy and safe, catch and release fishing. The hookout tool allows you to remove a hook, protects your fingers, comes with an LED light to see in fishes mouth at night. The tool allows you to accurately measure a fish with a 5 ft. stainless steel tape measure inserted into the base of the tool. An additional tool comes with the hookout. This tool allows you to extract a caught fish from the water without touching it. This is done by placing the dull blade into the fleshy part of the lower gill, lifting the fish out of the water. Then remove the hook with the hookout, measure, release or place the fish on the stringer that accompanies the tools. Both tools fit into a clip on, or looped, small nylon tackle pouch that comes with 3 plastic tubes for housing lures, hooks, or split shot. Both tools float and are made of unbreakable nylon. Fishin Pals offer a lifetime guarantee that the tools won’t break, or you get your

PHOTO: STEALTH

STEALTH...THE WORD ITSELF CONJURES up images of silent, efficient aggressive advancement undetected. The Night Hawk 4 x 4 electric vehicle from Stealth is all that and more. In fact, all other electric vehicle companies gauge their foreign-made products against Stealth's Americanmade 4x4. Stealth leads the way with The Night Hawk EV sneaks up on everyinnovative design thing... including the competition. such as the 72 volt system, featured only in the Night Hawk, petroleum based fuels, espewhich has yet to be matched for its power cially at today's prices. The EVs also do and range capabilities by any other EV away with the odors and exhaust associated manufacturer. with conventional engines. Combustion engines are no match for With new products on the horizon, the silence of Stealth's state of the art elecStealth is as aggressive in design as it is in tric motors. Rechargeable batteries are the field. The folks at Stealth know that much more cost efficient than purchasing you purchase a vehicle in order to travel to

and from your favorite locations. The best camo paint job and long list of celebrity endorsements means very little if you can't come and go as you please. Its 12 volt power outlet, independent front suspension, and 800pound rated duty rear leaf springs are just a few of the reasons you'll want the new Stealth Night Hawk. Night Hawk 4x4 EUV from Stealth, the true definition of Electric Vehicle Performance! For more info, check out www.stealth4x4.com.

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PHOTO: FISHIN PALS

INDUSTRY INSIDER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 71 drive. Take that into consideration when you are making your decision. Understand all of the braking features on the trucks that you look at and you won’t find yourself in a big fix on a steep hill that you never intended to climb or descend.” —Linda Water Nelson

The Anglers All-n-One Hookout from Fishin Pals.

money back! Tools manufactured in Texas. For more information visit WWW.fishhookout.com or call 361-2293824.

Online Store to Celebrate Outdoor Innovation

FISHANDGAMEGEAR.COM IS A NEW online store that focuses on innovative outdoor products that can’t be found everywhere. One thing about the outdoors sporting world is that it inspires ingenuity and creative design not only from established manufacturing sources, but also from the very people who live and breathe fishing and hunting. These inspired individuals often start out trying to overcome a challenge they face in their own pursuit of a particular outdoor sport and end up inventing a new product that benefits everyone. FishandGameGear.com recognizes this widespread creative spirit and has committed its resources to helping bring these C O A S T A L

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innovations to market. The Texas-based store also recognizes that The Lone Star State is a fertile environment for many outdoor product startups, and will specialize in featuring many Native Texas fishing and hunting products. Starting with a modest lineup of products from 50 independent manufacturers, FishandGameGear.com plans to build its catalog to hundreds of unique items for hunters and anglers. FishandGameGear.com is currently stocked with books, new fishing lure concepts, clever fishing and hunting accessories and gadgets, apparel and more. The store is eager to work with new manufacturers, so if you have developed an idea into a viable outdoors product, contact FishandGameGear at 281-869-5511. Check out the new store at www.fishandgamegear.com

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Greystone Castle Lodge of the Year

GREYSTONE CASTLE SPORTING CLUB in Mingus, Texas, was named the 20112012 Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the Year at a ceremony in Key Largo, FL. For over ten years, Greystone Castle has been part of the Orvis family as one of their premier wingshooting destinations. In fact, their name has become synonymous with quality in the hunting industry. "All Orvis-endorsed lodges are associated with unsurpassed quality, dedication to providing excellent service, and authenticity in the product,” says Brian Long, Senior Manager of Orvis Sporting Traditions, Orvis. “The Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the Year award sets a lodge apart from others in the industry. It shows Greystone Castle's commitment to the sport and to the tradition of hunting.” The ownership and staff have been dedicated to creating one of the finest sporting destinations found anywhere in the world. Long-term habitat improvement and wildlife management has made Greystone an extraordinary hunting destination. This coupled with the unique castle facility and outstanding customer service makes Greystone Castle a destination without equal. "We've been an Orvis-endorsed destination for many years.", says John Fredericks, General Manager. "This award is the culmination of our dedication to customer service and commitment to the sporting lifestyle. It's truly an honor to be recognized." Find out more at the website, www.greystonecastle.com

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September Excitement

EPTEMBER IS A VERY EXCITING TIME to be on the Texas Gulf Coast for many reasons. Change is definitely in the air as people prepare to hit the field toting shotguns weighted down with dove load and full of barrel melting anticipation. It’s been long enough since we’ve been able to shoot our supper, but while lots of energy and attention is shifting from coastal estuaries to productive hunting destinations, Texas’ bays are still producing in a big way. Here on Sabine Lake, the big 3 are feeding aggressively and taking a variety of artificial lures as well as the real deal. It’s as if they can sense the changing of the seasons well before it shows on the thermometer. We’re not exactly done with the heat wave yet, but know-

ing what the coming weeks will bring is enough to get us, as well as the bait and fish, excited. Fishing the mouths of Bridge and Willow Bayous should yield some very impressive stringers of trout, redfish and flounder. These areas have a long history of attracting and holding baitfish and have been two of our key “go-to” spots all summer. Good tidal movement moves shad, mullet and shrimp in and out of these bayous that, in turn, attracts predator fish. These fish will gladly accept any of these baits as well as an assortment of artificials. Great choices for soft plastics include CT Shad by Flounder Pounder, Paddle-tailed Saltwater Assassins, and Cochaho minnows. The best color choices are glow, pumpkin/chartreuse and red shad. Top waters like Skitterwalks and She Dogs in bone, black/chartreuse and pink/silver as well as Catch 2000’s and gold spoons should also get serious results. Moving water is crucial and either an incoming or out-

going tide will work in your favor. Work the points over real good and concentrate on areas where the current forms small eddies. If there’s bait on these points, especially small shad or shrimp, you should be in business. For flounder, slowly drag a glow or smokecolored curl tail grub tipped with fresh peeled shrimp on a 1/8 oz. lead head. When you feel the trademark “thump,” give it a couple of seconds then pop him real good to bury the hook in its bony mouth. Another good option for flounder is to rig a scented bait like a Gulp! minnow about two feet under a popping cork. Cast up current of the point and let the tide drag it across. Look for subtle changes in the cork because flounder won’t always take it under. If it leans to the side and stops moving, set the hook. For trout and redfish, work your lure a little faster by bouncing it off the bottom or a little higher in the water column. Again, keying on areas that are holding bait will help your chances. If you’re lucky enough to have shrimp skipping within casting distance, cast as close to it as possible. That’s about as close to a sure thing as it gets. I don’t blame you at all if you’re chomping at the bit to break out your shotgun and hit the fields and levees but if you want to get in on some serious September Sabine action, I’ll see you on the water.

THE BANK BITE

LOCATION: Walter Umphrey State Park Fishing Pier, South End of Sabine Lake at Mesquite Point SPECIES: Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Black Drum, Croaker BAITS/LURES: Soft plastics, fresh shrimp, cut bait BEST TIMES: Moving tides and at night under the lights

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Contact Eddie Hernandez at, EHernandez@fishgame.com S E P T E M B E R

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The Best is Yet to Come!

EPTEMBER IS TRADITIONALLY THE end of the summer season, even though the weather conditions sometimes fail to show a distinct border between summer and fall. A Texas September can see days in the 90’s and a continuation of the “dog days” of August. On the other hand, despite the warnings of Global Warming, occasionally the first cold front of the year will blow through in this month, plunging temperatures into the chilly 50’s. Even the social changes that used to mark the period immediately following Labor Day as early fall, such as the beginning of the school year and the end of professional baseball and beginning of football season have become blurred in recent years, with school starting earlier and the ball season stretching longer. For the coastal fisherman, however, the waters will still be less crowded and fishing pressure lighter. This makes the time spent at boat ramps, on the road driving to the water, buying bait and supplies and other activities that come with our treasured time on the water or the beach more pleasant. Hopefully, September will also see the end of our latest drought. Coastal Texas is very, very dry as this is being written. The reduced influx of freshwater into bays and tributary streams will invite species that normally hang out closer to the Gulf to explore back bay and inland waters, but increased salinity is not good for the nursery areas which produce shrimp and other bait species. The lack of freshwater added to the heat also can affect water quality in many areas, with dissolved oxygen levels and pollutants possibly getting beyond the tolerance level of many C O A S T A L

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popular fish species. On the plus side, if the drought is broken by anything less than flood conditions, fishing should improve dramatically. Add cooler weather and fewer folks on the water, and you get the start of my favorite fishing season. Until such time as rain does come, however, look to back bay areas that might get some fresh water from streams, as well as the streams themselves. The coastal bayous are largely tidal except for rainfall, so salinity levels and stagnation may be high. Fish these at night, early and late, on a moving tide – and deep. A better bet might be the area rivers, the Trinity, Brazos, and San Bernard are all close, and will have some “sweet” water coming from upstream to moderate the salt.

THE BANK BITE LOCATION: Trinity River, under or near the IH-10 Bridge, or at Anahuac. Salty water off Trinity Bay will easily reach this

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far upriver until the drought ends, and fishing at night with lights could pay off for speckled trout and redfish. Do this in a group and be aware of your surrounding and wary of strangers, as who knows what the freeway will bring. SPECIES: Speckled trout and redfish, flounder, and various panfish species will be most common. BEST BAITS: Live shrimp, mullet, or croaker when available. Cut, dead baits will work especially well on reds and flounder, which will feed by smell, but trout will take dead baits more often than most think. BEST TIMES: Early and late are good, especially if there is a need to beat the heat. At a river outlet, incoming tides will move fish up towards lower salinity levels searching for food. Capt. Mike Holmes runs tarpon, shark, and bluewater trips on a classic 31 Bertram. To book a trip, call 979-415-0535. Email him at mholmes@fishgame.com.

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Bloated Tides are a Sign of September

HE FIRST REAL COOL FRONT OF FALL is nowhere to be found in any longrange forecast; and, that’s okay, especially with tropical storms lining up in the Atlantic, just waiting for a weak, low pressure system to hitch a ride. I will happily endure high pressure and the sweating associated with it as long as it wards cyclones elsewhere.

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The first north breezes of September slice overnight mercury readings by 5-10 degrees. Those cooler nighttime temps do wonders for coastal fishing, knocking water temperatures down at least a couple of degrees. It may night seem significant, but there is a big difference in 78 and 80 when it comes to coastal fishing. A couple of

Summer is set to officially end on the Autumn Equinox. Though the calendar may claim it is fall, chances are the heat will still be hanging around by the end of the month. How does the heat affect Matagorda fishing? That’s a tricky question to answer, since there are so many variables. What is considered hot? What is considered cool?

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PHOTO: JOAO FREITAS, BIGSTOCK

degrees of difference puts life in a stagnant fishery. September tides have a tendency to swell, much like high tides associated with tropical weather. Like every fall, tides remain above normal until the first hard cold front blows water out of the bays. As long as tides remain bloated, expect redfish to fill the back lakes and grassy shorelines. Water levels also encourage large, solitary trout to extend their boundaries to the upper reaches of estuaries. Back lakes like Oyster Lake, Crab Lake, Lake Austin, Boggy Lake and Horse Trailer Lake are prime redfish holes. The north shoreline of West Matagorda Bay, including Shell Island and Twin Island, are always September players. Watch for tails popping up in the grass – fall redfish give away their position easily. A gold spoon, Gulp or live shrimp under a popping cork

These are also solid spots for reds. Here’s hoping for the end of hurricane season, and the onslaught of cooler temperatures. We have sweated enough.

THE BANK BITE

LOCATION: Matagorda jetty SPECIES: Redfish

BAITS: Large table shrimp, menhaden

Capt. Bink Grimes is a freelance writer, photographer, book author licensed captain and lodge proprietor (www.matagordasunriselodge.com). Contact him at BGrimes@fishgame.com

Matagorda tides tend to run higher than normal in September, much like high tides in tropical weather, and remain swelled until the first cold front.

are solid offerings. Watch for large schools cruising the grass line and make an educated cast in front with jigs or spoons. Matagorda trout hang on to a summer pattern when water temperatures remain in the 80s. Trout stage over sand and grass in West Bay and hold over deep shell in East Bay; and, don’t be surprised to find bird action on calm days with light boat traffic. The best bet for drifters seeking trout is live shrimp under a popping cork around Raymond Shoals in East Bay. Scattered shell and mud on the west end of the bay around the Tripod is also a good spot to catch specks out of the boat. Waders in East Bay return to the shorelines for larger trout. Muddy bottoms on Brown Cedar Flats and Catch-All Basin are prime locales to toss a topwater for gator trout. C O A S T A L

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The Wind Factor

“If you don’t—or won’t—fish in the wind then you’re not gonna catch fish, because you won’t be fishing most days.” AY TO DAY IF THE TRUTH WERE known, the wind here on our Texas bays is probably the most determining factor that affects the way we lay our plans for an angling day. The wind can make us forget or discount all we have learned and experienced about the other factors that prompt our fishing plans like tides, currents, moon phases, peak fishing time, water temperature, barometric pressures and salinity levels. For many guides it can mean making money or not making money depending on the preferences of the clients. It can determine the type of bait used as well as the type of reels and rigging one uses for that particular day. One of the biggest factors the wind drives is the “where” you will fish that day. Most guides have a pretty good sense as to where the fish are or at least where they should be on a given day, but that means very little if the wind is going to blow the hair off one’s head or break anchors or anchor ropes. Most information-seeking phone calls I get are calls like “Where should I fish in this wind?” or more likely, “Where can I hide from the wind?” The answer varies based on type of boat, type of fish targeted and one’s personal limits in adverse, howling-wind conditions. In my younger full-of-myself days there was no such thing as too-windy-to-fish conditions. As I have matured (gotten older) I have seen the error in judgment of this type of thinking. As I have stated before, one can catch fish when the wind is blowing the tops off of waves, but the percentages drop dras-

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tically for us and rise markedly in favor of our fishy opponents on such blustery days. So let’s dissect the wind, its cause and affects, and come to some general rules of thumb that might prove useful the next time you venture forth. The wind has well over a hundred different unique names depending on where you are on our planet. Here are a few of which you may or may not have heard: Chubasco, Zephyros, Taku, Sumatra, Willy Willy, Haboob, Diablo and Brickfielder. We here on the Texas coast have a name for it (not yet officially on the list), “Frickin’ Wind.” Where does wind come from? Bits of the earth get heated differently (because of the angle to the sun, how reflective they are, whether clouds are in the way, etc.). Hot air expands, so it pushes outward. These temperature differences cause pressure differences, creating wind. There are other factors that drive wind, like high pressure ridges, low pressure ridges, tropical depressions, etc. but in a nutshell, wind comes from changes in temperature and air pressure. Having fished in 60-plus-knot wind (not by choice, it just sprung upon me) it changes your fishing dynamics as well as your mental outlook and teaches you a few things in the process. Most people can fish comfortably in a boat in up to 13-knot winds. When you start approaching 17 to 20 knots, depending on the type of boat you have, the way you rig your fishing lines starts to change. At 20 to 30 knots it is best that you have experience and know your boat and how it will handle such conditions. Flat bottom boats can be brutal in these conditions, especially while underway, and many people forget that, while the ride out was good going with the swells, coming back can test one’s nerves as well as one’s reproductive capabilities after the punishment such a jarring ride inflicts on one’s lower extremities. That said, one sure-fire way to learn how T E X A S

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to handle such conditions—your boat’s capabilities, your abilities, and your rigging strategy—is to be on the water when the wind is blowing water into a chocolate froth. When I get a new boat that is exactly what I do, I don’t venture far but I put my boat through the paces so I know what I can expect and then judge its impact on prospective clients. Everything changes in these conditions, from fuel consumption to how you launch and load your boat. A guide I know who has since retired called me on a 40-knot wind day for help. He was out with clients and his motor quit running and he needed to be towed. I asked what his motor symptoms were before it quit. He said nothing was different—no noises, no alarms. I told him to check his gas level, and he said that his gauge was not accurate (it didn’t work). I asked him to pull his gas line where the quick disconnect attaches to the motor and squeeze the bulb. “That’s not the problem” he said, “I filled my tank with the same amount of fuel I always fill it with just this morning.” “Humor me” I said, “especially before I launch my boat to tow you in 40 knot winds, you might be out of gas.” I heard wind in my ear for a couple of minutes then he came back to the phone, “weak to almost no stream coming out when I squeeze the bulb.” “You are more than likely out of gas” I said. “How can that be? I must have a leak in my tank!” “Maybe,” I said, “but I suspect it’s because you’ve been bucking a 40 knot wind most of the day.” Ten gallons of gas got him and his clients back to the dock. He had been running with his trim tabs down and into the wind most of the day. He was also known to keep just enough gas in his tank to fish for a day—to keep his boat lighter to float shallow water and to turn the gas over in his tank more frequently. He called me the next day and from what he could tell his gas consumption was A l m a n a c

close to double on that day. Most good danforth type anchors will hold a 20-foot boat in medium wind. For 23-foot-and-bigger boats, you better have a heavy-duty large boat anchor. Bigger is better here, keeping in mind the bottom of the bay is littered with anchors that could not be hoisted back into the boat because the combined forces of the wind and waves on the boat dug the anchor too deep into the bottom for any reasonable recovery. My advice: Don’t rely advertising claims alone; find someone who has a boat like yours, and question them as to what kind of anchor they use and the conditions they’ve anchored in. That’s valuable homework. I advise my clients, when the wind is approaching 25 to 30 knots, that it’s better to wait and fish another day. I have seldom had a new client that repeats after a day of fishing in 30-knot winds. Casting in these conditions is hazardous duty. Forget casting into the wind unless you’re using really heavy weights—even then you’re likely to get a bloody nose from blow-back rigging. Casting with the wind is no less hazardous, and most of the times I’ve been hooked by clients or they have been hooked by others or by themselves, have been in windy conditions. Think about it—your bait is going to weigh 1/16 or 1/8 of an ounce, which will blow back into your body or someone else’s when the rod is back over your shoulder preparing to cast. You have not lived until you’ve had a motivated angler casting as hard as he or she could setting a treble hook into your ear, head, leg, arm or groin—trust me, you don’t want to know how I know this. Needless to say on those days I do most of the casting. Extremely windy days require a lot more work for the angler as well as the guide and they beat most live bait up so bad that it less less effective in catching fish. And the chances of something going wrong—injuries or damage to gear, motors and boat— increase at least 10-fold. I know sometimes not fishing is just not an option, and if you find yourself in that situation, know your boat, know your gear, know your tackle and have some experience in the wind. Bottom line: know your limits and your abilities.

the sand edges as they transition to deeper water using free lined piggys. The cuts going into Swan Lake during tide changes are good for redfish using menhaden and mud minnows on a light Carolina Rig. ARANSAS BAY: Long Reef is good for keeper trout using croakers and sand eels in watermelon and electric silver. Nine Mile Point off of Key Allegro is good for reds and trout using Berkley Gulp Shrimp on a 1/16 ounce jig head. Reds in the shallows are a good bet on finger mullet free lined or on a light Carolina rig. ST, CHARLES BAY: The cuts on Bird Point are good for reds using mud minnows. Light Carolina rigged shrimp worked slowly on the bottom will produce some keeper Flounder. CARLOS BAY: The shoreline off of Cedar Point is a great wade for trout and reds using Norton B. minnows. Cut mullet fished in the mouth of Carlos Dugout is good for slot reds. Approach quietly and be patient allowing baits to disperse their scent. The south pocket of Cedar Reef is good for trout using a rattle cork and live shrimp. MESQUITE BAY: The east shoreline adjacent to Brays Cove is holding some good red action using Bass Assassins in red and gold

and or free lined mud minnows. The trick here is to wade or drift next to the salt grass keeping your bait or lure presentation as close to grass as possible. Bays Cove is holding some nice flounder using live shrimp on a light Carolina rig or small menhaden. Keep the bait on the bottom and set the hook and the slightest tap. AYRES BAY: The east shoreline is good for reds using top waters like Super Spooks in red and gold or bone and white. Early morning cast close to the grass/bank edges with a fairly fast retrieve. Gaftop are plentiful mid-bay using free lined shrimp or fished under a popping cork.

THE BANK BITE

THE AREA FROM THE AIRPORT SHORELINE on Copano Bay to Redfish Point is a good wade for trout and reds with a few flounder as a surprising reward. Finger mullet are hard to beat here free lined or on a light fish finder rig. Move slowly and quietly to produce best results zigzagging as you parallel the shoreline.

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

COPANO BAY: Lap Reef is holding trout with croaker being the preferred bait. Lone Tree Point a good spot for trout working out off the point several hundred yards targeting C O A S T A L

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Take This Month for Granite

EPTEMBER IS BEST KNOWN FOR THE vast herds of large and tough redfish that prowl the flats of Lower Laguna Madre, feeding in preparation for their winter migration through Brazos Santiago and Mansfield Passes and into the Gulf of Mexico. Every boat in Mansfield, Arroyo

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City, Port Isabel, and Padre Island aim their bows for legendary spots such as the Saucer, Gladys’ Hole, Gaswell Flats, and Cullen Bay and after these bronze thugs. There are quite a few anglers, however, that don’t have a boat to reach these faraway destination, or friends with boats. These shore-bound fishermen can take heart, however. The jetty systems of both passes provide some excellent (and sometimes better) fishing for big reds, some of them truly impressive specimens. Not only that, but there is a greater variety of fish—some highly coveted by anglers. Some of the most underrated summer fishing in South Texas takes place along either side of the Brazos Santiago Jetties that book-

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end the pass by the same name which feeds in and out of Lower Laguna Madre. These jetties systems are accessible from land—the north jetties from South Padre Island, and the south jetties from Brownsville via SH 4, and then turning left onto Brazos Island (known locally as Boca Chica Beach) and offer excellent fishing for everything from the four parts of the “Texas Slam” (trout, redfish, flounder, and snook), mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel, tarpon, and even Kingfish for the properly equipped. Certainly, the most sought-after quarries are speckled trout and redfish. Both fish can be caught from the jetties on the same trip; however, different techniques are called for. Speckled trout will be usually holding closer to the rocks and patrolling up and down the gut that runs parallel to the jetties (this is especially true on the north jetties, where prevailing currents create gentler eddies and currents that, on an outgoing tide, push water and bait against the surf-side of the rocks). Redfish will be prowling the surf away from the jetties and in the guts that intersect them. An incoming tide and soft Southeast breezes that send clean water in from the Gulf, lay swells down make early mornings magical off the rocks. A fisherman can do well throwing live bait under a popping cork near the rocks for trout (and mangrove snapper, which almost become a nuisance with their abundance), or on a Carolina rig out in the surf for redfish; the bait bucket, however, isn’t necessary. A box filled with chugging topwaters such as the Storm Chug Bug, Pop’R, similar such popper, a couple of pink/polka-dot Rat-L-Traps, a ½ silver spoon or two, and a collection of your favorite plastic tails in red/white, or chartreuse patterns and some 1/8 ounce jigheads (the lighter heads are less apt to snag up) is perfect to keep you mobile. If the wind is straight from the south, you can still fling topwaters parallel to the rocks. In fact, the trout seem a little more aggressive in the more active water. Start an early morning expedition on the jetties by casting back towards the corner A l m a n a c

where the rocks meet the beach and work the lure back along the bottom. Trout should be there, but there may also be a few big flounder waiting in ambush. From those casts, expand out into the guts and cast parallel to the beach to see if there are redfish. It doesn’t hurt to take a few wire leaders in your tackle box. This time of year, there are schools of Spanish mackerel that tear into bait balls in front of the jetties. They aren’t discriminating, and can clean you out of tackle in a hurry (a nifty little trick I learned by reading the late Rudy Grigar’s book, Plugger, was to fasten a three inch segment of 20-pound coffee-colored wire to all my lures; if a toothy mackerel or bluefish grabs the bait, I’m protected, but the short length doesn’t seem to inhibit the lure’s action). On the South jetties, the surf is a bit rougher, and the rocks are not laid as smoothly, but the presence of snook in the suds more than makes up for the tougher work. These fish will also attack the same trout and redfish lures with abandon, only they offer some gillrattling jumps for your thrills. The question always comes up about the sort of tackle needed for the jetties. Honestly, your traditional inshore 10-12 pound tackle is enough, but if you hook into a big red or snook, you are going to be in trouble. Upping slightly to 14-17 pound tackle is a safer bet to handle just about anything that swims the suds around the pink granite, and it gives you a little more power in reserve if Mr. Big comes calling. My preferred rig is a 7 ½ foot medium action casting rod with a Curado 300-e loaded with 10/40 Power Pro braid. This outfit will tackle pretty much any fish you might run into on the rocks (unless a 150 pound tarpon grabs your plug; then, all bets are off). If you are feeling a little ambitious, walk all the way to the end of the jetties to take a shot at a kingfish or tarpon. Tarpon prowl the currents and eddies on the channel side of the jetties when the tide is running. Mullet-imitators such as a large Rapala, Bomber Long A, or a Berkley Power Mullet are the best bets to get a poon’s attention. Fly fishermen can use a large Tarpon Bunny or Chicken Feathertype fly on an 8- or 9-weight fly rod (see “Sport of Kings” in the August, 2011 issue). Calm days bring blue water right up into the rocks, and kingfish follow bait into casting range. Use a Magnum Rat-L-Trap in Chrome/blue or a fresh ribbonfish on a classic kingfish rig. Large menhaden (pogies) are C O A S T A L

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best if you can get some that are fresh. Upgrade to a surf rod and high-capacity reel. Back in June of this year, I hooked into something that nailed my Pencil Popper and stripped my Penn 9500 SS of 400 yards of braid just like that. As far as I know, whatever it was is halfway to Yucatan. You never know what my show up and rock your world.

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THE BANK BITE

LOCATION: Coast Guard Station SPECIES: Speckled Trout, Flounder TIPS: Wadefishing with live shrimp/soft plastics under a Mauler. Contact Calixto Gonzales at CGonzales@fishgame.com

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UPPER GULF COAST

Smith Points to Speck Action

by TOM BEHRENS tbehrens@fishgame.com

LOCATION: East Galveston Bay HOTSPOT: Smith Point GPS: N29 32.21376, W94 45.62844 (29.536896, -94.760474) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: Gold Spoons, topwaters in chrome or chartreuse colors CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio, 281788-4041 TIPS: Key on working birds. LOCATION: East Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Raymond Shoal

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.

GPS: N28 40.449, W95 53.898 (28.674150, -95.898300) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: Topwater lures CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz, 281450-4037 TIPS: The Shoal has a number of reefs that you can wade—kind of like walking on gravel, easy wading. LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: Coffee Ground Cove

GPS: N29 57.75702, W93 46.33098 (29.962617, -93.772183) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Gold spoons and red shad colored Bass Assassins CONTACT: Capt. Edie Hernandez, 409721-5467, 409-673-3100 TIPS: Key on areas holding shad and shrimp. LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: Willow Bayou GPS: N29 51.72702, W93 46.90698 (29.862117, -93.781783) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: Light colored soft plastics with either a 1/4 or 1/8-ounce jighead CONTACT: Capt. Eddie Hernandez, 409-721-5467, or 409-673-3100 TIPS: Bounce the lure off the bottom.

LOCATION: Sabine Lake HOTSPOT: Bridge Bayou GPS: N29 54.14802, W93 46.272 (29.902467, -93.771200) SPECIES: flounder BEST BAITS: Small curl tail grub on an 1/8-ounce leadhead CONTACT: Capt. Eddie Hernandez, 409-721-5467, 409-673-3100, TIPS: Tip the grub with a piece of fresh peeled shrimp. LOCATION: Trinity Bay HOTSPOT: Double Bayou GPS: N29 41.56344, W94 37.74498 (29.692724, -94.629083) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: Gold spoons, topwaters in chrome or chartreuse colors CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio, 281788-4041 TIPS: Key on the bird action.

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LOCATION: Trinity Bay HOTSPOT: Well Pads GPS: N29 40.43502, W94 46.698 (29.673917, -94.778300)

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SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: 1/4-ounce lead jighead with Pumpkinseed, Pearl or Salt & Pepper colored soft plastic tails CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio, 281788-4041 TIPS: Drift the shell pads on both sides. LOCATION: Trinity Bay HOTSPOT: Jack’s Pocket GPS: N29 45.76602, W94 47.643 (29.762767, -94.794050) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: 1/4-ounce lead jighead with Pumpkinseed, Pearl or Salt & Pepper colored soft plastic tails CONTACT: Capt. Paul Marcaccio, 281788-4041 81-788-4041 TIPS: Wade the east shoreline of Trinity Bay, keying on the drains. LOCATION: West Matagorda Bay HOTSPOT: Cotton’s Bayou GPS: N28 30.60198, W96 12.603 (28.510033, -96.210050) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Topwater baits or 1/8ounce leadheads with dark colored soft plastics CONTACT: Capt. Tommy Countz, 281450-4037 TIPS: Redfish should be podding up. Concentrate your fishing efforts on falling tides. Good time for fly fishing, site casting to the fish.

LOCATION: Corpus Christi Bay HOTSPOT: JFK Causeway GPS: N27 38.07102, W97 14.46102 (27.634517, -97.241017) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: live finger mullet CONTACT: Capt. Jon Fails, 361-9490133 TIPS: Fish early and quit early.

LOCATION: Mesquite Bay HOTSPOT: Brays Cove GPS: N28 5.112, W96 29.166 (28.085200, -96.486100) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Plum/chartreuse Killer Flats Minnow; Bone colored Little Dummy topwater lures CONTACT: Capt. Chris Martin, 361785-2686 TIPS: Key your search for redfish on stained water active with bait fish.

LOCATION: San Antonio Bay HOTSPOT: Twin Lakes GPS: N28 14.40102, W96 39.14898 (28.240017, -96.652483) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Bone colored Little Dummy topwater lures CONTACT: Capt. Chris Martin, 361785-2686 TIPS: Limit your search for fish on

windward shorelines. LOCATION: Upper Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Emmord’s Hole GPS: N27 30.057, W97 19.546 (27.50095, -97.325767) SPECIES: speckled trout, redfish BEST BAITS: live shrimp, pinfish, or croaker; soft plastics in Tequila Gold CONTACT: Captain Mike Hart, 361985-6089, 361-449-7441 TIPS: The grasslines in Emmord’s are still productive in September. Work live pinfish under a Paradise Popper around the grasslines early in the morning. There will be speckled trout lurking and waiting for the sort of meal a noisy pin will provide. Late afternoon means tailing redfish which means you can sight-cast with soft plastics on a light (1/8-ounce) jighead.

LOWER GULF COAST

Tarpon and Kings Take a Pass

by CALIXTO GONZALES cgonzales@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Brazos-Santiago Pass HOTSPOT: North Jetties (bank access)

MIDDLE GULF COAST

Channeling Corpus Reds

by TOM BEHRENS tbehrens@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Corpus Christi Bay HOTSPOT: North Pure Oil Channel GPS: N27 30.627, W97 17.64498 (27.510450, -97.294083) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: live finger mullet CONTACT: Capt. Jon Fails, 361-9490133 TIPS: A good area to wade-fish and be out of the wind. C O A S T A L

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GPS: N26 04.080, W97 09.280 (26.068, -97.154667) SPECIES: tarpon, kingfish BEST BAITS: live finger mullet, jumbo shrimp; topwaters in chrome/blue, Bone CONTACT: Captain Jimmy Martinez, 956-551-9581 TIPS: September is a good time to latch into a Silver King. You will see these flashy brutes rolling along the jetties and in the pass. Live mullet or cocktail shrimp drifted on a fly line, or under a balloon work well, as does an oversized topwater such as the Magnum Super Spook. Bring wire leaders and plenty of lures, by the way, because the calm weather of September brings blue water close to the rocks, and kingfish with it. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Mexequita Flats GPS: N26 3.624, W97 11.532 (26.0604, -97.1922) SPECIES: speckled trout, redfish BEST BAITS: live shrimp, topwaters, DOA Shrimp CONTACT: Captain Jimmy Martinez, 956-551-9581 TIPS: Fish during a high tide. As always, live shrimp under a popping cork is

very effective. If there is a high tide early in the morning, topwaters in bone and blue/chrome will draw crashing strikes. Fish around sand potholes scattered throughout the flats for speckled trout. Redfish will be cruising between the potholes. A little-used technique that is very effective is to sharp shoot potholes with a 1/4-ounce DOA Shrimp, YUM! Sweet Shrimp, or Tsunami Holoshrimp in clear/gold. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Long Bar GPS: N26 12.164, W97 15.957 (26.202733, -97.26595) SPECIES: speckled trout, redfish BEST BAITS: live shrimp, ballyhoo. Shad tails in red/white, Pumpkinseed/chartreuse; topwaters CONTACT: Captain Luke Bonura, 956457-2101 TIPS: This area is within sight of the Queen Isabella Causeway. The submerged edge of the spoil islands is always good for solid speckled trout. Fishing bait off the edge is the easiest way to find those trout. Drift the length of the bar and throw either chunks of ballyhoo or large topwaters for redfish. If you are a boater, keep a sharp

lookout. Some fishermen prefer to wade the area in the fall. Wet-footed fishermen catch plenty of big trout. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Old Causeway GPS: N26 4.197, W97 11.305 (26.06995, -97.188417) SPECIES: speckled trout, flounder BEST BAITS: live shrimp, mud minnows, soft plastics in chartreuse patterns CONTACT: Captain Jimmy Martinez, 956-551-9581 TIPS: The area where the old Causeway joins to Long Island is an underrated but productive spot for both flounder and trout, especially early in the morning and late in the evening. Fish the drop-off where the easement falls into Laguna Madre for best results. Try a bucktail jig sweetened with either a live shrimp with the tailfin removed for extra scent (break the horn off and pass the hook from underneath the carapace and out the top so the shrimp rides straight) or a frisky mud minnow. Hop the combo along the bottom. When you feel a tap, lower your rod tip, reel in the slack, count to three, and set the hook hard. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Duncan House GPS: N26 17.908, W97 18.103 (26.298467, -97.301717) SPECIES: redfish, speckled trout BEST BAITS: live bait; topwaters; soft plastics in red/white, New Penny; gold spoons CONTACT: Captain Ruben Garcia, 956459-3286 TIPS: Drift near the spoil islands. Trout and redfish co-mingle all along the flats. Use either live shrimp under a popping cork or gold spoons; both will cover the most water in the shortest amount of time. If you prefer using soft plastics, red/white or New Penny are the most effective. A nifty bait to try is the new PowerBait Rattle Shrimp. You have the smell and flavor of PowerBait with the added perk of internal rattles. Fish might find them hard to resist. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre

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HOTSPOT: Rattlesnake Bay GPS: N26 19.075, W97 20.454 (26.317917, -97.3409) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: live shrimp, ballyhoo; gold spoons CONTACT: Captain Ruben Garcia, 956459-3286 TIPS: September is sight-fishing time in Rattlesnake. Cast towards pods of tailing reds with gold spoons or a “skipped” ballyhoo (a weightless 4-inch head segment of ‘hoo worked just under the surface). If the water is off-colored and sight-fishing is difficult, then bottom fish with ballyhoo chunks and live shrimp under a popping cork. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Three Islands GPS: N26 16.643, W97 15.102 (26.277383, -97.2517) SPECIES: black drum BEST BAITS: live shrimp/popping cork CONTACT: Captain Ruben Garcia, 956459-3286

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TIPS: Fall offers an incredible variety of fishing opportunities for Laguna Madre fishermen. If the trout and redfish are not cooperating, there are always schools of slot-sized (14- to 30-inch) black drum to fish for. Watch for mud boils, which will tip you off to schools of foraging drum. A live shrimp under a cork is standard, but if you find one of those small crabs swimming around in your bait bucket, put him on the hook. A hungry black won’t turn those down. LOCATION: Lower Laguna Madre HOTSPOT: Mansfield Jetties GPS: N26 34.025, W97 16.173 (26.567083, -97.26955) SPECIES: tarpon, redfish BEST BAITS: live shrimp, finger mullet; Long A’s in Sweet Grape, Firetiger, Sinking CW Crabs CONTACT: Captain Terry Neal, 956944-2556, www.terrynealcharters.com TIPS: Monster hunters should focus on the end of the jetties if they want to latch onto something big. Large redfish form big

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schools around the jetties, and tarpon are rolling along the beachfront is September. Large shrimp and live mullet on 1/2-ounce Carolina rigs can be fished around the outside of the jetties for best results. Trolling Long A’s should locate tarpon in the 30100 pound range. The sinking version of the CW Crankbait fished in the eddies and currents around the jetties should also be very effective, especially when couple with Carolina Lunker Sauce’s Crab formula. LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: North of East Cut GPS: N26 34.669, W97 22.403 (26.577817, -97.373383) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Mauler/Bull Minnow combo, gold spoons CONTACT: Captain Terry Neal, 956944-2556, www.terrynealcharters.com TIPS: If you are more interested in slotsized redfish for the table, the focus on the opposite end of the East Cut. Pods of redfish will be harassing bait in the shallow flats North of the Cut. A Norton’s Bull

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Minnow in red/white or glow/chartreuse is the rig of choice for this scenario. YUM! Samurai Shad in black/chartreuse are also effective. Sight fishing with 1/4-ounce gold spoons is also effective. LOCATION: Port Mansfield HOTSPOT: Community Bar GPS: N26 34.669, W97 25.124 (26.577817, -97.418733) SPECIES: speckled trout BEST BAITS: Gulp! Jerk Shads in Limetreuse, Pearl; topwaters early; soft plastics in red/white, Firetiger CONTACT: Captain Terry Neal, 956944-2556, www.terrynealcharters.com TIPS: The Western shoreline from Community Bar to the Land Cut will be productive for speckled trout through the fall. Topwaters worked in the shallows from gray light until dawn are effective. Switch over to jerk baits and soft plastics as the day progresses and fish deeper water. Use a 1/4-ounce jighead to facilitate working deeper water.

PINEY WOODS

Cross Martha’s for Caddo Bass by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Caddo Lake HOTSPOT: Martha’s Crossing GPS: N32 42.30318, W94 6.57792 (32.705053, -94.109632) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Rat-L-Traps, Flukes, Senkos CONTACT: Paul Keith, caddoguide1@att.net, 318-455-3437, caddolakefishing.com TIPS: Fish the cuts and bends on the river side of this area. Best action is early and late close to the vegetation. Target large cypress trees during mid-day. LOCATION: Lake Conroe 86 |

S E P T E M B E R

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HOTSPOT: Main Lake GPS: N30 23.7141, W95 35.41422 (30.395235, -95.590237) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Pop Rs, spinnerbaits CONTACT: Richard Tatsch, admin@fishdudetx.com, 936-291-1277, fishdudetx.com TIPS: Bass are beginning to feed ahead of cold fronts. Aggressive strikes on topwaters and spinnerbaits can be expected. Locate riprap rock early and throw a small, single-blade spinnerbait using fast retrieve. Alternate between spinnerbait and Pop Rs. LOCATION: Lake Fork HOTSPOT: Pipe Island GPS: N32 54.171, W95 40.796 (32.90285, -95.679933) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: topwaters, spinnerbaits, and jerk baits CONTACT: Ricky Vandergriff, 903-5302201, www.rickysguideservice.com TIPS: Get on the lake early for the topwater bite will usually end around 8-9 a.m. Cast topwaters, jerk baits and Rat-L-Traps to submerged sides of island, changing bait and presentation frequently until you hit the right combination. LOCATION: Lake Livingston HOTSPOT: Ben Shot Lake GPS: N30 45.15198, W95 10.3209 (30.752533, -95.172015) SPECIES: striped bass BEST BAITS: live shad, slabs, spoons CONTACT: Dave Cox, dave@palmettoguideservice.com, 936291-9602, palmettoguideservice.com TIPS: The stripers bite best here during early-morning hours. Watch for some surfacing action. Otherwise, bounce the lures or fish the shad just off the bottom. The action is best when winds are 10 M.P.H. or lower. Governor’s Point has bank access. LOCATION: Toledo Bend Res. HOTSPOT: Silvia Bend Point GPS: N31 43.7817, W93 49.86516 (31.729695, -93.831086) T E X A S

F I S H

G A M E ®

SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Rat-L-Traps, Stanley Wedge Tails, Stanley Ribbit Frogs CONTACT: Greg Crafts, gregcrafts@yahoo.com, 936-368-7151, toledobendguide.com TIPS: Bass are holding off the main-lake points close to deep water. Fish spinnerbaits, frogs and buzzbaits early and at midday go with deep-diving crankbaits and Carolina or Texas-rigged plastic worms. Watch for surfacing feeding fish.

PRAIRIES & LAKES

Punch Out Some Cedar Catfish

by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Cedar Creek Res. HOTSPOT: Upper Lake Timber GPS: N32 23.52174, W96 11.3376 (32.392029, -96.188960) SPECIES: catfish BEST BAITS: Punchbait CONTACT: Jason Barber, kingscreekadventures@yahoo.com, 903-887-7896, kingscreekfishing.com TIPS: Tie up to stumps in 10-15 feet of water and scatter soured maize around them. Fish 20-30 minutes at each spot until you start catching fish. I use a No.6 treble hook with my weight crimped threeinches above the hook to help prevent hang-ups. LOCATION: Fayette County Res. HOTSPOT: Park Cove GPS: N29 56.54016, W96 44.85432 (29.942336, -96.747572) SPECIES: catfish BEST BAITS: Shad, worms, punch bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk, weldon_edna@hotmail.com, 979-229-3103, FishTales-GuideService.com TIPS: There are very large oak trees in deep water here with large limbs on the bottom. Tie close to a tree and tight-line straight down. Smaller trees with branches A l m a n a c

hold good numbers of fish. Chum the area. It is a good place to fish out of the wind. LOCATION: Gibbons Creek Res. HOTSPOT: Dam Rocky Point GPS: N30 36.69798, W96 4.0503 (30.611633, -96.067505) SPECIES: catfish BEST BAITS: Shad, prepared stinkbait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk, weldon_edna@hotmail.com, 979-229-3103, FishTales-GuideService.com TIPS: Use a slip cork or Carolina rig with 3/4-ounce egg sinker, No. 4 treble hook. Fish slip cork around rocks or anchor close to shore and tight line near trees and stumps. Chum the area. Fish move from deep water in late evening and nights to feed here. LOCATION: Lake Belton HOTSPOT: Temple’s Lake Park GPS: N31 7.33632, W97 29.2746 (31.122272, -97.487910) SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: topwater lures

C O A S T A L

A L M A N A C

CONTACT: Bob Maindelle, Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com, 254-368-7411, HoldingTheLineGuideService.com TIPS: Look for topwater feeding activity early and late. Pay attention to the size of shad regurgitated by fish you catch. Match size of your lure to the shad. Action will continue as cold fronts cause temperatures to moderate and begin a cooling trend. LOCATION: Lake Cooper HOTSPOT: Main Lake Humps GPS: N33 18.9744, W95 41.42676 (33.316240, -95.690446) SPECIES: hybrid striped bass BEST BAITS: Slabs, spoons, Sassy Shads CONTACT: Tony Parker, tawakonifihing@yahoo.com, 903-348-1619, tonyparkerfishing.com TIPS: Look for hybrid striped bass and white bass on the main lake humps at all hours of the day. Use three to four-inch lures for hybrid stripers and smaller lures for white bass. Locate the schools of fish with a sonar unit.

T E X A S

F I S H

G A M E ®

LOCATION: Lake Lavon HOTSPOT: Ticky Creek Park GPS: N33 5.89062, W96 28.50372 (33.098177, -96.475062) SPECIES: crappie BEST BAITS: Medium minnows, blackblue 1/8-ounce jigs CONTACT: Billy Kilpatrick, straightlineguide@yahoo.com, 214-232-7847, straightlineguide.com TIPS: Crappie are holding on trees in 14-18 feet of water but will be moving into 10-12 feet as water cools off. Look for them in standing timber near Ticky Creek Park, the discharge at the power plant on the north side, and south side of Clear Lake Park. LOCATION: Lake Lewisville HOTSPOT: Shady Shores Flats GPS: N33 10.12344, W97 1.38786 (33.168724, -97.023131) SPECIES: catfish BEST BAITS: Fresh gizzard shad, threadfin shad

S E P T E M B E R

2 0 1 1

CONTACT: Bobby Kubin, bobby@bobby-catfishing.com, 817-4552894, bobby-catfishing.com TIPS: Drift the flats in 15-20 feet of water using a Santee-Cooper rig with oneounce weight, 36-inch leader and 3-0 or 50 circle hook. Let the weight drag the bottom. Best drifting speed is less than 1/2 M.P.H. Use a wind sock when needed. LOCATION: Lake Palestine HOTSPOT: Main Lake Boat Houses GPS: N32 6.21504, W95 26.5029 (32.103584, -95.441715) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Shimmy Shakers, Mr. Twister worms, 3/8-ounce jigs CONTACT: Ricky Vandergriff, ricky@rickysguideservice.com, 903-5617299, www.rickysguideservice.com TIPS: Fish all main lake boat houses you can find in three to six feet of water, especially those with brush piles under or around them. Use Texas-rigged black-red flake plastic worms or black-brown jigs. LOCATION: Lake Palestine HOTSPOT: Old Hwy.315 Road Bed GPS: N32 12.2826, W95 30.3774 (32.204710, -95.506290) SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: Dimple Spoons, Tail Kicker Lures CONTACT: Ricky Vandergriff, ricky@rickysguideservice.com, 903-5617299, rickysguideservice.com TIPS: White bass feed up and down the old Highway 315 road bed that runs parallel to the new 315 bridge on its east side. Use chrome spoons or Tail Kicker lures and work them vertically on and off the bottom. Early-morning action usually is best. LOCATION: Lake Somerville HOTSPOT: Pelican Island GPS: N30 18.13548, W96 34.42548 (30.302258, -96.573758) SPECIES: catfish BEST BAITS: Shad, cut bait, punch bait CONTACT: Weldon Kirk, weldon_edna@hotmail.com, 979-229-3103, FishTales-Guide Service.com 88 |

S E P T E M B E R

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TIPS: Use a Carolina rig with No.4 treble hook for cut bait and punch bait or 2-0 Kahle hook for shad. Fish steep drop-offs on west side of island. Shad is best for blue cats. The main channel runs close to the island and is a traveling route for catfish. LOCATION: Lake Texoma HOTSPOT: Texas Flats GPS: N33 52.42794, W96 42.26466 (33.873799, -96.704411) SPECIES: striped bass BEST BAITS: Slabs, Coho Minnow jigs CONTACT: Bill Carey, bigfish@striperexpress.com, 877-786-4477, striperexpress.com TIPS: Vertically jig one-ounce chrome, white and chartreuse jigs off bottom or cast 3/4-ounce Coho minnows with four-inch trailers and use medium retrieve. Hold rod tip high to keep jigs just under the surface when you find schooling or swirling action. LOCATION: Lake Texoma HOTSPOT: Texas Flats GPS: N31 27.66936, W100 2.49 (31.461156, -100.041500) SPECIES: striped bass BEST BAITS: Slabs, Coho Minnow Jigs CONTACT: Bill Carey, bigfish@striperexpress.com, 877-7864477, striperexpress.com TIPS: Vertically jig chrome one-ounce jig on bottom in 10-30 feet of water or cast a white 3/4-ounce Coho Minnow jig with four-inch trailer and use medium retrieve. Keep rod high and the jig just under surface if you find surfacing or swirling action. LOCATION: Lake Whitney HOTSPOT: Whitney Hump GPS: N31 54.67194, W97 20.87298 (31.911199, -97.347883) SPECIES: striped bass BEST BAITS: cut gizzard shad, live gizzard shad CONTACT: Randy Routh, teamredneck01@hotmail.com, 254-822-5539, www.teamredneck.net TIPS: The lake is starting to turn over. I use cut gizzard shad on a Carolina rig and make long casts up onto the hump early. After the sun rises, back off and use live T E X A S

F I S H

G A M E 速

gizzard shad at about 22 feet along the edge of the hump. The McCowan Flats also are good. LOCATION: Richland-Chambers Res. HOTSPOT: 309 Flats GPS: N31 58.37718, W96 7.04508 (31.972953, -96.117418) SPECIES: hybrid striped bass BEST BAITS: DD-22 crankbaits, slabs CONTACT: Royce and Adam Simmons, royce@gonefishing.biz, 903-389-4117, www.gonefishing.biz TIPS: Tie on a DD-22 crankbait and troll the 25-feet deep water off the flats. White bass also will be stacked up on the drop-offs in the same area and can be caught on slabs bounced off the bottom. LOCATION: Stillhouse Hollow Lake HOTSPOT: Riprapped Face of Dam GPS: N31 1.60098, W97 31.85796 (31.026683, -97.530966) SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: Pet Spoons, Swimmin Image diving baits CONTACT: Bob Maindelle, Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com, 254-368-7411, HoldingTheLineGuideService.com TIPS: Use No.13 and No.12 Pet Spoons to match small shad and Swimming Image shallow divers to match larger shad. Downrig baits 1-2 feet above game fish marks on sonar and 30 feet behind downrigger ball. Low light times at dusk and dawn are very productive.

PANHANDLE

Catch Treed Cats at OH Ivie

by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: OH Ivie Res. HOTSPOT: River Channel Trees GPS: N31 35.01018, W99 44.6046 (31.583503, -99.743410) SPECIES: catfish A l m a n a c

BEST BAITS: Punch bait, cut shad CONTACT: Dave Caudle, fishinwithdave@aol.com, 325-365-1020, fishinwithdave.com TIPS: Fish punch bait and cut shad on a Carolina rig with No.4 treble hook on a tight line. Choose a weight size depending on the wind. Fish the trees along the river channel. Crappie also can be caught in the trees at 10-14 feet on jigs. LOCATION: OH Ivie Res. HOTSPOT: Main Lake Dropoffs GPS: N31 32.9961, W99 40.99458 (31.549935, -99.683243) SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: Spoons, topwater lures CONTACT: Dave Caudle, fishinwithdave@aol.com, 325-365-1020, fishinwithdave.com TIPS: Fish topwater lures along the edge of grass during the early-morning hours and then switch to main-lake drop-offs during the day. Fish the spoons in 20-30 feet of water. White bass are schooling all over the lake and will hit anything moving fast. LOCATION: Possum Kingdom Res. HOTSPOT: Old Pickwick Post Office GPS: N32 54.27156, W98 27.0585 (32.904526, -98.450975) SPECIES: white bass BEST BAITS: live shad, slabs CONTACT: Dean Heffner, fav7734@aceweb.com, 940-329-0036 TIPS: Look for white bass, striped bass and catfish to be running off the side of the flat at about 20 feet deep. Once you find them you should catch fish all day. It is a transition spot for feeding fish moving from the main lake.

BIG BEND

The National Bass of Amistad

by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Lake Amistad HOTSPOT: National Recreational Area GPS: N29 28.92252, W101 4.0596 (29.482042, -101.067660) SPECIES: largemouth bass C O A S T A L

A L M A N A C

BEST BAITS: Carolina and Texas-rigged plastic worms, weightless Flukes, Pop Rs CONTACT: Larry Scruggs, Amistad Lodge and Adventures, fisherofmenlrs@hotmail.com, 210-789-1645 TIPS: Fish topwater lures until first hour after daybreak and then switch to Flukes over the shallow hydrilla. Once the sun is high, go to plastic worms and fish the deeper hydrilla near the points and close to the mouths of coves.

HILL COUNTRY

Talking Turkey for Canyon Bass

by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Turkey Creek GPS: N29 51.73908, W98 13.1976 (29.862318, -98.219960) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Plastic worm on drop shot rig CONTACT: Kandie Candelaria, kandie@gvtc.com, 210-823-2153 TIPS: Use a recoil rig with your dropshot. Good colors are blue flecks, June bug, red bug, and motor oil on bright sunny days and green pumpkin if the sky is overcast. I prefer a 6 1/2-foot Castaway rod in medium weight for the drop shot rig. LOCATION: Canyon Lake HOTSPOT: Turkey Creek GPS: N29 51.66312, W98 13.17696 (29.861052, -98.219616) SPECIES: striped bass BEST BAITS: Zara Spooks CONTACT: Steve Nixon, steve@sanantoniofishingguides.com, 210573-1230, sanantoniofishingguides.com TIPS: Watch the surface for feeding action. When you locate surfacing fish, go up-wind of them and drift back down to the fish while casting and working chrome Zara Spooks. LOCATION: Lake Granger HOTSPOT: Main Lake Open Waters GPS: N30 42.23898, W97 20.77488 (30.703983, -97.346248) T E X A S

F I S H

G A M E ®

SPECIES: crappie BEST BAITS: 1/32-ounce Vicious Maribou jigs tipped with Berkley Crappie Nibbles CONTACT: Tommy Tidwell, crappie1@hotmail.com, 512-365-7761, www.gotcrappie.com TIPS: Use a vertical presentation over man-made or natural brush piles in 6-15 feet of water. It also is a good idea to take along a few small minnows. Live minnows often will catch crappie that won’t hit the jigs.

SOUTH TEXAS PLAINS

Catch a Big Tiger Bass on Falcon

by BOB HOOD bhood@fishgame.com

LOCATION: Falcon Lake HOTSPOT: Big Tiger GPS: N26 43.55292, W99 9.49302 (26.725882, -99.158217) SPECIES: largemouth bass BEST BAITS: Lake Fork swimbaits, jigs, plastic worms CONTACT: Robert Amaya, robertsfishntackle@gmail.com, 956-765-1442, robertsfishntackle.com TIPS: Start the morning off using topwater lures in the backs of coves. Fish the standing brush in five to 10 feet of water off the points and in the larger coves with Texas-rigged plastic worms. Cast Swim Baits off rocky points and retrieve slowly. LOCATION: Lake Calaveras HOTSPOT: The Dam GPS: N29 16.84686, W98 18.13878 (29.280781, -98.302313) SPECIES: redfish BEST BAITS: Rat-L-Traps CONTACT: Steve Nixon, steve@sanantoniofishingguides.com, 210573-1230, sanantoniofishingguides.com TIPS: Use a chrome Rat-L-Trap and troll it in front of the dam at 10 to 20 feet. The east end of the dam usually produces the most redfish.

S E P T E M B E R

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SEPTEMBER 2011

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

USING THE PRIME TIMES CALENDAR

T12

T10

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

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

T16

T15

T11

T9 T7

T17

T13 T5

T14

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

T20

AM Minor: 9:11a AM Major: 2:57a PM Minor: 9:40p PM Major: 3:25p

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

Moonrise:9:27a Moon Set: None T21

4:55p

TIDE CORRECTION TABLE Add or subtract the time shown at the rightof

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

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION

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

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

SOLAR & LUNAR ACTIVITY:

Moon Overhead:

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

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

T18

T19

Sunrise: 6:34a Sunset: 7:51p

T3 T2 T1

KEY T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

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

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

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

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

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

KEY T12 T13 T14 T15 T16 T17

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

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

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

T23

KEYS TO USING THE TIDE AND SOLUNAR GRAPHS TIDE GRAPH:

12a

Tab: Peak Fishing Period

12p

12a

Blue: Rising Tide Red Graph: Fishing Score MINOR Feeding Periods (+/- 1.5 Hrs.) Time Moon is at its Highest Point in the Sky AM/PM Timeline

Gold Fish: Best Time

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY:

12a

AM Minor: 1:20a

PM Minor: 1:45p

AM Major: 7:32a

PM Major: 7:57p

Moon Overhead: 8:50a 6a

AM/PM Timeline

Light Blue: Nighttime

B E ST :

7:05-9:40 PM

Green: Falling Tide

90 |

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 9:15p S E P T E M B E R

Blue Fish: Good Time MAJOR Feeding Periods (+/- 2 Hrs.)

Time Moon is Directly Underfoot (at its peak on opposite side of the earth) 2 0 1 1

PLACE San Luis Pass Freeport Harbor Pass Cavallo Aransas Pass Padre Island (So. End) Port Isabel

SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK IS SPONSORED BY:

T22

Yellow: Daylight

KEY T18 T19 T20 T21 T22 T23

T E X A S

F I S H

G A M E ®

A l m a n a c

HIGH -0.09 -0:44 0:00 -0:03 -0:24 +1:02

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

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION

= Peak Fishing 7:45-9:40 AM Period B E S T:

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

FEET

Sunrise: 6:54a Moonrise: 7:26a

12a

AM Minor: 5:49a AM Major: -----

29 Set: 7:45p Set: 7:57p

Sunrise: 6:54a Moonrise: 8:32a

PM Major: 12:28p

AM Major: 12:30p

PM Minor: 6:15p

AM Minor: 6:44a

Moon Overhead: 1:45p 6a

12p

Moon Underfoot: 1:19a

+2.0

TUESDAY

+1.0

Aug 31

Set: 7:44p Set: 8:36p

Sunrise: 6:55a Moonrise: 9:40a

PM Major: 12:57p

AM Major: 1:28a

PM Minor: 7:10p

AM Minor: 7:42a

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 2:11a B ES T:

7:00 — 9:00 PM 7:30 — 9:30 AM

PM Minor: 8:09p

Sep 1

AM Minor: 8:43a

PM Major: 1:55p

12p

PM Minor: 9:11p

AM Major: 2:29a

AM Minor: 9:46a

PM Major: 2:57p

12a

B ES T:

12p

SATURDAY

12a

B E S T:

AM Minor: 10:49a

PM Major: 4:00p

AM Major: 4:34a

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 4:55a B E S T:

10:00A — 12:00P

PM Minor: 11:18p

AM Minor: 11:50a

PM Major: 5:04p

AM Major: 5:35a

12p

B ES T:

Set: 7:38p Set: None

PM Minor: ----PM Major: 6:04p

Moon Overhead: 7:21p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 5:54a

5:00 — 7:00 PM

SUNDAY

Set: 7:39p Sunrise: 6:57a Set: 11:42p Moonrise: 2:05p

Moon Overhead: 6:23p

Moon Overhead: 5:24p

Moon Underfoot: 3:59a

8:30 — 10:30 AM

PM Minor: 10:15p

AM Major: 3:32a

Moon Overhead: 4:27p

Moon Underfoot: 3:04a

FRIDAY

Set: 7:40p Sunrise: 6:56a Sunrise: 6:55a Set: 7:42p Sunrise: 6:56a Moonrise: 10:48a Set: 10:01p Moonrise: 11:56a Set: 10:49p Moonrise: 1:02p

Moon Overhead: 3:31p

Moon Overhead: 2:37p

12a

Set: 7:43p Set: 9:17p

THURSDAY

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 6:52a B ES T:

6:00 — 8:00 PM

12:00 — 2:00 PM

+1.0 0

T I D E

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

+2.0

L E V E L S

-1.0

FEET

T I D E

L E V E L S

B E S T:

WEDNESDAY

= New Moon = First Quarter = Full Moon = Last Quarter = Best Day

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY

MONDAY

Tides and Prime Times for SEPTEMBER 2011

Fishing Day’s Best Good Score Graph Score Score

5:24 am 10:46 am 4:46 pm 11:09 pm

1.48ft. 0.80ft. 1.53ft. 0.36ft.

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

C O A S T A L

5:42 am 11:31 am 6:01 pm 11:53 pm

1.45ft. 0.54ft. 1.53ft. 0.63ft.

High Tide: 6:00 am 1.44ft. Low Tide: 12:19 pm 0.30ft. High Tide: 7:21 pm 1.52ft. Sep

A L M A N A C

T E X A S

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

12:37 am 6:17 am 1:13 pm 8:49 pm

F I S H

0.92ft. 1.46ft. 0.11ft. 1.51ft.

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

1:21 am 6:30 am 2:12 pm 10:32 pm

G A M E ®

1.19ft. Low Tide: 2:07 am 1.49ft. High Tide: 6:35 am -0.02ft. Low Tide: 3:19 pm 1.53ft.

1.41ft. High Tide: 12:42 am 1.53ft. Low Tide: 3:11 am -0.08ft. High Tide: 5:23 am Low Tide: 4:33 pm

S E P T E M B E R

2 0 1 1

1.59ft. 1.57ft. 1.58ft. -0.10ft.

-1.0

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION B E ST :

7:45-9:40 AM

= Peak Fishing Period

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

FEET

Sunrise: 6:57a Moonrise: 3:01p

12a

AM Minor: 12:18p AM Major: 6:32a

Set: 7:37p Sunrise: 6:58a Set: 12:38a Moonrise: 3:52p

PM Minor: 12:47p

AM Minor: 1:12a

PM Major: 7:01p

AM Major: 7:26a

Moon Overhead: 8:18p 6a

12p

+1.0

Set: 7:36p Set: 1:36a

Sunrise: 6:58a Moonrise: 4:37p

PM Major: 7:53p

AM Major: 8:14a

PM Minor: 1:39p

AM Minor: 2:01a

12a

12p

Set: 7:35p Set: 2:35a

Sunrise: 6:59a Moonrise: 5:16p

PM Major: 8:40p

AM Major: 8:59a

PM Minor: 2:27p

AM Minor: 2:47a

Moon Overhead: 10:03p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 8:46a

12:30 — 2:30 PM

THURSDAY

B E ST :

12p

B E ST :

Set: 7:33p Set: 3:34a

Sunrise: 6:59a Moonrise: 5:51p

PM Major: 9:23p

AM Major: 9:41a

PM Minor: 3:11p

AM Minor: 3:29a

Moon Overhead: 10:51p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 9:38a

2:30 — 4:30 PM

FRIDAY

12p

B E S T:

Set: 7:32p Set: 4:31a

Sunrise: 7:00a Moonrise: 6:24p

PM Major: 10:03p

AM Major: 10:21a

PM Minor: 3:52p

AM Minor: 4:10a

12a

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 11:14a

Set: 7:31p Set: 5:26a

Sunrise: 7:00a Moonrise: 6:55p

PM Major: 10:42p

AM Major: 11:00a

PM Minor: 4:31p

AM Minor: 4:50a

12p

B E S T:

5:00 — 7:00 PM

Set: 7:30p Set: 6:20a

PM Minor: 5:11p PM Major: 11:21p

Moon Overhead: 12:19a 12a

Moon Underfoot: 11:58a

B E S T:

4:30 — 6:30 PM

SUNDAY

Moon Overhead: None

Moon Overhead: 11:36p

Moon Underfoot: 10:28a

3:30 — 5:30 PM

SATURDAY

12p

Moon Underfoot: 12:40p B E ST :

6:00 — 8:00 PM

6:30 — 8:30 PM

+2.0 +1.0

L E V E L S

T I D E

High Tide: 2:46 am Low Tide: 5:50 pm

92 |

FEET

-1.0

12a

T I D E

L E V E L S

B E ST :

WEDNESDAY

Moon Overhead: 9:12p

Moon Underfoot: 7:50a

+2.0

TUESDAY

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY

MONDAY

Tides and Prime Times for SEPTEMBER 2011

Fishing Day’s Best Good Score Graph Score Score

1.66ft. High Tide: 3:28 am -0.09ft. Low Tide: 7:01 pm

S E P T E M B E R

1.69ft. High Tide: -0.05ft. Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

2 0 1 1

3:54 am 9:40 am 11:16 am 8:01 pm

1.66ft. 1.44ft. 1.45ft. 0.02ft.

T E X A S

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

4:13 am 9:37 am 12:56 pm 8:52 pm

F I S H

1.60ft. 1.35ft. 1.46ft. 0.12ft.

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

4:27 am 9:49 am 2:10 pm 9:35 pm

G A M E ®

1.53ft. 1.22ft. 1.48ft. 0.26ft.

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

4:39 am 10:04 am 3:12 pm 10:12 pm

A l m a n a c

1.48ft. 1.08ft. 1.49ft. 0.42ft.

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

4:51 am 10:23 am 4:09 pm 10:43 pm

1.44ft. 0.94ft. 1.51ft. 0.59ft.

-1.0

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION = Peak Fishing Period

B E ST :

7:45-9:40 AM

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

FEET

Sunrise: 7:01a Moonrise: 7:25p

12a

AM Minor: 5:31a AM Major: 11:41a

12 Set: 7:29p Set: 7:12a

Sunrise: 7:01a Moonrise: 7:55p

PM Major: -----

AM Major: 12:03p

PM Minor: 5:51p

AM Minor: 6:13a

Moon Overhead: 1:01a 6a

12p

+1.0

Set: 7:27p Set: 8:05a

Sunrise: 7:02a Moonrise: 8:28p

PM Major: 12:24p

AM Major: 12:48p

PM Minor: 6:34p

AM Minor: 6:58a

12a

12p

Set: 7:26p Set: 8:57a

Sunrise: 7:02a Moonrise: 9:02p

PM Major: 1:09p

AM Major: 1:34a

PM Minor: 7:19p

AM Minor: 7:45a

Moon Overhead: 2:24a

12a

Moon Underfoot: 2:03p

12p

Moon Underfoot: 2:45p

B E S T:

7:00 — 9:00 PM

THURSDAY

B E S T:

7:30 — 9:30 PM 8:00 — 10:00 AM

FRIDAY

Set: 7:25p Set: 9:51a

Sunrise: 7:03a Moonrise: 9:40p

PM Major: 1:56p

AM Major: 2:23a

PM Minor: 8:07p

AM Minor: 8:35a

Moon Overhead: 3:06a

12a

12p

Moon Underfoot: 3:28p B E S T:

2:00 — 4:00 AM

SUNDAY

Set: 7:24p Sunrise: 7:03a Set: 7:22p Sunrise: 7:04a Set: 7:21p Set: 10:44a Moonrise: 10:21p Set: 11:38a Moonrise: 11:07p Set: 12:32p

PM Minor: 8:58p

AM Minor: 9:26a

PM Major: 2:46p

12p

AM Minor: 10:19a

PM Major: 3:38p

12p

B E S T:

PM Major: 4:31p

Moon Overhead: 5:25a

12a

Moon Underfoot: 5:01p

9:30 — 11:30 AM

PM Minor: 10:43p

AM Major: 4:06a

Moon Overhead: 4:37a

12a

Moon Underfoot: 4:14p

PM Minor: 9:50p

AM Major: 3:14a

Moon Overhead: 3:51a

12a

SATURDAY

10:00A — 12:00P

12p

Moon Underfoot: 5:50p B E S T:

6:30 — 8:30 PM

94 |

+2.0 +1.0 0

T I D E

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

FEET

L E V E L S

-1.0

12a

T I D E

L E V E L S

B E S T:

WEDNESDAY

Moon Overhead: 1:42a

Moon Underfoot: 1:21p

+2.0

TUESDAY

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY

MONDAY

Tides and Prime Times for SEPTEMBER 2011

Fishing Day’s Best Good Score Graph Score Score

5:03 am 10:47 am 5:03 pm 11:10 pm

1.42ft. 0.80ft. 1.51ft. 0.77ft.

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

5:15 am 11:14 am 5:58 pm 11:35 pm

S E P T E M B E R

1.42ft. 0.68ft. 1.51ft. 0.94ft.

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

2 0 1 1

5:27 am 11:45 am 6:53 pm 11:59 pm

1.42ft. 0.58ft. 1.50ft. 1.09ft.

T E X A S

High Tide: 5:35 am 1.44ft. Low Tide: 12:20 pm 0.51ft. High Tide: 7:54 pm 1.49ft.

F I S H

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

12:20 am 5:35 am 12:58 pm 9:05 pm

G A M E ®

1.24ft. 1.46ft. 0.47ft. 1.48ft.

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

12:40 am 5:18 am 1:42 pm 10:37 pm

A l m a n a c

1.36ft. 1.50ft. 0.45ft. 1.50ft.

Low Tide: 12:53 am 1.47ft. High Tide: 4:57 am 1.57ft. Low Tide: 2:33 pm 0.43ft.

-1.0

FEET

Sunrise: 7:04a Moonrise: None

12a

AM Minor: 11:12a AM Major: 4:59a

Set: 7:20p Set: 1:24p

Sunrise: 7:05a Moonrise: None

PM Major: 5:24p

AM Major: 5:51a

PM Minor: 11:37p

AM Minor: -----

Moon Overhead: 6:15a 6a

12p

+1.0

Set: 7:19p Set: 2:14p

PM Minor: 12:04p

Sunrise: 7:05a Set: 7:18p Moonrise: 12:53a Set: 3:02p AM Minor: 12:29p

PM Major: 6:17p

12a

12p

AM Major: 6:43a

12a

AM Minor: 1:19a

PM Major: 7:09p

12p

B E S T:

FRIDAY

Set: 7:16p Set: 3:48p

Sunrise: 7:06a Moonrise: 2:54a

PM Major: 7:59p

AM Major: 8:20a

PM Minor: 1:46p

AM Major: 7:32a

AM Minor: 2:07a

Moon Overhead: 8:52a

12a

Moon Underfoot: 8:26p B E S T:

11:30A — 1:30P

Sunrise: 7:06a Moonrise: 1:52a

Moon Overhead: 7:59a

Moon Underfoot: 7:33p

7:30 — 9:30 PM

PM Minor: 12:56p

THURSDAY

12:30 — 2:30 PM

12p

Moon Underfoot: 9:18p B E S T:

SATURDAY

Set: 7:15p Set: 4:30p

Sunrise: 7:07a Moonrise: 3:58a

PM Major: 8:47p

AM Major: 9:07a

PM Minor: 2:33p

AM Minor: 2:54a

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 10:11p

Sunrise: 7:07a Moonrise: 5:03a

PM Major: 9:33p

AM Major: 9:53a

PM Minor: 3:20p

AM Minor: 3:40a

12p

B E S T:

3:00 — 5:00 PM

25 Set: 7:13p Set: 5:48p

PM Minor: 4:06p PM Major: 10:19p

Moon Overhead: 11:29a

12a

Moon Underfoot: 11:03p

B E S T:

2:00 — 4:00 PM

Set: 7:14p Set: 5:10p

Moon Overhead: 10:37a

Moon Overhead: 9:45a

12a

SUNDAY

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 11:55p 5:00 — 6:00 PM

+1.0

L E V E L S

T I D E

-1.0

+2.0

B E ST :

4:00 — 6:00 PM

FEET

T I D E

L E V E L S

B E S T:

WEDNESDAY

Moon Overhead: 7:07a

Moon Underfoot: 6:41p

+2.0

TUESDAY

= New Moon = First Quarter = Full Moon = Last Quarter = Best Day

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY

MONDAY

Tides and Prime Times for SEPTEMBER 2011

High Tide: 4:53 am Low Tide: 3:32 pm

1.63ft. 0.42ft.

High Tide: 4:56 am Low Tide: 4:38 pm

C O A S T A L

1.67ft. 0.38ft.

High Tide: 3:11 am Low Tide: 5:43 pm

A L M A N A C

1.69ft. 0.35ft.

T E X A S

High Tide: 2:56 am Low Tide: 6:43 pm

F I S H

1.71ft. 0.33ft.

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

3:06 am 8:34 am 11:48 am 7:38 pm

G A M E ®

1.70ft. 1.48ft. 1.53ft. 0.35ft.

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

3:19 am 8:29 am 1:31 pm 8:30 pm

1.67ft. 1.30ft. 1.59ft. 0.43ft.

S E P T E M B E R

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

3:35 am 8:57 am 2:51 pm 9:19 pm

2 0 1 1

1.63ft. 1.05ft. 1.67ft. 0.58ft.

-1.0

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION = Peak Fishing Period

B E ST :

7:45-9:40 AM

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

FEET

Sunrise: 7:08a Moonrise: 6:09a

12a

AM Minor: 4:27a AM Major: 10:41a

26 Set: 7:11p Set: 6:27p

Sunrise: 7:08a Moonrise: 7:17a

PM Major: 11:07p

AM Major: 11:32a

PM Minor: 4:54p

12p

5:30 — 7:30 AM

WEDNESDAY

Set: 7:10p Set: 7:08p

Sunrise: 7:09a Moonrise: 8:26a

PM Major: 11:59p

AM Major: 12:01p

PM Minor: 5:46p

AM Minor: 6:15a

12p

12a

Moon Underfoot: 12:48a B E S T:

6:30 — 8:30 AM

Set: 7:09p Set: 7:51p

Sunrise: 7:09a Moonrise: 9:37a

PM Major: 12:29p

AM Major: 1:02a

PM Minor: 6:43p

AM Minor: 7:17a

Moon Overhead: 2:12p

Moon Overhead: 1:16p

12a

THURSDAY

12p

Moon Underfoot: 1:43a B E S T:

7:30 — 9:30 AM

29 Set: 7:08p Set: 8:39p

PM Minor: 7:46p

FRIDAY

AM Minor: 8:22a

PM Major: 1:31p

12p

Moon Underfoot: 2:41a B E S T:

PM Minor: 8:53p

AM Major: 2:07a

Moon Overhead: 3:10p

12a

Sunrise: 7:10a Set: 7:07p Moonrise: 10:46a Set: 9:32p

SATURDAY

AM Minor: 9:29a

PM Major: 2:37p

12p

AM Minor: 10:35a

PM Major: 3:45p

12a

12p

Moon Underfoot: 4:41a B E S T:

3:30 — 5:30 PM

PM Minor: 11:05p

AM Major: 4:20a

Moon Overhead: 5:11p

B E S T:

8:30 — 10:30 AM

PM Minor: 10:00p

AM Major: 3:14a

Moon Underfoot: 3:40a

Sunrise: 7:10a Set: 7:05p Sunrise: 7:11a Set: 7:04p Moonrise: 11:53a Set: 10:29p Moonrise: 12:54p Set: 11:29p

Moon Overhead: 4:11p

12a

SUNDAY

PM Major: 4:50p

Moon Overhead: 6:11p

12a

12p

Moon Underfoot: 5:41a B ES T:

4:30 — 6:30 PM 10:00A — 12:00P

T I D E

96 |

+2.0

L E V E L S

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

FEET

+1.0

-1.0

12a

T I D E

L E V E L S

B ES T:

+1.0

AM Minor: 5:19a

Moon Overhead: 12:22p

Moon Underfoot: None

+2.0

TUESDAY

SOLUNAR ACTIVITY

MONDAY

Tides and Prime Times for SEPTEMBER 2011

Fishing Day’s Best Good Score Graph Score Score

3:51 am 9:35 am 4:04 pm 10:08 pm

1.60ft. 0.76ft. 1.76ft. 0.78ft.

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

4:08 am 10:17 am 5:15 pm 10:56 pm

S E P T E M B E R

1.59ft. 0.47ft. 1.83ft. 1.01ft.

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

2 0 1 1

4:25 am 11:03 am 6:27 pm 11:44 pm

1.61ft. 0.22ft. 1.87ft. 1.25ft.

T E X A S

High Tide: 4:42 am 1.65ft. Low Tide: 11:53 am 0.04ft. High Tide: 7:43 pm 1.87ft.

F I S H

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

12:32 am 4:59 am 12:47 pm 9:05 pm

G A M E ®

1.47ft. 1.69ft. -0.05ft. 1.86ft.

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

1:24 am 5:10 am 1:47 pm 10:39 pm

A l m a n a c

1.64ft. Low Tide: 2:44 am 1.73ft. High Tide: 4:43 am -0.06ft. Low Tide: 2:54 pm 1.84ft.

1.74ft. 1.75ft. 0.00ft.

-1.0

SEPTEMBER 2011

Tides and Prime Times MONDAY

TUESDAY

New Moon

High Tide: 2:46 am Low Tide: 5:50 pm

1.66ft. -0.09ft.

Sunrise: 7:15a Moonrise: 3:25p AM Minor: 12:37a PM Minor: 1:05p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

5:03 am 10:47 am 5:03 pm 11:10 pm

Sunrise: 7:18a Moonrise: 7:43p AM Minor: 5:49a PM Minor: 6:10p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

High Tide: 4:53 am Low Tide: 3:32 pm

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

3:51 am 9:35 am 4:04 pm 10:08 pm

Sunrise: 7:26a Moonrise: 6:29a AM Minor: 4:46a PM Minor: 5:12p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

98 |

First Quarter

PRIME TIME 12:30 — 2:30 PM

Set: 7:56p Set: 12:53a AM Major: 6:51a PM Major: 7:19p 8:37p 8:09a

1.42ft. 0.80ft. 1.51ft. 0.77ft.

PRIME TIME

1.63ft. 0.42ft.

PRIME TIME

7:00 — 9:00 PM

Set: 7:48p Set: 7:32a AM Major: ----PM Major: 12:00p 1:20a 1:40p

Sunrise: 7:22a Moonrise: None AM Minor: 11:30a PM Minor: 11:56p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

7:30 —

9:30 PM

Set: 7:39p Set: 1:47p AM Major: 5:17a PM Major: 5:43p 6:34a 7:00p

1.60ft. 0.76ft. 1.76ft. 0.78ft.

PRIME TIME 5:30 — 7:30 AM

Set: 7:30p Set: 6:46p AM Major: 10:59a PM Major: 11:25p 12:41p 12:15a

S E P T E M B E R

High Tide: 3:28 am Low Tide: 7:01 pm

Sunrise: 7:15a Moonrise: 4:15p AM Minor: 1:30a PM Minor: 1:58p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

5:15 am 11:14 am 5:58 pm 11:35 pm

Sunrise: 7:19a Moonrise: 8:13p AM Minor: 6:32a PM Minor: 6:52p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

High Tide: 4:56 am Low Tide: 4:38 pm

Sunrise: 7:23a Moonrise: 12:12a AM Minor: ----PM Minor: 12:23p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

4:08 am 10:17 am 5:15 pm 10:56 pm

Sunrise: 7:27a Moonrise: 7:37a AM Minor: 5:37a PM Minor: 6:04p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

2 0 1 1

SYMBOL KEY

Last Quarter Good Day

Full Moon

WEDNESDAY

1.69ft. -0.05ft.

PRIME TIME 2:30 — 4:30 PM

Set: 7:55p Set: 1:51a AM Major: 7:44a PM Major: 8:11p 9:31p 9:05a 1.42ft. 0.68ft. 1.51ft. 0.94ft.

PRIME TIME

1.67ft. 0.38ft.

PRIME TIME

7:30 — 9:30 PM

Set: 7:46p Set: 8:25a AM Major: 12:21a PM Major: 12:42p 2:01a 2:22p

11:30A — 1:30P

Set: 7:37p Set: 2:38p AM Major: 6:10a PM Major: 6:36p 7:26a 7:52p 1.59ft. 0.47ft. 1.83ft. 1.01ft.

PRIME TIME 6:30 — 8:30 AM

Set: 7:28p Set: 7:25p AM Major: 11:51a PM Major: 12:18p 1:35p 1:08a

T E X A S

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

3:54 am 9:40 am 11:16 am 8:01 pm

5:27 am 11:45 am 6:53 pm 11:59 pm

Sunrise: 7:20a Moonrise: 8:44p AM Minor: 7:17a PM Minor: 7:38p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

High Tide: 3:11 am Low Tide: 5:43 pm

Sunrise: 7:23a Moonrise: 1:08a AM Minor: 12:48a PM Minor: 1:14p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

4:25 am 11:03 am 6:27 pm 11:44 pm

Sunrise: 7:27a Moonrise: 8:48a AM Minor: 6:33a PM Minor: 7:02p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

F I S H

1.66ft. 1.44ft. 1.45ft. 0.02ft.

PRIME TIME

1.42ft. 0.58ft. 1.50ft. 1.09ft.

PRIME TIME

1.69ft. 0.35ft.

PRIME TIME

3:30 — 5:30 PM

Set: 7:54p Set: 2:51a AM Major: 8:33a PM Major: 8:58p 10:22p 9:57a

8:00 — 10:00 AM

Set: 7:45p Set: 9:18a AM Major: 1:06a PM Major: 1:27p 2:42a 3:04p

12:30 — 2:30 PM

Set: 7:36p Set: 3:25p AM Major: 7:01a PM Major: 7:27p 8:18a 8:45p 1.61ft. 0.22ft. 1.87ft. 1.25ft.

PRIME TIME 7:30 — 9:30 AM

Set: 7:27p Set: 8:08p AM Major: 12:19a PM Major: 12:47p 2:31p 2:02a

G A M E ®

12:37 am 6:17 am 1:13 pm 8:49 pm

Sunrise: 7:12a Moonrise: 11:10a AM Minor: 9:01a PM Minor: 9:29p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

BEST DAYS

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

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

PRIME TIME

Sunrise: 7:16a Moonrise: 4:59p AM Minor: 2:20a PM Minor: 2:45p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot: High Tide: Low Tide: High Tide: Low Tide:

THURSDAY

0.92ft. 1.46ft. 0.11ft. 1.51ft.

PRIME TIME 10:00A — 12:00P

Set: 8:01p Set: 10:17p AM Major: 2:47a PM Major: 3:15p 4:46p 4:18a

1.60ft. 1.35ft. 1.46ft. 0.12ft.

PRIME TIME

High Tide: 5:35 am 1.44ft. Low Tide: 12:20 pm 0.51ft. High Tide: 7:54 pm 1.49ft.

PRIME TIME

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

4:13 am 9:37 am 12:56 pm 8:52 pm

Sunrise: 7:16a Moonrise: 5:38p AM Minor: 3:05a PM Minor: 3:29p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

Sunrise: 7:20a Moonrise: 9:18p AM Minor: 8:04a PM Minor: 8:26p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

High Tide: 2:56 am Low Tide: 6:43 pm

Sunrise: 7:24a Moonrise: 2:07a AM Minor: 1:38a PM Minor: 2:04p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

Set: 7:53p Set: 3:50a AM Major: 9:17a PM Major: 9:41p 11:10p 10:47a

A l m a n a c

2:00 — 4:00 AM

Set: 7:44p Set: 10:12a AM Major: 1:53a PM Major: 2:15p 3:25a 3:47p 1.71ft. 0.33ft.

PRIME TIME 2:00 —

4:00 PM

Set: 7:35p Set: 4:10p AM Major: 7:51a PM Major: 8:17p 9:11a 9:38p

High Tide: 4:42 am 1.65ft. Low Tide: 11:53 am 0.04ft. High Tide: 7:43 pm 1.87ft.

Sunrise: 7:28a Moonrise: 9:59a AM Minor: 7:35a PM Minor: 8:04p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

4:30 — 6:30 PM

PRIME TIME 8:30 — 10:30 AM

Set: 7:26p Set: 8:55p AM Major: 1:20a PM Major: 1:50p 3:29p 3:00a

SEPTEMBER 2011

Tides and Prime Times

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

FRIDAY 1:21 am 6:30 am 2:12 pm 10:32 pm

1.19ft. 1.49ft. -0.02ft. 1.53ft.

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 12:19p AM Minor: 10:04a PM Minor: 10:33p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

4:27 am 9:49 am 2:10 pm 9:35 pm

Sunrise: 7:17a Moonrise: 6:12p AM Minor: 3:48a PM Minor: 4:10p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

12:20 am 5:35 am 12:58 pm 9:05 pm

Sunrise: 7:21a Moonrise: 9:55p AM Minor: 8:53a PM Minor: 9:16p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

3:06 am 8:34 am 11:48 am 7:38 pm

Sunrise: 7:25a Moonrise: 3:10a AM Minor: 2:25a PM Minor: 2:52p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

12:32 am 4:59 am 12:47 pm 9:05 pm

Sunrise: 7:29a Moonrise: 11:09a AM Minor: 8:41a PM Minor: 9:11p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

PRIME TIME 5:00 — 7:00 PM

Set: 8:00p Set: 11:04p AM Major: 3:50a PM Major: 4:19p 5:44p 5:15a

1.53ft. 1.22ft. 1.48ft. 0.26ft.

PRIME TIME 5:00 — 7:00 PM

Set: 7:51p Set: 4:47a AM Major: 9:59a PM Major: 10:22p 11:55p 11:33a

1.24ft. 1.46ft. 0.47ft. 1.48ft.

PRIME TIME 9:30 — 11:30 AM

Set: 7:43p Set: 11:07a AM Major: 2:42a PM Major: 3:05p 4:10a 4:33p

1.70ft. 1.48ft. 1.53ft. 0.35ft.

PRIME TIME 3:00 — 5:00 PM

Set: 7:33p Set: 4:51p AM Major: 8:39a PM Major: 9:05p 10:04a 10:30p

1.47ft. 1.69ft. -0.05ft. 1.86ft.

SATURDAY

Low Tide: 2:07 am High Tide: 6:35 am Low Tide: 3:19 pm

Sunrise: 7:13a Moonrise: 1:26p AM Minor: 11:07a PM Minor: 11:37p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

4:39 am 10:04 am 3:12 pm 10:12 pm

Sunrise: 7:17a Moonrise: 6:44p AM Minor: 4:28a PM Minor: 4:50p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

12:40 am 5:18 am 1:42 pm 10:37 pm

Sunrise: 7:21a Moonrise: 10:36p AM Minor: 9:45a PM Minor: 10:08p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

3:19 am 8:29 am 1:31 pm 8:30 pm

Sunrise: 7:25a Moonrise: 4:15a AM Minor: 3:12a PM Minor: 3:38p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

PRIME TIME 3:30 — 5:30 PM

1.41ft. 1.53ft. -0.08ft.

PRIME TIME 6:00 — 8:00 PM

Set: 7:59p Set: 11:57p AM Major: 4:53a PM Major: 5:22p 6:42p 6:13a 1.48ft. 1.08ft. 1.49ft. 0.42ft.

PRIME TIME 6:00 — 8:00 PM

Set: 7:50p Set: 5:44a AM Major: 10:39a PM Major: 11:01p None 12:17p

1.36ft. 1.50ft. 0.45ft. 1.50ft.

PRIME TIME 10:00A — 12:00P

Set: 7:41p Set: 12:01p AM Major: 3:33a PM Major: 3:56p 4:56a 5:20p

1.67ft. 1.30ft. 1.59ft. 0.43ft.

PRIME TIME 4:00 — 6:00 PM

Set: 7:32p Set: 5:30p AM Major: 9:25a PM Major: 9:51p 10:56a 11:22p

SUNDAY

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

12:42 am 3:11 am 5:23 am 4:33 pm

Sunrise: 7:14a Moonrise: 2:28p AM Minor: ----PM Minor: 12:08p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

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

4:51 am 10:23 am 4:09 pm 10:43 pm

Sunrise: 7:18a Moonrise: 7:14p AM Minor: 5:08a PM Minor: 5:29p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

1.59ft. 1.57ft. 1.58ft. -0.10ft.

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

3:35 am 8:57 am 2:51 pm 9:19 pm

Sunrise: 7:26a Moonrise: 5:21a AM Minor: 3:58a PM Minor: 4:24p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

PRIME TIME

12:00 — 2:00 PM

Set: 7:58p Set: None AM Major: 5:53a PM Major: 6:23p 7:40p 7:12a

1.44ft. 0.94ft. 1.51ft. 0.59ft.

PRIME TIME 6:30 — 8:30 PM

Set: 7:49p Set: 6:38a AM Major: 11:19a PM Major: 11:40p 12:38a 12:59p

Low Tide: 12:53 am 1.47ft. High Tide: 4:57 am 1.57ft. Low Tide: 2:33 pm 0.43ft.

Sunrise: 7:22a Moonrise: 11:22p AM Minor: 10:37a PM Minor: 11:02p Moon Overhead: Moon Underfoot:

PRIME TIME

PRIME TIME 6:30 — 8:30 PM

Set: 7:40p Set: 12:55p AM Major: 4:25a PM Major: 4:49p 5:44a 6:09p 1.63ft. 1.05ft. 1.67ft. 0.58ft.

PRIME TIME 5:00 — 6:00 PM

Set: 7:31p Set: 6:08p AM Major: 10:11a PM Major: 10:37p 11:48a None

PRIME TIME

Set: 7:25p Set: 9:47p AM Major: 2:26a PM Major: 2:56p 4:30p 4:00a

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TIDE STATION CORRECTION TABLE (Adjust High & Low Tide times listed in the Calendar by the amounts below for each keyed location)

NOT FOR NAVIGATION

PLACE SABINE BANK LIGHTHOUSE (29.47° N, 93.72° W) SABINE PASS JETTY (29.65° N, 93.83° W) SABINE PASS (29.73° N, 93.87°W) MESQUITE PT, SABINE PASS (29.77° N, 93.9° W) GALV. BAY, SO. JETTY (29.34° N, 94.7° W) PORT BOLIVAR (29.36° N, 94.77° W) TX CITY TURNING BASIN (29.38° N, 94.88° W) EAGLE POINT (29.5° N, 94.91° W) CLEAR LAKE (29.56° N, 95.06° W) MORGANS POINT (29.68° N, 94.98° W) ROUND PT, TRINITY BAY (29.71° N, 94.69° W) PT. BARROW, TRIN. BAY (29.74° N, 94.83° W) GILCHRIST, E. BAY (29.52° N, 94.48° W) JAMAICA BCH., W. BAY (29.2° N, 94.98° W) ALLIGATOR PT., W. BAY (29.17° N, 94.13° W) CHRISTMAS PT, CHR. BAY (29.08° N, 94.17° W) GALV. PLEASURE PIER (29.29° N, 94.79° W) SAN LUIS PASS (29.08° N, 95.12° W) FREEPORT HARBOR (28.95° N, 95.31° W) PASS CAVALLO (28.37° N, 96.4° W) ARANSAS PASS (27.84° N, 97.05° W) PADRE ISL.(SO. END) (26.07° N, 97.16° W) PORT ISABEL (26.06° N, 97.22° W)

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HIGH

LOW

-1:46

-1:31

-1:26

-1:31

-1:00

-1:15

-0:04

-0:25

-0:39

-1:05

+0:14

-0:06

+0:33

+0:41

+3:54

+4:15

+6:05

+6:40

+10:21

+5:19

+10:39

+5:15

+5:48

+4:43

+3:16

+4:18

+2:38

+3:31

+2:39

+2:33

+2:32

+2:31

-1:06

-0.09

-0:44

-1:02

0:00

-1:20

-0:03

-1:31

-0:24

-1:45

+1:02

-0:42

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PHOTO: TJ GREANEY

Force-Feeding the Outdoors SOFT KIDS AND THE OUTDOORS BY TJ GREANEY

“I LET THE KIDS COME INSIDE to play, it is too hot outside right now.” Those exact words were the ones that got me thinking about this article. I struggled between mad and disillusioned when those words came from my wife that one summer day. Me, the outdoor mega guy with kids who love to hunt and fish and all that is the outdoors. How can I get her to understand that kids need to be outdoors and learn to find the shade of an old oak, a breeze, a creek or a hose on a hot summer day? In my after-school outdoor class for middle school students there were lots of complaints every time we walked to the park and on the dirt trail. “It’s hot and I’m sweating.” “My shoes are dirty” or “I’m tired.” Really, really? You’re telling me that you can’t walk for an hour outside in the park

without all the drama. Something is wrong here. Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods,” tells about a sixth-grader who attended an outdoor camp that had “seldom if ever walked on uneven ground.” His time was spent in front of a computer, doing homework, or playing video games and he actually had a hard time walking on the trails and outdoor surfaces the first few days. What an amazing thought.

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Statistically in every area the numbers say kids need to be outdoors. Every outdoor manufacturer, organization, parks and recreation department around the country, and the world, know the need and have adopted a strategy all be it serious or of only face value. It is imperative that they do something if not to just sustain their own livelihood. The big pink elephant in the room is now and has always been, however, mentoring. A constant or continued contact between an A l m a n a c

adult and a youth that teaches them a skill or craft. It is rarely effective to take a kid out once and expect them to change from 30 hours a week playing the new Modern Warfare video game to walking in the woods or shooting a bow in the backyard. The first line of defense is as always, parents. If parents allow kids to sit around inside, constantly play hours of video game or watch TV and never enroll them in outdoor camps or programs, never force them outside when it is hot or cold or raining, they will not feel confident in themselves in that environment. Then the chances of them being interested in anything outside an air conditioned space is drastically reduced. “I am very busy and it is hard being the only parent,” I hear that all the time. Millions of kids today are living in single parent homes, in some circles it is called an epidemic. Even two parent families are busy. OK, life is busy and hard, I get that. But when do we stop and really look at what we are doing for and to our kids regarding the outdoors. The conclusion of most professional therapist and councilors is that if the unknown video game player online tells the child “wow dude, great shot, you are really a beast at killing those zombies,” then that is where they get there accolades and that is where they feel important and accepted and that is where they want to be. That is where they feel like they know what they are doing and what is going on and how to manage themselves. So what does work? Well for one, get off your butt. If you care about the future of hunting or fishing, rock climbing or mountain biking then you have to be a part of the solution. I don’t mean you have to go find a kid and take him to your deer lease and let him shoot a monster buck. That is cool, but the adrenaline goes away and the story fades fast. You don’t have to go to banquets or volunteer to work a shooting or casting booth at an outdoor fun day for kids. You don’t even have to have a kid, know a kid or like kids. You just have to want to be a part of the solution and want the heritage of the outdoors to be passed along. Don’t do the kid thing, donate money. Give money to organizations that do hands on work with kids in the outdoors. I am not talking about the giant corporate groups that spend most of it on purchasing land and revitalizing areas that few will see and experience. Give it to those organizations who are hands on, with kids, doing the work. These folks are skilled, organized and the toughest battle is C O A S T A L

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paying for gasoline and bullets. Let them hunt doe or hogs on your ranch. Most of these groups are totally self contained, insured and safe. If you are a hands-on type, then volunteer. Spend a few weekends with kids from your church or neighborhood hunting or fishing. Spending time with the kids in your circle of influence will provide them with a chance to see and hear from you again and you have the chance to actually mentor and touch the lives and hearts of these kids. Make up a club or group of your own, call it anything you want as long as your doing something. To the busy family or single parent, you have to step up even further. Make margin in your lives for your kids to spend time outdoors. There are great camping, fishing and hunting programs available for you to participate with them in or partner them with adult mentors. Camping is cheap and anyone can do it for a night or two but you have got to put down your agenda and step out of the box. If you are mentoring new outdoor adventurers put away the electronics. Do not mentor with email and facebook in hand. Be committed for just those few hours or days. If the world cannot function with you for a couple days then we all have a lot more to worry about than the heritage of the outdoors. I read an article a couple years back about an organization that provided a kid with a hunting opportunity that they claimed forever

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changed that child’s life. It was all about the ranches and the instruction they provided. It had pictures of the kid with their logoed hat and t-shirt angled just right. All in all it was a great piece and represented the organization well. The writer made the appeal emotional and motivating to the reader. But it was the very last sentence that was told the true story. The girl thanked her Ag teacher for mentoring her all through high-school and taking her hunting. All the pretty pictures and corporate mucus was bull. It was an adult who cared about a kid enough to mentor them. It would have happened with or without that organization. Kids today are soft and lack the push that teaches them they can do hard things. They have to be put outside, taken camping and given still quiet moments with nature and it’s Maker. For me, at my house, I guess I have to go out there and find a place to sit with my kids on those hot days so they see it can be done. I need to help create safe places, outdoor places they can go. I have to stop and think through the options. I also have to take my wife some flowers, out to dinner and talk with her about how important the experiences are for the kids. We have to be on the same page together to raise our kids to know the beauty of the outdoor experience and how important it is.

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Serve pineapple chipotle pulled pork hot on a bun.

PHOTO: M. SHELDRAKE, DREAMSTIME

Pineapple Chipotle Pulled Pork

HIS RECIPE MAY BE FAMOUS IN THE Carolinas and in Tennessee, but we enjoy it just as much here in the Lone Star State It is easy to prepare and may be cooked the day before, then heated up for serving the next day at the picnic, fishing trip or wherever your heart desires. Prep time - 30 minutes Cook time- 6 hours Yield 10-12 servings

Ingredients

1 5-7 lb pork shoulder roast {Boston Butt, or picnic ham} ½ cup Texas Gourmet’s Sweet Chipotle Season All 10-12 sandwich buns ½ jar -Texas Gourmet’s Pineapple Chipotle Barbeque Grilling Sauce (this is a zesty blend, if you desire a mild flavor you can substitute 1 cup of your favorite BB-Q Sauce ½ cup - brown sugar (I like the dark) 1/3 cup – Cider vinegar

Remove the pork roast from the refrigerator, and season on all sides with Texas Gourmet’s Sweet Chipotle Season All. Wrap in saran wrap and return to fridge for at least two hours or even better over night. PIT METHOD: Place in pre heated pit fat side up{using a combo of pecan and hickory wood} at 250-275 degrees for 4 hours uncovered, then wrap in foil and continue cooking for 3 more hours or until the roast is very tender and will pull apart easily with a fork. Remove from pit and set aside to cool

slightly. GAS GRILL METHOD: Place over low indirect fire fat side up and keep covered, cooking at 275-300 degrees for 3-3 1/2 hours turning once. Transfer to foil, seal tightly and cook for 3 more hours or until the roast is very tender and will pull apart easily with a fork. Remove from grill and set aside to cool slightly. OVEN METHOD: Place in pre heated pit oven fat side up in a foil lined baking dish at 300 degrees for 4 hours uncovered, then wrap in foil and continue cooking for 2 ½ more hours or until the roast is very tender and will pull apart easily with a fork. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly. Open the foil and pour all of the meat juices into a bowl, be careful, the liquid is very hot, then transfer the bowl to the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the fat to separate. You can speed this process up in the freezer to about 45 minutes. Then scrape the fat off the top and discard. Pour the

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reserved juices into a sauce pot over medium heat, and then add the Pineapple Chipotle Grilling Sauce, ½ cup of brown sugar, and 1/3 cup of cider vinegar. Set aside for the next step. Using two forks, or your hands {with kitchen latex gloves}, shred the pork into bite sized pieces removing any excess fat from the roast as you shred it. Add the shredded meat to the Pineapple Chipotle Barbeque Grilling Sauce, brown sugar, and vinegar mixture and toss together, then serve hot with buns, Texas Style Creamy Coleslaw and your favorite sweet or dill pickles. Bon appétit!

Spicy Pork Stew Ingredients:

4 lb Pork Roast trimmed & cubed 1”x1 1/4” cubes (Take the trimmings, and cut them into A l m a n a c

JOIN THE TEXAS GOURMET FANCLUB on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=152165096156. Come and share your favorite recipes, restaurants, and hangouts. The Texas Gourmet is waiting on you!

bite size pieces, season with Texas Gourmet’s Sidewinder Searing Spice, then fry in about 2 t. of cooking oil until brown & crispy-Whoa! Those are great! 1 White onion chopped 2 15 oz. Cans of beef broth 1 Jar Texas Gourmet Fire Roasted Salsa 3 Cloves of garlic minced 1 Russet potato peeled & cubed into 1/2” pieces 2 T. Cilantro chopped fine 3 Carrots peeled & cut into 1/2” slices 2 Cups fresh green peas 1 t. Comino ground 1 1/2 Cups Merlot wine 2 Ears of corn cut off the cob 5-6 t. flour 2 T. Chilli powder

Dutch Oven with the stew meat, and add balance of wine. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 4 hours. Salt and pepper to taste.

Email Bryan Slaven, “The Texas Gourmet,” at texas-tasted@fishgame.com

Preparation:

PHOTO: ALEXANDER RATHS, DREAMSTIME

Lightly season roast meat with The Texas Gourmet’s Sidewinder Searing Spice. Dust the meat with the flour and be sure to stir well.

Spicy feral pig in a poke stew.

Saute onion in cooking oil for 2-3 minutes, add garlic, cook for 2 more minutes. Increase heat to medium high, add stewmeat and brown meat on all sides. Transfer meat to Dutch Oven. Add 1/2 cup of the wine to sauce pot with remaining drippings and bring to a boil scraping the bottom of the pot as you stir, remove from heat and transfer the ingredients to the C O A S T A L

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Shaddox Crew (father and son) Blair’s Guide Service

OOPS! THE PHONE NUMBER FOR STRIPER EXPRESS GUIDE SERVICE IN LAST MONTH’S SPOTLIGHTWAS NOT CORRECT. THE CORRECT NUMBER IS 903.786.4477 WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

TEXAS HUNTING

COLORADO HUNTING

NORTH EAST TEXAS

TEXAS FRESHWATER LAKE TEXOMA

TEXAS SALTWATER ROCKPORT

TEXAS FRESHWATER EAST TEXAS LAKE AMISTAD

SOUTH TEXAS

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Brad Knox Trout Hillman Guide Service

Michael 32” Redfish Rockport Redrunner

Follis Family Catfish Blair’s Guide Service

TEXAS SALTWATER

GALVESTON

MIDDLE COAST

BAFFIN BAY

UPPER COAST (SABINE LAKE)

FOR ADVERTISING RATES AND INFORMATION CALL 281.869.5519

SPOTLIGHT: HILLMAN’S GUDE SERVICE My entire life has been spent here on Galveston Bay. My great, great grandfather and his family moved here in the early 1920’s and he became one of the first shrimpers on Galveston Bay. He trawled with his boat, “Grandpa’s Pride” which was a 16 foot wooden hull that was powered by a 4 cylinder engine and a transmission from a Model T. My pawpaw and my father both followed in his footsteps by starting their own seafood businesses. We lived in a very small frame house on Dickinson Bayou from the early 70’s to the early 80’s. In 1982, I got my first boat which was a 12 foot john boat powered by an old 9.9 Johnson. During summers when I wasn’t working on an oyster boat or filleting fish in our seafood market, I would venture out to areas in Dickinson Bay and lower Galveston Bay that my dad and my great uncle BB Hillman had shown me. I learned how to use MirroLures and Kelly Wiggler shrimp tails at a very early age because of them. It became obvious that saltwater was in my veins. Through my heritage and my love for fishing I decided to start my own charter business in 2004. I enjoy meeting people and I thoroughly enjoy sharing my fishing experience with them. Hillman Guide Service is 4 generations of knowledge, hard work, and the blessing of being able to share it with others all rolled into one. I run a 23” Gulf Coast and a 22” Boston Whaler equipped with state-of-the-art electronics. Please visit me at www.hillmanguideservice.com or call me at 409-256-7937 to schedule your next fishing trip. Happy Fishing, Captain Steve Hillman C O A S T A L

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REDFISH

Lake Calaveras

➤

Rudy Cantu III, caught this 351/2-inch, 20-pound red drum at the Crappie Wall on Calaveras Lake, using a Rapala Clak n Rap lure (white), Mitchell Reel, and 50-pound Power Pro braid.

➤

Goose Island State Park

Brody Carter, age 13, from Hallsville, caught his biggest bass ever while fishing with his family on a private lake in Garrison. The fish was released.

Zach Hubbard and Kolby Stewart, both age 12, from Sweeny, gigged 15 flounder and caught a 5-1/2 pound speckled trout at the mouth of the San Bernard River.

Cage Richards of Waller, age 15, caught this red snapper at 27 miles off Freeport while on a trip with his family and “Capt. Tommy.”

San Bernard River

SPECKLED TROUT

Garrison

RED SNAPPER

Fayette County Res.

Jared Suomela, age 10, of Cypress asked to go bass fishing for his birthday. He caught his first largemouth bass, 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and then caught a 5-pound, 11-ounce bass. His proud grandfather and dad were with him on Fayette County Reservoir.

LARGEMOUTH BASS

MIXED STRINGER

LARGEMOUTH BASS

➤

Owen Strain, age 3, of Rosenberg, caught his first keeper redfish, a 20-1/2 incher, in East Matagorda bay, using his new spinning reel he got for his birthday. Dad Brian Strain counts the event as a major “daddy” milestone.

➤

East Matagorda Bay

Trinity

Five-year-old Julia Smith of Latexo, Texas caught her first catfish on White Rock Creek, near Trinity, on her Sponge Bob fishing pole.

➤

REDFISH

CATFISH

Glen Clark of Boerne got his limit of speckled trout while wade fishing in the waters off Goose Island State Park.

Offshore

WHITE BASS | Lake Somerville

➤

Keith Bronikowski (left), Kirsten Kline, Abby Marburger, and Regan Marburger caught this mess of white bass while celebrating the 4th of July at Lake Somerville.

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MAIL TO: TFG PHOTOS 1745 Greens Rd, Houston TX 77032 NOTE: Print photos can not be returned.

EMAIL: photos@FishGame.com

BREAM

Lake Dunlap

➤

REDFISH | Rockport

Brooke Leopold and her cousin Kellan Werner, both from Hallettsville, hooked up with this nice pair of 28-inch reds while wade fishing with their dads in Rockport.

Owen Stolinski, age 3, of New Braunfels caught and released his first fish on Lake Dunlap while fishing with his dad and “Opie.”

➤

For best results, send MED to HIGH quality JPEG digital files only, please.

No guarantee can be made as to when, or if, a submitted photo will be published.

BLACK DRUM

Padre Island Nat. Seashore

Madison Kesinger, age 7, of San Antonio, caught her first black drum on dead shrimp while fishing with her daddy Ricky at Padre Island National Seashore. The fish was almost 20 inches.

WHITETAIL BUCK | Comal County

Five-year-old Thomas Jay Hamilton shot his first deer, a 6-pointer, while hunting with his dad, Jason Hamilton, and uncle in Comal County.

➤ CATFISH

➤

FERAL HOGS | Victoria County

Reid Gillar (left) with cousins Hayden Schulz and Hunter Schulz trapped these hogs on Christmas break in Victoria County. Dad Craig Schulz helped the boys harvest the hogs.

Waller

Abby Marburger caught this 12-pound catfish while fishing a private pond in Waller, Texas.

SPECKLED TROUT Rockport

Lake Livingston

➤

Daylan Einkauf (age 13) of Fulshear caught and released this 18pound yellow cat on a rod and reel in Lake Livingston, using fresh shad for bait. This is his biggest fish to date.

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CATFISH

Six-year-old Melyna De Leon caught her first trout off the pier at Little Bay Condos in Rockport. It was a great night for her proud Papa, Marc De Leon to see his daughter's face light up as she caught 6 trout. Her shirt reads “Whatever boys can catch Girls can catch Bigger.”

F I S H

Galveston

Dana Polk of Allen, Texas with big Bull Red she caught and released on the Gulf side of the North Jetty in Galveston.

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