10 minute read
Texas Freshwater
by MATT WILLIAMS :: TF&GFreshwater Editor
Fish Tales: Super Bites
IT’S NOT EVERY DAY YOU CATCH a 50-pound athead cat sh on rod and reel. e piscatorial giants are frequently caught by trot-liners, using live perch for bait or hand shermen brave enough go rooting around in their spawning dens.
Many rod/reel encounters with atheads happen while the angler is targeting an entirely di erent species. Wayne Zartman of Bedford knows all about that deal.
Zartman was enjoying an eventful white bass feeding spree at Lake Ray Roberts near Denton when he inadvertently crossed paths with a heavyweight athead. His bait of choice was a 1/2-ounce slab spoon, a at piece of lead painted chartreuse and white with a treble hook on the business end.
Sand bass had been biting fairly well, Zartman said. He had already landed about 30 sh when he felt the thump of another bite. He was bringing the sh toward the boat when something much larger gobbled it up, headed the opposite direction and peeled drag o his bait caster.
What Zartman called an “epic ba le” ensued. He gured he had hooked a big cat sh, but said he didn’t know for certain until about 10 minutes later when nally managed to work the sh to the surface. A athead with a weight problem had decided to munch the eight-inch sandie for lunch.
“Much to my surprise, when I went to retrieve my lure from this beast, the two of the three treble hooks were in the sand bass’s mouth and only one hook was in the cat sh,” Zartman recalled. “I got the single hook out of the cat sh’s mouth with a simple twist of my pliers and then did the same with the sand bass.”
Zartman said the fat cat bo omed out a set of 50-pound scales. He worked the sand bass out of the cat sh’s throat and his girlfriend took a few pictures. Both sh were released unharmed.
“It’s de nitely one of my favorite shing memories for sure!” Zartman said.
Some anglers may have been tempted to keep the cat sh, but it would have been illegal to do so. at’s because the athead ate the sand bass, not Zartman’s slab spoon. Both sh are labeled as “sport sh” in Texas, and it is illegal to use any sport sh as bait.
Walter (Junior) omas of Alba knows the situation all too well. In 2010, omas was shing for crappie at Lake Fork when he hooked a crappie on 1/16-ounce jig rigged on ultralight gear. omas was reeling the crappie to the boat when a big bass grabbed it and took o . e angler landed eventually landed both sh. e 15.69 pounder would have ranked in the Top 50 heaviest bass ever reported in Texas had it been caught on a lure or minnow instead of a crappie.
Interestingly, omas was already aware the catch was not legal. e angler had caught and released two sh over 10 pounds the same way the month before. inking there was a chance he might catch a bigger one, he contacted TPWD’s law enforcement headquarters to nd out more.
Robert Goodrich, TPWD’s assistant chief of sheries enforcement at the time, explained that it is not legal to retain any sh that is caught using game sh for bait, even if it is unintentional.
ings can get even more dicey when you hook what you think is a sh, but it doesn’t turn out to be a sh at all.
Justin Broomhall of Je erson got a good taste of shing’s wild side during a Father’s Day shing trip to Lake Cherokee, a private lake near Longview.
Broomhall and his dad, Michael, were bank shing for cat sh in Lee Creek. He said they had caught several channel cats and blue cats when the bite suddenly waned.
“I told my dad there might be a predator around that spooked the sh,” he said.
Broomhall’s intuitions were correct. He saw a bubble trail on the surface within casting distance and lobbed a fresh glob of Cat sh Charlie toward it. He saw the line jump and set the hook.
Broomhall eventually worked the cri er close enough to shore to it see was an alligator snapping turtle. Sometimes called a loggerhead because of its large head, the alligator snapping turtle is easily distinguishable by the three rows of spiked ridges on top of its shell. e snappers have jaws powerful enough to break a broom handle. ey frequently use a worm-shaped appendage on the tip of their tongues to lure sh or other prey close. e prehistoric-looking beast is the largest freshwater turtle in North America. Also, it’s a threatened species protected by law in Texas. Turtles pushing 300 pounds have been documented, but Broomhall’s wasn’t quite that big. He knows because he got his hands on the turtle and carefully wrestled it to shore to get a closer look.
Broomhall used pliers to remove the hook, took a few pictures and released the big turtle unharmed back into the lake. Word of his catch spread quickly as the photos circulated on social media. Eventually, it was picked up by local and national news outlets. Not surprisingly, he also got a visit from local game wardens interested to learn more about the fate of the dino-looking turtle.
“He’s doing just ne—a neighbor saw him a couple of days later,” he said.
Email Matt Williams at ContactUs@fi shgame.com
story by Chester Moore
EDFISH ARE THE ULTIMATE symbol of nearshore fishing along the Gulf Coast.
Whether it’s pursuing tailing reds with fly gear in the marsh, monster bulls in the surf, or drifting for them over seagrass flats, this species is a vital part of Gulf fishing culture.
Let’s take a minute to get educated on all things redfish.
Redfish Size
The state record redfish was caught by angler Artie Longron in 2000. It weighed 59.50 pounds and was caught in the Gulf of Mexico out of Sabine Pass. Over the last 15 years, more anglers are reporting catching bull redfish (over slot size) in our bay systems and this is reflected in the records. Over half of our main bay system records were broken since 2008.
SABINE LAKE: 35.44 pounds, by Brian Poirier in 2004 GALVESTON BAY: 44 pounds, by Russell Jana, 2010 MATAGORDA BAY: 41.50 pounds, caught by Candance Kern (on a fly!) in 2019 SAN ANTONIO BAY: 28 pounds, by Tracy Dews, 1998. ARANSAS BAY: 35 pounds, by Daniel Markey in 2006 CORPUS CHRISTI BAY: 22.09 pounds, caught by Filip Spence in 2008 BAFFIN BAY: 27.99 pounds, by Ismael Pena in 2020 UPPER LAGUNA MADRE: 39.13, caught by Dr. E. Stanton Shoemaker (on a fly!) in 2008
LOWER LAGUNA MADRE: 33.60, caught by Carlos Hernandez in 2006
Everything Isn’t Always Bigger In Texas
According to o cials with North Carolina Environmental Quality, North Carolina is famous for its trophy-sized red drum that can weigh in excess of 40 pounds.
“ ey are traditionally caught in the surf and sound between Oregon Inlet and Cape Lookout. In 1984, a giant red drum weighing 94 pounds, 2 ounces was caught o Ha eras Island. It broke both the state and all-tackle world record, and it remains the International Game Fish Association AllTackle world record for red drum today”
A 94-pound red sh! at’s amazing! Cool Cousins
According to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) o cials, red sh are related to black drum, spo ed seatrout, weak sh, mullets, and croakers, most of which also make drumming sounds.
Redfi sh School Year Classes
When asked if red sh will ever become more plentiful in our marshes than they are now, LSU Ag Center o cials had a very indepth answer.
“Not likely. Even though red sh live as long as 40 years, the number of red sh in inside waters depends on the success of the last three spawns before the year in question. Red sh spawn from late August through October. At one year old, they will range from 10 to 17 inches long, averaging 14 inches. At 2 years old they will range from 18 to 24 inches, and weigh 3 to 6 pounds.”
“At 3 years old, they will range in size from 20 to 28 inches, weighing 4 to 9 pounds. en they leave. Even though a few larger sh remain inshore, a er age three, red sh show substantial movement to o shore waters where they ultimately join the schools of spawning “bull” red sh. Even if we had 10 great spawning year classes in a row, inshore shermen will catch sh mostly from the last three, and only keep sh from two-year classes, since the sh from the last spawn will average under the legal size.”
Redfi sh are bottom feeders, which creates the phenomenon of “tailing” in shallow water.
Life History Of Young Reds
Young red drum feed on small crabs, shrimp, and marine worms. As they grow older, they feed on larger crabs, shrimp, small sh, and sometimes their cousins, the Atlantic croaker according to TPWD o cials.
Great White Food
Seasonal Distribution and Historic Trends in Abundance of White Sharks in the Western North Atlantic published by PLOS One shows gives an interesting tidbit about red sh.
It details red sh are among the items preferred by the Gulf’s great whites.
Pogie Boat Bycatch
e bycatch of red sh in pogie (menhaden) boats in Louisiana where they are allowed to sh much closer to the shore than in Texas is a major controversy east of Sabine Lake.
When asked why pogie boats operating close to shore is such a problem, CCALouisiana o cials said the following.
“ e way pogie is shed, and its occurrence within some of the most fertile waters for a variety of sh, there is a signi cant bycatch resulting in harm to many of Louisiana’s favorite recreational sh-approximately 135,000 pounds of trout and red sh speci cally each year – and harm to forage for many of our most iconic Louisiana birds and wildlife like Brown Pelicans.”
“According to the industry, bycatch by percentage is relatively low in comparison to other commercial sheries, representing 2-3% of the total catch. But even at 2-3%, you are still talking about 20-30 million pounds of bycatch—our drum, red sh, speckled trout, crabs, shrimp, and more killed each year.”
In each issue, we give you information via our hot spots, hot spots focus, and o en in columns on how and where to catch red sh.
We hope you enjoyed this issue’s educational journey through “Red sh School” to learn more about their life and conservation.
