A Return to the Prairies

IT’S DIFFICULT TO BE OPTIMIStic about things we can see that don’t look like they should or once did, but this past winter delivered a genuine slice of hope for southeast Texas waterfowl hunters.

Since my son was born in 2007, and right up to this past season, it was nearly impossible to nd more than a few dozen geese, of any size or color, gathered in the same eld at the same time on what used to be the Katy Prairie west of Houston.

Two and three decades ago, it almost seemed tougher mid-winter to nd a harvested rice or soybean eld that didn’t have birds on it. I was fortunate enough to be an avid waterfowl hunter and guide during that time, and the memories are indelible.

e past is the past, though, so no need to dwell on it. And neither, I’m glad to say, have I given up on a potential revitalization of that area. A er more recent winters than not of driving that prairie and searching unsuccessfully for something that even remotely resembled a large concentration of geese, an amazing thing happened.

I saw a picture on social media, posted by a man I’ve known for decades, of snow geese not far north of Hwy 90 between Katy and Brookshire. And then I received a couple of private messages that shared the same news. And then a couple more, and I got cautiously optimistic about the slight but real chance that this prairie and the remaining farmland that entirely surrounds Houston’s sprawl may – may – draw more birds in the future.

ose geese were there, thousands of them in a single eld on what’s le of the region’s formerly enormous agricultural footprint. And in relatively nearby stubble, still more birds.

is wasn’t the sky- lling spectacle my friends and I witnessed so long ago, but it was a far more impressive sight than most younger hunters had ever seen. And that made me feel good. About the prairie speci cally and about our bays and about Texas wildlife in general.

What the return of those birds to that prairie represented was a reminder that change, for be er or for worse, isn’t permanent. For those geese to nd their way to the Katy Prairie again meant that somewhere else in the yway, hunters were staring at empty elds. at’s their change.

Does it mean that next year’s ights into this region will be larger still and that what’s

:: by DOUG PIKE

TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

safe from predators.

For geese, those rest areas are open water. Sleeping geese would be “si ing ducks” if they slept on land, hunted and haunted by a number of predators. On water, it’s virtually impossible for any fourlegged animal to approach without detection.

As a guide, in the elds early to set up and late to scout for the following day, I saw more than a few coyote try to tiptoe through shallow water that held huge ocks of sleeping geese. I saw them try, but I never saw one succeed. Wake one goose, and that coyote’s hunt is nished.

And back brie y to food, most of the former visitors to that prairie each winter were drawn by thousands of acres of mostly rice along with the occasional section of soybeans, corn or peanuts. e prairie provided a bountiful bu et and was more than able to support any and every goose that wintered there.

le of the prairie might be blanketed again someday in mid-continent snow geese? Probably not, but even if only 10 percent of the geese I remember come back, like Capistrano’s swallows, that prairie could be a productive hunting ground for the relatively small number of people who’d be out there during future seasons.

Waterfowl aren’t that much di erent than any wildlife species. ey’re driven by only two forces, food and shelter. ey need food, fuel for their bodies, to make their annual migrations and endure harsh winter weather. And they need rest between refueling sessions in areas where they are ere was a li le more rice here this past year and a few more soybeans or corn or peanuts there, and the birds found it all. And stayed longer, in larger numbers, than in perhaps any of the past 15 years.

In the same vein, it was a dramatic reduction in rice production years ago that relocated most of the hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks that once rode out the cold months on that prairie.

Change happens in the outdoors. Not always for the be er, but always for a region. is time, in this once mind-blowing mecca to waterfowl hunters, the change was good. Small, yes, but an encouraging sign a er nothing of the sort for so, so long.

ALLON CLEPPER IS NO STRANGER TO readers here at Texas Fish & Game.

She has wri en articles for us about high school bass shing and her favorite shing strategies.

And recently the teen from the Montgomery Fishing Team at Lake Creek High School in Montgomery, Texas made a big splash on the national scene.

She and her partner Wya Ford beat out 235 other boats at Alabama’s Pickwick Lake last spring, catching 39 pounds-nine ounces to win the High School Fishing National Championship and earn the 17-year-olds four year college o ers totaling $180,000 and other prizes.

Oh, and Fallon made history.

She’s the rst female to win the national title in a high school tournament

“Winning the national championship was amazing. But that wasn’t the best part of the entire trip, just having a li le girl look up to me and just be like, ‘I want to be her one day,” Clepper said in a story in the e Washington Post.

Yes, e Washington Post.

Clepper and Ford have had a whirlwind of a time since the big win and have made mainstream national media.

Lone Star Jr. Bassmasters

Clepper and Ford were not the only big winners from Texas last year.

Mark Cerja Jr. and Gus Richardson of the Lone Star Junior Bassmasters won the Bassmaster Junior National Championship at the Carroll County Recreational Lake in Huntington, TX.

A Day 1 limit of 10-7 put Cerja and Richardson in second place. Catching another limit of 7-14 in the nal round, they claimed the top award — a $2,000 scholarship they’ll split according to an article wri en by David Brown at Bassmaster.com.

“I’ve been shing since I was 2, and I was taught to sh hard and grind and never give up,” Cerja said.

According to Bassmaster, Lone Star Jr Bassmasters is a group of youth ages 7-18 who get together 10 times per year to sh competitive bass tournaments. e objective of the club is to provide this opportunity to as many youth as possible.

Splendora Makes A Splash

Austin Yeager of the Splendora High School Bass Fishing Team was the overall winner of the 2022 St. Croix and Texas

Fish & Game Conservation Challenge.

Yeager took part in several of the seven total challenges and extended his conservation e orts to not only bass shing, but catch-and-release of alligator gar sh.

“He’s obviously passionate about shing and sheries conservation and took to his own to inspire others to get some skin in the game on conservation. He’s a very deserving winner of the grand prize which is a $1,000 scholarship courtesy of St. Croix,” said Texas Fish & Game Editor-In-Chief

Chester Moore.

St. Croix and Texas Fish & Game in January 2022 collaborated on behalf of youth and incentivized conservation activism among Texas high school bass shing competitors.

“We believe this tech-savvy generation can do great things for sheries and conservation. We have partnered with Texas Fish & Game to create the Texas High School Bass Conservation Challenge, which will be a fun way for students to promote conservation as well as win some great prizes.” said Jesse Simpkins, Vice President of Marketing at St. Croix.

St. Croix and Texas Fish & Game sent seven di erent challenges to high school bass team sponsors throughout the state during the spring semester.

Individual challenge winners got their choice of a Bass X rod from St. Croix.

In February, St. Croix and Texas Fish & Game began a program to get high school bass anglers to sign a pledge to conserve sheries’ resources and sh in an ethical manner.

TF&G is working directly with high school bass shing sponsors to promote the pledge and help spread conservation and angling ethics through this St. Croixsponsored program.

LCM Bass Team

that inspired us here at TFG. ey went to the city council of Orange and got permission to put shing line disposal receptacles at public boat ramps.

e problem of people throwing line in the water is a boating hazard as line can get caught in props and cause issues and is also a pollution concern. ey took it upon themselves to make this happen and make a di erence for shing and shermen.

e LCM bass team has racked up many accomplishments over the last few years, including multiple School of the Year honors by the Southeast Texas High School Bass Fishing Association.

Help Spread the Word

We would like to send out news releases on tournaments and other issues related to high school bass shing via our Fish & Game report e-newsle er. You can help us by sending stories and photos to cmoore@ shgame.com.

We have commi ed to covering high school and collegiate bass shing since both of their inceptions and will continue to do so.