November 2018
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ABOUT THE COVER Flounder take center stage in November as they begin their annual spawning migration to the gulf. Captain Trey Prye snagged this nice flattie while wading East Matagorda Bay.
NOVEMBER 2018 VOL 28 NO 7
CONTENTS FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
8 November – Thanks Given 12 Circumstance, Strategy, Outcome 16 Bodie’s Back in Texas 20 Birdbrains or Birds and Brains 26 Under the Milky Way Tonight 30 The Wrong Place to be a Shrimp
35 Holiday Gift Guide 46 Let’s Ask The Pro 52 Shallow Water Fishing 56 TPWD Field Notes 58 Kayak Fishing Chronicles 60 TSFMag Conservation News 64 Fishy Facts 66 Inshore | Nearshore | Jetties | Passes 70 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks... 74 Plastic & Water Don’t Mix 101 Science & the Sea
Steve Hillman Kevin Cochran Martin Strarup Chuck Uzzle Joe Richard Dr. Jason Halfen
30
Jay Watkins Scott Null Dr. Tiffany Hopper Dave Roberts CCA Texas Stephanie Boyd Curtiss Cash Eric Ozolins Everett Johnson UT Marine Science Institute
70
WHAT OUR GUIDES
HAVE TO SAY
78 80 82 84 86 88 90
Dickie Colburn’s Sabine Scene The Buzz on Galveston Bay The View from Matagorda Mid-Coast Bays with the Grays Hooked up with Rowsey Wayne’s Port Mansfield Report South Padre Fishing Scene
Dickie Colburn Caleb Harp Bink Grimes Shellie Gray David Rowsey Wayne Davis Ernest Cisneros
REGULARS 8 Editorial 76 New Tackle & Gear 92 Fishing Reports and Forecasts 96 Catch of the Month 98 Gulf Coast Kitchen
98
88 4 | November 2018
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Everett Johnson Everett@tsfmag.com VICE PRESIDENT PRODUCTION & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Pam Johnson Pam@tsfmag.com Office: 361-785-3420 Cell: 361-550-9918 NATIONAL SALES REPRESENTATIVE Bart Manganiello Bartalm@optonline.net REGIONAL SALES REPRESENTATIVE Patti Elkins Patti@tsfmag.com Office: 361-785-3420 Cell: 361-649-2265 PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Donna Boyd Donna@tsfmag.com CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTION – PRODUCT SALES Vicky Morgenroth Store@tsfmag.com DESIGN & LAYOUT Stephanie Boyd Artwork@tsfmag.com Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine is published monthly. Subscription Rates: One Year (Free Emag with Hard Copy) Subscription $25.00 E-MAG (electronic version) is available for $12.00 per year. Order on-line: WWW.TSFMAG.COM MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine Attn: Subscriptions P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 * Subscribers are responsible for submitting all address changes and renewals by the 10th of the prior month’s issue. Email store@tsfmag.com for all address changes or please call 361-785-3420 from 8am - 4:30pm. The U.S. Postal Service does not guarantee magazines will be forwarded. HOW TO CONTACT TSFMAG: PHONE: 361-785-3420 FAX: 361 792-4530 MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, Texas 77983 PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, TX 77983 WEB: www.TSFMAG.com PHOTO GALLERY: photos@tsfmag.com PRINTED IN THE USA. Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine (ISSN 1935-9586) is published monthly by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., 58 Fisherman’s Lane, Seadrift, Texas 77983 l P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 © Copyright 1990 All rights reserved. Positively nothing in this publication may be reprinted or reproduced. *Views expressed by Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine contributors do not necessarily express the views of Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine. Periodical class permit (USPS# 024353) paid at Victoria, TX 77901 and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Inc., P. O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983.
EDITORIAL
THE TRUE MEANING OF THANKSGIVING
Among all the greatness that is November, the highlight of the month is the American tradition of Thanksgiving. Everyone knows the origin of this annual celebration dates to the Pilgrims staging a feast to commemorate their first successful harvest in the New World; but few know that it was not until 1863 and the darkest days of the American Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father” be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. So, with that bit of history, let’s have a look into what Thanksgiving means to today’s generations of Texas families that enjoy the outdoors. First and foremost – Thanksgiving is a family holiday. Family and friends gather to celebrate the bounty and blessings The Almighty has bestowed. We feast. We bond with children and grandchildren during days on the water, in duck blinds and deer stands. We watch football games. We celebrate the joy and blessings of living in the greatest nation the world has ever known! As a youngster I recall vividly the anxious build-up to the great day. Riding the school bus the final half-day of school, clutching a prized piece of grade-school art that along with my sibling’s creations would decorate our home. Bursting through the kitchen door, proud to show it off, greeted by the delicious aroma of fresh-baked bread, pumpkin, and apple pies. My mother was an incredible homemaker. We’d be up before dawn because Thanksgiving was a hunting day, even
6 | November 2018
when too young to carry a shotgun. Whether we’d hit the marsh for ducks or tromp endless uplands for pheasants didn’t matter. It was a family affair of uncles, cousins, and friends, and it was always grand. Thanksgiving dinner was a feast to behold, and remarkably, looking back, the memory of great parenting and love shared around the table has remained more vividly than any of the meals. My own cherished memories of Thanksgivings past brings me to ponder whether we as parents and grandparents are instilling the same enduring love of Our Creator and the true meaning of the blessings we enjoy and celebrate. Are we providing the same quality of leadership in love of country and fellow man? Are we taking time to pass on the great traditions of the outdoor lifestyle? Are we teaching youngsters the importance of stewardship and conservation? Are we grooming them sufficiently to become the next “great” generation? So I offer a challenge. A challenge to parents and grandparents and mentors of every sort. I challenge you to make this the best Thanksgiving ever for your children and grandchildren, for all your extended family and friends, to the kid in the neighborhood living in less-than-fortunate circumstances. Invite them all to Thanksgiving dinner. Take them fishing and hunting. Get out in the yard and throw the football. Invite them in for a ball game on TV and holiday leftovers. Pray with them and for them, show them love and the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
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STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN
Water hyacinth flushed out into the bay from several days of heavy rains.
O
ctober has become known to many as the beginning of fall fishing along our Texas bays. Officially, the first day of fall this year was September 22nd which is when the autumnal equinox occurred. “Officially” the trout couldn’t care less about dates on a calendar. “Official” dates and labels aside, during most years our “fall” pattern really doesn’t kick into gear until November. While there are plenty of cool days during the Halloween month they’re seldom cool enough to concentrate trout. As a matter of fact, the weaker early-fall fronts tend to actually scatter fish. I tend to find more tricks than treats during this time because of this. Please don’t misunderstand, fishing is always fishing and we’ll usually find ways to succeed whether we’re donning short sleeves or jackets. However, for me at least, November is when our true fall pattern begins and it is also when I get a little extra jump in my step. What most folks (including me) commonly refer to as the “transition” is now in our rearview mirror and nothing but good stuff paves the road ahead. Now it’s time to get down to business! November is when “cool” fronts will become “cold” fronts and noticeable changes will take place throughout our estuaries. Water temperatures will drop significantly for the first time in many months. Back lakes, bayous and rivers will begin to breathe life into our bays and trout will tend to show themselves more frequently as they gravitate towards these arteries. Timely rainfall has contributed to a boon in shad and shrimp throughout the entire Galveston Bay Complex this year. This rich food supply coupled with aggressive feeding should produce easily identifiable slicks. I’m talking about the small, well-defined, hard-edged slicks. Not the long, bled-out looking ones. It’s important to understand the difference between the two. The small oil-rich slicks are fresh whereas the large spread out or bled-out slicks are old and in many cases weren’t even caused by trout. Of course there will also be flocks of gulls and terns losing their minds as they swoop down to grab white shrimp that are going airborne in an effort to avoid becoming an easy meal for trout and reds. Man, it must really suck to be a shrimp. I like and appreciate virtually all lures. Kuddos to all of the successful and ingenious lure manufacturers out there who continuously come up with new designs to give ole boys like me the upper hand. All fake baits have their time in the spotlight over the course of the year, but some lures really stand out to me and tend to ratchet up the excitement to an entirely new level. Who doesn’t love the rush of a solid speck crashing a topwater? Or how about an amped-up late fall frenzied speck damn near taking the rod out of your hand when she hammers your floating twitchbait?
Various varieties of both baits will take center stage during the better part of this month. My short list of favorites includes MirrOlure She Dogs, Rapala Skitter Walks, Borboleta Lele’s, and Texas Custom Lure’s Double D MirrOlure. Another new bait I’m looking forward to using is the Lele S which is a sinking version of the floating Lele twitchbait. I have a feeling there will be some stud trout caught on some of the lures I’ve mentioned, especially when the water temperatures really begin to decrease. Fall doesn’t come without its surprises but learning how to make the proper adjustments makes it even more fun than it already is. A steady and predictable pattern can change within 24 hours with the passage of a cold front leaving us scratching our heads. Not only can water temperatures drop very quickly but some fronts bring several days of heavy downpours causing salinities to drop which can force fish into other areas. Some salinity changes can come on very quickly and can actually be seen with the naked eye while others take longer and may be subtler. In addition to my usual on-the-water anecdotal approach there is a surface salinity forecast website that I use as well. It is computer generated information based upon hydrodynamic models but it provides me with a good visual of not only the surface salinities throughout our bay system but also the directional flow of fresh water within our system. You can find it at: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ofs/ ngofs/ngofs.html. This URL will take you to the Northern Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast page. Just click on your bay system (NGOFS Subdomains) on the left side of the page to bring up a map of your bay system. Below the map will be a list of choices from which you can choose - water level, wind, water temperature, salinity and currents. Clicking on “Nowcast” beneath your desired category will bring up the animated map. Water clarity can also pose problems when there’s excessive freshwater runoff entering the bay. This is when darker colors and higher-pitched, noisy plugs come into play. Soft plastics in Red Shad, Morning Glory and Texas Roach are always great choices in dirty water. High-pitched topwaters such as She Dogs, Skitter Walks and One Knocker Spooks are great choices for surface plugging. 10 | November 2018
A perfect example of a not-so-subtle salinity change.
A live oyster is always a welcome sight. We just need more of them! The small mussels attached are more prevalent in lower salinity years. I’m very thankful to have rock star quality lures like this to make fall fishing even more exciting! Left to right – Rapala Skitter Walk, MirrOlure She Dog, MirrOlure 51MR 704, Lele floater, Lele slow sinker, MirrOlure MirrOdine and Texas Custom Lures Double D.
Fronts typically bring wind but unless it’s gale force, November provides excellent wading options along protected shorelines. Fall wading can be some of the easiest of the entire year as marsh drains feed adjacent shorelines lined with soft bottom and small oyster reefs. Wading near guts while keying on active mullet and slicks can produce some solid pulls from not only trout but plenty of reds and flounder. It’s an easy pattern to follow. Speaking of oysters, I’ve noticed more and more live oysters in certain areas we’ve fished. This is great news considering that a little more than a year ago Harvey’s freshwater killed so many of them.
Wide open spaces on this beautiful fall morning! Very thankful for every single sunrise. It never gets old.
Another thing to get excited about, especially later in the month, is seeing an increase in the size of trout caught. Our chances for better quality fish typically increase with each passing cold front. These larger trout instinctively gorge as the water temperatures decline, almost as though they can sense winter is coming and food will soon become scarce. We will still catch plenty of little fellers in the mix but I have a theory on why more large trout will begin to show themselves. Teenagers come home from school every day and raid the pantry. They basically never stop eating. High metabolic rate juvenile trout possess the same characteristics. As we get older our metabolism slows down and we’re not hungry as frequently. However, when we do get hungry we can be known to gorge. I firmly believe that mature speckled trout behave the same way. November possesses so many benefits that I have to pinch myself. It’s in the top three of my favorite months to fish. The crowds are usually lighter, the air temperatures are very pleasant on most days and the fish are generally bigger. If we get blown off of the water for a few days then I can head south for a little deer hunting or I could team up with a couple of buddies and go duck hunting. For these things, I give thanks. I hope everyone has a fun-filled Thanksgiving. God bless!
STEVE HILLMAN
CONTACT
The NOAA OFS Animation website can be a very useful tool when planning your trip after a heavy rainfall event.
Steve Hillman is a full-time fishing guide on his home waters of Galveston Bay. Steve fishes the entire Galveston Bay Complex, wading and drifting for trout, redfish, and flounder using artificial lures. Phone 409-256-7937 Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com Web www.hillmanguideservice.com
TSFMAG.com | 11
STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN
I
n today’s modern world, using tools like Google Earth and GPS, anglers can create meaningful fishing logs, rich with detail and depth. Anglers who maintain two types of logs will likely derive maximum benefit from their activities, especially if they integrate and cross-reference the data. I’d describe the most common, familiar fishing logs as daily activity logs. In these, anglers record data related to the season, weather, water conditions, locations fished, lures used and fish caught. Additionally, modern anglers can now maintain spot-specific logs, using GPS coordinates and Google Earth to store the same types of data contained in the daily logs. Recording GPS data in the daily logs would connect them securely to the spot-specific logs in a meaningful way, as would recording the dates of daily logs in the notes of spotspecific entries. In the digital realm, this could allow one to click back and forth between the two sets of related logs. Regardless of the type of log, studious anglers maintain data in three categories: circumstance, strategy and outcome. Circumstance data includes date, time, duration of efforts and events, celestial influences like tide level, tide movement, moon rise and set and weather elements, meaning air and water temperature, wind speed and direction, water clarity and salinity level. With all these elements, any significant change affecting strategy and outcome should be noted in the log. Strategy data includes choice of location(s), choice of drifting vs. wading, direction and pace of movement, lure choices and presentations deployed, including anything more specific which bears significance, meaning elements which obviously impacted the productivity of a strategy, positively or negatively. Outcome data documents the number, size and species of fish caught. As with the other types of data, more detail makes the numbers more meaningful. Of course, anglers doing all the work of recording this data want to catch more and bigger fish over time. Breaking the data into these three categories and recording it all systematically can aid in achieving the goals of improved consistency, higher productivity and better quality of fish caught. Creating a numbers-based system can enhance this potentially complex endeavor. In the circumstance realm, numbers naturally come into play. All dates, times, wind
directions and speeds, air and water temperatures express themselves numerically. To maximize ease of use and benefit, one might transform water or air temperatures onto a simpler scale, where temperatures below 60°=1, 61-70°=2, 71-80°=3 and 81° or greater=4. Of course, this would decrease specificity and potentially numb the benefits of the data in some cases, where small variances in water temperature create dramatic differences in strategy and outcome. Because one cannot measure water clarity as accurately as temperature, anglers must rank it on a scale through visual observation. One can convert turbidity to numbers by ranking it on either a 1-5 or 1-10 scale, where 1 represents air-clear water and either 5 or 10 represents excessively turbid water. In places where water clarity varies most widely, like riverine estuaries with strong freshwater influence, the larger scale makes more sense, whereas in places like the Laguna Madre, which generally holds somewhat to extremely clear water, a 1-5 scale will likely suffice When documenting celestial influences, some numbers inherently serve the purpose, meaning the specific time of a moon rise or set, or the turn of a tide. Adding symbols or letters to these numbers takes the specificity of the data to the optimal level. For instance, the following entry might document a full moon rising at seven p.m.: FR7:00p, whereas a new moon rising at seven a.m. would appear as NR7:00a. As with strategy, documenting any relevant changes in circumstance which affect outcome helps one refine the sense of what works and what doesn’t work, and what conditions best elevate the productivity of various places and/or the general feeding mood of the fish at any location. For instance, using a scale to simplify wind speeds in conjunction with symbols can document important weather changes. One might place wind speeds onto a scale from 1-4, like the one for temperatures. With wind velocity, 1=speeds of 0-10 knots, 2=1115k, 3=16-20k and 4=21 knots or stronger. Adding the directional component as a compass heading like 180° for due south will work, as will referencing the quadrants with letters like S, SE, N and NW. Numerically noting any shifts in wind direction or speed will add detail to the log. A wind shift occurring at 9:30 a.m. with the arrival of a cold front might show as 215°1▲0°4@9:30a., with the delta (triangle) representing “change” or “shift”. A word-based, narrative way of recording the same event would read, “cold front blew in at 9:30, and the wind shifted from light southwest to strong north”. In most cases, the arrival of a front causes a short-term frenzy of catching activity, followed by a long lull when catching becomes difficult. Anglers should document such facts in the log. In other situations, more subtle changes in weather accentuate or dull the catch rate. For 14 | November 2018
Marking numerous waypoints and creating spot-specific logs for all of them aids in the never-ending quest for complete knowledge of the bay systems and how conditions affect fishing their various parts.
instance, fish often bite for an hour or so at the end of a dead-calm lull, when light onshore winds start blowing, or when harsh offshore winds in the wake of a passing front first subside, especially in winter. Documenting those facts in detail makes sense. One way to do so involves ranking the catch rate on a scale of either 1-5 or 1-10. So, one might add the catching data reference to the stream, 135°1▲135°3@10:20a»CR1^5, which represents the following: “southeast wind under 10 changed to southeast over 15 at 10:20, increasing the catch rate from slowest to fastest.” Of course, one might also add the duration of the fast catch rate to the stream in order to best record the significance of the events. Documenting any aspect of strategy which affects catch rate proves similarly meaningful. At a basic level, noting which spots proved most productive does this. In order to enhance the connectivity of daily and spot-specific logs, one should use GPS coordinates to reference spots. Recording details related to more subtle aspects of adjustments to strategy can provide data with equally useful meaning. For instance, one might record facts related to the choice of basic strategy, like a change from drifting to wading, noting times when those choices affect the catch rate measurably. Specific choices of parts or types of terrain targeted within an area, pace of movement while wading, use of signs to indicate locations of fish and all other aspects of strategy should be documented in either type of log. Numbers don’t readily fit with these kinds of notations like they do with the circumstance and outcome portions of logs, so they might fit best at the bottom or end of a log, serving almost like footnotes. Certainly, one should describe any measurable alterations to lure choice and/or presentation which either favorably or negatively altered the catch rate at a given location or on a given day.
A warming trend occurring after a strong early-season cold front created conditions conducive to catching big trout on sinking FatBoys. Jason King caught this one on a day when he and the captain hooked about twenty big trout.
In order to facilitate ease of reference and potential optimal use of data, one should record names for lures and even presentations. Of course, lures have pre-set names, while presentations don’t. I use terms like “bread and butter” and “stop and start” for presentations, adding nomenclature for portions of presentations too, such as “speed burst” and “brief pause.” Using all these names and terms consistently will enhance the usefulness of data over time. To repeat, the goal of recording and studying the data over time is to catch more fish more consistently and/or to catch bigger fish. When recording the outcome data in logs, anglers should document both negative and positive events. In other words, if no bites occur in a visit to a spot, one should reference the fact in the logs. When bites occur and fish come to hand, numbers add specific dimensions to those facts.
KEVIN COCHRAN CONTACT
J. P. Dafonte caught this photogenic thirty-inch trout on a soft plastic dangled under a float in water stained by brown tide and strong winds in early-spring.
I advocate recording data on all fish caught, not just keeping track of target species, or fish of a size beyond the state’s standard for retention. I also advocate keeping track of the average size of fish, or the percentage of keepers, or both. So, an entry might look like this: T24~15”w5K~19”^21”. The preceding reads like this: “trout, 24 caught, averaging 15 inches, with five keepers averaging nineteen inches, up to twenty-one inches.” The same outcome might appear as T24/5^21” in the log of another angler, reading “trout, 24 caught, five keepers up to twenty-one inches.” In other words, one can easily personalize outcome data references to meet priorities and needs. When personalizing the outcome data and calculating averages, I use three standards, which I label as the Power Index, Super Power Index and Trophy Index. For me, with speckled trout, Power Index represents the average number of fish at or above twenty inches caught, the Super Power Index indicates the average number at twenty-five inches or longer and the Trophy Index documents the average number of fish caught which weigh at least seven pounds. Of course, one can calculate these averages on a daily, monthly or yearly basis, using daily logs, or per visit to a spot, using spot-specific logs. Obviously, other anglers could alter the parameters of the three standards, to meet their perceived expectations, or the potential productivity of an area. For instance, PI might document average number of keepers, SPI might stand at twenty inches and TI might represent average number of fish over 25 inches. Anyone reading this and considering starting or altering an established process of maintaining fishing logs should realize the importance of customization in the end. Logs work best for people who understand the purposes and potential uses of data. Some people like crunching numbers and looking at things within that framework, while others prefer generating and reading more word-based narratives of the same events. Certainly, organizing data in both daily and spotspecific logs and organizing the data to include detailed references to circumstances, strategies and outcomes, and both positive and negative events, will elevate the benefits of the activity. I can envision a world in which all the data, once collected, could become part of a computer program which would essentially think for the angler. I don’t know how to write such a program, but I’m sure others could create an app which would take entered data and rank spots in terms of predicted productivity, given the date, tide chart, moon phase and expected weather for an outing. Until such a tool appears on the phone, folks will need to use their brains to make such decisions. Maintaining accurate and detailed logs enhances our memory, our ability to analyze past events and allows us to make better predictions about future possibilities.
Kevin Cochran is a full-time fishing guide at Corpus Christi (Padre Island), TX. Kevin is a speckled trout fanatic and has created several books and dvds on the subject. Kevin’s home waters stretch from Corpus Christi Bay to the Land Cut.
TROUT TRACKER GUIDE SERVICE Phone 361-688-3714 Email kevxlr8@mygrande.net Web www.FishBaffinBay.com www.captainkevblogs.com
TSFMAG.com | 15
STORY BY MARTIN STRARUP
W
hile Red and Tommy had slept through most of the flight from England, Bodie and Pamela remained busy getting to know each other better on the way to Houston. At the airport, Doug told the boys that he hated to rush off but he and Pamela needed to prepare for a meeting. He’d be in touch as soon as he was able. Pamela and Bodie got off to themselves for a moment and gave each other a kiss on the cheek that left Bodie emotional as he watched she and Doug drive away. “You’ll see her soon enough, buddy,” Red said. “I know it, Red, and it sort of scares me,” Bodie replied with a straight face. Red laughed at that and then turned to see what the commotion behind them was about. Tommy was tugging at a sack that Doug’s chef was doing his best to hold on to. Breaking free and clutching the sack, Tommy came running down the airplane’s stairs and across the tarmac to join them. “What in the world was that all about?” Bodie asked. “I loaded up on those big shrimp and I guess he was planning on eating them himself because he tried to grab the bag from me,” Tommy gushed, quite out of breath. “I got ‘em though, and I’m going to eat them on the way home.” Bodie and Red could only shake their heads in disbelief. “I’ll see you later Tommy, I have to drop Red off and head out to the ranch. I’ll probably grab a chicken-fried steak and cold beer at Haddon’s this evening. I’ll call you,” Bodie informed his friend. Bodie arrived home and hurriedly unloaded his gear. Looking around at the plainness of his home he muttered aloud, “Well it’s what I have and she’ll either like it or she won’t. Heck, she may not even want to come down here to see the place.” Bodie phoned his foreman Monroe and asked him to meet at the main barn to go over recent events and work at the ranch. When Bodie pulled up to the barn Monroe came out to greet him. “So do you still have a Texas accent or do you sound like one of those fancy English butlers on TV?” Monroe kidded him. “Get your butt to work, Monroe!” Bodie yelled. “How’d that sound?”
“Well, you still sound like the same old Bodie to me. Welcome home boss!” They shook hands and Bodie handed Monroe a small box. “It ain’t much Monroe but it’s from London.” Monroe opened the box and removed what looked like a small pocket watch. “It ain’t real gold so don’t worry about me spending too much,” Bodie chuckled. “It’s an antique compass!” Monroe exclaimed. “The lady that sold it to me said it was more than a hundred years old, and save for a few scratches it’s almost perfect.” It bore the name Dollond London Pocket Compass on the lid with an inscription inside - May Angels fly with you wherever you roam and guide you back safely to home. “Dang Bodie, that’s a really nice gift,” Monroe said with emotion in his voice. “Well don’t go getting all mushy on me buddy, that inscription is original. I didn’t make it up,” Bodie chuckled. They covered all the work that had been carried out in Bodie’s absence and what still needed to be done. Monroe asked advice on a backhoe with recurring hydraulic issues and Bodie recommended a mobile mechanic who should be able to fix it. Bodie shared a bit of his London experiences and Monroe told him of a successful fishing trip down to Port Mansfield. Bodie wrapped it up saying he needed to get on over to see Mr. Connors and catch up on a few things. Mr. Connors answered Bodie’s knock and invited him in. “Well, the world traveler is returned. Tell me, Bodie, how did you find Old London Town, and what about that long flight you were fretting over?” Bodie told Mr. Connors all about the trip and made sure to include the boys going to the big name gun shops. Mr. Connors laughed when Bodie told him about Tommy wanting to buy an elephant rifle and his reaction to the price tag. “I warned you about that. I told you you’d see guns you could never afford,” Mr. Connors interjected comically. “I picked this up for you while I was there, Mr. Connors,” Bodie said, handing a gift sack to his boss. “Doug said it’s really good Scotch. Not knowing good Scotch from bad I took his advice and bought you a bottle.” The old gentleman rancher and oilman opened the package and TSFMAG.com | 17
pulled out the bottle. “Really good Scotch?” he exclaimed. “Bodie, this is 18 Year Single Malt, and probably one of the best around. You shouldn’t have spent so much.” “Well, Doug got me a good deal on it; I didn’t have to pay full retail, if that’s any consolation. I hope you enjoy it.” Bodie and Mr. Connors continued visiting and ended the meeting with a warm handshake, as was their custom. Bodie said he needed to get home and organize a few things after being gone so long and headed to the house. Bodie arrived home and unpacked what he felt like unpacking and then headed to his boat stall to check on his Tran Sport 24’ SVT. All was well other than a little dust and some seagull poop on the cowling of the big outboard. “Hang in there old girl, I’ll have you in the water soon as I can,” he assured the beautiful rig. He locked the stall door and drove to Haddon’s, happy to see the place wasn’t too crowded. He wanted to enjoy a couple cold beers and one of Eloisa’s chicken-fried steaks with his friends and relax. Bodie took a seat at the bar and ordered a cold draft beer. Eloisa came around to give him a proper hug and wanted to know all about England. Bodie told her about the trip and then reached into his pocket and pulled out an object wrapped in tissue paper. “Here you go, Eloisa. Straight from Old London.” Eloisa removed the wrapping to find a miniature bronze of Big Ben Clock Tower. “How perfect and thoughtful of you,” she exclaimed, placing the souvenir on the shelf next to the big Haddon Cup for all to see. “Now tell me about those English girls. I know a big handsome cowboy like you had to have hooked up with a few of them,” she asked in a lowered voice with a sly grin and wink. Before Bodie could say anything Red and Tommy burst through the door offering raucous hellos to everyone and pointing to a table. “Eloisa, that’ll have to be a story for another time. But trust me when I say that I only met one girl over there that interested me,” Bodie confided quietly. “Pffft, I know better than to believe that. I’m sure I can get it out of Tommy for the small price of a chili burger.” Bodie joined Tommy and Red at the table while Eloisa brought a pitcher of draft and three mugs. Topping off the mugs, Red raised his and proclaimed a toast…“Here’s to being back home in Texas!” They all took a long sip and Tommy raised his mug again… “And here’s to Bodie and Pamela!” Eloisa spun around, “Bodie and WHO?” “I’ll tell you all about it later,” Tommy called to her above the hubbub. “Oh no you won’t!” Bodie and Red assured him in unison.
CONTACT
MARTIN STRARUP
18 | November 2018
Martin Strarup is a lifelong saltwater enthusiast and outdoorsman. Martin is also a collector and dealer of vintage fishing tackle and lures, especially those made in Texas. Email
Trouthunter@swbell.net
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STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE
Swarms of gulls will point the way to great fishing this month as shrimp migrate from area marshes.
T
he sun has just broken the horizon to illuminate a relatively smooth lake surface, the temperatures are mild and the forecast is in the anglers favor. A short boat ride into the wide open expanse of Sabine is stopped so one of the anglers in the boat can search the area with binoculars in hopes of finding a set of working birds. The glassing pays off and the boat of hopeful anglers speed off in the direction of the birds with visions of speckled trout busting shrimp racing through their mind. The boat driver pulls back on the throttle, kills the motor, and steps up on the bow to drop the trolling motor so the boat can be positioned quietly so everyone onboard can reach the fish. Just as our anglers reach the perfect distance from the flock it happens. A familiar roar comes from several directions and the perfect scenario is about to go wrong in a big way. Within minutes our anglers are surrounded by a half dozen boats and some very zealous anglers. The wakes from the boat traffic turn the calm surface into a series of rolling swells. The birds and fish, surrounded by an armada of boats sometimes banging gunwales, shut down and suddenly disappear. The hopeful anglers scratch their heads – where’d they go? This scenario will play out many times as overanxious anglers fail to learn from their mistakes and continue to turn what could have been a memorable day into one of frustration and only a few fish. Now if the truth were really known, most anglers have been on both sides of that situation, we’ve likely all been both the victim and villain. It’s tough for the average fisherman to have the patience to come into a situation like the one described and not get antsy or in a hurry. All it takes is one boat to start crowding the school or moving too fast and, before you know it, the whole herd is in stampede mode.
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That guy’s not beating me to the fish – OR – If we don’t get there first we won’t get a shot at the fish, are remarks that fisherman often make. But the fact is that’s not the truth at all. If anglers would come off plane earlier, circle widely and approach from the upwind side, use more trolling motor, and work with other boats instead of against them, everybody would catch more fish. If you want to see a look of surprise on somebody’s face, just watch another angler when you ease up to a school of fish and ask them if it’s alright to fish near them. Most people are floored that anyone would even offer to do that. And I promise you, if you ask politely and use common sense, on the next bunch of birds that angler you spoke to earlier will do the same for you. Courtesy is contagious.
This is too close… respect your fellow anglers!
Author shows off a beautiful slot red taken under birds.
Treble-hooked lures have a bad habit of ending up where you don’t want them during the excitement of fishing under a flock of screaming gulls.
As good as the fishing gets during the fall you can certainly expect increased traffic on the lake from both local and out of town anglers. The last thing you ever want to happen is to have a confrontation with someone while you are on the water. I have witnessed some very heated moments on Sabine, there have even been some altercation at the boat ramp if you can believe that. There is no fish out there worth that kind of behavior. Please remember a few simple rules while chasing the birds; approach slowly, be mindful of your wake, make a good effort to find your own flock of birds, work with other fishermen, and by all means keep your cool. Follow these simple rules and you should be on your way to a memorable day on the water. 22 | November 2018
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of your casting range in order to avoid spooking or breaking up the school. Getting too close or pressing these feeding fish is perhaps the biggest mistake most anglers make in this situation. By staying on the outer edge of the school you can follow them as they move and increase the odds of the school staying active for a longer period of time. It’s not uncommon to stay with one group of schooling fish for an hour or more if you don’t crowd them. Easily, the best lure for fishing under birds is your favorite soft plastic on a single hook jighead. Grabbing a treble-hooked plug is asking for trouble. Treble hooks invariably end up tangled in the landing net, stuck all over the fish, and quite often during the excitement stuck in another angler on the boat. I usually start out with a 1/4-ounce jighead and occasionally go to a Paying it forward… 3/8-ounce model for increased casting catch and release distance. The 3/8 jighead will also allow helps insure the future you to fish a little deeper in the school vitality of our fisheries. which is often times where the best trout and redfish will lurk. Those smaller Schooling reds aggressive fish will mostly be found will provide lots of closer to the surface, so a faster sinking action on Sabine bait that gets under those small fish Lake in November. quickly will pay dividends. Now after the schooling activity slows down, or even comes to a stop, don’t just take off in search of the next group of birds because you may be leaving too soon. I can’t count the times that I’ve watched other boats around me leave only to see those fish begin feeding again before those boat’s wakes have a chance to settle. I believe what happens is the school of fish temporarily loses the bait they have been chasing and it takes a few minutes for them to herd it back up to the surface again. The angler who is patient and gives those fish a chance to gather up again may be rewarded with a school all to themselves while those other boats are leaving for parts unknown. Some of these little tricks and helpful hints will certainly help you put more fish in your boat this fall. A little common sense and courtesy along with some fishing knowledge will go a long way toward insuring your success. Keep a cool head, a good pair of binoculars handy, fully charged trolling motor batteries, and a healthy supply of patience because it’s going to be a great fall season.
Now that we’ve covered the common sense portion of this lesson, let’s talk about the mechanics of finding and successfully fishing a flock of birds working over a school of aggressively feeding fish. First, take a few minutes to determine the direction the school is traveling and get in front or alongside of them. Believe it or not I often see fishermen trying to work the school from behind and this is a recipe for frustration at best, especially when it’s a herd of redfish on the move. Once you have the direction figured out stay just inside 24 | November 2018
CONTACT
CHUCK UZZLE Chuck fishes Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes from his home in Orange, TX. His specialties are light tackle and fly fishing for trout, reds, and flounder. Phone 409-697-6111 Email wakesndrakes@yahoo.com Website wakesndrakes.com
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STORY BY JOE RICHARD
To view the Milky Way during a campout, one should put a few miles between them and city lights.
T
he most memorable trips I’ve ever taken, usually while fishing, happened in remote areas far from city lights—where the stars really came out at night, adding to the overall experience. When the Milky Way spanned the sky. As it turns out, I’m not alone. People actually miss seeing the stars at night, which is part of our heritage. In recent years, many have been signing up for a new type of vacation called “astrotourism.” The term means “more intentional travel to places with dark skies and more visible stars.” Places like Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, which has a small observatory and a park ranger’s lecture under the nighttime sky. Great for camping with hardy kids who don’t mind the desert, and far from any paved road. The International Dark-Sky Association, in its 30-year history, has designated 63 International Dark Sky Parks. Chaco has made the list. One of my best trips involved crossing the Gulf of Mexico on a 56-foot Bertram, from Playa Del Carmen to Port Aransas. Incredibly, the Gulf offered only ripples and wavelets the entire way, and this was in June. We ran the boat at only eight knots or so for better mileage, to make it more than 700 miles without refueling. We kept trolling lines set out except at night in open water. It was a four-day trip that allowed us to swing along the coast of Louisiana, fishing their deepwater platforms, loading up on tuna at night. It took eight guys to keep the boat running smoothly and safely, 24 hours a day. Each night the Gulf became very dark with little or no moon. We only saw one ship.
Most of the crew, good people from Port Neches and Bridge City, were comatose in their bunks by midnight. However two of us, older guys with more Gulf experience, were assigned the graveyard watch from 2-6 a.m. serving as lookouts, because our boat was set on auto-pilot. Overhead the Milky Way grew brighter and soon spanned the sky. On the flying bridge speakers, after midnight, our daytime Marty Robbins ballads were replaced by solemn piano music. Imagine crossing a flat Gulf under a billion stars all night with piano music. Incredible. And we weren’t about to nod off. When dawn arrived we were stoked and didn’t wake the relief crew. I set out two rods off the stern and bingo, had a blue marlin hooked up in five minutes, and then it was all hands on deck for the battle. Our groggy captain said the marlin must have stalked us for part of the night, to hit Camping rig in Venezuela, complete Peacock bass caught after sunset so quickly in open water before sunrise. with small tent AC. However, in fine in Venezuela. Two hours later, the I’ve since read that the best time to weather we slept in hammocks outside. Milky Way really spanned the sky. observe the center of the Milky Way is during summer solstice in June, and in southern latitudes, so that may have magnified what we saw during that trip and several others. Next was Venezuela. Down in the tropics, hot jungle air rises and forms serious thunderstorms. However, their dry season is different. One November we were camping in one of Venezuela’s national parks near the Columbian border. Sleeping outside in hammocks, which takes a little practice. The air was clear both day and night. The nearest electricity was in a small town about 75 klicks away, and so the countryside was very dark once our generator was turned off. Around midnight I walked into a field and sure enough, without a moon the Milky Way crossed the sky. Those perfect nights of camaraderie and steaks twice daily only balanced what was likely my best fishing thatched bungalows, a meeting room for meals, and one rickety trip ever. Great wadefishing, and we had it all to ourselves. Each day, dock. No TV or Internet, which is a blessed holiday in itself. The peacock bass crushed our lures, even feeding like tuna at mid-day in generator was shut off after 10 p.m. and everything became very the oxbow lake in front of our campground. The Cinaruco River was dark. But that wasn’t the half of it. back in the woods, where a horde of monkeys howled at midday for Determined to make a night dive, we were accommodated by a no reason. After decades of fishing there, our hosts were nonchalant, reluctant guide who dropped us off at sunset on the reef, where it while we three gringos could easily have stayed another week. We drops off into deep water. He claimed they couldn’t run boats after wade-fished barefoot with piranha (should have brought wading dark, said we could swim back across the lagoon to camp. It was our shoes), freshwater stingrays, and killer bee nests up in the trees. Never only chance for a night dive, so we jumped overboard, exploring the did see their anaconda snake, the world’s biggest. Their Orinoco reef in twilight. Soon, darkness fell. Grouper dozed under coral heads, crocodile was “just about poached out.” None of us suffered a scratch. while lobster crawled out from their lairs. We swam around coral heads A few years before that, Miss Amy and I were on Blackbird Caye, to the edge of deep blue water, and something wasn’t right, we had about 30 miles offshore of Belize City. It was another dark of the a bad feeling we shouldn’t proceed any deeper. We didn’t care to see moon trip. Back then the island was a retreat with just four palm 28 | November 2018
Port Neches and Bridge City guys, during our four-day Gulf crossing.
the eye of the tiger, much less meet him, so we eased back to the safety of tall coral heads all around, in eight feet of water. Feeling safer when surrounded by a veritable stone wall, we shut off the dive light and submerged. Floating in black watery space, tiny plankton began to glow in strings of light like green pearls. It was mesmerizing. Our night vision grew more acute and we could make out the dim shapes of coral. This was underwater, on a night as dark as the proverbial black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night. After 20 minutes we surfaced with the Caribbean slick as glass, with an incredible Milky Way above and reflected on the water. The entire horizon was black, save for one small light bulb on the end of our distant pier. It was a long swim back across a lagoon 12 feet deep, after a full day of fishing. Closer to home, making an overnight offshore trip in the Gulf can
JOE RICHARD
Joe Richard has fished the Gulf since 1967, starting out of Port Arthur, but his adventures have taken him up and down the entire coast. He was the editor of Tide magazine for eight years, and later Florida Sportsman’s book and assistant magazine editor. He began guiding out of Port O’Connor in 1994. His specialty is big kingfish, and his latest book is The Kingfish Bible, New Revelations. Available at Seafavorites.com
CONTACT
Shallow water coral reef in Belize. Beyond was the drop-off into deep water, where we turned back at night.
be a fine experience in the right weather. We’ve made some five-day trips offshore, way out beyond the Flower Gardens. In calm weather on a dark August night the Milky Way can be vivid. If you tie the boat to a well-lit platform (closer to the coast), with lights glaring down, you can’t see the stars. We’ve also spent the night anchored over snapper rocks with a big sky overhead, but you have to keep a sharp lookout for boat traffic. And then there was Big Bend, where they say the view there isn’t what it used to be, because of clear-cut burning in Mexico. However, with a north wind the sky clears. One March we took a bunch of kids camping there, and the first night a north wind kept blowing, typical spring break weather. Walking in the desert at night, the air was clean and once again the Milky Way stretched out for us, amazing as always. The kids ran around that desert like a band of wild Indians. Each found a long stick and carried it daily. Our campfires were small, allowing the night sky to burn brighter. It made us wonder what the native people talked about around their own campfires, watching that same sky for centuries. Turns out, they had countless stories about the origins of the Sun, moon, stars and Milky Way, handed down through generations. In one of their stories, a giant dog flew down from the sky and for several nights ate corn meal stored in a Cherokee village. Alarmed, the villagers grew determined to scare off the dog. The next night they stayed up late and when the dog returned and began feeding, they all jumped out and put up a huge ruckus. The startled dog with a mouth still full flew away forever, spilling a cloud of cornmeal across the sky. To this day, Cherokee people refer to the Milky Way as Gil’ LiUtsun’yi, which means, “Where the dog ran.”
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Modern shrimp-imitating baits save live shrimp for the dinner table. STORY BY DR. JASON HALFEN
Snook on LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp.
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he ocean is the wrong place to be a shrimp. Here, you’re at the top of the menu – everybody’s menu. Not only must you avoid the diesel-powered trawlers, but you must also evade incalculable fish, honed by evolutionary pressures to become exceptional shrimp predators. Anglers can exploit this innate relationship to catch more and bigger fish in the saltmarshes and on the flats. Indeed, live shrimp are a mainstay of light-tackle anglers targeting a wide variety of marine predators. Nevertheless, even live (or recently dead) shrimp presentations have their limitations: anglers must collect or purchase their own fragile crustaceans, maintain them in healthy, fishable condition throughout the trip, and rig the shrimp with extreme care to keep them feisty. And, like every natural presentation, live shrimp used as bait can result in deeply hooked fish, making injury-free releases a challenging proposition. Meticulously designed and engineered for performance and durability, contemporary artificial shrimp reap all of the benefits of the natural predator-prey relationship that pervades the coastal flats, without any of the limitations that accompany the use of live shrimp. Perfect for any inshore predator, including speckled trout, flounder, snook and redfish, artificial shrimp can be presented using many of the same techniques that are appropriate for live shrimp. Two exceptionally productive methods are to present shrimp lures beneath a popping cork, and to swim or jig shrimp on or near the bottom.
Chug, chug, chug – the rhythm of the popping cork To the untrained eye, popping corks look like clumsy, oversized bobbers bejeweled with clacking beads. Yes, popping corks do suspend a bait just a few feet below the surface, well within the strike zones of fish prowling these coastal flats. And yes, when the cork submerges, it’s time to set the hook – and hold on. But the link between conventional bobbers and popping corks ends there. Generally constructed of foam, popping corks are tapered on the end closest to the lure and convex on the other. This curved face imparts the same chugging sound and waterdisplacing commotion associated with a traditional surface popper. Anglers can rip the popping cork forward aggressively to capture the attention of larger fish or twitch it more subtly when targeting trout. These movements of the cork have a bite-triggering impact on the lure suspended beneath. Below the popping cork, separated by a 2-3 foot length of 30 lb. test Seaguar fluorocarbon, is where we’ve laid our trap – an artificial shrimp. As the cork chugs forward, the shrimp darts toward the surface; when the cork stops, the shrimp pendulums downward toward its original position – where it rests vulnerably until the next chug. Two different soft plastic shrimp lures are particularly effective under popping corks. The LIVETARGET Rigged Shrimp is designed to accurately mimic the appearance of a live shrimp darting in a forward direction. Designed around a stout, saltwater grade hook and boasting an internal rattle to mimic a live shrimp’s clicking sound, the LIVETARGET Rigged Shrimp is available in 3” and 4” lengths that have broad appeal to coastal predators. The Z-Man Rigged EZ ShrimpZ is another stand-out performer under a popping cork. With a sweet-spot length of 3.5”, a segmented, high-action body and a robust Mustad hook, the EZ ShrimpZ features a notched ¼ oz keel weight that can be easily trimmed to 1/8 oz to adjust the rate of the lure’s pendulum swing. Molded from Z-Man’s proprietary ElaZtech material, the EZ ShrimpZ won’t rip or tear, even after being extracted from the mouths of multiple toothy predators. Fortify your popping cork presentation with the right line and rod. There’s a reason that most guides select Seaguar Smackdown braided line as the foundation of their popping cork combos: not only is it strong enough to withstand the unforgiving coastal environment, but its tight, eight-carrier weave gives it a completely round profile for long casts, as well as a velvety-smooth feel that resists kinks and wind knots. Smackdown in 30 lb. test (8 lb. test mono equivalent diameter) is a great choice on a 3000-series spinning reel, such as a Penn Battle II. A St. Croix Mojo Inshore medium heavy power, fast action rod in 7’ or 7’6” lengths pairs perfectly with popping corks. Jig it – shrimp on and near the bottom When shrimp are un-harassed by predators, they swim leisurely in a forward direction. But when faced by their own mortality, trying to delay their final entry into the coastal food web, they pulse their muscular (and tasty) tail and flee backwards. This is 32 | November 2018
Specks love shrimp – Ryan Harder landed this Lower Laguna specimen on a ZMan Shrimpz lure.
The action of the LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp is incredibly lifelike and will attract the attention of a variety of game fish species.
A close look at the LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp.
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Closeup of ZMan Trout Trick Jerk Shrimpz.
The LIVETARGET family of shrimp lures are available in a virtual rainbow of colors.
34 | November 2018
LIVETARGET’s Rigged Shrimp is another great shrimp imitator.
the motion and erratic action we seek to emulate as we swim and jig artificial shrimp on and near the bottom. Jigging presentations are particularly effective in regions with high water clarity, areas where the commotion of a popping cork would scatter wary predators. Think sand flats and marsh ponds – places where sight fishing for trout, reds, and more is possible. The deception here will be visual, using lures with the right profile, color, and action, supported by other sensory inputs like sound, vibration, and even scent, to elicit bites. The Z-Man TroutTrick Jerk ShrimpZ is a great choice for tempting shrimp-munching speckled trout. This 3.5” soft shrimp lure boasts lively appendages and twin paddletail antennae, yielding strike-triggering action as the shrimp is hopped and twitched, especially when dressed on a 3/16 oz jig. The Jerk ShrimpZ also benefits from another unique ElaZtech feature: buoyancy. At rest, the head of the Jerk ShrimpZ rises gently off the bottom, creating a highly visible, upright posture complemented by gently swaying antennae – a lifelike stance and subtle action that trout can’t resist. When bigger, older, and wiser predators are on the agenda, a soft plastic shrimp with extreme attention to visual detail will turn lookers into biters. Available in 3/8 oz and ¾ oz weights, the new LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp bristles with three-dimensional anatomical features and is armed with a corrosion-resistant hook. The Fleeing Shrimp’s proprietary skirt masterfully emulates the motions of a living shrimp’s front legs, both in motion and at rest. Coupled with a subtle internal rattle and a long-lasting shrimp scent, the LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp may be the ultimate artificial shrimp for deceiving inshore predators. When casting these generally lighter shrimp lures, it’s best to back down in your rod’s power rating. When rod sensitivity is critical for bite detection, consider the SC-IV graphite St. Croix Legend Tournament Inshore series. The 7’6”, medium light power, fast action Legend Tournament Inshore rod is a great choice for speckled trout, while the 7’ or 7’6” medium power, fast action Legend Tournament Inshore rods are terrific for snook, flounder, smaller reds, and more. Spool up with 30 lb. test Seaguar Smackdown, and complete the visual deception by tying in a leader of 20 or 25 lb. test Seaguar Gold Label 100% fluorocarbon leader (available soon). Substantially thinner than any other fluorocarbon of comparable strength, Gold Label is less visible to fish underwater and also enhances lure action – two critical line attributes that dramatically enhance catch rates. The ocean is truly the wrong place to be a shrimp. Use the innate connection linking predators and their favorite prey to your advantage by presenting artificial shrimp whenever you target trout, snook, flounder, or redfish on coastal flats – and save the live shrimp for the dinner table. About the author: Dr. Jason Halfen owns and operates The Technological Angler, dedicated to teaching anglers to leverage modern technology to find and catch more fish. Let your learning begin at www.technologicalangler.com
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36 | November 2018
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Terry Hunsucker with a nice salmon.
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NOVEMBER DRAIN FISHING
STRATEGIES
All through my guiding career clients have shared details of Alaskan fishing adventures and encouraged that I should never pass an opportunity to visit The Great Land. My chance finally came and I mentioned it last month in this column. Well, we went and it was nothing short of breathtaking. Loved the guys I went with, Piotr Weticki and Terry Hunsucker, but missed my boys with every cast. Jay Ray and Ryan would have loved the area we were fishing. We were fortunate to fish in Sitka with Jamie Steinson, owner of Sitka Outfitters. Jamie is a great guide; a great advocate of catch and release and fly fishing. I know you’re thinking, “but Jay’s not a fly fisherman.” This is true and I had considered doing this entire article on my experiences in Alaska with my fly rod but have decided against it. I am going to use the photos of the trip instead and try not to spoil it for you. I am however very interested in becoming a better fly fisherman; could be something I can enjoy into my final years. Don’t carry that thought too far though, I have no plans to begin guiding fly fishermen. My experience in Alaska was unbelievable and I am 46 | November 2018
certain my fishing buddies would agree. Special thanks to my wife Renee’ for finding Jamie online and booking us with a terrific guide. Now to talk about something I know a little more about. Our trout are still in full transition mode and the recent 20-plus inches of rain has not helped. We can still catch them but you have to work for them. Reds are saving the day with many oversized specimens being caught. The key to the redfish bite is working shallow grassbeds on shorelines and your best chance for catching trout is working deeper drop-offs, making sure the lure is running near bottom. The upper part of the water column is fresh but it’s still plenty salty down lower. With our first real cold front due any day and with tons of water still in our bays, I will soon be focusing on fishing the drains that connect backwater areas with the bays – both on the backwater side and also where the drain empties into the bay. It requires a major front to kick this pattern into high gear but even milder passages get it started. Planning to work the drains requires watching the weather and planning your trip during or right after a
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Piotr Weticki getting in on the action.
Author with nice humpy, also known as pink salmon.
Hooked up, baby! Salmon are strong fighters.
48 | November 2018
frontal passage. As always, safety comes first. If you don’t have the right boat for a rough bay crossing, my advice is to wait until the front subsides and then get on the water. So what do I look for in formulating drain strategies? I look for drains that twist and turn their way toward the back lakes. Drains that have sharp bends are awesome and I believe the more twist and turns the better. This causes water draining from the backcountry to flow at vary speeds whether the result of natural tide action and/or north wind pushing water out of the bays. We often find deep pools in sharp bends that effectively reduce current strength. Just up-current of these bends is where we often we find the best action. Think of drains as miniature rivers, so if you’re familiar with river fishing you probably already see the picture I am trying to paint. We will also see firmer bottom in the bends where moving water keeps the bottom clean. Any amount of submerged grass within a drain constitutes prime fish-attracting structure and deserves investigation. We see more submerged grass on the tiny deltas that form where drains enter back lakes and also where they flow into the bay. As always, the presence of bait activity is a given. When have you ever heard me talk about finding fish without first locating a good food source? Just for the record, there will be a lot of small finfish, shrimp and crabs that you will never see when studying a drain. What we have to trust is the knowledge that the approach of winter signals the inhabitants of coastal marshes to begin migrating to deeper more protected waters. The rapidly falling tides during frontal passages aid this migration, allowing the smaller fish and crustacean’s to simply move with the water. For years, while cleaning fish I was amazed at what I would find inside the trout and reds taken during a day of drain fishing. Much of the stomach contents, believe it or not, were very small finfish along with tiny shrimp and crabs. Positioning and reading the flow is critical in maximizing your catches in the drains. I make a practice of this with every frontal passage. The amount of water in the bay when the front arrives determines the force by which water will flow from the backcountry. I call it the “drift” and it is critical to cast up-current at an angle that will maximize the distance your lure can remain “in the drift” as you regulate the speed of your retrieve. Quite similar to the manner in which a fly fisherman “mends” his line to present a fly in
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50 | November 2018
be in my small box of favorites. This bait is very versatile and looks and performs great. I have been field testing this bait along with several others and have found that it quickly earned a valued spot in my arsenal. These lures also come in all the Custom Corky color patterns which I love. I had one of my best-ever trout days last year in a Matagorda Island drain on a cool November morning. There was a deep 90° bend just before the drain entered a back lake. Small mullet flipped nervously as we trudged through soft bottom along the edge of the drain. Long casts with one of my favorite Custom Corkys, they call it Pearl Harbor, were repeatedly met with hard strikes from trout that averaged 5- to slightly more than 6-pounds. Lots of them! An extraordinary day in any speckled trout fishery. Try the drain thing. I think you’ll find it can be very productive when the conditions are right. May your fishing always be catching! -Guide Jay Watkins
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river current. When you discover the cast angle and retrieve speed that produces a bite…stay with it! Hurricane Harvey created many nuances in our drains and I am still learning more than a year after that horrific storm. Along with the nuances within major drains that we have fished for years, the storm also created many smaller “blowouts” that function and should be fished the same as drains when tides are high enough to produce flow through them. Yesterday I worked a small one on San Jose that has a very nice area of submerged grass out front. If you placed your cast beyond the grass and brought the lure through it, just tickling the top of the grass blades, you got a bite as the lure entered the drain. We stood in this one area and caught a dozen very solid trout. I typically use a wide variety of colors and soft plastic sizes when fishing drain mouths. I will also throw suspending or floating/ swimming plugs when conditions are right. For sure, soft plastics such as Bass Assassins, the MirrOlure 5-inch Provoker, and Lil John baits will produce well most days. If the forage is small I throw the Lil John. This bait has great action and is super tough, which holds up well when we are experiencing frequent bites. I credit the softer texture of the 5” Bass Assassins for creating realistic darting and diving action. Plum, root beer, black, and of course white are old standbys. In the suspending plug club, I love the Custom Corky and the Custom Soft Dine colors. Gold-sided baits work well in off-colored water and many times due to wind and hard moving water our drains are slightly dirty. Texas Custom’s New Double D series of swimming/floating baits by MirrOlure, which I tell everybody is short for high-quality, will also
Jay Watkins has been a full-time fishing guide at Rockport, TX, for more than 20 years. Jay specializes in wading yearround for trout and redfish with artificial lures. Jay covers the Texas coast from San Antonio Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. Telephone Email Website
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November redfish and solid trout cruising the cordgrass for a shrimp dinner.
C A P T. S COT T N U L L
S H A L L O W W AT E R F I S H I N G
EXCEPTIONAL SIGHT-FISHING… AND OTHER FUN ACTIVITIES I don’t know about y’all, but I’m ready for November. It has been a lot of fun running the Dargel Kat out on the beachfront chasing tarpon, kings, jacks and all the other summer residents. Now I’m ready to get back to poling the flats and back lakes for schools of hungry redfish. As I write this in early October the tarpon are starting to head south and the weather guessers are starting to talk about a cool front moving in. I’ll believe that when I walk outside and feel it. These early fronts tend to fizzle out, but hopefully a good one will push through and get the thermometer to drop into some more comfortable numbers by the time you read this. Once that happens it’ll set everything in motion for some awesome shallow water sightcasting. The shrimp in the marshes will get the hint and start preparing for their exit. The redfish, trout and flounder know the game and will be there to take advantage. And I’ll be there to take advantage of them. As of now, the shrimp are nearly mature and still hanging out in the cord grass on the higher fall tides. Fast moving small schools of redfish have been bumping their way down the shorelines dislodging shrimp and feeding as they go. This is an exciting style of sightcasting. The visual of rampaging reds beating 52 | November 2018
the grass can make even the best caster sail a fly into the grass and blow it. When targeting these schools I’ve found it best to get a good distance ahead of them and let them come to you. Trying to catch up to these schools from behind is often a losing proposition. They either outrun you or you make too much noise while trying to close the distance. It also gives you a chance to take a deep breath and maybe make a couple practice casts to gauge your distance and boost your confidence. As the school gets into range, drop the fly just ahead of them and as close to the grass as you dare without snagging. One or two quick strips perfectly imitates a shrimp fleeing the grass and will nearly always get eaten. If you aren’t into fly fishing, a weedless paddletail or a DOA shrimp works just fine. Of note, always keep an eye on the back end of these schools. I’ve seen some mighty fine trophy trout following them and picking up the leftovers. A while back I had one of my regulars on the bow chasing the cord grass schools. He’s an excellent caster and generally a cool hand on the rod. As he started the false cast I noticed a solid eight-plus pound trout ghosting along the edge a few feet behind the school. Upon
Large group of reds weaving through cordgrass as they hunt shrimp on a high tide.
A lone gull hovers above a pod of reds on the flat awaiting his chance to snag a shrimp dinner.
The ripples on that pool signal a school of reds are working their way down the drain.
relaying this information my guy lost all recollection of how to work a fly rod. In hindsight, I should’ve just directed him to cast back there without the excited, “Huge trout right behind the school” commentary. Anyway, just be aware that the trout of a lifetime could be slumming with those redfish. The north winds of cold fronts will drop the water levels pulling those shrimp out of the grass. Early in the season they’ll often just bump off the grass and bury into the mud along the shorelines. The schools will generally slow down a bit and start mudding their way along the shoreline. It isn’t nearly as fast and furious as the grass-bumping schools, but it’s still productive to approach them in the same manner. During these times there will also be singles prowling around, tailing occasionally. Those fish make for some really easy targets. Between these mild early-season fronts, the water levels will rise and the shrimp will return to the cord grass. Eventually, usually mid- to late-November, there will be some stronger fronts. When these fronts push through they’ll often drop the water levels significantly enough to trigger a drain feeding frenzy. Do yourself a favor…be there. My best days in the marsh have come on these drain days. Everything in the marsh has to leave with the water funneling into the ditches and small bayous. The reds aren’t hard to locate as they crash through the bait and you’ll often hear the activity before seeing them. Following these fronts we’ll often see a few days of mild weather or maybe even a return to southeast winds that will allow the water to return to the back lakes. The bait comes back and so will the reds. It is during these times between fronts that I’ll often find some of the largest schools of the year in the marsh. The shrimp are gathering in larger schools within the lakes as they mature and prepare to vacate the marshes. These roving schools are often betrayed by low flying gulls or terns. Eventually we’ll get the big bad cold front. It seems to hit right around Thanksgiving most years, but sometimes we’ll skate through until early December. This front will set up a great drain day the same as the earlier fronts, but while the water is gone the lower temperature chills the exposed mud and changes the TSFMAG.com | 53
C O N TA C T
game. The shrimp aren’t coming back this time and that signals a change in feeding patterns. Some of the reds will follow them out onto the adjacent flats while others will stick with the marsh while turning their attention to a diet of baitfish and crabs. They will generally be in smaller packs or cruising as singles. On the plus side, the cooler water temps will clear the water up a good bit making it easier to spot those cruisers. Immediately following those real fronts when the sun comes out and it starts to warm up I tend to focus on the flats or lakes near some deeper areas. It’s still pretty easy to find some concentrations of fish but given a prolonged warming spell they’ll spread out more and the hunting can become a bit tough. My other favorite thing about this time of year? When the weather just flat sucks for being on the water I can always walk out to the back pasture to sit in the deer stand for a while. Yep, I’m ready for November.
54 | November 2018
And here’s your reward…a husky November redfish that couldn’t resist a well placed fly.
Capt. Scott Null is a devout shallow water fisherman offering guided adventues via kayak, poled skiff, and wading. Telephone Email Website
281-450-2206 captscottnull@gmail.com www.captainscottnull.com
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B y D r. T i f f a n y H o p p e r | P o l i c y & E d u c a t i o n Te a m
FIELD NOTES
ACROSS SPACE & SEASONS:
PATTERNS IN TEXAS MARINE COMMUNITIES It’s a beautiful day and you’re out enjoying our wonderful Texas bays and marine waters when you notice Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) Coastal Fisheries staff setting gill nets, pulling trawls, or dredging for oysters. You may wonder what they are doing and why. You most likely saw us collecting data for our long-term fishery-independent monitoring program. Our program is one of the most robust and longest running marine fisheries data sets in the entire world! TPWD collects data using a variety of gear types including gill nets, bag seines, and trawls and uses them to help maintain a sustainable harvest of our Texas fisheries while conserving the biodiversity that makes our Texas waters so special. Anglers usually see these datasets in the form of trends in
Figure 1. Map of TPWD CF gulf trawl areas sampled. Inset photo shows TPWD staff sorting the catch from a Gulf trawl sample.
56 | November 2018
an individual species over time or across the Texas coast, but TPWD also uses these datasets to help understand patterns in entire marine communities. Often the actions we take affect more than just the species they target; they can affect a wide variety of other species that are part of the same marine community. Some actions might also impact areas of the coast differently than others due to the unique communities present in those areas. To better understand these communities in our Texas offshore waters, TPWD uses data from multiple gear types. Last month Ryan Easton introduced you to our Gulf SEAMAP bottom longline sampling program, which collects data in nearshore waters off the Texas coast. The study reported this month uses data from our Gulf trawl sampling program. This dataset allows biologists to investigate how these communities vary across space and time. For the Gulf trawl survey program, TPWD collects 16 samples every month in state waters offshore of five areas spread out along the Texas coast: 1) Sabine Lake (SL), 2) Galveston Bay (GB), 3) Matagorda Bay (MB), 4) Corpus Christi Bay (CCB), and 5) lower Laguna Madre (LLM) (Figure 1). We collect 192 total trawl samples in each area every year for a total of 960 trawl samples for the entire Texas coast. After each sample is collected, TPWD staff count and measure the species collected by that trawl (Figure 1). For our analysis, we focused on a group of 20 species that make up 90% of the fish typically caught in these trawls along with some recreationally and commercially important invertebrates like shrimp and crabs. This group included angler favorites like the red snapper along with less commonly targeted fish like
Figure 2. Percent of years where paired areas were significantly different from one another. Area pairs where areas next to one another are indicated with *.
Atlantic croaker, Atlantic moonfish, and star drum. Most gulf trawl samples TPWD collects will have several of these species in them, but one sample might have more Atlantic croaker while another might have more white shrimp. The patterns in which species are found in higher or lower numbers gives us a picture of the marine community at the time and place the sample was collected. As you might expect, adjacent areas often had communities that were similar, but there were exceptions. For the 26 years of Gulf trawl data we examined, the SL and GB areas on the upper coast had significantly different communities in only 12% of the years (Figure 2). MB and CCB on the middle coast had significantly different communities in only 4% of the years. The community differences were larger for GB and MB, which were different from one another in 65% of the years. The communities of CCB and LLM on the lower coast were different 96% of the time. For the entire coast, areas that were not adjacent to each other had different communities in 96-100% of the years we studied. Our analysis of the patterns in the marine community within each of the five Gulf areas showed that the community structure in each area was likely to be similar between years separated by shorter intervals. For example, the community in GB in 2000 was similar to the community in GB in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. However, the community in GB in 2005 was significantly different than the community in GB during 2000. This type of pattern was typical for most areas over the time period studied, and it took multiple years in most cases before the community in an area shifted significantly. However, the amount of time on average before a community shifted differed substantially between areas of the coast (Figure 3). The SL community on the upper coast did not begin to show a significant change until 7.6 years had passed, on average. Moving down the coast to GB, MB, and CCB, the communities began to differ a little
Figure 3. Average number of years for each area before a significant difference in the marine community is detected. Error bars show + 1 standard error for each average value.
faster than the SL community. These communities began to differ after an average of 5.2, 5.7, and 6.0 years respectively. For LLM community differences were evident after an average of only 3.6 years had passed. This means that on average the LLM community changes more than twice as often as the SL community. Studying these types of patterns in whole communities along with the trends for individual species helps TPWD understand how to maintain sustainable populations of commonly targeted species that are part of diverse communities. By understanding how communities differ across time and the Texas coast, TPWD can more effectively manage our unique ecosystems and keep the waters of Texas healthy for years to come. And remember life’s better outside!
Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or tpwd.texas.gov for more info. TSFMAG.com | 57
DAV E R O B E R T S
K AYA K F I S H I N G C H R O N I C L E S
SNOOKTOPIA 2018:
THE FIRST DAY
I mentioned being on a two week road trip in my last article that I wrote from my hotel in Tennessee. That was at the halfway point with my ultimate destination being Jupiter, Florida. This is where Snooktopia 2018 was going to take place and I couldn’t have been more excited to get down there. Concluding my safety seminars I repacked all my gear and was soon southbound and down. Another 12-hour drive delivered me to Jonathan Dickenson State Park. I checked in at the front office and when I arrived at the campsites, I was the only one there. I decided to call Bart to see where they were and to my surprise they were still out fishing. I then started to set up camp and figured I would hang out, relax, and wait for them to come back in. It was nice to finally unwind and look at something besides the dotted white lines on the highway.
58 | November 2018
It wasn’t too much longer until Bart, Ben and a few other guys showed up at the camp. They welcomed me and we caught up a little bit since it had been a year since we'd been together. On top of the welcoming, they gave me a fishing report and the snook were indeed there. Being near midnight at this point, we decided to call it a night and pursue several fishing plans in the morning. Being that it was my first day there, I was not going to miss the topwater bite at daylight. Bart and Ben were going to sleep late as they’d just put in a very long day on the water. My alarm came early that morning but I didn’t hesitate to jump up and get ready. I headed down to the launch, hastily threw my kayak in the water and started fishing. It was a beautiful, still morning and I couldn’t be any happier to be paddling through the mangrove forest. On top of that, I had the Loxahatchee River to myself and the first shot at any potential fish. With this being my second time fishing this area I was much better prepared than on my first visit last year. I had three rods rigged up, all with different presentations, and with reasoning behind it. I had a Bone Super Spook tied on for covering lots of water; a 4” Keitech swimbait to pitch under docks and mangrove limbs; and my third rod with an 8-inch River2Sea glidebait in hopes of enticing a large, picky snook. I began with the Spook along the mangroves and it started off fairly slowly. After making a few bends in the river I began getting blowups. Snook hold nothing back when it comes to hitting a topwater; it’s usually violent. I continued on when I heard and saw a blow-up in the back pocket of a mangrove patch. I quickly, but quietly, headed that way and to get into casting range. I aired my Spook across the flat and noticed a wake following my lure. Trying not to panic, I kept the same cadence in hopes that she would strike. But she turned away after following it several feet. However, I did get a glimpse of her, without a doubt
the glide bait. Liking what I saw of the sandbar’s structure possibilities we’d taken our break on, I began to probe the deep drop-off that ran along a boat channel. Several hours of effort brought me another solid strike but I was too late with the hookset and did not connect. With that I grabbed a bite to eat and went back to camp. After talking to Bart the next morning I learned they’d had their chances the night before. Bart had one break him off and Ben had one straighten his hook. Just goes to show you that big snook are powerful. Day-1 of Snooktopia 2018 was in the books and I had a few more ahead to land a monster snook. It was clear that snook were present and hopes were running high for the next day’s fishing.
C O N TA C T
she was the one I had driven twelve hours for! I continued on and eventually started to put a few small Snook in the kayak. I had several decent blow-ups but could not hook any of the bigger fish, only the small ones. No worries though, I at least knew there were some fish hanging around. Around 9:00 a.m. Bart and the rest of the Snooktopia crew made their way to me. They were planning to fish their way downriver and make the day out of it. It didn’t take much convincing for me to join. As we headed down, we split sides of the river in hopes that one of us would pull a snook off one of the docks. To our mutual surprise nobody landed a snook in the area. Once the river opened up near the Atlantic we started to spread out. I decided it was time to try the 8-inch glidebait. Having enjoyed no success along the piers I switched focus to the bulkheads. It didn’t take long until I felt a fish whack that big bait. A decent fight and a few good headshakes, I landed the frisky 25-incher. Too bad that she slipped from my grasp before I could snap a photo. Oh well. Getting closer to our takeout point we decided to stop at a sandbar for a short break. It felt good to get out and stretch since I been in the kayak all day. While there, I caught up with a few of the guys that I met last year and got to meet a few new people that decided to come down as well. We all talked about how the day had been going and there were a few snook caught but no big ones. All agreed it had been a beautiful day and a few fish hitting the kayaks made it even better. It was time to formulate the day’s final fishing strategy. Half the crew decided to head straight back to camp while I elected to fish my way back. Bart, his brother Don, and Ben decided they were going to start catching bait for night fishing. We split ways and I was on my own with
Dave Roberts is an avid kayak-fishing enthusiast fishing primarily the inshore Upper Coast region with occasional adventures to surf and nearshore Gulf of Mexico. Email: TexasKayakChronicles@yahoo.com Website: www.TexasKayakChronicles.com
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Egery Flats has suffered significantly as the old 30-inch culverts filled with barnacles and sediments.
Story by John Blaha
T S F M A G C O N S E R VAT I O N N E W S
RESTORATION OF EGERY FLATS
IN PROGRESS
Habitat within eco-systems along the Gulf coast, and all the coastal regions of the United States and the rest of the world has declined for decades due to development, transportation infrastructure, oil and gas operations, natural causes and much more. CCA Texas and Building Conservation Trust (BCT), CCA National’s Habitat Program, have both played key roles in helping restore degraded habitat. These efforts are often through partnerships with organizations such as Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program (CBBEP), Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF), Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and other similar non-profit organizations and government entities. These projects have included marsh restoration efforts through the use of breakwaters, beneficial use dredge spoil, grass plantings, and floating island methods. One such restoration effort recently began in Egery Flats, located on the upper end of Copano Bay. Egery Flats sits on the western edge of Copano Bay near the mouth of the Aransas River. In 1945, when Farm to Market Road 136 was constructed, two culvert systems,
Construction crews began work recently at the project site. Traffic on FM 136 will be restricted to single lanes during construction.
60 | November 2018
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Prior to the start of construction, CBBEP worked with Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (MANEER) at the University of Texas Marine Science institute and TPWD to collect valuable preconstruction data, including porewater salinity and vegetation monitoring. These data will be valuable in the evaluation of future projects. Once completed, monitoring will continue and will help determine the effectiveness of the culvert replacement and success of the restoration effort. Successful projects are often successful because of a strong partnership base that works hand in hand. The Egery Flats project has several partners including: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, Texas Parks & Wildlife, US Fish & Wildlife Services, Building Conservation Trust, Coastal Conservation Partial views of the old culverts that are being replaced. Association Texas, Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Texas Marine Science Institute, and Texas Department of Transportation. All of these partners have and will continue to play a vital role through the completion and post monitoring effort of the project. CCA Texas and BCT contributed $70,000 to this project. These funds will be used to primarily plant approximately 8 acres of emergent marsh to help enhance the re-vegetation of the flats. Habitat restoration and creation is a vital component to insuring healthy and bountiful coastal resources for the future. CCA Texas and BCT are committed to continuing their support to projects along the Texas coast for generations to come. This support would never be possible without the continued success of the grassroots efforts of CCA Texas volunteers across the state and supporters within the communities in which CCA Texas chapters exist. CCA Texas and BCT are continuously seeking project and funding partners for habitat efforts. each consisting of two 30-inch round culverts, were installed to For more information about CCA Texas or BCT, please contact John allow water to flow in and out of Egery Flats. Over time, the flow Blaha at (713) 626-4222 or jdblaha@ccatexas.org. through these culverts has become restricted enough to impact water quality and habitat, which has resulted in the conversion Oysters, Blues and Brews – November 1, 2018 of over 100 acres of estuarine marsh and habitat to open water Building Conservation Trust and Goode Company will be hosting since the 1950s. While FM 136 connects local communities and is the 3rd Annual Oysters, Blues and Brews on Thursday, November 1, a favorite spot for roadside fishermen, crabbers, and birders, Egery 2018. The event will be held at Goode Company’s Armadillo Palace, Flats has deteriorated greatly since its construction. located on Kirby Drive in Houston. This event features oysters CBBEP received a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife served in many different ways, live music and everyone’s favorite Foundation’s (NFWF) Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund for the project. beverages. So be sure and come out for a night full of Gulf oysters, This project will replace the old 30-inch culverts with three 3’ x 6’ box live music, and cold beer benefiting the Oyster Restoration efforts culverts at each location. These new culverts will not only increase of Building Conservation Trust, Coastal Conservation Association’s water flow greatly, but they will restore critical hydrology which will National Habitat Program. lower salinity levels in the area and enhance more than 600 acres of emergent marsh, submerged vegetation, and tidal flats at Egery Flats. 62 | November 2018
Relax, we’ll take care of the details!
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Photo from NOAA Central Library Historical Fisheries Collection
STEPHANIE BOYD
F I S H Y FA C T S
POMPANO Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus, are one of twenty species in the marine jack family (Carangidae), and are also one of the more tropical looking species found in Texas waters – silvery sides, a bright yellow throat, and a deeply forked black tail. Their genus name comes from the Greek trachys and noton, meaning rough back. They are deep-bodied fish with a blunt snout and a low dorsal fin sporting about six separate spines on a blue to greenish back. Fish found in darker waters have yellow on their pelvic fins and anal fin, which can even be lemon yellow in young specimens. Young fish also have small, conical teeth, but those disappear by the time they reach about eight inches, to be replaced by well-developed pharyngeal plates. There are eight to fourteen gill rakers on the lower limb of the gill arch and twenty to twenty-four anal fin rays. The average size is two to five pounds. However, the Texas record is 6.41 pounds, 24.63 inches, caught in June 2006 in the Lower Laguna Madre, and the IGFA all-tackle record is 8 pounds 4 ounces, caught in October 1999 in Port St. Joe Bay, Florida. Pompano are similar in form to two related species: the permit (Trachinotus falcatus) and the palometa (Trachinotus goodie). Both have fewer dorsal and anal rays than the pompano. Small permit (under 3.5 inches in length) also have teeth on the tongue, and palometa have four dark narrow bars on 64 | November 2018
the upper body. Additionally, permit grow much larger than pompano, up to fifty pounds. Despite its name, the range of the Florida pompano extends from Massachusetts to Brazil, especially in turbid waters. They are generally absent from clear waters of Bahamas (and similar regions) and from insular areas with coralline habitats. Though as larvae they often live offshore, adults are common along Gulf beaches and passes. In September and October, they move into the bays and estuaries, flashing their silver sides and yellow bodies when they jump in the wake of boats. Though pompano prefer mid to higher salinities (around 32 to 36 ppt), research has shown that, if acclimated properly, juvenile and adult pompano adjust well to lower salinities. Temperature is the real mover and shaker of this species. Pompano are cold intolerant, preferring waters between 62° and 90°F. Mortality occurs at 50 to 53°F, or when there are extreme, abrupt temperature changes, so they often move offshore during the coldest winter months. They can be found in depths up to 230 feet. Pompano are primarily bottom feeders that opportunistically graze preferred species. Pharyngeal plates indicate that hard-shelled organisms, such as crabs and mollusks, are important in the diet. Also on the menu are beach fleas, shrimp, small fish, and other
miscellaneous invertebrates buried in the sand. Young pompano are more opportunistic; as they age, they become more selective in their prey choices. Pompano generally form small to large schools, and juveniles, in particular, form immense schools along beaches. While the schools offer a lower risk of predation, they may also be beneficial for foraging. A collaborative study between the Department of Marine Sciences (University of South Alabama) and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (Alabama) published in 2015 found that T. carolinus feeding in groups tend to consume more, have fewer unsuccessful foraging attempts, and start eating sooner than individual foragers. Many foraging strategies of schooling fish focus on the location of prey, which is especially important when the prey is moving and only intermittently available, like the ‘swash-riding’ coquina clams. In this unique behavior, coquina clams emerge from the sediment and ride the beach waves in with the tides. During this time, the pompano can feast on coquinas. Juvenile pompano will even ‘surf’ up the beach into shallow water to capture them. In this scenario, coquina clams are both on the move and only briefly available, because the fish won’t dig for clams once they’ve burrowed. Foraging in schools also offers an advantage where little protection is available from predators, and pretty much anything that utilizes beach areas as feeding grounds will take a pompano. In the Gulf of Mexico, young pompano start appearing in bays in early summer, with a smaller wave of individuals reported in August and September. The actual spawning location for pompano is unknown, but it is thought that spawning occurs offshore, where prevailing currents influence the transport and distribution of eggs and larvae. There are no documented accounts of spawning activity inshore, though recent studies indicate that there may be more inshore habitats conducive to spawning than previously thought. The season of love varies a bit among Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico populations. Those located in the tropical Gulf and Caribbean Sea may spawn throughout the year. Low-energy surf zones along beaches are the preferred nursery habitat. Juveniles leave the nursery when they reach three to five inches and can be found over sandy or muddy substrate in shallow bays or along piers and sand flats. Young pompano grow rapidly, up to twelve inches in their first year. Fifty percent of females reach sexual maturity by age one; all reach it by age three at approximately sixteen inches. Males reach sexual maturity around age one, or at fourteen inches. Females tend to grow faster and larger than males. Three to four years is the average lifespan, though individuals as old as seven have been caught. Florida pompano are caught commercially in all states from Virginia through Texas, but Florida accounts for more than ninety percent of the total harvest. There are indications of overfishing and localized population declines off the Atlantic coast of Florida; beach replenishment in the Gulf of Mexico may cause fish to avoid those areas for several years; and mosquito control practices applied to shoreline habitats often kill the pompano’s preferred prey items (coquina and sand fleas). However, these are not currently considered to be major threats on the global level. They are therefore assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. Because they are a fast-growing, tasty fish, Florida pompano are recognized as having great potential for aquaculture. Research on culturing techniques and water recycling methods are underway. Being a member of the jack family, pompano have a semi-oily flesh that makes them a great candidate for the grill. Chefs like it because the
fillets are of even thickness. The pompano’s diet yields a rich but mild flavor. Because of its high fat content, the white, opaque flesh works well with complex sauces. Be aware when buying this meat that there are several fish species in the Trachinotus genus marketed as “pompano.” The name has long been used synonymously for many different species within the jack family. Luckily, Florida pompano are a great candidate to catch yourself! There are currently no regulations pertaining to pompano in Texas state waters, and because they fight hard, bite readily, and are found right along the beachfront (yet only require light tackle), pompano are also great targets for kids. Fishing requires patience. Fishing with a child requires the patience of a saint. But the rewards are heavenly.” ~ @CastingCarter
Where I learned about Florida pompano, and you can too! TPWD tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/pompano/ tpwd.texas.gov/fishing/sea-center-texas/flora-fauna-guide/nearshore-waters/ animals-of-the-nearshore-waters/florida-pompano tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/action/staterecords.php?env=SW&age_ group=all&list=0&browse=Go FishBase www.fishbase.org/summary/380 IUCN Red List www.iucnredlist.org/details/16507646/0 Smithsonian Marine Station www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Trachi_caroli.htm Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission myfwc.com/research/saltwater/fish/florida-pompano/research/ myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/saltwater/jacks/florida-pompano/ myfwc.com/media/4210263/31-florida-pompano-2016.pdf Southern Regional Aquaculture Center agrilife.org/fisheries/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-7206-Species-ProfileFlorida-Pompano.pdf Plos One journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0130095 Encyclopedia of Life eol.org/pages/210301/overview IGFA wrec.igfa.org/WRecordsList.aspx?lc=AllTackle&cn=Pompano,%20Florida Health Benefits Times www.healthbenefitstimes.com/pompano-fish-facts-and-nutritional-info/ C.A.S.T. myemail.constantcontact.com/Your-monthly-newsletter-is-here-.html?soid=11 02793001696&aid=hJzjEZeEiJ4
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Big sheepshead like this flood into the bays this month from the gulf.
CURTISS CASH
I N S H O R E | N E A R S H O R E | J E T T I E S | PA S S E S
NOVEMBER NEARSHORE & INSHORE By the time you read this most of the seasonal pelagic species will have migrated from our Texas state waters. This is normal – cooling water temps play a major role in this each fall. The opportunities to skip out to the edge of state water decrease as cold fronts begin to arrive with increased regularity. The larger red snapper have moved closer inshore to structure that also holds red and black drum, gulf trout, and bluefish. A stray cobia may still be in the area so anglers would do well to keep a pitch-bait ready. When the food source moves deeper the migratory gamefish follow close behind. It is possible to still find kingfish, cobia and amberjack in 120-200 foot depths 66 | November 2018
throughout the month. Wrecks, reefs and oil and gas structures are good targets. Bottom fishing can provide good catches around the deeper structure. Fishing tight to the structure is your best bet. Getting a bait through the red snapper and triggerfish can be tough, so use heavy weights. For lane snapper and rock hind grouper, use 6/O Mustad circle hooks with squid pieces for bait on lighter tackle. Bigger fish like gag grouper, scamp and Warsaw grouper are better caught with heavier tackle and larger baits. Whole squid, live pinfish and hand-sized chunks of cut bait work very well. Heading offshore in the off-season requires extra care
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and planning. Safety is of utmost importance. File a float plan, study forecasted weather patterns and do not tempt fate. With fewer boaters offshore, incidental “support” is less likely, travel with a buddy boat whenever possible. The weather conditions are normally much better a couple days after a frontal passage. Don’t forget insect repellant with DEET. The frontal passages push flies offshore where they congregate around visible structure. They may not be of significant bother close to shore but without adequate nourishment offshore they turn into savages. Jetties The redfish run is winding down but good catches can still be Redfish will continue running strong well into November.
available through the Thanksgiving weekend. The bull reds will continue to congregate on the channel drop-offs and deep washouts. Cracked crab and whole Spanish sardines fished on bottom work best. Oversized black drum are caught frequently in the same areas as the bull reds. The range of fish species available dwindles as water temperatures continue to decline. Trout, redfish, black drum, flounder and sheepshead become the main targets. Live shrimp works equally well on all of them. The sheepshead make a big push from the gulf waters early in the month. The fish feed heavily at the rocks and start migrating to structure in the bays. I would try bay platforms, channel markers, shoreline drop-offs and oyster reefs, both deep and shallow. Dan Kolkhorst was very pleased to land this flounder recently. The run will intensify throughout November.
Red snapper will again inhabit Texas state waters as the water temps decline.
68 | November 2018
Flounder November is the month of the big flounder run. The bag limit reduces to two fish but the action and quality increases. They really start moving with the first few cold fronts that push through and drop the water temps quickly. Jetties are great feeding areas where they stage during migration to the gulf. On the falling tide, shallow sand flats on the bay side of the jetty and sand humps or patches near the edge of the rocks are places where I find them. In light or slack tide situations flounder tend to lay up on top of flat rocks near the water’s edge or settle on the deeper sand bottom where the edge of the rocks settle into the channel. Bouncing or dragging soft plastic lures on the bottom gets strikes, as well as live finger mullet, mud minnows and live shrimp. Ideally you want the bait in the strike zone within 12 inches of the bottom and skipping along while riding the current. To lessen the possibility of fouling rocks use a split shot toward the tail for increased action to trigger a bite. Best method I’ve found when fishing bait is to use a short 5 to 8-inch length of 30lb Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon rigged Carolina style. The weight of the egg sinker is dictated by the current. I use as little as weight as possible to hit bottom, but not hold tight. I like to use a 2/O or 3/O Mustad 9174 short shank hook. In heavy current hook the bait in the head. Shrimp should be hooked under the horn and baitfish sideways through the nostrils to keep from drowning. In light or no current place the hook in the tail to
Jetty fishing is a family affair, everybody can be part of the catch.
C O N TA C T
trigger more strikes with the increased action. When using little or no weight, allowing a bit of slack in your line that creates a small bow to form will help it move along through the current and over structure. To achieve this you need to cast up-current and pay out line from a free spool slowly while holding the rod tip upward close to a 180 degree angle. All the while watching for a bite. Soft plastic lures bounced along the bottom on a jighead work great. I am a big fan of Berkley Gulp. I use the 3” Minnow Tail Grub either white or chartreuse. These are smaller baits that get inhaled when fished on a short shank 1/8-ounce jighead. These lures work great when rigged in tandem making for better castability and presentation. November is a great month to get out and mix it up on the water. With waterfowl season in full swing a day of blast and cast is a great change of pace. Come down to Port O’Connor for the laid back atmosphere and phenomenal outdoor activities, I bet you’ll like it. Don’t just take my word for it, ask around. Port O’Connor is no longer “The best kept secret on the Texas coast.”
Capt. Curtiss Cash offers charters in the Port O’Connor area; specializing in fishing the bays, passes, jetties, surf and nearshore waters. Species targeted include speckled trout, redfish, flounder, tripletail, black drum, bull reds, sharks, snapper, kingfish, ling and tarpon, when seasonally available. Phone
361-564-7032
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Alexis Anthony with her first-ever tiger. Tagged and released on PINS beach.
E X T R E M E K AYA K F I S H I N G & S H A R K S F R O M T H E S A N D
ERIC OZOLINS
THE YEAR OF THE TIGER Chinese astrologists may be celebrating the year of the dog, but here in the world of Texas surf angling I think 2018 would easily qualify as the year of the tiger – tiger shark, that is. We hope for a smattering of tiger landings each year but anglers all up and down the Texas coast have been bringing an astonishing number of tigers to the sand recently. Amongst all the shark species that sport anglers pursue, the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is revered almost universally at or near the top of the list. Voracious feeders, equipped with uniquely serrated cusped teeth, tigers can slice and crush the bodies of prey that other sharks seem to ignore – even large sea turtles with their armor-like shells are not safe. Voracious in their scavenge feeding, groups of these “trashcans of the sea” have been documented to consume entire whale carcasses. Stomach contents have included automobile tires…of all things. While typically regarded as an offshore species, certain weather and water conditions will change their patterns to include roaming the shallows of the surf zone where they feed primarily on stingrays and a variety of finfish – quite often individuals wounded or weakened in unsuccessful attacks by other formidable predators. Adding to the angling allure, mature females in our area can grow to lengths exceeding twelve feet. There has been considerable speculation as to why 70 | November 2018
we have enjoyed so many tiger landings the past few months, and while nobody can cite a single contributing factor, I tend to believe it is a lucky combination of several variables. And what about angling effort? Do we somehow suddenly have more tigers in our waters than the historic average? Or, apart from and/or along with this, might it be that we now have a generation of more dedicated, better educated, and certainly better equipped shark anglers? Anglers who by virtue of advanced qualifications and equipment are landing a greater percentage of “the ones that used to get away?” It is no secret that land-based shark angling in Texas is currently soaring in popularity – just stroll or drive along any beach. And while there, take note of the tackle being used. I call it the “big gear” kick. The biggest and baddest rods and reels money can buy used specifically to target BIG sharks. Talking with biologists, marine scientists, and also veteran shark anglers, theories are evolving regarding recent tiger shark abundance along our coast that include our normal populations being augmented by individuals migrating from less-desirable habitats in other regions. The popular culprit in this are the algal blooms that have enveloped much of Florida’s normally pristine and semitropical coastline this summer. Florida is currently and HAS been enduring a red tide
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James McLane with a large tag and release tiger, fishing a beach charter with author.
Author poses with a large tiger shark – tagged and released. Note deformity of dorsal fin.
Late morning tiger shark landing, another successful tag and release for the author.
72 | November 2018
outbreak of here-to-fore unseen proportions. Red tide (Karina brevis) is a naturally-occurring concentration of microscopic algae that produces a neuro-toxin, known to paralyze breathing muscles of fish and marine invertebrates. Fish and other animals unable to escape this noxious bloom will invariably perish, sometimes in great numbers. We’ve seen it many times in the past, right here in our own gulf waters and bays. Millions of dead fish floating and washing ashore. The stench is horrible and the deadly aerosols of wind-stirred toxins cause respiratory irritation in mammals, including humans. Luckily, we have experienced no significant outbreaks this year, but we’re certainly due another, according to historic records. So, in keeping with the recently-emerging theories, are the red tide outbreaks off Florida contributing to the recent abundance of tiger sharks along our coast? While this would likely be impossible to prove in a scientific sense, most agree that it could definitely be a contributor. Sharks have the capability of being highlymigratory. Studies suggest that some species are mostly semi-residential while others regularly travel great distances annually. Red tide is simply a plague. If sharks are within areas of the “toxic” water, they will move in search of more suitable habitat. Sharks are not traditionally seen eating red tideaffected fish, still writhing in death throes, or dead fish floating or lying on bottom. In fact, if it might be possible, it’s as though they have been programmed by nature to avoid them. Whether these sharks are smarter than we realize or perhaps a natural response, they generally flee the red tide, especially areas that have been affected for prolonged periods. With the large sharks likely moving out of the area, they have to go somewhere. It is believed a good portion of these sharks have traveled around the gulf the past few months and joined our population of sharks here in Texas. Why stop in Texas? Our coastal waters are extremely rich in nutrients, which kicks off the food chain from the bottom up. Our aggressive weather patterns, prevailing winds, and offshore currents that are very unique to our coast result in very healthy fisheries for us to enjoy. This alone would be a reason for these sharks to make a prolonged “pit-stop” to escape the wrath of red tide. Getting back to the angling aspect – our shark fishing has been absolutely off-the-chart in 2018 compared with previous years. From early-August onward we have seen more tiger sharks landed than ever before. Many anglers who have never caught or even witnessed the landing of a tiger have fulfilled their dreams this year. Tigers have been landed from the northern reaches of the upper Texas coast all the way down to the southern tip of Padre Island. While most specimens have been in the 7 to 9-foot class, there have also been many 10 and 12-footers. A 10-plus tiger is usually a mature fish and very robust in every aspect. I have hooked some of the largest tigers of my career this year and, while not
C O N TA C T
succeeding in landing the largest of these, I have landed multiple specimens greater than 10 feet. This elusive species is not an easy shark to land; thus each encounter is beyond special to me. While nothing is ever certain in shark fishing, there is a good chance we may never see this kind of tiger action again in our lifetime, especially if normal sargassum patterns return in the future. For many years we have been envious of Florida and their phenomenal shark fishery. Well, right this minute, the script has been flipped and we have become the mecca of shark angling. While we are very happy in the western gulf, it came at a price as the general fishery off Florida will have to undergo rebuilding for some time to come. Lucky for us, these tigers and other large sharks will be available along our coast until early December. This is an exciting time for all anglers and especially for me in my charter efforts to put clients on lifetime specimens. Being able to see and handle these awesome creatures is both highly educational and awe inspiring, even if only a very brief time before they are released back into the wilds of the Gulf of Mexico. Enjoy this incredible period while it lasts! For the past decade Eric ‘Oz’ Ozolins has been promoting shark catch and release and assisting various shark research programs. Eric offers guided shark fishing on Padre Island National Seashore. Also renowned for extreme kayak big game fishing, Eric is the owner of Catch Sharks Tackle Company. Email Websites
oz@oceanepics.com oceanepics.com | catchsharks.com
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P L A S T I C & WAT E R D O N ' T M I X
Rhonda Cummins*
TRASH TRAVELS – DO NOT LET ITS JOURNEY START WITH YOU Editor’s Note: Our Plastic and Water Don’t Mix segment this month highlights the efforts of the 106 member volunteer workforce who participated in the 32nd Annual Adopt-a-Beach Cleanup event that was held October 6, 2018 near the communities of Magnolia Beach and Indianola on Matagorda Bay. Rhonda Cummins earns TSFMag “mega-conservation kudos” for steadfastly organizing and spearheading this most-worthy event for so many years. Your dedication to a noble cause is both greatly commendable and appreciated. TSFMag is proud to have been able to contribute toward lunch and refreshments for the attendees. We also want to thank Yeti for their donation of custom drinkware they so generously donated for door prizes.
Inclement weather in September postponed the 32nd annual fall Adopt-A-Beach cleanup but the event was held successfully on Saturday, October 6. Most storm clouds skirted around Magnolia Beach on Saturday morning for the 106 volunteers who came to clean the six mile area of Matagorda Bay shoreline between Magnolia and Indianola. The main beach and several pocket beaches were strewn with a variety of trash, mostly from careless visitors. A total of nearly 1100 pounds of trash was hauled away by the public works crew from Calhoun County Precinct 1. Volunteers enjoyed a gourmet beach lunch at the Magnolia Beach Volunteer Fire Department barn after the cleanup. Three lucky participants won donated Yeti door prizes. Marine debris is not an ocean problem. It is a people problem, thus people are the solution. Dedicated volunteers who show up rain or shine to clean the beaches are important but these events are not the long term answer. The flow of garbage — plastic, cigarette butts, food wrappers, beer cans, glass bottles, fireworks, construction materials, Styrofoam, 74 | November 2018
Great corporate partners involved in conservation of natural resources - Costa Del Mar who sponsor this column - and Yeti with their generous donations of branded drinkware, are excellent examples of successful companies that get it right when it comes to supporting fisheries and marine conservation worldwide. Remember Costa and Yeti when you do your Christmas shopping this year. Your support of these fine companies enables their ability to participate in events like Texas AdoptA-Beach and many other initiatives. Rhonda Cummins was kind enough to prepare a recap of the recent cleanup and I could never say it as well as she does. So, here’s Rhonda….
Rhonda Cummins is shown with the safety rules at her 19th cleanup.
The haul tallied nearly 1100 pounds of nasty trash – much of it discarded by careless beach visitors.
Oscar Padron and Monica Villarreal pause alongside North Ocean Drive during the clean up at Magnolia Beach. The annual clean up is a family affair and some people even bring their dogs along for a walk on the beach.
Calhoun County Precinct 1 crew who assisted (left to right) Lupe Ruiz, Paul Leal , and Timo Benavides. Thanks guys; and thanks also to Precinct 1 Commissioner David Hall for his support.
fishing gear, bait containers, ice bags, etc.—from people to the environment has to stop. To achieve an ocean free of trash, people need to be more careful with the products they use and what happens after they use them. Solving the problem of trash in the ocean begins on land. Pick up after yourself. If you drop it, pick it up. If an animal tears into your household trash the night before the garbage pickup, it is your responsibility to clean it up out of your yard. Do not wait for it to blow away. Do not leave dirty diapers on the parking lots or the beaches. No one wants them. Do not let trash fly out of the back of your pickup truck. Do not throw trash out your car windows. Use trash cans when they are available. When they are not, pack out what you packed in and throw it away when you get home. In other words: DO NOT LITTER. Yes, this means YOU. It means ME. It means EVERYONE. Otherwise people continue to be the problem, not the solution. *Rhonda Cummins is the Calhoun County Extension Agent for Coastal and Marine Resources with the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service and the Texas Sea Grant College Program.
Jamie Jenkins, Deborah Westfall, and David Gleinser took home Yeti drinkware door prizes.
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DICKIE COLBURN
DICKIE COLBURN’S Sabine Scene
S ab i n e
Dickie Colburn is a full time guide out of Orange, Texas. Dickie has 37 years experience guiding on Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes.
Telephone 409-883-0723 Website www.sabineconnection.com
Thank God for redfish and flounder. They continue to carry the load for Sabine Lake anglers as we move into the cooler months of fall, still unable to consistently catch keeper trout. After a blistering but relatively dry and wind-friendly summer, I readily accepted an invitation to join some old college teammates for three days of fishing in south Louisiana in mid- September. The redfish bite is always as good as you will find anywhere and while their trout are numerous, even if generally on the small side, I was ready to catch more than one trout of any size. We never wet the first hook. We hit the rain just south of New Iberia and it poured virtually every minute the next two days. We visited and ate way too much for a day and a half before giving up and returning home. That rain followed us and it has continued to rain at least once a day every day since! The lower coast has apparently not fared much better as our editor, Everett Johnson, recently told me that basically everything around his house was either soggy or underwater. The added cost of building his home on a manmade hill has paid significant dividends over the past few years. We continue to hope that the stiff north winds
that precede each new front will lower the level in the marshes and ignite a consistent trout bite. We have all but given up on our magnum trout that attracted a world of visiting anglers, but we can better assess the overall bite once the fish and bait are a little more confined. Regardless of how it plays out, one thing is beyond debate. At best, the trout population will take a while to recover and keeping every trout over fifteen inches won’t accelerate the process. Reducing limits would help, but the fact that Texas anglers simply need to launch on the Louisiana side of the lake to keep even smaller and more fish somewhat negates that proposed solution. Many of the Texas guides that fish Sabine are now launching on the Louisiana side in order to stay in business. I seldom, if ever, fish south of the Causeway so I can report only what is passed along by dependable resources. While most of the trout are only Louisiana-legal (shorter than Texas’ 15-inch minimum length), they are catching decent numbers from Lighthouse Cove to the jetties. We are occasionally stumbling up on small groups of trout on the north end, but it is invariably a bite
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that seldom lasts more than a day or two. The rain has slowed that bite of late, but most of the trout we have found on the north end of the lake have been holding in 2 to 4 foot depths within a cast of significantly deeper water. As it gets colder and water levels drop in the marshes, the deeper drains and bayous will attract more trout staging to ambush baitfish
Brad Beauchamp duped this backwater red with a fly rod.
and shrimp moving out of the back lakes. Four-inch tails like the Sea Shad and Lil John rigged on jig heads just heavy enough to keep the bait close to the bottom in moving water are usually the ticket. Hopefully, we will eventually find trout chasing shrimp under the birds in the open lake. That may well be a pipe dream, but only time will tell. The two-fish limit on flounder renders them more of a bonus right now than the main target in November but they have been fairly easy to find and the average size has been very good. Redfish, on the other hand, continue to rule the roost. We are finding them in those same drains and bayous, schooling in the open lake and patrolling the shallow ponds bordering the bayous. While fishing those shallow ponds with a frog or weedless spoon is an absolute blast, the topwater explosions are even more rewarding when armed with a fly rod. Our sand trout are just now starting to stack up in deeper water and that is absolutely a kidfriendly bite. Keep it simple by vertically fishing the school. It can absolutely produce a bite or fish every time the bait reaches the bottom. Plan on keeping just enough to clean and eat that evening and you will enjoy both the texture and taste. Give it a try this weekend. Playing a role in a youngster catching a fish will always be the best part of fishing!
TSFMAG.com | 79
CAPT. CALEB HARP
THE BUZZ on Galveston Bay
Galve s t o n
Capt. Caleb Harp has fished the Galveston Bay System since childhood and, now a charter captain and fishing guide, he uses his knowledge to enable clients to enjoy the excellent fishing the area offers. His specialty is the yeararound pursuit for trophy trout and redfish with artificial lures
Telephone 281-753-3378 Website harpsguideservice.com
November has long been known as a great month on the Galveston Bay System, so long as the cold fronts don’t interfere with our opportunities to be on the water. Lots of folks believe that fall patterns emerge and become established during October but we usually do not get enough frontal passages and cooler weather to make this happen until sometime in early-November. Once the water temperature stabilizes in the mid- to upper-60s is when the trout patterns become truly predictable. So, the fishing this month will be quite weather dependent, which is a very simple tip, but there’s more to it. Mother Nature has lots of tricks up her sleeve and is known to throw a tantrum every now and then. So I offer you Cold Front 101: Before the front, everything eats. Immediately after the front, everything lays up. Generally two days after the front you’ll get some lower barometric pressure rolling in and things will be back to normal. When the fronts hit and the barometric pressure soars, the fish
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Cole Cooper picked up this November speck drifting along a drop-off with Capt. Thomas Francis.
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will become almost dormant – at least in their feeding habits. If you’re fishing under a cloudless sky or when you hop in the water right after a front and you feel like you’ve been vacuum-sealed into your waders, you’re going to have to do some grinding to make the fish eat! Fish, and basically all wildlife, are programmed by nature to gorge as a front approaches. When you know a front is approaching, find nervous mullet along any shoreline and throw your favorite lure right in amongst them, it’ll probably be good. But don’t expect much the day or two following the front, or at least until the barometer begins to settle again. Come November, the greatest part of the year’s shrimp crop will already be out in the gulf. I’m not saying that in the beginning of the month you won’t find any bird activity in the northern stretches of the bays, but most of our Hop-A-Matics are gone. This will trigger the trout to prey almost entirely on finfish, especially mullet. Your mullet imitating plugs become one of the keys to consistent catching…enter the Corky family. Topwaters also become prime players in November as the water temperature is still very conducive for surface feeding. Some of my favorite November memories include topwaters getting absolutely crushed at daylight. Often times we relate favorite fall fishing holes turning on when the first couple really strong fronts roll in. These areas, mostly in the northeast stretches of the bays, are primarily of softer bottom consistency, not hard sand. Mullet are again the culprit, as they feed on sediments and algae commonly stirred up from those softer bottoms. Any such area then begins to also attract lots of trout. As the fronts become more predictable and severe, the trout will linger
around drop-offs or just inside the mouths of sloughs and bayous. These little hideouts make perfect havens for fish to drop into when the water gets blown out by the front, or when the water temps drop suddenly in the face of a chilly north wind. The back of East Bay is almost always a good place to start your November days. If you draw a line from Marsh Point to Robinson’s Bayou, everything east of that line will be generally good, depending on tide levels. On a high tide, you want to be on the north shoreline right up against the grass. On lower tides you better be in front of a bayou on the south shore. In Trinity, wading all along the north shoreline around Jack’s Pocket, Anahuac Pocket and the North Ridge can be good. Trinity is a great place to drift in the fall for the guys who don’t like to wade. The back of Trinity offers many different options with various bottom undulations, ledges and flats that will hold fish on varying tide levels. Covering lots of water can be a key in finding fish and drifting therefore becomes a solid option. In West Bay, mid-bay shell such as Confederate, North Deer and Mechoms reefs will produce lots of fish. Some decent action will also be found in the coves along the south shoreline. Further upstream around the San Jacinto in the Upper Galveston Bay region and along the ship channel, we can also expect some strong bites to develop. This deep water system will hold fish in latefall and into winter given the diverse bottom structure of ledges and other features that create excellent ambush feeding points. Be safe and enjoy your fishing…keep only what you need for a meal or two!
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TSFMAG.com | 81
BINK GRIMES
THE VIEW FROM Matagorda
M ata go r d a
Bink Grimes is a full-time fishing and hunting guide, freelance writer and photographer, and owner of Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay.
Telephone 979-241-1705 Email binkgrimes@sbcglobal.net Website matagordasunriselodge.com
I pose the same question every year about this time. Is there a better month than November for all things outdoors …duck hunting in the morning, fishing the brisk afternoons. Daytime highs and nighttime lows are perfect, sunrises and sunsets are brilliant, and rods and guns get tested. It’s one of the coolest things in the wild to see a couple dozen turquoise tails waving on the surface. Throw the bait ahead of the pile and wait for the mob to find it. It's a rodeo, three anglers with bent rods and drags crying for mercy. Sightcasting to redfish along a muddy grassline is always fun, too. Watch for ripples, wakes and jumping shrimp near the grass and wait for the freight train to pass. Then toss a spoon, shrimp or soft plastic in front of the school and loosen your drag. Listen for crunching and drumming sounds when a large school of reds work through the grass. Small crabs do not have a chance. Obviously, the mouths of bayous and marshes on a falling tide are fall hotspots. Places like Oyster Lake and Crab Lake are always good choices, while back lakes like Lake Austin and Boggy are also solid players. Live shrimp under a popping cork, plum Bass Assassins,
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Gulps or small topwaters worked across points are choice offerings. Don’t be surprised if birds work in the back lakes, especially on a strong falling tide. Stay back a long cast from the action and gingerly work the hovering flock so not to spook the fish. I can recount past autumns where one flock of birds filled a limit of both trout and reds and, if mild weather persists, birds could continue working this way through most of December. Birds began to work early in October this fall after nearly thirty days of continuous September rain. Our bays are full of shrimp and that
spells great fall catches. We had one of our best falls in a decade last year and there is no reason we shouldn’t enjoy the same since wet weather patterns have been almost identical. We like to toss topwaters under the birds as well as Bass Assassins and Down South Lures on heavy jig heads. Don’t be surprised to find 1 to 2-pound gulf trout in the mix as well. They are great bonus fish for ceviche or fish tacos. Waders should work the same areas and structure, but more methodically. In East Matagorda Bay, Boiler Bayou, Kain Cove, Hog Island, Catch-All Basin and Brown Cedar Flats hold solid trout since all of these spots have a mud bottom. Super Spooks, She Pups, Skitter Walks, Corkys and your favorite soft plastic get the job done. If you prefer staying in the boat and anchoring with live bait, the fall offers excellent redfish and black drum action. Shell Island, Twin Island and any other piece of shell holds fish and will produce readily with live shrimp under a popping cork. There is always the bull redfish run if you prefer to tangle with a brute. Large reds are caught through fall at the jetty and beachfront on cracked crab and mullet. The beauty of the Matagorda jetty and beach is you can drive right up to the water and fish. Afternoons are just as productive as mornings this time of year. Hunt the morning, or work half a day, then meet us on the Spend the morning in a duck blind or work half a day, then come join water. Fall in Matagorda rarely disappoints. us on the water for an actionFollow our catches and harvests on Facebook and Instagram. packed afternoon of fishing.
TSFMAG.com | 83
CAPT. SHELLIE GRAY
MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays
Port O'Connor Seadrift
Captain Shellie Gray was born in Port Lavaca and has been guiding in the Seadrift/Port O’Connor area full time for the past 16 years. Shellie specializes in wading for trout and redfish year round with artificial lures.
Telephone 361-785-6708 Email bayrats@tisd.net Website www.bayrat.com Facebook @captsgaryandshelliegray
We have thus far experienced a warm start to the fall season here on the middle Texas coast and I am anxious for cooler temperatures to bring relief from the heat and humidity. Even with thirty-plus inches of rain the past several weeks our water temperatures continue to hover around 80° but hopefully that will change with a couple cold fronts. Water temperatures in the lowto mid-70s range always gives us even better fishing in the fall. I am also eager for reduced boat traffic as diehard deer hunters exchange rods and reels for rifles in November. Now some of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, but then you’ll have duck hunting traffic to deal with.” I don’t worry about those crazy duck hunters, my husband included, they leave the boat ramp way before the sun comes up and this in itself makes getting on the water easier and more enjoyable.
in
As the of late, sandy shorelines and guts have been holding decent numbers of redfish and trout but the areas that have been producing the best numbers results have been the reefs in San Antonio Bay. This bay has really come alive over the last few weeks with all sorts of baitfish. It seems almost everywhere I go Jana Hermes’ smile says it all!
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Can’t wait for postfront days on San Antonio Bay reefs.
I am seeing schools of shad, finger mullet and lots of shrimp. I haven’t witnessed this much bait activity since spring. Most encouraging are the numbers of finger mullet we are seeing. Since the beginning of the year I have had many discussions with other area guides concerning the general scarcity of finger mullet. It almost seems as if Hurricane Harvey might have disrupted their normal production cycle. I know it may seem unimportant to some but every species of game fish feeds and depends on mullet all year long, unlike shad and shrimp which are only seasonal and disappear during winter. Ample year-round food sources not only help sustain mature game fish but also play a key role in enabling spawning age specimens to remain in peak health as they carry out their annual spawning duties. With all that being said, I routinely use the presence of bait as a good indicator of where to concentrate my fishing effort, but when the entire bay is brimming with bait it can be perplexing. So – keep in mind that when this happens we must focus on bait activity more than merely being present. Look for bait of suitable size that appear to be fleeing predation; two or three frantic skips across the surface, not just lazy rolls or belly flops. I also consider dolphins patrolling near mid-bay reefs a potentially good sign. Dolphins love speckled trout and this can be a sign that lots of trout are also present. Some may see dolphins as the Big Bad Wolf but, honestly, they have helped me more often than not. Yeah, we’ve had a few “too close” moments but in general our San Antonio Bay dolphins do not pose safety concerns. What I like is the way they often herd trout into tight schools against the reef within easy casting distance. Always remember to fish both sides of oyster reefs. Some reefs may have a gradual taper on one side but the other side may drop away very suddenly, so use caution when wading and move slowly if you are not familiar with the reef you are fishing. More on fishing both sides; over the years I have found it’s either one side or the other that produces a steady bite but rarely both sides. Fish each side thoroughly whether wading or drifting before moving on. As usual for this time of year we are experiencing bull tides. The rise in water levels will begin to decline with each passing front; the harder it blows from the north the more the water level will drop. During this time of water level decline, I recommend focusing fishing efforts outside of sloughs and small drains that can be found along shorelines of our major bays. Water leaving the marshes and back lakes will carry a smorgasbord of forage for hungry game fish. Thick seagrasses that have flourished in area back lakes the past several months have finally begun to recede and thin seasonally as water temperatures cool and days grow shorter. Many of these lakes were almost impossible to fish a month ago because the submerged grass was just too thick to work soft plastics and floating grass greatly hampered the use of surface plugs. If we happen to get a few strong cold fronts in November that drop the temperatures drastically, our back lakes will again become go-to spots for both waders and drifters. TSFMAG.com | 85
DAVID ROWSEY
HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey
Upper Laguna/ Ba f f i n
David Rowsey has over 25 years in Baffin and Upper Laguna Madre; trophy trout with artificial lures is his specialty. David has a great passion for conservation and encourages catch and release of trophy fish.
Telephone 361-960-0340 Website www.DavidRowsey.com Email david.rowsey@yahoo.com @captdavidrowsey
86 | November 2018
My 2019 books are officially open for trophy trout hunts in Baffin and the Upper Laguna Madre. I would encourage you to book sooner than try later if you are serious about getting in on some quality dates. Many thanks to all my client friends that have already taken the time to guarantee their days on the water with me. I am humbled by your confidence in me to produce big fish and great memories on the water, year after year. I cannot promise everyone a ten-pound trout but I can guarantee you will walk away with a better understanding and more knowledge of what it takes to gain a chance at trophy fish in the future. Without a doubt, fish and wildlife sense the change of seasons that is approaching. Every front that passes through makes them feed a bit more aggressively. They are not going to miss a chance to put on some winter fat before the days of cold weather and water settle in in earnest. As the largest supply of bait is currently in full migration to the gulf, expect to catch some unusually fat trout at the end of this month. An important consideration for November is that it is, typically, not quite cold enough to put trout
on a true winter pattern. Saying that, though, every year is different and I have seen it absolutely explode wide open in November. In my experience you are going to find the trout to be gorging like winter trout, but still acting as solo predators. As the water temperatures and bait supply decline with every passing day, you can expect more large trout to be utilizing the same areas to pick off the limited bait supply. This will most certainly be the norm from December through April. Considering that, the big Mercury Verado will be pushing the Haynie to and from all points throughout the Upper Laguna and Baffin. I will be hunting the largest groups of mullet on the most ideal structure I can find. Preferred structure this time of year is sand and grass mixes, travel corridors along the Intra-Coastal Waterway in the Upper Laguna, and shallow flats dropping off into deeper water in Baffin and adjoining satellite bays. That being said, my eyes are always wide open for anything that looks unusual in the water that I am traveling through. Hell, I’ll fish in the marina if I think that there is a big trout in there. The warm water temperatures that we have been
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experiencing have kept the best fish out in deeper water and on deeper structure. Expect them to be moving up shallower as the water temps rise. Without a doubt, this is where the biggest bites traditionally occur for us during this cooling trend. Obviously, they move up here to feed, and where my clients and I will be to intercept them. All shorelines in the Upper Laguna and Baffin that have close access to deeper summer haunts are going to get my first look on each morning. When I find the one such area with some surface activity (bait), we are dropping the Power-Pole and going after them. As much as I hate to think about it, much less mention it, there is a manmade “unknown” that we have to contend with nowadays that can negate all your hard work and planning. What I’m talking about is the shallow water boater who insists on running shorelines. This “new wave of fishing reconnaissance” can just burn out miles of shoreline for guys wading or drifting shallow. The boaters that do this are either seriously uneducated or just completely inconsiderate of other anglers. Numerous groups have formed to discourage these actions and the “higher ups” are taking note. There will come a time that if we do not police ourselves as sportsmen, big brother will step in and do it for us. November will provide some great topwater action with water temps in the 60s to low 70s. I prefer the MirrOlure Top Dog on the days with moderate chop and the She Dog in rougher water conditions. The soft plastic category is a no brainer for me. The 5” Bass Assassin is in a class of its own when compared to similar lures. The softness of the lure gives it a much superior action over its stiffer copycats. As old man winter sets in, the Fat Boy by MirrOlure and the MirrOdine XL are perennial favorites. Keep it simple and don’t overthink it. Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey
TSFMAG.com | 87
WAYNE DAVIS
WAYNE’S Mansfield Report
Port Mansfield
Captain Wayne Davis has been fishing the Lower Laguna-Port Mansfield for over 20 years. He specializes in wade fishing with lures.
Telephone 210-287-3877 Email captwayne@kwigglers.com
Greetings from Port Mansfield! November’s opening of the general deer season will give us greatly reduced boat traffic, and boy am I ready. Even better for me is that I no longer hunt deer and will be devoting all my time to fishing. We concluded the busiest summer on the Lower Laguna I can recall, and with that we witnessed an incredible harvest of trout and redfish. To put it bluntly I believe our Mother Lagoon gave far more than she received. We saw our first “cool” front in late September, which really amounted to little more than a wind shift and a few degrees cooler overnight. Coupled with that we had overwhelming rainfall the last two weeks of September which helped reduce water temps to about 78 degrees. While we all hoped this might have been the kickoff to stronger fall fishing, the kick fell short. No doubt lessened by the fact of being on the back side of a full moon. Based upon the paragraphs above, one might think we are coming off the peak of the bell curve regarding the trophy-class trout fishery for which Port Mansfield is famous. I’m not certain this is the case, but I do have some concerns. As I mentioned in previous reports, we are currently working for mostly keepers; sifting through tons of 10 to 14-inchers to occasionally catch one a bit longer than 15, or a trophy fish when we’re lucky. I believe the days
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of pulling up to any spot and jumping out to find immediate action on three to five-pound trout might be behind us – at least for now. An optimistic lens would see this a couple of ways. One, our East Cut needs dredging and this should happen this winter, contributing positively to water exchange between the shallow LLM and the gulf. This would bring in nutrients and increase the gamefish passage to the LLM. Two, fishing is cyclical. What I mean is that some years provide better fishing than others and we might be in a “down” portion of the cycle. Wading alongside my clients I ponder these thoughts over and over. I watch mullet jumping and flickering while continuing to make empty casts. Being a fulltime guide and on the water quite a bit, we do have days when we flat out catch fish, and nice ones at that. Is this the law of averages? More days on the water means more chances to experience good days? Or could it be finally landing in the right place at the right time? Here lately being in the right place has meant being in the EXACT right place. Recently I witnessed a situation where 100 yards made a world of difference. So much so that one group caught limits and another group landed only a few. Last report I mentioned having seen a few small schools of reds, but they are easy to scatter and tough to get clients on unless you wade patiently and walk very stealthily into them. Which by the way is an absolute blast and happened again recently with another group. Higher water levels have me fishing backwater grass flats in relatively shallow water. This can be challenging if there is surface grass, which hinders topwater action and all but defeats plastics on traditional jigheads. My strategy to overcome this has been rigging our KWigglers Willow Tail Shad on the new Willow Maker Jighead, either completely weightless or 1/16-ounce models. You can cast this setup a mile and it runs virtually weedless, even in the thickest floating and submerged grass. Quickly on gear; for the past five months I have been fishing the Shimano Aldebaran 50 and must say it is the lightest reel I have ever used. Weighing only 4.7 ounces, it is as smooth today as it was the first day out of the box. It has an electro-coated magnesium frame and the angler should be aware to keep it out of the saltwater. Don’t dunk it, and if you do by accident, tear it down for a thorough cleaning or take it to a professional reel service. I paired mine with a Fishing Tackle Unlimited Green Rod, 6’6” split grip with light action and can make hundreds of casts in a day without wearing out my shoulder. As we move forward into late fall and looking through our optimistic lens, we can expect fishing to pick up as the season develops. All we need is a few good northers and cooler water temps to set it in motion. Until next time, good fishing and remember to practice catch and release. TSFMAG.com | 89
CAPT. ERNEST CISNEROS
SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene Arr o y o C ol o ra d o t o Po rt I sa bel
A Brownsville-area native, Capt. Ernest Cisneros fishes the Lower Laguna Madre from Port Mansfield to Port Isabel. Ernest specializes in wading and poled skiff adventures for snook, trout, and redfish.
Cell 956-266-6454 Website www.tightlinescharters.com
90 | November 2018
Timing is everything when it comes to turning fishing into catching. You can be in the right spot, but if they’re not eating, all you are likely to gain for your effort is frustration. Throw anything you like, if they’re not eating they’re not going to bite. Two factors that I have observed to have the greatest effect on feeding behavior are local weather conditions and the moon. Understanding these can help you predict the where and when to focus fishing efforts. I highly suggest you read up on the science of the lunar influence to enable you to become a better fisherman, or to at least have an idea of what’s going on around you. I mentioned weather because November is a month of weather transitions that span between fair and mild to almost wintry. We will probably get several significant cold fronts this month and these begin to set the stage for the colder months ahead. The weather will influence the depth of water fish will stage in according to the prevailing tides, wind conditions, and water temperatures. Fish will move frequently as these conditions change during the month.
Years of observation have taught me that sometime around Thanksgiving the water temperature will drop below 71° – my personal threshold for the end of wet-wading and donning waders. I have been waiting anxiously for this and look forward to dressing in my Simms waders each morning. Some may have other opinions, all I can say is they need to invest in Simms waders if theirs are uncomfortable to wear all day. The cooler weather will spark more frequent feeding and they will feed for longer periods when they do. This is normal as all of nature begins to prepare for the coming colder season. What does all this mean for fishermen? It basically means that all types of lures will be in play during November. Soft plastics, suspending baits, and topwaters all get hammered with aggression when the fish are gorging! Redfish numbers have improved of late and we are finding them in more areas than in previous months. In warmer months redfish tend to roam the shallows until the sun gets high, at which time they pull down into deeper and more comfortable water. November is different; reds will stay shallow longer and the month’s more frequent cloud cover allows us to stalk much
closer for better sightcasting. Mullet begin replacing shrimp Adam Gonzalez was and crabs as the primary food all smiles after landing this beautiful fall trout. source, so keying of schools and rafts of active baitfish is a good strategy for finding redfish. November has earned a welldeserved reputation for plentiful redfish action. Trout fishing remains the primary focus of our trips with plenty of action in the majority of the places we have been targeting. I must say we have an abundance of little fish throughout our bay system, and with the recent ending of the busy summer fishing season, it’s currently challenging to find quality trout in the 21- to 26-inch class. Either they are too short, or in some cases, too long to keep. Looking at the positive, we are catching at least one trout per week that measures in the upper20s. Most of our better trout catches continue to be made Ramon Saenz didn't have much over sandy bottoms with grass confidence in topwaters…until now! and scattered potholes, and also along the edges of the ICW. I mentioned in the first paragraph that timing is critical when waiting for fish to bite, and that has certainly been the case when targeting trout lately. On many trips, we have found ourselves revisiting areas we fished earlier in the day but couldn’t get a bite to speak of, only to return later in the day and get on a decent bite as we took advantage of a moving tide. The prevailing depth for finding good numbers has been thigh to waist deep while throwing a soft plastic such as the KWiggler Ball Tail Shad in plum with chartreuse or a Willow Tail Shad in Mansfield Margarita bounced along the bottom. Looking forward to the water temperatures dropping very soon to trigger the bite we’ve been waiting so long to enjoy. I expect snook action on the flats and along the beaches will be over very shortly as they are quick to begin moving toward deeper water at the first sign of declining water temperatures. Gone will be the thrill of the silver linesiders but we’ll soon be seeing greatly increased flounder landings to take their place. Fishing in November can be the stuff of legend; get it while you can and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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FISHING REPORTS
ORECASTS F from Big Lake to Boca Chica
AND
Lake Calcasieu Louisiana Jeff and Mary Poe - Big Lake Guide Service - 337.598.3268 We're excited about the upcoming November fishing. North winds and outgoing tides provide an endless buffet flowing from the marshes. The fish are gearing up for winter, so they endlessly gorge themselves this month. Trout and redfish will be found in mixed schools at this time, so catching both in the same area is common. Our most productive way to fish will be under birds. Most of these opportunities will present themselves on the northern end of the estuary. As water temperatures drop, our water typically clears up. This makes for excellent sight-fishing opportunities. Redfish will be found in various places in November, along shallow shorelines, at weirs, and lingering in marsh ponds. Flounder fishing also heats up at this time. The ship channel in Cameron will become a flounder superhighway. They’ll use it to make their way to the Gulf for spawning. This makes catching them relatively easy, since they’re confined to this small area. If we used just one word to describe November, it would be awesome! Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242 In the coming month, options will become numerous for anglers in the Galveston area, James predicts. “Lately, we've still been fishing what's basically a summer pattern, working reefs and shell pads in relatively deep water close to the ship channel. With all the hot weather, seems the fish don't want to move. But, come November, we should be able to catch 'em in more places, in more different ways. Wading shorelines and coves can be good. Working slicks and reefs out in the middle can too, depending on the type of weather and whether we are targeting numbers of trout or bigger ones. This time of year, we throw the hard baits a lot, the 51 and 52M MirrOlures, Catch 5s, MirrOdines. Of course, if we're wading, we favor the slow sinkers and the 51s, and we fish the 52s more out of the boat. I don't throw topwaters a lot, but others in my boat catch plenty on 'em in November. Rat-tailed soft plastics tend to work well once the shrimp migration starts up and the birds are working. In a tough bite, throwing the Bass Assassin Sea Shads works well.”
area in November when he gave this report. “I'm looking forward to some great fall fishing around here in November. I'm already seeing encouraging signs of a big shrimp hatch coming. We'll mostly target our fish around marsh drains on outgoing tides, since that's where the predators set up to take advantage of the buffet of food swept out of the shallow areas into the deeper parts of the bays and channels. On incoming tides, I'll focus my efforts on wading aand drifting around shell piles, keeping an eye open for working flocks of birds. After the monsoon rains we experienced in September, our water looks like tea in lots of areas, but the fishery is healthy and catching is steady. Favorite topwaters in November include the blue/chrome Skitter Walk and the bone One Knocker Spook. When we're throwing soft plastics, we prefer the Norton Sand Eels and Bull Minnows in colors like chicken on a chain and salty chicken.” Matagorda | Charlie Paradoski Bay Guide Service - 713.725.2401 November is one of the best months to fish the Matagorda area, Charlie says. “Fishing has been great lately, with lots of shrimp in the backwater areas. Once we get some cold fronts passing through and the water dumps out of the marshes, we should have birds working all over both of our bays. Fishing will get easier for a while for numbers of trout, and numbers of redfish will pick up too. Lately, we're catching plenty of trout ranging from about twenty four to twenty eight inches, with a few stretching close to thirty. Action on the big trout should improve too, once the water cools down a little more. Most of the big trout will be caught by folks wading coves, shorelines and other shallow areas of East Bay, throwing topwaters and slow-sinking twitch baits. Some will be caught by people fishing with the same lures and soft plastics out of the boat in areas too deep for wading, especially places with scattered shell covering a soft, muddy bottom. You just can't beat coastal fishing in a cool, pleasant, productive month like November.”
Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Freshwater running into the back end of East Bay has made a mess of things in some places, but in other spots, fishing has been really good. “People were really whackin' the redfish and croakers in the salty water around Rollover Pass over the last few days. We've had some working birds in the bays, and fish being caught out around the reefs in the middle lately. It's been basically a continuation of the summer pattern. Looks like we're about to get a decent cold front, so things will change. If we don't get any more rain, the catching will pick up once water temperatures cool down. Wading should become more productive, especially in places where the incoming tides push salty water into the bays. Fishing with lures like topwaters and slowsinkers should become better, and we'll start catching more of the bigger trout. I'll be fishing quite a bit more, and hunting ducks too. Teal season was outstanding; we shot about 700 birds. I expect the hunting for the big ducks to be exceptional too.”
Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204 Fishing has been pretty steady in our local bays, despite the twenty inches of rain we had recently. The freshwater running out of the rivers has pushed a ton of our fish way out into the far reaches of our bays, into saltier water. Our trout have been coming from deep reefs in West Matagorda Bay, taking live shrimp rigged four to five feet under popping corks. We've also been catching a few on three-inch white Gulp! shrimp on quarter-ounce jigheads. Our redfish bite has stayed pretty consistent, they've just moved further out into the bay. We're still seeing small schools around Hotel Point and Palacios Point, but not the size we were seeing before the rains. DSL in magic grass has been a hot color as of late. Floundering has picked up quite a bit this month, and we've had some good nights sticking limits up to eighteen inches in the saltier areas of the bay. November should be a great month, with tons of bait in the bay and lots of fish being caught. The bite on Paul Brown Lures will be good on area flats close to deep water, and with all the bait present, the bird activity should be great in locations close to the Tres Palacios River.
West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323 Randall expressed his excitement for the fishing prospects in his
Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434 In November, Lynn plans on fishing in some of the same places and in the same ways as he has throughout the early part of the fall. “I'll still
92 | November 2018
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be fishing areas with a mix of sand and grass along area shorelines known to produce big trout. We'll be targeting the big trout with a sharper focus once some cold fronts with legitimate punch pass over the coast. Cooling water temperatures usually make the bigger trout more active this time of year. We'll throw topwaters some of the time, as long as it isn't too cool, but we'll start to spend more time throwing slowsinking twitch baits like Paul Brown Lures, Catch 5s, Catch 2000s and the MirrOdines and SoftDines. This is a great time of year to fish with those, throwing them around the sandy pockets in the grassbeds close to the shorelines and working them slowly to and through them. We'll use soft plastics some too, on the tougher days, especially after frontal passages, but will generally stick to the lures that look more like small fish, since they look most like what the big trout like to eat.” Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894 In November, cast and blast season kicks off in earnest. “Duck and dove hunting are both good this time of year, and we like to start our days off in the marshes, hunkered down in the duck blinds. After the birds stop flying, or we shoot our limits, we like to fish our way out of the marshes and into the bays. Fishing for reds can be good in the marsh lakes at times during November. If we're seeing plenty while running around, we usually spend some time targeting them in there. We spend most of our time fishing grass beds and reefs along shorelines in the main bays, staying in depths around waist-deep, throwing topwaters and twitch baits as long as the fish will take 'em. I also like to throw my old standby Norton Sand Eels in dark colors with chartreuse tails when things get a little tougher and won't hesitate to tie on the split-tail Gulp! lures to deal with a really slow bite. Fishing has been what I'd describe as excellent for quite a while. We're catching plenty of trout on most trips, with some really nice ones. All the freshwater runoff behind the big rains didn't seem to affect our catching much at all.” Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160 Fishing continues to be good. All the rain we had recently has helped our part of the Laguna Madre. People planning on doing some wading should inspect the waders for leaks and make sure the ForEverlast Ray Guards are in good shape. The trout are in two to three feet of water early in the mornings, staying in these depths well into the day. Dark lures like Bass Assassin Die Dapper chicken on a chain and drunk monkey have been working very well. I’ve been rigging them on sixteenth-ounce Assassin SpringLock jigheads or about fifteen inches under an Assassin Kwik Kork. Dark three-inch Berkley Gulp! shrimp will also work very well under the Kwik Kork. There are still a few redfish schools in the Laguna Madre. The key to getting them to cooperate is to approach quietly from upwind and not drift or run through them. For those who like to sight- cast, there are many reds and black drum on big flats with less than twelve inches of water. They're consistently taking shrimp-flavored Fish-Bites rigged on sixteenth-ounce jigheads. Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230 In November, crowds on the ULM and in Baffin Bay tend to thin out, with lots of folks heading to other places to hunt doves, ducks and deer. When crowds thin out, opportunities for sight-casting redfish, drum and trout tend to increase. Tides continue to run high as of the time of this report, putting plenty of water on top of the shallow crowns of spoil banks and sandy humps throughout the ULM. Water clarity remains good throughout most of the area too. This month, when passing fronts tend to have some strength and produce lower temperatures, sightcasting opportunities are often most numerous under bright skies once the water starts to warm back up. Calm conditions don't help, of course. 94 | November 2018
Best conditions include good light, clear water and winds of medium speed. On dreary days, or on the colder ones immediately after fronts, fishing around ledges where shallow water drops off into channels and basins will be more effective. On those days, a low and slow presentation with a paddletail often works best. P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins 361-877-3583 | Oceanepics.com By the time this report is published we should have experienced a few highly-anticipated cold fronts. The mullet migration is currently running full tilt and red drum and jackfish are in the surf in great numbers. Lines baited with mullet could produce jacks, mackerel, bluefish, and occasional sharks. Pompano should begin to appear later in the month; the first schools to arrive usually include the largest specimens. FishBites and shrimp are effective pompano baits. One of the most thrilling surf angling opportunities occurs as hordes of jacks storm the beach. Casting large spoons, topwaters and swimbaits at them is incredibly fun. If they see it, they’ll usually try to eat it. Pound for pound, jack crevalle are one of the strongest fighting fish in the surf. Blacktip and bull sharks will be abundant, with some large tigers prowling the surf at night. Tigers are suckers for bloody jackfish baits. November’s surf fishing can be great, but anglers need to keep a keen eye on the weather. The beach is no place to be when a strong norther roars over the coast. Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431 Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000 It's been a grind lately; extremely high tides and lots of rain haven’t helped. In coming weeks, look for reds schooling on the flats north and south of East Cut. We have yet to see a full-bore redfish run, but I expect we will soon. Giant schools of black drum are patrolling the guts and small channels along the East Cut. Small pieces of dead shrimp or blue crab are old standbys to catch them, but a pearl Gulp! shrimp will work equally well on a slow retrieve. On light wind days, fish the west shoreline anywhere between West Bay and the Oak Motts, and never overlook the ICW spoils. Good topwaters have been the bone One Knocker, Spook Junior and pink Skitter Walk. If tops aren’t producing, try the Mansfield Margarita or bone diamond KWiggler Ball Tail Shad on an eighth-ounce jighead. Work the edge of the drop-off to the deeper side. When casting to deeper water, let the lure sink several seconds, then work it slowly. The Saucer and the flats near the cabins south of town along the ICW are dependable spots for both trout and reds in the fall. Work the potholes! Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Janie and Fred Petty | www.fishingwithpettys.com – 956.943.2747 FP3 corks have been bringing in limits of reds daily for a couple of weeks since the last full moon. Despite lots of brackish water, the redfish bite has been hot in areas where fish are concentrated by higher water levels. Trout have been harder to locate, which is usually the case when you have any volume of freshwater runoff; we’re still catching a few, with some over twenty-six inches. We've had quite a few reds that go twenty-seven, but no taggers. There are reports of flounder around, but we haven’t seen any. Freddy says, “Rig your FP3 leader at sixteen to eighteen inches when throwing it shallow and remember to stop after the first two or three pops and let the bait settle. Try using Berkley Gulp! three-inch shrimp in pearl or glow and snip it off on the end so the hook will go in easily. The bait will snug up to the jig head and not split, making it last longer. If you use screw-on heads, you won’t have to reset as often.” We're looking forward to a great season of winter fishing and even bigger redfish. Help stop open bay dredge disposal!
TSFMAG.com | 95
Robert Strickland Baffin Bay - trout CPR
Erin Brown East Matagorda Bay - 30” trout
Pat Schuchart, Brent Beauchamp, Raymond Avery, Sr, Shane Schuchart - redfish, hooked simultaneously
Jenna Stegall & Bill Davis Surfside beach - redfish
Larry Madsen Shoalwater Bay - 32” red CPR 96 | November 2018
Bobby Hall Crystal Beach - redfish
Justin Williams Port O’Connor - 22” black drum
Tristin Horton San Antonio Bay - 24” first red!
Thomas Ochoa Redfish Bay - 25” redfish
McKinley Mote Drum Bay - 16" speck
Todd Howard 27.5” 6.5 lb personal best trout! CPR
Kylie first keeper back drum!
Mat De La Garza Packery Channel - 25” & 26” reds
Robert Bambace Port Mansfield - 24” trout
Willie Rios III East Matagorda Bay - 26” red
Liam Frederick 65” first alligator gar!
Brandi Finley Surfside - 37” bull red
Carson Evans San Antonio Bay - 23” red
RC Freeport - jack
Will Holcomb Baffin Bay - 29” speckled trout CPR
José Luis Nava South Padre Island - 23” redfish
Scott McDonald Baffin Bay - 29.25” 9.1 lb trout CPR David “Sleepy” Salva Upper Laguna - 26” redfish
Travis Potts Matagorda surf - 42” bull red CPR
Please do not write on the back of photos.
Email photos with a description of your Catch of the Month to: Photos@tsfmag.com
Haylee Wright Galveston Bay - 29” 8+ lbs personal best speck!
Gabriel Rocha Aransas Pass - 36” 20 lb personal best red!
Mail photos to: TSFMag P.O. Box 429, Seadrift, TX 77983 TSFMAG.com | 97
PAM JOHNSON
Gulf Coast
Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share? Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: 361-785-2844
Fish Fingers INGREDIENTS
PREPARATION
• 2 lbs speckled trout or flounder fillets • 1 cup all-purpose flour • 3 eggs, beaten • 2 cups panko • 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper • 2 tsp South Coast Creole Seasoning • Olive oil • 1 lemon, cut into wedges
FRYING THE FINGERS 1. Cut speckled trout or flounder fillets on diagonal (to make them longer) into finger strips about 3/4” wide. 2. Place in three separate bowls; flour seasoned with salt, pepper and South Coast Creole Seasoning, beaten eggs, and panko.
LEMON-GARLIC MAYONNAISE DIP
3. Dredge fingers lightly in flour, shake off excess. Dip in beaten egg to coat evenly. Dredge in panko, turning and pressing lightly to cover completely. Place breaded fingers on foil-lined baking sheet and refrigerate approximately 30 minutes to allow coating to adhere.
• 1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise • 1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice • Salt and ground black pepper (to taste)
4. Pour olive oil into large non-stick frying pan (about 1/2" deep) and heat over moderate flame to 350°F. Place coated fingers in heated oil, evenly spaced, do not crowd. Cook until first side is golden brown and then turn carefully to brown other side. Remove and drain on paper towels or rack. Removed bits of browned coating from frying pan. Add oil as necessary to fry additional batches. LEMON-GARLIC MAYONNAISE DIP 1. Mix together mayonnaise, garlic and lemon juice in small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve fish fingers with mayonnaise dip and lemon wedges, great as appetizers or entrée!
98 | November 2018
Servings: 6
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TEXAS SALTWATER FISHING HOLES GUIDE SERVICES M ATA G O R D A B AY Speckled Trout / Redfish
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Hogfish and their Amazing Technicolor Skin Camouflage is one of the best evolutionary strategies there is for evading predators, and hogfish are masters of it. These pointy-nosed reef dwellers change skin color so rapidly to match their surroundings — literally in milliseconds — that it seems impossible for them to rely only on their eyes to perceive those surroundings.
Hogfish (shown in the foreground) are masters of camouflage. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration As it turns out, they don’t only use their eyes. Hogfish skin can “see” too. Scientists recently analyzed hogfish DNA and learned how this skin vision, called dermal photoreception, works. Hogfish skin cells include chromatophores, which contain a pigment that’s sensitive to light. When these cells sense light patterns, they can mimic those patterns by manipulating the distribution of their pigment, spreading it thin or clustering it together.
Kyle Nethery
But scientists also wanted to understand how hogfish skin detects light in the first place. Octopus and cuttlefish also rapidly change skin color to blend into their environments. Their skin uses the same basic mechanism that their eyes use. But that’s not how hogfish skin works. Duke University biologists compared genetic material in hogfish skin to genetic material in its retina, the sensory membrane at the back of the eye. They found the fish’s skin and eyes use different genes to detect light. Researchers are still studying the molecular chain reaction involved in this newly discovered form of dermal photoreception. They also want to learn how the hogfish combines visual information from the skin and eyes to match its coloration to the environment so quickly. As they learn more, they hope to discover whether this skin-sensing superpower helps hogfish in other ways too.
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www.ScienceAndTheSea.org © The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
TSFMAG.com | 101
IF WE SAVE THE SEAGRASS,
©JASON ARNOLD
WE SAVE THE FISH. Seagrass is critical to good fishing. Marine organisms depend on it for survival—for food, shelter, and oxygen. But boat propellers are destroying Texas seagrass, which is seriously impacting saltwater fishing in the coastal shallows. When boaters do not lift their propeller in shallow water, the prop cuts and uproots the seagrass beds—leaving long barren trenches or “scars” that may take years to heal ... if ever.
Stop Prop Scarring – Lift, Drift, Pole, Troll
It is ILLEGAL in Texas to uproot seagrass with a propeller. Avoid damaging seagrass – lift your prop! When in shallow waters, lift your motor and drift, pole, or troll through it. After all, there’s nothing like a redfish on light tackle in shallow water. Let’s keep it that way!
For more information visit: 102 | November 2018
www.tpwd.texas.gov/seagrass
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