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WHAT OUR GUIDES H AVE TO SAY 54 The View from Matagorda Bink Grimes 56 Mid-Coast Bays with the Grays Shellie Gray 58 Hooked up with Rowsey David Rowsey 60 Wayne’s Port Mansfield Report Wayne Davis 62 South Padre Fishing Scene Ernest Cisneros REGULARS 6 52EditorialNewTackle & Gear 64 Fishing Reports and Forecasts 66 Catch of the Month 68 Gulf Coast Kitchen DEPARTMENTS 34 Let’s Ask The Pro Jay Watkins 38 TPWD Field Notes April Russell 40 Shallow Water Fishing Dave Roberts 42 TSFMag Conservation News CCA Texas 44 Fishy Facts Stephanie Boyd 48 Extreme Kayak Fishing & Sharks... Eric Ozolins 63 Science & the Sea UT Marine Science Institute 70 Boat Maintenance Chris Mapp FEATURES 8 Hump Day! Steve Hillman 14 Hot Complications Kevin Cochran 20 Just What the Doctor Ordered Chuck Uzzle 24 Bulls on the Beach! Joe Richard 28 Bringing Baffin Back – Part 2 Michael Wetz & L. Scott Murray 32 Tournament Promoters Stepping Up... TSFMag Editorial Staff 8 684460 ABOUT THE COVER Kingfish action along the entire Texas coast is always a late-summer highlight. Cade McCumber and friend Corbin Kocian had a great day trolling large plastic baits and sight-casting with DOA Bait Busters. Together they landed twelve until they were totally exhausted. Kudos to dads, Capt. Caleb McCumber and Jason Kocian, for taking these youngsters fishing and teaching them respect for our great coastal resources. SEPTEMBER 2022 VOL 32 NO 5CONTENTS 4 | September 2022
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What inspires me most is that the original initiative and organization of Bringing Baffin Back is entirely user-driven. A group of citizen-scientist volunteers who have undertaken the monumental task of documenting water quality in the bay to detect the appearance of the scourge commonly known as “brown tide.” It’s actually an algal bloom that has recurred several times over past decades, to the extent that Baffin’s water has been so stained that sunlight cannot penetrate to the bay floor; seagrasses die, and dozens of estuarine species suffer and decline. Fishing during the height of these events becomes nearly impossible, which means the area’s economy also takes a nosedive.
During my travels along the Texas coast I am constantly reminded that our estuarine resources are shrinking. Oh, the bays are still the same basic size, perhaps even a wee bit larger if you consider erosion and subsidence. What I’m really saying is that the quality of estuarine habitat is shrinking. Shorelines erode, islands disappear, shell reefs diminish, and water quality is depleted. These sometimes occur as the result of natural forces; storms, floods, devastating freezes, and other events we cannot control. Along with these are a list of manmade influences; expansion of coastal communities, channels being deepened and widened, and fresh water inflows being tapped like never before to support growing human, agricultural, and industrial needs. Sometimes all we can do is shrug and accept the changes. There are also changes we can meet head-on and take action to limit or perhaps even erase. Water quality in our bays is one such issue. Conservation success stories inspire me and one of the greatest I’ve seen is the initiative described in the most recent issue of this magazine- Bringing Baffin Back. Too large to present in a single segment, last month we presented Part 1; this month we have Part 2. Both are co-written by lifelong coastal angler, noted conservationist, and Baffin area resident, Scott Murray, and Dr. Michael Wetz PhD with Harte Institute and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. If by chance you missed Part 1, I heartily recommend you go back and read it, along with Part 2.
Over the last twenty-or so years, suspicion grew among longtime Baffin anglers that the origin of brown tide must certainly be related to excessive levels of nutrients delivered via runoff and stream inflows – namely nitrogen and phosphorous. Well, that suspicion has been confirmed.
SeptemberHighlightsIssue View The Video Open Camera & hover over QR Code. When link appears, tap to open in YouTube. 6 | September 2022
EDITORIAL
THE POWER OF HANDS-ON CONSERVATION EFFORTS
Baffin will not be brought back overnight; you can bet on that. It’s going to take a lot of dedicated effort from a lot of people, both in and outside the local community. But the tide has turned. Mega-Kudos to all who have contributed!
The arrival of teal are a welcome sight and mean that good fall fishing is just around the corner! STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN HUMP DAY!
A s we jumped out about thirty minutes before sunrise, I knew we’d be in for a long tough day with no wind and less than two inches of tide over an eight hour period. The fact that the predawn water temperature was already 87°F tested my confidence even more. Knowing the fish were there, I just had to find a lure and retrieval method that would fool them. Even more, not only did I have to do my best to convince my customers that fish were in the area, but also teach them how to trick these finicky late-summer trout. Sounds simple right? I don’t mind grinding. That’s for sure. However, it seems like we’ve had more days this summer where we had to fish harder to catch less compared to years past. Getting back to this tough bite thing – It took a while but my clients finally got into the groove with the retrieval method that worked best. We had to rig rattail soft plastics on 1/16 ounce jig heads (in this case MirrOlure Provokers and Saltwater Assassins), then cast crosswind and let them flutter down towards the bottom. Then a slow-roll straight retrieve for five or six cranks with the rod tip low before banging on it hard with three or four pop-pop-pops. After the rhythmic pops we had to let it settle back down (essentially dead sticking) and then expect a subtle bite that felt like you were hooking into a wet rag. Count to two then set the hook. It was a bizarre way to work a lure but it worked when no other way would. One thing I’ve discovered that really helps me capitalize on these mushy latesummer trout bites is using a soft tipped rod with a little extra length. I personally love my custom 6’ 9” Waterloo HP Lite in these situations, especially because I use braided line. The extra few inches (as opposed to a 6’ 6” rod) of the lighter weight and softer tipped blank makes it harder for those finicky trout to feel resistance. The fact that I use about a 5-foot fluorocarbon leader (20 lb. Seaguar Gold) also provides that little bit of stretch. One could argue that using monofilament backing would cause these “soft-mouthed” trout to feel even less resistance. While I agree with this assessment the one disadvantage of using mono could be the anglers’ ability to feel the softer than usual bites. And if you can’t feel them then you can’t catch them. Throw in a little wind
rocks.Justin
10 | September 2022
Luis Ballin had to work a little for them but ended up putting together a solid day!
Jack Cibulski caught several nice reds and trout while casting into pods of button shad up against shoreline revetment
Brown waded along a scattered shell drop-off to catch this red and some decent trout. Persistence paid off!
and the need to cast crosswind and losing that sensitivity provided by braid becomes even a bigger issue. All of this being said, I know a couple of old salts who still manage to hold their own with monofilament. Especially if you ask them. Hahaha! As I waded out toward the scattered shell covered drop-off I couldn’t help but think about what lies ahead and how refreshing it will be to be fishing in early fall with milder temperatures while watching teal fly overhead. While September isn’t always the greatest trout month around here, I view it as what folks in the five-day work week world refer to as “hump day.” September is our “hump month” or our Wednesday, if you will, that gets us from summer to fall. Galveston Bay salinities remained higher this summer than they have been in about a decade. The area of the bay we fished today was hovering around 36-ppt (parts per thousand)! As a result our trout are spread out all over the complex. Back in the day this wouldn’t mean a heck of lot because we had so many fish. However, that’s no longer the case nowadays. It’s been a long hot summer with hundreds of guide boats as well as quite a few recreational anglers putting a pretty good dent in the trout population. There’s a reason why the Texas Parks and Wildlife’s spring gillnet catch rates are always higher than their fall ones. So, with trouthappy salinity levels throughout the entire 600 square mile Galveston Bay Complex, the late summer trout that are still swimming are scattered across larger areas and in much smaller pods. The opposite occurs during excessive fresh water runoff periods such as what occurred during the incredible trout stack ups of 2015 and 2016, and to a much lesser extent the spring/early summer of 2021. The spread out nature of our fish means we are not seeing as many signs such as slicks that are created by feeding and regurgitating specks. Because of this I have had to focus more on areas that have produced in the past while hoping history repeats itself. Sometimes the trout are there but they’re just not showing themselves. Most of us lure fishermen love to fish with our eyes but often times we’re relegated to fishing structure as opposed to experiencing the thrill of using the senses God gave us. By structure I’m referring to revetment rocks, wells, submerged objects, pier pilings, etc. Whenever there’s active bait (usually mullet or shad) tight to the structure that’s a good sign. We usually find the best success on the down current side. It may feel like we’re working hard for less pay but what we learn on the tough days will continue to pay dividends down the road. We’ve experienced years of being surrounded by dead giveaways. Now, we’ve had to fine tune our sensory skills to focus on the more subtle trout signs compared to seeing a football field of slicks. We’ve had to lower the bar when it comes to measuring a “good” day versus one that’s not so great. State
We were able to trick quite a few on this day on tails by using an erratic retrieve followed by dead sticking. So weird but effective.
of the art gear, crazy lure retrieval methods, and videogame-like electronics have kept us in the game. I can’t even begin to imagine trying to be successful these days using the stuff we grew up using! There have been many little teaching moments (and learning moments for me) on my boat this summer. Some days have been much slower than I like (even with the new bar). But, at least we’ll hopefully be able to put our newly acquired and hard-earned skills to good use once those fall cool fronts start pushing through. Once we get over “Hump Day.” CONTACT Phone 4 09-256-7937 Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com Web w ww.hillmanguideservice.com 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. STEVE HILLMAN View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube. Late Summertime Observations Zoey Talbott showed off her lure chunking skills on a tough hot summer day! 12 | September 2022
compliHOT
STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN
In cold water, the metabolism rates of fish slow down, making them more likely to sit inactive on the bottom without seeking food. In extreme circumstances, this can temporarily make them almost impossible to catch. In such a case, the fish often emerge from the sluggish state with ravenous appetites and become easy to entice into striking lures for a while. Savvy, experienced anglers who understand when these flurries of activity will likely occur often make impressive catches while the fish behave like gluttons While trout actively prowl the shallows during the coldest season, the efficacy rates of lures like slow-sinking twitchbaits and even topwaters rise for a while. But on average, for most of the time on the days between about Thanksgiving and Spring Break, soft plastics produce more bites than the other families of lures. Anglers who accept this fact throw these lures a high percentage of the time during winter, mostly working them slow and low in the water column.
In one satisfying and important way, searing summer heat simplifies things for anglers committed to using lures in the saltwater bays and coastal waterways of Texas. High water temperatures speed up the fishes’ metabolism rates, making them regularly hungry and fairly easy to catch, on average. Trout and redfish feed more frequently in summer than in winter, elevating the potential for earning a strike on each cast and retrieve.
cations
In many instances, some customers choose to continue walking the dog after about nine or ten o’clock in the morning, after we’ve caught lots of trout on topwaters early. I, and in some cases others in the group, often change to other lures and/or begin to fish other ways, and continue catching at a lower rate than the early one, but still with some degree of consistency, while the angler walking his dog catches nothing for a significant span of time. On some of these days, after a lull of two or three hours or so, the committed (aka stubborn) one in the group begins earning blow ups again, and all of us in the group switch back to floating plugs to finish the day. On other days, the person or people who stick with One Knockers and Super Spooks never start catching again. In most of those scenarios, I and the others in the group continue catching at some kind of a reduced rate for the remainder of the day. Both types of days reveal truths about the ways in which hot water temperatures complicate the choices we make.
Take bodies of water like Sabine Lake and Trinity Bay, for instance. In the mid-summer heat, many of the trout often move away from the shorelines and into their deep, middle portions. Early in the morning,
16 | September 2022
For most experienced anglers using lures to target trout in the Lone Star State, a day of summer fishing starts with the deployment of floating plugs like She Dogs, One Knockers and Skitter Walks, incorporating standard, dog walking retrieves. Given the calm conditions which generally prevail on most summer mornings, this strategy often proves quite successful, at least for a while. But on most days, once the sun ascends high enough into the sky to penetrate well into the water column, the fish become more difficult to urge to rise all the way to the surface to take these lures.
When hot weather prevails, trout become somewhat predictable in their daily habits, especially in certain kinds of places. On spoil banks lying adjacent to a ship channel or the Intracoastal Waterway, for instance, the daily regimen of the trout reveals itself readily to experienced eyes. Late at night and early in the morning, when water temperatures cool to their lowest values, the fish often prowl actively on the shallowest parts of the crowns and spines of the spoils, causing baitfish to crowd together in visible packs. When the trout feed most actively, the frantic movement patterns of the targeted members of these herds often reveal the precise locations of their hunters.
In this case, topwaters often work well to attract the attention of trout around dawn and for some time after the sun begins to rise in the sky. Eventually, the evidence of fish feeding in the shallows wanes, and the blow ups become less frequent in those areas. Once the bait moves off the top of the spoil entirely, and catching fish in the shallows on topwaters becomes difficult or impossible, earning bites around the edges of the spoil, in slightly deeper water, on sinking twitchbaits or soft plastics, usually becomes easier. This same basic scenario surely plays out in places with less well-defined contour lines separating water of different depths, though in a less obvious way.
This simple fact can create comfort in the minds of folks who want to feel confident in their choices when they go fishing. Conditions which simplify choices make catching fish on lures easier. Conversely, conditions which complicate choices make catching fish on lures more difficult. In some ways, the high water temperatures associated with the summer heat wave do complicate the efforts of lure chunkers targeting trout in Texas, despite the basic way hot water accentuates the fishes’ appetites.
Early on summer mornings, topwaters work well to trick quality trout like this one caught by Chris Beasley on a Spook Junior.
When this happens, many anglers, including some with well-known names who make a living running charters, immediately switch to soft plastics in an effort to keep the bite rate as high as possible. And such a plan often produces the desired result. The mantra of using topwaters early in the summer, then switching to the worm as a backup plan, exists for a reason. People have witnessed its utility many times. But, I contend other strategies can and will produce even more satisfying results for folks who simply want to catch their fish on something other than a soft plastic impaled on a jighead. I recall many hot days on which I used different strategies to catch fish on a variety of lures, sometimes with supremely satisfying results. On an ideal summer outing, I wind up catching fish on medium-sized topwaters, small topwaters, slow-sinking twitchbaits and soft plastics, sometimes adding topwaters bearing propellers into the mix.
The captain’s long-time customer Michael Michell continues to catch big trout in the ULM and Baffin over recent weeks.
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Kevin Cochran is a long-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.
Regardless of the explanation, soft plastics worked near the bottom often work best to catch relatively inactive fish during the bright parts of summer days. But, on some occasions, switching down to soft plastics as soon as the strike rate on conventional topwaters wanes is certainly not necessary. I’ve experienced many days on which I first caught plenty of trout walking the dog with a medium-sized, cigarshaped plug like a One Knocker, then kept catching after the original bite waned by altering my presentation to include more pauses and speed bursts. Switching to a small topwater like a Spook Junior usually enhances the efficacy of this endeavor. Cold-blooded creatures can and do move around faster in hot water than in cold water. In many cases, predators will attack a steadily moving lure on the surface of the water when actively feeding, but once they become less active, they’ll attack a more erratically moving lure better, as an impulse, or reaction. In hot water, presentations incorporating speed urge more reaction strikes than presentations which use only slow, steady movements.
Typical Summer Topwater Days View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube. This graph represents the way different types of summer days play out, with regard to the optimal depth of presentation. This handsome thirty-inch trout bit a One Knocker in shallow water atop a spoil for Michael Michell, who snapped this pic before releasing the fish.
On some summer days, the best catching happens early in shallow water on medium-sized topwaters worked in the most conventional way, then for a while on smaller floating plugs, zipping around quickly before bobbing for a moment on the waves, later on slow-sinking twitchbaits worked through middle portions of slightly deeper water and last on soft plastics worked slow and low, in water almost too deep for wading. This proves quite satisfying to lurechunkers who enjoy catching fish in multiple kinds of ways.
T ROUT TRACKER GUIDE SERVICE
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Around the middle of some days which started with a hot bite on full-sized floating plugs, small topwaters worked erratically or even topwaters with propellers on their ends often begin to earn plenty of strikes again, likely from fish which have become hungrier after sitting relatively idle for a while. The action usually happens in water of greater depths than where the best bite occurred at daybreak.
Phone 361-688-3714 Email kevincochran404@yahoo.com Web www.captainkevblogs.com
KEVIN COCHRAN
I believe this is why some people believe hot water makes the fish “sluggish” and elevates the effectiveness of slow presentations. I hear this all the time from accomplished anglers, who say things like, “Hot water makes the fish lazy. You got to work it low and slow to catch fish when it’s really hot.” If the fish have stopped actively prowling the shallows and moved toward or onto the bottom in deeper water, this might appear to be so. I believe people catch fish by presenting soft plastics low and slow during these times because they’ve found the proper depth of presentation, not because the fish feel sluggish in the heat.
18 | September 2022
anglers can key on visible signs of feeding activity at the surface, like hovering gulls, diving terns and rafts of obviously nervous mullet, and catch fish on top in water too deep for wading. Later on, slicks popping in the same area, usually without visible signs of feeding activity at the surface, elevate the potential for catching on soft plastics rigged on relatively heavy heads, close to the bottom. Excessive heat tends to drive the fish into deeper water, or at least farther down in the water column, for extended periods of time. When this happens, lures presented closer to the bottom stand a better chance of provoking attacks. If the trout move off the top of the spoil or away from the surface in deeper water, soft plastics presented near the bottom will work better for a while, because they pass closer to the fishes’ eyes and mouths.
Ironically, things can also come full circle, during the middle of a hot summer day. Anglers committed to fishing topwaters through the period of time when other lures work better often reveal this truth.
Redfish always seem to grab center stage during September.
Most folks who fish or hunt will view this month much the way an offensive lineman gazes upon an all-you-can-eat buffet, they want a little bit of everything on the menu. Late summer and fall patterns will emerge as the weather begins to shift to a more favorable set of conditions. Typically we will see the first decent cool front blow in and give us a sample of the north winds we had longed for when the thermometer was reading triple digits. Besides bringing slight relief from the heat, the north breeze winds will kickstart the fishing as they push water from the marshes for the first time in many months and deliver all manner of shrimp and baitfish into Sabine Lake. This massive dump starts the feeding frenzy and schooling action that so many anglers look forward to every year as the trout and redfish gather up and go ballistic on all the food that is suddenly available. The dead giveaway will be the massive flocks of gulls and terns shadowing the bait from above and providing anglers a clear sign that points to the fish. This pattern is perhaps the most anticipated because of all the action it brings and the ease of which it can be exploited. This is easily one of the very best times to introduce a new angler or kid to the sport because it’s hard to go wrong.
STORY BY CHUCK
Few pages on the calendar elicit the hope and excitement that September provides, a much-needed shot in the arm to remedy the wickedly hot August doldrums. All sorts of great things this month, college and high school football, the first official cool front will appear briefly, hunting seasons get underway, and pretty near every conceivable pattern of fishing will be in play. It’s easy to see how September can be the prescription we’ve all been looking forward to.
If you squint your eyes and look real hard you can see it. If you tilt your head back and listen you can hear it. The first signs of September and the greatness that comes with it are just on the horizon and, like the message on your rearview mirror, “Objects are closer than they appear!”
TSFMAG.comUZZLE|21
22 | September 2022
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.
CONTACT
One of the other more popular patterns that will really get going will be using live bait in deep water like the ship channel, Sabine or Neches river, and ICW. A basic Carolina rig with your favorite live bait fished along breaks will be a great option as long as the fresh water runoff remains minimal. We have spent countless hours fishing like this and it’s a great way to relax, very social, and not to mention extremely productive. With the price of gas so ridiculously high it offers up a great budget option as well. I can’t tell you how many days we burned fewer than five gallons of gas while easily catching our limits. It’s a fantastic option and you can find a place to fish in virtually any wind as well. Now we all know that September will kick off the start of the highly-anticipated fall fishing, but it will also offer up the first opportunity for hunters to get out in the field as well. Dove season as well as early archery will get going along with one of my absolute favorite seasons – early teal. I have become a huge fan over the years of teal season for various reasons and my love for this time of the year only gets stronger as I get older. There are very few things that compare to the sight of blue-wings buzzing the decoys at first light. A good Saturday morning hunt followed by an afternoon of grilling bacon wrapped teal breasts and college football is about as good as anyone can ask for in my opinion. September holds plenty of promise and is just the beginning to the best time of my personal favorite season. There are not very many times that provide so many quality options for those of us that enjoy the outdoors. Fishermen and hunters alike will rejoice as we flip the calendar page and head into arguably the best stretch of the year. Take full advantage of all that September provides and also be sure you renew all your hunting and fishing licenses as the new seasons begin. Nothing puts a damper on a great day on the water or in the woods like an unnecessary ticket. Enjoy this month and, if you get a chance, take a kid with you and show them how special the outdoors can be.
Capt. Chuck Uzzle Likes Bajio Fishing Eyewear Redfish will be plentiful as the first cool fronts kickstart the action. No mention of September would be complete without early teal TSFMAG.comseason.| 23
CHUCK UZZLE View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
Phone 409-697-6111 Email wakesndrakes@yahoo.com Website wakesndrakes.com
Trolling green water inside the jetties yielded this big redfish, but digging out treble hooks is a chore.
Bullson the Beach!
STORY BY JOE RICHARD
T hat used to be the battle cry in North Carolina when a school of bull redfish suddenly appeared within casting range, with an ensuing scramble of surf fishermen. Along several hundred miles of our Texas beaches, things are more sedate. Anglers hoping to add a big redfish to their bucket list, sized XL 44 inches or bigger, should keep in mind that September is prime time. Big ones (mostly females, that size) spend most of their time offshore in winter, even on the snapper banks, but during summer they ease within sight of the beach, busting up menhaden schools and fattening up on them. Then, centered around Labor Day, they gather and spawn at the jetties or in the surf during incoming tides. Preferably during a flood tide that pulls their eggs far into the back bays. Tides like those provided by tropical storms or worse. Which also center around Labor Day…
During this period, finding mullet can be difficult on the upper coast. In Port Arthur we had no beaches on Sabine Lake and mullet made themselves scarce around Labor Day. It was much easier to catch them earlier each summer when they were milling around jetty rocks with their heads out of the water, just sitting ducks for a castnet. Then, freeze them for later use. After making attempts at both beach and pier fishing, we found it much easier to catch bull reds from a boat. It didn’t have to be in stormy weather; we’ve been out there on glassy calm, quiet nights when we could hear big male redfish drumming under the boat.
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These big reds have recovered enough from over-harvest in the mid-1980s, to where anglers can now keep one big fish annually. Like a trophy deer, it has to be tagged when caught. Which tag? That tag attached to your saltwater fishing license. Most anglers know these huge fish are tougher to eat than smaller reds, and release them. Others will take the meat anyway; I once took four guys from Pasadena fishing, who filleted them. Kept the heads, to set them on their mailboxes back home, to impress the neighbors. Some people still want an old-fashioned skin mount from a taxidermist. Others know that a fiberglass mount won’t smell and will look great for decades. There are specialists out there with a number of different sized redfish molds, like New Wave Taxidermy. They have 17 redfish molds up to 44 inches with a 28-inch girth. Also access to a 48-inch mold. That’s a big red. Back to techniques, because these big reds won’t catch themselves. Catching bulls from the surf requires patience, access to the beach, long (12 feet and longer) casting rods, and flirting with a few hazards like getting the truck stuck in sand or even flooded at high tide. Or a flat tire from catfish spikes. Piers, on the other hand, offer paved parking and easy access. This is no time for using Mickey Mouse tackle; on the piers you want line of at least 40-pound strength and higher, with 50-pound preferable. Lead weights that will hold bottom in different currents. And a rod stiff enough to guide these powerful fish away from barnacle-covered pilings far below. For both surf and pier, a big circle hook pinned to a large mullet head is the ultimate offering that won’t be stolen by catfish and other nibblers.
Hundreds of them, apparently, because every bait was savagely grabbed the moment it hit bottom. Setting out several rods could result in a tangled mess behind the boat, where the current ran. This action was always in 15-20 foot depths, at Pass Cavallo before it became shallow and anemic. We also did well in 20-foot depths (a depth finder is handy here) in calm water inside the Galveston jetty, 50 yards from the north safety cut. They also bite during the day, and there was no rhyme or reason when they would turn on. We’d catch 20 or more fish at one anchoring, then two fish the next day on the same tide. Once, 46 fish without moving the boat on a hot afternoon, until we ran out of mullet. On another trip, 36 bull reds after first fishing offshore for snapper, then anchoring near the beach. That’s what you call a full day, though some would say it was punishing. On both epic trips the tide was going out at a decent rate, because I can still picture my boat’s stern pointing towards the Gulf, with people struggling with bent rods. Those fish hit hard, bending snapper rods to the butt, where it was difficult to pry them out of a rod holder. It was brutal work, especially when big jacks and 40-pound blacktip sharks joined in. We’d use 150- or 200-pound mono leader with 16/0 circle hooks, and that did the job well. Those planning a boat trip for bull reds Typical bull redfish caught on bait with a circle hook, in very calm weather.
Bull red caught in Matagorda Bay with a home-made jig that is (sort of) colored like a blue crab.
should first consult the tide prediction for a particular day, because a slack tide was just lame. On some days, tidal flow on the Texas coast barely moves at all; the boat wallows or lays on a slack anchor rope, slowly spinning around, tangling lines, and the fish won’t bite. We found the best times were the week around the full moon, or the dark of the moon. If you fish at night, stick with a big moon for safer navigation.
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JOE RICHARD
Another plus to our living in Port O’Connor, was that the jetties there are so deep, bull reds will enter the bay as far as Bird Island, often blasting small blue crabs on the surface that are swimming by. We’d ease up with the boat and toss white or green/orange striper bucktail jigs of 1-2 ounces, using 30-pound spin tackle, and rear back into 40-inch reds that put up a serious fight, compared with our bottom fishing with snapper tackle. One morning we landed an even 20 bull reds while slinging jigs---it was four guys from Nacogdoches who had quite a time. When the water was green it certainly helped the bite. On the next trip there I tried trolling big, orange, diving kingfish plugs, and quickly got hooked up, and this was inside the bay. Found out you don’t want to be digging large treble hooks out of redfish, when they’re being released. This bull redfish action was great fun, and can last into October when the weather finally turns cool. By November, most of those fish are offshore in 50 feet of water. One year we got contacted by the state hatchery, they wanted big female redfish. It was November, late in the season, and more complicated because the fish are deeper, and care has to be taken to deflate their air bladders. Using only a 17-foot McKee Craft, we’d haul five big fish in a big SSI cooler back to Galveston Yacht Basin. A state hatchery truck then hauled them away to Flower Bluff near Corpus Christi. We made a few trips that autumn until they had enough big reds. The following year our work was… handed over to the Dow Chemical plant near Freeport, where redfish were instead caught from their cooling pond.
Joe Richard has fished the Gulf since 1967, starting out of Port Ar thur, 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
Author landed this Labor Day trophy while casting a jig with Ambassadeur 6500 reel with 20-pound line. Bull reds are easily tailed on board; there is no need for a gaff. Grab leader and tail and lift.TSFMAG.com
Photo by Texas Sea Grant.
In last month’s issue, Mr. Murray talked about how unique and special Baffin Bay is, being one of the most isolated estuaries on the Gulf coast and part of the world’s largest hypersaline lagoon. Its iconic and ancient reefs, built over thousands of years by tiny tube-dwelling serpulid worms, attract anglers from near and far. To many, it is the “jewel” of the Texas coast, with salty waters that support world-class spotted seatrout, abundant redfish, and an impressive black drum fishery. Consequently, it is a major contributor to the local economy around Kingsville and beyond. We’ve also heard from lots of long-time anglers about the great memories they’ve made in Baffin Bay with friends and family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPP0V1EnyT4), which will also be the subject of a future podcast on The Gulf (https://www.harte.org/project/gulf-podcast).
However, over the last three to four decades there has been a significant decline in the water quality of this once pristine ecosystem, with symptoms including but not limited to persistent “brown tide” algal blooms that cause seagrass die-off and make fishing difficult (Figure 1a), large kills of trophy-size fish, (Figure 1b), episodes of apparent starvation of black drum, and loss of critical bay habitat. Anglers, fishing guides, landowners and bay-dependent businesses have commented that these symptoms were historically unprecedented for Baffin Bay but have been increasing in frequency and intensity in recent years, hurting their ability to make a living.
STORY BY MICHAEL WETZ & L. SCOTT MURRAY
Bringing Baffin
Bringing Baffin Back… from what?
(PartBack2)
What’s particularly exciting is we learned in April that Bringing Baffin Back was selected as one of four projects that will receive support from Texan by Nature’s Conservation Wrangler program. Texan by Nature is a conservation non-profit that was founded by former First Lady Laura Bush in 2011. Its mission is to advance conservation by acting as a strategic partner for business and an accelerator for conservation organizations. Through their Conservation Wrangler program, Bringing Baffin Back will receive 18 months of tailored support on strategic planning, marketing, partnership development, and more. This is a huge deal that will bring positive attention to Baffin Bay and efforts to conserve this amazing resource. what will Bringing Baffin Back look like and how will the community Benefit? Phase I Bringing Baffin Back consists of multiple, integrated phases. Phase I began in 2013 with research and monitoring to assess water quality and
Early this year, we at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) along with partners at the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP) introduced the Bringing Baffin Back initiative. The overarching goals of Bringing Baffin Back are to: 1) implement solutions aimed at reducing nutrient inputs to, and improving water quality in Baffin Bay, 2) restore key bay habitat that has been lost because of the decline in water quality over the past three- to four-decades, 3) foster stewardship, especially among younger generations of residents, and 4) educate the public on the relationship between watershed and bay health. Bringing Baffin Back represents a sustained commitment to dramatically improving the health of Baffin Bay and the surrounding economy through partnerships between scientists, citizen groups, landowners, philanthropists, policy makers, local municipalities, state officials, NGOs, and private businesses.
Baffin Bay needs to go on a nutrient “diet” and Bringing Baffin Back is the program that will do it. introducing the Bringing Baffin Back initiative…
Figure 1a: Fish kills due to harmful algal blooms have been linked to poor water quality, excess nutrients delivered via runoff.
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These observations are consistent with what has long been known to scientists and resource managers about the impacts of water quality degradation - without good water quality, it becomes harder and harder for an ecosystem like Baffin Bay to support the things that we care about, such as a healthy fishery. To get to the bottom of the water quality issues, the Baffin Bay Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program was implemented in 2013 and found that Baffin Bay is being subjected to excessive nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus) pollution coming from its watershed (basically all of the lands that eventually drain down to the bay. (Figure 2). Much of the pollution comes from human sources: minimally treated wastewater, fertilizer runoff, even failing septic tanks. This nutrient pollution is a key promoter of the algal blooms and other symptoms of water quality degradation and must be addressed to restore Baffin Bay back to good health.
Figure 1b: Water sample taken during a “brown tide” event.
Figure 2: Baffin Bay Watershed
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I’d like to see programs that educate younger folks on the issues, let them know about the history of the bay, what we hope to see in the future, and make them a part of the process by getting them out on the bay with field trips and volunteer restoration events. I would love to see that happen in the Kingsville schools, the Alice schools, the Flour Bluff schools, here in Corpus, across the whole eight county region of lands that drain into the bay. Young people need to be informed of how to best care for the treasure that’s in their own backyard. We need to make them a part of the process and we truly believe there are many young people who will pick up the mantle and carry this forward. And, then finally, what does success look like? I think that success is seeing an ecologically restored and productive Baffin Bay once again… what I experienced in my lifetime in the ‘60s, the ‘70s, and the ‘80s before the decline started.
Phase II has now begun and focuses on watershed management and restoration activities that will lead to reduce pollutant inputs to Baffin Bay. In 2018, the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group formed as a way to get the community involved in restoring Baffin Bay (Figure 3). To date, the group has had success at securing funding for a Watershed Protection Plan https://twri.tamu.edu/baffinwpp that will bring services and funding to landowners who want to “do something” on their land that will improve conditions in nearby streams and eventually in the bay. The group also recently learned that the Natural Resources Damage Assessment program (developed from the Deepwater Horizon spill settlement) is proposing to devote $4.7 million to address agricultural pollution sources to Petronila Creek, which flows into Baffin Bay. Over the next decade the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group will focus its efforts on securing additional funding, on the order of $200+ million, to address pollution sources, including failing municipal wastewater infrastructure, residential septic tanks, stormwater flows, and other agricultural sources. Phase III focuses on restoring habitat that has been lost in Baffin Bay itself. This represents the penultimate phase in Bringing Baffin Back. A team of restoration practitioners will utilize data provided by ongoing monitoring in the bay to focus its restoration targets and bring to bear the most appropriate restoration practices based on conditions in the bay. It is anticipated that this phase will commence in 2027 once watershed restoration and nutrient reduction efforts start to take effect and lead to improved water quality conditions. While the goal of Bringing Baffin Back is to restore the health of the bay itself, the surrounding communities will see significant benefits as well. For example, many of the solutions to the problems in Baffin Bay require upgrading of water infrastructure, which is challenging to do without a catalyst such as Baffin Bay in relatively poor, rural communities such as those around the bay. In addition, many studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between home values and water quality. And it goes without saying that clean bay water is generally more attractive to recreational users than dirty water. a vision for Baffin Bay from scott murray, long-time angler and conservationist The success of Bringing Baffin Back depends on three vital components: continued funding, tireless leadership, and engagement of the next generation. I hope to see the state and federal agencies become more engaged and bring additional funding and personnel resources to this issue now that our Watershed Protection Plan has been approved. Funding from the agencies, as well as private entities, and people like CCA Texas and other conservation organizations, is the fuel that keeps this going. Leadership from scientists at HRI and its partners, of which there are many and the list grows daily, has gotten us this far – we need it to continue! These scientists need continued support to do their valuable work and to develop new partnerships to solve Baffin’s mysteries.
Over the coming years there will be ample opportunities to participate in Bringing Baffin Back through volunteering, participation in stewardship, and public outreach events, taking advantage of services that will be offered to landowners, or by donating to support Bringing Baffin Back. By joining the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group, you can stay updated on these and other exciting opportunities, and track the progress of Bringing Baffin Back. To learn more about Bringing Baffin Back and to join the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group, please contact Michael Wetz of HRI at michael. wetz@tamucc.edu or 361-825-2132.
Figure 3: Meetings of scientists and concerned users have helped develop the focus of the project.
Bring Baffin Back – how you can help The rationale for Bringing Baffin Back is simple – the health of Baffin Bay is intricately tied to the health of surrounding lands. To achieve successful outcomes that lead to improved health in Baffin Bay and the surrounding economy, the Bringing Baffin Back team is eager to strengthen partnerships with landowners and businesses to identify solutions and funding to implement those solutions across the watershed and bay. In short, Bringing Baffin Back represents the first whole ecosystem restoration project of a bay in Texas and will be a signature project for partners of the initiative.
habitat condition and continues to this day, thanks to support from generous partners such as the Celanese Corporation and the Coastal Conservation Association. Over the next five years, we aim to establish real-time weather and water quality monitoring platforms in the bay. This will allow us to establish a baseline by which to evaluate the cumulative impacts of watershed and bay restoration activities that will happen in Phases II and III. The weather data will also be available to anglers free of charge.
Finally, for Bringing Baffin Back to have lasting success, we need to continue to expand our reach to local and regional community members and stakeholders; to make them aware of the issues, and to make them a part of the process. Getting into our middle schools and high schools to influence the thinking of this next generation of stewards in terms of their own backyard here and how to preserve it should be a central focus.
It was but a few years ago, fishing tournaments were drawing criticism for the numbers of fish being hauled to weigh-ins up and down the Texas coast. That many of them were bona-fide trophy-class trout angered lots of sportsmen. The fact that most were brought in dead really riled them up. But that was the past and much has changed, thanks to tourney organizers like the team at Ron Hoover RV & Marine of Donna, TX.
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The 2nd Annual Ron Hoover RV & Marine Fishing Tournament was held recently over the July 29-30 weekend at South Padre. Weigh-in was at Jim’s Pier, all other activities were staged at the South Padre Island Convention Center. Billed as an “open boat” event, all boat brands were welcome. The turnout was amazing; nearly 800 anglers, comprising 200 teams, competing for Calcutta cash pots and prizes totaling well over $150,000. Topping the prize list was a brand new 18-foot Majek M2 with 115 Suzuki outboard on a Coastline Trailer, and 2022 Viking Travel Trailer. Winning teams fishing from a boat purchased from Ron Hoover were awarded a $1000 bonus. It was all about having fun on the water and spirited competition, all while promoting the sustainability of Lower Laguna Madre fisheries. Unlike the days when full-limit stringers of multiple species were flopped on the scales in order to crown champions, the Hoover tournament rules allowed only two redfish of 20- to 21-inches, and one trout measuring between 17- and 20-inches per team. If you think angling for less than trophy-class fish is less challenging, just give it a go. Believe me, it ain’t all that easy. What it boils down to is that anybody can be a lucky winner and… the most-skilled anglers catching the most fish are most likely to reel in the perfect specimens within such narrow length slots. As an incentive to keep their fish alive, contestants with live fish were automatically moved to the front of the weigh-in line, and bonus raffle tickets were awarded for a special premium ice chest prize presented to those who put forth the effort.
According to Dustin Hoover, “We saw a strong uptick in the STORY BY TSFMAG EDITORIAL STAFF
The house was packed! Kevin Fowler put on a dynamite show.
number of teams opting to weigh their fish alive; more than 60 teams, double what we saw last year. We will continue the live weigh-in option next year, with even greater incentives to encourage participation.”
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Activities at the SPI Convention were gala all the way. Friday night’s entertainment featured country music recording star Kevin Fowler. Saturday evening featured comedian Juan Villarreal. Food both evenings
was catered by On The Grill – a popular Rio Grande Valley eatery. Everybody that attended came away winners in one category or another, between door prize drawings, Calcutta cash payouts, and raffles. Eddie Rodriguez became the proud owner of the Majek 18M2 and Rosie Vallejo won the Viking RV Trailer. First class prizes! A most generous donation of $18,865 was presented to Make-AWish Rio Grande Valley to enable them to continue their amazing work with terminally-ill youth in the community.
Lots of merriment during the grand prize boat raffle. Make-A-Wish was presented with a very generous donation. Rosie Vallejo gets a big hug when her ticket for the Viking RV is drawn. Receiving and processing the catch of 200 teams requires lots of coordination. Teams with live fish were advanced to the head of the line to help ensure healthy releases.
All in and all done, TSFMag awards kudos to the Hoover team for all their hard work in presenting a great event, and especially for the donation to Make A Wish. If you missed it, be sure to put it on your calendar for next year.
The Hoover tournament is gaining notice for its conservative format and overall quality of presentation. CustomCaptain.com, a Floridabased group, rate Hoover’s tournament second-highest among all saltwater fishing tournaments conducted in Texas. Quite impressive, given that this was only their 2nd Annual event.
YOU
YOU ALREADY KNOW
The tropics are currently active so still a long way to go and keeping fingers crossed that we get the rain we need… and not a hurricane. Tides are low with water temps in the upper-80s as we start each day. By mid-afternoon I’m seeing water temperatures topping 90° along shallow shorelines and grass flats. Reds and black drum are schooling. My trout bite has definitely become an early morning gig. With the extreme heat we are being especially careful in the handling of our trout and most definitely leaving when the dolphins show and begin to eat what we have on the line or releasing. I personally feel the dolphins have become too numerous and that there is an unbalance in the population. This could be a study for Dr. Gregg Stunz and team. I know that dolphins and sharks are apex predators and play a role in the food chain and balance among all the other species. As a youngster wade fishing, and also as a young guide, I do not remember seeing them nearly as interactive with fishermen. I do know that in the early ‘70s Sea-Arama Marineworld at Galveston came to Rockport and got some of the high school football team to help them net dolphins out of our bays for training and exhibition at their facility. Probably couldn’t do that nowadays. Anyway, just leave when they show up and make them work for their next meal the same as we do. It is even more critical now for anglers who are serious about catching trout to become aware of how trout relate to the structures in the bay system the angler is fishing. I am becoming more of a believer that we, and I say we to include myself, are going to have to begin spending more time working unfamiliar areas in order to find better fish. Community holes are exactly what the name implies and everyone knows about them. Such areas have proven themselves, but I have always believed there are many more areas out there that offer the same fish-catching opportunities that we Are these two lonely grass beds somehow different from all others?
LET WHAT LEAD TO SOMETHING NEW JAY WATKINS ASK THE PRO With very little rainfall the past month it seems even hotter on the water than ever before. Our one chance in late-June for some tropical moisture ended up sliding toward Houston and Lake Charles, missing us completely. That area also needed rain but we sure would have liked to share in the amounts they received.
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This week was a perfect example of how elevated attention levels and good skills saved the day. Before I go farther I want all to know that skill level does not always equate to success. One day last week I had four really good anglers and all the proper pieces in place for a successful day, and still we struggled. Jay Ray crushed them three miles to the north under the same conditions we had. Better skills? Let’s just say “younger” skills. On a day when we caught fish, I had been watching boats running from point to point along a shoreline but not running tight to the shoreline between the points. Bait was stacked along the shoreline for miles it seemed, but in this particular area there was also a handful of brown pelicans cruising and occasionally diving. No slicking, bait fish were not especially active but definitely stacked, and moving into a slow but steadily falling tide. Wind was SE and bottom grass was bending to the south with the falling tide. Situations like this tend to make me believe that fish are present and just waiting for the magic hour. I also believe that given an easy opportunity to eat they will. I think this can be especially true Is this small windward point any different from all the others?
don’t know about because we don’t look for them. These areas hold the proper bottom structure, water depths, and an ample supply of food much of the time. Due to fishing pressure, heavily fished areas continually have to replenish or reload due to the numbers of fish constantly being taken. I know there are smaller areas that have all the right stuff to hold good numbers of quality fish that we just haven’t discovered yet. I got lazy in my early years of guiding and just went to the same areas day in and day out, where I knew I could catch them. I wasted some good years when I had more energy and stamina, and certainly better eyes. I am not too old to learn and honestly my skill level and mindset are more of an advantage to me than declining physical ability is a detriment. I can analyze an area faster and more efficiently today than ever before. What it takes to be able to learn new areas is really simple. We have to dedicate time to areas that hold similar characteristics to those that have already proven to be productive. By time I mean lots of time, like the entire weekend that you have planned in your favorite bay system or a season working way more unproven areas versus the time in already established ones. I typically start in an area I feel we can get the day started off with bites and some nice fish caught. Once that has been accomplished I feel better about searching new water with my guys. More times than not I tell my clients exactly what I am doing, hoping to challenge them to step up their game up for me. This works about 50-percent of the time, which is really pretty good. I say this over and over but I really feel as though I have one of the best wade-fishing clienteles in the business, which certainly helps my daily totals.
The answers to the questions posed in the above captions is no; they can all yield similar results. You just have to use knowledge gained in “confidence spots” and apply it in new ones.
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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 361-729-9596 Email Jay@jaywatkins.com Website www.jaywatkins.com
May
CONTACT
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of larger trout in the summer months. The bites were on bottom throughout the wade, close or on top of grass beds, and very light. I call them “takes” as opposed to solid strikes. As the day warmed and began to drive fish deeper and tighter to bottom structure, the takes came in flurries as trout began to congregate around the scattered structure under the massive pods of bait fish. Several times the mullet would explode as larger trout would take the lure that was just beneath them. The reaction to the trout taking the lure was many times prior to me actually feeling the take. I absolutely love this scenario and will never grow tired of seeing it. This one act might be the one thing that continues to drive me each and every day no matter what species of fish I might be chasing. For two hours we eased along, constantly tweaking our position with the bait, tides, and wind, to make sure we were positioned properly for each upcoming area of bottom structure and bait concentration. The ability to stay in the proper positions for the locations of your upcoming bottom structure are a must, as is the ability to accurately make continual casts to those areas. These two aspects of wade fishing are the two I see many needing the most help with. New areas often leave some anglers feeling less than confident. Remember that if all the fish-holding ingredients are present there is a great chance that fish are present. Confidence in knowing what you are seeing and sensing in a new area is really all you need. Granted, we need to give the area time to develop once we start working it, and we should definitely focus our efforts in these areas during optimal periods of water movement whenever possible.
The need for an open mindset is absolutely upon us with the fishing pressure that we see on our local bays and backwaters today. Venture out on your next trip and let what you already know lead you to something new. If it looks good, it probably is, and you might just find something that very few are aware of. Your Fishing Always Be Catching – Guide Jay Watkins Apply What You Already Know to Find New Fishing Spots View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
TSFMAG.com | 37 Now Sold Exclusively at Rockport Marine Available in 21’ & 24’ Models 2910 Hwy 35 S., Rockport, TX Recognized as Texas’ Premiere Custom Boat Fast, Dry, & Smooth Ride EXPERIENCE THE CallULTIMATE!Today! SERVICEPARTSSALES361-729-7820361-729-7820
By April Russell | Sea Center Texas FIELD
Here at Sea Center Texas, Red Drum and Spotted Seatrout are raised in outdoor grow-out ponds as part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) stock enhancement program. The goal of stock enhancement is to supplement existing populations of recreationally important fish to support fisheries management along the Texas coast. A key step in the hatchery process is growing out or rearing juvenile fish in outdoor ponds. This is a complex task and involves delicately balancing water quality, nutrients, and food availability. Too much or too little of something can influence the success of a pond and the fish it supports. Before a pond is stocked with fish, the primary objective is to ensure an adequate source of food is available for optimum growth and development. the pond food chain Recently hatched fish, called fry, eat microscopic animals known as zooplankton. For example, tiny crustaceans called copepods and small soft-bodied animals called rotifers make up a large portion of their diet. Just as with any food chain, zooplankton need a food source as well, and their cuisine of choice? Phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like organisms. (Figure 1) Phytoplankton are a diverse group of organisms that obtain their energy from the sun through a process called photosynthesis, in the same way plants do. There are over 20,000 known species of phytoplankton, largely comprised of microscopic algae called diatoms and dinoflagellates. Just like any other plant phytoplankton require sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to grow. When phytoplankton rapidly grow and reproduce, a “bloom” happens. When hatchery ponds “bloom” with phytoplankton, there is a subsequent increase in zooplankton, meaning more food for fry. Thus, blooms are important to ensure the survival and health of hatchery fish. all aBout timing Knowing when to stock a pond with fish is important. Too early and there may not be sufficient food available to sustain the entire fish population, leading to large losses. Too late and you miss the window for peak growth and development as the zooplankton population may begin to naturally decline. Hatchery staff can manipulate conditions to quickly establish an adequate zooplankton population. The first step to accomplish this is to boost the density of phytoplankton by fertilizing the pond. Like fertilizing a garden, carefully calculated amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are added soon after filling a new pond. Next, plankton abundance is monitored by collecting daily samples and counting them under a microscope. Even before collecting samples, visible changes are observed in the pond in the first few days. After fertilization, the color of the pond will turn a deep amber brown, indicating a large bloom of phytoplankton (Figure 2). Following the bloom, the pond will turn a more golden-green color coinciding with an influx of zooplankton grazing on the algae (Figure 2). A clear, blue-green pond is an indicator of low density of both types of plankton and is not a good candidate for stocking fry (Figure 2). Along with color changes, there is noticeable difference in the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water as phytoplankton numbers increase. Oxygen, being a product of photosynthesis, increases in concentration throughout the BLOOMINGNOTES
Figure 1. Phytoplankton and zooplankton found in TPWD coastal hatchery ponds. A) diatoms, B) dinoflagellate, C) copepods, D) rotifer.
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WATERS LEAD TO BOOMING HARVESTS
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Figure 2. Comparison of pond colors at different stages of plankton density.
Figure 3. Dissolved oxygen concentration and zooplankton density in a high success pond and a low success pond from Sea Center Texas in June 2021.
day as phytoplankton absorb sunlight and declines after sunset as photosynthesis comes to a halt.
The two graphs in Figure 3 show data from different Red Drum ponds in June of 2021. You can see an increase in DO after fertilizer was added in both ponds followed by an increase in zooplankton, indicators of a phytoplankton bloom. In the first graph, fish were stocked when the zooplankton density was over 700 organisms per liter and increasing. That pond resulted in 87% survival, which was nearly 400,000 fish! In the second graph, the pond was stocked at less than 200 organisms per liter, which resulted in a lower survival of 10% (about 40,000 fingerlings). maintaining the Balance Once a pond is stocked with fish, the zooplankton population will decline as they are consumed by the fry. It is important to keep the population up to supply food for the fish as they continue to grow. Throughout the duration of pond culture, several things are done to keep a balance between plankton numbers, nutrient levels, and oxygen concentration. As the number of zooplankton begin to decline, additional fertilizer is distributed, stimulating a new phytoplankton bloom, which is then followed by an increase in zooplankton for the fish to eat. However, too much of anything can be a bad thing, and if the phytoplankton bloom is too dense, this can lead to bigger problems such as high pH, which can kill fish, or a depletion of oxygen as the billions of plankton die off and decompose. Even weather patterns can complicate things with cloudy days leading to low phytoplankton growth or conversely, hot sunny days leading to overproduction. the (not so) sweet smell of success Of course, all good things must come to an end. Once the fish reach an average length of 35 millimeters, the pond is harvested. It is at this point that we can finally see the results of all our efforts and monitoring. There is nothing more satisfying than to see buckets and buckets full of healthy fingerlings being transferred into a trailer to be released into the bay. Post release, all that is left is to clean up the muck of decomposed plankton and fish waste and start the process all over again. Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or tpwd.texas.gov for more info.
What I love most about fishing are the different methods and tactics anglers can use to catch a fish. Some prefer to target certain species while others just want to catch whatever might bite. Some like throwing lures, while others strictly use live bait. Either way, whatever suits you best is your decision and I am all for it. For me personally, though, I absolutely love sight casting redfish in the marsh. There is no other scenario, challenge, or feeling that can compare to sight fishing when it unfolds successfully. Here recently, I went to Grand Isle, Louisiana with my brother and a few of his friends. My brother and I were the only ones that had ever spent any amount of time in the marsh. I was excited to get a few new people on the boat and show them my side of the world. South Louisiana is a perfect place to learn because you will have plenty of opportunity at lots of fish; which usually allows for both failure and success. After two days of fishing and directing my buddies, I figured that I would share some of the things that I have learned to make a trip more successful. These tips are all applicable to fishing from a boat, kayak, and even wade fishing.
For starters, redfish will eat practically anything. I don’t believe there is a lure out there that a redfish will not eat. However, when it comes to purposely casting to one, there are a few factors that need to be taken into consideration. One of these is the bottom composition and predominant structure types of the area you are fishing. Is it grassy? Lots of oyster shell? Mangrove shorelines? Whatever the case might be I tend to stay away from treble hooks and lures with exposed hook points such as standard jig heads. These are a recipe for getting tangled in anything and everything and will completely ruin your shot at catching a fish. You also do not want a lure that is too heavy. That loud plop on the surface from a heavy lure will spook a fish every time. This is why I stay away from topwaters; they’re often too heavy and have too many hooks.
DAVE ROBERTS SHALLOW WATER FISHING DO s AND DON’Ts OF SIGHT FISHING 40 | September 2022
My favorite lures can be boiled down to either a 1/4 ounce Johnson Weedless Spoon (gold) or a smaller swimbait rigged in weedless fashion on an 1/8 ounce weighted swimbait hook. With the swimbait you can hide the point of the hook on the topside of the lure to keep
LURE CHOICE
KEEP YOUR COOL
from snagging grass, oyster shells, and any other bottom clutter. Another great advantage is being able to cast to a redfish along a grass or weedy shoreline. There is not much room for error, and if you overshoot by even a few feet, you can easily pull it into the water and into the strike zone of the cruising fish. Try that with a treble-hooked plug or plastic bait on a plain jig head. The result will likely be a spooked fish and a blown opportunity.
Just remember to get in front of them and ideally you are wanting to cut off the path that they are taking with your lure. I know that this may seem like a lot to take in but after doing it a few times most anglers catch on quickly. It is easily one of the most exciting things that you can do in the outdoors and on the water. Summer is almost over and I hope that everyone has had a chance to get out with family and friends to enjoy what we have in this great state. And if the opportunity presents itself, I hope that you get a chance to go sight cast a few redfish along the way.
Email: TexasKayakChronicles@yahoo.com Website: www.TexasKayakChronicles.com
This part of it can be dang near impossible, even for veteran sight casters. What I mean is that when you spot a fish and get a bead on it, it is important to move smoothly. What you don’t want to do is get in a hurry, make jerky movements, or shift your body when trying to set up for a cast. When on the deck of a boat or kayak, if you make even a slight shift in posture, your vessel will send out a tiny pressure wave and likely spook that fish. I cannot begin to tell you how many fish I have spooked by doing exactly this.
CONTACT 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.
ACCURACY IS EVERYTHING All of the points that I have made so far are very important, but accuracy is probably the most important when it comes to sight casting. You have to be able to make a good cast and get your lure in front of a fish to give her the opportunity to eat. I always tell new anglers, whether with conventional or fly tackle, aim to place your lure two feet in front and three feet beyond the fish. This rule may vary depending upon water clarity on other parts of the coast but it works well here on the upper coast. The goal is to pull the lure directly into the fish’s field of view where she has little choice but to inhale it Anotherinstinctively.thingIstress often is that it’s better to place the lure ten feet in front of them rather than one foot behind. Your line landing across the back of a fish will almost always spook them. Likewise, I have found that if you cast too far beyond them to retrieve it into their field of view before they cruise on by… stop reeling. A lot of times they will swim over or under your line and will keep moving. But, the second they feel it move from you reeling, they are out of there. Something else worth mentioning is that if you are casting at a fish pushing a wake, it is important to know what you are looking at. In other words, where’s the head? That V-shaped wake is more than likely formed by water being displaced by the fish’s dorsal fin area and not their nose. So, when casting to one, you want to be well in front, not where the wake is taking shape. Their mouth is a little ways in front of the wake and you need to be in front of that when you make your cast.
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Spotting potentially receptive fish can be one of the more difficult tasks. The first thing, an absolute must-have, is a pair of high-quality polarized sunglasses. I cannot stress this enough. Good eyewear and a hat or cap to block the sun are everything when it comes to spotting the fish. The other things to look for are color and movement. Depending where you are on the coast, they may be more red, orange, or silver than other places. The key is to look for movement and you’ll realize that it is indeed a redfish. One of the other things is determining if it is a redfish or mullet. This is a very common mistake and it still gets me from time to time. However, if you have to question it, it is more than likely a mullet; there won’t be a doubt in your mind when it is a redfish. Once you spot it, try your best to keep your eyes on it. Glance away for even a second or two and they can disappear.
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SPOTTING THE FISH
Much like we witnessed in 2021, CCA Texas staff and local chapter volunteers started off 2022 wondering what the year might hold. We all know how 2020 unfolded, and 2021 had its challenges as well as the year moved along. The one thing that remained constant through 2020, 2021, and through the first eight months of 2022 was an unyielding commitment to the organization by volunteers, supporters, and businesses in local chapter communities across the state. Through thirty-nine chapter banquets, it appears CCA Texas could be on track for another record-setting year. Local chapter events continue to be sold out, and local communities continue to strongly support the chapters. This support is the direct result of the belief in the organization by chapter volunteers that ultimately bridges the commitment of the local communities. CCA Texas is proud of its volunteers and supporters, and these local community efforts are truly making a difference in the health our Texas’s coastal resources. CCA Texas now has 60 chapters across the state, stretching from the Golden Triangle to HoustonGalveston, down the coast to South Padre Island, and inland to Laredo, Midland, Dallas – Ft. Worth and all communities in between. Interest in the organization has peaked to an all-time membership high of over 80,000.
The newest chapters include Saltgrass (Winnie area), Bastrop County, and the Come and Catch It chapter in Gonzales. The Saltgrass chapter held their first event in May and it was a great success that left the chapter with much enthusiasm for 2023. Bastrop County held their event on July 28 and the result was amazing. With a strong board in place, the banquet attendance was more than 500 conservation-minded men and women, and set fundraising efforts never even approached for a first time local chapter event. The energy was strong, the atmosphere was amazing and the local chapter volunteers are already talking about next year. The Bastrop County event is truly a testament to what strong community support means. The Come and Catch It chapter in Gonzales is making final preparations for their August event as this is written, and it is shaping up to be another great first-time event. The recipe is simple and Projects such as the St. Charles Bay Big Tree Unit Reef provide critical shoreline protection, habitat, and many ecosystem services to immediate and surrounding eco-systems.
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JOHN BLAHA TSFMAG CONSERVATION NEWS DOWN THE STRETCH OF 2022…
Three new chapters have been started and advocacy and habitat efforts continue to grow. Active and interested membership is the key to the success and continued growth of the organization.
As it has been since the inception of CCA in 1977, strong community belief and support continues to be the driving force behind the success of the organization. Without you, the member, CCA Texas would not be the organization it is today. Whether you are a casual member or highly involved, take the time to visit www.ccatexas.org to see what issues and news are current and evolving. Don’t miss the Advocacy + News tab on the menu to see what is happening in News; how to Take Action; listen in on the Coastal Advocacy Adventures Pod Cast; or read the latest edition of Currents The information is there, just take the time to read, educate yourself, and ask yourself…. “What can I do”?
Live Auctions are often the driver of successful events and member pride. Take the opportunity to participate in your local chapter banquet and get some of the great CCA merchandise and trips available.
The amazing support goes way beyond the successful chapter events. These successful events lead to strong advocacy efforts and recognition in battles to conserve Texas’s coastal resources, and in the continued growing efforts for habitat restoration and creation. On the advocacy level, the management of the oyster fishery continues to hold razor sharp focus by CCA Texas. Although the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Commission (TPWD Commission) tabled proposals in March to close critically important oyster habitat to oyster fishing in the Mesquite Bay complex, policy and restoration workgroups were formed through the selection of members by TPWD. The task of these workgroups is to discuss solutions to insure this critically important part of the coastal ecosystems is managed appropriately for their value to the overall ecosystems. These workgroups are represented by the oyster industry, academics, and non-governmental organizations such as CCA Texas. CCA Texas is represented on both work groups and will continue to advocate for a management system that will benefit the resource for generations to come. Habitat restoration and creation efforts continue to grow for the organization as well. Nearshore reefing efforts continue to be strong along the entire coast and in particular in the Upper and Lower regions. Friends of RGV Reefs (FRGVR) continues to be a stalwart organization leading the way to restoration efforts off of South Padre Island. Through relentless efforts, FRGVR is paving the way to reefing efforts that are both effective and economical. On the Upper Coast, Friends of Sabine Reefs (FSR) continues to work tirelessly in the efforts to work with TPWD to expand and permit new areas. FSR continues to work with local industry partners to raise funds, identify staging and holding areas for materials, and bring suitable materials in for new deployment efforts. Oyster reef restoration and creation is a focus that will continue to grow as new policies and guidelines are put in place. These investments must be protected and allowed to flourish before being placed back in any public fishery. CCA Texas believes strongly in the creation of conservation reefs and the expansion of Certificate of Location reefs, but there has to be strong protection, and reasonable opportunities in place for the investors in the conservation and industry arenas. Marsh restoration and living shoreline efforts are another area that is growing as well. CCA Texas is committed to these types of efforts as well and has several projects currently up for consideration.
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Lastly, part of the community support also lies with publications that believe in CCA Texas. Everett and Pam Johnson have been staunch supporters of CCA Texas as long as they have been on the Texas Coast. Thank you Everett and Pam for providing Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine as an outlet for CCA Texas to spread the efforts to conserve Texas’s Coastal Resources for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
Bastrop County Chapter volunteers hosted a great inaugural banquet that set records of attendance and fundraising. Strong membership and community support were on full display.
proven… strong local events are successful because of a strong belief in CCA Texas by local chapter boards and strong community support.
Many silk worm moths flip their forewings forward when threatened, exposing large eyespots on their back wings. Often, the eyespots have white highlights resembling reflections from the eyes of vertebrates. Such markings have been shown to startle birds. Lycaenid butterflies have filamentous fringes on the edges of the hind-wings; combined with nearby wing markings, they not only have false eyes, but a whole false head.
44 | September 2022
Reed and Travis Kempf, with classically spotted reds (28” and 33”) from Baffin Bay.
Predators like birds and jumping spiders are effectively misdirected in their attacks by this deception. Studies of rear-wing damage supports the hypothesis of the false head as an effective strategy in deflecting attacks away from the butterfly’s body. These are forms of mimicry.
STEPHANIE BOYD FISHY EYESPOTSFACTS
Eyespots, also called false eyes or ocelli, are color patterns which consist of roughly concentric rings of contrasting colors and are found in a diversity of organisms including reptiles, fish, birds, mollusks, flatworms, lepidopterans (butterflies, moths, and skippers), and even some cat species. They are so named because they more or less resemble the vertebrate eye. Independent studies on various taxa have identified multiple different functions of eyespots, including courtship, intraspecific communication and competition between juveniles and adults, and anti-predation benefits. The pattern-forming process, or morphogenesis, of eyespots is controlled by a small number of genes during embryonic development.
During morphogenesis, the expression of specific genes that direct cells to produce pigment at particular points radiate from a central point, resulting in a circular design. Their conspicuous nature and widespread occurrence have made eyespots historically appealing to study, and they’ve received continual research attention since the 19thPeacockscentury.have ornate eyespots in their plumage, which they use to signal their quality as potential mates to hens. There is a correlation between the number of eyespots in a peacock’s train and his popularity with the ladies. Bobcats have white circular markings on the backs of their ears. Ear positioning in cats has a social function in signaling kittens and in communicating a cat’s mood to other bobs. Eye images in shopping malls have been shown to increase charitable donations to human services and decrease bike theft. And while there are other examples of eyespot uses unrelated to predation, it’s generally accepted that eyespots in many, or even most, species have anti-predation functions, even if they simultaneously have other biological functions.
The silk worm moth mimics the eyes of a different animal to appear larger and more threatening than it really is – the Intimidation Hypothesis. The Lycaenid employs
In addition to redirecting attacks towards less vital body parts, eyespots could also be used to direct attacks in a direction that, in combination with the escape trajectory of the prey, would increase the chance of a successful escape. For example, many fishes have spots located in the areas on, or close to, their caudal fins, and because fish primarily swim head first, an attack directed towards the posterior region could facilitate the escape of a fish. Interestingly, in many species of fish that have an eyespot in the posterior region, the real eye is obscured by an eye stripe (a stripe running across the eye) or the eyespot is larger than the real eye, which might also indicate that competition for the predator’s visual attention between the eyespot and the real eye may influence the evolution of color patterns. Eyespots in aquatic environments are widespread. You might recognize them from our very popular redfish, or red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus. Their iconic spotted tail is easily recognizable and used in branding and advertising of many coastal products. Like most other species with eyespots, their coloration is purely genetic, and an individual’s spots don’t change over time. Nor are they an indicator of hatchery origin, a common myth. TPWD hatchery broodstock are wild caught and rotated regularly to ensure genetic diversity and a healthy wild stock. So why are some redfish covered in spots, instead of just one or two eyespots? Genetic mutations are how species evolve. If a particular mutation increases the rate of survival and reproduction, those genes are passed down through the generations and become more prevalent. Multiple spots also lead us to the next anti-predation hypothesis – the Conspicuousness Hypothesis. Predators are often wary of prey with striking patterns which may warn of poison or venom. High contrast spot patterns may cause predators to hesitate, not because they mimic eyes, but because they are conspicuous.
The foureye butterflyfish gets its name from a large eyespot on each side of the body near the tail. A black vertical bar on the head runs through the actual eye, making it hard to see. This deceives predators in two ways: into attacking the tail rather than the head, and about the fish’s likely direction of travel. It is thus an example of selfmimicry and the Deflection Hypothesis. For the same reason, many juvenile fish display eyespots that disappear during their adult phase. Butterflyfishes can actually lose up to 10% of their posterior body region in an attack by a predator and still survive, recover, and reproduce. A study in 2013 published by the Royal Society using three-spined stickleback as the predator (chosen in part because it is considered to be a primarily visual predator) found supporting evidence for the Deflection Hypothesis, but interestingly, not for the Intimidation Hypothesis – even though this hypothesis has received strong support in numerous terrestrial studies. One possible explanation is that, when viewed from Cindy Amaya with an spottedunusuallyred,CPR!
self-mimicry, drawing the predator’s attention away from its most vulnerable parts – the Deflection Hypothesis. Another possibility, which has been suggested for some raptors, is that eyespots may deceive predators into thinking they have been noticed – the Detection Hypothesis. Similarly, in the Sundarbans in eastern India and western Bangladesh, woodcutters and other forest workers have worn ornamental human face masks on the back of their heads to deter tiger attacks. In Africa, eyespots painted on the rumps of cows have been shown to reduce cattle predation. These ‘pursuit-deterrent’ signals cause predators to think twice based on the potential costs associated with going forward with the hunt. In this case, eyespots mimic prey vigilance. Conceivably, eyespots may have multiple antipredator functions, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. One predator may be startled into not attacking, while another is misdirected to less vital bits. Both are beneficial to the prey. Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton (a researcher in the 1800s) was among the first to suggest that eyespots were likely to have an anti-predator function. Poulton introduced a small heath butterfly (Coenonympha pamphilus) into a lizard’s cage and observed that “It was at once obvious that the lizard was greatly interested in the large eye-like mark on the underside of the fore wing; it examined this mark intently, and several times attempted to seize the butterfly at this spot” –the conception of the Deflection Hypothesis. The main idea of this hypothesis is that eyespots draw predator attacks towards the less vital parts of the prey’s body, thus increasing the prey’s chance of survival.
It is widely recognized that predators have profound effects on species diversity by influencing abundance, composition, and traits of prey communities. Because a close encounter with a predator can rapidly become a dead end for its prey, any form of deceptive appearance that prevents detection or recognition in the first place, or deflects attacks to less vital parts of the body, is highly beneficial. Across the animal kingdom, there are a variety of cryptic color patterns and deflective markings, which have long been assumed to provide protection from predators and increase prey survivorship. Though other markings might also misdirect attacks, it is assumed that the misdirecting function of eyespots have played an important role in their evolution in aquatic environments.
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Where I learned about eyespots, and you can too!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyespot_(mimicry)#In_fishWikipediasibleynaturecenter.org/photo-essays/eyespotsSibleywww.nature.com/articles/srep02259Natureappliedecology.cals.ncsu.edu/absci/2013/08/false-eyed-fishes-fool-predators/Abacowww.bristol.ac.uk/news/2017/september/fish-eyespots.htmlUniversityacademic.oup.com/beheco/article/19/4/733/202072?login=falseOxfordonlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/evo.14197onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6509Wileywww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3572176/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7414152/Nationalroyalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.1458#d8404263e1ThePcmA&sig=g-wDDUvt4aOKsA2Y6ozWFUrfMOw#v=onepage&q&f=falseRoyalSocietyofPublishingLibraryofMedicineOnlineLibraryAcademicofBristolScientistNatureCenter 46 | September 2022
The Colours of Animals: Their Meaning and Use, Especially Considered in the Case of Insects By Sir Edward Bagnall books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Uf4vAAAAYAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA18&ots=eyiXvqPoulton
the front, the projection of eyes in predatory fish is quite different owing to their lateral placement compared with many terrestrial predators, such as raptors. Therefore, an eyespot may not mimic the threat of a predator as closely in aquatic environments as it does in many terrestrial systems. Additionally, the artificial prey items used in the study had only one eyespot, so it’s possible that two spots could be more likely to cause an intimidating effect in fish, because it might better mimic the frontal view of an approaching predator.
Another study in 2021 used a heat-mapping technique to show that the location of eyespots is different between active fishes that swim above the benthos versus cryptobenthic fishes that rest on the benthos. (Cryptobenthics: the ‘hidden half’ of the reef fish community, typically less than 5 cm long, camouflaged, and often hanging out in nooks or crevices.)
The results of all the various studies over the century suggest that, while eyespots are generally accepted to have anti-predation functions, they may, in fact, have multiple roles, with their functional significance changing during the lifetime of an animal – from juvenile advertisements to deceptive and/or seductive adult signals, and perhaps functions we haven’t even discovered yet.
roysbaitandtackle.comBLACKMOON BACKPACKS DOMINATE THE INSHORE REALM TSFMAG.com | 47
Occasionally, I enjoy reminiscing about the past, looking back through nostalgic eyes on days which seemed simpler. In one way, the summer of 2008 felt much like the summer of 2022, because gas prices spiked above four dollars a gallon for the first time. High prices at the pump deter people from driving except for required reasons, so in July of ‘08, few people made long trips down the beach to go fishing, at least compared with the crowds of anglers who normally line up on the strip of sand fronting the surf. About that time, my good friend Kip Kaaialii and I had ascended to the peak of our reckless period. I still lived like a beach bum, and Kip wanted to join the fun, so he took a much needed hiatus from his job to focus on sharking for a couple months. Another good friend had passed on an old Suburban to me, and I spent two days welding a custom fishing platform to it. Considering it was my first project of this kind, before the days of allaluminum racks, I felt pretty stoked, proud of the results. Once I finished, Kip confirmed he was eager to join me on the Suburban’s maiden voyage to the beach.
We bit the bullet at the pump, cussed the state of affairs and pointed our newly-enhanced vehicle south, heading to the Promised Land of the Padre Island National Seashore around mid-morning. Like we did on all similar trips, we embarked fully ready for a truly authentic, potentially epic adventure. On this outing, our playground felt like a protected, seemingly forgotten world. Driving the remote beach south of Malaquite proved much more treacherous then; soft sand and shell banks made the going slow and tough. Complicating the journey, the trailer we towed behind the truck to carry Kip’s Achilles inflatable was falling apart by the time we hit the beach and didn’t survive all the way to our stopping point. When the axle and hubs crumbled, we had to repack our gear, throwing the inflatable on top of the Suburban and leaving the rusty trailer behind. We did soldier on, refusing to let some ruined equipment deter us from our quest, knowing we could recover the trailer on the way home. We arrived at our chosen spot around lunchtime and set up camp. Immediately, we got to Loaded to the max after our trailer cratered; we lashed the Achilles inflatable atop the Suburban and continued south.
A TALE OF TWO SHARKS
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ERIC OZOLINS EXTREME KAYAK FISHING & SHARKS FROM THE SAND
After a protracted battle with two sharks, my prize was finally coaxed to the
work casting out small baits, targeting rays and/or jacks to use for bait to attract sharks, mostly catching whiting and hardheads, though we did manage to land one fresh ray. We kept all of what we caught, filleting the whiting for fish tacos and grinding their carcasses with the hardheads, to use for chum. As the sun sank into the horizon, Kip deployed the biggest baits. After dropping the baits, he spread the contents of a five-gallon bucket of fresh chum out beyond the breakers. This experimental chumming method, incorporating the ground fish mixed with menhaden oil, created a visually appealing slick, which seemed destined to attract the attention of some of the right creatures. Back then, we’d been seeing and encountering new things on just about every trip to the beach. While darkness descended, we fried our whiting and enjoyed tacos which tasted far too good for beach food. Then, around ten o’clock, something cut one of my lines, baited with a jack. With the spotlight, we could see the reflective tape on the float and decided to do nothing for the moment. Mere minutes later, a slowrolling shark hit the line baited with the ray and we had a fish on. Though this happened not so many years ago, the shark fishing we did in those days now feels primitive, when compared with the technologically advanced methods we use today. These events took place near the end of the Penn Senator era for me; on this particular evening, we used Super 6/0 Senator conversions. The following year, I started using Avets and two-speed reels. Several years earlier, I’d pioneered the idea of spooling these kinds of reels exclusively with braided lines. We were brave in those days, thinking we could land anything on the old reels, if we stacked them with 100 lb. Power Pro. Strapped in, I could tell I’d hooked a solid fish, feeling fairly sure it was a tiger. I’d let it run out a couple hundred yards, then meticulously gain line back. This went on for over an hour. Eventually, though it seemed I wasn’t regaining much line as the shark made short runs of about twenty yards, then gave some back, I did manage to make Ready for nightfall with baits deployed, preparing to enjoy an extraordinary batch of fish tacos.
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They’re out there, just under the surface. I know it. I can hear the redfish calling from the flats. Further out, there’s a Marlin with my name on it. Tarpon await by the jetties. And here I am, a rod in hand and perfect weather overhead. It’s going to be a good weekend indeed. That’s as hard as it gets. sopadre.com
Kip sat in his chair on the beach, burning through cigarettes like a nervous wreck. I was a little more collected, but still quite anxious. Once I got the mess of line and leaders close to the first bar, I felt a sudden, sharp jolt. Then I had slack line, which indicated I’d lost one or both of the fish to a cut line or pulled hook. Hoping I hadn’t done all the work for nothing, I reeled frantically and finally felt welcome tension, thankful to find myself still involved in a fight. We lit up the line again and could see just one float, on the line still holding the shark I was fighting.The other line had become entangled on the leader and weight of this one, eventually snapping, causing the sudden jolt I had felt. We found the other float in the light and watched it moving quickly away from shore. Bummed about these events, we trained our focus back on beaching the original shark we’d hooked.
STAY SHALLOW OR GO DEEP?
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After a three hour fight, with about half that time spent tugging against two large sharks at once, on a now archaic 6/0 Senator reel, I ended up landing a 10’6” tiger. We succeeded in tagging, photographing and releasing a memorable fish which still claims a special place in my heart because of what we endured while the wildly unique battle played out. That big tiger became one of the main highlights of 2008, the year of the lonely beaches. At present, almost a decade and a half later, tiger time is upon us again. With some solid fish already caught this season, the end of summer is shaping up to be nothing short of spectacular. Those interested in embarking on the potential trip of a lifetime should call me ASAP, as my charter schedule is filling up fast.
some progress.About two hours into the fight, when we succeeded in pulling the shark onto the third bar, we noticed something odd. We’d been tracking the float with the spotlight for some time when we suddenly saw BOTH our floats in reflected light. At first I assumed we were dragging in the weight and leader of the break-off line, but about fifteen minutes later, when we dragged the mess up to the second bar, we could see the two lines and leaders tangled in some strange way. The floats appeared to be working against each other. We then knew why the fight had been so long and awkward; we’d hooked two sharks! As the battle drew to its end, I put as much pressure as I could on my pair of opponents, to inch them closer and closer to land.
CONTACT 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 oz@oceanepics.com Websites oceanepics.com | catchsharks.com
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Telephone 979-241-1705 Email binkgrimes@sbcglobal.net Website MatagordaownerwriterandBinkmatagordasunriselodge.comGrimesisafull-timefishinghuntingguide,freelanceandphotographer,andofSunriseLodgeonBay. Matagorda GRIMESBINK
It has been a tough summer – maybe the toughest I can remember. We never really saw the surf get “right.” We dealt with southwest winds for most of June and July; and, severe drought had salinity levels greater than that of the Gulf of Mexico. So, I am looking forward to September and a change of pace, mixing in a shotgun in the morning and fishing the afternoon. Though this summer was more challenging than normal, we did see our share of large trout. That’s encouraging and a testament to conservative bag limits and a more prevalent “catch and release” attitude by more anglers than I have ever witnessed. More needs to be done and it starts with professionals taking the lead and promoting more catch and release and protecting those 17-23 inch trout that are legal to harvest. Long before the freeze and stricter regulations, it was always tough to swallow sticking a knife in a 20-inch, three-pound fish. That fish has a chance, much like a 3½-year old whitetail, to be something special. Think about it. Here’s what has been going on: The south shoreline of West Matagorda Bay has been up and down. Sand and grass flats closer to the Port O’Connor jetty and Pass Cavallo are traditionally good this month on She Pups, Super Spook Jrs. and Down South Lures. Out of the boat, never discount Half-Moon Reef in West Bay while drifting with live shrimp under a popping cork.
THE VIEW
View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube. September Even Has a Different Smell to It!
54 | September 2022
Redfish guides in Matagorda know things get tough when water temps reach the upper 80s and tides fall 1-2 feet below normal during the summer. Redfishing was tough all summer, but that should change in September. Hopefully we will get the bloated tides we have been waiting for since April. I can’t remember a summer when the tides were this low, probably due to all the southwest wind weSwellingexperienced.tides offer more real estate for redfish and allow all captains a chance to float the backwaters where autumn redfish roam. The best pattern this summer for redfish has been drifting in the middle of East Matagorda Bay. All those redfish on the south shoreline had no choice but to fall to the deep shell in the middle of the bay. The jetty should be great for reds in September. Most of the fish are near the bottom and best on live baits like finger mullet, pogies, and large table shrimp. Dove season opens for us on September 2-3-4 in El Campo during the Special Whitewing Season. We will hunt the weekend afternoons and fish the mornings. Teal season runs Sept. 10-25 and our cast and blast options are popular. Despite the drought, we will have freshwater for the bluewings; and, if history holds true, during years of drought, those who have water have lots of teal. Please err on the conservative side when given the opportunity. We can’t continue to take, take, take and expect the bay to give, give, give. FROM Matagorda
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Lucky for us, due to the decline of the redfish population in the late ‘70s, TPWD started the hatchery program to stock our bays with red drum fingerlings in 1983. Last year they released a total of 17,805,822 fingerlings in different bay systems all along the coast. As a result, our redfish population has rebounded to healthy numbers all along the Texas coast. But I also must say that with increasing numbers of anglers opting to target redfish, I can’t help but wonder if the population in general can sustain the pressure over the next few years.
Watch for reds that are “tailing” along shallow, grassy shorelines. There are many times, if you watch closely enough, you will even see them cruising in water too shallow to cover their backs. While these reds can be confidence builders, they can be some of the hardest to catch because they tend to be pretty spooky.
Remember, if you already have fish in the freezer, perhaps you should consider letting a few swim away for another day. If we all practice even just a little conservation each time we fish, we can help bring back our fisheries to healthier, more sustainable populations.
I always dread the energy-zapping heat that comes in August, but with this drought lingering it actually started way back in June. This has been due to the long stretches of high atmospheric pressure we’ve been under for most of the summer. Of course, this has helped with keeping hurricanes at bay, but it also pushes away any gulf moisture that we typically see this time of year. We have also experienced more wind than what we normally see this time of year which, unfortunately, has kept us from venturing out to the surf. Because of this the fish have been a little tougher to pattern than usual.
September is a month I look most forward to because we typically get our first cool front somewhere in the middle to latter weeks. I know it will still be hot most days but cool fronts seem to bring more life to the waters here on the coast. Our days will be getting shorter as well, which also helps to reduce water temperatures. After the first few cold fronts, look for redfish to begin schooling in greater numbers in the bays and back lakes, unlike the summer months when they are typically more generally scattered.
If targeting reds has been your preference lately I will offer a few tips. Here in the Port O’Connor/Seadrift area slot-sized reds love shallow water. I know there are times when anglers do well at the jetties but to consistently catch slot reds I suggest concentrating your efforts in shallow water.
Captain Shellie Gray was born in Port Lavaca and has been guiding in the Seadrift/Port O’Connor area full time for the past 19 years. Shellie specializes in wading for trout and redfish year round with artificial lures.
GRAYSHELLIECAPT. SeadriftO'Connor
View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
Telephone 361-785-6708 Email bayrats@tisd.net Website www.bayrat.com Facebook @captsgaryandshelliegray MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays
Sight Casting Tailing Redfish
The trout bite has been decent as of late but it has been somewhat difficult to bring limits back to the boat due to the new slot size of 17 to 23 inches. Earlier this spring we were catching longer trout but the size has dropped off during the hottest months. Because of this, catching redfish has been a lifesaver on many of my guided trips. Honestly, I have had more requests for targeting reds than ever before. Many of my clients have openly admitted that they would prefer to be more conservative where the trout are concerned, so they opt for reds. Even on the days when my anglers thought they wanted to target trout, they usually ended up changing their minds after an hour or two because we were catching and injuring too many undersized trout. After talking with other guides, this seems to be the M.O. with their clients as well.
Small scented soft plastics work well in these situations. But never cast into the middle of a pod of tailing or shallow cruisers. Instead, aim for the outer edges of the group. Since your are using a scented lure, you can then drag or soft-twitch the offering closer, but be careful to not allow your line come into contact with any of them, because if one fish spooks the entire group will blast off into the next zipcode. Redfish scattered along shallow shorelines with grass and sand pockets tend to be my go-to when guiding multiple anglers. These areas are easier to wade or drift and offer more opportunities for each angler. Smaller topwaters can be very effective in the low light of early morning. If you find them “blowing up” repeatedly but without actually taking the lure, I recommend switching to a 4-inch Bass Assassin Sea Shad (preferably with chartreuse tail) on an eighth-ounce jig head. Better yet, a half-ounce weedless gold spoon.
Rebecca Ellard was more than happy to show off her catch. Lindsay Hall had one heck of a fight with this watershallowredfish.
56 | September 2022
Port
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Laguna/UpperBaffin
His head snapped back at me like a slingshot and it was game on. The trout never came up again, making a run into deeper water. The drag was acting more like this was 36” red, but I knew it wasn’t. All of sudden it stopped and we thought for a second it broke off. Turns out it was coming straight back. About the time the client got a firm bow in the rod again she broke the surface in full costume. A four foot tarpon!
conservation
catch
58 | September 2022
I was sad and elated at the same time. That big flash of silver and bulk I had seen on the hookset had fooled me with the angle of the sun and the fact I had never seen a tarpon in Baffin. We’ve hooked three more since that time and have yet to land one, but for fully two or three minutes, I thought I had put my client on a world record trout. Good Remembertimes!theBuffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey
Between dove season, school starting back, and football, there will be some peace and solitude on Baffin in September. If getting away from the crowds and far less pressure in the area you choose to fish, now is as good a time as any to get out there. Being we are in south Texas; we have not received any cold fronts yet. The water is very warm and summer patterns will remain in full affect. Get up early if you still want to focus on solid trout. Schools of all sorts will be gathering up to push into the gulf, so that’s a midday thing you can look forward to as the trout bite fades. Whether the schools be predominantly reds or drum, either will have some of the other in them, and both will have trout on the outer edges. This is primarily boat and trolling motor fishing, but it is common to have every rod in the boat bowed up when things are going right. September seems to have a mind of its own. It’s offered up a little bit of everything over the years. Two events come to mind, but I only have time and space for one… Early in my guiding career I had a client show up solo. I’d never met him and was glad to see he was an above average caster. We were having a good morning, catching some studs filled with roe for their final spawn. As the day got hotter we moved to deeper water with no success and eventually ended back up where we started on some shallow grass patches. We were pushing along and I had fallen about 15 yards behind to allow him first shot at whatever structure he might come upon. At the end of one very long cast with a plum Bass Assassin, my client hooked one of the largest trout I had ever seen. It blasted out of the water and I was in shock at how thick this fish was, and unsure whether he was aware the class of fish he had on. As he was fighting it, in great form I might add, I softly mentioned, “Hey, stay calm and don’t get overly excited, but that is the largest trout I have ever seen hooked.”
David Rowsey has 30 years in Baffin and Upper Laguna Madre; trophy trout with artificial lures is his specialty. David has a great passion for and encourages and release of trophy fish.
“Butt – beak – bang!” That’s how I was taught to shoot birds on a followthrough swing when I was a youngster. To this day it holds true and is a great exercise to get novices dialed in on their timing. Unfortunately, and thanks to a shoulder surgery, I’m going to be holding down a recliner instead of a tailgate on opening day of dove season this year. I can’t remember this happening since I was 12 years old. Hopefully the sacrificing of bird season will result in longer casts on Baffin… reaching that rock or edge of a pothole is a big deal when you have a side bet with your buddies on either side of you.
HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey Telephone 361-960-0340 Website www.DavidRowsey.com Email david.rowsey@yahoo.com@captdavidrowsey
Young Gavin Saenz started the morning learning to use a bait caster. Mastered that in about 30 minutes and got to catching his first of many trout on lures. Topped the day off with a big school of reds that were playing “easy to get.”
I’ll be honest, I usually take a lot of time off during dove season. I hunt on my own place, with friends on theirs, and we even pay for some good hunts when the outfitter starts babbling “it’s like Mexico.” My love of wingshooting is the simple reason, but the truth of the matter is that I am pretty burned out on fishing come September. Fishing less frequently is no indication that it’s any tougher now than it was in July, I just need a different kind of fresh air, preferably with hints of gunpowder.
ROWSEYDAVID
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Greetings from Port Mansfield! We have endured a sizzling summer with low water levels and extreme water temperatures. Rarely have the water temperatures dipped below 86°, while reaching 91° several times. Surprisingly, our game and bait species are adapting well to these conditions. If you fish the Lower Laguna often or follow social media, you already know we’ve been blessed with an abundance of flounder this summer. I wonder how we have not caught them all based on what I’m seeing daily on cleaning tables. I personally caught eighteen while wading fewer than 20 yards one morning. I have seen it like this once before, around 2012 or so. The difference then was the flounder were quite a bit bigger on average, with occasional “kickers” up to six and seven pounds. In addition to flounder, trout and redfish are holding their own despite exceptional boat traffic. Speaking of trout, I am encouraged to see the comeback. I am even seeing some good ones in high-traffic areas. Case in point, we caught a 26.75 and a 29.5-incher on a recent morning while targeting reds and “keeper” trout. Super excited to see this! September is when we begin to see subtle weather changes occurring. Thunderheads just offshore create the hint of cooler air flow from the north. You can sense and even smell the transition from summer to fall. This triggers changes in fish patterns and activity levels. Just recently, on a Monday and day off after a busy weekend, I awoke at 4:27am and walked to the kitchen for a drink. I noticed a flicker of light through my kitchen window. I walked outside and felt a cool, damp breeze. Offshore in the gulf, maybe five miles, I noticed a thunderhead high in the atmosphere. I was extremely tired but knew what I had to do. You see, I have been here before, just last year about this same time is when I caught my second-largest snook ever – thirteen pounds and thirty-four inches. That fish just so happened to land on the cover of this fine magazine. I grabbed a cup of coffee, two FTU Green Rods, a Simms waterproof shoulder pack with a few lures, and headed out solo. Not another person was at the dock. I ran in total darkness via GPS and settled into the spot well before sunup. A cool breeze (relatively speaking) and flickering lightning in the distance greeted me as I worked the area tossing Mansfield Knockers. I could hear, but not quite see, slurps and slaps in the distance. As the sun breached the horizon I could see skipjacks rolling like tarpon (actually for a second, I thought I was in a school of small tarpon because I’ve caught them here before). They soon disappeared and I started getting massive blow-ups and eventually connecting with big reds.
As fall approaches, expect the topwater bite to increase dramatically and the flats to come alive. Once the temperature dips a few degrees things start happening. Balls of baitfish will form with reds and trout busting through them. If you find the bait in the fall you certainly will find plenty of action. Boat traffic should decline a bit once dove season kicks off, especially in the evenings. I will be capitalizing on those afternoon opportunities when conditions allow. Remember Fresh Is Better Than Frozen.
View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
I caught reds until I didn’t want to catch reds any longer. Once the sun was up I noticed the water was extremely clear (not the best for snook). I knew they were there, but I couldn’t 100% confirm I’d had a snook blowup, although certainly probable.
I elected to move to another area where I’d recently had some snook action. As I approached the “sweet spot” I received a call from a friend. I stood in one spot talking on the phone for 15 minutes. As we talked I noticed a thick-shouldered fish with dingy-green back and yellow tints on its forked tail slowly pass within two feet of my right knee.
WAYNE’S Mansfield Report Telephone
Captain Wayne Davis has been fishing the Lower Laguna-Port Mansfield for over 20 years. He specializes in wade fishing with lures. 210-287-3877
Email captwayne@kwigglers.com DAVISWAYNE MansfieldPort
Terri respectablehoistsMcGuireaveryLowerLagunaflattie.
Father and son team of Dr. David and Garret Miller enjoyed excellent redfish action.
60 | September 2022
Clearly a trophy snook that just cruised on by with no concern over my presence. I never mentioned a word, continued my conversation, and eventually started fishing. No snook came to hand. That said, I had a smaller one follow my KWigglers Bone Diamond Wig-A-Lo all the way to the rod tip and just fade off into a grass bed. I was back at the dock by 10:30am with only a memory and confirmation they were there. I wasn’t frustrated, quite pleased in fact, simply because I know the attitude of a snook and this day wasn’t my day. It belonged to them.
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What an abnormal year we are having. I would never have guessed the winds would be howling through July and into August. Let’s hope we get a break this month. Rain has been scarce, let’s hope that also changes in September.
The redfish bite has been as good as it gets. We are running into schools in more than a few places. Along with slot reds we are catching lots of little ones, which is a good sign for the future. Reds have been favoring sand pockets in early hours and retreating to deeper water as the water warms. Switching to heavier jigs has led to some great catching in deeper water during the major and minor feeds. Lure color doesn’t matter when they are in feeding mode. What’s always unique about redfish, especially when they are schooling, is that they tend to return to the same areas every year, give or take a couple of weeks. Having said that, I have seen the schools become smaller and less willing to take a lure as fishing pressure has increased steadily over the years. The outlook for September redfishing is very good for two reasons; fishing and boating pressure will decline as hunters begin heading to the fields and we should begin to see significant cooling of the water temperatures. I predict topwater action will improve considerably as well. We are catching solid trout in good numbers which, to me, is an indication that the fishery is on a good road to recovery. Throughout our bays, many areas are producing stout to undersize trout. Slicks can be seen, and you can smell their fragrance if you happen to be downwind from one. Most of our trout catches have been in the waist-to-belly deep water. Sandy, scattered-shell bottoms have been the most productive, especially in the warmer part of the day. Don’t overlook the edges of the ICW. The drop-off in general, and grass beds that lie adjacent are producing and will continue to produce both numbers and quality fish. There are still a few rather large, skinny trout out there, but the consistent numbers of bigger fish is still a few months away. Here’s a tip regarding the trout bite. If I’m throwing a topwater and seeing a pattern of short striking, it’s a sign to switch immediately to soft plastic. Along with decent numbers of solid trout, we are also catching lots of little ones. The same as the reds mentioned above, I see this as a very good sign for the future. Please use extra care when handling these little fish as they may well be tomorrow’s trophies.
We are also having great success with flounder, especially when we target them in the most likely places. Spoils along the edges of the ICW and oilfield cuts have been holding better numbers than we’ve seen in quite a while. I don’t consider myself a patient flounder fisherman, but I have been having a field day with them. It’s so good right now that I can practically guarantee everybody at least one in the type of places mentioned. Not many really big ones, mostly we’re catching them in the 15- to 18-inch range. Fishing for snook on the flats seems to be running late this year as we are just now beginning to encounter numbers that can be targeted reliably. We are not seeing many in the over-thirty-inch class, but a reasonable number in the twenty-two to twenty-four-inch range. There are still two good months to catch the linesiders on the shallow flats and, should we receive the traditional tropical depressions and the rain that comes with them, the snook fishing will get even better. Keep your fingers crossed and throw a set of raingear in a dry compartment…we need rain. Hopefully the bays will be less-crowded as dove and teal hunters trade their rods and reels for shotguns. The way I see it, all we need right now is cooler water temps and some rain to reduce the salinity in our bays. If those two things happen we should see stellar fishing in September. Oh, one more thing, you can’t get tugs sitting in your recliner watching fishing shows. Get out there and experience it!
Even with generally higher salinities, fishing in the Lower Laguna has been good to outstanding lately. On overcast days water temps have been in the low-to mid-80s and hitting the low-90s on bright sunny days. Water temps should begin to dip slightly as days grow shorter and, hopefully, more cloud cover and some rain.
View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.
SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene Cell 956-266-6454 Website snook,andErnestPorttheCapt.Awww.tightlinescharters.comBrownsville-areanative,ErnestCisnerosfishesLowerLagunaMadrefromMansfieldtoPortIsabel.specializesinwadingpoledskiffadventuresfortrout,andredfish. IsabeltoColoradoArroyoPortCISNEROSERNESTCAPT.
62 | September 2022
Jesse Barrera scored big on this Texas snook. Hayley Gwyn with her artificialflounderfirstonlures.
Capt. Ernest Cisneros Urges 100% C&R of Texas Snook
PETM may be the closest comparison we have to where global temperatures are headed today, and it resulted in the largest deep-sea mass extinction event of the last 93 million years. But much of the life in the Gulf of Mexico was spared, as scientists have learned by examining microscopic fossils in rock chips brought to the surface by oil and gas drilling. The fossils came from a type of plankton called radiolarians, which require lots of nutrients and sea water no saltier than today’s oceans. An abundance of radiolarians means the Gulf didn’t become too salty or devoid of nutrients from the warming—thanks to the birth of the Rocky Mountains 20 million years before the warming began. As the Rockies rose, rivers shifted course to travel through present-day Texas and Louisiana, carrying nutrients and sediments with them into the Gulf’s deep waters. Radiolarians and other plankton had all the food they needed to survive the mass extinction happening everywhere else.
© The University of Texas Marine Science Institute Science Seaand the TM As ocean waters continue to warm along with the climate, scientists are trying to learn how thousands of different organisms will fare in the years to come. It turns out the Gulf of Mexico can offer clues, as researchers from the University of Texas at Austin are learning from a different global warming event that happened 56 million years ago. Back then, the earth experienced a spell of severe warming during an event called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. It didn’t last long, perhaps up to 200,000 years, which sounds long until you remember that Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old.
www.ScienceAndTheSea.org
Today’s Gulf of Mexico is very different from the one millions of years ago, but these findings still offer insights into understanding climate change today.
Radiolarians are single cells, 0.1–0.2 mm in diameter, that have intricate mineral skeletons. Credit: Andreas Drews, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 AMEX Monday361-785-3420–Friday 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Learning from the Gulf’s Past Climate
Subscribing for more than yourself? Please write additional information on a separate sheet of paper. To order subscriptions simply fill this form out below and mail it to the address below, fax, email or go online. FORMSUBSCRIPTION FREE E-mailHARDCOPYWITHE-MAGPURCHASErequired SUB0922 12 months print - $32.00 12 months digital only - $15.00 24 months print - $56.00 Auto Renewal available with all subscriptions! 361-792-4530 Order today and receive a 12-month subscription for $25.00. Hurry and sign up family members and/or friends at the same rate! GET FREE E-MAG WITH HARDCOPY PURCHASE! TSFMAG.com | 63
In the weeks prior to Charlie giving this report, south and southwest winds of stronger than normal speeds had created issues for anglers in the Matagorda area. “With these winds, we’ve been fishing in the river quite a bit, targeting the fish on the ledges and drop offs, catching pretty good at times on topwaters, but better when we’re throwing soft plastics on jigheads which keep them closer to the edges while they fall. We’ve caught a decent number of redfish, and we’re catching plenty of small trout, not as many keepers. It’s also possible to hide from these winds in the bigger coves in both bays, and we’ve done okay at times in some of them, when tides are high. September is usually a great month for redfish in both our bays. We catch plenty wading in the coves and throwing tight to the banks, also under the birds at times, and if the tide dumps out, in some of the guts at the fronts of the coves in West Bay. We’re still hoping to have a good run in the surf. September can be great for the beach when we haven’t been able to fish it most of the summer.”
Randall looks forward to a continuation of excellent surf fishing in September, and an improvement in the action catching redfish. “We usually have plenty of calm days at the end of summer. This creates excellent potential for catching trout in the surf, and on the flats behind the pass. We also keep our eye on the wave heights, and run offshore from time to time, when conditions allow. Throwing topwaters works great most days this time of year, whether we’re targeting trout in the surf, kings offshore or reds in the shallows. We do best on light colored topwaters like the pearl SkitterWalks and the bone One Knockers. The redfish bite live bait better most of the time, so we are always ready to take advantage of that. But when they want topwaters, they usually attack with real attitude, flying out of the water on the take. Catching reds in the shallows on top can be one of the most exciting things we do all year. When winds pick up some, we’re often able to find clear water on some of the protected shorelines in the back bays and lakes, and these days seem to make the reds especially aggressive.”
FISHING REPORTS
Palacios | Capt. Aaron www.palaciosguideservice.comWollam - 979.240.8204
Fishing for reds has been consistently excellent lately in the local rivers and marshes. We’re looking for the schools of shad first, to find the reds following and feeding on them. We’ve been catching them several ways, including using live shrimp under popping corks, also by reeling crawfish colored deep diving crank baits and spinnerbaits with pearl/ chartreuse trailers along the edges and drop offs. We’re catching fish of an excellent average size for the table, most in the lower half of the slot. Our trout bite has been somewhat slower; we’re catching lots of undersized fish, but not as many in the keeper slot. With the hot water temps, the best bite has been around structures in deep water out in West Matagorda Bay. The tripletail bite has been excellent this summer too, and the drought seems to have brought fish around structures close to town. We’ve been averaging about three fish per trip, with most biting large live shrimp rigged five or six feet under popping corks. The flounder bite in the mouths of ditches and drains has improved recently, with most biting shrimp under corks tossed out for redfish. September usually means working birds and better flounder gigging on cool nights.
West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
James says the fishing in the Galveston area lately has been mostly good for him, but that it might be tougher for others, with less experience and knowledge of exactly how to catch fish around deep structures. “This time of year, when it’s so hot, I typically rely on catching fish around deep structures in open water. The bite can be really easy when it’s on, but the timing is critical. In lots of cases, the fish only bite in flurries, related to the tide movement and on our ability to get them started. In some cases, once we’re able to get a bite or two, the fish become more active and aggressive and move up in the water column. Then, we’ll catch pretty easy for a bit. But, it will screech to a halt, and we have to start all over again. Knowledge of precise locations of structures in deep water, how to position the boat and how to match the weight of the lure to account for depth and current are critical. All this is partly why I’d rather fish for tarpon in September. If winds cooperate, we might just have a really good season chasing the silver kings.”
Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242
Matagorda | Bay Guide Service Charlie Paradoski – 713.725.2401
Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323
Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054 Jim describes the fishing in the Galveston area lately as a typical summer pattern. “The key to success lies in the amount of wind. As long as the winds stay below about 15 mph, fishing is good. Most of the trout and redfish are out in the middle, both in East and Trinity bays. The trout are biting best around the reefs. Finding them means keying on slicks and areas where there’s lots of bait working. The schools of reds prefer a little deeper water, and they’re usually roaming around in areas with a muddy bottom. Locating them often means finding areas with off-colored water. The good news is people are spread out, since we haven’t had much rain. Trinity and Upper Galveston bays are salty to the mouths of the rivers, so there’s green water and good potential for catching in lots of places. And, I’m expecting another good run in the surf soon. We’ve had some real windy weather, and it’s mucked things up out there, making it tough, but we’re supposed to have some calmer days soon, and in September, if the winds lay on a regular basis, the action might be fast and furious along the beach.”
Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith Back Bay Guide Service - 361.983.4434
Lynn says the fishing in the Port O’Connor area has been predictable lately, and not always easy. “We’re doing fine early in the mornings, throwing topwaters around grass beds on flats lying adjacent to deeper water. The trout and reds push the bait up on these flats late at night and feed vigorously for a while once the sun comes up. But, the action doesn’t often last very long in this heat; the predators pull off the edges of the flats, into the cooler, deeper water during the middle of the morning. Then, they become much more difficult to catch. Another factor is moving water. Around here, it really doesn’t matter whether the tide is coming in or going out, as long as it’s moving. Once the tide falls slack, catching is always difficult, especially in such hot water temperatures. So, people hoping to enjoy success catching fish in this area in the near future should pay close attention to the tide charts and AND FORECASTS from Big Lake to Boca Chica
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Fishing the vast expanses of shallow water in the ULM and Baffin during a month when bull tides and generally light winds consistently create stagnant conditions can prove difficult at times, Joe says. “It is certainly possible to catch plenty of reds migrating toward the passes this month. We usually find those in calm conditions by watching for schools pushing wakes to get away from the boat noise, then working upwind of them to cast into the schools. Light to moderate winds make this drill easier, helping us see into the water better, and helping us make longer casts, to reach the schools without crowding them. When targeting trout, we usually do better at the end of summer/beginning of fall by fishing closer to places where the water moves some on a daily basis, including areas around both the Packery Channel and the Lydia Ann Channel, and near the northern entrance of the Land Cut. In those kinds of places, we look for massive concentrations of baitfish and signs of feeding activity, like slicks and mud stirs. The best bite usually happens along ledges if we’re fishing around the channels, and around the edges of rocks in deeper water down south.”
P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins 361-877-3583 | Oceanepics.com The end of summer usually signals the beginning of the dusky anchovy migration along the Texas beach fronts. During this event, millions of anchovies pass through the surf zone, mostly in bait-balls measuring in acres. This starts a feeding frenzy among many of the ocean’s predators. Birds of all kinds take advantage of the short-lived supply of food, and keying on their presence helps anglers locate the fish feeding on the bait-balls. Spanish mackerel, jack crevalle, bluefish, red drum, speckled trout, tarpon and sharks all take part in the feast. Lures often don’t work well in the presence of so much bait, but spoons do work well at times. Live mullet tend to work better in this situation to target the desired species. Blacktip and bull sharks usually lurk in the midst of the migrating herds of anchovies too. Typically, fishing for the sharks in the daytime is slow, but in the immediate vicinity of large bait-balls, the action can be fast and furious. Late at night, tiger sharks will bite, if you can keep smaller, more numerous species from taking the baits intended to entice them. September can be a great month, with easy catching, but dynamic, rapidly changing weather presents challenges to anglers too.
Port Mansfield | Ruben
Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut Robert Zapata – rz1528@grandecom.net - 361.563.1160
With the changing seasons, I’ll be changing my plans somewhat. When dove season arrives, I’ll be fishing for half the day, hunting the other half. During September, the redfish make their annual migration to the Gulf of Mexico, usually starting around the middle of the month and picking up steam toward the end. Toward the end of the run, the action really picks up in places close to the East Cut. Lately, fishing has been best in water between about two and a half and three and a half feet deep. We’re targeting grass beds in those depths for both trout and reds, mostly in areas near the Saucer and Butcher’s Island. On days when winds are light, the west side is better. The spoils north of Bennie’s Shack Island and the ones just south of the Land Cut have been producing well too. Mansfield Knockers in zombie or golden croaker have earned lots of blow ups early in the mornings. For those who don’t like topwaters, KWigglers in pollo loco and bond diamond have worked great. On the east side, the reds have been chasing mullet in the shallows over a sandy bottom early, then dropping off the edges of the flats mid-mornings.
A variety of options are on the menu for Blake during the month of September. “It’s cast and blast season, so I start off a lot of mornings wading the flats, then wind up hunting doves in the afternoons. And, we throw in some teal hunts too. With the cooling temperatures we usually have this month, fishing on lures picks up some. Lures have been working well on some days lately, but we do better on live croakers until about Labor Day. September is usually an excellent topwater month for me. We catch plenty of trout on top and some reds too. The reds school up and head toward the passes this time of year, so I’ll be looking for them in those areas, in bays like Corpus Christi and Aransas, also Mesquite, now that the water’s flowing through Cedar Bayou. Sometimes, locating the schools means seeing big muddy patches in the water, but other times, we locate ‘em by watching flocks of gulls working in the shallow areas, on sandy, grassy flats and near shell reefs. On some of the calmer days, fishing out at the jetties and in the surf can be really great this time of year too.”
Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230
I’d give the recent fishing and catching in and around Baffin Bay a high rating. We’re catching good numbers of both trout and redfish. Plenty of slot-sized trout are coming to hand early in the mornings, biting best in two to three feet of water. We’ve been throwing Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like chicken on a chain and salt&pepper/chartreuse rigged on sixteenth-ounce Assassin Spring-lock jigheads for best results. As always, we’re attaching them to the end of a fluorocarbon leader at least twenty inches in length, because the water is running so clear. The trout have been hanging around areas with sandy potholes breaking up a grassy bottom, and along deeper edges of the grass beds. Live shrimp dangled about fifteen inches below popping corks have worked well to catch the trout and reds too. I’m finding good schools of both red and black drum along the deep drop offs of grassy flats, catching them on Die Dappers on eighth-ounce heads best. During the bright parts of the days, we’re doing well sight-casting both species of drum in water a foot deep or even shallower, using shrimp-flavored Fish-bites. All these patterns should continue productive well into September.
Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com – 956-639-1941 With the heat wave, we’ve experienced consistent trout fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre. The high water temperatures have the trout concentrated on deeper grass beds. We’re catching best throwing KWiggler Ball-tails on quarter-ounce jigheads at grass beds lying in at least three feet of water, often closer to five feet. The heavier heads allow us to reach out to the deep beds, and also to keep the lures close to the bottom during the retrieves. Dark ones like plum with chartreuse tails have been producing best. We’ve had a pretty consistent redfish bite in the same types of areas, with the reds showing up better later in the morning, toward the middle of the day, after the trout bite dies down somewhat. We will be thinking the same way as we head into September, using relatively heavy jigheads to keep our lures low in the water column, where it’s cooler. With the bull tides of fall on the way, the fish will start moving around more, so keeping an eye out for the big concentrations of bait will become more important. And, this fall, I look forward to making some cast and blast trips, targeting both teal and doves.
time their outings so they’ll have moving water where they intend to fish. Ideally, the tide comes in strong early in the morning, in places like the surf. We’ve still got time to have some great days out there.”
Rockport | Blake Muirhead Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
GetawaySnookdudecharters.comGarza–832.385.1431AdventuresLodge–956.944.4000
Garrett Alvarez San Antonio Bay - 16” black drum Kambry Alvarez San Antonio Bay - 17” black drum Travis Bashaw & Stephen Spilker West Galveston BayMaxredfishParrishPOC - 46” bull red CPR Shelley Morkovsky POC - 27” redfish Micah Garcia Galveston Bay - first flounder! John Vann West Galveston Bay - 38” red CPR Riley Mulford & Sam Wittman Trinity Bay - 34” & 32” reds David Hoffman Corpus Christi - 36” first bull red! CPR Grace Coston Matagorda Diversion Channel - 19” trout Hudson Daniel Chocolate Bay - 16” trout CPR 66 | September 2022
Jeb Bashaw & Stephen Spilker West Galveston Bay - redfish Winnie Forrester Packery Channe - 21.5” redfish John A Lopez III - Sea Wolf Park 19.75” first flounder! Braden Pichon Matagorda Bay - 32” red CPR Chris Cuellar Corpust Christi - 45” red CPR Leo Durham Corpus Christi Bay - 37” black drum Shaun Smith Cedar Bayou - 41” redfish CPR Derrick Lovin Matagorda Beach - 32” red CPR Lucio Zamora South Padre - first sting ray! Rachel Reininger West Galveston Bay - 20” flounder CPR Hunter Zorn Hunter Zorn - 39” black drum Troy Howard LLM - 46” redfish CPR Vanessa Lovin Matagorda Beach - 28” first surf red! First come – first published! Photos are judged on artistic merit and sporting ethic displayed. No stringer, cleaning table, or hanging board images allowed. Digital images only. Adjust camera to high or best quality. All images become property of TSFMag. Email to: Photos@TSFMag.com Include short description of your catch with name, date, bay system, etc. PhotoGuidelinesGallery TSFMAG.com | 67
4 Flounder filets - skin off 2 Tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic - minced 1 large shallot - minced 1 tsp fresh thyme- chopped 4 oz cream cheese - softened 4 oz chopped prosciutto 1 pkg thin sliced prosciutto 4 Tbsp butter 1 clove garlic - minced 1 small shallot - minced 1 tsp thyme - chopped ¼ cup white wine ½ cup heavy cream 2 oz cream cheese
Yield: 2 Servings Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share? Email them 361orpam@tsfmag.comtosendbyfax:792-4530 JOHNSONPAM Gulf Coast Prosciutto
CatchSaucetoTable 68 | September 2022
Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in frying pan, add garlic, shallot, and sauté until opaque. Add thyme and continue cooking for one minute. Remove from heat. Season flounder filets with salt and pepper. Spread softened cream cheese over each filet. Spoon sauté mixture over cream cheese, then chopped prosciutto. Carefully place each filet over thin sliced prosciutto and roll, place on baking sheet. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of flounder filets. In same frying pan used to sauté the garlic and shallot mixture, melt 4 Tbsp of butter, add shallot, garlic, and sauté until opaque. Add thyme and continue cooking for one minute. Add white wine, reduce for 2 minutes. Add heavy cream and cream cheese, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Ladle sauce on each plate, add two flounder rolls and ladle sauce over each. Serve with choice of vegetable and salad. Flounder Rolls with Creamy Thyme
SAUCEPREPARATIONPREPARATION
SAUCEINGREDIENTS
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TEXAS SALTWATER FISHING HOLES • Bay Fishing, Offshore, Floundering, Waterfowl, Dove • Night Fishing off Lighted Pier • Right On The Water • Lodging with/without www.matagordasunriselodge.comMeals979-241-1705 USCG CaptainLicensedStanSloanMATAGORDA BAY Speckled Trout / Redfish 832.693.4292 www.fishfcc.com Fin Tastic Coastal Charters Capt. Lynn Smith’s Back Bay Guide Service Port O’Connor Area FLOUNDERREDFISHTROUT Wade BaystheDrifting&Back&Surf Call 361.983.4434 (cell 361.935.6833) Email lynn@tisd.net (tswf.com/lynnsmith) Home of the & www.CoastalFishingGear.com | 281-736-6670 USE COUPON CODE TSFM15 FOR 15% OFF OF CFG ONLINE ORDERS TSFMAG.com | 71
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