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April Issue Highlights

APRIL IS A WONDERFUL MONTH FOR FISHING

Here comes April and we have much to be excited about. One of the greatest things about springtime is that it offers more fishing options than you can shake a graphite rod at; and that’s no exaggeration. Name an area or type of coastal fishing and, sure enough, April’s got it. Everything from bluewater big game to prowling backwater flats in a kayak or poling skiff is in play. All you gotta do is put a plan together and make it happen!

Of course, the variability of springtime weather should be your first consideration; no matter how warm and sunny the days have become…it’s not summer yet.

April can be a windy month, and there’s also the possibility of a late norther or two, so you might want to build some flexibility into your plans. If booking a fishing guide, trust their advice as regards the decision to go or postpone for a better weather window. These guys and gals are out there every day and understand the capabilities and limitations of their equipment. They also have much greater knowledge of how the weather might impact your chances for a successful day. Listen to them – ditto using your

own good judgment and common sense if captaining your own boat. I would like to direct your attention to the story that appears on page 38 in this issue. In their recent State Board of Directors Meeting, CCA Texas made a huge commitment to continued coastal conservation efforts here in the Lone Star State; $4.4M worth, to be exact. I call that huge, remarkable actually, especially when you consider their funding source is local chapter fundraiser banquets. The majority of this $4.4M commitment will be directed toward supporting TPWD’s oyster license buyback program and oyster reef restoration.

My purpose in highlighting this commitment from CCA Texas is to encourage that you attend one of their fundraiser banquets and participate as generously as you can in the raffles and auctions. Banquet attendance is a natural follow-on to loving the coast and coastal fishing. Pam and I, along with a group of friends attend several each banquet season and they make for an enjoyable evening. Some of our most memorable vacations have been trips to various fishing destinations purchased at CCA banquets. You might even decide to join the banquet committee and help organize next years event; we did that very thing years ago.

I also want to remind all our readers that it’s time once again to register for the CCA TEXAS STAR Tournament. It’s easy to do on-line; and be sure to check the box to receive a FREE ONE-YEAR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION to TSFMag!

A Happy

Our three boats caught and released more than 100 trout over a three day period – sustainability at its finest!

Happy Meal

STORY BY STEVE HILLMAN

Ihave a couple of close friends who used to race cars and I remember them occasionally using the term “redlining.” In racing the redline is the maximum engine speed at which an engine is designed to operate without causing damage to the components themselves or other parts of the engine. As full-time fishing guides we go hard every year and all year but there comes a time (especially as we get older) when it helps to back off of the throttle and recharge before we restart our engines again. For me personally, this time usually hits around the end of January. This year was no different.

As February approached, I had a lot of family stuff to take care of and several charters to run before my annual trip to Arkansas to fish the White River with some of my long-time customers/ friends. Some of my charters were late afternoon trips in Matagorda followed by morning trips the next day in Galveston. Getting 4 hours sleep some nights was a luxury. I was “redlining” and didn’t even have time to attend the 50th Annual Houston Fishing Show. It seems like the timing is never right to take a break, but I was damn sure ready for one.

The previous year’s Arkansas trip was a blast. We caught tons of browns and rainbows but never any of the really big ones we were hoping for. River flows were down, air temperatures were unseasonably warm and we were fishing on the back side of the full moon. See, I even make excuses when fly fishing. Needless to say I still had a blast and I obviously know that booking a fishing trip isn’t like pulling up to the drive-thru at McDonald’s and placing your order. You learn to enjoy the entire experience while hopefully learning some things along the way.

Now fast forward to this year’s trip. We arrived and started fishing three days leading up to the full moon. A cold front was pushing through the area which meant increased river flow. Air temperatures were in the 20s and 30s. Everything was setting up just right for the opportunity to catch big trout and maybe even a trophy or two. We rolled into Flippin, Arkansas on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday and were on the water fishing by 3:00 PM. There were six of us in our group so we split into pairs on three boats. Kent and I teamed up with Rudy Chelednik (www.ozarkhillsanglers.com) and the other guys jumped in with the same two guides we had last year,

Matt Milner (www.risingriverguides.com) and Taylor Wooten (www. flippinflyguides.com).

As we began our first drift I heard the unmistakable high-pitched chirps of a bald eagle. When I turned to look I saw it sitting high atop a tree along the river’s edge like it was the caretaker of that stretch of the river. At that moment I took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air, exhaled and realized that I was back in the same paradise that I had left a year ago and that this was really happening. It wasn’t a dream. While I’m knocking the rust off of my casting skills, soaking up the moment and chitchatting with Kent and Rudy, my 6-weight bows up with a thick rainbow, actually my biggest to date. About that time Kent hooks up with a nice brown. Just like that I’m mentally focused and paying attention to every cast. On our second drift down the river Rudy positioned his boat to where we could land our flies along the edge of a rip current near a drop-off. Kent yells, “I’m on!” I swear it looked like he was hung on a log. Talk about dead weight. Then he gets his fish on the reel and is letting the drag go to work while carefully putting pressure on the fish and gaining on him little by little. At this point we knew it was a

Kent LeMonte with his giant 31-inch brown trout.

As you can tell I was elated with my 29-inch brown!

We always have a hard time getting Rusty Plackemeier to smile for photos but, trust me, he was very happy!

Frank Mistretta had himself a good day as indicated by the smile.

true giant of a brown trout. Kent has been fly fishing most of his life and had never caught a fish like this. His trophy brown trout taped out at 31 inches! It was a truly majestic fish.

We caught a few more after that second drift but our bite seemed to fade a bit. It didn’t really matter because what had just transpired less than 30 minutes into the first day of our three day trip was something we probably wouldn’t experience for the rest of our lives! I told Kent to sell his fly rod and find another hobby because he would never top that. At the end of our first day all of our boats caught above average trout before we all headed back to the house for grilled ribeyes, a blowout Super Bowl win and adult beverages. Day one of paradise was in the books.

The second day we met our guides around 7AM. Rusty and I jumped in with Matt who we had fished with last year. He’s been guiding for a very long time so we had lots of stories to share. The bite was steady with us landing three or four really solid trout per drift. It was obvious that other anglers were anticipating the increased release from the dam because there were quite a few other boats for a Monday and especially in the less than ideal weather. It was so cold that ice was forming on our rod guides. We had to dip our rods into the water to melt the ice before each cast.

Unsurprisingly, Matt and I have something in common. We don’t care much for crowds. We had already caught twenty or so trout so Matt decided to revisit a stretch of riverbank where no one was fishing and where we had tricked a few earlier. Our day was winding down and this was probably our last drift. I told Matt and Rusty, “I have a good feeling about this drift. It just looks and feels fishy.” On my third cast towards the bank just beneath an overhanging limb my indicator went down. We were in deep water so my white jig was rigged about 8 feet deep. When I set the hook I could’ve sworn my

fly was hung on a rock or some other submerged deep structure but then I felt that slow side-to-side head shake that we often feel with big speckled trout. I told Matt, “This is a good one. This feels like a really good one!” As it finally came to the surface we got a glimpse of just how big he really was. I actually got the shakes. My knees were weak as I told Matt, “Just coach me. Tell me what I need to do. This thing is huge and I don’t want to screw it up.” After all, I was fighting a 10-plus pound brown on 6 lb. Seaguar tippet! There was no room for mistakes. When that giant 29 inch trout found the bottom of the net I can’t explain the emotion that came over me. Thrilled is an understatement. It was truly a fish of a lifetime.

Our third and final day was just about as good as it gets for all three of our boats. We all caught lots of large browns with some solid rainbows and even a couple of cutthroats and walleye in the mix. As always, I learned some new things but I also observed how each guide had their own unique personality and teaching style. They were all different but they were all very good at their craft. Being the client for a change and seeing how they interact with their clients helped me to reflect on how I may need to make improvements on my own boat. Maybe I should have a little more patience sometimes.

Taking a break isn’t just for physical replenishment but also mental health. Sometimes it’s good to step away for a week or so to recharge our batteries. This way we can clear our minds and restart fresh and full of energy for our clients. It’s so important to stay sharp and focused while working hard to meet every customer’s expectations. This being said, I can’t always promise a Happy Meal.

STEVE HILLMAN

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.

4 09-256-7937 Email captsteve@hillmanguideservice.com

w ww.hillmanguideservice.com

Layton Lively with a solid brown trout. It was Mike Savoie’s first time to fly fish. Needless to say, he’s coming back with us next year!

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To Switch – OR –Not To Switch

STORY BY KEVIN COCHRAN

In various angling endeavors, a “bait and switch” philosophy drives some decisions. The concept revolves around a central premise–some things work better to attract the attention of fish, while others more effectively entice them to strike. For instance, people targeting billfish sometimes troll hookless teasers to pull fish into the spread, then drop live baits in front of them to try and make them bite. I accept the truth inherent to the foundational tenets of such behaviors, but I also believe some people rely on them too strongly.

The bait and switch debate comes up regularly for me when someone watches a big trout blow up on a topwater without getting hooked. Often, the angler who missed the fish begins elaborating a familiar concept. “I wish I had a Fat Boy,” they say. “I could throw it back in there right now and catch that fish.”

Some folks devise a plan of attack based on this idea of “switching down” to present a lure closer to the bottom after fish blows up and misses. When wading, they carry two rigs into the water, one with a floating plug tied on the end of the line, the other with a slow-sinking twitchbait. They throw the topwater first, but keep the second rig riding in a rod holder on their backs, ready for deployment when the magic moment arrives.

I’ve heard it many times. “If I miss a big fish on a topwater, I just switch rods and throw the slow-sinker back in there. Works every time.” Some substitute a soft plastic or spoon for the twitchbait, but this doesn’t change the basic facts, for me.

I believe these people falsely rely on selective memory, forgetting the occasions when the plan doesn’t work. Almost nothing works every time; claiming something does is almost always hyperbole. Many reasons urge me to disagree with this type of bait and switch plan, some of which involve what I perceive as misguided assumptions made by anglers who switch lures immediately after earning a strike.

Most importantly, these people assume they’ve attracted the attention of a solitary fish when one strikes and misses. When we can’t see what’s under and around our lure, we don’t know how many fish might swim within its reach, but many different kinds of experiences lead me to believe multiple fish often swim within striking distance of a lure when one chooses to attack. I’d argue a competitive instinct compels a fish to strike more readily when it finds itself in the presence of other fish.

I’ve witnessed this many times when wading in clear water in places like the Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay. I also saw it regularly when I lived in Bayou Vista, beside a canal in which submerged lights began to burn at dusk every evening, illuminating the trout and other fish for us to see. A fish swimming in a pod or school proves much easier to entice into taking a strike than a fish far removed from others.

Perhaps the most salient memory I have to emphasize this point involves the loss of the biggest trout I’ve ever seen. On the cast prior to hooking the monster, I’d coaxed a fish about 23 inches long to blast off on my Skitter Walk forcefully enough to do a complete forward flip in the air. When it missed, I reeled my plug back in as fast as I could and cast it beyond the site, then worked it through the space again. The big one pulled the lure under without making a splash, but when she felt the hook, she panicked and made a long series of jumps, looking more like King Kong than the girl in the movie.

To this day, I believe the fish was a three-footer. We’ll never know, because she succeeded in spitting the hook. Some will say I would have caught her if I’d thrown a Fat Boy at her after the small fish struck and missed. We’ll never know if they’re right or wrong. But this much I do know–at least two trout were aware of my lure when the first one struck.

More often than not, earning a strike means coaxing one fish to attempt to keep its schoolmates from getting what they all can hear and see. Importantly, when a fish does strike, the angler knows for certain the fish has a legitimate interest in eating what was offered. The angler cannot say the same about any other lure in the quiver with such confidence. Assuming a fish interested enough in one lure to strike will automatically show the same (or greater) interest in another is delusional thinking.

People who switch down after they see a big fish strike and miss apparently assume all fish are less likely to strike a lure riding on the surface than one moving under the waves, regardless of the situation. This runs counter to many of my experiences. I’ve seen plenty of days when topwaters earned strikes at a faster rate than anything else we threw. On some of those days, when low hook-up rates frustrated us, we tried everything else in our boxes, hoping to find something the fish would strike more aggressively, so we’d catch more. On many of those occasions, we learned none of the other lures worked at all; we stopped getting bites once we took our topwaters off the ends of our lines.

An angler earning lots of empty blow ups should first adjust by changing the cadence and rhythm of the presentation. Fish willing to take weak swipes at floating plugs sometimes become much more aggressive when speed bursts, pauses, and erratic movements enhance the presentations of the lures. If these kinds of changes don’t generate an acceptable change in the catch-rate, the angler should next consider changing the size and type of topwater deployed. This kind of methodical experimentation certainly becomes justified if and when the bite-rate on topwaters runs high while the catch-rate stays low. But an aggressive blow up from a big fish should not lead to experimentation.

Because a blow up from a big fish clearly indicates at least one of the fish within the lure’s reach is willing to strike something on top, the angler earning the blow up should NOT change the lure on the next cast. Immediately reeling the lure in and casting it so it lands a few feet beyond where the strike occurred, then moving it through the strike zone the same way makes better sense. This will allow another fish an opportunity to strike the lure, also give the original fish a chance to strike again.

Fish can and will sometimes strike the same lure repeatedly within a short span of time. This truth runs counter to a third false assumption made by people who regularly change lures immediately after earning a strike. I and others I know have caught the same fish on the same lure multiple times in one day, and I’ve observed individual fish repeatedly striking and missing lures many times when fishing in situations where I can see the fish I’m targeting. In these situations, the

The captain used a Spook Junior to entice this 30inch trout into striking on a foggy April morning.

J.P. Dafonte proved the cork and the jig is sometimes a great way to deal with a tough bite in April, as in any other month.

readiness of a fish to strike at the offered lure becomes indisputable.

An angler who misses a big fish on a topwater and who believes the same fish will ALWAYS bite a slow-sinking twitchbait on the next cast should be throwing the twitchbait in the first place. At all times, any angler with a serious purpose in mind should throw the lure they truly believe gives them the best chance to catch the targeted fish. Doing anything else is frivolous, at best.

Certainly, I’d rather catch a fish on a floating plug than on any other type of lure, and I believe many other anglers would say the same. But I won’t consciously reduce my chances at catching fish just to satisfy my urge to catch them my favorite way. I surely don’t want to consciously tease a giant trout into striking a topwater and missing; making a fish blow up and miss often does mean not catching it, at least not today.

Throwing a Fat Boy at a trout after it has blasted off on a One Knocker might or might not result in catching the fish. In some cases, the same fish will certainly take the twitchbait; in others, it won’t. In some cases, the twitchbait will earn a strike from another fish which watched the first take a swipe at the One Knocker; in other cases, nearby fish will show no interest in the twitchbait. Strike-and-miss scenarios vary with the vagaries of time and place.

In clear water, if I see a fish strike and miss what I’m offering, I do advocate switching lures after I make a couple more failed attempts to urge it to take another bite. Also, if I begin earning strikes at a fast enough pace in cold water, or in situations when I started off thinking the bite would be tough for other reasons, I often replace a soft plastic with something which looks more like a fish and moves

higher in the water column if the bites come regularly enough. I call this “switching up.”

This strategy worked perfectly for me on a bitter cold day in February of 2014. When I started the wade with one customer beside me, I instructed him to tie on a worm and drag it slowly along the bottom, anticipating a tough bite in water temperatures stuck around 50 degrees. But I told him, “If I start getting bites easily enough, I’ll switch up to a twitchbait.” Within the first hour, I earned about ten strikes on my Provoker, the last one a violent attack which sent shock waves into my hands. In response to the vibrations, I bit off the worm and tied on a Catch 5. When I threw it back into the spot, I caught a true ten.

I have no idea whether the fish I caught had bitten my Provoker on the previous cast, or whether I enticed one of its schoolmates to snatch my Catch 5. I also have no way of knowing if I’d have caught the ten if I’d cast my Provoker back into the spot. But I stand behind my beliefs about how to respond when fish strike and miss. A vast majority of the time, I play the percentages correctly by casting the same lure back into the space. In a limited number of special situations, I make a bolder play and switch up, hoping to improve my chances of catching a bigger fish.

KEVIN COCHRAN

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.

Phone 361-688-3714

Email kevincochran404@yahoo.com Web www.captainkevblogs.com T ROUT TRACKER GUIDE SERVICE

Justin Whitworth with a beautiful trout caught in April while fishing with the captain.

A soft plastic rigged on a light jighead produced this pretty trout for Dan Drom on an April outing with Captain Kev.

Locating schools of shad is the key to success on Sabine Lake during springtime.

Wherever You May

Roam

STORY BY CHUCK UZZLE

In today’s world its incredibly difficult to get everyone to agree on a particular subject or a way of thinking, its almost impossible, but I think virtually everyone will agree that the month of April is the height of the “cabin fever season” and nothing will fix it unless you get outside or on the water. For months now many anglers have been cooped up suffering from the winter doldrums while praying for longer days with warmer temps. In an attempt to beat this condition many will take the opportunity to travel to better locations where the conditions are much more favorable. Road trips have become a staple for many during the late winter and early spring timeframe but it’s not just anglers who are on the move, it’s the fish too.

April is perhaps one of the most anticipated times of the year due to the fact that many factors have begun to swing in the favor of the fishermen. Longer days coupled with warmer temps, both water and air, certainly help kick start fish activity such as spawning behavior in many species. April also means unpredictable weather, especially wind, and a tendency for fish to move around a lot more while searching for food since shad becomes the primary forage. Both Sabine and Calcasieu have ridiculously prolific populations of shad when compared to most of the other bays along the Texas coast and that is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes in the form of forage that is plentiful and also piles weight on. The curse comes when you factor that shad move around a lot so that means your fish do the same thing.

Nothing is more frustrating than rolling up to an area where you put a beat down on the fish the day before only to find out it turned into a ghost town overnight. The saying -here today gone tomorrow- not only applies to shad but also to the fish that prey upon them. Unlike other forage, like brown or white shrimp, the shad will travel large distances from day to day and the predator fish will be right behind them. One day the shad may be piled up in the marsh drains and overnight they may move out into the main body of the lake.

Early in spring the shad will be really small and tend to gather along the shorelines where they are relentlessly chased by just about everything that swims. When the spring tides show up and those small shad gang up in the freshly flooded grass the flounder and redfish just absolutely destroy them. It’s not uncommon to watch those small shad being blown out of the water all along a protected shoreline. It’s exactly the reason that makes you want to jump out of the boat with your wading gear blazing.

Now even though the weather says “let’s get after the fish” you must remember that April is a time of transition, so figuring out the exact pattern may be more difficult than you might imagine. All the standard questions, such as shallow or deep, bright or dark, bait size and more must be answered during the search for the perfect fish catching pattern. Most all of those will be rendered useless without first finding some active bait. As we have discussed many times in the past Sabine and Calcasieu are not heavy on structure so you must find bait first and then look for some quality water with decent clarity. Once you have located bait and quality water you can now start thinking about color, presentation, lure size, etc. Sabine and Calcasieu are a strange pair and the spring can often accentuate that fact or it can cooperate and show you just how good the fishing can be.

For many anglers April means head for the south end of the lake and set up camp on the jetties as good water from the gulf gets ushered in on strong incoming tides. Patrolling the rocks with soft plastic swimbaits or shallow diving crankbaits is probably the most popular method for discovering the bite. Last year I personally spent way more time down on the Sabine jetties than I ever had due to the consistent bite we encountered and the quality fish that were hanging out down there. I won’t be surprised if that happens again this year, I just hope to see even better quality fish show up. The jetty provides a magnificent example of how fish like speckled trout are affected by the tide and water color. If you have spent any amount of time down there then you have seen a great bite just completely shut down as the tide moves in or out and

the water color goes from perfect to just a little bit off. What was once a prime piece of water feels like a wasteland when this happens and no matter what you do its nearly impossible to get a bite. Note to self: Tide changes and moving water are a must when you fish the rocks.

Farther up the lake will be a bit more of a mystery this month but it’s not unsolvable. Obvious locations will be areas near the east shorelines and they will also be tide dependent. Redfish will seemingly alter their diet almost daily from shad to crabs and their color will be a dead giveaway. That shiny, almost silver colored fish will be dining almost exclusively on fish while their more colorful counterparts will be doing their best to eat every crab they can pin to the bottom and inhale. Search baits like a rattling cork with a soft plastic are proven producers and will not only draw jarring strikes but will allow you to cover more water in thorough fashion. For those that will venture into the shallow water marshes searching for redfish, I cannot stress it enough that you need to find an area that has a high population of crabs. If you find a pond or back-lake with plenty of crabs you can just about bet the redfish will not be far behind.

During this time of the year you must be flexible and adapt to each situation until we get a truly consistent weather pattern which seldom happens until later in May. Over the past couple of years I have been taking techniques that I have picked up from my buddies in Mexico that I fish with and have incorporated them into my arsenal. The ability to move around and be flexible is one that I notice all the successful captains down there possess. I recently was able to scratch another fish, Pacific Yellowtail, off of my bucket list with the help of my friend and long-time guide Ramon Garcia. Ramon made multiple adjustments to our pattern from depth to structure until we figured out the key to catching fish that day. Instead of being hardheaded and staying in water that he preferred to fish, we made the transition to where the fish were instead and it paid dividends. The same can be said for anglers who refuse to get out of a certain pattern and continue to try and catch fish in a certain depth of water or using a certain

Ashton Hunter with a “full grown” Sabine Lake redfish!

Tough to pattern during spring when they’re “here today and gone tomorrow.”

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pattern that’s not conducive to the conditions. There is hardheaded and then there is just plain dumb.

April should be full of promise and also full of challenges but certainly nothing that can’t be overcome. Pick some days with solid tide changes and with a little help from the weather man as far as wind goes and you should be well on your way to enjoying a good day on the water. By all means keep your eyes and ears open because those spring storms that blow up all of a sudden are no joke. It’s time to get out on the water and firmly put winter in the rearview mirror. Always remember that PFD and take a kid fishing every chance!

CHUCK UZZLE

Chuck fishes Sabine and Calcasieu Lakes from his home in Orange, TX. His specialties are light tackle and fly fishing for trout, reds, and flounder.

Phone 409-697-6111

Email wakesndrakes@yahoo.com

Website wakesndrakes.com

Flutter Tail Shrimp

My good friend Ramon Garcia helped me score my first Pacific yellowtail.

Off the Beach

STORY BY JOE RICHARD

Decent trout caught offshore on a “slick” day.

On the upper Texas coast, bay boats are king these days and serious offshore boats in the Port Arthur area have become rather scarce. Why? Bag limits and seasons have been tight for years in blue water farther offshore. The real opportunity now is for boats versatile enough to fish the bays and jetties with electric trolling motors, but also able to handle two-foot seas offshore while exploring oil and gas platforms within sight of the beach. It’s certainly different out there at the rigs from years ago, when we had more platforms to fish. We generally had clear water to fish through summer (see the late summer dead zone section below). Even today, you can jig up all manner of fish around the platforms if they sit in clear, green water. (On our upper coast it can be muddy a dozen miles offshore for no reason; it’s very different from the midand lower coast). On our countless fishing trips out of Sabine Pass, if there was murky water at the jetties, maybe caused by a southwest wind, I would sometimes climb a jetty tower and scan for green water on the horizon. We would then head straight there, even in a jonboat when the water was calm. If we reached green water, the fish were there. That’s still true today.

The recent spate of hurricanes hasn’t helped bay fishing, which is one more reason to head offshore. Hurricane Harvey, a historic event in 2017, knocked Sabine Lake in the dirt, so to speak, for years after. And it still hasn’t recovered fully today, according to long-time locals like Mike Spencer. Veteran anglers, with much know-how from decades of fishing, sold their boats or saw them ruined in the storm. Then three years later, the boating bonanza of 2020 arrived, prompted by Covid, when new boat owners bought into the game. Gulf state boat dealers sold countless boats, glutting the market, and some have since gone out of business as a result, causing a shortage of warrantied boat and engine repair shops. Another problem was lowering massive Toledo Bend reservoir 12 feet, all of it dumped into Sabine Lake, which soon carried channel catfish and white bass. Most of the local saltwater fish fled. Making the nearshore platforms in the Gulf an even brighter prospect, if you can reach them with a suitable boat.

“Maybe this will be a good year,” says Spencer, who has the right boat for bay and nearshore Gulf fishing. “We got normal, seasonal fresh water at the right time last year, and that’s great for the shrimp, menhaden and blue crab populations, according to Texas A&M. Those important species also don’t do well in a drought. So, we’re looking forward to this year.”

The number of saltwater species at those nearshore rigs has been amazing over the years, from ling and snapper, hordes of Spanish mackerel and big ladyfish, even pompano, to a tribe of seatrout that somehow is comfortable far from any bays or jetties. In the late ’60s I knew people who claimed to have caught 12-pound trout out there, usually while fishing at night with Seahawk fast-sinking stick plugs (now called Gotchas). Some of the rigs had big gas flares that lit up

The ideal season for fishing these offshore spots is April into June before the water warms and the annual “dead zone” arrives, caused by Mississippi River runoff, which flows west as far as High Island. When this bad water recedes in October, the fishing improves again. America’s biggest river carries all manner of fertilizer runoff, (22 percent from Iowa), causing an oxygen die-off as the Gulf heats up. Obvious signs are dark water with occasional pieces of water hyacinth, where at the rigs you’re lucky to see a single spadefish. This dead zone, usually 2-30 miles offshore, generally dissipates when

cold fronts cool the water, and it fully disappears each winter.

The “Big Muddy” has been dumping nutrient-rich water into the Gulf long before the white man arrived, but modern agricultural fertilizers have greatly expanded the problem. Each summer’s dead zone is different depending on the river’s outfall. If the river is low and barges are having a tough time dodging sandbars, then summer’s dead zone in the Gulf shrinks and may not even reach Texas waters. Another negative factor is the Gulf now reaches 90 degrees each summer, which lowers dissolved oxygen content even further. No oxygen, no fish.

You know this ling wasn’t caught far offshore, from a 14-foot Monarch jonboat. Houston’s Sam Caldwell grimaces because our idea of putting this ling on a stringer was a bad idea.

Doodle-socking a small jig inside a state water platform produced these fine pompano.

the night, and the water was thick with trout. One oil rig worker told me that trout packed on the surface under his rig in the lights “looked like maggots.” So, we tried a trip out there and were caught all night in three-foot seas. We slept on the rig in sleeping bags but very poorly, as waves churned and crashed beneath us only six feet below. Our boat danced all night on those waves, but the rope never broke. (The trick is tie up to a rig’s thick swing rope used by oil company workers. The drooping, heavy rope acts as a shock absorber. One of the practical, offshore tricks we learned in high school).

On most trips we never saw another boat out there, and this can still be the case today, especially when you avoid summer’s peak boating season. We seldom brought heavy tackle out there, instead casting ¾-ounce gold spoons or jigs around the structures, letting them settle deep before the retrieve, which covered the entire water column. Trout stayed close to bottom. Summer’s tripletail were suspended or even loitered on the surface. On some of the bigger rigs I’d climb aboard and doodle-sock inside the structure, horsing up trout and pompano. From the higher vantage point I could see lots of bluefish and sheepshead, and the occasional ling passing by. It was serious work for a stiff rod and baitcaster reel filled with 20-pound (hard) Ande line, but somebody had to it.

Back then there were no artificial reefs in state waters to speak of, though there were a few attempts with old tires or car bodies, which soon disappeared in soft bottoms. The only reef I ever heard of that didn’t disappear was the car body reef off Galveston Seawall, which of course rusted away but for some reason also carried long-lasting concrete pipe that landed (for once) on firm bottom. We didn’t fish there until the late 1980s and it certainly carried a variety of bottom fish, including big croakers, whiting and gulf (or sand) trout during

late autumn and winter. Today there are extensive and properlydesigned artificial reefs in state waters that attract a variety of fish, including spawning flounder in winter, but they don’t quite attract surface fish with the variety and numbers we’ve seen at platforms topping the surface. (Building structure to the surface means lights and sometimes horns to ward off shipping and liability claims, while also avoiding possibly leakage from oil and gas. Sadly, a great many older platforms are now gone, cut off below the mud line with dynamite and carried away by barge).

Some platforms still remain out there, host to great light tackle casting. Light tackle being 20-pound line, because rig pilings are coated with big, razor-sharp barnacles. And mackerel with their sharp teeth will try to take your rod away from you, so bring those light, wire leaders to avoid cut-offs.

JOE RICHARD

CONTACT

Joe Richard has fished the Gulf since 1967, starting out of Port Arthur, but his adventures have taken him up and down the entire coast. He was the editor of Tide magazine for eight years, and later Florida Sportsman’s book and assistant magazine editor. He began guiding out of Port O’Connor in 1994. His specialty is big kingfish, and his latest book is The Kingfish Bible, New Revelations. Available at Seafavorites.com

Mike “Mighty Marvin” Cichowski, long-time Port Arthur rig fisherman.

Beaumont’s Pete Churton with tripletail caught close to the beach.

ASK THE PRO

“ALLOWING FISH TO TEACH YOU”

I was thinking the other day during a lull in the bite–When was it that I learned to stay in areas where I believed the fish were living, even during periods when I was not catching them?

Now, in order to give that question full and just consideration, I think I should first mention that any area that I believe to be holding fish must exhibit a certain set of criteria: There must be appropriate bottom structure –the primary food source for the season must be in place –the possibility for some type of water movement (tidal or wind-driven) – and some quick access to deeper water.

You must understand that deep in this context is relative to the bay system in which I am fishing, which in most cases averages about 3- to 5-feet along the perimeter of most flats areas. I would prefer that a very similar bottom structure exist in the deeper waters as well as the shallower zones being targeted but that is not always possible.

In my early years I was able to be more of a run-and-

gun type of guide due to the general lack of fishing pressure and competition from other guides. I remember days when I was learning the northernmost portions of the Aransas Bay System and especially San Antonio Bay, I would not see another boat for a whole day, maybe even an entire week. Back in the day, there were so many fish in so many places that making a move seldom resulted in not finding fish wherever we stopped. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case in any of the bay systems I fish, or that any of you reading this might fish.

I believe tournament fishing trained me to choose an area based on weather conditions and the proper ingredients for the proper fish-catching recipe. Time constraints on the day of the tournament prevented us from running long distances back in the day, as did tournament boundaries and considerably slower boats. Slowness is not a bad thing at my age just so you know. What I learned when we picked areas and stayed in those areas the entire day was that the fish did move from time to time but never very far, and I believe to this day that more times than not, the fish just shut down and allowed our baits to pass in front of them without any consideration from them at all.

I am not even sure when I reached the level of confidence that I have today in the areas that I choose to work but I know it took years, and I know that there was a larger learning curve than what I remember today. I remember those days; I still have them, when I doubted the pattern but even today there is always something that confirms to me that the process works. I have so many examples of moments of, let’s call it clarity when it comes together like one flipped on a light switch.

I remember vividly a day on Traylor Island during a final wade when we stuck a nice fish in an elongated pothole that ran parallel to a shallow sandbar. The pothole was lined with broken patches of grass, but thick enough to form a sort of underwater wall or barrier one might say. After we stuck the first fish I said, “Let’s give it ten more minutes.” In what seemed like almost 10 minutes another fish was stuck but this bite came on the opposite end of the line of three anglers. “Ten more minutes guys,” I called out to the crew. Back

Kyle Johnson with a solid one.

in the day I wore a clear-banded SWATCH watch I think it was called. On the third hookup, I looked at my watch and it revealed about a seven-minute time span between the previous bite. Ten more minutes turned to seven more minutes. Turns out that a single man limit of fish were obtained out of that pothole before we called it a day.

That evening I was thinking about what had occurred as I wrote in my journal, I wondered why the time difference between bites. It was some time after that when it dawned on me that it was taking the dozen or so fish in that elongated pothole about seven minutes to slowly cruise from one end to the other. That’s when I began to think differently and became more patient when working larger areas of structure, believing now that as fish feed in the area they mill through the structure, and as long as they are able to continue to find something to eat they will stay in the area.

It should be noted that I have always been a big believer in positioning myself and my anglers at greater distance from the structure being targeted than many would like to be. But – big but here – get too close and they can sense our presence. This is especially true with larger, more mature speckled trout.

If you have ever attended one of my seminars you know that I always speak to the importance of being able to make longer than normal casts. The greater the distance away from the targeted area the better in my opinion. The distance allows you to pull fish from the school and not spook the school with the noise that we can sometimes not avoid when fighting and landing fish. I believe that when one fish is pulled quietly from an area the others will more often than not return to normal feeding activity.

Chris Bush with Speckled Truth made a fine showing.

We see this play out quite often on small points of shell that lie just off prominent shoreline points. I can’t tell you how irritated I get when I ease three guys up to a point, stick a fish or two, and one of the group who hasn’t received a bite pushes forward. I honestly lose my “you know what” at times. I am too old to deal with disrespect. Not knowing or understanding due to lack of experience; I can deal with. Just not giving a “you know what” ain’t happening on my charters. If your buddies call you a track star, do them a favor and go fish by yourself.

This past week I had the pleasure of fishing with four great anglers from Speckled Truth. Kyle Johnson a guide in Mississippi; you so need to book a trip with him, Chris Bush from San Antonio, Shane Overstreet and Ed Crum from Mississippi. For five days we worked two large areas of a flat where the signs for catching large trout were present. Understand that these four anglers will make any Texas fishing guide look good at the end of the day and, if not, that’s on the guide for not putting them in the proper area. These guys can catch them when they are not wanting to eat and that provides confidence within the group and also lends confidence in the area being fished.

The key to the success we enjoyed was fishing slow and deliberate, concentrating on the smallest of details being observed, along with their ability to communicate within the group and decipher the signs that were being presented. It is a real pleasure watching good anglers dissect a flat and show what the true possibilities are. Everyone caught five and 6-pound fish over the five days with Ed and Shane both landing 29-inch specimens weighing

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Ed Crum with another solid fish…can’t wait to have these guys back.

more than seven and a half pounds. I can’t wait for this group of guys to return, and I want to publicly thank them for their support, help during the week, and their generosity.

I am of the belief that there are many out there that need to take to heart some of the things that I have mentioned in this article. If the conditions and the area is holding all that fish need, there are fish there. And now the kicker…if you will work and wait them out, they’ll teach you something.

May Your Fishing Always Be Catching. -Guide, Jay Watkins

View The Video

Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

Jay Watkins has been a full-time fishing guide at Rockport, TX, for more than 45 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

Shane Overstreet did a fine job figuring out the bite.

DAVE ROBERTS

SHALLOW WATER FISHING

GOING IN BLIND

A few months ago I had a buddy shoot me a text wanting to put a trip together. After discussing what our goal was, time of year, and even the moon phase, it left us only one decision and that was where to go. We finally decided on going to wade for trout and see if we could manage to catch a trophy-size fish. So we ran through our options and went down the list of notable places on the Texas Coast. We worked our way south in our planning; both of us have had the opportunity to fish East Matagorda, Aransas Bay and Baffin. That’s how we landed on Port Mansfield. Neither of us had been down there and knew that there are good fish to be caught, so we decided to book it. We ended up getting a guide for two days and a little Airbnb in the town which was perfect for our needs. We invited two more buddies to join us in order to have a full crew.

So now that I have laid everything out, my buddy Seth and I were going to head down a week early with my skiff to see if we could learn something on our own. Neither of us had been to the area before so we figured that we would have plenty opportunity to put our general knowledge and skills to the test. That is when our planning began.

I know that I have talked about Google maps being

your best friend in past articles during your prepping work when planning to fish new places. I cannot stress that point strongly enough. It gives you the most realistic view of what you may be up against when you are going into an area totally blind. It can show you the clarity of the water, grass flats, oyster beds, cuts and channels that may be there and other attributes to a lake or bay. One of the other abilities it has is to zoom in to a certain area and you can see if there are boats present. This doesn’t always work but occasionally if an area piques your interest, you might be able to see another boat or two there which will give you some reassurance.

We also had an old Hook-N-Line map for the Laguna Madre that my buddy Seth’s dad had saved from years ago. I told him to grab it as I guessed it might come in handy. I am sure that most anglers have seen or maybe even used these maps in their time. However, to the younger generation who relies entirely on digital technology for everything, you really cannot beat one of these old school maps. One of my favorite features about the map is that it shows areas of interest, time of year when the fishing is best, along with the names the locals have assigned to many of the areas.

When going in blind to a new area the safety aspect

needs to be given serious consideration. The Laguna Madre runs north to south but it is not particularly wide, which means a crosswind won’t be near as big a threat to navigation as a due north or due south wind might be. These directions in wind don’t allow too much refuge when running a boat and the thought of rough water is something that needs to be taken seriously. We sat down the night before and went over both maps to get a gameplan for the next morning. We knew that the wind was going to be light out of the north in the morning but becoming progressively stronger as the day went on. Knowing this and with safety in mind, we decided to head all the way north while we had light head wind, and no matter how rough it got on the ride back in, the wind would at least be at our back. For the most part though, the weather was near perfect the whole trip although we did experience a couple of days when we had to consider all our options for safe travels.

As far as the fishing aspect, we were going to keep it as simple as we could and stick to what we know – or at least thought we knew. The few things we did know were that the water clarity of the Laguna Madre is the polar opposite of Sabine Lake, so we had to use a fluorocarbon leader; and the water depth is shallow and grassy, so lures with treble hooks might not be the best option. When it came to finding fish, we both agreed that we shouldn’t spend a whole lot of time in any area that was not holding plentiful bait. That being said, we took off across the Laguna to see what we could find.

Our time on the north end of the Lower Laguna began to produce fish as soon as the sun broke through in the afternoon. Once it heated up we had plenty of redfish move up to the shallows and we began to have a field day casting to them. We spent the first day in that general area and then decided to try some areas on the eastside grass flats the second day. When studying the Hook-N-Line map we noticed several manmade channels (old oilfield cuts), that ran quite a distance up into the shallows. We figured that given the depth change, these channels could likely be holding lots of bait and game fish seeking an easy meal. As we eased down the first cut we began to see a few mullet flickering

and assumed we were in a decent spot. Not long after that we began seeing redfish staged on the flats, just off the edge of the cut. They were way spookier than the fish we are accustomed to back home but we managed to pick up a few.

Once we got to the end of the cut we picked up the fly rod as Seth had yet to land a fly-caught redfish. After a few missed opportunities he managed to hook a proper 28-incher. He then passed the rod over to me and we didn’t go far before we noticed two dark forms at the edge of the cut. I made a cast and to our mutual surprise a trout rose and ate my fly. A great fight ensued and I landed a beauty that pulled the Boga Grip scale to an even five pounds. Both of us were tickled to death with our great luck at that point. The next day we went to the same area and decided to stay a little deeper over the grass and began to catch fish almost immediately. Around noon the wind became completely unbearable so we headed back happy, having landed at least fifty trout that morning.

The rest of our crew showed up that evening as planned and we were all stoked for two days of guided fishing we had booked with Danny Neu. Seth and I shared all that we experienced the past few days, wondering how it might stack up to fishing with a professional guide. A local guide’s knowledge is invaluable and I urge everyone to fish with one in areas new to you and to pick their brain as much as they are willing to share. Not on spots so much as basic fish patterns for the time of the year and the effects weather and water conditions might have on feeding behavior.

Through two days of fishing with Danny we caught some very nice fish but unfortunately not the trophy specimens we were looking for. We know they are there but they didn’t get to be that size by being caught! Overall though, I think that Seth and I did a fairly good job of showing up to an unfamiliar area and accomplishing what we did. Remember to stick to what you know and try not to overthink things. Port Mansfield was a beautiful place and the next time we head down there we won’t be going in blind!

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.

Email: TexasKayakChronicles@yahoo.com

Website: www.TexasKayakChronicles.com

By CCA Texas

CCA TEXAS BOARD APPROVES $4.4 MILLION IN FUNDING FOR NUMEROUS CONSERVATION INITIATIVES

The CCA Texas State Board of Directors and the CCA Texas Management Committee recently approved

$4,307,928 in funding for conservation efforts along the Texas coast. This funding will support a range of initiatives, including oyster license buyback, fish tagging research, habitat restoration, and coastal educational outreach programs.

“We are thrilled to share this announcement and sincerely appreciate the continued support of our members, volunteers, sponsors, and industry partners,” said John Carlson, Chairman of the CCA Texas Board. “This level of funding would not be possible without the grassroots fundraising efforts of our community chapters, and we hope our members take pride in knowing their contributions are making a meaningful impact on our coast.”

As part of an initiative to right-size the overcapitalized public reef oyster fishery, $1 million was allocated to support oyster license buyback efforts, which will be facilitated by Texas Parks and Wildlife. This substantial funding will help launch an innovative license buyback program, expected to roll out in spring 2025.

Additionally, the CCA Texas Board approved $588,000 to support tarpon tagging efforts led by the Gulf Research Institute for Highly Migratory Species

(GRIHMS) at Texas A&M University – Galveston. This funding will enable a five-year expansion of GRIHMS’ ongoing research into the life history and migration ecology of tarpon, filling critical data gaps to better understand migratory pathways, stock structure, and the environmental conditions that define prime tarpon habitats—essential information for developing effective conservation strategies.

The Board also approved $101,152 to further support the citizen tagging partnership between CCA Texas and the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Harte Research Institute. These funds will be used for sportfish tagging, satellite tagging, and shore-based shark tagging efforts at the Sharkathon catch-photo-release tournament. In addition, CCA Texas has committed $50,000 to the Harte Research Institute to help quantify illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Other approved allocations by the State Board of Directors include:

• $125,000 for an oyster education program at the Texas Surf Conservancy,

• $24,776 for three educational seagrass billboards along busy coastal highways, and

The Nueces delta marsh has historically lost over 14 ft of land to erosion over the years. This project is using beneficial use material from area dredging to rebuild this marsh. CCA Texas dollars will be used for the sculpting the material once it dewaters for proper elevations and future marsh grass plantings.

FiSh AlL SuMmEr FoR OnE LoW

MaY 24-SePt 1 $2,000,000 In PrIzEs & ScHoLaRsHiPs 18 BoAtS • 5 TrUcKs • 5 UtVS

• $20,000 to sponsor four sporting clay fundraising events in partnership with Operation Game Thief, Texas’s Wildlife CrimeStoppers Program.

To cap off a strong start to the year, the CCA Texas Management Committee also approved $1.85 million for two major oyster

CCA Texas has funded $200,000 to the Oyster Lake Shoreline protection project in West Galveston Bay. These funds will be used for community match for TX GLO CEPRA and GOMESA grant applications for construction funds.

To date, CCA Texas has now funded $630,000 for the Oyster Lake Shoreline protection efforts from Phase I to the recently approved funding in Phase IV.

restoration projects in Carancahua Bay and Ayers Bay. This funding includes $1.0 million for the Carancahua Reef project led by the Matagorda Bay Foundation, and $847,022 for the Ayers Reef project led by Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program (CBBEP). Additionally, another $152,978 was secured through donations from local community supporters making the Ayers Reef project commitment $1.0 million as well. This oyster restoration funding will all be funded from the $5.0 million commitment that the CCA Texas Executive Board made to Oyster Restoration in August of 2023. They also approved $550,000 in shoreline restoration projects in Nueces Bay, East Galveston Bay and West Galveston Bay. This funding includes $150,000 for the Nueces Bay Delta Marsh restoration effort led by CBBEP, $200,000 for the Gordy Marsh restoration effort in Trinity Bay and led by the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF), and $200,000 for the Oyster Lake Shoreline Protection Phase IV effort led by GBF. The contribution of $200,000 to the Oyster Lake Shoreline Protection effort now bring CCA Texas support for this multi-phase project to $630,000.

“Big applause to all CCA Texas members for their dedication to conserving and enhancing Texas fisheries and coastal habitats,” said Mike Prasek, Jr., President of CCA Texas. “The funds raised at our chapter banquets are directly benefiting our natural resources. We sincerely thank our members for their hard work in making these projects a reality, and we look forward to another productive year of fundraising to keep this momentum going.”

CCA Texas played a leading and active role in securing the closure of the Mesquite Bay system to oyster harvest. This project will create approximately 11 acres of reef complex just North and East of Ayers Reef. This project will help protect critical estuarine marsh from possible irreversible damage from wind erosion and tropical storms.

Coastal Conservation Association Texas (CCA Texas) is a non-profit marine conservation organization comprised of tens of thousands of recreational anglers and coastal outdoor enthusiasts. Founded in 1977, CCA started in the great state of Texas and has grown to include state chapters along the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Seaboard and Pacific Coast. The stated purpose of CCA is to advise and educate the public on the conservation of marine resources. The objective of CCA is to conserve, promote and enhance the present and future availability of these coastal resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.

Carancahua Bay was permanently closed to all oyster harvest in August of 2017 after a devasting harvest in the 2016/2017 season. This project led by Matagorda Bay Foundation will ultimately include two permitted areas for restoration efforts. USACE permit requested have been submitted with hopes of receiving a working permit by the end of 2025. Matagorda Bay Foundation is working closely with the local community and partners to restore a once thriving oyster reef habitat in the Carancahua Bay.

By Isabelle Cummings, Natural Resource Specialist

•

Perry R. Bass Marine Fisheries Research Station

FIELD NOTES

SOUTHERN FLOUNDER IN HOT WATER: HOW CLIMATEDEPENDENT LIFE HISTORY IMPACTS FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

Southern Flounder – Texas’s favorite flatfish – are most known for their popularity as a sportfish enjoyed by families, fishermen, and the commercial industry alike.

Ranging from South Carolina to Florida and throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico, Southern Flounder are particularly popular in Texas where they are ranked among the top three targeted inshore fish species. The economic importance of this species spans from charter guides to coastal businesses, generating revenue, local jobs, and exciting memories for both new and experienced anglers or gig fishermen.

However, the future of this iconic flatfish is uncertain. Southern Flounder populations have declined throughout their entire range, a trend well documented not only by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s long-running gill net and bag seine surveys, but also by angler harvest rate throughout the years. Adjustments of minimum size, bag limits, and season closures to fend off fishing impacts have had limited success in slowing the decline. This prompts the question: what, if not fishing pressure, is driving the decline? As often seen in fisheries management, there is not one perfect answer; rather, a jumble of compounding factors may be to blame.

The answer likely lies in warming waters caused by climate change. Rising global temperatures, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are a prime suspect contributing to Southern Flounder decline. A brief look at Southern Flounder life history is all it takes to understand why water temperature may damage this species’ success.

Warming water alters key life history events and may lead to reduced spawning success and larval survival, delayed growth stages, masculinization of sex ratios, and disruptions of migration and spawning patterns. These environmental impacts compound with fishing pressures to compose the challenges fisheries managers face to sustain this vital species.

Warming waters may be inevitable, but many state agencies have sought to aid Southern Flounder by prohibiting harvest during annual season closures. These closures aim to reduce fishing pressure when Southern Flounder are most vulnerable – during their fall spawning migration, or spawning run, when Southern Flounder congregate in tidal inlets (passes) on their yearly journey offshore. Reducing fishing pressure during this time protects the spawning stock from harvest and allows Southern Flounder to better contribute to future generations of the fishery through increased reproduction and recruitment into the next year class within the fishery. While migration has been thought to peak in November in response to dropping water temperatures, warming waters may be shifting the migration later in the year. The initial November season closure in Texas was extended through December 15th to account for these shifts. However, as warm waters continue to drive later migrations, the effectiveness of this approach may diminish.

To ensure the closure remains an efficient method to protect migrating Southern Flounder, a study was conducted by the Center for Sportfish Science and

Image 1: The decline in angler catch rates of Southern Flounder from 1980 to 2023 from TPWD data.

Conservation at the Harte Research Institute and funded in part by Texas Sea Grant. The study intended to inform fisheries management on current timing and trends of the Texas Southern Flounder spawning migration. The study was conducted in Aransas Pass and Packery Channel tidal inlets through which migration offshore is known to occur. Transect surveys were conducted weekly from September through December of 2022 and 2023. Weekly Southern Flounder densities were calculated to determine when movement through the inlets was greatest.

The study revealed most legal-size Southern Flounder migrated within the season closure’s protection, confirming the closure’s value as a management tool. Southern Flounder migrating before the closure were typically small females and males protected from harvest by the minimum size limit. However, 2022’s earlier cold fronts led to migration peaking in late October and November instead of early November and December as observed in 2023 when water temperatures dropped later in the year. This finding further indicates that warmer waters shift migration outside the closure and highlights the importance of regularly monitoring migration timing. Additionally, mature Southern Flounder that had not yet spawned were collected in January 2024, suggesting an even later migration time for some fish and, as a result, a later spawning period. Delayed spawning causes delayed return of larval Southern Flounder to estuaries. Fluctuating water temperatures impact larval survival, juvenile recruitment, and timing of the metamorphosis of the right eye to the left side of the body that is characteristic of flatfish survival strategies. Changes in these key life history events have the potential to negatively impact Southern Flounder survival before the fish even enter the fishery.

Image 2: Monthly mean Southern Flounder densities (the number of flounder per square meter surveyed) observed migrating offshore through inlets during 2022 (light blue) and 2023 (dark green).

Another notable finding was a shift in the Southern Flounder sex ratio. Historically, a 7:1 ratio favoring females was observed in the study area, but this study observed a ratio of 4.8:1. This finding suggests potential masculinization of Southern Flounder populations which may lead to less successful spawning. Water temperature changes may be responsible, as water just 2°C above or below the optimum temperature during the juvenile stage causes genetically female Southern Flounder to develop male traits and reproductive anatomy, making females become males. Furthermore, the Southern Flounder fishery is dominated by females since males seldom reach harvestable sizes. This means all harvest consists primarily of females, which may also play a role in skewing the sex ratio. Sex ratio shifts may damage recruitment success and the overall population, further illustrating how climate change compounding with fishing pressures may be impacting Southern Flounder populations.

From spawning time to sex ratios, the climate-dependent life history of Southern Flounder illustrates the importance of adaptive management to fishery sustainability. Effective fishing regulations may be the difference between a healthy fishery and the continued decline of an economically and ecologically valuable species. Updated regulations, combined with consistent monitoring of life history and broader climate impacts, will ensure Southern Flounder continue to be enjoyed by Texans for many generations to come.

Check the TPWD Outdoor Annual, your local TPWD Law Enforcement office, or tpwd.texas.gov for more info.

ERIC OZOLINS

EXTREME KAYAK FISHING & SHARKS FROM THE SAND

CAST-OUT MAGIC

Along the Texas coast, spring feels like a magical time. When we see a transition from our coldest weather to our hottest, various signs of change emerge in our fishery. Bait migrations take place as the water warms up. The currents running close to the shores of Padre Island create a highway for these events. While these changes occur, the number of species present in our nearshore waters reaches its annual peak.

All manner of predators, from sport fish to large sharks, enter the shallows fronting our beaches, hoping to feast on the abundant food sources available to them. Because of this, April ranks high among my favorite times to hit

our coastal beaches. While I’m a focused shark fisherman, I have a hard time isolating my efforts on the men in the gray suits during the warming months of spring. It’s impossible to resist the allure of so many exciting species which make perfect targets for anglers carrying light tackle. Mighty jacks, speedy Spanish macks, pompano, speckled trout, redfish and many other species garner some of my attention this month.

Still, most of my trips are built around targeting sharks, and the spring season presents a unique challenge for those of us who place a priority on this. The main variable creating an unusual context for shark fishing in Texas in spring is, of course, the weather. On the rare occasions this month when the surf falls flat, I deploy big baits via kayak, as I will throughout the generally calmer summer months to come. I do this because of the truth inherent to the age-old adage that deploying baits farther from shore increases the odds of attracting the attention of bigger sharks.

On the other hand, when stronger winds begin to blow, as they always do, using kayaks to deploy baits becomes hazardous at best, at times impossible. Strong currents and big waves can make rowing plastic boats away from shore too dangerous

A beautiful springtime lemon shark just prior to release.

Early morning jack crevalle that could resist a silver spoon.

to consider. The good news is these same conditions often bring some really big sharks really close to shore. Accordingly, I usually rely on casting my baits out when the big waves of spring begin to build and break onto our beaches. As long as a bait lands in the first deep gut, a sharker stands a fair chance of experiencing some drag-peelin’ action.

April is the first big-shark month of the year. Giant bulls roam the shallows, tigers begin yearning for an inshore meal, scalloped hammerheads run the beaches in greater numbers this month than any other, and large, mature lemons also make their presence known in South Texas for several weeks. All these sharks (except the tigers) can be caught on baits deployed in the first gut. If the gut is deep enough for the sharks to swim, it’s deep enough for them to feed.

Traditionally, I’ve used 16/0 to 20/0 hooks on the shark rigs I intend to cast. This time of year, matching the hatch is important when selecting baits. Large whiting, pompano, stingray strips, and many other fresh-caught fish work well when cast into the warming waters of the spring surf. Mornings and late afternoons both provide a fantastic bite-window, but most of the biggest sharks I catch in the first gut bite during the dark hours. It’s not unusual to hook bulls weighing in excess of 200 pounds during the wee hours, late at night.

On some unusual occasions from mid to late-summer, areas from Matagorda Beach northward hold good numbers of lemon sharks, though they’re somewhat rare on the southern Texas coast. The window of opportunity for catching them down south is compressed; in some years, none are landed south of Port Aransas. In other years, several may be caught in the same week. Often misidentified by inexperienced sharkers as bull sharks, lemons are easy to identify, since both their dorsal fins are nearly the same exact size. No other big sharks in our waters have this characteristic, other than the extremely rare sand tigers which haven’t been documented here for decades. Our South Texas lemons usually range between eight and ten feet in length, and they prefer smallish baits like whole whiting.

Scalloped hammerheads also roam the Texas surf zone in April. Like all hammers, these fish are speed demons and can turn on a dime. Out of all non-pelagic shark species, hammerheads rank high on the list of most respectable sharks in terms of their speed and power. When fighting against a rod and reel, they often make blistering runs and strip all the line off reels. These sharks feed shallow, so they’re susceptible to baits cast close to shore. It’s not uncommon to hook and land eight-foot scalloped hammers on whiting cast from the sand. Fighting these feisty beasts on moderately light tackle as opposed to larger gear will increase the length of the fight. Because of this, anglers should work with a sense of urgency when it comes to landing and releasing these magnificent creatures, not taking them completely out of the water, and making the release in as short a time as possible.

Jack crevalle also provide thrills to Texas anglers who head to the beachfront this month. They’re the bulldogs of the surf, and while some weigh as much as thirty pounds, the smaller ones also fight with amazing strength. Similar in body shape to tuna, jacks use their large, keeled tails for speed and power. Pound for pound, jacks are probably the hardest fighting fish we hook and fight from the sand. Cruising schools can be followed for miles along the beach. I’ve trailed some for up to ten miles, catching one or two every time I

stop. My top choice of lures for these feisty fish is a large silver spoon cast far from the beach with a big spinning reel. The long reach becomes necessary when these speedy predators sprint back and forth over the second sand bar.

The beauty of beachfront fishing in Texas in spring starts with the fact that anyone can enjoy the thrill of catching beautiful, powerful fish without using kayaks and other sophisticated methods to deploy baits. From a torpedo of a jackfish to a rare, yellowish, toothy lemon shark, many species stand ready to provide the fun for folks who cast their baits into the surf from the sand. My charters are full of action this time of year, with so many species available to target. Whether we’re intent on battling big sharks, getting photos with hard-fighting jacks, or simply conducting a responsible harvest of delicious species to fill the freezer, April is one of the best months to fish the beaches of the Lone Star State.

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

Author with a large springtime bull shark landed from the PINS surf on bait casted out from shore.

Author with nighttime shallow water hammerhead, tagged prior to release.

NATHAN BEABOUT MOSTLY SIGHT-FISHING

BAY-TO-BAY DIFFERENCES & SIMILARITIES

Let’s talk about big trout. This story kind of overlaps a bit timewise, beginning in March and continuing into April. Guiding in two very different bay systems this time of year shows many similarities and differences. I fish Port Mansfield from December through April, specifically for big trout. I also fish my home waters around Seadrift year ‘round, which means when I’m not in the Lower Laguna Madre this time of year I’m probably in San Antonio Bay . While many parts of our coast give up big trout in the winter months, the San

Antonio Bay area holds back a bit. Yes, a few big trout are caught during the months of December through March, but from experience, late March on through May, we start seeing them in better numbers. I believe part of this is due to the pre-spawn activity this month. These big trout will gorge themselves in preparation for the lengthy spawning during April.

Whatever bay system I happen to be fishing this month, when I jump out to make a wade, I want to make sure there are plenty of redfish cruising the flat we are about to fish. Why redfish you ask? From my experience, I have seen and caught more big trout when it is hard to keep a redfish off your line. My answer to what is happening here is that trout are super smart. Redfish leave so much carnage behind from feeding, it allows the trout to lazily swim along not expending any energy to obtain their food. Because the redfish are aggressively feeding, it does make some of these trout harder to catch, and can cause frustration especially when you can see them. My advice, just like I tell my customers, is to slow down and grind through the reds. These trout

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can be tricked into eating a Corky, topwater, or soft plastic…it just takes a little extra patience sometimes.

These big trout are also on the feed, just going about it smarter. Storing energy and protein for the spawn, which in the San Antonio Bay area kicks off at the end of March-first of April; we typically have to see a big warming trend in our bay waters in order to get this process started. If the redfish are not abundant like mentioned above, we are catching a lot of small male trout and we will stick around for a bit. Catching small male trout almost every cast is a sign, because for the lack of a better word, they are trying to entice the female to drop her eggs so they can fertilize them. Trying to get through these small trout can be as frustrating as the redfish, but sticking with it can also yield your personal best trout.

This is not scientific evidence, but it is my belief from years on the water and experiences each time I or my customer has caught a big trout. You would be amazed at what you can learn from watching the waters around you and storing that info each time a big fish thumps the line. This time of year, I pay close attention to what the water is telling me every day, on every wade.

Once our spring winds start to calm and the summer heat starts to set in, we will hang up the wading boots and begin to chase reds from the tower. We will perhaps do a little of this in April, but the wind usually dictates when we get to go.

I have dedicated myself to running a full-time guiding operation since 2007 and will do my best to meet the needs and standards of any customer. Much of this wouldn’t be possible without great companies and fine folks standing beside me. I am thankful I get to make my living sharing my saltwater experience with people. I would like to thank Kresta’s Boats and Motors in Edna, Texas for always keeping me on the water. Majek Boats for building a dependable and smooth ride. Laguna Rods in Katy, Texas for an awesome product that allows me fishing rods with excellent strength and sensitivity. FINS Braid for making line I can depend on to never fail when fighting fish. I have been using their 40# Windtamer Pitch Black since it became available; and also Hookset Marine Gear for great wading products. Their wading belts offer so much back support, I do not ache at the end of a long day. Last but definitely not least, thanks to Down South Lures for providing me and my customers with durable soft plastics that have great fish-attracting action, especially the Big Smooth.

Full time guide since 2007 Seadrift, Port O’Connor, & Port Mansfield, TX Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Phone

Captain Nathan Beabout USCG/TPWD Licensed

Science Sea and the

A Symbiosis Secret Solved

One of the most famous symbiotic relationships in the animal kingdom is the clownfish and its anemone. Symbiosis is the close association between two different species where at least one benefits from the arrangement. Scientists have long known the advantages clownfish and anemones offer one another, but one mystery has stumped them for a century: How do clownfish avoid getting stung by the nematocysts, or stinging cells, on an anemone’s tentacles, which it uses to catch its prey?

Low levels of sialic acid, a type of sugar, in the skin mucus of clownfish prevent stings from anemones. Credit: Nick Hobgood, CC BY-SA 3.0.

To understand this mystery, first recall how the species assist each other. The clownfish chases away predators that would feed on the anemone, keeps the anemone clean and free of parasites, circulates the water around the anemone, and provides the anemone with nutrients from its waste. Anemones, meanwhile, provide shelter and a safe home for the clownfish, which can hide from predators among the stinging tentacles. Clownfish also get scraps of prey from the anemone and feed on parasites that would otherwise harm the anemone.

Scientists knew that the mucus on a clownfish’s scales protects the fish from anemone stings, but they didn’t know how—until now. A team of international biologists studied the components of skin mucus from clownfish, anemones, and damselfish. They found that a sugar called sialic acid is present only in very low levels in anemone mucus, adult clownfish mucus, and the mucus of a young damselfish, which can safely live with anemones only as a juvenile. But the adult damselfish and larval clownfish—which can be stung by anemones— have higher levels of sialic acid. The scientists found that sialic acid triggers the nematocysts, so the low levels in the mucus mean the anemone doesn’t sting the clownfish—or itself. Mystery solved at last!

CAPTAIN TREVOR “LITTLE BIRD” KUCIA BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

FROM A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

Editor’s NotE aNd iNtroductioN:

We are very pleased to introduce Captain Trevor Kucia. Trevor fishes the Lower Laguna Madre from his home in South Padre with the special flair of offering customers the opportunity to sight-cast from the tower of his customized skiff. He goes by the nickname “Little Bird” and I couldn’t help but title his page with a bit of play on words…BirdsEye View – with Capt. Trevor “Little Bird” Kucia. He is very active on various social media platforms and exhibits great talent in creating and contributing videos and other digital products, some of which we hope to feature in coming issues. I sincerely hope you find what he has to say on these pages informative and entertaining. Welcome aboard, Capt. Trevor!

South Padre Island is a place of breathtaking beauty and intricate ecosystems. As a guide privileged to work on these waters daily I’ve come to see this bay from a different perspective – not just from the tower of my boat, but also through the eyes of the wildlife that call it home. To truly appreciate South Padre’s wonder, you need to step back and observe it from above, much like the herons, pelicans, and ospreys that soar overhead.

From a bird’s-eye view, the interconnectedness of every element becomes clearer. From the mangroves and turtle grass that hold bottom sediments in place

and provide nursery grounds for fish to the rich flats that serve as feeding grounds for redfish, speckled trout, and even snook. This perspective is invaluable in my work as a fishing guide. Much like birds scanning the water from above, I rely on an elevated vantage point to spot fish and study movement patterns. Seeing nervous mullet flicker on the surface is like spotting a traffic signal, sending the message that bigger fish are nearby. Pelicans crashing into the water are nature’s version of free giveaways at Costco; you just have to go. Running the flats and seeing V-wakes cut across the surface or mud boils form in the shallows tells a story, and as a guide, my job is to read it.

Every time I stand on my tower I realize fishing is about more than just catching fish. This is something I try to share with my clients as we spend time together, 12 feet above the water. It’s about taking in the beauty of the Laguna Madre, watching a redfish emerge from the turtle grass with its bright, coppery fins, or spotting a big trout lying on a scattered-shell bottom, waiting for an easy meal. To me, the Lower Laguna Madre is all about diversity.

Hooking and landing fish never gets old, and I understand that many people want to take fish home for the family. It’s natural, being that we are evolved of huntergatherers. Too often, though, it seems the focus for some folks is solely on filling the cooler and snapping pictures of

big fish kills. That’s why I encourage conservation. In my opinion, fishing is about more than that; it’s about the stories, the relationships and the experience of seeing the Laguna Madre from a bird’s-eye view.

One of the most thrilling aspects of guiding from the tower is being able to witness all the action so clearly. Standing high above the water gives me a unique vantage point to see fish moving through the flats, often unaware of our boat drifting into their territory. There’s nothing quite like sneaking up on a redfish and watching it track a lure with laser focus, its tail flicking just before it pounces. That moment of connection – the blowup, the bend of the rod, and the excitement on a client’s face – just never gets old.

And don’t even get me started on the elusive gator trout. They can make you freeze up – mentally and physically. Trying to catch one of these smart and wary creatures is a game I love playing. Sometimes they’re in a wild feeding mode and other times they’re completely dormant and picky. That’s what makes landing a trophy trout so

rewarding. These moments remind me why I love this work and how lucky I am to share it with others.

Of course, no day on the water is complete without the right gear. I rely on equipment that performs day in and day out without hiccups. My rods come from Jimmy Burns at Waterloo Rod Company, a Texas-based brand that crafts rods with the perfect balance of being lightweight, sensitive, and rock-solid. Paired with reels from Florida Fishing Products, I’m locked and loaded with the reliability needed to handle everything from the subtle bite of a speckled trout to the aggression of redfish and snook. And, when it comes to lures, KWiggler Lure Company’s designs are second to none.

Fishing is more than a sport; it’s a way of life. And when you see it from above, like the birds that call this place home, you realize it’s not just about catching fish. It’s about understanding the ecosystem, appreciating the beauty, and sharing unforgettable moments on the water.

PRODUCT

Okuma Inspira ISX

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MirrOlure: New Pro-Series Colors in Soft Dine, Soft Dine XL, & Fat Boy

Turtlebox Speakers

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MirrOlure is excited to announce the release of four new Pro-Series colors in their Soft Dine, Soft Dine XL, and Paul Brown Fat Boy Series. These color patterns have been hand-picked by MirrOlure pro-staff anglers, designed to match natural baitfish patterns in a variety of water clarity conditions.

Simply use by allowing the lure to descend to desired depth and twitching your rod tip once or twice with frequent pauses to trigger strikes. The Soft Dine, Soft Dine XL, and Fat Boy have earned a reputation for catching trophy speckled trout, redfish, and even flounder. www.ShopMirrolure.com

HIGHLIGHTS

Eagle Claw Trokar Inshore Kahle Hooks

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King Sailfish Mounts

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At King Sailfish Mounts, we create handcrafted, detail-rich replicas that capture every unique characteristic of your fish—without stencils or shortcuts. Back home, you can work directly with our artisans to ensure your trophy is a true “series of one.”

A rushed decision won’t do justice to your catch. Wait until you get home and make a well-thought-out plan. Visit King Sailfish Mounts to create a mount that tells your story the right way.

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Matagorda

Bink Grimes is a full-time fishing and hunting guide, freelance writer and photographer, and owner of Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay.

Telephone 979-241-1705

Email binkgrimes@yahoo.com Website matagordasunriselodge.com

THE VIEW FROM Matagorda

Winter fishing in the Matagorda Bays was great this year. The first quarter of 2025 especially gave up many days of great fishing. The trout I have seen caught and released recently gives me hope for a better fishery. Indeed, we needed a change, and from what I can see the conservation-minded attitude that has emerged is definitely working.

I am very optimistic about April and the warmer months that lie ahead. The weather will dictate which bay we fish in April. Light winds and green tides are conducive for finding heavy trout over deep shell in East Bay. Southerly winds and an incoming afternoon tide coincides with fishing the clouds of glass minnows in West Bay.

As tides bloat, back lakes will come to life with redfish and trout as well. Drifters working shell with live shrimp should find lots of redfish. Large, solitary trout are quite often found in the same vicinity.

Shell Island’s maze of reefs hold plenty of specks, reds, and the perfect size black drum for table fare. It’s tough to fish jigs on the shell without losing a dozen or more, so tie on your favorite cork to keep the bait suspended.

The warming trend should wake up the jetties for trout and redfish action. Large black drum and sheepshead have been roaming the rocks for the past month, throw in a thermometer inching closer to 70 degrees and trout, Spanish mackerel, and jack crevalle become players.

Crab Lake, Oyster Lake and Lake Austin are prime spots in Matagorda. These locales lie protected from most springtime blusters in excess of 20 knots.

We love to break out the topwaters in April. The myth that surface plugs only work in shallow water is just that, a myth. My largest speck of all time, a 31-incher, was fooled on a chartreuse-headed, blackbodied, prototype MirrOlure Top Dog in seven feet of water out of a boat at high noon. Topwater plugs only work when you throw them!

April once was a time for fishing the glass minnows. It was a rite of April in Matagorda. It still happens, just not a pronounced like days of old, probably due to disappearing seagrasses on the shorelines which tend to provide refuge for hatching minnows.

Longer days and swelling incoming tides prompt glass minnows (bay anchovies) to move on grassy shorelines anytime. Look for gaggles of diving brown pelicans to point the way. Glass minnows are really just bay anchovies. Little white, silver flashes that swim in herds and like to be swarmed by hundreds of brown pelicans, trout and redfish. When the fish go off and gorge on the big balls of minnows it can get really silly.

Be patient in April. It can be one of the most challenging fishing months of the year. Winds will blow, tides will rise and fall, and water temperatures will warm and cool. It is that in-between month where the sun shines warm and bright one day and blows from the chilly east the next. Keep fishing. Some of the largest trout I have ever caught were around the full moon in April. Please continue taking care of our resource and please release more than you take.

Sunrise Lodge and Properties offers fishing, waterfront lodging, vacation rentals and representation of all things real estate.

Port O'Connor Seadrift

MID-COAST BAYS With the Grays

March fishing has been consistently good as of this writing. We had a couple of freezing nights over the past few weeks but luckily no fish kills. This was probably due to the fact that the tides had been very low for some time and already fairly cold water temps, so the fish wouldn’t be unexpectedly trapped in shallow back lakes.

At 9:00 Tuesday morning I was glad to see the surface temp of the water was 50° in the ICW. When we got to Matagorda Island the back lakes were running 55-57° and the mullet were becoming active, making it a little easier to target the redfish. As the morning progressed the temps rose steadily and the bite got better. By Friday the back lakes had climbed to the mid-70s and the fish were making up for meals missed during the cold front.

Captain Gary Gray is a full time guide, born and raised in Seadrift. He has been guiding the Seadrift/Port O’Connor region since 1986. Gary specializes in year ‘round wade fishing for speckled trout and redfish with artificial lures.

Telephone 361-785-6708

Email bayrats@tisd.net Website www.bayrat.com Facebook @captsgaryandshelliegray

Most fishing in March took place in the back lakes of Matagorda Island such as Contee, Pringle, and Fifth; and also in the Shoalwater Bay area. All of these are predominantly shallow with muddy bottoms, which means the water is usually warmer on average than the surrounding bays and attracts lots of bait, and likewise plenty of game fish. For these same reasons much of the game fish we will be targeting in coming weeks will remain in this back lake pattern until the main bay waters reach the magical 70° mark – likely sometime around mid-April or a bit later.

Last Monday when I launched my Shallow Sport X3, the water temperature in the ICW was a chilly 44°. I was heading out to do some scouting for my upcoming trips, Tuesday through Friday. We had just had two nights of temperatures in the upper-30s. In Shoalwater Bay the water was 47° and there were a few redfish hanging around, the mullet I saw were all extremely shallow. I decided then that I would need a deeper backwater area to produce any number of fish. By the time I ran to Matagorda Island to check a deeper back lake the sun had started to work its magic and warm the shallows. In Contee Lake the water was 49° and climbing as the sun heated the surface. 50° was as warm as it got that day. I got quite a few strikes from redfish but none stayed hooked as they were barely tapping the baits. Fast forward to Tuesday, I told my guys to meet me at 9:00, later than usual, to give the water a chance to warm up a bit.

The reason I bring this up is because if you are going to be the complete angler and want to fish the POC and Seadrift areas in springtime you had better have a temperature gauge on your boat. Temperature gauges are as necessary as any other tool you use when fishing.

Moving on into April; we will still be fishing in the back lakes much of the time, not only due to water temperatures but also because of the traditional springtime winds. The wind will keep you in the back lake areas more for protection and water clarity more than any other reason this month. Once we get to a sustained 70° bay water water temperature the fish will begin transitioning to the main bay shorelines.

All this talk of chilly water temperatures reminds me that I will likely still be wearing my Southerly waders right into the first week or so of May. That’s right, I said Southerly waders. Our friends Lance and Christy Abel, now full-time residents of POC, approached Shellie and I last fall about becoming ambassadors for their new fishing product line – Southerly Fishing Gear.

Southerly is a high-performance apparel line designed specifically for the demands of the toughest saltwater conditions. I have been wearing their shirts, pants, waders, and wading boots all through the recent winter season. Believe me when I say they are top-notch in every category, more comfortable and better thought-out than all the brands we have used in the past.

Look for Southerly products to be available soon at Jeco’s, Fishing Tackle Unlimited, Rockport Tackle Town, Roy’s Bait and Tackle Outfitters, and also online. I have to say their wading boots feel very comfortable with a nice “cush feel” when wading hard sand or walking on concrete when you get back to the dock.

Go to www.southerlyfishing.com and check them out, remember they are a local company with high-quality products designed by anglers that use them here on the Texas Coast.

Fish hard, fish smart!

Ronnie Thorsen with a nice springtime red.

Loving my Southerly Fishing Gear waders and boots.

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Upper Laguna/ Baffin

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 conservation and encourages catch and release of trophy fish.

Telephone 361-960-0340

Website www.DavidRowsey.com Email david.rowsey@yahoo.com

@captdavidrowsey

HOOKED UP WITH Rowsey

Windy! March has given us some great days of peace on the water, with little reminders that she owns us if she wants to. I do not know the exact correlation between wind and dry conditions, but they seem to go hand and hand. Granted, spring is always a blow down here, and most days it’s workable. But let this be a reminder to you, if you are hiring me or any other guide and the captain phones and says, “It might be a little too western to go out tomorrow,” just take his advice and reschedule it.

There is always a fine line playing the wind this time of year and if I’m willing to give up a day’s income that should be all a prudent man should need to know about our chances of having a successful day on the water. Y’all may be shocked at some of the conditions folks insist on going out in and still expect to catch a hundred fish. Personally, I like to sleep well at night knowing that I didn’t just take your money for a boat ride.

It’s been a long time since I’ve said this; “Baffin is on fire right now for big trout.” Yep, I just said it. Been years since anything close to that has rolled off of my lips. Even before the freeze of ‘21 it couldn’t honestly be said. Anyone who knows, knows that we were in a vortex of decline when it came to having our natural trophy fishery intact. Too many people, too many guides, too liberal regs for the number of users, poor water quality, etc., had set us up for what was about to become the death of the best trophy trout fishery in the country. Although that ’21 freeze set us back even further, it became the catalyst for TPWD to straighten the curve and put the fishery above all else.

Essentially, we have had a limited harvest since the freeze and new, conservative bag limits enacted just over a year ago. This spring we are seeing what good management and conservative bag limits can do for a fishery. Big time catches of all classes of fish are plastered all over social media on the daily. In fact, Capt Brett Caron landed a 10-plus and an 11.84 trout during the same wade at the end of February. Folks, those are some old school numbers we haven’t heard of in almost twenty-five years. As of this writing my groups haven’t topped the double-digit mark but we are smelling the bacon on the griddle and are optimistic that our name is about to be called to pick up our order. Something special is happening in our bays and I know without a doubt it’s attributable to the new regulations combined with catch and release ethic being practiced today by so many anglers. There are still some aspects of how some use the fishery that are disagreeable to me but the attitude of so many younger anglers toward CPR and fishing for sport rather than killing all they can gives me great hope for the future.

Speaking of sport; I’ve been doing something that I haven’t been a part of since 2012 and that is participating in the Saltwater Legends Tournament Series. I was super active in that scene for thirteen years but once I started guiding full-time it was hard to keep clients in the action and be 100% committed to scouting tourney fish. The two just don’t mesh well. I’m a purist and fair chase guy and could never find it within myself to use a tower boat to find fish. To each their own; but to me it short circuits the tradition and basic sport of fishing.

This is by no means insinuating that the guys doing it aren’t skilled, as most of those guys are excellent sticks and still have to catch the fish they see from the tower. I just know going into it that they are very hard to beat when availing themselves to that advantage. The real truth of the matter, and all things considered, I’m having fun and didn’t realize how much I missed the competition, plotting, and planning.

April is a monster month to catch a lifetime trout. Y’all should make every effort to get down and try it if that’s on your bucket list. Always a few cancellations every month, so try me on short notice if you get the itch. Also, my charter books for May and into summer are officially open. Text me for dates: 361-960-0340.

Remember The Buffalo! -Capt David Rowsey

The Video Open

and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

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Camera

Jason Winters was back from Louisiana to make another run on some very healthy trout.

Port Mansfield

Captain Wayne Davis has been fishing the Lower Laguna-Port Mansfield for over 20 years. He specializes in wade fishing with lures.

Telephone 210-287-3877

Email captwayne@kwigglers.com

WAYNE’S Mansfield Report

Greetings from Port Mansfield! I believe it is now safe to say we made it through the winter with minimal weather-related issues as pertains to our fishery. That said, we did have a couple good cold snaps that raised a few eyebrows for those concerned about the wellbeing of our speckled trout. I recall during a midto-late February chill seeing thousands of mullet slowly swimming along the surface of the harbor absorbing as much sunlight as they could. I also recall another event where the harbors’ seawall was full of anglers catching big redfish and trout, some in the nine-pound range. Thankfully, that all passed with no significant impact to the populations.

Tides have just recently begun to rise. I noticed a six-inch increase in water levels in about three days’ time last week. I also noted while fishing those days the water was clean and clear, which is common for Gulf water entering our bay system. Additionally, our water will be cleaner for longer periods with elevated levels. This also means fish have started to “drift” or find their way to back lakes and skinny flats that are not commonly fished in the low-water winter months. I used to struggle a bit in this department but now not so much. Our fishery, in general, is strong, and if you can pay attention to the changes, you can usually find fish despite them “spreading” out to the skinny stuff. On this topic, over the last couple of years few years I have really come to love the SCB Recon by Shallow Sport Boats Inc. I used to be a Shallow Sport Classic guy and believed nothing could compare to its shallow water performance. However, having now spent a couple of years in the Recon I will say its capabilities are equally impressive. Once you get to know the Recon it can pretty much can do anything a Shallow Sport Classic can do; from rough stretches of main bays to shallow backwaters, the SCB Recon can handle it. I have mine rigged with the Yamaha 250 SHO which seems to pair up perfectly. Springtime is definitely upon us and the prevailing weather pattern will be strong southerly winds. Color changes will develop daily across the flats providing excellent zones for targeting feeding game fish. You will notice beautiful blue-green water next to chalky water, and you will also notice an increase in the presence of bait along that zone, typically fifty yards or so either side of the color change. There is not a better place to spread out your waders than along this zone. This is a confidence

zone for me in springtime, despite steady 20 mph southeast winds with occasionally stronger gusts. There is nothing like fighting a big red or trout headshaking with small white caps splashing. It just adds to a great Port Mansfield fish catching experience.

As many know I am by far more of a paddletail guy than a straight-tail lure guy and springtime is no exception, especially if I am the angler in the chalky water zone. I simply like bait that not only fits the size of the baitfish present but also puts off vibration that attracts the gamefish. From the KWigglers 4-inch paddletails to the two sizes of the Wig-ALo all three can be deadly. Another good springtime bait is a good topwater, and gamefish love topwaters during the traditional spring warming trends that will be occurring. Despite floating grass, one can still be effective by tossing the topwaters down the lanes created by current that will be free of grass. Or one can always defer to single hooks which eliminates most of the floating grass issue. So, as we head into the spring season, what I have noted above will certainly be in my lineup. One more thing worth noting, April is not too late to catch the trout of a lifetime. It actually happens to be the month one of my clients caught a ten pounder several years ago, so it is certainly a month to fish if that is what you are after.

Available via the QR code below you will notice a quick tip on keeping those reels and rods in good working order. This is such a simple yet overlooked piece of maintenance that takes no time at all. Take a look and let me know your thoughts on it, and if you have any other questions on anything fishing or gear related feel free to reach out. Remember, fresh is better than frozen.

Chandler David with a nice one on a windy day.

A gorgeous red for Travis Hobbs.

Arroyo Colorado to Port Isabel

A Brownsville-area native, Capt. Ernest Cisneros fishes the Lower Laguna Madre from Port Mansfield to Port Isabel.

Ernest specializes in wading and poled skiff adventures for snook, trout, and redfish.

Cell 956-266-6454 Website www.tightlinescharters.com

SOUTH PADRE Fishing Scene

April is finally here and I would like to talk about three very significant aspects of fishing this month. First, is the potential for the heaviest trout of the year. Mature female specks are still what we call “winter fat” and they’re also likely to be bulging with eggs. In fact, just before the first spawning event of the season a large female can be packing a pound or more extra weight in the form of roe; which means that early April is a great time to target a career-best specimen. Notice that I said, “target” and not “catch.” More on this in a bit.

Second, is unstable weather. April is often the windiest month of the entire year; pretty much a continuation of March but with stronger gusts. There will likely be some stormy weather coming in from the gulf, and we’re not out of the woods yet as regards cold fronts from the north. So, putting all this weather stuff together, it would be safe to say that water clarity can be a crap shoot most days. Too often we’ll be fishing where we can clarity-wise, not where we should.

Third, April brings us noticeably higher tides. Our back bays, mostly barren of life over the winter months, will now be filling with springtime tides and all manner of marine life. The higher water levels will be like TEXDOT opening new roadways. Fish will be on the move, scattered along every shoreline and piece of mid-bay structure along the way. Perhaps now you can better understand my use of the word target rather than catch!

What seemed like an excellent winter for big trout starting in the fall months turned out to be just an “OK” winter trophy season. It’s not what I had expected and even hoped for after seeing all the big fish back in September and October. While we caught our share of really nice fish, we found none of the giants the season is famous for producing and none that weighed more than nine pounds.

A few more tidbits to keep in mind if an April trophy is your goal. You can start by doing your homework. Focus your efforts on solunar majors and minors during new and full moon periods. Two tide days provide potential for the greatest water movement. Incoming or outgoing tidal flows during early morning and late evening hours have been our most productive times during the spawning months.

Potholes, or sandy depressions, scattered amid solid seagrass beds become ambush feeding zones for both trout and redfish during springtime. Be sure to access this month’s video via the QR code for an explanation of what I call “pickpocketing the potholes.”

Our redfish numbers in the Lower Laguna are currently looking very healthy. As tides rise this month redfish will find their way into westside back-bays, feeding on the abundant juvenile shrimp and small crabs that will be their primary diet for the next several months.

I like to utilize early morning and late evening hours when winds are generally lighter to target areas with less-vegetated bottom. Later in the day, when the wind really picks up around midday through midafternoon, we quite often find schools of redfish rooting bottom for shrimp buried in the grass and mud on shallow flats. The tipoff to this action will be lots of gulls wheeling and diving to grab shrimp the reds have driven to the surface. Don’t be surprised to find an occasional large trout amongst those rooting redfish.

If you’ve no choice but to fish during windy days, paddletail soft plastics create vibrations in the water that fish can key on when water clarity becomes murky to downright muddy. This is when our DieZel MinnowZ, Big BallerZ, and PaddlerZ from Z-Man really shine. If you prefer to escape the wind, try fishing early in the morning and late in the evening.

Finding protected shorelines, coves, or heavily vegetated areas with clear water, even in heavy wind, can be a plus when throwing artificial baits. Rising water temperatures this month will encourage increased surface feeding activity, but don’t be the guy missing all those blowups because your hooks are dull and rusty. One of those misses might have been the trout of a lifetime.

April is also widely known as the month when the entire ecosystem awakens from winter’s grasp. Undersize and keeper-size trout will become very active in their feeding, quite often attracting flocks of terns and gulls. Redfish, too, can sometimes be found under the flocks of screaming gulls.

View The Video Open Camera and hover over QR Code. When link appears at top of screen tap to open in YouTube.

Vince Hash followed my instructions for “pickpocketing potholes.”

Bryan Hash was also rewarded for dissecting potholes on this day.

Bulkhead & Seawall Repair

FISHING REPORTS AND FORECASTS from Big Lake to Boca Chica

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag

Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242

The warmer weather and higher tides of spring open up several productive options for anglers in the Galveston area, James says. “March is kind of tricky, with big changes happening, but April is a better month, on average, in our area. We like to wade as much of the time as possible. This is especially true if we get into a weather pattern which produces strong onshore winds on a daily basis. In this scenario, wading the protected main-bay shorelines and inside the coves usually produces best. Of course, this kind of weather tends to push water into the bays, so there’s plenty of water in the shallow parts of the coves. This doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of fish in the deeper, open water this time of year. We do. And it’s sometimes better to target them during periods of calmer weather, either by wading some of the shallower reefs in the middle of the bays, or by drifting around. We sometimes experience an excellent topwater bite during the calm lulls this time of year, particularly on mornings with incoming tides. The jetties and the surf will produce best if we have lots of freshwater flowing down the rivers.”

Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service

- 409.996.3054

Jim mentioned some new options opening up for anglers in the Galveston area as we head into the first full month of spring. “March is for wading. With so many windy days, the best action is almost always on the shorelines. I love wading when we have strong east and southeast winds. April is a windy month too, but we tend to have more days with decent water clarity out in the middle. Once water temps climb up into the 70s, the fish will spread out. This can be a good thing for people. Fish spreading out means there are more places and ways to catch ‘em. So, it spreads the crowd of people out too. We often have good fishing around the reefs in East Bay during April, as long as we don’t get too much run off from big rains. Lately, the bite has been great in upper parts of Galveston Bay, around Morgan’s Point and in Tabb’s Bay. This will continue to be a hot area as long as so much water is being released at the Lake Livingston Dam. If we have drier weather, the action will heat up in places like Campbell’s Bayou and on flats around the dike.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays

Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service

979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323

In April, Randall expects some productive patterns to come to a close, while others will begin to emerge. “We should reach the end of our shad hatch this month, so that pattern will fizzle out. But, we look forward to the arrival of the pelagic species this month. Normally, we get a good influx of glass minnows, shrimp, ribbonfish and squid. When we do, the action often heats up right along with the water and air temperatures. With the types of food available to the trout and reds changing so much and so fast, it can be hard to figure out the right places to be and the right lures to throw. It’s important to watch for any and all signs of life during these migrations, like balls of bait, birds feeding both from the air and in the water and popping slicks. For lures, I like to throw Norton Sand Eel Juniors in cayenne gold when I’m fishing in places with plenty of shrimp present. When the ribbonfish are around, I prefer a larger soft plastic like a full-sized Sand Eel in salt & pepper or similar, natural-looking color. I also catch plenty of trout on pearl Skitter Walks around ribbonfish.”

Matagorda Bays | Capt. Glenn Ging - Glenn’s Guide Service 979.479.1460 - www.glennsguideservice.com

April brings warmer weather, bigger tides, and hatches of smaller baitfish. The trout and reds are often found gorging on big concentrations of glass minnows and small shad. Smaller soft plastics like Bass Assassin 4” Sea Shads and Down South Burner Shads are good options, in colors with lots of silver flash. Small topwaters are a good option too. We should see the redfish action start to pick up in the back lakes and bayous. The jetties will also produce good catches on days with calmer conditions. Out there, live shrimp under a Coastal Cork is always a good bet as are roach-colored soft plastic paddletails and small gold spoons. Wading the grass beds on the shoreline of West Bay should start to pick up, with natural-colored soft jerkbaits like salt and pepper or chicken on a chain working best. Skitter Walks and Super Spook Juniors in bone or chrome with a black back are good bets as well. April is a great month to target sheepshead and black drum around reefs and at the jetties, using live shrimp under corks. Drift fishing for trout is a solid option this month, both with live shrimp under corks and soft plastics.

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204

This winter we had some colder than normal weather and it stacked fish in deep water. Trout fishing has been fantastic in the harbor, with lots of solid fish up to 24 inches and mostly solid 18-inch fish coming to hand for folks throwing lime-colored Paul Brown Fat Boys and Tsunami Swim Shads slow-rolled over deep shell in the basins. The Tres Palacios River has been on fire lately as well. Down South Lures in white ice and chicken of the sea have been two best colors in there. River fishing has not yielded as many of the bigger trout as the harbor, but the percentage of keepers has been good. Targeting the ledges and bends in the river has been the best strategy. Fishing for reds has been decent, but not as good as the trout fishing. The Collegeport flats have been holding a few on the warmer days, with quarter-ounce Johnson spoons working best. In April, as the weather warms up, we will begin finding more fish on the flats, once tide levels rise. Then, we’ll make sure to focus our efforts on places loaded with shad, mullet, glass minnows and other sources of food for the trout and reds.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith

Back Bay Guide Service - 361.935.6833

In April, Lynn tends to get back to a regular routine of leaving the dock early and fishing into the middle of the day. “As the weather warms up, the fishing is usually best in the early-morning hours. This is especially true when we get into periods with strong winds on a daily basis. The winds normally subside for a while at the end of the night, before picking up again toward lunch time. The strong winds blowing this time of year are usually from the east and southeast, and this pushes big tides into the bays, filling the coves and back-lakes with plenty of water. So, we spend a lot of time working shorelines in these places where we find a mix of sand, mud, shell and grass. The more variety in the cover, the better. And, of course, we always want to see plenty of bait in the places we’re fishing this time of year. Big rafts of jumping mullet are always a good sign, but we sometimes catch well around clouds of glass minnows too. During the calmer periods, the fishing on flats close to the pass can be great, as trout move in from the surf.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead

Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894

April is a great month to fish for some of the bigger trout in the bays of the Coastal Bend, Blake says. “We’ve spent much of the winter and early part of the spring targeting redfish in the coves and back-lakes where we spent the early mornings hunting ducks. This pattern is still somewhat productive when we get into the warmer weather of April, but bull tides and strong winds can spread the reds out and make them harder to locate on a daily basis, so we start targeting trout as a primary option more of the time. When the winds are steady and strong from the southeast and east, the bite is usually best for trout tight to the protected shorelines on the south sides of the local bays, like in Aransas, Corpus and San Antonio Bays. There, we like to fish stretches with a mix of hard sand and submerged grass, also some stands of emergent grass, The bite is usually best really close to the bank. Small topwaters and twitchbaits work well, also the old standby Sand Eels in dark colors with bright tails. Calmer weather opens up the fishing around the reefs out in the middle.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay

Captain James Sanchez Guide Service - 210.260.7454

When I think of April, the first thing that comes to mind is the first peak of the speckled trout spawning season. I recommend wading along main-bay shorelines or shallow flats covered with lots of seagrass and potholes adjacent to drop-offs. To sustain the energy needed for spawning, the trout require a suitable food source, such as an abundance of mullet in these areas. The chances of catching a trophy speckled trout will also increase during the new and full moon phases. It’s important to keep in mind the notorious high winds that can occur this month. On the toughest days, redfish can be our saving grace when the trout bite is slow. They’ll be holding in and around potholes in the shallows on windward shorelines or on the spines of spoil islands. Despite murky water from strong winds, there are still ways to find success. I recommend lures that make a lot of noise and create plenty of vibrations. Effective choices include loud topwaters like the Mansfield Knockers or MirrOlure She Dogs. For soft plastics, Ball-tail Shads are effective, but Wig-A-Los and 4” paddletails generally produce more bites this month. I suggest using colors like plum/chartreuse, Texas roach, also bone diamond or flomingo.

Corpus Christi & Baffin Bay

Capt. Chris Elliott’s Guide Service captchriselliott@yahoo.com - 361.834.7262

We always joke that in South Texas, we can get all four seasons of the year in the same week, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen this past month. Not long ago, temperatures fell below freezing, and today as I type, it’s almost 80° outside. Luckily, we are fast approaching the time of year where the weather changes will be far less dramatic. By April, spring will be in full bloom in Texas, and here in Baffin Bay, we will start to see the smaller baitfish again. Warming weather enhances the spawning activity of many of the species on which our trout and reds prey. This is a great time to fish with smaller lures, which better mimic the small, young forage fish. Consequently, I prefer Soft Dine XLs over Fat Boys this time of year. I also replace full-sized topwaters like Super Spooks and Skitter Walks, often with the junior and baby versions of those lures. The same rule applies to my soft plastics. I’ll still be throwing my KWiggler Ball-Tails, but I will use the junior version of these more of the time, especially when I begin to see small fish swimming around in pods in the places I’m fishing.

P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins

361.877.3583 - Oceanepics.com

In April, jackfish should be storming the surf in great numbers, chasing mullet and other small fish in the mornings with good water conditions. On calm mornings, topwater lures and large silver spoons work well when cast at visible, cruising jacks. The pompano are on the tail end of their migration and their large numbers will move out as the water warms, but they can still be caught in small numbers when the water’s cool and clear, using shrimp or FishBites, which will also produce large whiting, black drum, and even sheepshead, as they begin their own migrations. If the water clarity is good, any of these species will be possible. When the water is dirty, casting live or fresh-dead baits works best, and the species landed can be a crap shoot. Sharks of all sizes are also invading the shallows this month. The scalloped hammerheads should be in close, along with the numerous blacktips. As we get closer to May, the large bull sharks will start showing up in better numbers. The hammers will be taking smaller baits such as whiting, while any lingering sandbar sharks or arriving bulls will take larger baits. April will be good, as long as we don’t get too much floating sargassum weed.

Port Mansfield, Texas | Ruben Garza

Snookdudecharters.com - 832.385.1431

Getaway Adventures Lodge - 956.944.4000

The cooler weather is almost gone; hopefully we’ll be able to ditch our waders pretty soon. Steadily warming water temperatures have brought new life to the sandy bottoms that lie east of the Saucer and north of the East Cut – both of which are great places to begin your day. In both areas, look for the shallow grass break, where the sand meets the grass. Work the potholes and look for occasion mullet jumping. As the day progresses, follow the bait to the deeper water. Lures like KWiggler Ball Tail Shad color 801 (orange Creamsicle), Bone Diamond and plum/chart on a 1/8oz jig head. As for topwaters, I like the Mansfield Knocker in Bone Daddy, Sweet Heat, and Ruby Tuesday colors. Heading north, fish the sand east of the Weather Station. If it’s too busy there head on up to Dubb’s Island. Whenever the wind allows, do not pass the area just south of Gladys along the west shoreline. Trout have been holding steadily in waist-deep water in this area; lots of small ones, but you can easily find a few for dinner if that’s your goal. Look for reds closer to the shoreline in this same area.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel

Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com - 956.639.1941

Steady, strong winds have been the norm as we head into the full swing of our spring fishing. In the Lower Laguna, the trout bite has been great. Temperatures warming up have us experiencing a fast trout bite in two to three feet of water most of the time. We’re catching lots of trout on grassy flats adjacent to deep water, and sand bars have held a great bite as well, especially early in the mornings, before the stronger wind kicks up. Z-man Big BallerZ Redbones have been great producers, when rigged on 1/8 ounce Eye-Strike Trout-Eye jigheads. Mostly, we’re fishing our plastics mid-way in the water column, using a fairly fast retrieve. Redfish numbers are healthy, with most biting in one to two feet of water covering a hard, sandy bottom. The action along grass lines and on shallow shorelines is coming alive too, as water temperature and tides rise. Topwaters have worked great early in the mornings, with bone Spook Juniors rigged with single hooks being the best choice. As winds pick up, I like to move over to big grass flats and fish in a foot or two of water, targeting redfish lying in potholes, waiting for an easy meal.

Rey “Tres” Canales first redfish!

Baylie Russell trout

Shontell Vice Crystal Beach - redfish

Michael Ziverk 24” replica of speckled trout CPR

Victoria Rocha Rockport - 38” black drum

Richard Gonzales Port Arthur - 41” bull red

Myriah Streams Matagorda - 27.5” 6.5 lb pb trout!

Savannah Gonzales POC - 37” black drum

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.

Photo

Julia Vargas Matagorda - 26” redfish

Camilla Gonzales Sabine Pass - 41” bull red

Levi Elliott Jones Bay - 13.5” first red!

Monica Demel POC - redfish

Robert Alaniz Port Mansfield - 27” trout

Stephen Burton Port Arthur - 35” bull red

Austin Johnson Baffin Bay - 27” 6.5 lb trout

Carmen Swift POC ICW - 36” black drum

Nicholas Vela Laguna Madre - 8 lb trout CPR

Got ideas, hints or recipes you’d like to share? Email them to pam@tsfmag.com or send by fax: 361 792-4530

Gulf Coast

Easy Shrimp Mozambique

Zesty shrimp in a saffron and garlic-based sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons butter

• ¼ cup finely chopped onion

• ½ cup water

• 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 2 (1.41 ounce) packages Sazon seasoning with saffron (such as Goya Azafran)

• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

• salt and ground black pepper to taste

• 6 ounces bottled beer (any brand)

• 2 teaspoons hot sauce (such as Tabasco), or to taste

• 1-pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

PREPARATION

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onion in hot butter until slightly golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in water, garlic, sazon seasoning, lemon juice, salt, and pepper; cook for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in beer and hot sauce; bring to a boil. Add shrimp and cook until bright pink on the outside and the meat is opaque, about 3 minutes.

This Shrimp with Mozambique sauce is great served over rice.

SERIOUS BRAGGING RIGHTS

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