April 2010

0 74470 74695 9

0 4

$3.95US

Inland.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 2:00 PM Page C1

C2_ALL.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 1:48 PM Page 1

StaffBox-Contents.qxd:0405 ContentsAlt 3/1/10 11:12 AM Page 1

2 | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E

Published by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC.TEXAS FISH & GAME is the largest independent,

family-owned outdoor publication in America.Owned by Ron & Stephanie Ward and Roy & Ardia Neves.

ROY NEVESPUBLISHER

DON ZAIDLEEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CHESTER MOOREEXECUTIVE EDITOR

C O N T R I B U T O R S

JOE DOGGETT SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORDOUG PIKE SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

TED NUGENT EDITOR AT LARGEBOB HOOD HUNTING EDITOR

MATT WILLIAMS FRESHWATER EDITORCALIXTO GONZALES SALTWATER EDITOR

LENNY RUDOW BOATING EDITORSTEVE LAMASCUS FIREARMS EDITOR

LOU MARULLO BOWHUNTING EDITORKENDAL HEMPHILL POLITICAL EDITOR

TOM BEHRENS CONTRIBUTING EDITORGREG BERLOCHER CONTRIBUTING EDITORPAUL BRADSHAW CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

HERMAN BRUNE CONTRIBUTING EDITORCAPT. MIKE HOLMES CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

REAVIS WORTHAM HUMOR EDITORJOHN GISEL WEBSITE CONTENT MANAGER

A D V E R T I S I N G

ARDIA NEVESVICE PRESIDENT/ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

NICOLE MCKIBBIN MARKETING REPRESENTATIVEDENISE BELL MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE

1745 GREENS ROAD, HOUSTON, TX 77032PHONE 281/227-3001 FAX 281/227-3002

SUBSCRIPTION/PRODUCT MKTG.

1745 GREENS ROAD, HOUSTON, TX 77032

PHONE 800/725-1134

DUANE HRUZEKMARKETING/CIRCULATION DIRECTOR

HEIDI GERKE SUBSCRIBER SERVICES MGR.LARRY FRIEDMAN FIELD REPRESENTATIVE

JOE LUCA NEWSSTAND REPRESENTATIVE

P R O D U C T I O N

JULIANA SEALE GRAPHIC DESIGNER

A D M I N I S T R A T I O N

DENNISE CHAVEZADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

TEXAS FISH & GAME (ISSN 0887-4174) is published monthly by Texas Fish &Game Publishing Co., LLC., 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. TexasFish & Game Publishing Co., LLC. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprint-ed or otherwise reproduced without written permission. The publication assumes noresponsibility for unsolicited photographs and manuscripts. Subscription rates: 1year $19.00: 2 years $34.75; 3 years $48.50. Address all subscription inquiries toTexas Fish & Game, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. Allow 4 to 6weeks for response. Give old and new address and enclose latest mailing addresslabel when writing about your subscription. POSTMASTER: Send address changesto: TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032. Address allsubscription inquiries to TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX77032. Email change of address to: [email protected] Email new ordersto: [email protected] Email subscription questions to:[email protected].

Periodical postage paid at Houston, TX 77267-9946 and at addition-

al mailing offices.

MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS

www.FishGame.com



46 SECRETS OF THE CRAPPIEBITEWhat really happens when a crappie takes abite of your bait , and how you should react ifyou want to turn that bite into a catch.

by Chester Moore

APRIL 2010 Volume XXV NO. 12

ON THE COVER:Two years and two months

ago, appearing on the Februarycover of this magazine provedprognosticative and lucky forTexas pro angler Alton Jones,who in that same month wonhis first Bassmaster Classic.

Lightning struck again whenwe selected BASS pro Kevin VanDam for this issues coverandhe racked up his third Classicwin.

We plan our covers well inadvance of actual publicationdates. The cover story featuringVanDam was planned and thephotos taken last fall. This coverwas in our pre-printing designand production process the veryday Van Dam won the Classic.

We are not claiming mysticalpowers (Zaidles machinationsnotwithstanding), but think wedeserve some credit for oursense of timing and obviouslypositive bass pro-ward karma.(see KVD story, page 22).

Photo by Chester Moore

FEATURES

www.FishGame.com

22 VANDAM TALKS TEXASThe Bassmaster Classic Three-Peater spentthe day with Texas Fish & Game on Lake Con-roe last fall and shared a great deal of how-to wisdom, as well as some candid observa-tions on bass fishing in Texas, which he con-siders the best in the country.

by Chester Moore

26 WALK-A-BOATThe fourth installment in our year-longWALKABOUT ANGLER series looks at the manyportable boating options available to thefrugal angler.

by Calixto Gonzales

www.twitter.com/FishandGame

30 THE MYTH AND MYTHOS OFTHE TEXAS SAWFISHThese prehistoric-looking monsters onceprowled the coastal Texas waters in greatnumbers, with a Texas specimen even holdingthe world record until the 1960s.

by Calixto Gonzales

50 HIGH-TECH TURKEYTurkey hunters can strut there stuff withmore hunting equipment than our forefathersimagined... gear that modern day turkeyfanatics cant seem to do without.

by Bob Hood

StaffBox-Contents.qxd:0405 ContentsAlt 3/4/10 12:25 PM Page 4


COLUMNS and DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

APRIL 2010 Volume XXV NO. 12

10 Editors NotesTales of the Night Gollum by DON ZAIDLE TF&G Editor-in-Chief

14 Chesters NotesThe Coyote Ugly Truth by CHESTER MOORE, JR.TF&G Executive Editor

16 Doggett at LargePerch Jerking by JOE DOGGETTTF&G Senior Contributing Editor

18 Pike On the EdgeThe Pig Bomb by DOUG PIKETF&G Senior Contributing Editor

20 TexasWildBlack Gun Bonanza by TED NUGENTTF&G Editor at Large

21 CommentaryGet Over It by KENDAL HEMPHILLTF&G Political Editor

36 Texas FreshwaterThe Top-50 Bass That Almost Was by MATT WILLIAMSTF&G Freshwater Editor

38 Texas SaltwaterSlow and Steady by CALIXTO GONZALESTF&G Saltwater Editor

40 Hunt TexasEastern Saga by BOB HOODTF&G Hunting Editor

54 Open SeasonHow toHunt Hogs by REAVIS WORTHAMTF&G Humor Editor

DEPARTMENTS

8 YOUR LETTERS

12 TF&G REPORT

12 BIG BAGS &CATCHES

41 TROPHYQUEST

42 TRUE GREEN

www.FishGame.comwww.twitter.com/FishandGame

www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Fish-Game-Magazine/86524948620


Letters.qxd:Layout 1 3/4/10 4:21 PM Page 7

Snow Geese Fading Away

I loved your article in the February issueon the scarcity of snow geese in the Texasplain. I am sad to inform you that it hasspread eastward as far as Lafayette,Louisiana.

In the very middle of January, my wifeand I drove to Austin to visit my youngestdaughter and her husband and four grand-kids. For more years than I can remember,the drive from Lafayette to just west ofHouston has been filled to boredom withsights of huge numbers of geese and ducksalong both sides of I-10.

We drove to Austin on January 12 andreturned on January 21. While in Austin, I

drove out into the country in all directions,not specifically looking for geese and ducks,but just sight-seeing. On the way over toAustin, I might have been distracted by mywifes recital of the honey-do-list when wereturned home to Lafayette, and by mygrands in our escapes from Austin intoGods country. But on our return, I paidparticular attention to spotting flights ofgeese, gaggles of geese in plowed fields, andany form of geese/ducks anywhere.

I did not see a goose in the air or on theground from Lafayette to Austin nor onreturn--not one!

Rocke RoyLafayette, LA

No-Fish Zone Backlash

I grew up on the coast and have lived inthe Hill Country for many years. I go saltyas often as possible for more reasons than thelove of the coastal fishing.

One reason is, as I have expressed tomany, is that I see the coastal areas as a lastfrontier. I can typically explore vast areas onfoot and by boat/kayak. The loss of access isreaching out to so many areas. Due to fear orunderlying reasons, chain link fences andsimilar restrictions have cut me off frommany points of entry/access. I fail to see anyof these as useful anti-terrorist controls.

The areas referenced in Chester MooresJanuary 2010 column do not affect where I

LettersLetters

Letters.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:19 AM Page 8

usually go, but very likely might affect me atsome time, and I could even be fishing in aNo Fishing Zone and not even realize it,particularly in using back-entry access via akayak.

Another reason I frequent the four-hourdrive and spend over $100 in fuel to fish thecoast is that I have been cut off from a mas-sive number of areas on the Highland Lakesand other locations nearby. I used to havemultiple places I could back up to a lake andthen boat or bank-fish with limited restric-tions. Samples of widespread closures equal-ing no fishing zones include:

- Nearly all dams are out of reach viafencing, serious consequences if one entersthe tailrace area, and buoys holding backboaters hundreds of yards. Fishing the tail-race for stripers is gone for the bank-fisher-man, and very limited for boaters.Interestingly, this occurs mostly at LowerColorado River Authority (LCRA)impoundments. Many Federal Corps ofEngineers lakes do not have these restric-tions, or have much more flexible restric-tions. I do not see how a fence with openwoods surrounding the dam tailrace wouldstop a sincere bad guy. Maybe someonecan explain this to me. Bottom line: the tax-paying honest fisherman has been fencedout.

- What I consider the main boat ramp toLake Buchannan by the dam I assume via alease is now a private RV park and the oper-ator collects fees to use the ramp or day useto fish the banks. This has been open publicland for decades. I understand some fees etc.for operations, but this one is very disturbingand only a sample of loss of once openaccess.

- Travis County now has taken even themost remote and minimally maintainedaccess to Lake Travis and either closed orlimited access, and of course charges a fee touse. Nearly 100 percent of these points areLCRA land that for decades was publicaccess. Many have not received any notableupgrades, only rules and restrictions andfees.

I used to stop in and eat lunch in mywork routine at several of these stops, butnow would have to pay $10 to sit for 30minutes at a picnic table. No, these samplesare not loss of access/use/fishing but ratherexamples of increasing difficulty to access thewater, and equate to much less frequency ofmost people visiting the areas.

The upset is how LCRA property cansuddenly become a revenue source. I believein control because, as much as I hate to sayit, some people require control to keep anarea safe and clean. But the vast majority offishing access seekers are not the culprits, inmy opinion.

Randy PitmanVia email

Send Your Comments to:

Letters to the Editor1745 Greens RoadHouston TX 77032

E-mail: [email protected]

Letters.qxd:Layout 1 3/4/10 4:24 PM Page 9

Tales ofthe NightGollum

Back in April 2003, we published myexpose on an esoteric Texas insect fauna. Inresponse to recent renewed interest andnumerous requests, I decided to republish saidscientific article in this issue. I therefore re-pre-sent, The Texas Night Gollum:

MOST OUTDOORSMEN PAY CLOSE ATTEN-tion to the habits and habitats of thefish and animals they pursue, butknow little about less visible non-

game fauna. That is a shame, because someof the most interesting creatures are all butinvisible unless you know whereand when to look for themandtheir behavior is fascinating toobserve. One such creature is theTexas Night Gollum.

The night gollum, as the nameimplies, is a nocturnal ankospodof the Pseudomagnus genus, tex-anus species. Pseudomagnus tex-anus occurs throughout the South-west, but is most prominent inTexas.

The gollum is similar to thearthropods in that it has anexoskeleton. However, unlikearthropods, the gollums legs arenot jointed, but move in a mannerreminiscent of a snake by means offluids pumped through an intri-cate arrangement of channels and

valves. The end of each leg sports a hardfibrous hook used when feeding.

The gollum is also similar to the Tri-atoma subfamily in that it feeds only on theblood of vertebrates, including man. It isamong the largest Pseudomagnus in theworld, measuring up to 8 inches long withwidely spaced 6-inch legs.

The night gollum begins life on a unicornplant, Proboscidea louisianica, as a drupa-ceous capsule, from which it emerges afterincubation as a fully developed adult. Itbegins to search for a blood host immediate-ly after hatching, which always occurs atnight. Hosts include cattle and humans, andoccasionally dogs with thick wooly coats.(Due to the gollums size and wide leg spac-ing, it usually cannot attach directly to small-er hosts such as canids and felids.)

Once the gollum locates a host, it attach-es to the ankle or lower leg and inserts twofang-like stylets through the skin to begin itsblood meal. (The common name gollumderives from old-timers describing the behav-

ior as golluming onto the hosts leg.) Thehost is rarely aware of the feeding due to theswiftness with which the stylets penetrate. Infact, gollums are the fastest of their kind,moving with great swiftness unmatched byany insect. Speed combined with shyness,natural camouflage, and nocturnal behaviormeans few people have seen a live gollum,although many have no doubt picked up andwondered at the exoskeleton of a dead one.

Observing gollums in their natural envi-ronment is difficult, and photographing themalmost impossible. Ergo, I am most proud ofthis photothe only one in the world, so faras I know.

So, the next time you are walking backfrom your blind after sundown and feelsomething gollum onto your ankle, lookdown quickly and you just might get aglimpse of the elusive Texas Night Gollum.

E-mail Don Zaidle at [email protected].


Editors Notes

by Don Zaidle| TF&G Editor-in-Chief

Gollums are difficult to observe, andnearly impossible to photograph, makingthis possibly the only known photo ofone in the world.

PHOTO BY DON ZAIDLE

Editors Notes.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:24 AM Page 10

TF&G Report.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:25 AM Page 11

Honey HolesJerry DeanDies

JERRY DEAN, ONE OF TEXAS MOST WELL-known television personalities, bass tourna-ment organizers, and fishing magazine pub-lishers, recently passed away after a long bat-

tle with cancer. He was 63.A former fishing guide on Lake

Monticello, Dean founded Honey HoleMagazine in 1985. He billed the publicationas the Trophy Bass Magazine of Texasand garnered a near cult-like following

among anglers at all levels.Dean eventually expanded the trademark

name to include Honey Hole TV Magazineand the Honey Hole Tournament Trail,which was affiliated with more than 130 bassclubs across Texas. At one time, it was thelargest tournament organization of its kindstatewide.

Dean and his wife of 34 years, Debra,ran the three companies out of their suburbanhome in Ft. Worth. They worked tirelessly asa team. Jerry hustled advertisers, made storyassignments, and filmed television segmentswhile Debra held down the office, fieldedphone calls, and performed layout of amonthly magazine that was in circulation formore than two decades.

Anyone who followed Honey Holeknows Dean was all about Texas. He alwaysstrived to provide the freshest content possi-

ble and worked long hours to get it done.Through the years, Dean soaked his baits

in hundreds of lakes across the state. He wasespecially proud of the fact his television pro-gram aired more consecutive weekly showswith no reruns than any other before it.

BIG BAGS AND CATCHES

SPECKLED TROUTUPPER LAGUNA MADRE

Ari Schwartz caught and released this 8-1/4-pound, 29-inch trout in 2 feet of water over mudand grass in the Upper Laguna Madre. The trout wascaught at sunset on a He Dog topwater.

WHITETAIL BUCKKARNES COUNTY

Dylan Scott Pennell, age 7, of Floresville, shot hisfirst deer on his familys Smith Ranch in KarnesCounty, just outside of Kenedy, Texas. The whitetailwas taken at 90 yards with a Remington .243, anddressed out at 165 pounds.

LARGEMOUTH BASSLAKE CONROE

Dylan Murrell, age 11, caught this 11-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass on Lake Conroe in Texas.Photo submitted by his grandmother ShirleyMurrell.


TF&G Report

PH

OT

O C

OU

RT

ES

Y D

RB

RA

DE

AN

P R E S E N T S

Honey Holefounder JerryDean


Word of Deans death spread quicklyover the Internet, where well-wishers offeredcondolences and shared brief stories aboutpast dealings with the rugged-looking guywho always sported a Honey Hole cap andgray beard.

He was a real dumplin, said DebraDean. He wasnt always perfect, but he waspretty dang close. Im not mourning Jerrysdeath. Right now, Im celebrating his life andgiving thanks that I was fortunate enough tobe part of it for as long as I was.

Matt Williams

ConsumerWatchdog MonitorsAnimal RightsExtremists

The Center for Consumer Freedom(CCF) has announced HumaneWatch.org,a watchdog project dedicated to monitoringand analyzing the activities of the animalrights group Humane Society of the UnitedStates (HSUS). HumaneWatch will includea blog written by CCFs Director ofResearch, a growing document library, and adatabase capable of tracking the dozens ofnonprofit (and for-profit) organizations thatmake up HSUSs sprawling financialempire.

HSUS is the animal rights extremistsmost powerful player, but it has avoided seri-ous public scrutiny for years. HSUS raisesnearly $100 million annually fromAmericans who largely believe their dona-tions filter down to local pet shelters andimprove the lives of dogs and cats. But in2008, less than 1/2 of 1 percent of HSUSbudget consisted of grants to actual hands-onhumane societies that deal with shelteringunwanted pets.

Someone has to ask the hard questionsabout the Humane Society of the UnitedStates, and HumaneWatch will be arelentless source of useful information,

said CCF Director of Research DavidMartosko. Nearly 1 million Americansdonate money to HSUS every year, andmost are completely unaware that theyrebankrolling PETA-style propaganda, far-reaching anti-meat campaigns, a huge staff oflawyers, and bloated pension plans forHSUS executives.

HSUS also campaigns to abolish hunt-ing.

In 2008 alone, HSUS put more than$2.5 million into pension plans--money thatits own advertising suggested would be puttoward the direct care of animals. HSUSneither operates nor is legally affiliated with,any pet shelters anywhere.

Even the best charities can run off therails, so its no surprise the professional dog-watchers need their own watchdog,

Martosko continued. Donors to theHumane Society of the United Statesdeserve to know exactly how their money isbeing spent. HumaneWatch will create anopen dialogue for farmers, scientists, fashiondesigners, entertainers, and countlessAmericans who love both their pets and theirchicken sandwiches.

Staff Report

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | 13


The CoyoteUgly Truth

I saw a coyote in my yardI had a pair of coyotes follow me while

joggingI watched a coyote carry away my

dachshund.

THOSE QUOTES AND OTHERS LIKE THEM HAVEcome my way over the last severalmonths in surprising frequency and arealmost always followed by this question.

Are coyotes dangerous?The popular answer is no, since in the

fantasyland of political correctness, no animalsare threats. They are just misunderstood crea-tures that are somehow the victims of mans evilactions toward the environment.

The reality is that coyotes are, indeed, apotential threat to humans, and although theodds of being attacked are not high, they areincreasing.

Last October, 19-year-old Canadian folksinger Taylor Mitchell was attacked and killedby a pack of coyotes in a national park in NovaScotia. In an article at cnn.com, Chip Bird,Parks Canadas field superintendent for thatregion said the attack was, unprecedented anda totally isolated incident. In the same story heis quoted as saying, Weve had coyotesapproach people too closely and about six yearsago one nipped a person.

Somehow, that does not equate withunprecedented and totally isolated.

Unfortunately, it is right out of the playbookof wildlife agencies that are sticking their headsin the sand about coyotes. In states like Califor-nia, for example, there have been hundreds ofcoyote attacks recorded, including at least onedeath, and attacks on pets while their ownerswalked them on leashes.

I had a wildlife expert explain how arecent incident in a Texas urban area of a coy-ote biting someone was not really an attack

because the animal was drawn to the smell ofgrilling meat.

Do you see the pattern of denial here?Coyotes are opportunistic predators. When

in an environment that poses no threats andwhere humans provide food sources as our citiesdo, these animals lose their fear. At some point,they start looking to humans for food and insome cases as food.

Five years ago, Texas Fish & Game was firstto bring you information about changes in coy-ote behavior in Texas, with an account of DuvalCounty landowner Tom Stone who said his sonhad to kill a coyote in self defense while turkeyhunting on his property.

We also noted a study by Jan Loven, DistrictSupervisor, Texas Animal Damage ControlService in Ft. Worth, who said coyotes in theDallas/Forth Worth area are becoming increas-ingly aggressive: Damages from coyotes rangefrom fear of rabies, to fear of being in close prox-imity to carnivores, to property, pet, and live-stock damage. Several complaints have beenreceived from joggers who are amazed at theboldness of these animals.

Loven also gave a chilling warning: Whilecoyote attacks on humans have been document-ed in California, no incidents are known inTexas. But with increasing coyote-human inter-action in urban areas, an attack would not besurprising, especially on children.

Should you be scared because you havenoticed coyotes in your neighborhood or onyour property?

No.The probability of being assaulted by the

crafty canines is low. However, you should beinformed about the reality of the situation sothat you do not expose you or your family todanger. The reality is coyote attacks occur everyyear in America, and we are seeing the signsCalifornia experienced before a large upsurge inattacks began there.

For example, there are so many coyotes inurban areas of Austin that there is a special coy-ote hotline. Dial 311 and someone from a coy-ote task force will show up to deal with them.

I am serious.The group has a set of guidelines to help cit-

izens deal with animals seen as a growing threat.

Most are basic common sense while a few are alittle silly but they are worth examining:

1. Do not feed coyotes, deer, or otherwildlife!

2. Eliminate sources of water.3. Position bird feeders so coyotes cant get

the feed. Coyotes are attracted by bread, tablescraps, and even seed. They may also be attract-ed by birds and rodents that come to the feed-ers. They are also attracted to deer feed.

4. Do not discard edible garbage where coy-otes can get to it.

5. Secure garbage containers and eliminategarbage odors.

6. Feed pets indoors if possible. Store petfood where it is not accessible to wildlife.

7. Trim and clean, near ground level, anyshrubbery that provides hiding cover for coyotesor prey.

8. Dont leave small children unattendedoutside if coyotes have been seen in the area.

9. Keep pets safely confined and providesecure nighttime housing for them. Walk yourdog on a leash and accompany your pet outside,especially at night.

10. If you see coyotes around your home orproperty, chase them away by shouting, makingloud noises or throwing rocks. Carry a stick,baseball bat, or a golf club to scare them away.

In conclusion, I would much rather changepeoples distorted views of coyotes than I wouldwithhold information that could possibly savelife or limb.

We should respect the coyotes for being theamazingly adaptable animals they are. Part ofthe respect involves treating them like wild ani-mals, not pets, and realizing they are not thecomically unskilled predator as depicted in theold Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

In real life, the coyote usually gets its prey,whether it is a roadrunner or bigger game.

Note: More detailed information about coyoteand other animal attack behavior is available ina book, American Man-Killers, written byTF&G editor-in-chief Don Zaidle, availablefrom Amazon.com and other booksellers.

Email Chester Moore [email protected]


Chesters Notes

by Chester Moore | TF&G Executive Editor

Chesters NotesB.qxd:Layout 1 3/2/10 10:25 AM Page 14

Doggett.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:33 AM Page 15

PerchJerking

GREENING WILLOWS AND PLEASURES OFperch go together. I basically stole thatsentiment from my mentor, the lateBob Brister.

He often reflected on his boyhood days ofsimple fishing in rural East Texas, and itremains true that the balmy days of earlyspring are prime time for dabbling along thebanks of ponds and rivers. The main objec-tiveother than getting muddy while dodgingworkaday responsibilitiesis to catch a fewperch.

Perch is the common catchall term forthe various panfishes found in local freshwaterdrainages; sadly, the designation is not partic-ularly accurate. True perch, which includeyellow perch and walleye, are not native toTexas. I hate to say it, with family roots scat-tered across Dixie, but these are northernspecies.

What we have nosing into the warmingshallows are sunfishes, and primary amongthe pan-sized issues is the crappie or whiteperch.

No matter. By whatever name, it looks justright, with the greens and silvers and blacksreflecting the delicate colors of the springshorelines, and the bold, bristling fins high-lighting the wide profile. The gaping mouthand large eyes suggest a predatory naturesomehow lacking in the smaller, rounderbluegill sunfish.

Unlike the lesser sunfishes (notwithstand-ing the largemouth bass, which is also a sun-fish), the typical crappie is big enough to benda fillet knife over. A typical 10- to 13-inchkeeper weighs between 1/2 and 1 pound, andslabs pushing an honest 2 pounds are notterribly uncommon.

The fresh fillets rolled in cornmeal anddropped into a hot skillet rank among thefinest fishmaybe the finest, and Im tossing

red snapper, small speckled trout, and floun-der into the pot. The sweet, delicate meat is ina class by itself.

This matter of table quality is huge. Perchjerking has little to do with catch-and-release; never has, never will. Prolific perchwere intended to be caught and keptandfried. The statewide daily bag of 25 crappie,with a minimum length of 10 inches, allowsample opportunity to exercise this option.

The best way to go perch jerking for pre-spawning crappie moving into the shallows iswith simple tackle. A spinning or spin cast rigworks fine when the drill is lobbing a smallcork and a live shiner minnow against theshoreline stickups. Small twist-tail jigs and tailspinner-type lures also are effective, especiallywhen the water clarity offers a foot or two ofvisibility.

Also effective, and frequently lost amid therows a high-tech tackle, is the basic canepoleor, better, a telescopic fiberglass pole.A 10- or 12-foot pole fitted with a shortlength of line and the cork-minnow or jig offer-ing can be poked into tight openings of brushand limbs and dabbled with killing efficiency.No cast is required andmost importantamid the tangled cover that crappie preferthe drop into the desired spot is straight upand down.

This vertical presentation minimizes sub-surface snags. A long-shank, thin-wire hookwith a wide gap is the choice for dunking liveshiners; the light hook allows a frisky two-inchminnow to dance, and the wide bite helpshold in the crappies fragile mouth.

Traditional wisdom favors a gold hook inmurky water. The added flash helps attractnearby perchand nobody accused crappieof being particularly spooky or leader shy.

For this reason, a line testing 8 to 12pounds is a wise idea. Certainly, the averagecrappie can be an ultralight candidate, butwhen the inevitable hang-up occurs, the heav-ier line can be used to open the bend of thethin-wire hook, thus saving the hassle of hav-ing to re-rig. Well, most of the time.

The crappie is an aggressive feeder but anindifferent fighter, and given the thin mouthand rough-and-tumble jerking tactics, per-

haps this is just as well. Even with lacklusterresistance, crappie often pull free. Rememberthat fragile mouth.

Losing crappie is part of the game, but thehigh-volume action along a prime springshoreline makes the occasional loss accept-able. In other words, plumbering a splashingperch is not as catastrophic as ham-handing apermit or snapping off an Atlantic salmon.You dont need to seek professional counsel-ing or resort to heavy sedation after the linesprings slack. Simply re-bait and move to thenext promising brush pile.

The stakes may not be so high, but smoothperching jerking, as with any angling, requiressavvy and touch. The difference betweenrookie and veteran usually becomes evidentwithin an hour or so of work along a greenbank.

For example, last spring I teamed withexpert crappie angler Doug McLeod for amorning session on a southeast Texas reser-voir with official mud hole status. Neverhave I seen it offer more than a foot of sub-sur-face visibility, and the clarity often is measuredin scant inches. But the drab banks hold flour-ishing numbers of crappie.

We outfitted with long fiberglass polesrigged with small corks and plastic-tail jigsand walked the bank, dabbling the short linesand slushing the shallow corks around rocksand brush.

McLeod put 21 crappie in his bucket andI caught 10. We fished the same water,leapfrogging each other, so I cannot claim thathe Bogarted the best stretch. No, he had abetter touch, a finer sense of where to placethe jig, and how to coax the cork.

But Im content to concede to a superiorgame of perch jerking. I still had a fine messfor the fillet knife. More important, I gotmuddy and saw water snakes and bullfrogsand blue heronsand felt the warm sun amidthe greening willows of a new year.

The session was a reminder that bountifulcrappie is the perfect excuse for shorelinewanderings in search of lost youth.

E-mail Joe Doggett at [email protected]


Doggett At Large

by Joe Doggett | TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

PHOTO BY JOE DOGGETT

Doggett.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:33 AM Page 16

Pike.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:34 AM Page 17

The PigBomb

Feral hogs are winning almost every battlein our war against them. Either we fight hard-er, or the next generation might be speakingpig Latin.

AFEW WEEKS AGO ON THE DISCOVERYChannel (or one of those other educa-tional rest stops along the satellite-dishhighway), I stumbled upon Pig

Bomb, a documentary about wild hogs.What a treat.

None of its content came as a surprise toany Texas hunter who watched, but I couldimagine the slack-jawed reactions of viewerselsewhere than throughout the Deep South.We have lived with the beasts for a couple ofcenturies and, recently, developed an entirerecreational hunting industry around them.Beyond that traditional range, unpenned hogswere unknown until recent years.

Pig Bombs narrator read with grand emo-tion a script that offered a suitable history offeral swine, how they got here, and how theycan spread like fire ants at Sunday picnics andmultiply like rabbits fed raw oysters. Texansknew that.

He noted also that runaway domestic pigsare interbreeding with imported and escapedEuropean boars, their offspring mutating intoa race of super pigs that are increasingly

large and aggres-sive. Texans knewthat, too. Pigs weigh-ing 200 pounds oncewere exceptional.Now they are prettygood. Pigs used torun when wecaught them offguard in tightquarters. Theystill run, but some-times its right at you.

And, the voice talentcontinued in dramatic tone, wild hogs dogrand-scale damage to farm fields and evensuburban and rural landscapes. Thanks, kindsir, but we sort of knew that, too.

If you are among the rare few Texans who

by Doug Pike | TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

Pike on the Edge


have never seen a wild hog, you need onlyspend the least bit more time outdoors to makethe acquaintance. And chances are good thatif you see one, you will see more unless youreyes fall first on a big boar off to itself.

Rather than a specific number, count onseeing, say, 200 or more pounds of hogs persighting; maybe a sow and two generations ofoffspring, or maybe one long-toothed buck.Either is a virtual wrecking ball whetherturned loose on a farm field or flower garden.The softer the ground, the greater the easewith which damage is inflicted. Make no mis-take, however, that in hard times, a pack ofwild pigs likely could upturn a concrete side-walk to pick out the weeds rising between thecracks.

Texas imposes no law regulating the har-vest or control of wild pigs except that youmust have a hunting license. Other than that,horseshoes, hand grenades, and Howitzers (ifyou have a federal stamp and paid the tax) arefair game for hogs. Day or night. Rain orshine. In states where pig traffic has onlyrecently begun, wildlife officials (after consult-ing Texans) encourage their citizenry to shootthose swine on sight. The trouble with thattheory, though, is that once a few guns go off,pigs go undercover.

I have done my best to control the hog pop-ulation, but my personal effort hasnt madeany real dent. The numbers of hogs I take withrifles, handguns, and arrows pales alongsidethose removed by more aggressive hunters.

The internet, specifically youtube.com, isloaded with hog-hunting videos. If someonewith nothing better to do added up all the hogsdispatched on video at this one site, I suspectthe number would be in the tens of thousands.Yet even if we repeated that effort every year,we would still not swing that porky pendulumin our favor.

Just to keep pace with average reproduc-tion, you have to remove about 70 percent ofthe pigs from a given population. Thats a lotof bullets and a lot of bacon. Most hunters eatwhat they can, and smaller pigs are quite tasty,but after a while, even the buzzards get tired ofeating those things.

In addition to being prolific breeders, pigscan be comfortable just about anywhere. Theyare voracious omnivores and will run mostanything but a bear or mountain lion off some-thing edible. They are oblivious to the Southsswelter and developing a tolerance for extremecold.

Property owners who cannot or will not

hunt their hog numbers down often hire trap-pers to remove the pigs. Thats a sweet dealfor the trappers, because there is someone onthe other end who will pay to have live hogsdelivered and released to support recreationalhunting operations. Great work if you canstand the smell and accept the risk of taking asharp, ivory tusk to the shinor someplacehigher.

Feral hogs have planted their little piggyflags within the habitats of native wildlife (and

no small number of suburbanites) across muchof this continent, and they continue to scuttleand snort onto new fronts. We are not, despitehonest effort, affecting their retreat.

In that way, wild pigs truly are a tickingbomb; and if you are downwind, you will real-ize it is a stink bomb with a short, curly fuse.

E-mail Doug Pike at [email protected]

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | 19PHOTO BY ERIC ISSELE


Black GunBonanza

MY WONDERFUL SON ROCCO WINCHESTERNugent slithered silently alongsidehis old man, back in the wild again.We carefully peeked above the early

fall wheat for a stealthy look-see, then duckedback down as we crawled toward the thickforest ahead. Like a GI Joe infantryman, 8-year-old Rocco pushed his little .223 Rem-ington 788 ahead of him and remainedfocused like a pro, intent on killing the gnarlyswine we had seen a half-hour ago.

All riflemen know that the little 5.56round is a bare minimum caliber for anymedium sized big game, but with the 60-grain Black Hills soft point in the magazine,a well place shot will indeed do the trick.Watching Rocco practice at the range mademe proud. He was Sgt. York-dead-on at 100yards every shot, and I knew if he had a crackat this 100-pound boar, the pork chops wereas good as grilled. Aim small, miss small.

And that he did. Young Rocco took asolid rest on his upright knees in a sittingposition, the handsome hog paused as itemerged from the wood line, and in a fluidballet of sniper proficiency, my son snickedoff the safety, settled into his sling, slowlyexhaled, and pow-whoomp! Pork chops,baby!

The little slug hit perfectly in the creasebehind the boars shoulder and tipped overthe pig like it was pole-axed by an 06. It wasbeautiful.

Now, 10 years later, my son and I occa-sionally put down our bows and grab one ofour many AR-15 variants from a plethora ofquality arms manufacturers, and go afieldwith supreme confidence that a disciplined.223 round of the proper design will cleanlykill any big game animal up to large deer-sized critters. Sportsmen across America aregetting educated out of the fabled Zumbo

syndrome of old to realize that these special-ized black rifles are the cats ass for nearlyevery shooting scenario.

Of course, my good friend Jim Zumbo,the new and improved Mr. Black Rifle him-self, has led the charge in this regard, educat-ing millions about this positive AR promo-tional reality, having emerged from his ownstupor about evil black rifles into the lightof truth. Was that a fun chapter in AmericanSecond Amendment Rights or what!

Just recently, I guided my friend CharlieMoore of Mad Fisherman legend onNESPN sports TV. Crazy Charlie is a mas-ter angler, but not a dedicated hunter or rifle-man by any stretch of the imagination. Com-pounded by his geographical home base, theinsidious anti-gun wallpaper carpet-bombingby ultra leftist media in Ted Kennedy coun-try had tainted old Charlies perspective ongood guns versus bad guns. As usual, Ifixed that pronto, Tonto. A bullet is a bullet,a gun is a gun. Period.

For our fun midsummer pig hunt at Sun-rize Acres in Michigan, Charlie and I chosea beautiful DPMS zebra-striped EBR frommy swelling arsenal. We prolonged our hard-ware fondling as long as possible, giddy to besurrounded by so many lovely assaultweapons. I know they are not assaultweapons at all, but I just like calling them soto further confuse the loony anti-gun left.Think of it as a bonus to just another self-evi-dent, truth-based, God-given individualright.

This little custom beauty was not in thetraditional .223 caliber, but rather one of myall-time favorites, the mighty .243 Winches-ter. Topped with a state of the art TrijiconAccuPoint tactical scope and loaded withdeadly Winchester 95-grain Ballistic Tipammo, I believe we had as fine a big gamesemi-auto a hunter could ever dream of.

At the range, Charlie commented hownegligible recoil was, even for the mid-pow-ered .243, and that the rifle was much moreenjoyable to shoot than he had expected.That is the beauty of a well-designed semi-auto, as energy is channeled into functioningthe action instead of the shooters shoulder.

Beautiful. With confidence glowing, weheaded for the pig woods.

Charlie settled nicely into the predatorgroove after a while, and as we were about towrap up a long, patience-testing day, wefinally had a crack at a fine boar as it made itsway through the dense forest toward thewaterhole at dusk.

Taking advantage of an old oak stump fora solid rest, Charlie made like a seasoned proand drilled that nasty old stinky hog squarethrough the shoulders at about 80 yards.With a terminal last kick and a squeal, themud-soaked hog clearly didnt like the 95-grain hot lead pill that blew its pump stationto smithereens. I, on the other hand, wasrather pleased; Charlie, ripped with delight.

I went on later that evening to a lucky ren-dezvous with a dandy Rusky swine, wherethe mighty DPMS .243 double-tapped agorgeous boar trotting along at about 90yards. This bad boy weighed more than 300pounds with all the handsome features a piglover admires: long silver, toothy, snout; heavychest; narrow hips; rangy tail; and nasty atti-tude. My spirit pork chops runneth over.

As I prepare for what I believe to be theultimate black rifle hunt, where I will employmy full-auto M4 with American legend andU.S. Navy SEAL hero, Marcus Lutrell,from a swooping helicopter, where we willattempt to reduce the dangerous wild pigover-population of South Texas, I believe wehave the definitive full circle of the originalM16 designlightweight, hi-capacity, superaccurate, reliable, and easy handling. Evilblack rifles are terrific for warriors defendingfreedom anywhere on the globe, perfect forhome and self-defense, ideal for small and biggame hunting, and absolutely spectacular formachine-gunning destructive porkers fromthe air. I feel a nostalgic, emotional tearquelling up in my eyes, but Im sure I will getover it.

E-mail Ted Nugent at [email protected]


Ted NugentsTexasWild

by Ted Nugent | TF&G Editor-at-Large

Nugent TexasWild.qxd:Layout 1 3/3/10 11:30 AM Page 20

Get Over It

ON JANUARY 18 ABC NEWS REPORTED,what sensationally, that gunsightmanufacturer Trijicon puts refer-ences to bible scriptures on all its

sights. It would seem this is not news to anysensible person, but ABC made a big deal ofit.

Trijicon is based in Wixom, Michigan,where the company has been building topquality sights for a long time. Their ACOG(Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) is amarvel of technology, incorporating tritium,fiber optics, and battery power to create anexcellent sight for a battle rifle. My only com-plaint is that they havent sent me one yet toput on my Smith & Wesson M&P-15.

Our military, in one of its more brilliantmoves, decided some time back to start buy-ing these sights and providing them to manyAmerican special forces units. I dont believeits a stretch to say those sights have savedAmerican lives and given some of our troopsan easier and safer tour of duty in the sand-box. Evidence of this would seem to be thatour military recently gave Trijicon a $660million contract for a whole bunch more ofthese great optics over the next few years.

Trijicon began putting the references tobible verses on its sights about 30 years ago.The company didnt change that policywhen the U.S. military started using theoptics, and for a long time its been no bigdeal. And it would still be no big deal ifABC News hadnt started squawking aboutit like a chicken in a dog pen.

The verses referenced are John 8:12 andII Corinthians 4:6. At the end of an identi-fying number on the base of each gunsight,one of these verses is referenced by eitherJN8:12 or 2COR4:6. I would imaginesome people, who were unfamiliar with thebible, didnt even realize they were indica-

tions of scriptures, if they happened to findthe tiny raised characters at all.

Both of these scriptures have to do withlight, which is what the Trijicon sights are allabout. They are, as compared to a lot ofbible verses, pretty inoffensive. But we allknow that being inoffensive doesnt meansomeone wont take offense.

The complaints about this situation are,as you might expect, ridiculous and con-trived, and they come not from our enemiesor our allies, but from Americans with way

too much time on their hands and way toolittle reason in their heads.

One charge is that our enemies will findout about this (which they will, if the U.S.media has its way) and be offended. Theseenemies, who have declared the current con-flict a holy war, will think weve decidedits a holy war. I fail to see how that wouldmake a difference. Will they want to kill ourtroops any more than they already do? Ifyoure getting shot at, it would seem irrita-tion of the opposition has already beenachieved.

Another imagined problem arises becausethese American sights are mounted onAmerican guns used to train foreign troops,many of whom happen to adhere to the Mus-lim faith. None of those folks have com-plained, of course, but there you go.

My answer to that would be: If a refer-

ence to a bible verse is going to cause a prob-lem there, we definitely should stop givingaway American money, which has In Godwe trust written on it. If our allies werecomplaining, which they are not, that wouldsolve the problem, pronto.

Another complaint, the excuse used bythe military to force Trijicons hand on this,is that the references violate General Order1, which forbids our troops from, amongother things, proselytizing (trying to convertthe locals to Christianity).

The irrefutable fact is that the versesdont violate that order, in any way, shape,form, or fashion. If it did, then taking a bibleover there, or a prayer book, or a Christianhymnbook would also violate the order.Those things are not in question.

One of the biggest problems the whinershave with this is that they see it as inconsis-tent that a weapon, used to kill people,would be adorned with scripture. If thats aproblem, then no Christian person of anyfaith should be allowed to go over there andfight for our side.

But I dont think this should ever havebecome an issue at all, and I think its sadthat Trijicon was forced to quit putting thereferences on their products. Its admirablethat they did it at all.

Whats inexcusable is that our militaryhas thrown out Patrick Henrys Give meliberty or give me death, and replaced itwith Give me non-offensive, politically cor-rect weapons components or give Americastroops death.

Our fighters deserve the best gear we canprovide, no matter whats written on it. Triji-con is the best. If the chair warmers decide toreplace the Trijicon sights with somethinginferior, the chair warmers should walk pointwith it.

E-mail Kendal Hemphill at [email protected]


Commentary

by Kendal Hemphill | TF&G Commentator

I dont believe it is astretch to say Trijicon

sights have saved

American Lives, and given

our troops a safer tour of

duty.

Commentary.qxd:Layout 1 3/4/10 2:40 PM Page 21

22 | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO BY CHESTER MOORE

1004-F5-VanDam.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:39 AM Page 22


THERE ARE PROFESSIONAL bass fishermen,and then theres Kevin Van Dam.

A three-time Bassmaster Classic champ (his thirdwin this February in Birmingham), five-time Angler ofthe Year, and legitimate living fishing legend, VanDamor KVD as his fans call himis one of akind.

I had the awesome pleasure of fishing with Van Damlast fall and hoped to glean some nuggets of wisdom Icould pass on to TF&G readers.

He did not disappoint.Proper casting is the most important thing an angler

can do to up his game, Van Dam said. Being able tomake long casts with soft landings and with pinpointaccuracy is crucial to making a strong presentation tobass, especially the really big ones which are shy tobegin with.

by Chester Moore


As he said this, Van Dam was pitching25-pound fluorocarbon line extremely longdistances by flipping standards into nooksand crannies along Lake

Conroes developed shorelines.Fluorocarbon is not easy to cast, flip, or dojust about anything with, much less with linethe size of Weed Eater string. However,watching him work it left me amazed andrealizing my flipping skills need serious help.

Most of Conroes shoreline is lined withboat docks, riprap, and other manmadestructure, which can make it difficult foranglers used to fishinggrassy lakes.

On lakes likethis, a lot of the fishare going tobe way in theback of boatdocks and inspots where itis difficult to reachthem, which is why

preci-sion isso impor-tant, VanDam said.

He is known as thefastest of the bass pros. By fast I meancovering water in short order, and I got towitness this firsthand. I fish pretty fast myselfwhen chasing bass, and by the time I hadmade one cast, he was halfway done with hissecond and moving along at a breakneckspeed.

Its important to eliminate water and finda pattern that works quickly when youre atournament angler, he said.

A big part of his tournament strategy thesedays involves the new side scan sonar byHummingbird that shows super clear imagesout to 100 feet on each side of the boat. VanDam took me into a cove he had fished dur-ing the 2009 Texas Toyota Bass Classic, andfrom a distance of over 60 feet, he showed mea super clear image of a sunken boat thatlooked like it had fish on top of it.

This tool will allow anglers to get a wholenew perspective on their fishing and helpthem find out just what kind of structure isholding the fish, he said.

Besides eliminating water, it is importantfor tournament pros to know which spots areworth focusing their extra energies on, espe-cially in relation to catching the lunkers thatcan put them over the top.

There have been times I have used theside scan and got an entirely new perspectiveon spots I have fished a number of times. Iwill grind it out over a spot if I know there arethe kind of fish I need to catch, and this tech-nology gives me confidence in those areas,Van Dam said.

He noted that many of the largest bass areaway from the shoreline on offshore struc-

ture, and tend to get ignored bymany anglers.

So manyanglers fish

the shore-l ines

becausethey hold so

many fish, andthey can see thestructure they arefishing somewhat.

However, byusing tools like side

scan sonar and focusing on some of the deep-er fish, an angler increases their chance ofcatching their biggest bass ever, he said.

And what would he recommend an angleruse to catch those super-sized bass?

If you really want to get after big fish andare willing to dedicate yourself to it, a jig ishard to beat, Van Dam said. Jig fishing canbe tedious, but they produce many big bass sothey are certainly something an angler willwant to consider.

No matter what kind of top end gear anangler has or which heralded trophy lake hefishes, Van Dam said confidence is key: Youhave to believe every cast is going to producethe fish you are looking for, so you pay atten-


Kevin VanDam thinksTexas lakes offer the best

bass fishing in thecountry.

PH

OT

O B

Y C

HE

ST

ER

MO

OR

E


tion to your cast, the action of your lure, andyour surroundings.

Van Dam, a Michigan native, said when itcomes to trophy bass production and overallmanagement of the species, Texas is tops.

Texas is the top bass fishing state. Theamount of quality lakes like Falcon, Amistad,Conroe, Fork, Rayburn, and others and themanagement the state puts into the fishery isspecial, Van Dam said. I love fishing forbass in Texas.

I have been blessed to fish with many proanglers over the years, but none of themimpressed me as much as Van Dam. I am noteasily impressed by angling skills because myfocus is more on the fun side of fishing thantedious technique, but Van Dam impressed

me in a big way. Watching him work wasamazing and showed that someone who is dis-ciplined, focused, and sticks to their dreamcan accomplish great things in the world offishing.

Now, lets see if he can earn that sixthAngler of the Year title in 2010. There is noquestion he has the skills to do it, and, thank-fully for us, he doesnt mind sharing his tips,tactics, and, more important, his philosophy.

On the Web

WATCH Chester Mooresfull video interview serieswith KEVIN VANDAM atwww.FishGame.com/videoKeyword: VanDam

KVD on Texas Bass Fishing

KVD on Taking it to the Next Level

KVD on Fishing New Water

KVD on Fishing High-pressure lakes

...and more7 Segments in all.


26 | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO COURTESY LUND BOATS

Portableboats andthe frugal

angler

by CalixtoGonzalesA YEAR-LONG SERIES

1004-F2-PortableBoats.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:46 AM Page 26


MANY AN ANGLER has adream boat. Whether atournament-ready 22-footbass boat with a Batmobilecockpit and free racinghelmet, a shallow-runningbay/flats hybris with modifiedtunnel-vee hull, or go-fast offshore boat with a cigarettehull and triple 350 out-boards, there is a vision ofthe boat.

Fishermen kill entire afternoons at boatshows, leave pamphlets on coffee tables andbathroom counters for spouses to examine(and ultimately reject), and squirrel awayextra cash every month hoping to bankroll thedream (only to learn that the only time thetransmission breaks or the air conditionerneeds a very expensive part is when yourcache has just the right amount to pay for it).

Kismet is fond of throwing deadfallsbetween the angler and the boat of boats. Butall hope isnt lost. Cost-effective and, often,more versatile options abound.

AWAY WE GOAny boat that fits on a trailer is technical-

ly portable, but some are obviously moreportable than others. A small johnboat,kayak, canoe, or bellyboat is easy to pack inthe bed of a truck or roof of your SUV andportage to your favorite fishing hole. Thesesetups are easily one- and two-man deploy-able.

I like my bass boat, said longtime bassangler Billy McGuilry at the Corpus ChristiBoat Show. You cant beat it when runningChoke or Falcon. Sometimes, I cant find apartner to help me with the boat and split thecosts, or sometimes I just want to fish alone.

For those situations, McGuilry sticks his12-foot johnboat and 9.9-horsepower tilleroutboard in the back of his truck, and off hegoes. The destination is usually Lake CorpusChristi or a put-in spot on the Nueces Riverupstream from the lake.

Sure, the bass I find arent going to breakrecords, but the action is pretty good, and Imfishing. Theres nothing wrong with that,McGuilry said.

DEAR JOHNAccording to the Texas Parks and Wildlife

Department, the state has 3700 named water-ways, 15 major rivers, and 212 reservoirs.The majority of these are accessible with ajohnboat, the venerable green aluminumwatercraft that is as much a part of Texana asa Guadalupe bass or redear sunfish. It alsoseems to play a big part in many family sto-ries.

Recent versions of the johnboat are big,roomy numbers with center consoles and

large, fuel-injected out-boards. The 12- to 14-foot duck boat is the classic watercraft somany anglers have drifted down the Frio,Blanco, and San Marcos. Dozens of theroomy, stable hulls dot lakes such as Falcon,Livingston, and Caddo.

Drive down to the waters edge with theboat sticking out of the bed of your truck,clamp a tiller-steer outboard to the transom,prime the fuel bulb, pull the ripcord, andyoure away at a decent enough clip to get youto a far-off hole in relatively little time.Nothing to it.

I have a banged-up johnboat rigged withan old Evinrude my Grandfather left me,said CC Boat Show attendee RobertLoiselle. Ive soldered that hull plenty oftimes, rebuilt the engine twice, and its still a

great boat. Every Spring Break, my boy andI portage that boat up to Choke Canyon andcatch crappie and catfish for a week.

Johnboat versatility suits them for extremeshallows, small waters, and riverine driftingwith the bonus of powered upstream runsback to a campsite.

YAKKING IT UPLoiselle looked at a display of kayaks at

the Boat Show.My son is getting older, and hes bugging

me to get him a kayak that he can load intothe old truck I gave him and take off on hisown, he said. I guess Im gonna have togive it some thought.

Both the kayak and its cousin, the canoe,

provide the independ-ent portability to fish

mysterious waters. Kayaks have sprung up onevery navigable waterway in Texas, and manyboys and girls have learned how to use a pad-dle by sculling a canoe at summer camp.

Kayaks are as versatile as any other boat,and sometimes even more, said longtimekayak aficionado Bobby Soto. I can take myyak anywhere and still fish. I can fish thedeep holes in a river, or I can fish the shallowruns. If the water gets too shallow, I dontdrag a boat. I can pick up my yak and walk.

Kayaks and canoes not only offer maxi-mum portability for the walkabout angler, butalso provide a dimension of stealth whereby tosneak up on spooky fish. The paddlers lowerpositioning in relation to the water surfacereduces shadows and reflections that off fish

PHOTO BY JASON TORMO

Kayaks provide the versatility tofish any waterfrom deep river

holes to bay flats.


off to an anglers presence.Its ninja fishing, said Soto. The fish

dont even know youre there.

BELLY UPAlong with the over 200 impoundments

that dot the Texas landscape, there are count-less small ponds and stock tanks filled withfishes. The angler without a johnboat, kayak,or canoe can still have a shot at covering a lotof water with a bellyboat.

Originally, the bellyboat was an innertubemodified for angling with a seat or harness(and in some versions, suspenders) thatallowed fisher-men to kick outto deeper water.Over the years,the bellyboat hasevolved into aseat with pontoons on either side. The anglersits in the middle and the pontoons provideflotation. The bellyboat is very popular withbass and trout anglers alike, and have found aspot in the arsenals of crappie fishermen whofish snug up to timber and stickups in largeimpoundments.

The bellyboat provides a stable, light,effective platform for fishermen, and is themost portable of all. If your spot isnt produc-

ing, head back to shore, shuck your bellyboat,pick it up, and walk the shoreline to the nextspot.

It doesnt get any easier than that for theWalkabout Angler.

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | 29PHOTO BY GREG BOIARSKY

Johnboat

Belly Boat

THE TACKLEBOXB A S I C W A L K A B O U T G E A R

Belly boats have evolved fromharness rigged inner-tubes into

personal pontoon boats.

Car-topper johnboat byTracker Boats

Trolling Motor

Portable Outboard

www.yamaha-motor.com/outboard

www.trackerboats.com

www.basspro.com

Portable9HP tiller-steeredoutboard byYamaha

White RiverFly Shop

Float Tube

Minn Kotalightweightelectrictroller

www.minnkotamotors.com

1004-F2-PortableBoats.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 2:54 PM Page 29

30 | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTOS COURTESY TPWD

1004-F3-OldSaw.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 3:15 PM Page 30


I WAS EIGHT YEARS

OLD the first time I saw asawfish. I was in my Tio(Uncle) Bobs tackle shop,Gulf Sporting Goods inCorpus Christi, just offLeopard. While my dadtalked to his brother-in-law,I marveled at the myriadphotographs pinned ontothe walls of the shop. Iscanned from picture to pic-ture: giant trout, bull red-fish, jumbo black drum,stringers of fish literallyyards long.

And the sharks! There were big toothybeasts of all shapes and sizes in those pic-tures. There were bulls and lemons withjaws filled with serrated triangles, ham-

merheads with their funky cephalic mor-phology, and tigers with huge blunt snoutsand black stripes that stood out even inblack and white photos.

One particular photo caught and heldmy attention: There was my Tio, a muchyounger man, standing on a dock, flankedby two giants hung by their tails. One wasa tiger shark easily 12 feet long, its headsporting a huge bullet hole. That beastmust have weighed close to 1200 pounds.

But the tiger held far less interest thanthe second fish. It was as long as the tiger,but broader across the back. What drewmy attention most was the long snout bris-tling from base to tip with horizontal teeth.

Thats a sawfish we caught off PadreIsland, Tio Bob told me. There used tobe a lot of them in Nueces and CorpusChristi Bay. Now, you dont see themanymore.

A Texas LegendThe sawfishes that once haunted the

Texas Gulf Coast (smalltooth sawfish,Pristis pectinata, and largetooth sawfish,Pristis perotteti) are as much part ofCoastal Texana as the tarpon and redfish.Sawfishes are big, tough customers sport-ing their own serrated cutlery that setthem apart from fellow elasmobranchs, thesubclass it shares with sharks and rays.

Sawfishes reach impressive size. Thelong-standing Texas state record measured14 feet, 7 inches, and weighed 736pounds, caught at the Galveston jetties on

January 1,1939, by Gus Pangarakis (seethe lead photo of this article).

The Texas record stood as the worldrecord until at least 1960, when accordingto old IGFA records an 890.5-poundsawfish succumbed to the hook at FortAmador, Panama. However, there is roomto gainsay since the Panama fishs specieswas not specified, merely listed as saw-fish. Considering the location andweight, odds are it was probably a large-tooth. The Texas record is listed as alargetooth, but some sources say small-tooth. That even fisheries scientists are un-sure of the number of sawfish speciesworldwide compounds the confusion.

Back in Texas, while preparing the out-er wall of a Rockport barbershop for afresh coat of paint, workers uncovered amural depicting a sawfish claimed 17 feetlong and weighing nearly a ton. Localssay two Palacios fishermen caught thebeast in a shrimp trawl on Matagorda Bayin the summer of 1927 or 1928.

A photograph sent to the Penn ReelCompany depicts angler Ernie Reed ofHouston with a sawfish caught in 1940near Galveston, purported to weigh 1300pounds and measure 17 feet. The fishhangs from the mast of a shrimp trawler.Is it the same fish depicted in the Rock-port wall mural? Nobody knows.

Back in the day, sawfish were quiteplentiful along the entire coast from Mexi-co, around the Gulf, and up the EasternSeaboard to the Carolinas.


My dad and uncle used to catch hun-dreds of them around Mexequita Flats andSouth Bay back in the 1950s and 1960s,said longtime Lower Laguna Madre guideand resident Captain Jimmy Martinez.

They were all over theplace in the

spring, starting with the full moon of March.Dad and my uncle were fishing for trout andredfish with cut bait, and they would catch alot of little sawfish right next to them.

Martinezs elders, like many shrimpers andcommercial fishermen, were not wealthy men.If they caught it, they filleted it. Martinezsgrandmother would sell the rostrum (theproper term for the sawfishs namesake bill) totourists as a curio. The sawfish was just anoth-er fish.

To others, however, the sawfishes meantmuch, much more.

[The sawfish] was really a cool thing tocatch, said TPWD Fisheries Outreach Spe-cialist Tonya Wiley, a leading authority on saw-fishes who headed the Mote Marine Labora-torys sawfish project before coming home toTexas last summer. Sawfishes were also impor-tant cultural and religious icons to different peo-ples throughout their range.

Coastal tribes such as the Karankawas

revered sawfishes; they symbolized strength.The rostrum of a big saw served as a handyweaponimagine getting raked across the tor-so or brained with a war club fashioned fromone of those things.

Like sharks teeth, the rostral teethwould be fastened to a handle to serve asa weapon or a tool, Wiley said.

Modern cultures, including Americanculture, still consider the sawfish a formi-dable image, according to M.T. Mc-Davitts article Cultural Importance ofSawfish (Shark, 2002). Images ofsawfishes were emblazoned on WorldWar II-era U-boats, naval ships, andAmerican submarines. The U.S.Navy even christened a submarineUSS Sawfish, a craft that went onto earn eight Battle Stars while serv-ing in the Pacific theatre.

The oil from the sawfishs liv-er was often used for tanningleather, and the flesh is consideredquite tasty, especially the whitemeat from the large dorsal andpectoral fins. Its hulking sizeand relative abundance alsomade it a popular sport fishamong recreational anglersof the early-to-mid twentiethcentury. The sawfish was arespected and prized fish.

The sawfish was especial-ly abundant from the CoastalBend up to the Galveston

area, and a sport fisherythrived. Monsters in the 14- to 17-foot rangewere pulled from around the Galveston Jetties,Mustang Island, and Padre Island, especial-ly from Bob Hall Pier all the way to Big Shell.The Corpus Christi Caller, Houston Post,Houston Chronicle, and Galveston County Dai-ly News sported periodic photos of these bigboys and the fishermen who caught them.

Sawfish were en vogue.

Piling OnThe sawfish began its decline in the latter

part of the twentieth century. The populationsof both largetooth and smalltooth fell dramat-ically throughout their natural range. Since1979, there have been only two confirmedsightings of smalltooth sawfish in Texas, the firstin 1979 and the second in 1984; TPWD em-ployees conducting surveys made both.

There was a third, unconfirmed sighting in2003 by some fishermen in the Land Cut of

32 | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO COURTESY TPWD

Two giant sawfish taken off the Galveston north jetty in 1940.


1004-F3-OldSaw.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:52 AM Page 33

Lower Laguna Madre, who spotted what Wi-ley believes was a smalltooth swimming aroundtheir fishing cabin. No photo was taken, sowe cant call it a confirmed sighting, she said.

Wiley said she talked at length with the threewitnesses, and is confident of the validity of theirclaim that they saw P. Pectinata.

Unfortunately, the largetooth sawfish ap-pears to be extinct over the majority of its his-toric range, and the Florida Everglades is theonly area left with a decent population of bothspecies. Both are listed as critically endangeredby the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Like many other Texas species whosenumbers have dwindled over the past centu-ry, no single factor is responsible.

It was a combination of factors that led tothe drop in sawfish numbers, Wiley said.The mass development of the coast was partof it.

Sawfishes give birth to about a dozen liveyoung, and prefer to whelp in shallow back bayswhere the young can find food and cover in thesea grasses. Wiley pointed out that dredging,seawall construction, and development of wa-terfront condominium complexes eliminatedsubstantial percentages of this habitat along the

Texas coast. Consequently, traditional breed-ing grounds that sawfishes used for millenniadisappeared. At the same time that these nurs-eries were disappearing, the adult sawfisheswere facing pressure from both recreational andcommercial fishermen.

They were just hammered there for awhile, said Wiley. The recreational fisher-men killed thousands of them. But most wereessentially by-catch victims of the commercialindustry.

Since sawfishes were bottom swimmers, theywere easily caught in shrimp trawls. Shrimpers,in order to preserve their equipment and pro-tect crewmembers from a giant, angry, thrash-ing beast with a dangerous weapon attachedto its face, would simply kill the animal and thenclear the net, the rostrum cut off and sold.

Sawfish biology didnt help matters. Bothspecies are slow-growing, late-maturing animalsthat have limited reproductive potential. Inshort, it took a long time for saws to reach sex-ual maturity, and when they did, they did notproduce enough offspring to mitigate popula-tion losses.

End of the TrailRealistically, largetooth sawfish are no

longer part of the biological tapestry of theTexas coast. The Sawfish Projects ultimategoal is to expand the P. perotteti range to as faras the Mississippi River. The Big Muddy isa substantial natural barrier to cross, though,and that might limit the range of restoration.

If the 2003 sighting is any indication, small-tooth sawfish still have some kind of fin-holdon the Texas coast. They might never reach anysort of numbers that makes them a viable tar-get species, but maybe, just maybe, there area few out there that will make occasional ap-pearances before unsuspecting fishermen justto keep things interesting.

Editors note: Report any sawfish sightingsto [email protected], or call NationalSawfish Encounter Database at 352-392-2360. If possible, take a photo or two of the fishfor identity confirmation. Be aware that bothspecies of sawfish are endangered, and any cap-tured fish should be promptly released unharmed.

1004-F3-OldSaw.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:52 AM Page 34

The Top-50Bass ThatAlmost Was

WALTER JUNIOR THOMAS OF ALBAreeled in a whale of largemouthbass at Lake Fork last Thanksgiv-ing Day. The angler checked the

fish against an uncertified Rapala digitalscale and snapped a few photos before set-ting it free. Unofficial weight: 15.69pounds.

Had the bass been measured on a certi-

fied scale, it would have ranked among theTop 50 heaviest ever caught in Texas.Regardless, it is the largest bass reportedfrom Lake Fork since 2002.

Interestingly, Thomas had plenty ofopportunity to find a certified scale and doc-ument the catch for the record books, but alegal hitch prevented him from followingthrough. According to Texas law, the fishwas not caught in a legal manner because itwas caught on a game fish. A crappie, to beexact.

Heres what went down:Thomas said he was crappie fishing

around a bridge crossing in 35 feet of waterat about 8:30 a.m. when he felt the subtlethump of a crappie eating his 1/16-ounce jig.As he was reeling the crappie toward thesurface, something much bigger grabbed it

and took off.Realizing his 4-1/2-foot ultralight outfit

was outmatched, Thomas kicked his trollingmotor on High so he could follow the fishin open water and hopefully play it downbefore it broke the 8-pound-test line. Heworked the fish close to the surface threetimes and finally managed to get a net underit roughly 40 minutes later. Amazingly, thebass was not even hooked.

Once they grab these crappie, theydont want to let go, Thomas said. Some-times theyll spit it out, but this one didnt.She wanted it bad.

Obviously, this was not Thomas firstrodeo. A lakeside resident, he has been crap-pie fishing on the popular reservoir for morethan a decade. He learned early on thatLake Fork lunkers have developed a sweet


Texas Freshwater

by Matt Williams| TF&G Freshwater Editor

Freshwater Williams.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:54 AM Page 36

tooth for succulent papermouths.It is well known around here that big

bass love crappie, Thomas said. You hearabout fishermen getting crappie ripped offtheir hooks or getting their lines broke by bigbass pretty frequently. If you spend muchtime fishing for crappie around the bridges,sooner or later it is going to happen.

Thomas has had crappie robbed off hishook multiple times over the years. He hasalso been lucky enough to catch and releasea number of the piscatorial thieves, includinga couple of 10-pounders he caught during amagical, three-week stretch last October.

Thomas said catching the pair of 10-

pounders is what prompted him to email theTexas Parks & Wildlife Department head-quarters and inquire how game wardensmight interpret the unique set of circum-stances.

I was curious to learn what the rulingwould be if a sure nuff ShareLunker sizebass grabbed hold of one these crappie andyou were lucky enough to get it in, he said.Would it be a legal fish?

Thomas received a reply from TPWDslaw enforcement division in early Novemberexplaining that it is not legal to retain anyfish that is caught using game fish for bait.

True. One might argue in Thomas casethat the jig was the actual bait and that theinitial goal was to target crappie, not to tar-get crappie with the intent of hooking oneand then feeding it to a big bass. However,the argument would not hold water in frontof a game warden, or a records committee,according to Robert Goodrich, TPWDassistant chief of fisheries enforcement.

The bottom line is you cant use gamefish for bait, Goodrich said. It was ulti-mately a crappie that attracted that fish, not

the artificial jig. When the crappie ate thejig, [the crappie] became the bait.

While Thomas is thankful he checked onthe ruling ahead of time, he said it didntease the pain of turning a fish loose that ulti-mately would have won him $10,000 incash had it been caught legally.

Thomas was pre-registered in the 2009-10 Lake Fork Bounty Bonanza. The pro-motional program run by the Lake ForkArea Chamber of Commerce offers cashrewards up to $100,000 for big bass caughtfrom Lake Fork. A Top 50 fish is worth$10,000.

I guess you could say this was one ofthose bittersweet deals, he said. Its onething to conquer a 10-pound bass and put itback in the water, but to catch a Top 50 fishworth $10,000 and kiss it goodbye, nowthat will put a knot in your stomach,Thomas said. I was sick about it, but I real-ly didnt have a choice.

E-mail Matt Williams at [email protected]


Had the bass beenmeasured on a certifiedscale, it would have rankedamong the top 50 evercaught in Texas

Freshwater Williams.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:54 AM Page 37

Slow andSteady

YOUVE GOT TO LOVE SPRINGTIME ON THECoast. It isnt because the fishing isbetter in the spring; as you have seenin the pages of this magazine, fishing

is always good on the coast for the fishermanin the know.

Spring is special more because of thesense of renewal that seems to permeate theair. The sun feels truly warm again, and blueskies dominate. There might still be a wind,but it is out of the southeast. Even the water

seems better, with emerald green replacingthe sandy, dun colors of winter. Fishing inthe winter can be good, even great, butspring just feels better.

It should be no surprise, then, that fishingstyles become more aggressive. I have sharedmany a boat with fishermen who wing outlong casts and start working a lure (especial-ly soft plastics) with an almost frantic fastretrieve. The rod tip is up and whipping andthe jig darts along. If fishing topwaters, theysnap them along in tight wiggles that makeinternal rattles sound off, tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.

These fast, pedal to the metal strategiescatch lots of fish. Trout and redfish are start-ing to work the winter kinks out of their bod-ies and focusing on young and emergingbaits. Game fishes are hungry and very

aggressive, and anglers box a lot of them.Larger fish usually pass this extended

Chinese fire drill relatively unscathed. Iremember a particular trip last April withSouth Texas Sportsman host FredRodriguez, and Dargel Boats and customrod designer Roland Marroquin. We haddialed into some good numbers of speckledtrout along the Color Change north of theLong Bar. They were good, fat trout in the16-inch range, and they were busting ourquick-worked Gulp! Jerk Shads. Wind waslight, and the clarity along the transitionzone was good enough to sometimes see thefish strike. I was passing my lure over a sandbar and a saw a larger trout of about 22inches come up and follow my bait.

In a moment of panic, I sped my bait upjust a bit, and the 3-pound fish turned off

Texas Saltwater

by Calixto Gonzales | TF&G Saltwater Editor


Saltwater Gonzales.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:56 AM Page 38

and disappeared. On spec, I shot anothercast into the same pothole and worked thebait back at a winter-slow pace. This time Ifelt a solid thump. After a brief struggle, Iflipped the bigger trout into the boat, andafter a brief discussion with Rodriguez forthe sake of the camera, released it.

How many comparable or better fish haveI missed like that during spring trips?

Bigger trout dont like chasing downtheir food, said Captain Mike Hart. Theyprefer to ambush slower-moving wounded ordying baitfish. Even in spring and summer,the bigger trout dont like moving toomuch.

So, the key to maximizing opportunitiesfor larger trout is to slow presentation.

Hart likes to outfit clients with lures andbaits under an Old Bayside Paradise Pop-per. The float offers an added element ofsound to the setup; more importantly, itforces an angler to slow down the presenta-tion. The bait stays in a bigger fishs strikezone much longer, and Ol Mustardmouthdoesnt have to go chasing dinner.

Another favored technique among guidesand veteran trout hunters is lighter jigheads,as little as 1/16- and even 1/32-ounce.Smaller jigheads allow baits to descend inthe water column more slowly, thus allowingfor slower presentation. This technique isespecially lethal along color changes andpotholes on grass flats.

I have also been experimenting with rig-ging my swimbaits with the un-weighted ver-sion of the LazerSharp L11118G Swimbaithook. A swimbaits buoyancy is enough toallow the heavy wire hooks to create a slowsink. This setup was very successful onsnook and large speckled trout in South Bayand Mexequita Flats on Lower LagunaMadre. The slow presentation even goadeda 3-foot tarpon into striking. The experiencewas brief and intense, but enough to con-vince me that a slow presentation could bevery successful.

If you are a topwater aficionado, a slow,steady presentation is worth a try. Unlike aquick retrieve, which creates the familiarwalk-the-dog wiggle and clack-clack rattle,working your Top Dog or Badonk-a-Donkslowly creates a wider, gliding, side-to-sideaction and louder clack. The slower dancealso simulates a wounded baitfish, whichstimulates a more aggressive strike.

Sometimes the best slow retrieve is noretrieve at all. Captain Larry Corbett once

taught me a technique with jointed minnowscalled the Houma Hustle (or as I term it,the Big Wiggle). After a cast, rather thanstarting a retrieve, point your rod directly atyour bait and start shaking your rod tip. Thevibrations telegraph down the line and intothe bait, setting up a stationary vibration.Though the lure wiggles back and forth, itstays in one spot. I have had many a troutand snook blast a plug while it was doing theHustle.

A slow presentation doesnt necessarilyrequire Job-like patience. Big predatorsmight not like to chase, but they still have toeat.

E-mail Calixto [email protected]

Saltwater Gonzales.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:56 AM Page 39

EasternSaga

AT PRE-DAWN ONE CHILLY MORNING LASTspring, I shuffled to find a more com-fortable seat in a woodpile at the edgeof a Northeast Texas clear-cut. The

clearing bordered a turkey roost about 200yards away, and the thunder of two easterngobblers minutes earlier had assured me thatrancher Mike Fords suggestions about whereI should set up were right on the money.

As daybreak began to spread across thisarea of Fords Rio Rojo Rancho in RedRiver County, it was refreshing to hear thechorus of bird songs that began with cardi-nals and soon was joined by wrens, chick-adees, woodpeckers, and an owl; only later tobe overcome by loud, squawking crows thatentered the scene like a heavy metal bandspoiling an opera.

The two toms gobbled twice more andthen hushed. I listened as closely as I couldfor the wingbeats that would signal a fly-down, but the crows made it difficult to hearanything but them as they bullied for atten-tion. Finally, the sun began to creep through,spreading light slowly across the open groundand onto my two hen decoys 20 yards away.Another 20 minutes passed and I wonderedif the gobblers were still in the trees or hadslipped down and were on the move.

There was a good chance they still clungto the limbs, because thats one big differenceI have found between eastern and RioGrande turkey: Easterns often stay on theirroosts longer than Rios, and if you try charg-ing in to set up on a vocal gobbler just aftersunup, there is a good chance you will getbusted from its birds eye view high in thetrees.

After about 40 years of hunting turkey, Ihave found that patience has killed morebirds than just about anything. I sat silent fora few more minutes, then picked up my slate

call and scratched out a few soft clucks. I felta slight breeze across my face and turnedslowly toward my decoys. Just as I hadhoped, the breeze put a little life in the pair. Iscratched out a few more clucks and purrsthen searched my surroundings. I saw move-ment between a pair of brush piles as a jakestepped into full view.

The gobbler never made a sound, butcontinued straight toward me. I checked thedecoys and realized they were not in thebirds line of sight. Even though I was after alongbeard, I still wanted to draw the turkey inclose enough to photograph. A few more softclucks and purrs was all it took to keep himcoming, and once he did get around a moundof dirt that had blocked the view of thedecoys, I had him on a string.

To me, tricking a gobbler to come in closeis the real excitement of spring turkey hunt-ing. I certainly will shoot my share of thembefore the season is over, but I have learned alot from gobblers I didnt shoot. This onestayed around for the photo shoot for severalminutes, and then wandered off. Minuteslater, two more jakes came in, checked outboth decoys, then left disappointed. None ofthem gobbled or strutted before coming in orwhile circling the decoys. Their beards werebarely past their breast feathers.

The following morning, I hunted from ablind Ford had made with a hay ring normal-ly used for feeding round bales of hay to cat-tle. Ford bends and wires hog fence panelsaround and over the hay ring, and then cov-ers it with a plastic camouflage tarp. Theinside of the blind is lined with black plastictarp. A hunter sitting inside with a blackshirt, jacket, or other dark clothing becomesalmost invisible to any bird or animal thatlooks through one of the small black holeopenings or shooting ports in the camo sid-ing.

The blind was close to a trail just inside aline of timber in a creek bottom. The decoyswere set out in a small opening near the trail.The morning awoke to more sounds of birdsbut without those of the crows or any gob-bling activity. I picked up the slate call andtried a few soft hen clucks, purrs, and yelps,

but increased the volume with a box call whenit appeared no gobblers were close. I thenwent back to softer calls with the slate. Min-utes later, the dark body of an eastern gobblermoved along the trail, stopping cautiouslyevery few steps.

When the gobbler stopped and stretchedits head upward, I knew it had spotted one orboth of the decoys. Lowering its head, itmoved forward, went into a strut, and slowlyworked toward the closest decoy. Fortunatelyfor it but unfortunately for me, it, too, was ajake. I laid my M66 Ithaca 12-gauge asideand once again picked up my camera. Thegobbler continued strutting, going from onedecoy to the other before moving on down thetrail.

The hunt ended with no turkey to cleanbut certainly with great memories of calling ina species known to be less aggressive thanRio Grandes, but also with an appreciationof the impact that all of us hunters have onwildlife populations and hunting opportuni-ties.

Eastern turkey virtually disappeared fromTexas 100 years ago due to unregulated com-mercial hunting and changing land use prac-tices. Attempts in the 1930s and 1970s torestock them failed mainly because the statecould not obtain enough birds from otherstates in a species-to-species trading agree-ment. However, when the state turkey stamprequired for hunters came into play in the1980s, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Depart-ment was able to use the stamp money to buy,not trade for, eastern turkey from other states.

Block or saturation stockings in variouscounties have resulted in huntable popula-tions now in 42 of 57 East Texas counties.Red River County was the first stocked andthe first to open a spring turkey season.Hunters should be proud that the return ofeastern turkey to Texas is the result of theirmonies and their concerns. Where were theanti-hunters monies or concerns during allthat time?

E-mail Bob Hood at [email protected].


Hunt Texas

by Bob Hood | TF&G Hunting Editor

Hunt Texas Hood.qxd:Layout 1 3/1/10 11:58 AM Page 40

TEXAS LARGEST REDFISH EVER CAUGHT BYrod and reel hailed from the SabineLake area. Artie Longron caught the59.50-pound monster in 2000 in the

near-shore Gulf, an area known to housemonster schools of monster reds.

The state rod and reel record for floun-der also came from Sabine. Caught by Her-bert Endicott, this 13-pound behemoth hasbeen the standard-bearer for Texas floundersince 1976.

Add to that a water-body record troutweighing 11.50 pounds caught by anglerKelly Rising, and a reputation for produc-ing numerous specks over 10 pounds eachseason, and you can see why the truth aboutSabine Lake might be shocking to some.

Once called the forgotten bay, SabineLake has become a popular destination foranglers looking for a different experiencethan what they will find anywhere else inTexas. Despite the fact its stock has risenalong the coast in recent years, there are stillmysteries about this unique ecosystem rang-ing from its habitat to its laws.

Truth 1: Sabine Lake is not a freshwa-ter lake. It is indeed a bay system that is fedby two rivers, the Sabine and Neches andthat connects to the Gulf of Mexico through

Sabine Pass. And while it often has a fresh-er component more than any other bay inthe Lone Star State, its definitely consid-ered saltwater. Dont let the lake in thename fool you.

Truth 2: Despite rumors to the con-trary, Sabine Lake does indeed have struc-ture. In fact, it has the largest virgin oysterreef in the United States on the south endthat is somewhere in the neighborhood of

three miles long. Ironically, another rumor isthat Sabine is so shallow and has so manyoysters it is not safe to navigate. This is def-initely wrong since once you hit the mainbody of Sabine Lake there is little chance ofrunning aground

Documents

April 2010