Texas Fishing News & Reports
Bluegill Family Fishing Tournament Scheduled
ATHENS, Texas—The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center’s annual Bluegill Family Fishing Tournament will take place this year on Saturday, September 25.
The tournament awards prizes for the heaviest stringers of sunfish, but the event is really about adults and children having fun fishing together.
Numerous prize packages will be awarded, including an X-Box 360 with game, fishing equipment and gift cards from local businesses.....Read More
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Outdoor Family Workshops Scheduled for This Fall
AUSTIN – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has scheduled a full slate of Texas Outdoor Family workshops this fall designed to introduce even more families to the ease and joy of camping in one of dozens of Texas state parks.
Since its inception in 2008, 1,040 families have participated in the two-day, supervised outdoor education program, learning how set up a campsite, cook outdoors, hike, fish, use GPS devices and learn other outdoor skills....Read More
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Lake Fork Primed for Upcoming ShareLunker Season
ATHENS—The 2010-2011 Toyota ShareLunker season start is only six weeks away—hard to believe in this August heat—but the big bass are already biting on Lake Fork.
Fishing in 20 feet of water off a main lake point, Cameron Burnett boated a 14.44-pound largemouth July 31. “It was about 8:45 p.m., just before dark,” Burnett said. “On the third cast into the spot—BOOM!”
Burnett was using a Huddleston Deluxe eight-inch swimbait. The fish, 26.75 inches long, now swims in an aquarium at Lake Fork Marina, an official Toyota ShareLunker Weigh and Holding Station. Burnett plans to release the fish back into Lake Fork at a future date.
Toyota ShareLunker program manager David Campbell scanned the fish to see if it carried an electronic tag identifying it as a previous entry into the ShareLunker program. It did not....Read More
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Lake Fork Trophy Bass Catches on the Upswing
ATHENS—Anglers seeking to catch one of Lake Fork’s legendary lunkers are off to a great start to the 2010 fishing season.
After declining big bass catches for the last six years in the Lake Fork Trophy Bass Survey, nearly as many 7-pound or bigger bass were reported caught from March through June as were reported during all of the 12-month period from March 2009 to February 2010. Anglers participating in the survey reported 733 big bass caught from March through June 2010 compared to 746 for the 12 months ending in February.....Read More
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New Season Hunting, Fishing Licenses Go on Sale
AUSTIN — Current year Texas hunting and fishing licenses (except year-to-date fishing licenses) expire Aug. 31, and new licenses for 2010-2011 will go on sale Sunday, Aug. 15.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issues about 2.1 million hunting and fishing licenses annually through the agency’s 28 field offices, more than 65 state parks and at over 1,500 retailers across Texas. For a $5 administrative transaction fee, licenses may also be purchased online through the TPWD Web site or by phone (800-895-4248). Call center hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday — Friday. The online transaction system is available 24/7.....Read More
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TPWD Set to Graduate 41 Game Wardens
AUSTIN – After seven months of training in everything from water rescue and state-federal law to alligator handling, the 41 cadets of the 55th Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden class will close one chapter of their lives and start a new one with their graduation Tuesday as state game wardens.
The ceremonies, open to the public, will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the E1 auditorium at the Capitol in Austin.
The new game wardens will then report for duty at stations spanning the state from East Texas to El Paso. Game wardens’ duties include responding to natural disasters and conducting public outreach on a variety of topics in addition to enforcing hunting and fishing laws and water safety regulations...Read More
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Lifetime License Winner
AUSTIN – Daniel Hidalgo won $1,000 in Las Vegas many years ago and hadn’t won anything since.
So when he went to his local Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Midland to buy a fishing license and saw a display advertising Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Lifetime License Drawing, the last thing he thought was that his single entry would win.
But he didn’t leave Lady Luck behind in Vegas as he had thought. Hidalgo’s was the winning entry in the June 30 drawing.
“I was thrilled when they called me and told me I won,” he said. “Luck was with me.”
Hidalgo won a lifetime super combo hunting and fishing license and will be able to hunt and fish in Texas for the rest of his life without having to purchase another Texas state hunting and fishing license."....Read More
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Biologists Sampling Texas Coast to Prepare for Possible Oil Spill Impacts
AUSTIN – Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists are working their way down the state’s long coast line collecting environmental samples so that a baseline record is available to gauge any impact in Texas from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The effort is part of a plan developed by multiple natural resource trustee agencies in coordination with BP.
TPWD is leading specialized five-person teams of scientists who are systematically collecting data at 21 locations up and down the coast. These samples will be used to characterize beach conditions, water chemistry, benthic invertebrates (living creatures in shallow water, mud and sand), and other "indicator" factors....Read More
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Big Bass Retire to Little Lake
ATHENS—What happens to a big bass after it spends 10 or so years at a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) hatchery making little bass to be stocked into Texas lakes?
Fittingly, after rendering noble service to Texas anglers by producing untold thousands of fish, the big bass get to retire to a lake to live out the rest of their lives.
About 100 retired largemouth bass brooders from the A.E. Wood State Fish Hatchery in San Marcos made a 5.5-hour trip to Lake Moss outside Gainesville June 23 in the care of TPWD fisheries technician Mike Pereira. “These fish are from the class of 1996,” Pereira said. “They are 14 years old, and typically their egg production decreases as they age.”
Largemouth bass are believed to live up to 20 years, so the fish have several years to enjoy retirement and perhaps make more little bass in Lake Moss. Since the fish were all pure Florida largemouth bass, the stocking will improve the genetics of the fish in the lake, which are already good—the lake record largemouth weighed 13.25 pounds. Lake Moss was last stocked with Florida largemouth bass in 1982.
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TPW Gears Up For TS Alex
AUSTIN – In advance of a growing Tropical Storm Alex, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department today announced the closure of three state parks in the lower Rio Grande Valley effective today and the deployment of game wardens to South Texas to assist with emergency operations.
Fifty game wardens are enroute to a staging area in Mercedes. With 17 airboats and 33 shallow-draft vessels, they will be on standby to assist with any necessary search and rescue operations. In addition, a TPWD mobile command vehicle with a satellite system, computer capabilities and dispatchers is being sent to the Valley.....Read More
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Anglers and Biologists to Meet in Athens August 7-8
ATHENS—Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) Inland Fisheries biologists will host a meeting with anglers interested in learning more about fisheries management in Texas at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens on Saturday, August 7.
The meeting will include an angler-biologist fishing tournament on Lake Athens Sunday morning that will feature demonstrations of fish-friendly tournament weigh-in procedures and fish care.
BASS Elite Series professional angler Alton Jones of Waco will address the group at the Saturday evening dinner.
“Fisheries biologists and anglers share many common interests and concerns,” said meeting organizer Craig Bonds, TPWD’s Inland Fisheries regional director for East Texas. “We all want to make fishing the best it can be in Texas, and anglers have played, and will continue to play, a significant role in improving fish habitat in Texas reservoirs, reporting and removing invasive species and implementing best fish-care practices designed to conserve the resource and improve fishing.”...Read More
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ShareLunker Season Payoff Underway
ATHENS—Anglers who catch Toyota ShareLunkers receive a lot of recognition—ShareLunker clothing, press coverage and a fiberglass replica of their catch—but the program is really about what is happening now.
ShareLunker babies are being delivered and stocked into the lakes where their mothers came from as well as other public reservoirs and private lakes that had fish entered into the program.
On Monday about 2,200 fat, healthy ShareLunker fingerlings were stocked into both Caddo Lake and Lake O’ the Pines by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) inland fisheries technicians from the Marshall office.
Fingerlings were also stocked Monday into Lake Livingston and Purtis Creek State Park lake.
The fingerlings were harvested early Monday at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens from the pond where they had been growing for the last month. They were trucked to the lakes, transferred to a tank on a boat, and released into the lakes in places with good places for them to hide and grow.
During the remainder of this week, ShareLunker fingerlings are scheduled to be stocked into Choke Canyon, Amistad, Casa Blanca and Falcon on Tuesday; Lakes Austin and LBJ on Thursday; and Lakes Fork and Nocona on Friday....Read More
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Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame to Induct Two
ATHENS—Two former long-time employees of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will be inducted into the Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Athens June 5.
Honorees will be the late Edward W. Bonn of Denison and Philip Durocher of Austin.
Bonn was one of three fisheries biologists hired in 1946 by what later became TPWD. As many new reservoirs were built to serve Texas’ growing population, a sport fish able to utilize open-water habitat was needed. Under Bonn’s leadership and direction, experiments were carried out with striped bass, a marine species, to develop ways to stock them into Texas lakes.....Read More
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Boaters and Anglers Urged to Help Curb Spread of Zebra Mussels from Lake Texoma
ATHENS—Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) officials are asking all users of Lake Texoma to assist in stopping the spread of invasive zebra mussels to other water bodies in Texas and Oklahoma.
“Zebra mussels have become well established in Lake Texoma after having been introduced into the lake by boats trailered in from other states,” said Brian Van Zee, regional director for TPWD’s Inland Fisheries Division.
In addition to being found in Lake Texoma, zebra mussels have been introduced into lakes in the Arkansas River drainage in Oklahoma.
“Zebra mussels have the ability to attach to any hard surface left in the water—boat motors, docks, pipes and even cans and bottles,” Van Zee continued. “The larval stage of zebra mussels can also be carried in water left in livewells or bait buckets.”
Boats being transported from Lake Texoma to other water bodies pose the greatest threat of spreading zebra mussels to other water bodies. At present the only way to deal with that is for boat owners to be responsible and to inspect, clean, drain and dry their boats before moving them from Lake Texoma to another lake.....Read More
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Boating Deaths Decline in Texas
AUSTIN — Deaths from boating accidents on Texas public waters decreased last year compared with the year before and Texas game wardens, boater education proponents and others hope to keep the numbers trending downward. The decrease in 2009 came after an unprecedented spike in boating accident deaths in 2008, the highest in more than ten years.
“We don’t know for sure what caused the decrease in boating deaths, but we do think two contributing factors are saturation law enforcement and educational outreach,” Parrish said.....Read More
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Texas Freshwater Fishery Center to be Part of Nature Challenge 2010
ATHENS—Families will be fanning out across North Central Texas this summer in search of outdoor adventures as part of Nature Challenge 2010.
In addition to connecting to their local environment, participants will be able to win prizes for visiting the most sites, compiling the best scrapbook or taking the best photo during their travels.
Theme of the event is Mission: Possible. During the 11 weeks of the event, families will visit as many participating parks and nature centers as they can. Each site will provide information in English and Spanish on specific activities to be completed at that location. Families will keep a record of all their adventures for judging.....Read More
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REPORTS
Salt Water
Fresh Water by Region
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One of the most anticipated annual occurrences along the Texas coast is the bull redfish run. Although the run can happen anytime between July and October, September is typically prime time for oversize red drum. It is during the ninth month that every day truly offers redfish aficionados the opportunity to catch a fish of a lifetime. 
Most every bass fisherman has encountered schooling bass on the surface of their favorite lake. More often than not, these encounters were memorable ones, with bass coming cast after cast. For most weekend anglers, these run-ins with schooling bass are welcomed, but unplanned, highlights of a day at the lake. 
Many anglers are unaware South Texas has the only viable snook population in the United States outside of South Florida. Combined with excellent populations of speckled trout and redfish, snook offer anglers in South Texas' Lower Laguna Madre an opportunity for a unique angling experience. Visiting anglers looking to add some sense of achievement to their visit often attempt to catch a South Texas Slam, which consists of a snook, speckled trout and redfish in a single session. Once all three are caught, a tarpon can be added to make the slam `grand.' ......
From late summer through fall, the vast majority of Texas lakes feature dense hydrilla beds or stands of lily pads. Where this thick vegetation is present, it houses an unbelievable amount of solid largemouth bass. 
At the annual ICAST fishing trade show held earlier this month in Las Vegas, WaveSpin Reels announced they would be offering two new models of spinning reels in 2011. The new reels, dubbed ZTR (Zero Tangle Reels), are being billed as "an economical alternative" to WaveSpin's existing lineup.... 
For anglers in the Laguna Madre area, July signals the beginning of an incredible couple months of fishing opportunities. From now through September, inshore and nearshore anglers can realistically expect to hookup with everything from speckled trout to tarpon to kingfish. Granted, some years see this potpourri of saltwater game fish show up sooner than others. And, this year we had a pretty early jump on kingfish and Spanish mackerel. However, year after year, July marks the point at which all of these species will be consistently found in catchable numbers in and around the Laguna Madre... 
The current trend for catching bass on many Texas reservoirs is to use 'oversize' baits. Giant swimbaits and 10-inch worms are just a couple of popular examples. However, there is also a place in bass fishing for baits that are on the extreme opposite side of the spectrum. Anglers who can use light line, light rods and small lures are often able to produce fish when others aren't.....
Most Texas fishermen are familiar with king mackerel, but relate to them as an offshore target. While it is true kings spend the majority of their time well off the beach, late summer along the entire stretch of South Padre Island - from Brazos Santiago Pass to the Mansfield Cut - they can be found sharing water with swimmers. It is then that jetty walkers, surf casters and old men in john boats are just as likely to tangle with these tasty tackle-busters as the boys in big center consoles.
As water temperatures warm during the spring and into summer, hoardes of speckled trout and other gamefish will begin feeding more actively throughout the day, and night. For those feeding at night docks and piers, several of which are fitted with lights, make ideal dining areas for these predator fish. When fish are in the neighborhood, a set of lights can draw them in and make for consistent action deep into the morning hours.
Once school lets out for summer, thousands of families will be embarking on their annual vacation adventure. For many of these families, angling is an important part of their yearly sojourn. 
Summer, more than any other time of the year, offers coastal anglers a variety of fishing options. Not only are there more species of fish available during the summer months, there are also more places and ways to catch them. Fish may be shallow or deep, in the flats or along the channel edges. And, this may change not just from day to day, but throughout any given day as the sun and temperature rises. Being versatile and capable of making a change in locale or technique from hour to hour can make the difference between catching fish all day and just catching them during a portion of the day......
Long before the advent of modern rods and reels, everything from topwater plugs to live bait was fished on “poles.” Even after casting tackle became mainstream, cane and willow switches were still being employed on ponds, creeks and rivers throughout Texas. This was often due to the fact early entries in the casting reel category were somewhat clumsy, cumbersome and generally considered more trouble than they were worth on small bodies of water.
For whatever reason, Texas coastal anglers don't employ stickbaits as often as saltwater fishermen in other Gulf Coast region. This is somewhat perplexing for a couple of reasons. One, stickbaits are among the most versatile baitfish imitations available. Secondly, decades ago, in the 1970s, an early saltwater stickbait, the Cordell Redfin, accounted for a then-state record speckled trout. Thanks to that catch, broken-back redfins are still thrown often in the Coastal Bend region. But, they are seldom utilized in other Texas coastal regions.....
For years anglers searching for fishing adventures full of trophy size largemouth bass probed a variety of Mexican big bass factories. From Lake Guerrero to El Salto, these south-of-the-border lakes produced an incredible amount of big fish during their prime. However, in recent years it has become evident that US fishermen heading into Mexico were passing up a pair of the best big bass lakes in North America.
Over the past few years, artificial shrimp such as the DOA Shrimp have become more and more popular among coastal fishermen. However, a number of questions always arise as to the best way to rig and fish artificial shrimp. Here are a few of the more popular and productive methods.... 
Recent years have seen an entirely new lure type - creature baits - become increasingly popular among bass fishermen. In fact, there are literally hundreds of models on the market today. However, picking the right one - and knowing when to throw it - is still a necessity for anglers hoping to score stringers of big bass.