Phil Durocher, longtime head of Inland Fisheries at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, is ending his 35 years at the agency. He doesn’t go alone, however. His wife, Jean, also retired on December 31, ending a 35-year run as a nurse in one doctor’s office. Durocher walked away from the top fisheries job at TPWD [...]
Texans have been busy winterizing facilities, businesses, and residences and otherwise managing a record of sub-freezing days, but the biggest natural resource impact so far appears to be fisheries along the Texas Gulf coast. Texas has about two million acres of bays and estuaries susceptible to freezes. There were three major freezes during the 1980s, [...]
It seems an unusually persistent bloom of toxic red tide has been strengthening in Corpus Christi Bay despite the fact that winter is just around the corner. Usually, cooling bay temperatures stave off or diminish concentrations of red tide, according to Meridith Byrd, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) harmful algal bloom coordinator. But the [...]
Although many flounder are taken by rod and reel, “floundering” or gigging offers the best challenge for this Gulf species. The flounder’s habit of entering the shallow waters at night to feed makes the flatfish vulnerable to thin-water giging. Flounder fishing is best during the Gulfward migration from October through December. During this time, [...]
Dave Lefebre won the Toyota Texas Bass Classic that was held October 16-18 on Lake Conroe. And the bass angler did so in dramatic fashion. The Pennsylvania native caught his last largemouth bass of the day with only 15 minutes left on the lake, which was all he needed to edge ahead of the pack. [...]
Being a fisherman, I will try just about anything to catch a big largemouth bass. Well, almost anything. I don’t think I would ever use a rattlesnake as bait, but that is exactly what Texas angler did. I got the “rattlesnake bass” story in an email. The fellow that wrote the story apparently owns [...]
The southern flounder is the most abundant flatfish along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Flounder stay in mostly shallow water during warm months and then migrate through cuts and passes to the Gulf to spawn during the fall and winter. The flounder is an ambush feeder and will wait patiently for something to eat. They [...]
