texas fish & game december 2015

December 2015$3.95

ChainGangsTexas Pickerel

SPECIAL: Christmasin the Texas Outdoors

HogzillasMythic Tales,or Just Myths?

Big WaterDucksOf East Texas

Did YouMiss theRut?

The WildKingdomof Jim Fowler

THE TEXAS OUTDOOR AUTHORITY

1512-Dec-CoverDIG.indd 1 11/12/15 3:35 PM

1512 Staffbox-Contents.indd 2 11/9/15 2:51 PM

www.FishGame.comPublished 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

CHESTER MOOREEDITOR IN CHIEF

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

JOE DOGGETT SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR DOUG PIKE SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TED NUGENT EDITOR AT LARGE LOU MARULLO HUNTING EDITOR MATT WILLIAMS FRESHWATER EDITOR CALIXTO GONZALES SALTWATER EDITOR LENNY RUDOW BOATING EDITOR STEVE LAMASCUS FIREARMS EDITOR DUSTIN ELLERMANN SHOOTING EDITOR KENDAL HEMPHILL POLITICAL COMMENTATOR WILL LESCHPER CONSERVATION EDITOR REAVIS WORTHAM HUMOR EDITOR TOM BEHRENS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR GREG BERLOCHER CONTRIBUTING EDITOR PAUL BRADSHAW CONTRIBUTING EDITOR CAPT. MIKE HOLMES CONTRIBUTING EDITOR DUSTIN WARNCKE CONTRIBUTING EDITOR STAN SKINNER COPY EDITOR LISA MOORE CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR JOHN GISEL STRATEGIC ADVISOR

A D V E R T I S I N G

ARDIA NEVESVICE PRESIDENT/ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

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S U B S C R I P T I O N S1745 GREENS ROAD, HOUSTON, TX 77032

PHONE (800) 725-1134TEXAS FISH & GAME (ISSN 0887-4174) is published monthly by Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC., 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. Texas Fish & Game Publishing Co., LLC. All rights reserved. Content is not to be reprinted or other-wise reproduced without written permission. The publication assumes no responsibil-ity for unsolicited photographs and manuscripts. Subscription rates: 1 year $19.00: 2 years $34.75; 3 years $48.50. Address all subscription inquiries to Texas Fish & Game, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for response. Give old and new address and enclose latest mailing address label when writing about your subscription. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032. Address all subscription inquiries to TEXAS FISH & GAME, 1745 Greens Road, Houston, TX 77032. Email change of address to: [email protected] Email new orders to: [email protected] Email subscription questions to: [email protected].

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FEATURES

CHAIN GANGChain pickerel, kin to beasts of north-ern waters such as pike and muskie, bring a tough, ugly fight to East Texas lakes.

by John N. Felsher

DID YOU MISS THE RUT?In a state as big as Texas, the breed-ing season for whitetail deer spans all the way from September to February, depending on which region you hunt.

by Chester Moore

28

36

Table ofContents

Table ofContents

Table of

BIG WATER DUCKSEast Texas offers some of the best late season waterfowl hunting, on the states biggest reservoirs.

by Matt Williams

24

MONSTER HOGSStories of big hogs can reach mythic proportions, and are often about as grounded in reality as myths.

by Chester Moore

20

DECEMBER 2015Volume 32 NO. 8

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

The Wild Kingdom of Jim Fowler

42u Take a walk through the past with a conserva-tion icon from the early

days of wildlife television.

Story by Chester Moore

Christmas in the Texas Outdoors

47u A look at what is going on in the wilds as most sportsmen are indoors

around the Christmas tree.

Story by Chester Moore

COVER STORY:Surf Santa

16u Hitting the beach with an honest to goodness Father Christmas

(plus, a video interview with Surf Santa in our digital edition).

Story and photo by Chester Moore

MONSTER HOGSStories of big hogs can reach mythic COVER STORY:


1512 Staffbox-Contents.indd 4 11/11/15 8:31 AM

The Ms the Merrier

WHEN IT COMES TO THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY season, no matter what language you celebrate it in, the old More the Merrier rule should always apply. Try to make it last as long as you canif possible, from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until the clock runs out on the nal

bowl game on New Years Day.We are truly blessed here in Texas with a bounty of outdoor opportunities

that just keep giving throughout the year. So the holidayswhen many of you are able to cash in leftover vacation days or take advantage of slower work-loads to sneak off for a day or half-dayprovide a few bonus chances to get in a blind or out on the water.

Many of our hunting and shing brethren and sisteren(?) live in areas that, although quite rich in wildlife and outdoor opportunities, are brutally hostile to those who venture out to enjoy those opportunities in December. But here, this season is quite accommodating to the Texas sportsman. On most days.

Whereas a hunter in Wisconsin has to do all his ri e hunting for the entire year in just nine days around Thanksgiving, a Texas deer hunter has three whole monthsand can use time off surrounding both Thanksgiving and Christmas to augment the schedule of weekend hunting trips. And although you want there to be frost on the ground and enough chill in the air to make the camp re or camp house replace welcoming after a fruitful hunt, nobody could honestly say they would enjoy sitting in a tree stand in minus-twenty degree gloom waiting for a shot at a cheese-head whitetail.

The shing is even a more drastic comparison.First, there is no such thing as a shing season in Texas. In most of the

states with the highest outdoors activity, they actually have seasons for large-mouth bass and other major game sh species. And in most of these places, if you do venture out to pursue the walleye or pike that are shable during the holidays, you need to drag a little house with you and an ice auger.

Here, even on the few days that if feels like winter, if you want to go catch a sh, you can go after any species you wantfrom anything swimming in a Texas lake, to any one of a long list of saltwater sh, including red snapper as long as you stay in Texas waters (added bonuseven our state waters are bigger... nine miles out instead of the standard three for every other state!).

So, not only should we be thankful for the conditions blessed upon us here in the Lone Star State, we should make an extra effort to enjoy them dur-ing the Christmas season. And while many other indulgences might take you away from the family, another blessing is that every experience in the outdoors can be made a family experience.

This Christmas, make sure you get ms, mehr, encore, MORE out of the season. From all of us here at TEXAS FISH & GAME, to all of you, Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

Email Roy and Ardia Neves at ContactUs@ shgame.com

by ROY and ARDIA NEVESTF&G Owners

InsideFISH & GAME

InsideInsideFISH & GAME

InsideFISH & GAME

HEN IT COMES TO THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY season, no matter what language you celebrate it in, the old More the Merrier rule should always apply. Try to make it last as long as you canif possible, from the Wednesday

ARDIA NEVES

FISH & GAMEFISH & GAME COLUMNS9 Editors Notes by Chester Moore TF&G Editor in Chief

12 Doggett at Large by Joe Doggett TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

13 Pike on the Edge by Doug Pike TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

14 Nugent in the Wild by Ted Nugent TF&G Editor At Large

15 Commentary by Kendal Hemphill TF&G Political Commentator

19 Texas Saltwater by Calixto Gonzales TF&G Saltwater Editor

39 Bare Bones Hunting by Lou Marullo TF&G Hunting Editor

45 Texas Freshwater by Matt Williams TF&G Freshwater Editor

46 Open Season by Reavis Wortham TF&G Freshwater Editor

64 Texas Boating by Lenny Rudow TF&G Boating Editor

66 Practical Angler by Paul Bradshaw TF&G Contributing Editor

67 Texas Guns by Steve LaMascus TF&G Firearms Editor

92 Texas Tasted by Bryan Slaven The Texas Gourmet

Contents (continued)


www.FishGame.com

by Kendal Hemphill

by Calixto Gonzales

Bare Bones

Texas Freshwater

8 LETTERS10 TF&G REPORT10 BIG BAGS & CATCHES

32 TEXAS DEPT. OF DEFENSE

40 TRUE GREEN68 INDUSTRY INSIDER

69 FISH AND GAME GEAR

70 HOTSPOT FOCUS

78 TEXAS HOTSPOTS

86 TIDES & PRIME TIMES

94 TF&G PHOTOS

DEPARTMENTS


8 LETTERS10 TF&G REPORT10 BIG BAGS & CATCHES

32 TEXAS DEPT. OF DEFENSE

40 TRUE GREEN68 INDUSTRY INSIDER

69 FISH AND GAME GEAR

70 HOTSPOT FOCUS

78 TEXAS HOTSPOTS

86 TIDES & PRIME TIMES

94 TF&G PHOTOS

DEPARTMENTS


LETTERS to the EditorLETTERS LETTERS LETTERS LETTERS LETTERS LETTERS to the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editorto the Editor

Go Kendall!MR. HEMPHILL, I SENT A copy of your article to a friend who was in Tanzania working during the time I was in Kenya. He responded with the following. Thought that you would like another informed com-ment.

Don Stader

ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE I went to Tanzania, the army was sent out to get poachers and they killed about 60 in a two-week operation. During my stay, they lost about 2-3 elephants a year. The GOT put sev-eral people in jail including an MP and a priest.

We had a project with AWF, and they said Kenya was the main outlet for illegal wildlife products like hides, skins and wild birds. A local man invited me to go hunting. He said they went at night and put a fi sh net in a water hole and tied it to their car. When animals came in they took off, rolling the animals up in the net and then got out and shot them with pistols. I didnt go.

KENDALL, EXCELLENT JOB, SIR. Your common sense approach and clear writing leave no doubt as to the importance of proper management. Thank you.

Brian Robert

Snakemaster Rocks!I ALMOST FELL OUT WHEN I SAW the article on Austin Stevens at fi shgame.com. Great stuff. Keep this kind of stuff coming.

Jesse Pete

CHESTER, GREAT ARTICLE AT fi shgame.com about Austin Stevens, the snakemaster. What a cool guy and an infor-mative article. Those of us who love wildlife and like to fi sh and hunt appreciate how much about wildlife conservation you have brought to the publication.

Eli Jackson

Editor: Thank you so much. Doing a story with Mr. Stevens is one of the great privileges I have had in my career. Be on the lookout in a coming Texas Fish and Game for an exclusive with him about rattle-snakes. Go to the digital issue of the maga-zine for this month for the full transcript of

the interview from that article.

Thanks to the OwnerARDIA, I WANT TO THANK you for calling me back to change my husbands subscription address.

You went above and beyond and we appreciate it.

I told my husband about the app he can download, and he was pleased to know that.

Also, thank you for telling me about the email you send out. We did not know. Our kids, in their mid 30s, probably know about all of the media info you can get through apps, but we did not. So, we appreciate you telling us.

Jim LOVES your magazine and reads it front to back the day he gets it. He tears out certain pages, too.

Then he hands it down to our son-in-law who is an EMT with the city of Austin. Nathan then takes it to work, reads it when he has time, and shares it with the other EMTs.

Again, thank you for your sweet phone call.

Sally A. Blacksmith


Send Your Comments to:

Texas Fish & Game1745 Greens RdHouston TX 77032

editor@ shgame.com

Austin Stevens with a large cottonmouth.

1512 Letters.indd 8 11/9/15 3:15 PM

Landbound for Christmas

I AM A BANK FISHERMAN.

Throughout my life, I have always fi shed from the bank at certain levels, but there has not been a point in the last

23 years of my professional career when I did not own a boat.

Until now.In the process of paying off medical bills

and other things, I sold my aluminum boat; and right now, I have no plans to get a new one.

It might seem strange for an outdoor writer to be boatless but the fact is many of you are. For the next few years, at least, I plan to remain boatless and focus heavily on bank fi shing.

The subject has always been important; and in my 18 years writing for Texas Fish & Game, I have arguably more informa-tion about bank fi shing out there than anyone in the state or maybe the country. People should have good fi shing information whether they have a $60,000 bass boat, a $10,000 aluminum rig, a kayak or a lawn chair.

I am offi cially in the lawn chair category now.

To tell the truth there is some excitement to it. Challenges are the things in life that forge us into better people and take skills to new levels.

I am on a quest to become an extremely profi cient bank fi sherman. Beginning this month, I will chronicle bank fi shing tri-umphs, failures and tips exclusively in the digital edition of our magazine.

Digital content editor Elliott Donnelly has done a great job putting together a super-cool, bonus content rich e-edition. My

column, entitled Landbound is something I look forward to crafting. I believe it will be ground-breaking in terms of the depth we will cover boatless fi shing.

Having a nice bay boat or bass boat would be nice, but I believe in living below my means and right now, that does not include a boat-of any kind. With a daugh-ter in private school what would pay for a boat note is going to something far more important-private Christian education.

The excitement going into this new ven-ture is in great part because of the fact we know many of our readers fi sh in state parks, on the beach, along roadsides and other landbound locations.

It also appeals to the rebel in me.I have no qualms about saying as an out-

door writer I have had opportunities to fi sh around the world other people have not had but have maintained an attitude of gratitude instead of entitlement.

There is a segment of people in this industry who are as elitist as the average politician. If you dont have the right boat, tackle orgaspactually kill and eat a speckled trout for example, you are vermin in their eyes.

I remember getting so upset with part of the coastal fi shing industry in the early 2000s over the speckled trout limits and live croaker issue I seriously considered announcing I was going live bait only.

In fact, it was tempting to go live croaker only but at the end of the day I did not want to give the elitists any more credit than necessary.

You see what I am talking about with this rebel thing?

The outdoors at its best is an experience, not a contest.

No one lives off what they catch. Although it is nice to come home with some-thing for the grill or frying pan, the reward is in the details.

Kicking back and relaxing while watch-ing a bobber in a stream allows for personal refl ection and a connection to nature.

So does chunking topwaters in the surf when the water is running sandy green and the specks are prowling between the fi rst and second sandbar.

There is true excitement when a rod doubles over and a big fl athead took the live bream you threw out. Or a monster blacktip busts the surface as you set the hook on a beach fi shing excursion.

Sign me up for that kind of fun!Speaking of signing up, my friend Marcus

Hefl in of Christian Surf Fishing Adventures is doing some cool things out at Sea Rim State Park near Sabine Pass.

He is giving monthly surf fi shing clinics with hands-on instruction and opportunities to catch everything from whiting to bull reds and bull sharks.

He is the Santa on this months cover and the subject of the feature Surf Fishing Santa. This feature details not only his instructional work, but talks about how he and his wife visit children during the Christmas season to spread joy and remind them of the real reason for celebration.

That is the part of this job I enjoy.It is certainly not the trade shows, travel

or politics that can come in various forms in this business.

It is the chance to educate people about wildlife, teach them to be good stewards and honor people like Hefl in who help those less fortunate to connect with the great outdoors.

Christmas is about giving, and my gift to you this month is a new column in our digital edition focusing on bank fi shing.

Enjoy Landbound, and most impor-tant, enjoy this special time of year.

Email Chester Moore atCMoore@ shgame.com

by CHESTER MOORE :: TF&G Editor-in-Chief

EDITORS Notes

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | 9

1512 EdNotes.indd 9 11/9/15 3:06 PM

Game Wardens Bust Centerville Poaching, Burglary RingA THREE-MONTH-LONG OUTLAW road hunting rampage in Leon County this summer has come to an end. State game wardens are categorizing it as one of the most egregious poaching cases on record in Texas

Four adults and two juveniles are fac-ing more than 175 state jail felony and Class A misdemeanor wildlife viola-tions stemming from a surreal chain of poaching events between June 4 and

August 29. Although investigators suspect the toll on wildlife and property is probably greater, the suspects have been charged in the illegal killing of at least 68 white-tailed deer, numerous other wildlife species and livestock. They are also charged with the indiscriminate and widespread destruction of public and private property.

The group is alleged to have used vari-ous fi rearms at night to shoot wildlife, live-stock and property from a motor vehicle on a public roadway and on private property without landowner consent. Game wardens confi scated nine fi rearms ranging from .17

HMR to .270, including a .22 rimfi re rifl e fi tted

with a homemade suppressor.

The majority of the deer were shot

illegally from Jewett, in northwestern Leon County, to Leona, located in southeastern Leon County. Centerville was a midpoint between the two outlying communities and was nearest to the majority of the wildlife violations, with more than a dozen deer shot from the feeder road along I-45, alone.

Although some of the deer killed had portions of the carcasses retained by the suspects for consumptionloins and hind-quartersmost were simply left to rot in the fi eld. In addition to deer, the suspects purportedly shot numerous other animals from a motor vehicle on a public road, including: vultures, squirrels, foxes, feral hogs, doves, ducks, cormorants, blue her-ons, alligators, white egrets, armadillos and raccoons.

This investigation represents one of, if not the most egregious

poaching cases I am aware of in my 41 years in law enforce-

ment, said Col. BIG BAGS CATCHES

.22 rimfi re rifl e fi tted ing more than 175 state jail felony and Class A misdemeanor wildlife viola-tions stemming from a surreal chain of poaching events between June 4 and

BIG BAGS CATCHES

suppressor.The majority of

the deer were shot

raccoons.This investigation represents one of, if

not the most egregious poaching cases I am aware of in my 41 years in law enforce-

ment, said Col. BIG BAGS CATCHESBIG BAGS CATCHES

WHITETAIL

South Texas

FRESHWATER REDFISH

Lake Braunig

Jimmy Hograves caught this 34-inch freshwater red while shing at Lake Braunig last July. The hefty red weighed in at 18 pounds.

Adam Guidry with a South Texas 8 point buck taken while he was bowhunting in Freer.

The TF G ReportTF GTF GTF GTF GTF G

August 29. Although investigators suspect

TF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF G Report Report Report Report ReportTF G ReportTF GTF G ReportTF GTF G ReportTF GTF G ReportTF GTF G ReportTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF GTF G

Visit FishGame.com to upload your Big Bags & Catches Photos and Vote for our next Winners

BIG BAGS CATCHESBIG BAGS CATCHESBIG BAGS CATCHESBIG BAGS CATCHES


1512 Texas Report.indd 10 11/9/15 3:17 PM

Craig Hunter, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Director. I am extremely proud of the strong rela-tionship between our game wardens, the Leon County Sherriffs Offi ce, and local landowners. Simply put, open communica-tion is the cornerstone of solid police work. Without great interagency cooperation this investigation would not have been a suc-cess.

In addition to poaching wildlife, the vio-lators also allegedly were involved in more than a dozen burglaries, mostly hunting cabins, according to Sgt. Brian Stafford with the Leon County Sheriffs Offi ce. They are also investigating numerous other illegal activities believed to be related. Those acts include the shooting of a plate glass window at a service station, repeated shooting of a pickup parked at a residence, target shooting numerous road signs and residential mailboxes, along with several house cats. Additionally, they are being charged with shooting and killing fi ve cows and hacking to death a sixth cow with a machete.

This reprehensible and senseless

killing spree has absolutely no resemblance to hunting, and I know sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts everywhere will be appalled to learn of this thoughtless waste of wildlife, said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director. It is fi tting to see these violators brought to justice, thanks to an observant landowner who provided the ini-tial tip and the diligent work of our Texas Game Wardens working with the sheriffs offi ce.

Despite the atrocities committed over the course of the summer, investigators are baffl ed at how little attention the suspects actions drew. Had it not been for a phone call on September 1 from a concerned citizen who reported a deer had been poached, the investigation might not ever have gotten off the ground.

It amazes me that over a three-month period these young men probably fi red hun-

dreds of rounds of ammo, most of which were at

night and in vari-ous locations, and no one reported

gunshots or suspicious

activity until

September, said supervising game warden Capt. Mike Hanson. Not a single call.

Some landowners interviewed during the investigation told game wardens they recalled hearing gunshots at night, but dismissed them as feral hog hunters. Hog hunting at night is legal year-round in Texas with landowner consent and a valid Texas hunting license. Deer hunting at night or from a vehicle on a public roadway is not legal at any time.

Shooting up road signs, storefront win-dows, pickup trucks and mailboxes, among other things, is also not legal. State game wardens worked closely in the investigation with the Leon County Sheriffs Offi ce. They are also putting together penal code violations against the suspects, to piece together what was happening along the roadways at the hands of these individuals.

The danger that the violators placed the public in, the sheer number of violations committed, and the fact that they had little or no fear of being caught really stands out in my mind, said Hanson. From a wild-life enforcement point of view, I hope this case raises public awareness and convinces people to work with and inform their local law enforcement to prevent situations like this from happening in the future.

Hanson noted ironically, a sign on Highway 7 in downtown Centerville reads REPORT POACHINGCALL GAME WARDEN. Surprisingly, this group did not shoot that signone of the few things they did not shoot.

From staff repots

shooting of a pickup parked at a residence, target shooting numerous road signs and residential mailboxes, along with several house cats. Additionally, they are being charged with shooting and killing fi ve cows and hacking to death a sixth cow with a machete.

This reprehensible and senseless

It amazes me that over a three-month period these young men probably fi red hun-

dreds of rounds of ammo, most of which were at

night and in vari-ous locations, and no one reported

gunshots or suspicious

activity until

WHITETAIL

Live Oak County

Thirteen-year-old John Moore III of Victoria killed this 13-point ve-year-old deer that scored a 147. He was hunting with his dad in Live Oak County.


Investigators are

baf ed athow little attention

the suspects actions drew.

1512 Texas Report.indd 11 11/9/15 3:17 PM

Stairway to Heaven

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON fraternity brother Ken Frazier and I once shared a deer lease near Gonzales. We were the only hunt-

ers on the 1,000-acre low-fenced property, and the annual fee was $100 each.

The reader familiar with the costs of pri-vate-land deer hunting in Texas should be able to deduce that this was a long time ago. Our fi rst season on the lease was during the fall of 1972.

The property amid the rolling terrain of oaks and mesquites and pecans bordered the Guadalupe River and hosted numerous white-tailed deer. Most were about the size of your average Labrador retriever, but we were thrilled to see the big game movements.

Anything better than a spike was regarded as a serious buck, and we agreed that the choice area was down by the river. Right in the middle of this prime river-bottom country was an old stand nailed in a high fork of a towering oak tree.

The rickety perch probably was 16 or 18 feet off the groundmaybe 20. Ill be honest; I dont like heights. I dont think Frazier was much for them, either.

But we reckoned the high seat was the place to be. An hour before the cold dawn of opening day we unlocked the gate and fl ipped a coin for fi rst choice.

I won. The disgruntled Frazier opted for Plan B, overseeing a small winter oat patch where we had observed a young fi ve pointer during an earlier scouting expedition.

I parked several hundred yards from the tree and walked silently and craftily through the gloom of the river bottom. Hiawatha would have been proud. There, ahead, was the skeletal frame of the big oak. I risked an upward fl ick with an el cheapo fl ashlight and

the yellow glow marked the rough steps of ancient 2x4s nailed to the gnarly trunk. Way up there were several planks jammed together in the prominent fork.

Jeez, I thought, only an idiot would try to climb up into that thing.

Before the proliferation of portable tree stands and tripods, many rough-and-tumble leases across Texas had similar sorry construc-tions, often with impressive names: High Lonesome, Stairway to Heaven, Old Widowmaker.

My initial reaction was, in fact, a remarkably astute observation. But, despite serious misgiv-ings about the shaky ascent, I really wanted to go deer hunting. If nothing else, I didnt want to admit to Frazier that I chickened out.

I had the good sense to leave several unnec-essary items on the ground and to tie a nylon rope to the unloaded Sako rifl e to haul up after I was situated. This was assuming I ever got situated. I clutched the steps and started climbing. The rotting boards were nailed sev-eral feet apart, one above the next, maybe nine or ten of them.

One was loose, with considerable play, and another was split at the nails. Midway up, I got the binocular strap around my neck caught in a branch and almost overbalanced. Twisting around the tree trunk to claw and scrabble onto the fl at planks was the sketchiest part of the entire climb.

Panting and shivering, I found a semi-comfortable position with my legs dangling off the edge of the outside plank. In the graying light, the drab acorn-littered ground looked way down there.

I pulled hand-over-hand on the rope, rais-ing the rifl e. Naturally, I banged the scope, then almost fell as I reached out to grab the gun. I ran the bolt back and pushed four 130-grain .270 cartridges from my jacket pocket into the magazine. The familiar click-clack was somehow reassuring, a return to normalcy.

I settled down and began to wait. For an hour, as chill light gathered across the bottoms, nothing stirred. Then I heard the sharp Boom! from a nearby rifl e. Frazier had no doubt

tipped over the fi ve pointeror maybe something even better.

Great, I thought. Hes got a good deer down, and Ive risked my life for nothing.

Then I saw the doe.The trim deer was pacing smartly, follow-

ing the bank of the river and heading straight for my tree. The doe looked back down the trail. The early-November rut was underway and, even as a rookie hunter, I realized that a buck might be following.

The thought had no sooner occurred when a second deer appeared from the brush.

I gasped.The largest buck of my life was walking

within chip-shot range. This was a mature warlord with heavy dark antlers and thick bris-tling neck. Cold steam puffed from his nostrils.

The buck trotted forward, and the wretch-ed stand creaked and popped as I shifted and craned to raise the rifl e. The deer stopped and looked up, poised for fl ight. I leaned forward, turning awkwardly to cover the shot. Balance was precarious, but danger was forgotten in the charged excitement of the moment.

The 4X Redfi eld scope found the deer, and I yanked the trigger. The frantic shot carried just under the brisket. The unscathed deer sprang forward and, within several bounds, vanished. I exhaled a trembling breath and cursedthen realized that the drama had carried me within an inch or two of falling from the planks.

Fear set in. I snugged against the rough trunk and knotted the rifl e to the rope and low-ered it to the ground. Without looking below, I held the tree in both arms and started backing down the fl imsy boards. About six or seven feet from the ground, a wobbly board moved, and I slipped and fell.

I landed hard, jamming my ankle and barking my elbow, but suffered no signifi cant injury. I looked up at the weathered planks in the high fork and turned away, grateful that kind fate sometimes spares the young and the reckless.

Email Joe Doggett atContactUs@ shgame.com

by JOE DOGGETT :: TF&G Contributing Editor

DOGGETT at Large


1512 Doggett.indd 12 11/9/15 3:05 PM


Live Life to the Fullest

TIME IS CRUEL AND INDIS-criminate, and lots of stuff happens as it passes. Time eventually gives more than it takes, but you have

to live a long, full life to recognize and reap that reward.

Im in the stage that comes before the wheels fall off, but after the lug nuts start to loosen. Outdoor tasks I once took for granted now are laborious, and recovery from physical activity often takes longer than the activity itself.

Summers a good example (as is winter, which well address in a second). For more than half my life, I couldnt wait for sum-mers boiling cauldron of heat and tropical weather systems.

Daytime highs at or near the triple-digit mark, I found, culled the lightweights. Afternoon tee time at a favorite golf course? No problem. Pretty stretch of fi shy shoreline on a midday? Incoming tide in August? All to myself.

The hotter it got, the better, too. I recall a particularly nasty summer during which Houston, where I live, beat the century mark every day for nearly two weeks. Several old men actually dropped dead on local golf courses.

All the while, I kept chunking lures and hitting balls and taking advantage of light traffi c around my favorite haunts. Other than sweat-stained shirts and darker-than-usual urine (because I was too busy to drink water), summers through young adulthood were just longer days with extra opportunity.

When summer dealt a tropical storm or hurricane, I shuttled an armload of valu-ables from downstairs to upstairs in my loft apartment, racked a board and raced to the beach. Bigger waves meant longer paddles, which meant nothing when my lung capacity

was around that of Snoopy II and my shoul-ders were strong.

Everyone in the rough water questioned the sanity of everyone else in the rough water. None of us ever was more than one bad spill from drowning, but our thirst for big waves wouldnt let us sit out that double-overhead dance.

The dead of winter, in real winters such as 1983 and 1989, was like summer, only colder. Even as a young guy, I was no fan of extreme cold. Rather than retreat from it, though, I just learned to dress for it.

Friends and I played a few rounds of golf back then on days when water hazards were iced (and courses offi cially were closed). We hunted hard back then, too, back when I could eat two cheeseburgers, large fries and a gallon of Coke twice daily and not gain an ounce. So long as you stayed dry, you stayed comfortable, but we hardly ever stayed dry in the rice fi elds west of Houston.

Sub-freezing temperatures had the same impact on sissies as 100-degree days, and that was a problem on waterfowl hunts. It helped, on the prairie, to have enough guns in nearby pastures to keep the birds stirred.

Bays in winter were like courses in sum-mernearly vacant. On the rare occasions when we ran into other fi shermen, odds were good theyd be guys we knew. We were a fraternity, of sorts, our own brand of MENSA, Men Enjoying Not-Sensible Acts.

Ive grown past the bravado now. Got nothing to prove to anyone. I go to bed early and catch a nap any chance I get. I wear sun-screen in summer and extra layers in winter.

Theres a little less hair to warm my head and a little more belly that serves no purpose. I have convinced myself that it aids balance by lowering my center of gravity.

As for those lug nutsMy left knee acts up occasionally from

a meniscus tear that happened during a deer-camp basketball game years ago, with a former Astros fi rst-baseman and some of his buddies. All were half my age and twice

my size.I went up (but not far in hunting boots)

for a jump shot, and one of those guys slammed into mehard. I landed funny on that knee and could barely walk for the rest of the trip. I did kill a big buck, a clean eight-pointer that scored nearly 150 points. Whenever my knee hurts, I block the pain by thinking of that deer.

I broke my left humerus and ripped everything in the same-side shoulder trying to throw a guy out at home, from center fi eld in a pickup softball game, on a cold arm (bad ideaworst pain ever for nearly two months). I broke a foot playing soccer and a hand fl ying off a dirt bike.

Both hips, Im convinced, are working bone-on-bone, long ago having lost their cushiony stuff, whatever it is that cushions our joints. Im like a car thats years past its last lube job, out of alignment and needs new shocksand has some rust.

Im still roadworthy though, and can play golf or fi sh or hunt all day even in summer or winter. It just takes days now, not hours, to recover and repeat. Thank you, ibuprofen.

Youll hear no whining from me except in humor, because I get the joke of my changing condition.

Life has not cheated me. I have a wonder-ful family that includes a devoted, beautiful wife and brilliant, athletic son. And Im blessed to work in a profession thats taken me to places Id probably never have seen otherwise.

Im grateful, too, for having done so much before this old guy stuff crept up and bit me.

Aging can take some things away, but it cant un-ring bells. Heres a little tip: Do all you can while you canand one more: Take pictures, write down your stories, and keep your mind sharp.

Email Doug Pike atContactUs@ shgame.com

by DOUG PIKE :: TF&G Senior Contributing Editor

PIKE on the Edge

1512 Pike.indd 13 11/11/15 10:06 AM

Nature is Not Politically Correct

I FIRST ENCOUNTERED THE CUL-ture war freaks way back in the 1960s on rock-n-roll radio. During interviews about my frightening Amboy Dukes

MotorCity Madhouse R&B&R&R fun-music, the DJs would feign shock and dismay when I articulated the source of my inspiration and high energy animal breeding soundtrack to my soul cleansing, magical time in nature as a bowhunter. Afterall, there is no more demanding scenario than stalking within arrow range of high-strung whitetail deer designed by God to evade sharp stick bearing BBQ addicts such as I.

I am certain Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly had that truism cataloged solidly in their ancestral mental library as their ingenious sonic bombast erupted.

Of course, 99% of the interviewers in those days were stoned out of their minds on various self-infl icted brain-altering chemical warfare trends of the drop out fade away hippie era of disconnect and cowardly aban-donment of individual responsibility. The Bambi cartoon syndrome made perfect sense to these fantasy driven dolts, and to witness them try to rationalize their big animal rights lie made for better comedy than the eventual catching fi re of Richard Pryors afro.

Then we sat down to some sushi and ribs, as in dead sushi and ribs.

As a gung-ho disciplined hunter from the Fred Bear mystical fl ight of the arrow camp, I knew damn well what my wildlife steward-ship responsibilities were and why we give thanks to God every November near the end of the natural annual season of harvest for

His miraculous renewable bounty.The dumbing down of America was

already on the fast track, and witnessing the abject ignorance about sustain yield wildlife management, habitat carrying capacity and ultimate organic venison nutrition was hope-lessly lost on the city kids and their suicidal party of getting high, drooling, puking and dying make believe insanity.

And from this festering lie came the likes of PETA, the Humane Society of the United States, the so called Animal Welfare League, the brain-dead crazies and scam artists like Ingrid Newkirk, Peter Singer, Cleveland Amory, Cass Sunstein and Wayne Pacelle. You know, the hate fi lled A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy freaks.

Lovely, isnt it? We clearly love our dogs, and cats, and horses and pet pigs, but who doesnt know that our Asian and French friends and people around the world eat this stuff and sustain their human lives with ani-mal protein? Have I struck onto something here? Is this a Ted thing?

Of course not. BBQ is BBQ is BBQ is BBQ. Kill em and grill em I always say, and so do a few billion fellow human beings, including the hypocritical animal rights freaks themselves. Even the tofu war-riors pay out a portion of every salad they devour to farmers and ranchers waging total annihilation war on all living creatures inter-fering with their no kill tofu production with weapons of John Deere and Mansanto mass destruction. Nothing, not a single living thing gets out alive from the indiscriminate mass slaughter that is tofu production. Its just that the rest of us dont scam nave people and make a dishonest living off of their embarrassing emotional denial.

I am not condemning Deere, Mansanto or the wonderful American farming/ranch-ing families out there. To the contrary I salute and thank them for their incredible hard work and dedication to feeding the world and sustaining human lives around the globe.

I kill one deer per arrow, whereas a bowl of salad represents the mega-death of every

snake, vole, shrew, ground squirrel, quail, turtle, frog, pheasant, rabbit, ground nesting songbird and every other critter so unfortu-nate as to get in the way of the plow, the disc, the herbicide and pesticide jihad, all for vegetable production.

And be sure to enjoy a nice chalice of Red wine with that vegan meal, for every vineyard operator is more deadly than little ol Whackmaster me if I were to trade in my bow and arrow for a GE Mini-gun.

From death comes life. Vegans, there is blood on your hands. Know it. Anybody?

The vast majority of vegetarians and veg-ans of course know all too well the process by which their preferred cuisine ended up on the table. I do not disparage them.

But when the goofball scam artist at PETA sues the British wildlife photogra-pher to administer the proceeds of selfi es taken by a monkey, the president appoints a crazy animal rights dweeb to be Regulatory Czar, dangerous people-hating animal-lovers threaten to kill me and my family for eat-ing venison and doves, and other assorted bizzarro shenanigans by gangs of loons, Verizon drops The Sportsmans Channel while retaining Al Jezzera, the jury is not still out why Barak Obama was twice elected president. There are that many numbnuts out there.

Meanwhile, right now, tens of millions of American families celebrate the pure, perfect, essential natural season of harvest as hunting season 2015 throttles on, prepar-ing for yet another glorious Thanksgiving of venison, fur, fi n and fowl, balancing the amazing and unstoppable production of organic protein on the hoof, making room for next years new production in the thriving, healthy habitat that hunters, fi shermen and trappers have always demanded, paid for and celebrated

Email Ted Nugent atTNugent@ shgame.com

by TED NUGENT :: TF&G Editor-at-Large

NUGENT in the WildNUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT NUGENT


1512 Nugent.indd 14 11/9/15 3:11 PM

Real Change, Not Just Janitorial Change

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS that happens after some deranged soul goes to a school or mall or other gun-free zone and shoots

a bunch of innocent victims is that a lot of people want to capitalize on the tragedy.

Those opposed to guns point and say we need more gun laws. Those who are pro-gun point and say we need to abolish gun-free zones. Both sides are often insensitive and callous, and the ones I appreciate the least are those who say, The other side is trying to politicize this horrible event for its own gains, while doing exactly the same thing.

This is pretty much what happened, as usual, after the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. No one wins when everyone spends their time blam-ing others, and no one listens while theyre doing the blaming.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims, who are experiencing such terrible pain and loss, are caught in the middle. Both sides want to exploit them, and both sides embarrass themselves and do more harm than good.

The scary thing about the Umpqua shooting is that the murderer specifi cally targeted people because of their personal choice of religion, which is something thats not supposed to happen in America. Matter of fact, I think that was one of the reasons people came here to begin with, before it was a nation, even, so they could worship God, or not, any way they wanted to, and be left alone about it.

But at Umpqua, the killer reportedly asked people if they were Christians, and if they said yes he shot them in the head. If they said no he shot them in a leg. If thats not religious discrimination I have no idea

what it would be.No matter what religion you adhere to,

this should be a wake-up call. You may think that, because youre a Buddhist, or a Hindu, or a Muslim, or Amish, or an atheist, or a Shao-Lin monk, youre exempt. Youre not. You could be next.

People who do this kind of thing are not right in the head. They just want to target someone, and your group is just as targetable as any other.

This is not fair, or logical, or understand-able. Its lifeand sometimes its death. If you ask people, anywhere, if they think it will happen to them, theyll usually say no, maybe someplace else, but not here. Not to us. Not in our town. Until it does.

It will keep happening. This is far from over. Its become almost routine. True, mass killings are statistically down over the past decade, although the ones that hap-pen are more publicized. You hear about them more, and it seems like theyre on the rise when theyre not. Yet theyre still hap-pening, so changes need to be made. Real changes.

Making changes is about 180 degrees from passing laws. Everything these mur-derers have done in their attempts to make names for themselves has been against the law.

No law has ever protected anyone, and no law ever will. Laws only provide for pun-ishment after the fact. Laws are similar to janitors. Once everything is over they make an attempt to clean up the messuntil the next mess.

This didnt used to happen. When I was in high school, people drove their pickups to school, with guns in the gun racks in plain view. The guns were loaded, and they left

them in the parking lot all day with the doors unlocked. No one noticed. No one stole anything. And no one shot anyone.

Matter of fact, when I was a kid, pre-1968, I remember seeing ads in the back of magazines like Guns & Ammo and American Rifl eman offering guns for sale through the mail.

I could have bought semi-automatic rifl es for less than I spend now on a steak dinner, and I could have had them mailed to my P.O. Box. I could have bought the ammo the same way.

I was seven years old.Now you have to prove youre not a

criminal to buy a gun from a dealer. Of course, no one knows what youre planning in the future, and just because someone has never broken a law doesnt mean they wont. But this system isnt making anyone safer, its just irritating the people who arent caus-ing the problems.

Obviously, availability of guns isnt the trouble. Otherwise, this would have been going on when I was a child, when guns were cheap and available to all and there were zero background checks.

This problem can be fi xed, but laws wont do it. Our nation is bleeding out, and were arguing over the brand of bandage to apply. No one, to date, has dialed 911.

I want to extend my most sincere con-dolences to those affected by the Umpqua murderer. You never asked for this, and you dont deserve it. No one should have to bear the weight you must bear now. I cant claim to know what youre going through, but I know its not right.

The saddest thing is that its not neces-sary.

Email Kendal Hemphill atContactUs@ shgame.com

by KENDAL HEMPHILL :: TF&G Political Editor

TF&G COMMENTARY


1512 Commentary.indd 15 11/9/15 3:02 PM

Come to Santa you big, beautiful redfi sh!

As my camera fi red away, it was hard

not to laugh as Marcus Hefl in dressed in

full Santa gear battled a bull redfi sh on a

15-foot surf rod at Sea Rim State Park

near Sabine Pass.

It was not funny because of absurdity, but because I kept

envisioning some kids pulling up on the beach with their family

seeing Santa with a rod doubled over.

Just for the record Hefl in does not usually fi sh in a Santa

costume but he fi shes a lot. And he does wear a Santa suit

during the Christmas season. In fact, he and his wife Debbie

serve as Santa and Mrs. Claus for children throughout

Southeast Texas.

As Hefl in hauled in the 40-inch-plus inch bull you see him

holding on the cover of this issue, he couldnt help but laugh a

bit himself. Ho! Ho! Ho! Back to the surf you go, he said

as he handed the fi sh to his friend to release into the sandy-

green waters of the Sea Rim surf.

Hefl in is the founder of Christian Surf Fishing Adventures,

a group he started to serve the Lord and his fellow fi shermen.

I proudly serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and I wanted to

reach people for Him. I thought about how he told Peter he

would be a fi sher of men, so here we are, Hefl in said.

For nearly 10 years, Hefl in has hauled his trailer full of fi sh-

ing gear down to Southeast Texas area beaches and offered

free fi shing for anyone who shows up. He typically posts a

message on social media, gets his friends to share, and is

greeted with people ranging from teenagers to senior citizens

and from greenhorns to experts.

I think everyone should have access to fi shing. That is one

reason we do what we do. You can show up, and we provide

bait and tackle and show you how to catch fi sh from the beach.

We catch everything from croakers to sharks, but we sort of

specialize in bull redfi sh.


Fea 1-Surf Santa.indd 16 11/9/15 2:55 PM


Hitting the Beachwith an

Honest to GoodnessFather Christmas

story and photos by Chester Moore

Fea 1-Surf Santa.indd 17 11/9/15 2:55 PM

When asked how many bull redfi sh he has caught and released Hefl in said, many hun-dreds if not thousands. thats not including the hundreds we have put other anglers on.

Hefl in has had many health challenges including diabetes, a series of strokes includ-ing a severe one. Instead of buckling under the pressure, he rose up and decided he needed to help those who needed some help.

Weve had powerful testimonies of how the Lord has helped people on our trips. Even just from a practical standpoint, it has been amazing seeing people who have never fi shed get hooked. And a lot of people who maybe gave up on it because they thought it was too expensive get back into it, he said.

At the request of park warden/super-intendent Nathan Londenberg, he holds monthly surf fi shing clinics for Sea Rim State Park. These clinics have been popular enough to extend into winter. We were just going to do summer, but it looks like well go beyond the fall into winter which is fi ne by me, he said.

Fishing in state parks does not require a license and for those who maybe want to try out fi shing for the fi rst time or get back into it, it only costs $3 per adult (children 12 and under free) to get into Sea Rim for example.

Our state parks all across the state are

great places to fi sh whether you are after cat-fi sh in freshwater or bull sharks in the surf, Hefl in said. Many people nowadays have trouble paying the bills so fi shing often gets pushed to the side. We are honored to get to help them out.

Hefl in is not doing this out of abundance but at times scarcity, yet he always man-ages to keep a smile on his face. During the Christmas season, he and his wife Debbie put smiles on many childrens faces. We just love doing the Santa thing. It is so won-derful to talk with children and see how pure and innocent they are, Hefl in said.

I have seen them greet dozens of kids at a low-income housing. I always point them to the true reason for the reason and try to give them all an encouraging word, Hefl in said.

Whether it is visiting children in the hospital or making house calls, it is all part of the Hefl ins calling. Helping people is important to us, he said.

And so is teamwork. Not only are Marcus and Debbie a dedicated Christmastime team, but also he has a number of anglers who help him out with his surf fi shing adven-tures. I could not do it without my friends who help me out when I get tired and help make Christian Surf Fishing Adventures something positive, he said.

The photo shoot for this story went unusually smooth as a cold front hit the area the night before, leaving a cool autumn breeze blowing against the surf. I did not expect Hefl in to be fully adorned when I arrived, but upon seeing him watching the lines in his gear, there was no doubt he embodies the idea of Santa.

When my daughter Faith came home from school that day, I had one of the photos up on my computer screen.

Dad, whats Santa doing holding a fi sh? she asked.

Hefl in has been Santa for her since we adopted her from China and she eagerly awaits his annual visits.

Well baby, Santa likes to fi sh and he is pretty good at catching the big one.

Cool! she exclaimed.Cool indeed.

To contact Marcus Hefl in call 409-659-9437 or email [email protected].

18 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO: CHESTER MOORE;VIDEO CLIP: ELLIOTT DONNELLEY

Marcus He in does not usually sh in a Santa suit. But he does sh a lot, and he does wear the suit a lot during the Christmas season.

DIGITAL EDITION VIDEO: Chester Moore interviews Surf Santa.

Fea 1-Surf Santa.indd 18 11/11/15 10:13 AM

Bumbling Grumblings

I SPENT FOUR DAYS IN THE HOS-pital back in October. A mean case of bronchitis quickly morphed into pneu-monia in my right lung. Long story

short, I was stuck in a hospital bed for four days, or until I was able to sweet talk my doctor into letting me convalesce at home.

Perhaps the worst part of the whole ordealaside from a corps of nurses that talked to me in scatological terms normally reserved for a two-year-old and the double dose of Colace thrice daily (really? It was my LUNGS that werent moving anything)was the C-PAP machine I had to endure to help my breathing. This Darth Vader-esque device had to be conceived by a descendant of the Marquis de Sade himself. You are stuck in your bed, unable to move much because youre attached to this infernal machine that pushes a steady stream of air into your lungs. All you can do is lie there, scare the hell out of anyone who comes to visit you, and think.

Fortunately for me, thinking usually means writing. The end result was a series of those random ramblings I plague you with, Gentle Reader, every few months. So there are plenty of thoughts to write, including:

TEXAS DODGED a major bullet with the latest episode of Red Tide. Most estimates measure that between 1 and 2 million fi sh were killed by the bloom. That is far better than the 4 million that were claimed by the 2011 bloom.

By and large, the majority of the fi sh killed were mullet, menhaden, croaker, and other forage species. It still was heartbreaking to fi nd the 44-inch redfi sh dead on the beach mixed in with the dead pogies.

The frustrating part of red tide is that fi sheries biologists can do nothing about it.

There is no algaecide that can kill or mitigate the outbreaks. Even if there were, the blooms are too widespread for a poison to be effective.

As of right now, the only thing anyone can do is wait for the bloom to die off on its own, or for a big cold front to drop water tempera-tures enough to kill it off.

HEALTH TIP: everyone reading this should seriously consider getting both their fl u shot and pneumococcal shot this winter. Doctors are predicting more intense than normal fl u season with a pneumonia kicker lurking about and waiting for an especially weakened patient.

It would be a real shame for someone to have to cancel a big trip for that trophy trout from Baffi n Bay because the ick got him or her, or, worse still, end up in the hospital get-ting Colace three times a day.

HERES A well-kept secret about the Lower Laguna Madre: the Arroyo Colorado is not only a hot spot for speckled trout, redfi sh, and fl ounder (plus the occasional snook and tarpon), its also loaded with alligator gars. Up near the Rio Hondo Bridge and above it is always good for some great sport from four- to six-foot gars.

These gnarly suckers can put up quite the tussle on trout tackle. The prime time for the armored leviathans is summer into early fall, but theyll take bait year-round. If other more desirable fi sh arent cooperating, it never hurts to save your day by getting some fresh mullet, a few wire leaders and 5/0 hooks and chasing alligator gar. Besides, theyre great eating. It takes a little work to get to the meat, but its more than worth the effort.

IM GETTING a little paranoid here. I havent heard from any PETA twits in quite some time. Theyre usually good for sending me e-mails about better, more exciting sub-jects to write about besides torturing and killing your fi nny friends, such as how to use monofi lament line to hang dreamcatch-ers and other crafts, or using fi shing lures as colorful and unique Christmas ornaments.

There hasnt been a peep from them in months. Could I have hurt their feelings?

Lord, I hope not. I need the entertain-ment, especially since WWE has gotten so frightfully dull.

SPEAKING OF WWE, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes passed away this past summer. I mention this because, along with being one of the most popular wrestlers of the past 50 years and being a true Texan, regardless of where he lived, Dream was also an ardent outdoorsman. I was fortunate enough to have met him a few times.

After our fi rst meeting he always remem-bered me by name. Funny thing, in the times I visited with him, we never talked wrestling. We talked a lot about hunting and fi shing, which was fi ne with me. I just loved being around one of my all-time favorite wrestlers (along with Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Ivan Putski, and Mr. Wrestling II). Like Don Zaidle and Bert Randolph Sugar, I will miss never getting to talk to Dusty ever again.

This past October, Dustys two sons, Dustin and Cody, spent a day deer hunting on their Texas lease and took some time to dedicate a monument beneath their fathers favorite deer blind. That was a nice touch.

I CANT be a fi shing guide. A good friend of mine recounted taking a client out on the water one recent morning and having a devil of a time fi nding fi sh due to a frontal trough that had settled over the LLM. He worked hard to fi nd a few fi sh, but the client behaved like a total ass, including loudly questioning the captains abilities and even saying he was going to Google the numbers of local captains.

Fishing guides have to put up with this kind of abuse all too often. I dont think I could.

Colacethree times a day for four days. Do you know what that does to a mans body?

Email Calixto Gonzales atContactUs@ shgame.com

by CALIXTO GONZALES :: TF&G Saltwater Editor

Texas SALTWATER


1512 Saltwater.indd 19 11/9/15 3:11 PM

COMPOSITE PHOTO: TF&G

Stories of Big Hogs Can ReachMythic Proportions

(while based on about as much reality as a myth)

by Chester Moore20 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E

Fea 2-Hogs.indd 20 11/11/15 10:19 AM

emember Hogzilla?

Thats the name bestowed

upon a huge hog killed in 2004

by Chris Griffi n on Ken

Holyoaks hunting preserve.

As the story goes, the hog

was 12 feet long and weighed

1,000 pounds. This sensa-

tional story circulated on the

Internet and become a media

sensation with about half of the interested parties scream-

ing hoax and the others amazed that a wild boar would

get so big.

This story became such a sensation the National

Geographic Society fi lmed an investigative documentary

about it and exhumed the body. Their verdict was the hog

actually weighed 800 pounds and was between 7.5 and 8

feet long, which is still humongous by wild hog standards.

However, they also found through DNA testing the ani-

mal was a hybrid of a wild and domestic hogs, most likely

a Hampshire.

Monster Pig was allegedly even bigger.

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | 21PHOTO:

*

*Not Actual Size

Fea 2-Hogs.indd 21 11/9/15 2:56 PM

Thats the name the media gave to an alleged 1,051-pound hog killed by 11-year-old Jamison Stone at Lost Creek Plantation near Anniston, Alabama. He killed the hog with a .50 caliber handgun shooting the animal eight times causing a Hogzilla-like media sensation.

The problem is there were holes in the story from the beginning. The scale used to weigh the animal goes in 10-pound incre-ments so a weight of 1,051-pounds would be impossible. The fatal blow to the story came a few days later when an Associated Press story revealed the hog was not only domestic but was named Fred.

Phil Blissitt said he purchased the six-week-old pig in December 2004 as a Christmas gift for his wife, Rhonda, and they sold it to the owner of Lost Creek Plantation after deciding to get rid of all the pigs at their farm. He told The Anniston Star in a story Friday that the sale was four days before the hog was killed in a 150-acre fenced area of the plantation.

That Monster Pig was a purely domes-tic hog was not a surprise to me in any way. I suspected it, Hogzilla and most of the other giant hog photos circulating on the Internet hail from domestic stock.

I started to question the origins of some of the big hog photos I was getting from read-ers a decade ago. I received one photo of a hunter with a hog that was in the 700-pound range that looked like a pure Duroc.

Duroc is a domestic species that is a dark red in color, grows large tusks and gets way bigger than the hogs we have running around our deer leases. Although truly pure wild hogs rarely grow larger than 500 pounds, the domestic ones can get huge if fed constantly.

Sometimes however the lines are blurred such as the case of Hog Kong taken in August 2004 by Larry Earley of Lessburg, Florida. It weighed an alleged 1,140-pounds. Earley said he shot the pig after spotting it rooting around along the edge of a pond on his 22-acre farm.

An article in the Florida-Times Union, quoted Robert Bradow, who owns Smokin Oak Sausage Co. in Branford and processes meat for Suwannee River Ranch and other area hunting preserves. Bradow said he witnessed Earleys hog before he processed it and was stunned by its size.

That thing was unbelievably huge, the biggest hog Ive ever seen, he said. Weve processed a bunch of hogs, and probably

450 pounds is the biggest weve ever seen. The article explained that Bradow used a

meat-processing formula, to estimate the hog weighed between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds.

There was more than 300 pounds of boneless meat, he said. We have a rule of thumb, the thirds ruleone-third for the head and hide, one-third for the internal vis-cera, one-third for the carcass. My math tells me you are looking at 1,140 pounds, almost 1,200 pounds. He was a beast.

Frank The Hawgfather Moore of Killer Instinct Outdoors (409-454-6003) spends almost all of his hunting time in pursuit of hogs and additional time studying their habits.

He said that although the bulk of the porky media darlings have been domestic, there are some legit monsters out there.

Any time you get a hog over say 400 pounds it is a legit monster. Five hundreds pounds is a giant and anything over that is a rarity but such hogs do exist, he said.

He recounts one example on an isolated island deep in the swamps of Louisiana where a landowner kept Durocs and Yorkshires in an enclosed area. A storm loosed all of them.

They got loose during the storm and mingled in with the feral hogs that were in the area, and you have this genetic of really big hogs that will show up. They tend to be bigger than average because that domestic strain really boosted their size.

People need to remember that feral hogs are just thatferal. They are the descen-dants of domestic hogs gone wild. With some dating back to the original stock

brought over by early Spanish explorers to various domestic breeds and even Eurasian boars stocked on certain properties, our hogs are a mish mash of genetics.

With that said, there is a chance there are some legitimate, wild monster-sized hogs roaming parts of the country because of what I call the x-factor. Put simply it means in nature virtually anything is possible and some hogs of Hogzilla size and larger could spring up from wild stocks.

For years scientists thought that reports of giant peccaries roaming the rainforests of Brazil were bogus but in 2007, researchers confi rmed a separate subspecies that grows much larger than the collared and white-lipped variety.

Science has been wrong time again about the size, range, life habits and even existence of certain wild creatures.

If there is a legitimate, wild successor to Hogzilla in my future, I hope I see it before it sees me. We hope you can help us in this search. If you have photos of giant hogs you have killed or captured images (or video) on game cameras email cmoore@fi shgame.com. We will use them as part of a special new project.

In addition, beginning in this months digital issue, look for monthly videos from Frank The Hawgfather Moore and his Killer Instinct Outdoors crew. They will be all hog and go deep into a fascinating topic.

22 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTOS CHESTER MOORE

Brandon Powell with a massive hog shot near Deweyville. In areas where domestic stock has bred with feral hogs gigantic hogs can appear. This seemed to be the case with this free-ranging beast.

Fea 2-Hogs.indd 22 11/9/15 2:56 PM

Fea 2-Hogs.indd 23 11/9/15 2:56 PM

24 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO: CANSTOCK; MAP, TF&G

Fea 3-Ducks.indd 24 11/9/15 2:57 PM

THE FIRST SPLIT OF THE 2015-16

Texas duck season has come and gone in the North

and South zones, and the second split is set to get

underway on Dec. 12.

I dont know how the seasons fi rst

round (it ended Nov. 29) panned out

where you hunt. But if it was anything

like the early season hunting that takes

place on the big reservoirs around east-

ern Texas where I live, spotty might be

the most accurate term to summarize

things.

In a normal year, East Texas

duck hunting begins with a

trickle then gradually gains steam

once fall gives way to winter and

cold fronts begin to increase.

Thats not saying you cant have

a profi table shoot in weather better

suited for fl ip fl ops and shorts than

neoprenes. Still, the odds are generally a lot

better in December and January. Thats when the

larger fl ights of mallards, canvasbacks, gadwall, shov-

ers, pintail and other migrant waterfowl ride the years

coldest weather southward.

Duck hunting guide Lance Vick of Mineola has

spent the last 16 years guiding big water hunters on

Lake Fork. Vick, who also guides bass fi shing trips

on the 27,000-acre reservoir, has enjoyed some good

early season shoots over the years. However, he says,

the hunting action is routinely better during the second

split.


WaterfowlHuntingon the StatesBiggestReservoirs

story by Matt Williams


Usually, the later it gets the better the hunting gets, because thats when we typically see the larger fl ights of birds, Vick said. But it can vary from year to year, depending on the weather, availability of food, water level and other conditions.

Last year, things kind of fi zzled out early, and I was pretty much done with ducks by the time the second split was over. But thats normally not the case. Usually plenty of ducks are still hanging around late in the season, even after the second split is over.

Its going to be interesting to see how things work out this year. Weve got more water than we have had in a long time. Im looking forward to it, Vick said.

So is Jared Laing. Laing is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments point man for East Texas waterfowl hunting. Duck numbers are at a record high, and popula-tions for several species are well above their longtime averages. Laing says signifi cantly more water in our reservoirs compared to the last few previous seasons means things

are shaping up for an outstanding duck hunting season. The key to bringing it all together is Jack Frost, he said. Cold weather up north is what pushes waves of ducks our way.

Big Reservoirs = Big Water

According to Laing, one of the main fac-tors that lends itself to good duck hunting on big reservoirs is the vast amounts of water on the landscape.

The more water, the more area water-fowl have to choose from and fi nd something they like, he said. Going into duck season, many of our reservoirs are at or near capac-ity.

Laing pointed out that what makes a reservoir attractive to migrating waterfowl hinges heavily on the availability of preferred forage, and that can vary depending on whether a lakes water level has a tendency to fl uctuate from year-to-year or remain fairly stable. Water level also can have a bearing

as to what types of ducks are more attracted to one reservoir than the next.

The Main Attraction

What makes a lake productive from a dabbling duck (mallard, gadwall, pintail, shoveler, widgeon and teal) perspective is fl uctuating water levels, Laing said. Lakes that dry out as the summer progresses and re-fl ood in the fall/winter typically grow more desirable seed-producing plants than do lakes with more stable water levels.

On the other hand, divers (canvasbacks, ring necks, redheads and scaup) tend to focus more on stable level reservoirs, or deeper areas of widely fl uctuating water lev-els and lakes with good beds of submerged aquatic vegetation.

10 Tips for Big Reservoir HuntingAS EARLIER MENTIONED, THE SEC-

26 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

Usually, the later it gets the better the hunting gets, because thats when we typically see the larger fl ights of birds, Vick said. But it can vary from year to year, depending on the weather, availability of food, water level and other conditions.

Last year, things kind of fi zzled out early, and I was pretty much done with ducks by the time the second split was over. But thats normally not the case. Usually plenty of ducks are still hanging around late in the season, even after the second split is

Its going to be interesting to see how things work out this year. Weve got more water than we have had in a long time. Im looking forward to it, Vick said.

are shaping up for an outstanding duck hunting season. The key to bringing it all together is Jack Frost, he said. Cold weather up north is what pushes waves of ducks our way.

Big Reservoirs = Big Water

According to Laing, one of the main fac-tors that lends itself to good duck hunting on big reservoirs is the vast amounts of water on the landscape.

The more water, the more area water-fowl have to choose from and fi nd something they like, he said. Going into duck season, many of our reservoirs are at or near capac-

as to what types of ducks are more attracted to one reservoir than the next.

The Main Attraction

What makes a lake productive from a dabbling duck (mallard, gadwall, pintail, shoveler, widgeon and teal) perspective is fl uctuating water levels, Laing said. Lakes that dry out as the summer progresses and re-fl ood in the fall/winter typically grow more desirable seed-producing plants than do lakes with more stable water levels.

On the other hand, divers (canvasbacks, ring necks, redheads and scaup) tend to focus more on stable level reservoirs, or

Record duck numbers and more water have raised expectations for this season, from both hunters and the experts.


ond split of the Texas duck season is typically the best when it comes to producing consistently good shoots on big lakes across eastern Texas. To help give newcomers to the sport a little insight, I asked Laing to provide a few hunting tips gleaned through years of hunting experience. I also asked him to provide a list of what he sees as the Top 10 big reservoirs in East

Texas for duck hunting. Here is

what he had to say:

1. SCOUTING: There is nothing I can say that can improve hunter suc-

cess on reservoirs more than fi nding birds. Get out and scout. 2. HUNT WHERE YOU FIND THEM: After you ffi nd birds, fi gure out how to get right where they are, then hunt right there. Not 50 yards away.

3. BE MOBILE: If lots of bbirds are going down somewhere else and youre not having success, move to them. Dont be idle by sit-ting and watching birds pour in somewhere else, move to where they are going. There is nothing you can do to call, decoy, or oth-erwise lure birds to you, if they want to be somewhere else.

4. THE RIGHT SPREAD: Use appropri-ate decoy set-ups. The typical East Texas hunter uses two dozen mallard decoys and two spinning-wing decoys. Use something different from that, especially on the reser-

voirs where you see multiple species. Match your decoys to what you see while scouting, or what you know is in the area.

5. STAY OFF THE CALL: Resist the urge to call too much. Many folks think the more and harder they blow, the more birds they will attract. The truth is actually quite the opposite. The more you call the less they may want to come in.

A good indication is that if the birds are talking and are vocal, then you can call. If not, then nothing youre going to say

anything with a call is going to change the birds minds.

6. MIND YOUR MANNERS: Be courteous tto other hunters, they have the same right to be there

as you do. A good example of this is not calling while birds are working

an adjacent hunting party. Also, get there early to claim your spot, and dont be angry if someone beats you to it. Reservoir hunting is on a fi rst

come-fi rst served basis.

7. KEEP DECOYS MOVING: Although there are many gadgets for maintaining motion in the decoys, I like to keep things simple and prefer the jerk-string to many of the more technological methods.

8. STAY HID: Hide well and keep move-ment to a minimum with incoming birds. Waterfowl can see movement and off-color items very well. Conceal yourself with as natural-looking substances as possible. Use a headnet or facepaint to conceal your shiny face and dont look directly up at incoming ducks.

9. STAY QUIET: Keep sound to a mini-mum with incoming birds. Waterfowl can hear fairly well, thats why it works some-times to call them, so keep noises to a mini-mum while birds are working.

10. DONT SKYBLAST: Know your effective range with the choke and load you will be shooting that day. For most shooters it is less than 35 yards. However, many shooters routinely take shots at birds farther than 60 yards!

T E X A S F I S H & G A M E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | 27MAP GRAPHIC: TF&G

ond split of the Texas duck season

Texas for duck hunting. Here is

what he had to say:

1. SCOUTING: There is nothing I can say that can improve hunter suc-

cess on reservoirs more than fi nding birds. Get out and scout.

2. HUNT WHERE YOU FIND THEM: After you ffi nd birds, fi gure out how to get right where they are, then hunt right there. Not 50 yards away.

3. BE MOBILE: If lots of bbirds are going down somewhere else and youre not having success, move to them. Dont be idle by sit-ting and watching birds pour in somewhere else, move to where they are going. There is nothing you can do to call, decoy, or oth-

voirs where you see multiple species. Match your decoys to what you see while scouting, or what you know is in the area.

5. STAY OFF THE CALL: urge to call too much. Many folks think the more and harder they blow, the more birds they will attract. The truth is actually quite the opposite. The more you call the less they may want to come in.

A good indication is that if the birds are talking and are vocal, then you can call. If not, then nothing youre going to say

anything with a call is going to change the birds minds.

they have the same right to be there as you do. A good example of this

is not calling while birds are working an adjacent hunting party. Also, get there early to claim your spot, and dont be angry if someone beats you to it. Reservoir hunting is on a fi rst

come-fi rst served basis.

7. KEEP DECOYS MOVING: there are many gadgets for maintaining motion in the decoys, I like to keep things simple and prefer the jerk-string to many of the more technological methods.

8. STAY HID: ment to a minimum with incoming birds. Waterfowl can see movement and off-color items very well. Conceal yourself with as natural-looking substances as possible. Use a headnet or facepaint to conceal your shiny face and dont look directly up at incoming ducks.

9. STAY QUIET: mum with incoming birds. Waterfowl can hear fairly well, thats why it works some-times to call them, so keep noises to a mini-mum while birds are working.

10. DONT SKYBLAST: effective range with the choke and load you

Top 10East TexasDuck HuntingLakes1 Toledo Bend: 181,600 acres

2 Sam Rayburn: 114,500 acres

3 Lake Fork: 27,264 acres

4 Lake Tawakoni, 38,879 acres

5 Wright Patman, 18,994 acres

6 Cedar Creek, 32,623 acres

7 Caddo Lake, 26,800 acres

8 Richland Chambers 41,356 acres

9 Lake of the Pines, 16,919 acres

10 Cooper, 19,305 acres

10

9

7

3

8 6

5

4

2

1



Chain Pickerel,

Kin to

Beasts

from Northern

Waters, Bring

a Tough, Ugly

Fight to East

Texas Lakes

Storyand Photos by

JohnN. Felsher

Fea 4-Pickerel.indd 28 11/9/15 2:39 PM


B ARELY RIPPLING THE SURFACE, THE WHITE spinnerbait pushed a bulge of water, creating a vee-shaped wake with its chrome blades as it sputtered over submerged grass. Instantly, the bait disap-peared in a cloud of mist and fury as a large predator annihilated the temptation.This is a good one! To win this tournament, we just need one big kicker bass and this

one is fighting like a sea monster. I see green in the water. It must be over 25 inches long, the angler exclaimed.

Nuts! Its another pickerel.


Southern anglers often consider the chain pickerel nothing more than a nuisance to avoid when trying to catch other species, but the toothy predators can provide extremely exciting, hard-hitting sport. Sometimes erro-neously called pike, chain pickerel share many traits with their family members, northern pike and muskellunge, but they dont grow nearly as large.

These toothy predators rarely exceed 30 inches long or weigh more than three pounds. The world record pickerel, caught near Homerville, Ga., weighed 9.38 pounds.

Also called grass pickerel, southern pike or eastern pickerel, chain pickerel occur abundantly across the South where they fi nd very little fi shing pressure. They range from southern Canada to Florida and west to the Mississippi River valley west to Texas.

According to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) offi cials, the chain pickerel is equipped with a large mouth, well adapted for piscivory, like its close relatives, northern pike and muskellunge.

The lower jaw, which extends farther forward than the upper jaw, is equipped with four sensory pores on the underside.

The dorsal and anal fi ns are set well back on the body.

Chain pickerel are usually olive-green or yellowish-brown on the back and sides, shading to a creamy yellow underneath. There is a distinctive pattern of interlock-ing dark bands on the back and sides that is reminiscent of a chain-link fencehence their name.

Not too many people specifi cally target them, but they catch pickerel incidental to bass fi shing, said noted fi sheries biologist Bob Wattendorf.

Many bass anglers consider them bait thieves and avoid areas with lots of pickerel. Pickerel compete with bass for food, but they have existed side by side with bass for millions of years.

Pickerel love vegetation and prefer slug-gish systems and backwaters with little cur-rent. Using their excellent camoufl aged col-oration, they hide in thick matted grass, lily pads, hydrilla and other vegetation. When they see something they like, they fl ash out from their lair with incredible quickness.

Ive always caught pickerel in the back-waters and up the creeks around weeds, advised Cliff JR Mundinger, Jr., a Florida-based fi shing guide who actually targets pickerel along with largemouth.

Pickerel are very exciting fi sh to catch,

he said. They dont get nearly as big as pike, but when they hit a bait, you know it. A three-pound chain pickerel will put up a great fi ght.

Pickerel often prey upon the same species as largemouth bass. Being highly aggressive predators, pickerel primarily feed upon fi sh including threadfi n shad, wild shiners, pan-fi sh, minnows and other succulent morsels. These vicious and opportunistic predators occasionally eat crawfi sh, snakes, frogs and even mice or small birds that venture too close to the water.

Almost any lure or bait that might tempt largemouth bass might provoke a vicious strike from a chain pickerel. Many bass anglers catch pickerel on spinnerbaits, weed-less spoons, shad-, bream- or bass-colored crankbaits, and similar lures.

The elongated green torpedoes occasion-ally hit topwater baits and especially like weedless frogs buzzed across grass mats. Pickerel hit with considerable violence and aggressively pursue anything that might look like food. When hooked, they put up a great fi ght with spirited runs, powerful lunges and sometimes even jump like a largemouth.

My two favorite baits to catch pickerel are spinnerbaits and jerkbaits, Mundinger advised. Pickerel absolutely love a jerkbait because they are primarily fi sh feeders. I

30 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | T E X A S F I S H & G A M E PHOTOS: JOHN N. FELSHER

Chain pickerel resemble northern pike and muskie, but unlike their monster cousins of the north, they rarely exceed 30 inches.

These aggressive predators hit almost any type of bass bait, such as a spinnerbait.


also like to catch them on topwater frogs run through the lily pads.

Live baits work particularly well for attracting pickerel. Any baitfi sh might pro-voke a strike. Pickerel particularly love river shiners, a popular bass bait. Crappie anglers also catch them when fi shing weedy edges with minnows or threadfi n shad. When intentionally fi shing for these fi sh, many anglers use short steel leaders to prevent them from biting the line in half with their razor teeth.

These abundant fi sh can provide exhila-rating sport on light tackle. Seldom pres-sured, they almost always hit any tempting morsel that crosses their duck-like noses. Anglers just need to penetrate through their vegetated lairs to get at to them.

According to TPWD, In Texas chain pickerel spawn between December and February. Strings of sticky eggs are depos-ited on aquatic vegetation and are subse-quently fertilized.

There is no parental care. When the young hatch, they feed on plankton, aquatic insects or even their own siblings. When they reach about three inches, their diet becomes

almost exclusively other fi sh. Individuals that shift to a diet of fi sh earliest tend to grow faster. The species prefers cover and is most often found in patches of aquatic vegetation. In general, they lie in wait and strike when unsuspecting prey swims their way.

Fishing for chain pickerel is basically a winter-time activity in Texas. It begins with the fi rst real cold front in the fall and continues until March or April when water temperatures begin to warm. Like northern pike, chain pickerel are bony, but are usu-ally considered tasty. Although the national record is more than nine pounds, the Texas state record is 4.75 pounds and measures 23.75 inches.

Several guides will occasionally put cli-ents on pickerel, but we could only fi nd one that advertises it. Check out Fly Fishing Forks webpage at www.fl yfi shingfork.com/texas.html for information on their trips on various East Texas water bodies.

For best pike action check out Lake O the Pines, Caddo, Bob Sandlin, Cypress Springs and Daingerfi eld State Park.

Matt Bergantino takes care to unhook a toothy chain pick-erel.


Self Defense by STEVE LAMASCUSTactical :: Concealed Carry & DUSTIN ELLERMANN

TEXAS Dept. of DEFENSEby &

Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of Dept. of DEFENSEDEFENSEDEFENSEDEFENSEDEFENSE

.45 Versus 9mm

THE ARGUMENT ABOUT whether the .45 ACP is better than the 9mm Luger has been going on for more than a century

now. I guess almost every gun writer who writes about handguns and their cartridges has taken a swing at the issue, at one time or another.

So,just becausehere is my take on the subject.

The .45 ACP was introduced along with the Colt Model 1911. It was the replacement for the military .38 Long Colt revolver and the .45 Colt caliber Colt New Service revolver. The reason for the change was that during the Philippine insurrection (1898 to 1902) the .38 had proved totally inadequate as a manstopper.

A soldier could shoot a Moro juramen-tado fi ghter full of .38 caliber holes and he would just keep coming. The situation was so bad that still-serviceable Colt single-action Army 1873 revolvers in .45 Colt were brought out of mothballs and rushed to the Philippines to give soldiers a hand-gun that had the power to get the job done.

The Colt 1911 was the U.S. Armys issue sidearm from the date of introduction until 1985 when the U.S. military adopted the Beretta 9mm as a repl

texas fish & game december 2015

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