3.8 Million Fish Dead

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goofiefoot
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3.8 Million Fish Dead

Post by goofiefoot »

Texas Parks and Wildlife posted an article this week on their assessment so far of the fish kill from the February freeze. The numbers sound alarming, but it's far better than we first thought!

I put together a video of my thoughts on these findings, as well as a Rockport area update:

https://youtu.be/BOa_S72rSsE

I'm glad we have at least an initial answer to how best to move forward. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
goofiefoot
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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Kayak Kid
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

Post by Kayak Kid »

I believe that the vast majority, if not all, members of this forum will do whatever they feel necessary to improve the recovery of our game fish. However, excluding obvious law breakers, we should always remind ourselves that those who choose not to act as we think they should, have a legal right to do so. Openly judging the fishing decisions of strangers serves no purpose what so ever. I have seen instances where it might even lead to someone's bodily harm.

The instance I refer to was in reference to my nicely suggesting to a man with whom I was sharing the Galveston Island State Park cleaning station, that he might consider measuring the specs he catches, because the fish he was cleaning looked under legal size. He didn't appreciate my suggestion and unsuccessfully proceeded to try and physically intimidate me.
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karstopo
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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I’m not super big on confrontation on the water, but there’s been an incident or two things got close to punches thrown. Sometimes you get into something and it’s hard to find an acceptable way out.

I’d confront a thief, have confronted a thief, that did end up with punches thrown and the thief escaping in a previously arranged getaway car. Fish and game theives are still thieves, but there’s sense in calling a warden versus taking a bullet or something like that for someone that’s keeping 13” trout or 18” redfish. Hassling people for keeping legal fish is obnoxious and wrong.
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Ron Mc
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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karstopo wrote:.. Hassling people for keeping legal fish is obnoxious and wrong.
It's also a Class B Misdemeanor in Texas.
Harassment of Hunters, Trappers, or Anglers
Under the Sportsmen’s Rights Act (Parks and Wildlife Code, §62.0125), harassment of hunters, trappers, or anglers is punishable by a fine of $200 to $2,000 and/or 180 days in jail.
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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karstopo wrote:I’m not super big on confrontation on the water, but there’s been an incident or two things got close to punches thrown. Sometimes you get into something and it’s hard to find an acceptable way out.

I’d confront a thief, have confronted a thief, that did end up with punches thrown and the thief escaping in a previously arranged getaway car. Fish and game theives are still thieves, but there’s sense in calling a warden versus taking a bullet or something like that for someone that’s keeping 13” trout or 18” redfish. Hassling people for keeping legal fish is obnoxious and wrong.
Smart man, calling TPW have netted me over $800 for Operation Game Thief.
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Ron Mc
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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that will buy some nice reels, Tombo.
Any sportsman should have Operation Game Thief in their cell phone Contacts.
GRTU goes one step further, with the local Game Wardens' cell phone numbers listed on lease passes.
ben_beyer
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

Post by ben_beyer »

The best thing to do when someone is doing something legal that you disagree with is to turn a blind eye.

I will practice catch and release (CNR) for the most part this year because I think the kill was bigger than 3.8 million when you dive into the data that TPWD used.

Personally it seems Flounder and Redfish came out OK and the reason why I will practice mostly CNR with those is they will be the species people will go to if they can't catch Trout. I do plan on doing the The Salty Yak Pak Matagorda Island trip in May and I hope to catch my first few Flounder and that they are legal since food for part of the trip comes from the bay. I will pack meals in case all I catch is Trout because that will be 100% CNR for me.

Others are free to do as they wish within legal limits.
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JW FunGuy
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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We had a couple of TPWD game wardens come and talk at a New Braunfels Fly Fishers meeting recently and they strongly suggested calling them if you see the law being broken. Don’t say anything to the person just slip away and call, you can also text, if one is not available they will send it to another officer. I have also got a license plate number and gave it to an officer, he went to his house and busted him!
We are just in the tip of this and time will tell how much all those baitfish kills will effect the whole gamefish population.
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

Post by ben_beyer »

ben_beyer wrote:The best thing to do when someone is doing something legal that you disagree with is to turn a blind eye.

I will practice catch and release (CNR) for the most part this year because I think the kill was bigger than 3.8 million when you dive into the data that TPWD used.

Personally it seems Flounder and Redfish came out OK and the reason why I will practice mostly CNR with those is they will be the species people will go to if they can't catch Trout. I do plan on doing the The Salty Yak Pak Matagorda Island trip in May and I hope to catch my first few Flounder and that they are legal since food for part of the trip comes from the bay. I will pack meals in case all I catch is Trout because that will be 100% CNR for me.

Others are free to do as they wish within legal limits.
I know Black Drum were also affected by the freeze but does anyone know how often they are kept for eating?

Something I was thinking about is targeting Drum on the Matagorda Island trip since they are kept much less than Trout, Redfish, and Flounder.
Last edited by ben_beyer on Thu Mar 18, 2021 7:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ron Mc
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

Post by Ron Mc »

As far as bait goes, right after the freeze, there were no concentrations of glass minnows at Little Cut. Michael Watson's report from this weekend (four weeks after the freeze) denoted good glass minnow action in the canals.

Good drum catches have been reported on corpusfishing since the freeze. Of course black drum, like redfish, are juveniles in the bays, and migrate to the Gulf when mature. I still think the effects that are harped here are largely extrapolation without knowing the comparative numbers of fish that survived the freeze. Behind the barrier islands are 15,000 sq-mi normally less than 2' deep. The fish affected worst were trout caught in the shallows - in most cases, the extended NW blow just emptied the flats and they couldn't find a path out. So little is known about trout spawning that projecting an outcome is baseless, but they will recover. The biggest difference in this freeze is the internet.
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Re: 3.8 Million Fish Dead

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“The black drum, a mainstay in the commercial fishery, has never been fully accepted as game fish by sport anglers. Annual harvest of black drum along the Texas coast is usually more than 1.3 million pounds by the commercial fishery and approximately three quarters of a million pounds by the sport fishery.”

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/blackdrum/

Lots of people don’t realize there still is commercial fishing in Texas, just not for red drum or speckled trout or anything else labeled a game fish or otherwise off limits.
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