Catch & Release Trout & Redfish

[DHardy]

A pretty good size group of friends and family that live in Corpus and Port O’Connor are practicing catch and release only of trout and redfish for the next two years after seeing the damage caused by the February freeze. (Unless the fish will die-hook). Also I spoke to TPW official and the flounder situation is not good. Flounder season is closed during the run Nov 1 - Dec 15. Does anyone have input or suggestions on how to help with the fish population/conservation?

[Kitsune]

How about don’t go fishing at all? You don’t risk the possibility of foul hooking or fish dying. Also, you will take pressure off the water,..freeing up space for the fish to roam.

[DHardy]

Not suggesting everyone catch and release. I was fishing for conservation ideas due to the fish freeze.

[Ron Mc]

Redfish really weren't affected by the freeze
http://texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/vi ... 8&t=253245

The trout situation takes care of itself with the new reg. Any fish over 17" is not a nursery trout and the slot of 17-23" is the highest probability of the fish being a schoolie male.

Snook weren't even affected as badly as expected - they were in Little Cut in force day before yesterday.

[Kitsune]

I echo what Ron wrote… my anecdotal experience shows me redfish did not slow at all in the middle coast area.

[impulse]

Even if they didn't get pounded in the freeze, fishing license sales in Texas went up around 10% during the pandemic. With 10% more people sharing a constant or reduced resource, something's going to have to give. And that's the direction it's been headed forever. My "fair share" of the fish is getting smaller and smaller as the population grows. It's just simple math.

I looked at how much I spent on average to catch a keep-worthy fish, and decided long ago each of those fish generated $50-100 of economic activity between bait, gas, food, hotel, boat payment, insurance, etc. Way too valuable to catch only once. If I want to eat fish, I can buy filets on my way home at the HEB, Walmart, Kroger or Randalls, or ..., Adds just a few $$$ to my trip cost and leaves the resource for another day.

That's a habit I picked up years ago when I had to travel, towing a boat to fish. Nowadays, I can step out back on the dock and catch 'em for pennies, but I still release them for another day. Saves me having to clean them, too.

[Kitsune]

Catching and eating fish is really cheap for me. I usually spend 5 bucks in gas on the way there. Few bucks in tackle when needed… not too much at all. Also, fishing license went up during the pandemic… but overall hunting/fishing license are going down. Everything recreational went up during the pandemic. Most people couldn’t care less if you like to hook fish, reel them to you, and then release them. Many people would consider this unethical… I’m not one of those. Food speaks across all people and we should have a good enough resource to allow people to keep. Major corporations don’t want you eating fish out of water they pollute, they would just rather you catch and release. Hipsters don’t want you poking metal object through a fishes mouth.

[Ron Mc]

The same post I linked above, we released 45 redfish and kept 5.
Two of those we ate the next day, and the other 3 returned in ice water to Colorado with our guest. On his drive home, he stopped and shared them with his friends.
It's all part of the enjoyment and doesn't deplete the resource.
Look at states like Louisiana where 12" trout are table fare. As long as no one is poaching, we're not depleting the resource - that's why we have game laws.

If you want to talk about something, let's talk about groundwater over-use combined with increased fertilizer run-off and their effects on our fisheries.
What we have now you should enjoy, because 20 years from now it will be gone - over-fishing will have nothing to do with it.

[Kitsune]

Ron, you hit the nail on the head… removing the eating aspect will only make it worse. We have bigger fish to fry (hehe) than people keeping a couple fish. Look at Florida… look at the brown tide after rains… look at the US Beach Watch… where they show sewage levels in our waters. All these bad actors would love to have you think fisherman are the problem.

[Kayak Kid]

I've never seen definitive information on the effects that sport fishing has on the fish population in salt water. I can't imagine, however, that it has that great of a negative influence.

The influence of commercial fishing (no longer a factor in Texas), freezes, chemical runoffs, and oxygen depleting red and brown tides are, by far, of greater negative effect.

[Dandydon]

"The acts of God dwarf the acts of man."
--Capt. Don, Esq.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

[Ron Mc]

Ron, you hit the nail on the head… removing the eating aspect will only make it worse. We have bigger fish to fry (hehe) than people keeping a couple fish. Look at Florida… look at the brown tide after rains… look at the US Beach Watch… where they show sewage levels in our waters. All these bad actors would love to have you think fisherman are the problem.

You don't have to go to Florida - you can go to Flour Bluff to see summer brown tides in ULM.
You can go to Labonte Park and watch Zero discharge from the Nueces river 98% of the time. The reservoir upriver on the Nueces is the sole source of Corpus Christi water supply, and contracted to remain that way until 2040.
Nueces R. discharge has been below EPA 1994 minimum to maintain bay health since 2003.
The Guadalupe will be next - our rivers and bays can't survive the next drought.

This was the last blue hole on the Sabinal a dozen years ago.

This was last month

One place they've solved brown tides is Arroyo Colorado. In the '90s, the brown tides coming from the arroyo would choke a large area of LLM.
There they solved them with tile drainage from the citrus and sugar cane fields to let the nitrogen evaporate before discharging into arroyo drainage.
While that can solve the nitrogen run-off side, it can't help insufficient discharge because of groundwater usage.
Phosphorus fertilizer should be absolutely banned in Texas.

[Kitsune]

Thanks for the information Ron… really helpful. I am definitely not against C&R and I think what the OP is doing is helpful. I also just see the greater importance in eating caught fish from their natural waters. I like clean water with lots of fish!

I often pick up one or two black trash bags at the launch spots that I use. Joining organizations that one can trust, getting the word out about runs offs and pesticides, and following regulations are all important of course.

[Ron Mc]

We needed desalination for public water supply 20 years ago.
Southern California water use ended the western Colorado River 20 miles before it reached the Sea of Cortez, and in our lifetime, killed the largest mangrove estuary on the planet.
Those same equities are moving to Texas in mass migration.
At the same time in California, protests over desalination plants for public water supply delayed their construction and contributed to estuary destruction. Sierra Club doesn't really care about the water, they want to stop industrial growth (jobs) that results with more available public water.

Sierra Club is running the same tactic in Texas, and they have duped CCA to join them in protest against Harbor Island desalination plant, now held up in court, after TCEQ committee approval. That committee is made up of academic environmental scientists who concentrate on the specific bay system involved.
Sierra Club doesn't care about the bay system, they want to block refurbishment of Fina tanker docks.
We're all being shot in the foot, but worse, so are our rivers and bays.

[Kitsune]

Damn… that sounds like a difficult situation to navigate. Probably truths to all sides… I don’t know enough about the desal to know if it is good or bad. As I get more involved I try and listen to all sides. Me personally, I can only control my consumption, my money, and my time.

[Ron Mc]

You can also voice to your legislator and to CCA.
There's no stopping water authorities from issuing water permits to new neighborhoods and golf courses.
We're out of hill country water, and the only way to get more is to make it, and send it through pipeline to a water distribution grid.
Corpus and San Antonio growth have already combined to drain the Nueces dry.

[DHardy]

Great posts. I’ve learned that there are greater concerns than frozen fish. And… keeping a few for the table is ok. Thanks-

[impulse]

You can also voice to your legislator and to CCA.
There's no stopping water authorities from issuing water permits to new neighborhoods and golf courses.
We're out of hill country water, and the only way to get more is to make it, and send it through pipeline to a water distribution grid.
Corpus and San Antonio growth have already combined to drain the Nueces dry.

Agriculture in Texas uses 57% of the State's water and generates 1.8% of the State's GDP. It's not urban development that's killing Texas water...

Texas water laws were written before it was even possible to drill a wellbore and sink a 1000 HP pump into the middle of a cotton field. And long before they figured out how to export cotton and beef to places like China. The laws haven't kept up with the technology and global trade. In effect, we're exporting our water, in the form of cotton, beef, alfalfa, etc. Desalination won't solve that problem. Agriculture can't afford desal water when it takes thousands of gallons to produce a pound of beef. It'll only make urban water more expensive. Farmers growing thirsty crops to export them to China and the Middle East will still decimate the Nueces, the Edwards, and the Ogallala.

[Ron Mc]

Texas population increased by 48% from 2000 to 2020.
And by 100% from 1980 to 2020 - that's double.
We're adding 5 million people every decade.
Last year, 34% of the US population growth was in Texas.

You can't tell me lawn sprinklers and Scotts Winterizer aren't Texas hill country blights, because I've seen the effects of both in my lifetime and most dramatically in the past 10 drought-free years.
The population of greater Austin increased by 30% in the past decade, and the population of greater San Antonio by 20% in the past decade.
Most of the growth is concentrated in tight arid watersheds, from the Colorado east to the Nueces west.
The bay systems most affected are Lavaca to ULM, which includes ANWR.

Annual growth rate by county

[Kitsune]

Great posts. I’ve learned that there are greater concerns than frozen fish. And… keeping a few for the table is ok. Thanks-

Unfortunately it will be harder than just not keeping fish. I wish us fisherman had that much control over the fishery.

[JW FunGuy]

Nice job and lots of info. Things I knew but have not seen in such a variety of causes. Unfortunately and unlike up north in CO, upper NM and Utah where you are in the desert one minute and a lush green field the next that is pumping water out of a river fed by snow melt we don’t have the snow and the rain to pull from. But now even those resources are in short supply. And all that water does, or is supposed to run south to the oceans and bays. Fertilizer and all.
Having moved south more every decade or so from CO, NM and now New Braunfels and in each state see the water dissipate it makes you have to realize that something has to be done. In NM when the lake we lived on was down to the original river bottom due to drought the water company started charging users by the gallon after a minimum point. Man did people scream! But hitting them in the pocket book made them start conserving. And it worked! We learned a lot about conserving water and still use it today.
My wife probably 30 years ago said “we are going to run out of water before we run out of oil” if we don’t do something I’m afraid she is going to be right.