I Threw My Crystal Ball in the Trash

I’ve never been a superstitious kind of guy. I’ve stepped on thousands of cracks and my mother has never suffered a spinal injury.  I am, however, beginning to wonder whether I might have put a jinx on our coastal fishing by bragging in this column last month how wonderful the weather and fishing had been through late May and early June. No sooner had the ink dried on my prediction of continued great fishing and everything went to you know where in the proverbial handbasket. It had to be a coincidence, or did somebody forget to close the furnace door?  Suffice it to say the past month was a windy scorcher and fishing took a bit of a nosedive.  So much for crystal balls.

Historically, even though August is usually our hottest month, there’s still plenty of great fishing opportunity. Winds tend to be light and predictable, which opens lots of doors for getting in the surf and the small boat fleet to venture offshore. Under the current system where NMFS (the Feds) sets red snapper harvest allocations and state agencies decide season dates, my contacts at TPWD are hopeful that Texas anglers will be able to fish for snapper through all of August this year. How different from the ridiculously short seasons just a few years back. This hope is based on landings; dockside creel surveys and voluntary reporting via apps such as iSnapper. Their landings data through June indicate anglers have used about one third of the 2023 allocation, so we’re pretty much on schedule. Accurate reporting can be the key to the season remaining open throughout the month. Of course, all of this depends on sea conditions, angler participation, and some careful estimates on the part of TPWD. If you do not encounter a dockside survey, get on the iSnapper app. Otherwise, we could sell ourselves short on season length.

I have a bone to pick and I’m going to get right to it. Bull redfish are a blast, no other way to describe it, and there’s no better place than Port O’Connor’s Big Jetties. Pam and I enjoy it, and along with several friends we have introduced dozens of families with kids to this great angling experience.  It’s all catch and release with us, no oversize tagging, and we put considerable effort into reviving fully before releasing. We’ve noticed a disturbing trend recently – anglers in too big a hurry to fully revive the fish they’re releasing.  Danny McGuire reported netting and reviving no fewer than eight a few days ago that other boats had left to struggle on the surface, and probably end up eaten by sharks, had he not intervened. Come on people…we can do better!