My Current Assessment of the Galveston Bay Fishery

Around 1920 my Great Grandpa T (Theodore) and Grandma Anita moved from Goose Creek to a house located on the northwest side of the mouth of Dickinson Bayou, directly across from Channel Marker 27. They moved there because a friend had mentioned just how great the fishing was in that area. Great Grandpa T would end up building several small cypress wood skiffs to guide folks on fishing trips. He also pieced together a small shrimp boat using parts from a Model T Ford for its cabin. He sold live shrimp, two for a penny. Some years later he started hauling out shrimp and oyster boats so the owners could do maintenance and repairs such as bottom jobs, anode replacements and other things. He built what is generally called a “boat ways” to do this.

For those who don’t know, a boat ways is an inclined set of steel rails (tracks) extending out into the water on which vessels such as shrimp boats are pulled onto dry land using a series of cables and winches. The winch that I remember was powered by a Ford flathead V-8 motor. Before that boats were winched up by hand. My dad’s father (my Pawpaw [Tommy Hillman]) eventually took over the boat ways when his dad (my Great Grandpa “T” Theodore Hillman) got sick with cancer. My dad partnered with Pawpaw and the boat ways eventually evolved into a marine supply store as boat owners would need scrapers, paint, prop repairs, etc. Many years down the road my Uncle Wilson (dad’s brother) and Aunt Renee would take over the marine store. It grew into a successful business and a fixture for all of the staple items shrimpers and oysterman would need to make a living. Unfortunately, with the hardships brought on by Mother Nature and other factors in recent years there were fewer shrimpers and oyster harvesters so demand drastically declined causing them to close their doors after decades of success.

My great Uncle BB (Theodore Lawrence [Pawpaw’s brother]) owned and operated a snapper boat named the Bee’s Wing which sold snapper to Hillman’s Café which was started in the mid to late fifties by my Great Uncle Sonny (Louis) [Pawpaw’s other brother]), Aunt Snooks (Marie) along with Great Uncle BB and Aunt Laverne. Aunt Snooks would prepare lunch for the shrimpers as they came in. This eventually led to the start of Hillman’s Café which stayed in business until Hurricane Alicia in 1983. The seafood market, shrimp dock and bait camp are still in operation to this day located right there on Hillman Drive where I grew up. That’s where we buy all of our fresh seafood. It’s owned and operated by my late Great Uncle BB and Aunt Laverne’s daughters; Mary, Joanne, Sybil and Delores.

My dad, Clifford Hillman, started his seafood business in 1977 on Dickinson Bayou. He owned several oyster and shrimp boats and had many other individual harvesters selling to him as well. He became one of the largest oyster dealers in the country by the early 80s. I worked for him during the summers filleting fish in our retail market when I was 12 years old. By the time I was 14 Dad had 350 acres of private oyster leases on Galveston Bay and I was working on one of his oyster boats (the Captain Sam J.) harvesting and transplanting oysters. Dad taught me at a very early age the importance of planting cultch (oyster shell) to grow new reefs and not over harvesting our existing reefs. He was very instrumental in getting bills and regulations passed to ensure the sustainability of oyster reefs. Unfortunately, Mother Nature would have other plans many years later. Dad eventually sold the business and I became a full-time fishing guide here on Galveston Bay.

For those who have read my articles through the years you should know that I’ve never attempted to sugar coat anything. I call it like I see it and my family and I have certainly seen a lot through the years! I’ve written many articles about the negative effects of habitat loss (mainly oyster reefs) caused by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the drought years of 2009-2014. I’ve discussed in great detail the trout stack-ups caused by those same drought years as well as the ones caused by the 2015 and 2016 floods. Then of course, there was the historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey in late August of 2017 when pretty much the entire Galveston Bay Complex became a 600 square mile freshwater lake flushing most of our speckled trout out of the system. The Harvey event brought our trout fishery to its knees. All of the Mother Nature related impacts as well as some human activities (i.e. Channel dredging, closing Rollover Pass, ship traffic, etc.) in the decade leading up to the Harvey floods culminated to bring our fishery down to ground zero. Four years later (February 2021) the Texas coast was subjected to a fish-killing freeze, just for good measure. I can go on and on talking about erosion issues and other factors but I think you get the point. Galveston Bay has been through Hell, and then some.

So where are we now? This is the million dollar question. I don’t consider myself old but then again I’m not young either. However, I’ve been exposed to just about everything this bay has had to offer for the better part of the last five decades. All of this being said, I truly believe we are witnessing a long overdue recovery in our trout fishery. I’ve personally experienced a massive improvement in not only numbers of trout but also in quality, especially in the last two years. Since 2017 my biggest observation and my greatest concern has been the lack of all age classes being represented in the population of speckled trout in our bay system. From 2018 through 2023 we caught a lot of 1.5- to 3-year old trout. It seemed like we were just stuck in those age classes. Of course there were days when we’d catch some 5- to 8-year olds but that certainly wasn’t the norm.

Last year (2024) not only did I start to see more 4-year-old trout in the mix but they started showing up in more places. This year has been even better, especially when you consider the harsh conditions we’ve had to fish in. It’s been a very windy year so far yet most of our trips have been productive with more and bigger trout than I’ve seen in recent years. Now look, I’m not talking about catching 5 to 8 pounders every day but we’ve had quite a few days with multiple 3- to 4-pound trout mixed in with the 2-pounders. I’ve also seen more fish on the shorelines this year which is probably because of new habitat growth (more on that in a minute). When the wind allows we’ve been able to have very productive trips out in the middle of the bay. Just yesterday I drifted with two clients and we caught 31 trout before 9:00AM with nine of them measuring 21 to 23 ½ inches. Those were 3 to 5 year old females that were full of eggs. More great news!

Time is our biggest healer when it comes to catching more and bigger trout. Barring any natural disasters, the more trout we leave in the system the bigger they’ll get as time goes by and the more they will proliferate. It’s not much different than passing up those 3- and 4-year old whitetail bucks with good genetics so they can breed and produce more and bigger ones down the road. September 1, 2019 our trout limits were cut from 10 to 5, then on March 26, 2024 they went down to 3 fish per person with a 15-20 inch slot. I feel like the stricter limits have helped and will continue to help, not only with an increase in overall biomass but also the increase in older age classes of trout. Just like with the deer at our ranch, nutrition combined with harvest restrictions and age management are keys to a healthy herd. We seem to have abundant shad populations in the Galveston Bay Complex and I have noticed some natural oyster reef growth, especially along shorelines, which is more great news. There are ongoing cultch planting and reef restoration efforts throughout the year, too. I’ve also noticed a handful of areas over in West Galveston Bay where seagrass beds are making a comeback.

In the early-80s my buddies and I would catch lots of trout, reds and flounder on all of the clam and oyster reefs behind my Great Grandpa T’s old house at the mouth of the bayou. Around 2006 I took my wife and daughter there. Brooke was 4 years old. It was her very first fishing trip and she landed her first trout, red, and flounder, along with some sheepshead. That was almost twenty-four years ago. That house where my Great Uncle BB was born is long gone as are most of the clam and oyster reefs out in front of it. The property has now become industrialized as it is a tugboat and barge shipyard. I still catch a few fish in that area but the pattern has changed for the most part.

We still have a lot of fish. We just have to understand that they’re not where they used to be, so we have to adjust our thinking. If we can re-establish our resident trout populations throughout the Galveston Bay Complex to anywhere near the level we had years ago it will be a springboard for an epic fishery down the road. With current good fisheries management and cooperation from Mother Nature I believe we can turn the corner. As a matter of fact I think we’re well on our way!