Thankful in the New Year!
Howdy folks, and welcome to 2026! We here at Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine wish you all the happiest, healthiest, and most prosperous of New Years. May your time in the outdoors be most enjoyable and may your fishing efforts be rewarded with lots of catching.
I have never been one for New Years resolutions, too many of these are half-hearted promises that nobody really intends to live up to, even as they’re making them. However, if you might be willing to try something different and easier than promising to lose weight or some other silly notion, we encourage that you pledge to share your love of the outdoors and fishing with a youngster or two, or three in the coming year. It’ll do your heart a lot of good, just seeing those youngsters eyes light up when you welcome them aboard your fishing boat for the first time, step into a duck or deer blind, or stroll out into a dove field. And, if by chance you have no youngsters in your life, the next best thing you can do is to share your passion with an adult who has never fished or hunted before.
As warm as it has been thus far into the winter season it’s hard to imagine we could possibly receive any dangerously cold weather, but I remember having similar thoughts back around Valentine’s Day 2021…and you know how that turned out, right? So here’s to keeping our fingers crossed that anything remotely close to Winter Storm Uri stays the hell away from our precious and fragile coast.
We went fishing a few days ago and I am happy to report that we had one of the best days in San Antonio that I can ever recall. We found trout at every reef we stopped on and I’m not talking pencils. We didn’t keep count but three of us had to catch at least a hundred between us, and probably twenty or more longer than the keeper slot of 20”; and that is no exaggeration.
When that nasty storm abated four years ago and all those trout began to float – it just flat made me sick to my stomach – and I’m not talking about the stench. I feared it would be many years before we would ever enjoy solid fishing again in San Antonio Bay.
My goodness, what a difference four years can make – four years of concentrated conservation effort from the recreational fishing community – and four years of outstanding management effort from our friends at TPWD-Coastal Fisheries.
What I witnessed on that bay last week was nothing short of a miracle and I am personally very thankful. Now let’s all go fishing and enjoy it!
