Amazing Speckled Trout stories

[Froggy]

Interesting article.

I grew up fishing the beachfront between Sabine Pass and Gilchrist in the 50's and 60's. Let me clarify fishing.

My Granny and Great Aunt made a 250 ft. seine with a shrimp pocket in the 50's. A few times a year, when the beachfront got right, the whole family and friends would load up and head to the beach. There might be 15-25 folks on a trip.

We would make drags and load up ice chest with everything that we caught except turdhead catfish. I can recall many huge specs and reds coming out of the water trying to escape that seine.

It was fun when I was too little to drag the seine. As my brothers and I grew up it turned into hard work. We would drag that seine all day, get home then have to clean several ice chest full of fish and crabs then clean the seine and cars. Back then it was truly subsistence fishing. Everyone would go home with fish and shrimp. We usually had a big fish fry on Sundays.

It got to where when the family would say we're going seining this weekend we would try anything to get out of it. When we were tall enough we would get stuck dragging on the deep end. It was hard work.

My brothers and I were relieved when the state changed the regulations and no longer allowed seining the beachfront. I think the law changed in the early 70's. Looking back now, I realize seining was not good for the fishery.

Made lots of memories on that beach.

[Leemo]

There aren't very many bay shrimpers left in Texas. Licenses were frozen in 1995 and about 2/3 have been bought back since then. Something like 1000 licenses left.

Please get your numbers correct!
Crab 165
Fin fish 214
Oyster 519
Bay 361
Bait 348
These numbers include nonresident

[Tx_Wader]

Big trout are still in the bays, but you're not gonna catch em when there are 6,457 boats running around 24/7 keeping them spooked

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."

[panhandlehunter]

X2. Saw alot better size when we were allowed 10 instead of 5 in the laguna. We have to wade through the dinks now to catch our limit. You would think it would be the opposite especially now that you can only keep one over 25.... there is also more catch and release now than there ever was.

There's just more people fishing now. How many threads a week during the summer are there about people heading down to the salt for their first time? It's more accessible now, people that can't afford a boat have a kayak, and there's a guide on every street corner. The word is out on croaker, just so many factors leading to declining fishing. There's X amount of fish and an ever increasing amount of fisherman. There's a reason half the state has a 5 fish limit.

[stickman]

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."

I don't know who Mike McBride is but I like the way he thinks...

[Mexico]

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."

I agree, go to the 5,5,5. Those redfish limits are old
..

[texaset]

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."[/QUOTE]


No better word could describe the way fishing is today . I haven't caught that many big trout over 25" but they are all still out there as far as I know .

[JANKEII]

Cool story thanks for sharing

[SneakyPhil]

The good old days for me were prior to the freeze in 1983 down in the lower laguna madre. I was just a few years into my wade fishing career but we used to catch some big trout. I know I caught at least one at 30" . This is all prior to digital cameras and we never took many photos with our catch because it was just fishing.

[PBUCKSHOT]

Great read. Love me some big trout. I fished Port Mansfield this weekend and we had 9 limits by 0900 two days in a row. There were very few kept under 17''. Croaker soakin is fun, especially when you are used to grinding out hours and hours of chunking lures.

[docmay]

Man, I would love to see a 40+ inch trout. I have caught a few over 30 inches and I love big trout. Pretty cool read! I don’t know how you grow true monsters with all the pressure now but the numbers seem to be there when I fish.

[PondPopper]

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."

I 100% agree about the fishing pressure.. I remember skipping school, with a buddy or two, and hitting the surf back in the early 80's, when the trout green water would move in.. We would hit Bryan beach and fish it all the way down to the mouth of the Brazos... There literally would not be a single person on that entire stretch of beach.. Now that beach is wall to wall people, 7 days a week, leaving behind mounds of trash, as soon as temps get hot enough..
For someone like myself, who grew up down there, it is a sickening sight.....

[Clay C]

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."

Yeah I cannot believe the redfish limits have not increased. They seem to be back with vengeance. The number of redfish in the area we target them has become absolutely insane over the past 5 years.

[Rack Ranch]

Then maybe you should throw one in the cooler every now and then you Trout Snob...

You just have to go where they are and the boats are not.

I think the entire Texas coast should be at a 5 trout per person per day and that reds should be back at 5 per day.

But then I've seen a great fishery before the freezes in 83 and 89 and brother there were no where near the boats out there running around like they are now with a good number of them being operated by people who have no clue or who just don't care.

Over 1,100,000 fishing licenses were sold in Texas in 2017; it's not going to get any better either.

I think Mike McBride said it the best. "I pity those who consider a fishing trip a success or a failure by the number of fish in the cooler."