The Texas coast cold snap of 1983

[jerp]

When I was in Houston over Christmas I read a fascinating article in the Chronicle on the 30th anniversary of "The Great Cold Snap of 1983" along the Texas coast. I was living in north Texas back then and only vaguely remember reading about it. Temps got down in the teens from Galveston all the way down to McAllen and stayed below freezing for several days straight. I can't imagine a 4" sheet of ice extending 500 yards out into Trinity Bay and shallower parts of the Laguna Madre freezing solid. It practically wiped out the fish population. A TPWD guy talks in the article about shoals of dead fish 100 yards wide all the way down the ICW and the Laguna side of Padre Island. He said for several years after you could fish all day and maybe catch 1-2 specs. Any of you longtime coastal residents have memories of that disaster?
Here is a link to the article:

http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Effects-lessons-of-1983-freeze-evident-on-Texas-5092926.php

[panhandlehunter]

I wasn't born yet but my grandpa has some pics of East Matagorda and a bunch of dead trout.

[Breezy]

i was 10 and remember being on the Nueces Bay and it having a thin layer of ice.

[Shane]

It was 35 or so days in a row where it never got above freezing in the Panhandle. Lots of good coyote pelts that year.

[1369]

I was hunting out of the Port Bay Hunting club during that snap. Bay was froze over so we hit some "pot ponds" on a lease to hunt. My dad had to keep sending me out to bust the ice that kept freezing the decoys solid.

One of the coldest times I've been in. Killed a mess of ducks that day though.

Thanks for reminding me of that weekend.

I remember hearing that the GW's had to tell people they could only keep their limit of reds that froze in the shallows.

[Smart]

I was 14 and can remember being in the deep water of Conn Brown Harbor in Aransas Pass with my Dad fishing and having floating trout everywhere but there was a game warden watching making sure nobody was dipnetting them. I'm guessing it was the day after the freeze because there was no ice sheet that day I remember. I just remember the dead floating trout and the almost dead trout splashing the surface.



.

[mchildress]

I remeber it they were telling folks not to pick up the frozen fish.

[Smart]

Surprised there aren't more pics on the net of it..

[1369]

Surprised there aren't more pics on the net of it..

Too dang cold, cameras froze up!

[Matteo]

Caught a bobcat in a set during that freeze. I had set it in the afternoon and checked it the next morning and found a bobcat that was froze solid in my trap.

[MassMan]

I was 9 hunting in Zapata. I kept complaining to dad that I couldn't feel my feet. We had a bad accident on the drive home in Freer and the guy we hit pulled a knife on dad. Good times.

[zztex]

Me and 2 of my buddies took a boat ride from bird island to the land cut. Dead fish were EVERYWHERE

[Neck]

Very good read. I can remember the freeze but I don't remember the frozen fish. I'm sure Dad never took the boat out if it was frozen out. We must have stayed inside trying to keep warm.

Not a very good year weather wise. First we were nailed by Hurricane Alicia and then the freeze. Just four years earlier and we almost drowned when TS Claudette decided to set the US record for rainfall on top of our heads. 43 inches in just 24 hours.

[Slewfoot]

I live in Kerrville and was working for LCRA. The Guadalupe River froze over and all of our stock tanks in Medina County were froze solid. We were hard pressed to keep the electricity flowing because CPS in San Antonio lost a plant when most of the talapia died in the cooling lake and jammed up the cooling intake. We hard rolling black outs. Our wood stove saved us.

[Rubi513]

I was 10 and walked out on the ice in Trinity Bay.