FISHING SEASON IS HERE

Fishing Season is here again. Soon, and in some places, fishing season has already arrived. I read that there have been some outstanding bass already being caught at Lake Fork (not surprising) but also a huge bass was landed at Lake O' The Pines, the first super huge bass ever from that lake turned over to the Lunker Bass program of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

They take those lunker bass and breed them, and since most of those lunker bass are already of the Florida strain, they get some pretty huge baby bass going on. Then they take the breeding bass back to the lake it came from and let it go. To fight another day.

I've always liked Lake O' The Pines, as well as nearby Lake Caddo. One of my friends used to set up a fishing camp at both of those lakes at various times in the eighties, and I've seen some good fish come out of both of those lakes. My Grandfather used to talk about having fishing camps at those lakes during the 30's and 40's, and to hear him tell it back then, the fish were jumping on the hooks in those days.

White bass will be running in lots of parts of the state, and probably already are in some parts. Then the crappie run and largemouth bass spawning begins as well, amongst other fish. It's been so cold up in the northern part of the state that some of the rainbows stocked this winter in the deeper lakes might still be hanging in there.

My friends in East Texas are already talking about the white bass and I suspect it'll be moving south and west very quickly. I've had exceptional fishing adventures during the white bass spawn from the Trinity River below Lake Livingston to the Colorado River above Lake Buchanan over the decades.

One place I'd like to be is on the Trinity River, below the damn, in a boat fishing a salt water pier rod deep in the old river channel, using live crawfish for bait. That always worked well for what some of the locals called "Gaspergou" fish, which we called White Bass.

Another place that I'd like to be right this very moment is on the Rio Grande, in the Big Bend National Park at the Langford's Hot Springs, fishing for catfish with frozen shrimp. With a bright moon like there is tonight, it's a wonderful and magical place to be. The locals I met there some 13 years ago, drinking in the bar of the Starlight Lounge in Terlingua getting ready to go midnight catfishing at the Hot Springs, told me how it was the best springtime fishing spot on the river, because of the hot springs.

I wouldn't mind fishing on a nice, slow, green and deep pool of many rivers that I've fished on. The Medina. The Blanco. The San Marcos. The San Gabriel. The Guadalupe. Sitting underneath a huge grove of shady trees, knowing the fish below are looking for shade and a nice spot to linger as well.

Despite the fact I just got back from the beach, a nice trip to Matagorda wouldn't be bad either. Drive as far down the beach as my 2wd SUV will go, and set up fishing camp.

These are all places I'd like to be right now.

As the inland saltwater bays and surf begin to warm, and the chain of life kicks in strong with lots of shrimp and mullet and croaker, so too will return the specks and redfish as well as many near inshore species like Mackerel.