Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program

If one of your New Year’s resolutions included trying your hand at angling… but you don’t want to spend money on tackle until you know you’re going to like the sport…no worries. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a tackle loaner program for folks like you.

The tackle loaner program is a program in which we provide different sites with basic fishing rods and reels and some very basic tackle so that citizens can borrow that equipment and go fishing.

Ann Miller oversees aquatic education for Parks and Wildlife.

When you go to a tackle loaner site to check out equipment, you’ll receive a little tackle box with basic hooks and bobbers and sinkers of different sizes. You’ll also be able to check out a very basic spin casting rod and reel.

Anyone over 17 will need a fishing license to check out equipment. Persons under 18 must have an adult check out the tackle for them.

Each tackle loaner site has a simple form that the person who checks out the equipment would sign, saying that ‘yes’ they will bring the equipment back. And you will just leave an ID there –you can check it out for up to a week.

Our show is made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Tackle Loaner Program Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas form Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

Each winter, inland fisheries stocks lakes and reservoirs with rainbow trout to provide a unique winter angling opportunity. Fish that escape the hook eventually succumb to the heat.

In Texas, we’re outside of the range where rainbow trout, at least for the most part, can survive throughout the year. So, we just bring them in during the winter months; and there’s an opportunity to fish for them until the spring.

Carl Kittel coordinates the trout-stocking program for Parks and Wildlife. He admits that—from time to time—a few fish manage to adjust to summer temperatures.

In years when conditions are right, particularly below the Canyon Dam and the Canyon tailrace, fish can survive the summer—occasionally. The problem is they can’t do so consistently, so we generally don’t get established populations.

So hurry and get these fish while they NOT hot. Anglers 17 years old and older must have a 5-dollar freshwater fish stamp and a license to hook a rainbow. You won’t need either if you fish in a stat e park.

We consider all of our rainbow stocking in Texas to be a put and take fishery. We put the fully-grown fish in, which are a catchable size when we stock them. And the purpose of stocking them, and our expectation of those fish, is that they’ll be fished out by anglers.

There’s a link to the rainbow trout stocking schedule on our website, passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…which also helps fund winter trout stocking in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Last Chance to Catch a Rainbow Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

Squirrel hunting was considered a right of passage for young people, but that’s changing. TPW TV writer/producer Ron Kabele tells us about a story airing this month called Last of the Squirrel Hunters.

We followed a father and his daughter, who were hunting on Engeling WMA. Her name was Macy; and she was very enthusiastic—she was about 12 years old.

I have four daughters. Macy is my outdoors person, so she likes to go and tromp out in the woods as long as the bugs don’t bother her too much.

And, his fear is that at some point, Macy’s generation is going to be the last generation of squirrel hunters. Squirrel hunting is actually a very good way to get people into hunting, because you’re moving around the forest, you’re not sitting in one place, you have lots of targets to aim at if you’re in good habitat. In other words, there’s lots of action.

(ambience walking) That other squirrel’s gotta be right here. Dad, put it in your pocket. Whoa. That’s cool.

A lot of time with hunting, it’s that first experience that determines whether someone’s going to be a hunter or someone’s not.

That’s our show for today…thank you for joining us…we receive funding from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of the Gus Engeling WMA.

We record out program at the Production Block in Austin, Texas. Joel Block engineers our show.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
________________________________________________________________________

Find out on which PBS stations the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs when you click here.

TPW TV Feature: Last of the Squirrel Hunters Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The “Big Tree” at Goose Island State Park is kind of a big deal

This tree is incredibly unique.

Mike Mullenweg is the Park Interpreter.

In 1969, it was measured. It was approximately forty-four feet tall. Had a ninety foot crown spread and really, the impressive stat on the “Big Tree” was the trunk circumference. They measured it at four feet off the ground and the trunk of the “Big Tree” measured at around thirty-five feet in circumference.

The “Big Tree” isn’t the biggest in the nation…

But it is probably one of the oldest. By comparing it to other trees that we know the age of, we have estimated that the “Big Tree” is somewhere over one thousand years old.

In that time, the tree has survived a lot

According to climatologists, the “Big Tree” has survived anywhere between forty and fifty major hurricanes. Hurricane Rita that two years ago tore through the Beaumont Area, the “Big Tree” has seen its fair share of storms that size and survived them all. Not to mention, anything from droughts, floods, wildfires, any probable natural disaster that you can think of in the last thousand years, I’m sure that the “Big Tree” has seen it.

For more information on the “Big Tree,” visit passporttotexas.org

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Goose Island's Big Tree Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

A great way to show your family you care about them this Valentine’s Day—or any day—is to take everyone on an outdoor adventure to a nearby state park.

Doug Huggins, assistant complex superintendent at Bastrop State Park, located in the Pineywoods Region, says February, with its cool, crisp air, and minimal insect activity, is an ideal time to take the family outdoors. It’s recreational and educational.

Well, I believe nature is an educational tool, especially for your children. In the classroom you can look in a textbook… you might be able to look out the window, but whenever you’re in a park and you have the knowledgeable staff there to assist you in learning more about the natural environment, it adds a little bit of depth to the learning and the education that young folks need to be well-rounded in society.

I think it’s important that our message of conservation and public access and public use of our public lands is embedded in our younger children… they are the future or next generation or group of people that will be benefiting from what parks have to offer.

To find more about Bastrop State Park and other state park activities visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Alanna Jones… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Valentine Weekend with the Family Play Now | Play in Popup | Download