Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Largemouth bass give fishermen a good fight, but the smaller white bass is just as capable of providing anglers with an adrenaline kick.

14— Ounce for ounce, they are a real strong fighter. But they’re not as big as largemouths. If they grew as large as largemouth bass, I think we’d have to fish for them with surf rods and heavy lines.

John Jefferson is an outdoor writer, and crafted an article about this species for Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine’s February digital fishing special.

11— Most people that fish for whites will use lightweight tackle, a medium to lightweight spinning rod, and four to six pound test line – and then they’re fun!

Late winter and early spring white bass begin schooling in tributaries to spawn. Whether from a bank or a boat, fishing for whites in open and running water is your best bet for success.

21— Middle of the creek, and then draw the lure back to the shore. And you’ve covered water from the deeper water in the middle up to the shore. You’ll probably hang one. It’s not uncommon, and a neat thing to see [that sometimes] you’ll hook one fish and as you’re reeling it in and playing it, there will be two or three others schooling right along with it.

They’re probably offering moral support. Read the February digital fishing special, free online, at www.tpwmagazine.com.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel…

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

This is Passport to Texas

In the February Digital Fishing Special from Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine you’ll find an article on white bass by outdoor writer John Jefferson.

11— White bass is a great sport fish. Parks and Wildlife records show there are more white bass caught per hour of fishing than any other fish in Texas.

Usually a lake dweller, white bass school in tributaries to spawn in late winter and early spring.

21— The white bass are triggered to spawn when the water reaches 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As far as the calendar, instead of the thermometer, it starts sometimes as early as warm days in January, but it really picks up in February and March. Those are the best two months.

Anglers may keep up to 25 fish caught with a pole and line that meet the 10-inch length requirement. Although white bass prefer shad and minors, they’ll take artificial lures, which is what John Jefferson says he uses.

13— With me, it was a matter of laziness. I didn’t want to lug a big minnow bucket up and down the creeks when I could take a few jigs with me and a lightweight spinning rod and spend more time actually fishing than changing bait.

We’ll talk more with John about white bass tomorrow.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel…

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

This is Passport to Texas

Anglers may not have a crystal ball to tell them where the best fishing is, but they have the next best thing.

02—Our fisheries biologists are a great deal of help.

Steve Lightfoot is a wildlife & fisheries information specialist with Parks and Wildlife; his article on the late winter/early spring fishing forecast appears in TPW magazine’s February digital fishing issue. He says fisheries biologists assess three areas when making their predictions.

29— One are the creel surveys they conduct at boat launches and around fishing areas where they talk to anglers and ask them what their catches were. The other is their own surveys, using mostly gill netting and other nets that they collect out in the water. They identify the fish and they go through algorithms and so forth, and come up something called a biomass. And a biomass is how healthy the fish populations [are] and what types of fish are at each lake.
The third element is their knowledge and experience. Most of these guys are anglers, too, so they have some input as well.

Lightfoot adds there’s good news for anglers.

10— The good news is most of our fish populations are in healthy condition. There are over a hundred lakes where you can go out and expect to have a reasonably good opportunity to catch a variety of different species.

But you’ll never know unless you go. How to use the fishing forecast to your best advantage on tomorrow’s show.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

This is Passport to Texas

[Nats aquarium] Pet stores like Rivers and Reefs in Austin sell fish and plant species from all over the world.

10—Most of your Tetris species are from South America. Even your average gold-fish comes from China. Some of your Amazon sword plants obviously come from South America from the Amazon River.[ambience trails]

Manager Rachel Pohl says that’s why people should be careful not to dump their aquariums in rivers or lakes or even flush live fish down the toilet.

08—Some of these fish get into our rivers and start eating our fingerlings in our rivers, and it starts unbalancing the native population because they don’t have a predator here.

And it’s not just fish. Parks and Wildlife aquatic habitat biologist Howard Elder says the extremely invasive giant salvinia started out as a decorative aquarium plant… but it didn’t stay there.

09—Giant salvinia was found in a Houston school yard in 1998. It has since been found in 17 public reservoirs.

And it’s not pretty anymore.

10—The plant can produce dense mats that actually block out sunlight and displace native vegetation and fish species as well as many wildlife species.

So, enjoy your aquarium, but if you tire of it, don’t dump your fish and plants…check to see if a pet store will accept unwanted fish or at least tell you where you can take them.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Passport to Texas with support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program

If you’re an angler who likes to eat what you catch, then now’s the time to reel in a rainbow trout.

14— We stock them at a catchable and eatable size. They are good fighting fish; they’re relatively easy to catch. We usually stock them in smaller bodies of water, so they’re a good fishing, catching opportunity and good eating opportunity as well.

Carl Kittle (kitl) is a program director for Inland Fisheries, and oversees winter trout stocking in Texas. Distribution began this month and continues through February 2013.

17 – We’ve been stocking [rainbow] trout around Texas for almost 40 years. One interesting note about trout is that we often say there are no established populations of trout in Texas, but actually, way out west in the Davis Mountains there’s a small, tiny stream at high enough elevation that there is a reproducing population of rainbow trout.

In the rest for the state, however, it’s just too hot to sustain rainbow trout populations year round, and that’s why we will stock up to 275-thousand in 120-130 locations this year…including urban areas.

11 – And we have a special program; we actually stock somewhat larger trout in urban areas in our Neighborhood Fishin’ Program. And that’s something that you can specifically look for on our web page.

With the winter holidays here, it’s is a great time go fishing with the kids. Find the stocking schedule and locations at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and funds rainbow trout stocking in Texas…

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