Passport to Texas

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

The June issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine celebrates saltwater angling. Managing editor, Louie Bond is here to tell us more.

A lot of saltwater fishermen go out for the big three fish, which are the speckled trout, the red fish and the flounder. But, as Larry Bozka points out this month, unpredictability is the essence of saltwater fishing.

And so, any of these fish put up a good fight, they’re really great eating, they’re just as much fun as the big three, and, heck, part of the fun is the mystery of what is on the end of your hook.

Thanks, Louie. Find links to saltwater fishing information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TP&W Magazine June Preview--Saltwater Issue Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

The June issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine celebrates saltwater angling. Managing editor, Louie Bond is here to tell us more.

A lot of saltwater fishermen go out for the big three fish, which are the speckled trout, the red fish and the flounder. But, as Larry Bozka points out this month, unpredictability is the essence of saltwater fishing.

And so, any of these fish put up a good fight, they’re really great eating, they’re just as much fun as the big three, and, heck, part of the fun is the mystery of what is on the end of your hook.

Thanks, Louie. Find links to saltwater fishing information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TP&W Magazine June Preview--Saltwater Issue Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Cut off from the Lower Laguna Madre, the Bahia Grande, a unit of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, changed from productive tidal wetland to nuisance dust bowl. The tide started to turn for this basin with the new millennium.

It was not until 2000 when the Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the land surrounding the Bahia Grande Basin that you could start doing something—because the Fish and Wildlife Service was very supportive of restoring the area.

John Wallace is the refuge manager. Eight years later, the process of restoring Bahia Grande continues.

Restoring ten thousand acres takes quite awhile. We have had to go through an environmental assessment—public hearings—to just make sure what we were planning to do in restoring it was not going to cause some kind of impact.

Wallace says the project is at the stage of installing the main channel that will fully restore the area. He estimates the work to start in early 2009. When fully restored, humans and wildlife will benefit.

Besides just reducing the blowing dust, it’s going to increase the number of marine organisms in the area: anything from larval finfish, to shrimp, to blue crabs that are already in the area. And when we have it fully restored it’s going to do nothing more than become a nice estuarine area to benefit wildlife.

Find more information at passportotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

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

Wetlands Month--Bahia Grande, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The mystery of the tarpon is a story you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series– writer/producer Ron Kabele.

The funny thing about a lot of young anglers is, there’s so few tarpon left in the gulf of Mexico that a lot of them don’t even know what a tarpon looks like. But, it’s a big silver fish; when I say big, I mean ninety to two hundred and fifty pounds.

The producer who did the story went out a number of times—they never saw a tarpon. They’re really hard to catch now because there aren’t that many left. One of the biologists said, in the course of the story, that they didn’t want to happen to the tarpon to what happened to say the Attwater’s prairie chicken, where the population gets just so low that bringing the species back would be virtually impossible. And that’s what they’re trying to circumvent with this research.

The series airs on PBS stations statewide.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TP&W TV May Feature: Mystery of the Tarpon Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The mystery of the tarpon is a story you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series– writer/producer Ron Kabele.

The funny thing about a lot of young anglers is, there’s so few tarpon left in the gulf of Mexico that a lot of them don’t even know what a tarpon looks like. But, it’s a big silver fish; when I say big, I mean ninety to two hundred and fifty pounds.

The producer who did the story went out a number of times—they never saw a tarpon. They’re really hard to catch now because there aren’t that many left. One of the biologists said, in the course of the story, that they didn’t want to happen to the tarpon to what happened to say the Attwater’s prairie chicken, where the population gets just so low that bringing the species back would be virtually impossible. And that’s what they’re trying to circumvent with this research.

The series airs on PBS stations statewide.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TP&W TV May Feature: Mystery of the Tarpon Play Now | Play in Popup | Download