Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

If you don’t think fishing makes memories, then you haven’t heard Scott Harris of Austin tell his real life fish story of the boy and the barracuda.

On one of my first deep sea fishing trips with my oldest son, in the gulf, out of Port Aransas, he wouldn’t concentrate. He was just playing with his bait, just up under the boat; nowhere near have the 230 or so feet where we were bottom fishing. And I was just about to admonish him to, you know, drop your bait down and see if you can catch a nice snapper. And I was looking at his bait bouncing on the water, just ten or fifteen feet below the boat, and a barracuda longer than him shot up like a lightening bolt and engulfed his bait, and zoomed up in an arc, and jumped and he reeled it in all by his tiny self. And we gaffed it and pulled it on the boat; and all the grown men jumped up on the benches as it was thrashing and gnashing the needle-sharp teeth. And, it was a beautiful fish that’s back out there now to give someone else a thrill. And it’s a story that comes up every single time we’re in a group of people who love to fish. Fishing makes great memories.

If you have an outdoor memory you’d like to share, do so at passporttotexas.org.

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

Outdoor Story: The Boy and the Barracuda Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Leslie McGaha wanted to try out her new bass kayak on Sam Rayburn Lake. Shortly after she got on the water, she had the company of an otter.

So it was about 9:30 in the morning and I paddled across a branch of the lake, and I was hot. And so I saw a shady spot and figured I would go ahead and park there and see what I could see. And it was amazing: I saw a giant black crawdad crawling out of the bank; I was listening to the fish noises and the birds; the gar. Then, all of a sudden there was this bright flash of silver off to my right and I thought it was a gar or a carp.

And then he stopped for a second and looks straight at me and he and he starts hissing, kind of like he’s yelling at me. So I hissed back. So we have a pretty good conversation for a few minutes, and he pops down again, pops back up, and we start the whole thing over again two or three times before he goes on his merry way a little bit farther up the creek channel. It was just the funniest thing that had ever happened to me; it was amazing.

Share your outdoor story with us like Leslie did, and if we use it, you’ll receive a coveted Passport to Texas t-shirt.

That’s our show…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Outdoor Story: An Otter, Water and A Hissy Fit Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas Outdoor stories from Texas parks and Wildlife

When Scooter Cheatham convinced his anthropology professor to let him and a friend conduct an experiment—instead of writing a research paper—he had no idea it would lead to his lifelong passion.

What we proposed was that we go down to my grandmother’s ranch on the Guadalupe river near Concrete, Texas, and take with us replicas of some of these early cultures we’d been studying. We had mostly stone tools, deerskin clothing—we did the whole thing.

And you start looking around and the great diversity, the thing that supplies us all of our organic needs is rooted in the plant kingdom. It just became very obvious to me that this was very important. And I was sure that some group of scientists had already done studies all over the world and that there was a body of information about this. So, I came back to Austin expecting to find that and to tap into it—it didn’t exist.

So, he created it—a 12 volume encyclopedia of Useful Wild Plants of Texas and beyond. Volume three is at the printers now.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Visit the website Useful Wild Plants, http://usefulwildplants.org/encyclopedia.htm, and see what Scooter’s been up to all these years. [Just copy and paste the URL into your browser]

Texas Outdoor Story--Scooter Cheatham Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Craig Hensley is park specialist at Guadalupe River SP. For years, he’s kept track of birds for research and education purposes by banding them. He shares what his work means to him.

I’ve just started banding here but where I banded back in Nebraska for years, you got to a point where you would see certain birds year after year. And there were some woodpeckers, for example, I think I saw for six or seven years. So when you catch a bird that’s been banded, you look it up and go, “Wow! Who is this?” It’s just, for me a wonderful love of birds that I have.

We were fortunate enough, a couple of months ago, that we had a lady here, the eagle lady. She visits lots of state parks with some birds of prey, and she happened to be in our park on a weekend we were bird banding. And only the second time in all the years I’ve been involved in bird banding we caught a hawk. A sharp-shinned hawk that had chased a bird into the net and that was a treat! I don’t band hawks, I’m not permitted to do that, but we were able to take the bird out of the net, get our pictures made with it and marvel at just a spectacular bird. Best part of the whole thing was it took three of its talons and dug ‘em into my fingers when I was trying to get him out. So when that bird flew off, he actually flew off with a little piece of my skin I think still attached to a talon, which I actually loved, it was like “I’m flying free!” So, it’s kind of odd, but that was a special treat.

One man’s odd is another man’s special treat. Thanks, Craig.

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

Texas Outdoor Story: Craig Hensley Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Brad Bell doesn’t think twice when you ask him why anyone would climb a rock.

Why would someone wanna…because it’s there…

The Austin resident teaches the sport of rock climbing. He says although you don’t need rock-hard abs to climb –before you attempt this sport — a little weight training may be the first order…

Upper body strength is good and leg strength is even more of a plus.

There ya go…push with your hand and then move your hand up to the next one…there ya go. Pull on up…good!

And even though rock climbing offers climbers a feeling of solitude, it is critical – whether you’re a novice or a seasoned climber — never go alone.

You should always have team partners… when you go you should never do it alone because up there you have to have a partner to help you belay and help you repel down and basically it’s a team effort all the way up.

Four Texas state parks offer rock climbing: Enchanted Rock, north of Fredericksburg, Hueco Tanks, just north of El Paso, Caprock Canyons southeast of Amarillo and Lake Mineral Wells.

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

Rock Climbing [ 1:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download