Passport to Texas

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

Don’t let the fact you’ve never gone fishing—or that your skills are a bit rusty—keep you from casting a line soon.

We do offer classes, but we can’t offer classes to everyone. So, we thought a little video series would help.

Ann Miller coordinates aquatic education for TPW. She said the agency received many inquiries from adults interested in learning to fish for the first time, or who wanted to know how to get their children involved. Miller helped to develop—and hosts—the agency’s new Fishing 101 video series, which demonstrates basic fishing skills.

So, we have really started with the very basic knowledge and skills, just to get people started. Then, of course, we have also included a lot of links to resources, so that people will figure out the next steps to be able to increase their fishing knowledge.

The videos, available on YouTube and the TPW website, are for adults who want to hone their skills.

We do gear this for adults; both to teach them how to go fishing again if they’ve forgotten, or to help them teach their children.

Find links to the videos at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…we produce our show with a grant form the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Fishing 101 Videos on YouTube

Fishing 101, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Great bass fishing in Texas gets better when anglers donate their fish to Parks and Wildlife’s Sharelunker program. Program coordinator, David Campbell.

A Sharelunker is a largemouth bass that weighs 13 pounds or more, legally caught in the state of Texas from private waters and public waters.

Loraine Fries (Fr-EYE-Z) manages the A.E. Wood Genetics Lab in San Marcos. She says geneticists use pieces of fin from donated bass to take DNA “fingerprints.” Information they collect tells them if the fish came from their selective breeding program.

We’re retaining offspring from lunkers, and as they mature and are big enough, we breed them back to other lunkers. And the idea is we are increasing the genetic contribution of lunkers to those offspring.

Florida Largemouth bass, stocked in reservoirs, grow larger than native northern bass, and enhance trophy potential. Geneticist Dijar Lutz-Carrillo (DEE-har luhtz—kah-REE-oh) says, thus far, all donated lunkers have been kin to Florida bass.

All of those fish were either a Florida largemouth bass or a hybrid with Florida largemouth bass influence in the genome. Just using those largest fish, big Florida largemouth bass, and producing fish from them—do those fish get significantly larger than the Florida largemouth bass? And that’s where the fingerprinting comes in.

And possibly where the next world record comes in, too.

That’s our show…supported by a grant from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program… working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

Fish Genetics, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Dijar Lutz-Carrillo (DEE-har luhtz—kah-REE-oh) is a geneticist at the A.E. Wood Laboratory in San Marcos.

And we do everything genetics related for Inland Fisheries.

Lutz-Carrillo says geneticists help to answer questions biologists might have about freshwater fish. Some of the questions currently being posed involve DNA “fingerprinting” of largemouth bass.

In terms of the DNA fingerprinting, the questions they’re specifically asking are: is this fish from this reservoir produced in the wild, or produced at the hatchery? And if it’s produced at the hatchery is it with the OWR program—or Operation World Record—and if it’s from that program, who are its parents in that program? So, you’re asking the question who’s your daddy? Yeah, that’s the question (laughs). And your mommy.

Largemouth bass top the list of popular freshwater sport fish…and Parks and Wildlife is attempting to produce world record bass using genetic testing and selective breeding. Loraine Fries (Fr-EYE-Z) is lab manager,

It’s all related to fisheries management and our interest in having the best fishing in the world here in Texas.

We’ll have more on this topic tomorrow.

That’s our show…supported by a grant from 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.

Fish Genetics, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

The September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine offers a forecast for the hunting season ahead. Managing Editor, Louie Bond.

We have our hunting forecast in which we put on our turban, and we hold the card up to our forehead and say, ‘where is hunting going to be great, and what’s going to be plentiful, and what might not be. And, John Jefferson is a great long-time outdoors man and writer, and he interviews all of our top-notch biologists, and we analyze the weather…there’s a lot of complex factors that go into our prognostication. And we may get it right most of the time, or we may get a few things wrong, so…it’s very interesting, though, to try to look ahead and foresee the future. And then another really interesting article that we’re featuring this month is about dove hunting, and whether we should be using lead shot or not in hunting dove. Interestingly enough, this study that we’re doing is so extensive and so important that worldwide wildlife groups are waiting for the results of this. We’re studying every aspect of it. So, not only will our hunters be watching this, but worldwide people are going to be watching this to see where it’s going to lead. So, get out your camo; make sure it’s all ready; get our your guns and get them cleaned; buy your shot and get ready for a great hunting season.

Thanks Louie.

That’s our show…supported by a grant from 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.

TPW Magazine September Preview Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The summer drought inspires one family to conserve water. Gretchen Mahan tells us more.

My family agreed to try and reduce their personal water use by implementing simple conservation techniques. The day before our experiment began, I printed out the San Antonio Water System conservation tips and posted them in bathrooms and the kitchen. My dad, Jim, reads one of the tips.

When brushing teeth, turn the water off until it is time to rinse. When shaving fill the lavatory basin with hot water instead of letting the water run continuously. I think that’s a good, conservative use of water.

We also changed the shower head in my brothers’ bathroom to a more water efficient one from San Antonio Water System. My brother Peter tells us about it.

There are two kinds of sprays…the normal spray, the massage.

But my older brother, Trey, says taking shorter showers, wasn’t the most enjoyable experience.

My shower today was approximately seven and a half minutes compared to what it used to be was over fifteen minutes. It was a very painful process, but it was well worth it to save the environment.

Okay, so there may have been a little sarcasm in that last line. My brothers aren’t exactly the environmentalists of the family. But with a little prodding, we managed to do fairly well, saving 3,000 gallons or 13 percent of our total water use.

Thanks Gretchen. That’s our show…Find more information at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Water Conservation Family Style, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download