Passport to Texas

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

The second annual Toyota Texas Bass Classic is April 18 through 20 at Lake Fork…

Which is an economically significant bass fishery in northeast Texas—probably the world’s best trophy bass fishery.

Dave Terre is chief of Inland Fisheries research and management at Texas Parks and Wildlife. Twenty-six, four person teams of professional bass anglers will participate. But there’s a twist.

Lake Fork is managed with a sixteen to twenty-four inch slot limit. That limit is very unique. Anglers who catch fish within that size range need to release them immediately back to the lake. And, anglers are restricted to the number of fish over twenty-four inches that they can keep per day.

Typically, bass tournaments allow anglers to reel in large quantities of fish, with weigh-in happening at one time. The Bass Classic turns that tradition on its gill.

The professional anglers that are fishing this tournament have observers in their boat. These observers actually weigh fish as they are being caught, and the fish are immediately released back to the lake.

What that means for the bass, says Terre, is a near 100 percent survival rate.

How the Toyota Bass Classic supports conservation efforts in Texas…that’s tomorrow.

That’s our show… our series receives 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.

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

When a coyote visits your neighborhood, don’t put out the welcome mat.

If the coyotes are coming into a residential area, and you see one, first off – try to scare it.

Brett Johnson is an urban wildlife biologist in Dallas County.

They’re not these frightening animals that are out to hurt you. So, if you see one, yell at it and either hit it with water from a water hose, or the other option is to throw something in its general direction. Be it a small stick, in some cases if you have to, even a small rock. Not something that’s going to hurt the animal…but just something where that animal feels a physical contact in addition to your yelling.

After creating this negative association with humans, try and figure out why they’re attracted to the neighborhood.

If they’re coming through a neighborhood and they’ve decided to stay there, usually that means they’ve found an abundant food source of some variety. And in an urban area, that usually means they’re going after pet food. So, there, the simple thing is, we have to change some of our human behavior and not leave a constant source of pet food outside all the time.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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

You know the story: rural land inhabited by wildlife, developed for suburban life, receives unwelcome visitation by the previous tenants.

We can coexist with the wildlife in the urban areas, but to do so – in many cases – we need a change of attitude.

Brett Johnson is an urban wildlife biologist in Dallas County; he educates communities about wildlife — especially coyotes – that occasionally visit the hood.

People tend to have one of two reactions when they see a coyote. And those two reactions are, either they are afraid and back away from it, and basically allow the coyote to continue doing whatever it’s doing at that time. Or, they get all excited and want to see how close they can get to it.

Neither reaction is suitable when developing an appropriate human / coyote relationship, says Johnson.

Either one of those two reactions are going to cause the coyote to become more and more comfortable around humans.

Once these animals lose their fear of humans, they can become a nuisance. Tomorrow: dealing with coyotes.

If the coyotes are coming into a residential area, and you see one, first off – try to scare it.

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

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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

Archery is a sport where physical size and agility is not required to excel.

If you were a petite little fourth grader, you could shoot at the same time as the high school jock and you may win. So, it’s said that it is the only sport where boys and girls can compete at the same time on the same team.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says archery levels the playing field for kids of all abilities.

Physical ability doesn’t even matter. A young man at our state tournament last year had Down’s Syndrome; he was on the shooting line with everybody else. At the national tournament, there was a young man who was visually impaired on the shooting line with everyone else who was not visually impaired. And, the only difference was, he had a sighted person standing a little behind him, giving him the cues, “a little higher, a little lower, left, right, shoot.” So, it’s an even playing field, and that’s one of the fundamentals of this program, is that the equipment is standardized. Everybody has the same equipment.

The Texas National Archery in Schools program certifies teachers in a one-day intensive class to teach the sport to students of all ages and abilities. Learn how to get involved when you log onto passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration programProgram…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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

The Texas National Archery in the Schools Program certifies teachers as instructors. Teachers learn the program, as they will teach it to their students.

It’s an all day workshop to become a certified instructor. They learn with the same equipment and the same method.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We use international style archery. It’s bulls-eye target faces, Olympic size. We use Olympic whistle commands, and they learn the same way worldwide.

Kessner says while certified instructors prepare students for tournaments, the successes a child
experiences extend beyond the bulls-eye.

So, when a kid is shooting archery, and they’re on the shooting line—they’re all the same. So, it doesn’t matter what kind of home they go home to after the tournament, when they’re at the tournament, they’re the same as everyone else. So, that’s the self-esteem building piece; it’s standardized.

Archery is a sport where anyone of nearly any ability can participate…and we have more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show… our series receives support 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.

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