Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

The annual arrival of colorful, fun-to-catch rainbow trout gets underway this month and continues through March.

They’re a good fish to catch and a good fish to eat.

Carl Kittle oversees the TPW trout-stocking program.

Each winter we try to create an opportunity for fishermen. Right now we’re doing over a hundred and twenty sites, with about two hundred seventy to two hundred and seventy five thousand rainbow trout being stocked almost all over the state.

It gets too hot in Texas to support a natural population of rainbow trout, so anglers have to get ’em while it’s cold.

You can catch them with live bait. You can catch them with corn or some other bait; and certainly, they’re great on spinners and even fly-fishing. What about a cane pole? A cane pole and a worm is one of the best ways to catch trout.

Kittle says although relatively easy to catch, rainbow trout can offer a challenge to anglers.

In that they are aware of people above the water, and they can see out of the water if the water is clear. So, sometimes you have to be a little bit cautious about letting the fish see you from above while you’re fishing.

Having to hide from prying fish eyes below the water’s surface is just plain creepy.

They’re nice eyes. They’re nice little fish—no reason to worry about them.

Find the trout-stocking schedule at passporttotexas.org. That’s our show…with support from the SF Restoration Program… helping to fund fish hatchery management and operations in Texas.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Don’t wait for the summer sun to get your fishing gear out again; you can make some great catches this winter!

Texas has year-round saltwater fishing and it’s very productive, even in the worst of weather.

While you’ll find the usual Texas fare of redfish, flounder and speckled trout, professional fishing guide and outdoor writer, Danno Wise suggests casting your line to make some other great catches.

Down here in the Rio Grande Valley is the only place in the continental United States outside of South Florida there’s a fishable population of snook year round. They’re sensitive to cold so they’re going to go into the deeper portions of our bay systems, but because the fish will be concentrated, we have excellent snook fishing during the winter time.

We also have a substantial amount of beachfront fishing which is kind of overlooked. Whiting, which is a simple kind of fish, and the pompano. Very tropical looking species; in Florida, they’re targeted very heavily. Fish such as those are plentiful and good eating, and if you want to target going out just to get out of the house, relax, and catch a few to take home to eat, those are excellent choices.

Winter fishing season usually lasts between early December through March. Just remember some warm clothes and a waterproof jacket for that ocean spray!

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

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This is Passport to Texas

We have something in common with early Texans.

Christmas, and the month of December—in large part—was the time when Texans gathered.

Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites. Unlike today when a short trip by car or plane will get us to our holiday destination, travel was difficult for early Texans.

And so when you traveled, you tended to stay. People had time at Christmas to do that—to travel and spend weeks.

Which makes the few days that most of us get off at Christmas seem like a rip off. And early Texans made good use of this block of time.

It was then that they celebrated not only Christmas, but other special events, and planned weddings for the month of December.

Since Texas was mostly rural in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, and there wasn’t a lot of farming that could happen in December…

It almost gave 19th Century and early 20th Century rural Texans an excuse not to work. And thus to play a bit more, and socialize a bit more, than they had time to do many other months of the year.

How will you spend your Christmas Holiday? Tell us at passporttotexas.org.

From all of us at Passport to Texas, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

The custom of decorating trees for Christmas took root in German villages during the sixteenth century.

A lot of Germans, as you know, settled Texas. And they brought a tradition with them of the tabletop Christmas tree.

Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites.

When you look at interior photographs of Texas houses, you see many tabletop Christmas trees ornamented for the season, particularly in German households in the late nineteenth century Texas.

Ornaments were handmade then, and small gifts often dangled from branches. Eventually, the tabletop conifer gave way to larger trees that became “floor models,” and the decorations sometimes mirrored the day’s events.

You saw more and more seven or eight feet [tall] trees that were placed on the floor. And because we had just ended the Spanish American war in victory, there was a fashion in the early part of the twentieth century to decorate trees with a few American flags here and there. We have photographic evidence for that.

What kinds of ornaments will hang from your tree this year? Tell us about them at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we record our series at the Production Block in Austin, Texas…Joel Block engineers our program.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

As the holiday season winds down, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead. And for most of us, that includes making few resolutions. Terry Erwin has suggestions for hunters.

First off, hunters ought to think ahead and plan for their trips for the upcoming year.

Erwin oversees hunter education at Parks and Wildlife.

Certification is required for a lot of out of states. And you need to get that certification done. So get your hunter ed completed early…get it out of the way…you only have to take it once.

But the resolutions for hunters don’t stop there.

If you talk about a resolution, then we want that instructor who’s going to teach a class to convey to the students, number one – resolve to always point that muzzle in a safe direction. Always treat every firearm as if it’s loaded, and always identify your target before you shoot, what’s in front of it and what’s beyond it. Any other resolutions ought to be: if you’re going to take an animal you ought to consumer it. If you’re not going to consume it then give it to Hunters for the Hungry where it can be consumed by those who really need it.

Our show is made possible by the Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase hunting and shooting opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…Cecilia Nasti

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