Outdoors

The skinny side of bass fishing is game on right now

Chuck Simmons used a 4-inch Big Bite craw tube to catch this Lake Waco bass and

I just got in from a bass fishing road trip that took me from Sam Rayburn to Lake Waco in five days. This is definitely my favorite time of year to target bass. They are up shallow and spawning. It’s the only time of year in Texas when you can actually see bass on the beds. And if you hit it just right the fishing can be phenomenal.

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Snakes galore right now

A snake-eating snake, this rarely photographed 7-foot long indigo was seen on a
Bald eagle resting after being shot from the nest by a teen.

This has been one of the warmest winters on record for Texas, and with all that sunshine comes bad news in the form of snakes.

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Grand slam fishing on Sabine Lake

Sabine Lake guide Jerry Norris with one of many trout caught on 5-inch Shad Assa

We didn’t leave the dock until about 10:30 last Thursday morning, but it really didn’t matter. The weather was drop-dead perfect for fishing on Sabine Lake.

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Game wardens hunt down poachers shooting ducks on the Neches River

The 2016-17 duck hunting season is officially closed and overall it was better t

The duck season closed this past Sunday at sundown, and based on reports here in Southeast Texas, it was a pretty run for most hunters. Some of the best shoots were at the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area in Port Arthur. Coastal hunts in the marsh were fair, and guide Colby Denbow reports that his hunts between Beaumont and Winnie were pretty good overall.

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Rayburn comes through with big-time numbers of bass

The first bass tournament of the year was held Jan. 14 at Sam Rayburn by Bass Champs, and out of 397 teams entered, John Iles and Brian Shook won with 30.75 pounds and took home $20,000.

When it was all said and done, 794 anglers caught a total of 646 bass with an average weight of 3.11 pounds. Right at 123 limits were caught, while 266 teams didn’t weigh in a single bass.

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Texas bird hunts can’t be beat

One of the most exciting birds we can hunt in Texas is the bobwhite quail. A goo

Texas hunters have it made. We have big numbers of white-tailed deer, turkeys, wild pigs, ducks and geese, as well as doves. We’ve got huge chunks of land that produce bobwhite and blue quail, and if that’s not enough, check out a hunt for snipe since the season is open through Feb. 12.

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Must-have gear for waterfowl hunting

Robert Sloan photo

Waterfowl hunters are not that techno crazy when it comes to gearing up for success. It’s basically like football – you get suited up with the essentials and go at it full speed. The crazy thing about duck and goose hunters is that we have to go afield prepared for just about anything that can be thrown our way here in Southeast Texas – rain, cold, mud, ice, sleet, mosquitoes, snakes and even alligators. It can be a true test of one’s perseverance on any given hunt.

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Sometimes it pays to go fishing on a Monday

Roy Euper, TPWD photo

It was Roy Euper’s lucky day. Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, he went fishing on Sam Rayburn and hooked up with a largemouth bass. He was fishing with a crankbait in 30 feet of water when a 13.2-pound bass inhaled the lure. 

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Deer hunting is more than just pulling the trigger

Robert Sloan photo

The thing that draws millions of deer hunters into the wild is the element of surprise – you never know what’s going to show up at any given moment.

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As crazy as it gets for game wardens

Being a Texas game warden is not all that easy. In fact, from one day to the next, the job is totally unpredictable. How crazy does it get? This is what wardens have been doing for the past couple of weeks.

Outlaw hunters with a spotlight, guns, drugs and wounded deer

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