# Boat launch madness near SLP



## Bullitt4439 (Sep 18, 2014)

Decided to hit it for a few hours after work today and it was crazy as hell at the launch.

20ish oyster boats in the small canal blocking everything and the entire parking lot filled with box trucks loading oysters.

Thank goodness for having a small 14x48 and being able to launch in 12 inches of water.

The bay was dirty pretty much everywhere and the wind was gusting 15+ from the South.

Ground out 3 15-17in trout. Sure beat sitting at the office!!!

:texasflag


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## dk2429 (Mar 27, 2015)

****... That's a bunch of boats


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## kenny (May 21, 2004)

Where are they 0ystering near the Pass?


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## Muddskipper (Dec 29, 2004)

In the water


Sorry I couldn't resist .....


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## Bullitt4439 (Sep 18, 2014)

kenny said:


> Where are they 0ystering near the Pass?


Whole line of em came in from towards Drum Bay when I was launching.

Going back down this afternoon. If they are still there going to try and pick up a sack fresh off the boat and will see where they got em...


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## Nado (Dec 14, 2011)

looks like a scene from a foreign fish market on the water.


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## tlt_tamu (Apr 17, 2013)

Nado said:


> looks like a scene from a foreign fish market on the water.


YEP!


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## Quackerbox (Feb 6, 2006)

which launch is that?


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## Harbormaster (May 26, 2000)

They're putting in at Sy's old ramp and oystering Southwest of there. Been there all week.


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## FlusherK (Nov 20, 2012)

Some of them are from somewhere in Dickinson,I talked to guys one of the boars, they are ripping up the reefs in Christmas Bay. They do not seem to be dredging since all of the reefs are out of the since it is so low. This is not helping the fishing. I was out there yesterday.


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

FlusherK said:


> Some of them are from somewhere in Dickinson,I talked to guys one of the boars, they are ripping up the reefs in Christmas Bay. They do not seem to be dredging since all of the reefs are out of the since it is so low. This is not helping the fishing. I was out there yesterday.


Christmas bay is so shallow it is pretty much dredge proof and they can't do much damage to the reef "cooning" oysters by hand. Speaking from experience it is really, really hard to **** 10 sacks in a day. I would be surprised if they are averaging 8 sacks per person and most boats seem to have 2 maybe 3 people each.


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## jtburf (May 26, 2004)

Had some oysters from Christmas Bay back in Nov, all hand tonged. Dang they were huge and very tasty...

Loved them!!!

John


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## thinshavings (May 11, 2010)

Heard Micky talk about this today.....they were raping Arcadia Reef.
I do believe there were several boats from out of state.


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## Bullitt4439 (Sep 18, 2014)

Yea they were all over Arcadia and in Drum getting em by hand. All the boats had probably 30+ sacks coming into the launch.

Bought a 90 ish lb sack for $40 fresh off the boat.

Huge!!!

On a side note the fishing was no better Friday than it was Thursday. (for me anyway) ended up with 2 trout to 18in and 1 nice 16in sand trout. 
Water looked way better yesterday than Thursday with trout green water in several places.


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## kenny (May 21, 2004)

thinshavings said:


> Heard Micky talk about this today.....they were raping Arcadia Reef.
> I do believe there were several boats from out of state.


TP&W Says Christmas is a Preserve, I wouldn't think it would be open to commercial oystering.
http://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/water/conservation/txgems/christma/index.phtml


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

thinshavings said:


> Heard Micky talk about this today.....they were raping Arcadia Reef.
> I do believe there were several boats from out of state.


I will start off by saying that I like Capt. Micky and his fishing show.

With that being said over the last 40 or more years few have profited more from our resource than Capt. Micky. Over the decades he and his customers have boxed and iced untold thousands and thousands of pounds of trout and redfish from our bays and he has made a very comfortable living doing so. Not so much different from any commercial fisherman. He gets paid to catch fish.

So I think there is a little hypocrisy going on for Capt. Micky to accuse anyone of "raping" anything if he even in fact said that. Let alone a handful of guys harvesting oysters the exact same way man has been doing it in our bays for thousands of years. Picking them up by hand...

The same oysters we all love to eat on the half shell or hot off the grill.


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## TX1836 (May 5, 2014)

Note: Drum Bay and Bastrop Bay are prohibited areas.


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

I did not see anyone west of the line in closed waters. Most boats are working the old intracoastal and arcadia reef


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## Zeitgeist (Nov 10, 2011)

Its Catchy said:


> I will start off by saying that I like Capt. Micky and his fishing show.
> 
> With that being said over the last 40 or more years few have profited more from our resource than Capt. Micky. Over the decades he and his customers have boxed and iced untold thousands and thousands of pounds of trout and redfish from our bays and he has made a very comfortable living doing so. Not so much different from any commercial fisherman. He gets paid to catch fish.
> 
> ...


Glad you are a fan of Capt. Mickey. He never used the term or accused anybody of raping anything. Those are Thinshavings comments. He acknowledged the fact that, he himself has harvested his own oysters by hand.

The context of the conversation, mainly with Capt. James Plaag was the surprise of seeing boats there. Plaag even questioned the christmas Bay thing as in his 30 years he has never seen it and thought it was a restricted area.

Listen for yourself, in the link below are the podcasts, scroll down to Friday, February 24th. In hour one at 13:45 he discusses it with Capt. Tommy Alexander. Then in hour two at 3:41 he discusses it with Capt. Plaag.

http://houston.cbslocal.com/audio/the-outdoors-show/


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

Zeitgeist said:


> Glad you are a fan of Capt. Mickey. He never used the term or accused anybody of raping anything. Those are Thinshavings comments. He acknowledged the fact that, he himself has harvested his own oysters by hand.
> 
> The context of the conversation, mainly with Capt. James Plaag was the surprise of seeing boats there. Plaag even questioned the christmas Bay thing as in his 30 years he has never seen it and thought it was a restricted area.
> 
> ...


Hence me using the term "if he in fact said that". I caught the tail end of the conversation with Plaag on live radio and James seemed to be pretty fair with his comments.


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## Zeitgeist (Nov 10, 2011)

Its Catchy said:


> Hence me using the term "if he in fact said that". I caught the tail end of the conversation with Plaag on live radio and James seemed to be pretty fair with his comments.


Yeah, right on dude, I highlit your quote in red on the PC versions of 2Cool, can't be seen on Tapatalk. I understand.


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## Horsefly (Aug 12, 2005)

Not quite madness but there was some oyster boats at the Swan Lake ramp this morning. Blocking the best ramp....no one in sight.


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## billsandducks (Jul 20, 2016)

Those unattended blocking the ramp would have "drifted off accidentally"


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

It's actually kind of fun to watch. Every hour or two someone decides that they have had enough cooning and decides to fire up the motor and try to get the dredge on some oysters.

There is about 15 mins of mud filled rooster tails followed by some yelling in spanish. Then things get quite and they are right back over the side with their milk crates and culling irons.

I suspect that there will be fewer and fewer boats oystering in Christmas Bay over the next week or two as they give up on cooning and move on to look for oysters in deeper bays.


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