# Black Marlin on the Flats!



## shoalnuff

http://www.southernfinapparel.com/catching-a-black-marlin-on-the-flats/


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## Meadowlark

Awesome vid! I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it. Australia ? 

I'll be doing that two handed strip soon for roosters in Baja. Has some similar areas...Going to ask them if they have ever seen Marlin come in shallow like that.


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## Ish

very cool, although that's not black marlin on the flats, that's black marlin off the beach. bit of a difference, but whatever...

when i lived in FL stuff like that would happen all the time. they'd catch everything from swordfish, yes swordfish, to 300lb tuna, to 50 lb bull dolphin on the flats...true flats...like grass flats in the bay...not just the beach. the thought was that those pelagic fish took a wrong turn and got lost crossing from the Gulf to the Atlantic and vice-versa.

all very cool to see, but nothing like seeing 16', 1,300+lb great hammerheads up in 3-4' of water chasing (and killing) 80-100+ lb tarpon. that's something that if you are lucky enough to witness in your lifetime you will never forget.




imagine what kind of stuff we'd see again (cobia, etc.) in our bays if TPWD would get all the natural passes that they bulldozed shut in '79 open again...imagine what our fishery would be like if there was actually tidal movement and current flow like there used to be.

of course then what would CCA and TPWD do if there was no need to make stockers anymore???


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## mikedeleon

Ish said:


> of course then what would CCA and TPWD do if there was no need to make stockers anymore???


You have always had a fervent dislike for those stockers. I got a better tarpon boat than my old red one if you want to go this summer. Hope you are well.


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## southpaw

Ish said:


> imagine what kind of stuff we'd see again (cobia, etc.) in our bays if TPWD would get all the natural passes that they bulldozed shut in '79 open again...imagine what our fishery would be like if there was actually tidal movement and current flow like there used to be.
> 
> of course then what would CCA and TPWD do if there was no need to make stockers anymore???


I'm all for opening the passes, but do you think that would remove the need for TPWD stocking programs given the current (and increasing) fishing pressure on the Texas bays?

(I'm kind of thinking out loud here more for discussion and to try to learn me something more on this topic so bare with me on the long post. )

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole stocking program. On one hand, I know stocking programs in the long run do more harm than good. The trout hippies have proven that with trout and salmon stocking programs, so I see how farm raised redfish can be harmful to the native population that they essentially compete against and am against it. Also, I don't believe TPWD should necessarily allow harvesting and/or altering the ecosystem in such a way so that it causes the need to have to supplement the fishery. On the other hand, in a selfish way, I've seen how the redfish stocking program has succeeded in boosting redfish numbers so in that sense I look at it as it's better to do something than nothing.

Naturally, I'd like to see native redfish populations be healthy on their own without having to add a bunch of inbred fish to the population. I honestly just don't know if given the state of the fisheries, specifically more toward the middle and lower coast, if opening the passes would be enough to sustain the fishing pressure. I can look at the upper coast, which I assume has some of the highest pressure on the TX coast bc of the proximity to Houston, and it seems to have a very healthy redfish and trout fishery. It has lots of passes and has healthy marsh areas with good freshwater flow. I don't know how much of the health of Sargent to Sabine is due to stocking programs, but I could see how that fishery could sustain itself without it. Then I look at Louisiana. They have no stocking program that I know of (I actually think their farms sell redfish to TX) extensive marsh, the mighty Mississippi, higher limits and ********* and they have a really healthy fishery. This may be comparing apples to oranges though since they don't really have passes over there.

Anyways, the area I'm most concerned about is my home waters, Rockport and Aransas Pass. It's vastly different from the upper coast in that it doesn't get the same freshwater influx nor does it have the same marsh system. I've heard so much **** from so called experts that I don't know what to believe. From my experience, I've seen the trout and redfishing get worse down there over about the past 10 years. But the last 2 years or so, the redfish population has bounced back, I'm guessing due to TPWD stocking. People will throw all sorts of reasons out there for the decline of the fishery but most seem to point to overfishing, closing CB/VS or water quality. Hopefully opening cedar bayou will help down there and we'll start to see the fishery naturally sustain itself, but I can't help but wonder at least a little bit if there's more underlying problems in that area


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## Finn Maccumhail

Possibly even more beneficial than opening the passes would be extensive restoration and regrowth of the seagrass beds and living oyster reefs.

They provide more cover for juvenile fish and more prey for big fish.


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## Ish

mikedeleon said:


> You have always had a fervent dislike for those stockers. I got a better tarpon boat than my old red one if you want to go this summer. Hope you are well.


true, because of what that stocking program has done to the fishery...

doing well, hope you guys are good to. call me.


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## Ish

paw, gimme a bit and i'll respond with some stuff that may answer some of thes questions.


may, may not, but it ain't gonna hurt to mention it and discuss it.

i just don't have the time right now....


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## Ish

Alright, get a cold beer and get comfortableâ€¦



southpaw said:


> I'm all for opening the passes, but do you think that would remove the need for TPWD stocking programs given the current (and increasing) fishing pressure on the Texas bays?
> 
> (I'm kind of thinking out loud here more for discussion and to try to learn me something more on this topic so bare with me on the long post. )
> 
> In the past tpwdâ€™s own biologists have said that more redfish fry are produced naturally when just one natural pass is open than can be produced by all the hatcheries combined. Imagine if several passes were re-openedâ€¦stockers would undoubtedly be unneeded.
> 
> I'm not sure how I feel about the whole stocking program.
> 
> Haha, Iâ€™m guessing youâ€™re realizing that what youâ€™re seeing is not matching up with what cca and tpwd are telling you and you canâ€™t figure out whyâ€¦
> 
> On one hand, I know stocking programs in the long run do more harm than good. The trout hippies have proven that with trout and salmon stocking programs, so I see how farm raised redfish can be harmful to the native population that they essentially compete against and am against it. Also, I don't believe TPWD should necessarily allow harvesting and/or altering the ecosystem in such a way so that it causes the need to have to supplement the fishery. On the other hand, in a selfish way, I've seen how the redfish stocking program has succeeded in boosting redfish numbers so in that sense I look at it as it's better to do something than nothing.
> 
> â€œsucceeded in boosting numbersâ€¦â€??? compared to what? There is nowhere near the quantity nor quality of redfish on the flats in the middle-texas bay system than there was before they created this problem by closing the passes and stocking fish.
> 
> 
> â€œsucceeded in boosting numbersâ€ sounds like a cca/tpwd propagandist talking point. Why? Because it is.
> 
> 
> If the do-gooders at cca/tpwd canâ€™t help themselves and have to stock something, they should be stocking blue crabs and shrimp. The reason the fishery has gotten as bad as it has on the mid-tex stretch is because the food source is no longer there like it once was.
> 
> 
> Why?
> 
> 
> Crabs and shrimp need to be able to migrate to the gulf beaches to reproduce successfully. With the passes closed they canâ€™t do that. The mid-tex bays are largely a â€œclosedâ€ system. On top of that, the cca/tpwd clowns dump millions of stockers into this largely closed system.
> 
> 
> Think about itâ€¦take a largely finite food source in that mostly closed-off system and add millions of predators, not once, but each year, without adding more food for all these new stockers to eat. What would you expect to happen?
> 
> Personally Iâ€™d like to know which rocket surgeon at tpwd thought thatâ€™d be a good idea.
> 
> 
> And all the while the clowns at tpwd and the bro-brah cca club are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back thinking (and telling everyone) theyâ€™ve done a good thing.
> 
> Sadly, most of the people (and most on this board) buy into the propagandaâ€¦theyâ€™ve all got their cca t-shirts, the cool-guy redfish or red star sticker on the back of their vehicle, they all go to the banquets and get drunk and buy raffle tickets, enter the star tournament, etcâ€¦all oblivious to the damage their beloved â€œenvironmentalistâ€ organizations are doing to the resource.
> 
> Naturally, I'd like to see native redfish populations be healthy on their own without having to add a bunch of inbred fish to the population. I honestly just don't know if given the state of the fisheries, specifically more toward the middle and lower coast, if opening the passes would be enough to sustain the fishing pressure. I can look at the upper coast, which I assume has some of the highest pressure on the TX coast bc of the proximity to Houston, and it seems to have a very healthy redfish and trout fishery. It has lots of passes and has healthy marsh areas with good freshwater flow. I don't know how much of the health of Sargent to Sabine is due to stocking programs, but I could see how that fishery could sustain itself without it. Then I look at Louisiana. They have no stocking program that I know of (I actually think their farms sell redfish to TX) extensive marsh, the mighty Mississippi, higher limits and ********* and they have a really healthy fishery. This may be comparing apples to oranges though since they don't really have passes over there.
> 
> the upper coast and Lowsyana are perfect examples of what happens when there is plenty of gulf water exchange.
> 
> tpwd and cca love to distract from that fact with by claiming that decreased river flow has contributed to the salinity problem in the mid-tex bays and thatâ€™s the reason larvae arenâ€™t doing well.
> 
> well yeah, if the bay system is cut off from the gulf, then yes, rivers are one way to help prevent the salinity from getting so high. but if the bays system were returned to their natural state, river water influx wouldnâ€™t be a factor in maintaining salinity levels.
> 
> If the bays were open to the gulf like they used to be, rivers would be irrelevant. Fresh gulf water would be introduced daily and salinity levels would naturally regulate. Not only that, crab, shrimp, redfish (and whatever else) larvae would be introduced (naturally) and weâ€™d have a healthy system.
> 
> 
> Next time some clown from cca or tpwd tries to sell you on the low freshwater flow from rivers as being all-important and the cause, ask him how many crab/shrimp/redfish larvae come from the rivers.
> 
> (i always enjoy the look on their face when some fool says that to me and i ask him that question. then i follow up with "where do those larvae come from?" priceless...)
> 
> 
> 
> Ironically, the rivers can actually cause problems in this closed bay system we haveâ€¦
> 
> 
> When we get torrential rains and the rivers swell and dump a bunch of fresh water into the bays damage is also done. Saltwater grasses need salinity. When the salinity levels fall, grass dies. If gulf passes were open river influx would not be as damaging as the tides and circulation would flush the bays and carry the freshwater back out into the gulf like it used to.
> 
> When these rivers flood and dump into the bays, there's nowhere for the sweet stuff to go. last time that happend it took over a month for the fresh water to make it out of the bays. that ain't good cuz it kills wpp's beloved sea grass.
> 
> Anybody around here ever seen hyacinth in the bays? Anyone ever seen the largemouth bass that are caught in the bays after torrential rains?
> 
> Anyways, the area I'm most concerned about is my home waters, Rockport and Aransas Pass. It's vastly different from the upper coast in that it doesn't get the same freshwater influx nor does it have the same marsh system. I've heard so much **** from so called experts that I don't know what to believe. From my experience, I've seen the trout and redfishing get worse down there over about the past 10 years. But the last 2 years or so, the redfish population has bounced back, I'm guessing due to TPWD stocking. People will throw all sorts of reasons out there for the decline of the fishery but most seem to point to overfishing, closing CB/VS or water quality. Hopefully opening cedar bayou will help down there and we'll start to see the fishery naturally sustain itself, but I can't help but wonder at least a little bit if there's more underlying problems in that area
> 
> _â€œIâ€™ve seen the trout and redfishing get worse down there over about the past 10 yearsâ€_â€¦
> 
> You arenâ€™t the only one!!!
> 
> but thereâ€™s something I want to point out here, and I donâ€™t mean to pick on you personally because you arenâ€™t the only oneâ€¦
> 
> 
> If, as you mentioned earlier, â€œ(youâ€™ve) seen how the redfish stocking program has succeeded in boosting redfish numbers so in that sense (you) look at it as it's betterâ€ then why has the fishing gotten worse over the last 10 years?
> 
> The truth is it _HAS _gotten exponentially worse over the last decade but many people have it in their head that the stocking program has been a success.
> 
> 
> Why?
> 
> 
> Because itâ€™s in every piece of cca/tpwd propaganda thatâ€™s printed or published. People are overwhelmed in the coastal media they consume about how great these organizations are, and how great the stocking program is. If you say it enough times to enough peopleâ€¦.
> 
> 
> If itâ€™s so great, why are you and I and most who are paying attention (and know what theyâ€™re talking about) watching the decline of the fishery? If these two groups have done such a great job, why does the mid-tex fishery suck so bad?
> 
> They need to end the stocking program and get the passes open. Without that, the suckage will persist.


 Rant over. If nothing else I hope that gave you some things to think about.

Now I look forward to seeing all the comments from the cca/tpwd fan-boys running to their defenseâ€¦

if not, back to black marlins on the beach, er i mean, flats.


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## Ish

Finn Maccumhail said:


> Possibly even more beneficial than opening the passes would be extensive restoration and regrowth of the seagrass beds and living oyster reefs.
> 
> They provide more cover for juvenile fish and more prey for big fish.


see you're thinking like a cca/tpwd'er...that those problems need to be addressed by cca/tpwd.

wrong.

opening the passes restores the natural tidal and current flow throughout the bay system. restoring the natural tidal and current flow brings in nutrient-rich waters in from the gulf. bringing in nutrient-rich waters from the gulf fixes both those problems, naturally.

_(remember, sea grasses need nutrients and oysters need current...)

_again, i don't mean to pick on you personally/specifically, it's just that unfortunately most in texans think like this.

when you're constantly inundated with propaganda, it effects how you think. logic and reason are replaced with the agenda constantly being pushed down your throat and you start to believe it.

resist!!!


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## mikedeleon

Ish - How do you feel about CCA banquets?

(you guys don't realize what a hornets nest you are stirring up)

Wah da tah. I kind of miss this.


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## southpaw

Ish, thanks for the response. Lots of good info there and puts a lot of things into perspective.

I guess I need to be careful about what I say about the success of the stocking programs. That statement was made based on the perceived bump in redfish numbers I've personally seen in RP/AP over the past 2 or so years. But this is also after I observed it decline over the past 10 years give or take a few so that doesn't mean the numbers are close to what they were 10 years ago. I may be incorrect in calling that a success on the stocking programs part.

Also this bump is purely based on numbers, and not quality of fish. I've never seen so many 16-19.5" redfish as I have the past couple of years and I can't tell you a recent time that I've consistently caught over slot reds in Aransas Bay like I used to.

What stuck out to me the most in your post is the mention of bait, specifically crabs. The past couple of years I started fishing the Galveston marshes a lot more, and one of the things that really jumped out at me was the abundance of crabs. That got me thinking about how when I was a kid fishing down in Rockport we used to catch a ****pot full of blue crabs pretty much anytime we would go fishing and boil them up. Not that we try all that hard anymore but I can't tell you the last time I've caught good numbers of blue crabs there, other than in the Port A or lydia ann channel, which makes sense. I had always just attributed this more to the thousands of crab traps sitting out in the bay, but there's just as many traps sitting in West Galveston Bay, yet they appear to have lots of crabs.

Shrimp I haven't really noticed other than the bait stand I pass on my way out often doesn't have their shrimp flag flying, but I thought that was more bc the bait wench that works there was getting lazy or something.

Mullet and especially pinfish numbers seem healthy down there though. I don't know a whole lot about redfish ecology but if one food source (crabs/shrimp) has declined why don't the redfish start feeding more heavily on the mullet and really those bastard piranha pin fish?

Also, Black drum feed primarily on crabs and shrimp (I think) yet they seem to be flourishing in the middle coast areas. So much now that guides are targeting them heavily. I say seem to be flourishing bc I see them everywhere along San Jose and in the back lakes, but I never really paid close attention to them in the past so maybe their numbers and quality have dropped too.

What's your honest opinion Cedar Bayou re-opening? Do you think we'll start seeing major changes over the next few years or do you think too much damage has been done?

For the most part, a lot of the changes I've seen in Aransas Bay, I've also seen in the areas I fish south of the Port A channel. Not too far off is Packery. Are those two channels just too far from each other to provide good circulation with the gulf?

You got any credible resources you can send links, book titles, etc for and/or point me in the direction of? There's so much doodoo on the internet that it's hard to sift through it all and find out what's true and what's not. The more you know....



> (you guys don't realize what a hornets nest you are stirring up)


I'm really not trying to stir anything up, just learn more. I've been interested in the natural passes ever since I read the book Plugger way back when.


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## railbird

If anyone is interested in working towards opening Yarborough, I would be all in for supporting that. 80 miles between gulf passes is strangling the bay system down there.


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## Ish

mikedeleon said:


> Ish - How do you feel about CCA banquets?
> 
> (you guys don't realize what a hornets nest you are stirring up)
> 
> Wah da tah. I kind of miss this.


how i feel about them is irrelevant, but i know why you're asking. 
_(insert â€œstirring the potâ€ emoticon here)_

i'm bored, so i'll grant you an indulgence...

the *C*ash *C*ollection *A*ssociation serves one purpose...to raise money for tpwd. tpwd says jump, cca says how high? tpwd says we want money, cca says how much?.... without ever questioning the decisions or pushing back against bad ones. banquets are one of the ways they do it...

get a bunch of suckers in a room, get 'em liquored up, tug at their heart strings, get 'em to open up their wallets. works every time.


don't get me wrong, there are a bunch of good guys in the bro-brah club, but they're largely ignorant of what's gone on in the past, what's going on now, and why it goes on. if you try to have a discussion with them they begin to realize the ignorance and get fiercely defensive about the club. which i understand...no one likes to admit they've been wrong and their actions have been damaging.

i even had one big cca muckety-muck, who you likely know, admit to me that he agreed with the points i was making but that he couldn't go against cca because it would hurt his business. i can understand protecting your livelihood. sort of. 

if it were me iâ€™d simply change my businessâ€¦i could never be that sort of whore.

thatâ€™s a baddy daddy lamatai tebby chai.


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## Ish

southpaw said:


> Ish, thanks for the response. Lots of good info there and puts a lot of things into perspective.


 Youâ€™re welcome, thatâ€™s all I was aiming for.



southpaw said:


> guess I need to be careful about what I say about the success of the stocking programs.


 Again, I didnâ€™t mean to pick on you. Most coastal Texans feel that way and until that changes the fishery will continue to be doomed. It was just convenient to use you quote to make a point.

With regard to your statements about having watched it decline over the last 10 years in mid-tex (rockport/port a, and surrounding areas), you are spot on. Iâ€™m just happy to see thereâ€™s someone else out there thatâ€™s been around long enough and is observant enough to have noticed it. Most arenâ€™t.



southpaw said:


> What stuck out to me the most in your post is the mention of bait, specifically crabs.


 I am elated that you noticed the difference in crab numbers from when you were a kid. You arenâ€™t the only one. In the past when Iâ€™ve mentioned it the ignorant among us would mock, saying â€œoh yeahâ€¦back in the good old dayâ€¦when everything was better, etc.â€ it simply showed me some didnâ€™t know as much as Iâ€™d given them credit for.

Remember when you couldnâ€™t wade the grass flats bare-footed because the crabs would bite your d*** toes off? Or how when you threw some shrimp or cut bait out there on the bottom your hook would be picked clean within ~5 minutes? I miss those crabs.



southpaw said:


> I had always just attributed this more to the thousands of crab traps sitting out in the bay, but there's just as many traps sitting in West Galveston Bay, yet they appear to have lots of crabs.


 It ainâ€™t the crabbers, itâ€™s the stockers. Blue crabs make up something like 70% of the redfishâ€™s diet once they hit a certain size. Without crabs, big redfish leave. Once they reach a certain size, they make it to the channels and head out to the gulf where there's food.

About 2-3 years ago Bugem and I took a little scooter-boat back into the st. joe lakes. After drifting and wading around for hours we realized there were no fish to be caught back in there, so we decided to burn the whole place to see if we could find anything. We ran miles and miles and saw 3 redfish, a drum and a trout. During the same wpp memorial burn trip I counted 13 whooping cranes. Think about that for a sec.

Blue crabs are also the staple of the whooper diet. Itâ€™s gotten so bad in the refuge that the bird-brains got real worried a few years back when the whoopers didnâ€™t show up in numbers on schedule. Turns out they were venturing from the refuge to feeders along 35 and a big population was found on feeders in el campo.



southpaw said:


> Shrimp I haven't really noticed other than the bait stand I pass on my way out often doesn't have their shrimp flag flying, but I thought that was more bc the bait wench that works there was getting lazy or something.


 Remember when just about anywhere you looked at anytime youâ€™d see shrimp jumping out of the water?



southpaw said:


> Mullet and especially pinfish numbers seem healthy down there though. I don't know a whole lot about redfish ecology but if one food source (crabs/shrimp) has declined why don't the redfish start feeding more heavily on the mullet and really those bastard piranha pin fish?


 Finfish are not a large part of the redfish diet. Why? Who knows, but Iâ€™d guess it because of the risk/benefit ratio. They have to expend too much energy to catch a prey that will likely get away anyway. Shrimp and crabs are easy to catch. why not just expend that energy moving to where crabs ad shrimp are instead of constantly chasing your tail?



southpaw said:


> Also, Black drum feed primarily on crabs and shrimp (I think) yet they seem to be flourishing in the middle coast areas. So much now that guides are targeting them heavily.


 The drum had been doing well because of benthic worms. Worms are a large part of their diet.

Have you ever been on a sand or bare mud flat and seen â€œpock-mocksâ€ all over the place on the bottom? Almost like little ant-lion craters? Thatâ€™s blacksâ€¦thatâ€™s where they were grubbing around the night before on nocturnal benthic worms that poke out of the dirt at night.

anyone who fishes baffin/yarborough/hole remembers about 3-4 years ago when the blacks were out of control down there. schools of thousands of them creating muds that were acres across, pushing water like a submarine, and tearing up the bottom.

then there was a huge black drum kill. tpwd did necropsies and guess what the cause of the fish kill was... starvation.

i guess they'd finally cleaned all the benthic worms out of that area.



southpaw said:


> What's your honest opinion Cedar Bayou re-opening? Do you think we'll start seeing major changes over the next few years or do you think too much damage has been done?


 I think itâ€™s great, but I think CCA is very guilty of stolen valor. _More on that in a second. _

The damage is not permanentâ€¦itâ€™ll only last until thereâ€™s gulf circulation again.

CCA tried to take all the credit for opening that area up. While they did contribute quite a bit, they also failed to sufficiently publicly recognized the efforts of the Save Cedar Bayou group and the RFA and publicly thank them for making the whole project possible. CCAâ€™s been quite successful at getting the general public to think it was all them. None of that would have happened if the yearsâ€™ worth of groundwork and effort hadnâ€™t been laid for them.



southpaw said:


> For the most part, a lot of the changes I've seen in Aransas Bay, I've also seen in the areas I fish south of the Port A channel. Not too far off is Packery. Are those two channels just too far from each other to provide good circulation with the gulf?


 Any access to gulf water is always good.

Iâ€™m not sure that theyâ€™re â€œtoo farâ€ from each other, but they arenâ€™t natural passesâ€¦theyâ€™re jettied channels. One of the old tpwd biologist papers Iâ€™ve seen said that the fish and crustaceans need natural passes.



southpaw said:


> You got any credible resources you can send links, book titles, etc for and/or point me in the direction of? There's so much doodoo on the internet that it's hard to sift through it all and find out what's true and what's not. The more you know....
> 
> I'm really not trying to stir anything up, just learn more. I've been interested in the natural passes ever since I read the book Plugger way back when.


See if you can find some of the writings of Ernest G. Simmons. He was a tpwd biologist and he wrote several papers about coastal passes and the fishery. I have a pdf of the first page of one of his papers but canâ€™t figure out how to post it up here. good luck finding that one...tpwd's done a great job suppressing that one. i believe it was called "how crusteceans use coastal passes" or something like that.

You may also search for works by B.D. King, III. I used to have a bunch of stuff but itâ€™s been years. We moved and itâ€™s packed in a box somewhereâ€¦

Simmons even did a study on Yarborough that railbird might find interesting:

http://coastal.tamug.edu/CoastalFisheries/1958-1959/CoastalFisheries1958-1959-Simmons04.pdf

This link could keep you busy for a while if youâ€™re looking to learn stuff:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/msl/resea...tions_ims/publications_last_name_alphabetic#S

Hereâ€™s a great look at how your beloved area used to fish:

http://archive.org/stream/silverkingsofara007564mbp/silverkingsofara007564mbp_djvu.txt

an old friend in PA was able to track down a hard copy of this for me. Good luck finding one, but if you canâ€™t find it the entire text is on that link.

_Now that you have those links I suppose we wonâ€™t see you around here for a while.

_but let's get back on topic...

to sum it all up, it's CCA's fault we don't have black marlin on the flats here in Texas.


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## southpaw

Thanks for the links Ish.



railbird said:


> If anyone is interested in working towards opening Yarborough, I would be all in for supporting that. 80 miles between gulf passes is strangling the bay system down there.


But, but, but if you open Yarborough, it'll let dolphins, sharks and black marlin in and they'll eat all the trophy trout in Baffin.......

That's my favorite excuse


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## Ish

you're gonna catch a ton of cr*p from sandifer, the pins jeep and truck fishing crowd, et al about opening that one.

don't get me wrong, running down that stretch to fish and camp is a blast, but opening that plug makes it real tough to fish pins. impossible without a boat unless your a pretty good swimmer.

and i'm sure tpwd could find some clown biologist who'd claim (cca would fund the study) that opening that pass would interfere with turtle eggs, migrating shore birds, golden-cheeked warblers, blind cave salamanders, bald eagles, wolves, and manatees and therefore they can't do it.

plus if that one's opened the big bulls trapped down there will figure out how to get out.



no doubt the bays need it though.



wut is that in your avatar?


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## southpaw

A couple wood duck drakes and a stoeger M2000 (poor man's benelli)


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## timberhunter

Quit spewing your BS ISH


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## Ish

southpaw said:


> A couple wood duck drakes and a stoeger M2000 (poor man's benelli)


oh, now i see it.


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## Ish

timberhunter said:


> Quit spewing your BS ISH


sine your pitty on the runny kine.

wah da tah, my damie.


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## Joe T

timberhunter said:


> Quit spewing your BS ISH


tipi tais


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