SPORTS
Comorants are here for the winter
By Luke Clayton
Love them or hate them, cormorants have flocked to lakes and private waters in Texas to spend the winter months roosting on standing timber on our lakes and devouring both baitfish and gamefish as though there is no tomorrow. With their sharp hooked bill and ability to remain underwater for extended time, they are very efficient fishers. They are well known for decimating the game fish population in private waters.
I first learned about cormorants and their fish catching ability nearly forty years ago while in Japan with a company that was establishing a mail order lure business there. Back then bass fishing was a craze with affluent Japanese and expensive bass boats from the US were commonly seen on private waters in Japan.
My job was to cover a fishing match between Rex Bridges, a popular Texas angler and Soramachi, the then reigning bass champion. IJ spend a couple days fishing with the outdoor writers for the Tokyo newspaper. One of them who spoke pretty good English pointed out a flock of cormorants and told me many of the older men trained the birds to catch fish for them. They tied a little noose around the bird’s neck to allow them to catch and swallow small fish, but the larger fish were caught in a pouch on the bird’s throat, to be eaten by the fishermen. We stopped fishing long enough to observe an old gentle with about six cormorants on leads. I think he was doing guided tours with his birds for tourists. What I remember most is when the birds surfaced, he pulled them inside the boat and they ‘coughed up’ some good-sized fish for the old gentleman.
Back in those days, cormorants were not nearly as prevalent in Texas waters during the winter as they are today. I assume worldwide, their numbers are threatened. They are currently protected by the Federal government but tell that to a landowner that has just had his summer stocking of largemouth bass eaten by a flock of cormorants!
I guess by now you have surmised I’m not fond of our winter feathered visitors. I like to catch and eat the same thing they do but I follow creel limits-the cormorants do not! But the cormorants have helped lead me to many winter catfish cookouts. How might you ask? A couple decades ago, a fishing guide invited me to go SPLATTING with him and write a column for the newspapers. Splatting, he explained, was fishing around standing timber in the shallow end of the lake. The birds roost in the dead trees at night and their dropping literally whitewash the limbs. Their droppings attract both blue and channel catfish in large
numbers and catching is often red hot during the first couple hours of daylight each morning.
Splatting is the perfect term to describe this method of fishing. Usually from 30 or so yards away, far enough so as not to spook the fish, baits set shallow under a floater are cast up close to the trunk of the tree. The baits make a “SPLAT” when they hit the water, letting nearby fish know that a cormorant has again send breakfast his way. A bit gross I know but it’s a fact of nature. Catching fish under the cormorant roost trees caught on quickly and most savvy catfish anglers today know the technique. Many use the heavy weighted popping corks used on the coast for speckled trout.
If you’re a cork watcher and have never experienced a morning of splatting, I suggest you put it on your to-do list. The bite is not tentative like a sunfish biting a nightcrawler or crappie nibbling a minnow, When the sound of food hitting the surface is telegraphed down through the water column to catfish, they make a beeline for the surface and it’s first come, first served! I’ve watched several greedy catfish fighting near the surface for the bait. It’s best to rig with at least 20-pound test line and a rod and reel strong enough to handle a big blue. It’s not uncommon to catch trophy catfish using this method but most will be in the 3-to-10-pound range.
Splatting is a run and gun style of fishing. Usually, two or three fish will be landed around each roost tree and then it’s time to bump the trolling motor and head to the next tree. Usually, the action begins to slow after a couple hours of sunshine but on cloudy days, it’s often possible to continue catching fish throughout the day but not nearly as well as the early morning bite. Catfish are opportunistic feeders, and they learn when the food supply is best, after the birds have spend a night in the roost tree dropping partially digested baitfish into the water.
When it comes to bait choices for splatting, the sky’s the limit. It’s hard to beat chunks of cut bait from rough fish or shad or even pieces of cut sunfish. Punch baits also work well, they just don’t stay in the hook as well as cut bait for reparative casts. It’s important to keep maximum pressure on the fish as soon as he’s hooked. Chances are very good there will be lots of submerged limbs to get your line snagged on. This is where stout rods with plenty of backbone and reels with strong drag systems come into play. If you’re in the mood for a big meal of fried catfish at deer camp, this is a good winter pattern that is sure not to disappoint you, let the cormorants mark the trees you need to fish beneath. Visit Luke’s website www.catfishradio.org Check out his weekly podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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