SPORTS
Luke and his guide Catting the Red
There’s something very special about river fishing. I grew up a few miles from the Red River in Red River County and have fond memories of bank fishing along the river. I remember my dad telling me there was a dam many miles upstream that impounded a huge body of water situated along the Texas/Oklahoma border called Lake Texoma. I was well into my twenties before I discovered Texoma and sampled the great striper fishing there.
Back forty or so years ago, I was invited to fish the Red River below the dam by guide J.C. McCullough from his airboat. I remember the trip vividly. We were freelining live shad just behind the dam. The drill was pretty simple, J.C. would ease the airboat into the current up to the ‘off limits’ buoys, we would toss out big gizzard shad and the current would drift us downriver. The bite was always instantaneous, stripers from down river had traveled as far as they could go and they were present in huge numbers and they were hungry. Stripers and catfish, mostly blues, were there feeding on the zillions of shad that came through the flood gates. Through the years, I enjoyed many trips on this stretch of river with J.C. and never failed to catch fish, lots of them.
Just last week, I was once again Invited to fish this stretch of river with J.C. and once he fired the airboat up and started to the first ‘catfish hole’ downstream, in my minds eye, I was once again a budding young outdoors writer experiencing a very exciting way of catching fish and collecting fodder for my articles. Things had changed very little along this stretch of river. On this trip we were targeting blue catfish, fishing some of the deeper holes that J.C. knows about.
As we headed to our first spot to fish, J.C. pointed toward the bank and asked if I remembered the story of how he began fishing the river as a boy. My good friend Jeff Rice was with us fishing and filming a segment of our TV show “A Sportsmans Life” and I wanted Jeff to hear the story, it was very interesting. J.C. is definitely a self-made man. He did not live a privileged life as a youngster. As a matter of fact as a teenager, he lived in a shack up on the banks of the river he built from scrap lumber, tarps and whatever else he could find to create four walls and a roof.
As we motored to the fishing hole, he talked about his early years. “I have always been good at fishing, hunting and trapping, it was God’s gift to me. In those days there were very few wild hogs or deer but the woods were full of squirrel, rabbits and quail were plentiful. In the winter, there were lots of ducks. Catching fish in the river was easy and I basically lived on
them. I would keep a couple of trotlines set and never remember going hungry. I do remember eating fish for breakfast, but he kidded, I still do that from time to time. I had an old wood burning stove in the little shack and when the weather was cold or rainy I cooked inside, otherwise I cooked on a grill over a little cookfire outside the shack. “
J.C. lived off the land much of his teenage years and earned a living as a commercial fisherman. When in his twenties, he began guiding fishing trips for stripers and catfish on the lake and in the river and now a very active seventy year old, he is still a very active guide. He has definitely mastered his craft! About a half mile down river, J.C. eased the throttle back on the airboat and tossed out a couple of anchors to keep the boat in position. We were fishing a deeper hole in the river that proved to be full of catfish, mostly blues. The river is low now and fish are concentrated in the deeper stretches of water, kind of like catching fish in a barrel with the barrel comprising several acres! The technique was simple, we used medium action spinning rod and reels to toss out fresh cut shad. We were fishing without weights thus the line was slack which as first took some getting used to. There was no need to try to fish on a tight line, when the blue catfish hit, they hit hard and slack was quicky taken out and the fight was on.
The action was fast paced on blues up to about ten pounds. We were all hoping to catch a big ‘picture fish’ and J.C. expected it to happen, most recent trips have produced a few trophy class fish. We had motored downriver to fish another hotspot. I was sitting on the right side of the boat and J.C. instructed me to cast toward the middle of the river. He and Jeff were fishing the deeper water on the other side of the boat. I was joking with J.C. about putting me in unproductive water. I had the rod butt set in a rod holder and was focusing more on joking with my buddies than fishing. And the out of the corner of my eye I noticed the rod tip bowed toward the water heavily. It was tough to winch it loose; an obviously big fish was putting lots of pressure on the line. Fighting a big catfish is a game of tug of war. The trick is to keep pressure on the fish and let the rod and reel’s drag do the work, let the fish tire itself out before trying to net him. After about five minute of a serious isometrics workout, the big blue came boatside and slid into J.C’s oversize net. I’ve caught a lot of nice blues on rod and reel out of the red but this one, about 40 pounds, was my biggest. Jeff was able to capture the action on film and you can watch it now on YouTube or Carbon TV, just search “A Sportsmans Life”.
It was great reconnecting with my long-time friend J.C. Our talk always goes to hunting, we’ve enjoyed some fun and productive deer and waterfowl hunts together through the years. J.C. told us all about a deer hunting operation he is doing in the fall on government land above Lake Texoma. He sets stands in remote, basically wilderness land along the river and during hunting season, transports hunters to these spots with his airboat. He
can’t ‘guide’ on these public lands but as he says, “I do all the hard part scouting, setting up stands and transporting hunters into and out of the remote spots. I run cameras throughout the summer and fall to determine the best spots.” He showed me some photos on his phone of some bruiser bucks taken the past few seasons. After loading a ‘bunch’ of catfish fillets in the cooler, we made plans for more fishing this summer and a wilderness deer hunt this fall. It was great to spend time with my old buddy again. Give him a call to talk about his outdoor adventures. His number is 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s weekly podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found. Email Luke through his website at www.catfishradio.org.
For the second straight year, Prairie Valley School seventh grader Kai Kutie won the Hotter ‘N Hell 100 youth division bike race in Wichita Falls Aug. 29.
Kutie is involved in all sorts of activities at the school. Look for a feature story on the repeat win in the Sept. 10 Bowie News.
By Luke Clayton
I remember well the first time I fished with guide Tony Parker. It was a cold winter’s day back in the early nineties at Lake Tawakoni. Tony was just getting established as a fishing guide and back then he did a good bit of largemouth bass fishing. On the phone the evening before our trip, we discussed the game plan for fishing the next morning. As I remember our conversation when something like this: “Luke we will fish a blue bird day tomorrow and conditions are definitely not ideal. We’ll fish water about 6 feet deep with Texas rigged worms and I think we’ll do pretty well. These bass have been on a steady shallow water pattern and I think it will hold”. I joined Tony around nine the next morning, after the sun warmed things up a bit. It was still cold with a chilling north breeze. We fished the breakwater that protected a marina and caught a respectable number of chunky pre spawn bass.
Since that first time to fish together years ago, I’ve continued to fish with Tony and follow his career. I have a feeling he could still hold his own as a bass catcher but his bread-and-butter species are hybrid stripers and white bass. He began guiding for these open water schooling species at Tawakoni but then when Lake Jim Chapman (called Lake Cooper by many) opened, Tony was one of the first-probably the first- fishing guide to move his operation to these fertile waters fed by the Sulphur River. Tony was very instrumental in putting Cooper on the map as a destination for anglers to come and enjoy some fast pace catching for hybrids and white bass.
For many years, Tony invited just about every outdoors writer in the state to come fish with him and enjoy some red-hot catching of white bass and later hybrid stripers. For reasons unknown to Tony or anyone else for that matter, the best bite for hybrids and white bass on Cooper has always been mid-day. Right now, mid-day fishing often equates to getting parched by a relentless sun and fishing in 100 degree plus temperatures. Until the weather cools a bit, Tony will be running very early morning trips on Tawakoni where the bite has been very dependable.
FAST FORWARD TO LAST WEEK- My good friend Jeff Rice and I pulled into the parking lot constructed by the Sabine River Authority situated near the south end of the dam just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. Tony was sitting in his new guide boat, rigging rods with 1.5 ounce white and chartreuse lead slabs. For many years the old Holiday Marina occupied this spot and my mind backtracked, thinking of all the great
fishing trips that I’ve enjoyed that began at the old marina. The marina site is now covered with several acres of concrete parking, a nice bathroom facility and one of the best boat launching ramps I’ve seen anywhere.
Tony was sitting in his new guide boat, rigging rods with 1.5 ounce white and chartreuse lead slabs. We reminisced a bit about the old marina, but our conversation soon turned to the task at hand, catching some hard fighting and good eating hybrid stripers and jumbo size white bass!
A little pre-fishing instructions was in order. “I’ve been fishing some big schools this week that are on a dependable early morning bite, says Tony. The fish are moving out of deep water onto a big flat that averages about 13 feet deep. Some mornings they are chasing shad to the surface and we can spot the school by the topwater splashes but watching the side imaging sonar is the ticket to staying in the action”. Trolling with a big deep diving plug with small trailer spoons is a good way to catch a quick limit but we’re going to actually fish for them. It’s a lot more fun and I know you old veteran slab chunkers are up to the challenge!” Jeff and I definitely were!
Trolling can be a sure-fire method of putting fish in the boat but casting artificial baits and ‘tricking’ the fish into biting is much more fun. The technique we were using was definitely nothing new to any of us. Make a long cast, hold the rod tip high, contact bottom and crank fast five or six cranks and then let the slab fall to bottom and repeat the process. A big school of fish plotted on the right side of the boat and we quickly boated a couple of chunky hybrid stripers using the tried and proven cast, reel and drop technique. And then Tony pointed to the north and at the same time, cranked the big motor up. “There is a big school breaking the surface a couple hundred yards out to the north, lets motor that direction and then approach with the trolling motor so we won’t spook them.”
At first, I couldn’t spot the surface action and then I caught the rising sun lighting up some of the splashes. This appeared to be a big school and some of the splashes looked as though someone had dropped a bowling ball from an airplane into the water-some big fish were herding shad to the surface and there was no place for the baitfish to go but up in their frantic effort to escape.
The bite was red hot for about fifteen minutes and then the school sounded and move on in pursuit of the baitfish. So went the next couple hours when, we would mark big schools of hybrids and white bass on sonar, enjoy a few minutes of fast catching and then move on to the next concentration of fish. The
Tony plans to continue these early morning trips to Tawakoni for a bit longer, until the heat wave subsides and mid-day fishing is once again comfortable on Lake Cooper. He’s looking
forward to fall and the great fishing it will provide but until then, he’ll continue to chase schooling fish at good old Tawakoni during the cool part of the day. Jeff and I were on our way home with a big cooler of good eating fillets by mid-morning. Who says it’s too hot to fish this time of year!
Guide Tony Parker can be reached at 903-348-1619 week on out outdoor show, “A Sportsmans Life” hosted on Carbon TV www.carbontv.com and YouTube. Catch Luke’s weekly podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about wherever podcasts are hosted. Email Luke through his website www.catfishradio.org
County cross country teams had strong showings at the Nocona Invitational Aug. 26.
Saint Jo’s girl’s team won the event, led by Tatum Morman’s 3rd place finish with a time of 13:10. Savannah Hill was 11th in 14:02 with Kaylin Cook 14th in 14:11 and Andrea Sanchez 15th in 14:17. Abby Carter was 22nd with a time of 15:10. Also competing for the Lady Panthers were Kenzie DeWeese with a time of 16:41.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard won the race, covering the two miles in 12:09, nearly a minute faster than the 2nd place finisher. Also competing for Bellevue was Riley Kopp, with a time of 15:21, Tessa Gage who ran a 21:11 and Ella Broussard who finished in 22:26.
Nocona runners included Jalena Rodriguez who finished in 16:07, Raemi Sprott in 16:19, Kinlee Hughes in 17:34, Rylee Skinner in 18:00. Prairie Valley was represented by Stephenie Stout who finished strong by passing two runners in the final stretch for a time of 19:16. Gold-Burg was represented by Addison Sheppard with a time of 19:26.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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