SPORTS
What’s hot in the outdoors
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.
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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