It’s a great month to be in Port O’Connor. The weather is starting to cool down a little, the redfish bite is excellent and the boat traffic on the bay is thinning out a little. If that’s not enough to make you happy October is also National Seafood Month.
Do yourself a favor and take the Smart Seafoodie Challenge (available at tx.ag/smartseafoodie): Commit to eating local seafood 2 times per week and if you don’t catch it yourself make sure you ask where your seafood comes from. Check the label on the back. The country of origin must legally be labeled on the back. We are fortunate to have several local Seafood Markets in Calhoun County that can provide you with fresh local seafood right off the boat. When you shop local you support your neighbors that live here and pay taxes here.
In 2017 Texas landed over 93 million pounds of seafood composed of over 50 different species. If you would like to taste several of those species you are welcome to join me as the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Texas Sea Grant present: Dinner Tonight, Healthy Cooking School: Seafood Edition on Monday October 21, 2019 at 6:30pm at the Bauer Exhibit Building in Port Lavaca. We will be eating local fish that the TPWD Coastal Fisheries Office in Port O’Connor donated to us. These are fish that were collected as part of routine TPWD sampling and were not able to be returned to the water. Yours truly has been filleting the donated fish. So far we have mostly redfish, black drum and speckled trout. There were also a few mangrove snapper, gafftop, croaker and a pompano.
You will learn several healthy and tasty ways to prepare these fish and while you are enjoying your dinner I will give you some information on what types of fish you are eating along with a few pointers on where they live and what type of bait to use to catch them. Then I’ll show you how to fillet them in case you want to go get some of your own to try at home. The program costs $10 per person before October 18th or $15 per person at the door. To reserve your spot or for more information contact Karen Lyssy at (361) 552-9747 Ext. 5 or Karen.lyssy@ag.tamu.edu. I hope to see you there.
Tight Lines,
RJ Shelly
Calhoun County Extension Agent-Coastal & Marine Resources
Texas Sea Grant College Program | Texas A&M Agrilife Extension
